Meat, Magic

It was not until the two men showed no signs of life that Lu Yuan finally stopped his fists.

"Haa..."

Lu Yuan took a deep breath, looking down at the two corpses that were now little more than a bloody mess.

Although this was his first time killing, he felt no expected fear or nausea; instead, his heart grew increasingly calm, as if this was exactly how things should be.

In this world, if he did not kill, others would kill him.

Since that was the case, for the sake of his own survival and that of his family, he had no choice but to send others to their deaths.

Wasting no time, Lu Yuan brushed the lime off his hands and leaned down to search the bodies.

In the end, aside from three taels of loose silver, there were no unexpected windfalls.

Without further delay, Lu Yuan flashed away, quickly vanishing into the depths of the night.

"Three taels and two mace of silver, which is equivalent to three thousand two hundred copper coins!"

After returning home, Lu Yuan removed the rag from his face and carefully tallied his gains for the day.

As for his expenses, it was merely a packet of lime powder worth ten copper coins.

Calling it a ten-thousand-fold profit would not be an exaggeration; truly, murder and arson lead to golden belts!

Lu Yuan had previously been racking his brain on how to earn more money faster.

Now it seemed that preying on people was a much faster way to make money than enduring hardship!

With these three-plus taels of silver, not only was next month's tuition covered, but the days ahead would be much easier; at the very least, he would no longer have to gnaw on wild vegetable cakes and drink thin grain gruel every single day.

After stowing the silver away, Lu Yuan lay down to rest.

He needed to conserve his energy so he could cultivate more effectively tomorrow.

Although he had strangled one immediate crisis in the cradle, there would undoubtedly be more and greater crises in the future.

Therefore, he had to become stronger, and quickly—strong enough to handle any crisis that came his way!

The next morning, Lu Yuan arrived at Song Academy early.

Although he had already heard plenty of chatter on the road about the two dead Black Tiger Gang thugs, he did not panic in the slightest.

In this world, people died every day—starving, freezing, or being killed—there were simply too many.

The authorities would, at most, pay a pittance to have the bodies hauled to the Chaos Burial Mound; they would never waste energy digging for the truth.

Furthermore, since these two were thugs from the Black Tiger Gang, dying in a vendetta was the most normal thing in the world.

Even if word spread, the common folk would only clap and cheer, believing some hero had rid the people of a scourge.

"Hey... ha... hey..."

Today, not only did everyone arrive extremely early, but they were clearly working much harder.

Evidently, in order to secure a top-three spot in the second strength assessment ten days from now, everyone had begun to push themselves, training with everything they had.

Chen Yong, in particular, who had nearly placed third, was sweating buckets as if his life depended on it.

From time to time, he would cast sharp, piercing glares toward Lu Yuan.

Clearly, Lu Yuan snatching the third-place spot that should have been his had planted the seeds of resentment for blocking his path.

Although Lu Yuan did not notice Chen Yong, he would not have cared even if he had.

Unless he chose to never compete or strive for anything, offending others was an unavoidable reality.

Moreover, given his rate of growth, he had no need to concern himself with such people.

About an hour later, Lu Yuan finished another round of the Five Animals Fist.

[Five Animals Fist: Entry (115/200)]

This time, his proficiency had increased by a full 65 points.

Clearly, the Practice Makes Perfect destiny was still in effect; each time he practiced, the proficiency gained grew greater.

At this rate, Lu Yuan would only need at most two more sessions to successfully bring the Five Animals Fist to the Minor Achievement stage.

However, although he could clearly feel the qi and blood within his body increase from one strand to three after this session, his body felt significantly more exhausted.

It seemed that to nourish these two new strands of qi and blood, the toll on his physical stamina had increased.

He had hoped that after receiving the free meat ration today, he could move from practicing twice a day to three times, but it seemed he would have to stick to twice a day for now.

Of course, even so, Lu Yuan's progress could still be called lightning-fast.

Not to mention Hong Lei and Fang Chang in the Inner Courtyard, among the thirty-some martial apprentices in the Outer Courtyard, no one had yet been discovered to have even reached the Entry stage of the Five Animals Fist.

And if all went as expected, he would likely reach the Minor Achievement stage of the Five Animals Fist by tomorrow.

As time went on, this gap would only widen until he was far ahead of everyone else.

Lu Yuan now seemed to have discovered the truly terrifying aspect of his Practice Makes Perfect destiny: beyond the fact that he grew faster the more he practiced and was guaranteed success, he could achieve an unimaginably fast rate of improvement even without the aid of resources.

After resting for a while, it was finally lunchtime.

Under the envious gazes of the others, Wu Yu, Chen Pi, and Lu Yuan each received their allotted portion of meat.

Although it wasn't premium meat like beef, venison, or tiger, but merely some pork and a few eggs, they were still incredibly satisfied.

At the very least, not only were they eating real meat, but they would also receive this same portion for free over the next ten days, which was enough to help them rapidly recover the physical energy expended each day.

The three of them, ravenous with hunger, didn't bother with elegance and immediately picked up their bowls to feast.

The others could only sniff the aroma while gnawing on the wild vegetable cakes they had brought themselves.

"Next time, third place will definitely belong to me!"

On the other side, Chen Yong pulled a piece of blackened, unidentifiable dried meat from his tunic, glaring at Lu Yuan while gnashing his teeth as he tore into the jerky.

"Woe is me, I want to eat meat too!"

"I swear, starting tomorrow, I will abstain from lust, stop looking at picture books, rise at the first crow of the rooster, and train even harder to fight my way into the top three and eat meat!"

Zhang San, Wang Er, and the others were all fired up, their desire for meat having reached its peak.

"Is this the wonder of the martial path?"

After a bowl of meat entered his stomach, Lu Yuan could feel a warmth spreading throughout his body, and the fatigue and soreness brought on by practicing the Five Animals Fist seemed to have been swept away.

He could even faintly feel the meat rapidly transforming into streams of energy, constantly nourishing his body.

It was no exaggeration to say that while this portion of meat might not allow him to practice the Five Animals Fist an extra time every day, it would certainly allow him to enter his second training session in peak condition.

It was no wonder Chen Pi always said that the most important thing in martial arts was eating; as long as one ate well, one could train faster and better.

It was easy to imagine that if he could have medicinal soups or even a Rejuvenation Pill to assist him, Lu Yuan would surely be able to train three or four times a day, and perhaps even five or six times was not impossible.

After eating and drinking their fill, everyone rested briefly before returning to their training with extreme self-discipline.

Lu Yuan was naturally no exception; he was now not only full of energy but also brimming with motivation.

He immediately struck his pose, starting with the Bear Form Stance!