Killing Intent Runs Wild, the Difference Between Geniuses and Ordinary People, Practicing Fists in Silence

The disturbance subsided.

After paying the Boat Gang's stall fee, management fee, and garbage fee,

Shi Wen and Old Shi packed up their things and returned to Peace Lane.

Peace Lane was one of the larger slums in Black Cloud County, with tens of thousands of people living on this patch of land.

Though it was called Peace, poverty bred crooked schemes, and crowds bred chaos. Swindling, cheating, extortion, and forcible seizure happened here all the time.

Along the way, wooden houses of varying heights lined both sides of the street. Families in better circumstances had high walls built of mud bricks, while poorer homes were riddled with gaps and holes.

When they reached the intersection near home,

Shi Wen spotted several wandering figures. The man at their head looked familiar—it was San Qingzi!

Shi Wen's expression darkened.

He had heard that San Qingzi was like dog-skin plaster. Once it stuck to you, it was hard to shake off.

San Qingzi was a minor leader of the Thief Gang. Buying low and selling high, lending usurious loans, setting traps to swindle people, gambling dens, honey traps... he was capable of every filthy trick under the sun!

His reputation was atrocious!

Yet now, San Qingzi's despicableness had once again refreshed Shi Wen's understanding!

Shi Wen had only sold him land cheaply that morning, yet this bastard could not even wait a day before blocking his way home, intending to extort every last coin from him?

Seeing San Qingzi approach with two lackeys,

Killing intent spread wildly from the depths of Shi Wen's heart. If he got the chance, he would absolutely not let San Qingzi off!

"Little Brother Shi, where did you run off to today? I looked for you all day and couldn't find you. Come on, let's go have some fun in Rouge Lane."

With a toothpick in his mouth, San Qingzi walked over with ill intent.

But when his gaze landed on the Fist Academy emblem on Shi Wen's chest, his face instantly turned ugly. Somewhat rattled, he said, "You used my hundred thousand Treasure Coins to..."

He stopped halfway through.

San Qingzi took a deep breath. His gaze became exceptionally vicious as he gave Shi Wen a hard look, as though he wanted to scrape a layer of flesh and blood from his body.

Only then did he leave with his men.

As he passed behind Shi Wen, he deliberately spat a thick gob of phlegm onto the ground and lowered his head to mutter, "Fuck his mother."

Shi Wen clenched his fists, his eyes brimming with killing intent.

But when he caught the panic and unease on Old Shi's face from the corner of his eye, he did not act. He headed home instead.

When they arrived near their home,

The neighbors chatting at their doorsteps saw Shi Wen and Old Shi return and began talking about everyday matters.

Upon learning that Shi Wen had gone to join the Fist Academy, smiles of praise appeared on their faces as they commended him for being so promising at such a young age.

But once Shi Wen and Old Shi entered their home,

Their expressions immediately changed.

They pointed to Shi Wen as a negative example and told their children not to learn martial arts.

Learn martial arts?

How could poor people like them afford to let their family members learn martial arts? How many poor people who studied martial arts ever made something of themselves?

Learning martial arts was just wasting the family's money by handing it to others for nothing!

That boy from the Shi Family must truly have been desperately clutching at straws. Did he really think learning fist techniques could keep him from going to Dragon Sorrow Ravine to sacrifice to the River God on the third day of next month's fifth month?

The Red Lantern Gang was immensely powerful!

So what if you became a martial artist? Could you possibly wipe out the Red Lantern Gang?

When Shi Wen returned home, his mother had already prepared dinner and was waiting.

The evening meal consisted of the usual Potato Cakes, wild vegetables, and a small pot of fatty pork stir-fried with cabbage.

Potato Cakes were a high-yield grain crop in this world. They were somewhat like sweet potatoes from his previous life, but their yield per acre was several times greater. They tasted awful and dry, and were what poor people ate.

They were simply steamed, and because of their flat, round appearance, they were called Potato Cakes.

They would not make you fat, but neither would they let you starve to death.

Shi Wen lowered his head and ate his Potato Cakes, picking up the few pieces of fatty meat. He deliberately left some of the meat for his parents.

"Father, Mother, I'm done eating. I'll go back to my room and rest for a while."

After greeting them, Shi Wen returned to his room.

Calling it a room was generous. It was merely a space partitioned off with wooden boards. The bed was an earthen kang, simply covered with a layer of straw and then draped with coarse cloth.

A day of frenzied training had left Shi Wen exhausted in both body and mind.

Once he returned somewhere safe to rest, his guard dropped, and drowsiness and fatigue surged over him like a tide.

He quickly fell asleep.

But Father Shi and Mother Shi could not eat this meal in peace.

Both were silent. The only sounds in the air were chopsticks picking up food and teeth chewing Potato Cakes.

Suddenly, Mother Shi spoke, seemingly casually. "The child's father, why don't you bring something to the old house tomorrow to see Father? While you're there, ask Father for some money."

"Father has always favored your younger brother. Whatever there was at the old house, he gave it to your younger brother. He was willing to buy A-Liang clothes worth several strings of cash each, yet he has never even come to see our A-Wen once."

"He gave you only a few mu of land, while the old house, those dozen or so mu of land, and the shop on the street all went to your younger brother. If I'm not mistaken, all the money you earned from doing business over these years was also taken back home by your father under various excuses, wasn't it?"

"When parents cannot balance the scales fairly, it hurts my heart to watch it. But I am a woman, so it is not appropriate for me to meddle in you men's affairs. Usually, I cannot interfere with whatever you do or decide. But now A-Wen is learning martial arts. How can he have the strength to train without eating meat?"

"Right now, his final wish is to learn martial arts."

"As his mother, I've never let him enjoy much in life. When the third day of next month comes..."

As she spoke, Mother Shi's eyes reddened, but her voice remained calm. "I do not want anything else now. I only want to give him the very best."

Old Shi's body trembled slightly as he continued chewing his Potato Cake.

His weathered face was filled with bitterness and an unspeakable silence.

After a very, very long time,

Old Shi suddenly took out a jar of low-proof yellow wine he had been reluctant to drink from beneath the cabinet. He poured some into a bowl and took several large swallows.

After finishing the wine, he spoke as calmly as if discussing something ordinary. "I understand. I'll go back tomorrow and take a look."

"Mm."

Mother Shi said nothing more.

Shi Wen knew nothing of his parents' conversation. When he woke from his sleep, it was already midnight.

The soreness and swelling throughout his body made him feel as though he were about to fall apart.

But Shi Wen gritted his teeth and got up.

Putting aside the trouble with the Red Lantern Gang, San Qingzi alone, that Thief Gang leader, had already made it onto his kill list!

"Horse stance!"

Forcing himself onward, Shi Wen rose and quietly made his way to the back courtyard.

Under the pitch-black night sky, he began practicing the fundamentals.

But after training for a while,

His body began to protest.

Clearly, that night's dinner had done nothing to stave off his hunger.

Not to mention the soreness in every muscle and the creaking from his bones,

Even the twisting pain in his stomach, as though someone had grabbed his intestines into a ball and was pulling hard, made his face turn pale!

Even moving slightly tugged at his nerves.

Hungry!

He was truly hungry!!!

He was starving from training. His body simply could not endure forcing himself to continue!

"What of hunger? What of limits?"

"Let them know who the true master of this body is!"

Shi Wen said nothing. He merely gritted his teeth and increased his proficiency twice in the darkness.

Only when he truly could not bear the hunger any longer did he run to the stove, wolf down several Potato Cakes raw, then scoop cold water from the vat and pour it into his stomach. Once the hunger no longer felt so intense, he returned to his room pale-faced.

His entire body trembled as he collapsed onto the bed, hungry and exhausted.

He did not know how many times he woke up groggily through the night. In the end, he curled up on the bed without moving.

Until dawn came the next day.

Shi Wen woke to find that his parents had long since left home.

Ten palm-sized steamed Potato Cakes had been left on the table. They were his rations for the day.

Misty rain veiled the world, while people came and went through the streets.

Shi Wen threaded through the crowd and found a corner in the Fist Academy to practice his fists.

Whenever he grew hungry, he ate Potato Cakes to fill his stomach. Whenever he grew thirsty, he drank coarse tea.

He gritted his teeth and forced himself to practice the fundamentals again and again. Only when he was exhausted beyond endurance did he find somewhere to rest.

Once he had rested enough, he got back up and continued training.

His actions drew the contempt of quite a few Outer Courtyard disciples nearby.

Who trained like that brat, blindly forcing himself through everything?

Either practice horse stance first, or Charging Step, or forms. That brat spent so long practicing an entire set—wasn't that just wasting effort?

If he did not break down the fundamentals and practice them separately, he would never master them even after ten years!

Greedy.

In the end, he would fail to take care of anything at all!!

Shi Wen ignored the strange looks of others and trained in silence. Only the rising number of proficiency increases displayed in the Extreme Seal could give him a sense of security.

That day, another five or six people came to take a master.

There were youths carrying dreams in their hearts, as well as robust young men who came to learn forms for self-defense.

Most of them were like Shi Wen. After paying the fee, they were sent by Master Li to the Outer Courtyard to practice the fundamentals.

Yet today, Yan Kai was unexpectedly not overseeing the Outer Courtyard disciples.

Instead, an Inner Courtyard female disciple named Zhou Heling had come to supervise the Outer Courtyard disciples.

Shi Wen felt fortunate that the person he had met when registering to learn fists yesterday had been Yan Kai, because Zhou Heling possessed the arrogance of an Inner Courtyard disciple deep in her bones. She simply looked down on Outer Courtyard disciples.

She was perfunctory even when teaching fist techniques.

After teaching the fundamentals a few times, she ignored everyone.

If anyone asked a few more questions, she pointed at their noses and cursed them viciously. If they dared talk back, she directly smashed her fist into their faces, beating them black and blue.

She had no mindset for teaching people martial arts at all.

Coming to the Outer Courtyard to manage people seemed to her like an exceptionally humiliating task.

Shi Wen practiced his fists in silence. When the afternoon came and everyone lined up to drink medicinal broth, a burst of startled cries suddenly rang out from the Inner Courtyard.

By the time news reached the Outer Courtyard,

Shi Wen learned that someone had come to take a master earlier and tested as having an upper eighth-grade superior bone structure. Master Li had directly made an exception and accepted him into the Inner Courtyard to train alongside those Inner Courtyard disciples!

And an upper eighth-grade bone structure was rare even in Black Cloud County!

Even Senior Brother Shang An possessed only an upper seventh-grade bone structure!!

It was said that those with superior bone structures could smoothly complete the tempering of the Blood Refining stage and had a great chance of becoming Force Refining experts.

And what kind of people were Force Refining experts?

It was said that Lord Situ Nan of the County Office and Zhang Kuian, the leader of Black Cloud County's largest gang, the Black Whale Gang, were both Force Refining experts!!

Such people were towering figures who stood above an entire region.

With a single thought, they could cause an earthquake throughout Black Cloud County!!

Shi Wen said nothing. He merely practiced his fists in silence and raised his proficiency. In these chaotic times, only increasing the proficiency of his Extreme Seal was the capital he needed to settle himself and survive!

Meanwhile, over at the docks,

Old Shi closed his stall early.

For the first time ever, he sought out a familiar fishmonger and bought two fish before heading toward the old house.

When he reached the gate of the old house,

Fear rose in Old Shi's heart, and he did not even dare knock.

After a very, very long time, Old Shi finally gathered the courage to knock.

The person who opened the door was his father. The old man looked at Old Shi in surprise before welcoming him into the courtyard.

Though this residence was merely a courtyard with several rooms, its location was relatively safe, far better than a slum like Peace Lane.

"Hehe, Eldest, what brings you here to see me today?"

Old Master Shi smilingly had his daughter-in-law take the two fish away. For the first time ever, he brewed tea and poured Old Shi a cup.

Old Shi accepted the teacup with flattered surprise. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said, "Father, I actually came this time to..."

"Eldest, your timing is perfect. If you had not come, I was planning to visit you in the next couple of days."

Old Master Shi interrupted him with a smile. "Isn't A-Liang thirteen this year? He had his bone structure tested some time ago, and it turned out he has a sixth-grade bone structure. The martial arts master from South Wind Martial Hall said that A-Liang has a great chance of becoming a martial artist. His age is just right for martial arts training too."

"Martial arts training costs a lot. He needs to eat meat, drink medicinal broth, and buy things that replenish blood to nourish his body."

"The martial arts master from South Wind Martial Hall said that the process of honing one's blood and vitality requires using the body's energy to nourish that blood and vitality. If nutrition cannot keep up, the body will be depleted. Then, not only will he fail to hone his blood and vitality, he may very well train himself into ruin."

"I figured you must have saved up some money from doing business at the docks. Take out one hundred strings of cash, and I'll use it to nourish A-Liang's body."

"If you do not have enough money, I remember you still have a few mu of land. I asked around these past few days, and they can sell for around twenty strings of cash. Put together one hundred strings of cash for me then. Once A-Liang becomes a martial artist in the future, he will look after your family as well. It is not as if your family has any use for the money anyway..."

Old Master Shi went on and on.

But Old Shi's heart turned cold by half.