Advancing

The pill was unmistakably the Spirit Qi Pill, one he had studied countless times in the illustrated compendium.

Shi Mu still found it hard to believe. He widened his eyes and examined the pill closely once more, then suddenly held it beneath his nose and sniffed. A sharp, pungent scent wafted up.

It really was the Spirit Qi Pill!

Although the public price for a Spirit Qi Pill was ten thousand taels of silver, on the black market these pills were often bid up to twenty or thirty thousand taels—and even then, they rarely changed hands.

The Barefoot Girl had been astonishingly generous!

Shi Mu was naturally overjoyed, but he was even more astonished by the Barefoot Girl's identity. It seemed that his earlier words about marrying her really had sounded to her like a toad dreaming of eating swan meat.

And the condition she had set—that he achieve Xiantian before he turned thirty—had become a heavy burden weighing on his heart.

He hardly thought it possible that he could advance to Xiantian before turning thirty.

But with his stubborn nature, Shi Mu was just as unwilling to give up on the first woman who had ever made his heart pound.

It seemed he could only take things one step at a time.

For now, his goal was still to first grasp the sensation of qi and become a Houtian Martial Artist.

Shi Mu sighed, finally casting all his other muddled thoughts aside and focusing once more on the Spirit Qi Pill in his hand.

With this pill, along with the one from the Jin Family, he was suddenly brimming with confidence that he could grasp the sensation of qi.

Several days later, the sound of blows like a downpour rang out from a sealed room in the rear courtyard of Flowing Wind Martial Hall.

Shi Mu squatted in a horse stance, his upper body bare as he endured the blows of the staff in Li Canghai's hands. The skin on his body no longer showed any redness or swelling. Instead, it was faintly too pale. When the staff struck him, it made strange "thrum, thrum" sounds, as though it were hitting a wooden post.

Shi Mu had no idea how many times he had been struck by the staff. His face showed no pain; instead, he seemed faintly excited and restless, occasionally letting out a low growl as if in answer.

Li Canghai had also taken off his outer clothes and wore only a short-sleeved tunic, revealing his powerful muscles. His staff whipped through the air without pause. Sweat poured from him, yet he would not stop to wipe it away. His gaze on Shi Mu was just as feverishly intent.

A boom rang out.

When a staff struck a certain acupoint on Shi Mu's chest, a thunderous crash suddenly sounded.

Shi Mu's face flushed crimson, as if someone had pumped him full of blood, but it returned to normal in an instant, only to flush again. After this repeated more than ten times, a series of sharp cracks, like firecrackers, suddenly rang out from within his body. At the same time, the muscles beneath his skin began to bulge and ripple, scurrying about like mice.

"Haha, you did it! I never thought anyone could endure this iron-tempering method for half a year straight and successfully advance to the 11th Layer of Body Tempering." Seeing this, Li Canghai tossed aside his staff and burst into laughter.

"This was all thanks to your meticulous training over the past six months, Instructor Li!" Shi Mu took a deep breath. The sounds within him abruptly ceased, and the muscles beneath his skin instantly returned to normal. He answered with equal delight.

At last, he had advanced to the 11th Layer of Body Tempering.

"There's no need to thank me. I was only doing a job for pay. But apart from a thick-skinned fellow like you, no one else could have endured it." Li Canghai waved a hand.

"Regardless, I'm deeply grateful to have trained up to the 11th Layer of Body Tempering." Shi Mu rolled his shoulders and flexed his limbs, feeling how different his body was from before, and replied with a smile.

"Hmph. If you want to thank me, then help Flowing Wind Martial Hall take first place in the martial contest in a few days." Li Canghai spoke bluntly.

"Heh, no problem. I'll do my best." Shi Mu chuckled.

Seven days later, at the front gate of Tianlu Martial Hall, the largest martial hall in Feng City.

Feng Lengchan, the bearishly corpulent master of Tianlu Martial Hall, was smiling as he welcomed Li Canghai and the other visitors from Flowing Wind Martial Hall, accompanied by another instructor.

Shi Mu and two others followed close behind Li Canghai and a red-faced man.

"Haha, Brother Li, Brother Min, it's only been a few months, but you both look more spirited than ever."

"Not at all, not at all. Master Feng, you've grown even more robust since I last saw you."

"Heh heh, Brother Li, are you saying I've gotten fatter?"

"How could I dare? Of the Four Great Martial Halls, only you, Brother Feng, truly manage things. The masters of the other three are all figureheads who leave everything to others. You can hardly ever catch sight of them. By the way, have Fox Tian of Feihong Martial Hall and Old Wang of Jingang Martial Hall arrived?"

"Haha, if Brother Tian heard you call him that, he'd definitely fall out with you. Don't worry, those two arrived early and are already waiting by the arena. These three are the disciples taking part in the contest for your martial hall, right?" Feng Lengchan laughed heartily like a Maitreya Buddha as he began sizing up Shi Mu and the other two Martial Disciples who had distinguished themselves at the hall.

"Those three have some ability, but how could they compare with your esteemed nephew, Brother Feng? It's likely that either our hall or Feihong Martial Hall will come in last this time." Li Canghai said with a quiet chuckle.

The red-faced man beside him merely smiled, seemingly rather taciturn.

"Brother Li, I'm afraid you're mistaken. Feihong Martial Hall will have a hard time coming in last this time, even if they want to." Feng Lengchan's expression turned rueful.

"Oh? What do you mean by that, Brother Feng?" Li Canghai asked, genuinely surprised. The red-faced man also looked startled.

"Brother Li, your news is a little out of date. Haven't you heard that Feihong Martial Hall recently recruited a disciple with a Thick Earth Physique?" Feng Lengchan said seriously.

"Thick Earth Physique?" At last, the red-faced man from Flowing Wind Martial Hall cried out.

"Feihong Martial Hall must have gone all out to avoid coming in last this time. Looks like they're determined to win the championship. If so, this could be a real headache." After muttering this, Li Canghai began calculating the odds that Shi Mu could use his Crushing Stone Fist to break through the Thick Earth Physique.

Shi Mu, however, stood with the other two Martial Disciples, curiously examining Tianlu Martial Hall's gate.

Its surface was studded with golden door nails, and a huge stone lion stood on either side. It was far more imposing than Flowing Wind Martial Hall.

By then, Feng Lengchan had begun ushering Li Canghai and the others into the martial hall.

Shi Mu followed the rest of the group through the gate of Tianlu Martial Hall.

Just inside the gate lay a vast training ground. A completed arena stood at its center, built entirely from thick logs. It stood about a zhang high and measured ten zhang on each side.

The rest of the training ground was empty. Only beside the arena stood a dozen or so Martial Disciples, gathered in three groups. They were clearly from the other three great martial halls.

"You three, go wait over there. Master Tian and I will be out shortly." After giving Shi Mu and the other two a reminder, Li Canghai followed the red-faced man and Feng Lengchan toward the side rooms behind the training ground.

"Shi Mu, Sun Jun, let's go over too. We can take a look at the others' strength."

After the instructors had left, the oldest of the three Martial Disciples, a sturdy young man, smiled at Shi Mu and the other, tall and slender youth.

"Everyone's already here. What good will knowing the other side's strength do us? Besides, Brother Li and I have already trained several Martial Disciple-level techniques to a minor level, so it's only natural for us to compete. You're a newcomer who just joined the martial hall. Even though you've reached the tenth layer of Body Tempering, I've never seen you practice any martial techniques here. What strength could you possibly show in the contest? I wonder why Instructor Li insisted on including you." The tall, slender youth suddenly spoke to Shi Mu with some displeasure.

"Heh, I don't want to take part in this contest either, but Instructor Li called me out by name. I had no choice but to come." Shi Mu was not at all annoyed. He merely replied in a lazy tone.

"You..."

"That's enough, Sun Jun. Do you want the other martial halls to laugh at us?" The tall, slender youth was about to say more, but the young man surnamed Li cut him off, displeased.

Sun Jun seemed rather wary of Li. He huffed a couple of times, then finally said nothing more to Shi Mu.

The three of them walked toward the arena, sizing up the other Martial Disciples nearby.

"Huh?"

Shi Mu swept his gaze across the crowd near the arena and immediately spotted several familiar faces. They were all opponents he had fought back when he had taken on the identity of Fierce Fist.

But among them, only two truly drew his attention: a tall young man surrounded by several disciples from Tianlu Martial Hall, and a white-clad youth sitting alone on the ground, wiping down a pitch-black long spear.

"Feng Jun, Wang Tianhao!"

Shi Mu recognized the two at once.

One had once taken three of his punches with his defensive hardening skill; the other had astounding spear skills but withdrawn without fighting. Both had left a deep impression on him.

But the two of them clearly did not recognize Shi Mu now. When they saw the three of them approach, they merely glanced over before ignoring them.

Shi Mu's gaze swept over Feng Jun and Sun Jun, then he examined the others.

The Martial Disciples gathered here were clearly all elite disciples from the Four Great Martial Halls. Their bearing and aura were markedly different from those of ordinary Martial Disciples.

As Li Yunfeng led Shi Mu over, a pockmarked young man dressed in Feihong Martial Hall's uniform greeted them warmly:

"Li Yunfeng, your Flowing Wind Martial Hall has finally arrived too. Looks like the contest will start soon. I can't wait to cross fists with your Python Bone Fist again!"

"Heh, Gu Zhong, if we meet, I certainly won't hold back. But I just heard a few instructors talking at the gate about your hall taking in a new disciple with a Thick Earth Physique. Is that true?" Li Yunfeng replied, then could not help glancing toward the other two from Feihong Martial Hall.

One was a chubby youth about the same age as Gu Zhong. The other was a boy of about fourteen or fifteen, thin and weak, with dark skin, pointed ears, and a monkey-like face. He could hardly have looked more unremarkable.

"Hehe, Junior Brother Jia needs no introduction; you should have seen him at the last contest. As for Junior Brother Tie Dong, he only joined our hall a month ago." Gu Zhong paused for a moment, then quickly introduced them with a smile.

"Brother Li." The chubby youth immediately cupped his fists in greeting.

The boy called Tie Dong merely rolled his eyes, utterly indifferent.

Li Yunfeng's expression darkened at once.

"Ah, don't take offense, Brother Li. Junior Brother Tie grew up on some island and isn't much of a talker. By the way, you should introduce these two junior brothers behind you, shouldn't you?" Gu Zhong hurriedly smoothed things over, then asked about Shi Mu and Sun Jun.