"Brother Zhao, with your abilities, staying in the Outer City would be a waste. If you ever get the chance, why not come develop your prospects in the Inner City? I, Lin Yu, will always welcome you."
Zhao Qin replied, "I'll keep that in mind. If I decide to in the future, I'll certainly pay you a visit."
"As for this little brother..." Only then did Lin Yu look at Li Yuan. Since he was recruiting talent anyway, Ox Skin Realm might be a little unimpressive, but it was still better than nothing. He might as well recruit him too.
He smiled. "There's recently been an opening guarding the family's main gate. If you don't mind, Brother Li Yuan, you can come give it a try. You'd only need to work ten days a month, four shichen each day."
"Of course, we won't shortchange you on compensation, either. The Zhao Family..."
"Thank you for the offer, Brother Lin. However, I've already agreed to take up a position at Senior Brother Zhao's home." Li Yuan cupped his hands and replied.
Lin Yu hadn't even finished speaking when Li Yuan cut him off.
Li Yuan sneered inwardly. Wasn't he obviously asking him to be a watchdog?
Bastard. Sooner or later, I'll smash your head in!
There are too many people here right now. I'll let you off this time.
At that, Lin Yu nodded, unbothered. He opened his folding fan and left.
If he hadn't known Lin Mingsheng, Lin Yu wouldn't have spared a roadside Ox Skin Realm nobody like this a second glance.
"Going from Ox Skin to Stone Skin takes people from the Outer City at least three or four years of hard training. Li Yuan only entered Ox Skin not long ago, and he's already acting like he's somebody." Lin Yu shook his head, amused.
After they finished eating, Zhao Qin paid the bill.
Li Yuan had no idea how much it had come to, but judging by the pained look on Zhao Qin's face, it was clearly a hefty sum.
By the time they left the restaurant, dusk was settling in.
The two headed toward the Outer City together. After becoming a Stone Skin disciple, one could live at the academy, and Zhao Qin usually stayed there.
Li Yuan still preferred living alone. It gave him more freedom.
On the way,
"Senior Brother, do you know who really rules Wuxi County—the noble families or the imperial court?"
Li Yuan had always wondered about this.
In the Outer City, he hardly ever saw any constables. Even when one did show up, they seemed reluctant to get involved.
"On top of that, grain and meat prices have started rising lately, and there are plenty of bandits and vagrants outside..." He sighed.
"Who rules Wuxi County depends on how the war at the border goes. If we win, the imperial court calls the shots. If not..." Zhao Qin paused, then continued, "Normally, every county would have an expert sent down from the prefecture or Prefecture City to keep watch. That was to stop the noble families from privately raising troops. But now all those experts have gone to support the front lines."
"That's given the noble families a chance to catch their breath."
Li Yuan frowned and said quietly, "Don't they understand that when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold?"
"Of course they do. But you have to understand that people are selfish." Zhao Qin sighed as well. "Besides, things haven't completely fallen apart yet. If they do, the imperial court will have to rely on those families instead."
"At least in Wuxi County, the noble families still show the government some respect in public. There's a county nearby where even the county magistrate was assassinated. They claimed it was the work of foreign spies. Tell me, do you believe that?"
"Then there's nowhere safe?"
"There is: the prefectural city or the imperial capital," Zhao Qin said gravely.
"Jin Prefecture City is the heart of Jin Prefecture, heavily guarded and full of experts.
"As for the imperial capital, that goes without saying. It's the heart of the dynasty. But it's extremely far from here. Even our teacher might not make it there safely."
Li Yuan understood. As they talked, the two soon reached the road leading out of the Outer City.
They said goodbye and went their separate ways.
Before long, winter passed and spring arrived.
More than two months slipped by amid hard training, and the snow on the mountains and roads began to melt.
During that time, Li Yuan took up positions not only with the Zhao Family, but also with several small gangs.
He didn't approach any of the major families, since they generally required long-term commitments—three years at the shortest, and sometimes even ten.
The compensation was considerably better than what these smaller groups offered, but he would lose his freedom.
Li Yuan still preferred having more freedom.
One day, Master Yang Chong summoned all the disciples at the academy to the front courtyard.
Nobody knew what was going on, and they chatted in low voices.
Yang Chong's gaze swept over the crowd. It paused briefly on Li Yuan before he cleared his throat and said:
"I've called you here today to tell you something.
"Your junior brother, Li Yuan, successfully broke through to the Stone Skin Realm yesterday.
"He is also the sixth direct disciple of me, Yang Chong, at the Five Animals Academy."
By the reckoning, announcing it now meant Li Yuan had spent almost four months tempering himself at the Ox Skin stage.
It was still a little fast, but not so fast as to attract too much attention.
As soon as Yang Chong finished speaking, the courtyard fell silent. Then came a wave of startled cries and sharp intakes of breath.
"Stone Skin? Junior Brother Li Yuan?"
"How long has he been at the academy? Less than half a year, right?"
"He broke through that quickly? This... this kind of talent..."
One after another, shocked, envious, and even resentful gazes turned toward Li Yuan, who stood at the very front, his expression calm.
This was the Stone Skin Realm! One could already serve as a mid-level fighter for a major family, and most gangs would treat someone at this level as an honored guest.
And Li Yuan had gone from a clueless apprentice to the Stone Skin Realm in less than half a year. Many people were still apprentices after six months.
Wasn't Li Yuan only eighteen this year?
He was at the peak of his vitality. That meant his chances of breaking through to Iron Skin were far better than most people's.
Yang Chong had chosen this moment to announce the news not only to protect Li Yuan, but also to inspire the other disciples.
The senior brothers who had joined much earlier than Li Yuan but were still stuck at the Ox Skin stage looked especially conflicted.
The news quickly spread throughout the Martial Arts Hall and beyond, reaching even farther afield.
"The Five Animals Academy has produced a young prodigy!"
"Stone Skin in less than half a year! Incredible!"
"I heard his name is Li Yuan. He's still young, with a bright future ahead of him!"
Before long, Li Yuan found himself saddled with the title of "young prodigy."
The benefits that came with the fame were real and tangible.
When he went to collect his monthly pay from the Zhao Family, their steward was noticeably more polite to him.
The steward had once wondered whether the young master was pulling strings by giving an Ox Skin disciple such a generous monthly allowance.
He hadn't realized how far-sighted the young master was. No wonder he was only a steward.
When Li Yuan went to buy meat, the butcher recognized him. The precisely weighed ten jin of meat he used to receive became more than ten jin.
When he sold the game he'd hunted at the market, the market steward would smile and say, "Brother Li, this is fine-quality game. I'll waive the cut this time. Let's call it making a friend."
Li Yuan had barely seen this market steward back when he used to come here.
When your status changed, so did the people you met.
The market assistants used to weigh his goods. Now it was the market steward.
These changes made Li Yuan realize that in the eyes of ordinary people, someone at the Stone Skin Realm was already worth currying favor with.
No matter where you were, strength was always the clearest measure of status.
So Li Yuan didn't let any of this make him relax.
He had already spent more than two months tempering himself on the path from Stone Skin to Iron Skin.
Not only had his accumulation of vital energy slowed by several times, but even his small-accomplishment boxing, combined with his intent, had begun to progress more slowly.
Even with the ten jin of Black-Striped Tiger meat the Zhao Family provided each month, plus the money he earned from taking positions with other small gangs to buy more meat,
his body seemed to have become a bottomless pit.
One day, after practicing his forms several times, he went to the back courtyard.
Yang Chong wanted to see him.
Yang Chong was sitting on a stone stool, holding a small bowl and fiddling with something.
"Teacher." Li Yuan bowed respectfully.
"Practice your forms once so I can take a look," Yang Chong said.
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