Newcomer, Practicing Under the Moon

As expected, it was just as Lu Yuan had thought.

Although he had received another portion of meat at noon, after finishing it, he still could not recover quickly enough to sustain another session of the Five Animals Fist.

He estimated that he would need to rest for at least the entire afternoon to fully recover.

This meant that Lu Yuan's afternoon was effectively free.

While he could not continue his training, it seemed he had time to make some money.

If he used the afternoon to earn money and trained the Five Animals Fist once more at home in the evening, he could still barely maintain a pace of two sessions per day.

This was only because he had just reached the minor accomplishment stage of the Five Animals Fist; once he reached major accomplishment or even perfection, each session would generate more blood-qi, but it would also consume far more energy. If he could not replenish it quickly, it could even lead to severe physical depletion.

By then, maintaining two sessions a day, or even one, might become impossible.

To quickly replenish such consumption, ordinary meat would likely not be enough; he would need high-quality meat, or even medicinal soups and Rejuvenation Pills, the cost of which was unimaginable.

Such is the saying: "Literary pursuits are for the poor, martial arts are for the rich."

Practicing martial arts requires not only diligent and bitter training but also a constant influx of money.

However, in this current world, for an ordinary person to make money, aside from taking crooked paths, they could basically only sell their manual labor. Not only was it exhausting, but it also earned just enough to fill one's stomach.

Still, although Lu Yuan had not yet successfully performed his first blood-qi body tempering and could not yet manifest Bright Energy, he had already brought the Five Animals Fist to the minor accomplishment stage, making him a true martial artist.

His strength, speed, and reaction time were all far superior to those of an ordinary person.

If he were to face those two thugs from the Black Tiger Gang again now, he wouldn't even need to use lime powder; he could easily deal with them.

After all, while the Five Animals Fist was essentially an internal cultivation technique and lacked the lethality of true combat arts, as long as one's strength was great enough and one's speed fast enough, one could still beat a person to death with ease.

It was fair to say that even if he really went to sell his labor, he alone could be worth at least several ordinary, sturdy men.

Of course, he did not practice martial arts to sell his labor and continue living like a beast of burden.

Selling labor wouldn't earn him much money anyway, likely not even enough to cover his daily consumption.

"With my current strength, whether I sign up as a guard for a security firm or work as a bodyguard for a wealthy family, there shouldn't be any problems. It's just that the money seems to come in too slowly!"

Lu Yuan thought to himself as he walked outside.

Moreover, whether he worked for a security firm or as a bodyguard, he would no longer have much time for training.

Even if he earned money, it would severely impact his training progress, making it a loss that outweighed the gain.

What he needed most now was a path that didn't consume a large amount of time but could still earn him a significant amount of money quickly.

"It won't be long before we stop seeing A-Yuan at the Song Academy!"

Seeing Lu Yuan leave immediately after practicing for only one morning and finishing his free meal, Chen Pi could not help but sigh and shake his head secretly.

Life has many facets, and everyone has their own way of living. He couldn't control others; managing himself was already enough.

The others naturally said nothing more and continued to train even harder.

One person had already reached the introductory stage of the Five Animals Fist. They didn't care if Lu Yuan felt pressure, but they themselves were under a great deal of it.

"A person like that is not even qualified to be my opponent!"

Chen Yong felt that it was truly laughable that he had previously considered this guy a target to chase.

Regardless, he would add an extra training session today. At the next assessment, he would let this guy know what a real gap was!

"Forget it, let's eat first!"

After searching outside for nearly the entire afternoon, Lu Yuan still hadn't found a good way to make money, but he felt his stomach growling.

Making money was not something one could rush, especially making a lot of it; it required luck, and perhaps he would stumble upon an opportunity one day.

Moreover, he could still barely maintain his pace of two sessions a day, and his rate of improvement was still not slow.

In a few days, he would be able to bring the Five Animals Fist to major accomplishment, or perhaps even perform his first blood-qi body tempering to become a true external-force martial artist. By then, his avenues for making money would surely be much wider.

After bringing the newly bought meat home, Lu Yuan played with Little Nannan for a while before having a hearty meal.

As night fell, Madam Yang took Nannan to rest early.

Not long after, Lu Yuan, who had fully recovered, went into the courtyard alone.

Taking advantage of the night, he began to train under the moonlight.

Having reached the minor accomplishment stage, Lu Yuan had a deeper understanding and insight into the Five Animals Fist.

Not only were his movements more fluid and natural, but the rhythm of his breathing was also highly melodic.

[Five Animals Fist: Minor Accomplishment (179/1000)]

"At this rate, I estimate it will take at most three more days for me to bring the Five Animals Fist to major accomplishment."

Lu Yuan glanced at the Ancient Scroll in his mind and pondered silently.

Originally, after he brought the Five Animals Fist to minor accomplishment, he could have actually attempted his first blood-qi body tempering by relying on that wisp of blood-qi in his body.

However, according to what Chen Pi had said, unless one had exceptional natural talent, there was at most a twenty to thirty percent chance of success.

If he failed, his blood-qi would dissipate, and the time, energy, and money he had spent would all be for nothing.

Although one can perform blood-tempering again after re-nurturing and tempering one's blood-qi, if the number of failures becomes too high, not only will the success rate plummet, but one might also permanently damage their foundation, leaving no possibility for further improvement.

In short, blood-tempering is an extremely critical threshold for any martial artist.

One must never be overly hasty; it should only be attempted when one's blood-qi is at its peak.

However, while nurturing blood-qi is a process of constant, day-by-day accumulation for others, for Lu Yuan, it takes at most a few short days.

Therefore, he decided to wait another three days, until his Five Animals Fist reached Great Completion, so he could attempt his first blood-tempering in the best possible state.

After this training session, although the blood-qi within Lu Yuan's body had improved significantly, the toll taken was immense, leaving his entire body feeling completely hollowed out.

After simply wiping the sweat from his body, he lay down and quickly drifted into a deep sleep.

The next day, Lu Yuan slowly woke up.

Although he felt that his body had recovered quite a bit after a night of rest, it was still not enough to support him in practicing the Five Animals Fist again.

With no other choice, he simply ate all the remaining meat.

At this rate, even eating meat three times a day might not be enough to help him recover quickly.

The matter of earning money had become an urgent priority.

Once he had recovered sufficiently, Lu Yuan finally made his way to Song Academy.

At this time, Chen Pi, Wu Yu, Chen Yong, and the others were already training in full swing.

Lu Yuan also noticed that there seemed to be a few new faces in the crowd, while a few familiar ones were missing.

Clearly, people were coming and going; some had left, and others had joined.

As for Lu Yuan's arrival, no one paid him much attention anymore.

It seemed they had all concluded that he, too, would likely not last long before disappearing from Song Academy for good.