Joining the Sect

The Outer Courtyard, Common Dormitory.

Zhou Yun kicked open the wooden door, settled Zhang Hu on the kang, and pressed several acupoints to open his airways and restore the flow of his meridians.

The youth who had nearly completed a full set of the Black Ape Movement Technique finally woke.

"Brother Yun, I still haven't reached Bright Force..."

Zhang Hu grabbed Zhou Yun's hand and bit down hard on his lower lip, drawing thin trails of blood.

In this age, anyone who hadn't reached Bright Force was ultimately no more than an ordinary mortal.

Zhou Yun said nothing. He simply brought over a bowl of cold water and set it on the kang.

"Save your breath and get some rest."

After giving him a few more instructions, Zhou Yun said earnestly, "Don't push yourself next time. Your mother wouldn't want to see this either."

Then he patted Zhang Hu on the shoulder and headed for the Martial Arts Arena.

Zhang Hu watched Zhou Yun's retreating figure, his expression complicated. He clenched both fists as if he had made up his mind.

By now, Zhou Yun had returned to the Martial Arts Arena. The Inner Courtyard disciples had long since left, leaving only Outer Courtyard disciples still practicing.

He joined them.

Master Liang's Black Ape Fist had given Zhou Yun many insights. Besides, he'd planned to throw a thousand punches and hold his stance for four hours today, so he couldn't slack off.

As the sky grew darker, Zhou Yun kept a careful count of the time this time. He didn't let his body exceed its limits, afraid of triggering another chance to transmigrate.

After eating a little coarse grain, he returned to his quarters in the Outer Courtyard. Zhou Yun found that the bowl of cold water had been emptied, and Zhang Hu was nowhere to be seen.

Some of the other Outer Courtyard disciples who shared the dormitory returned as well. When they saw an empty bed, they said nothing. It was common for disciples to go out and earn extra money; plenty of them stayed away from the martial school for several days at a time.

Exhausted from a full day of training, Zhou Yun closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.

When Zhou Yun woke the next day, the moment he opened his eyes, the daily settlement began.

[Daily Settlement: Threw 1,000 punches, held a stance for 4 shichen, observed a grandmaster demonstrate a new martial art and gained some insight. Grade: Ding-Middle.]

[Obtained one wisp of qi and blood. Beginner-level comprehension of the Black Ape Movement Technique; can move with the agility and unpredictability of a black ape.]

"Just as I thought. Not only did my grade improve, I actually learned the Black Ape Movement Technique outright?"

Zhou Yun was delighted. He hadn't expected that simply watching Master Liang perform the Black Ape Movement Technique once would let him master a movement technique that should only be learned after reaching Bright Force.

Though the panel had said that only martial arts performed by a Transformation Force grandmaster would have this effect, this was more than enough.

Once unleashed, the beginner-level Black Ape Movement Technique would let him hold his own for a while against Bright Force fighters, even if he couldn't get away completely.

Ordinary Inner Courtyard disciples who hadn't reached Bright Force would probably struggle to get the better of him.

"I've got something to fall back on now."

In high spirits, Zhou Yun hurried to the Martial Arts Arena before most of the disciples had woken.

Dawn was just breaking, and Zhou Yun was the only one in the Martial Arts Arena.

He exhaled a breath of stale air. The image of Master Liang performing the Black Ape Movement Technique surfaced in his mind, and his body began to move.

His limbs suddenly grew light, his lower body became astonishingly steady, and his arms filled with greater strength. With a flick of his hand, he suddenly threw a punch that seemed to extend beyond the reach of his arm.

Only those who practiced martial arts knew how dangerous this move was. If a punch suddenly struck you from beyond the limits of the human body, hitting a vital point, the situation could turn in an instant.

"What a movement technique!"

Zhou Yun couldn't help but marvel. Though he hadn't yet reached Bright Force, he could already perform this technique. It had become a trump card he could keep up his sleeve.

Even among the Inner Courtyard disciples, few had mastered the Black Ape Movement Technique.

Riding this momentum, Zhou Yun began that day's training. He didn't continue studying the movement technique, but returned to his fist techniques instead.

After a morning of training, together with the wisp of qi and blood he'd gained that day, Zhou Yun reached the fourth aperture of the Martial Pass.

Suddenly, an Outer Courtyard disciple came running over and waved to him. "Zhou Yun, your cousin's looking for you."

"My cousin's looking for me?"

Zhou Yun was drenched in sweat. He wiped his face with the towel he carried, then hurried toward the martial school's gate.

Before he reached it, he saw a mature, gentle-looking woman in a floral-print cloth dress, carrying a bamboo basket. She smiled and waved.

"Yun, I brought you your tuition."

Zhou Ningyue smiled gently. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the sweat from Zhou Yun's forehead. "It must be hard at the martial school. Look at you, you're drenched. Here, wipe your face."

"Sister Ningyue, isn't it too early to pay tuition?"

Zhou Yun took the handkerchief and asked without thinking.

"Yun, it's..."

Zhou Ningyue hesitated, then fell silent before saying, "Yun, the family can't afford your tuition for next month. This is all our savings."

As she spoke, she lifted the cover of the basket. Inside were only two strings of cash and several large pieces of dried salted fish.

"It's all right, Sister Ningyue. This is enough."

Zhou Yun took the basket, only now realizing how dire things had become at home. He'd only been practicing martial arts for a few months, and already this bottomless pit of martial training couldn't be filled.

His family wasn't rich, but they could make a living fishing. Zhang Hu's family next door was even worse off. They could only survive as tenant farmers, crushed under even heavier taxes.

In this world, even the last sliver of hope the poor had of turning their lives around was utterly blocked off.

"Yun, I can still find a way to scrape together more money. The Sea Whale Gang's leader has feelings for me. If I went to ask him..."

Zhou Ningyue bit her lip, her fair neck flushing red.

"No, Cousin. I'll find a way next month."

Zhou Yun reassured her. What kind of man was the Sea Whale Gang's leader?

He was infamous for his lechery. He said he would take Zhou Ningyue as his concubine, but she would only be a plaything—once he tired of her, he'd toss her to his gang brothers.

Whenever he took a fancy to a pretty girl, he used the Sea Whale Gang's power to harass her family. Either he'd pile on a heap of unreasonable debts, or he'd force them into debt and make them borrow from the Sea Whale Gang.

If Zhou Ningyue got involved with someone like that, it would be like pushing her into a pit of fire with his own hands.

Now, Zhou Yun had his cheat on his side.

He was certain to break through to Bright Force within seven days. By then, he could find a sinecure outside and draw a salary, and the Sea Whale Gang's debt problem would resolve itself.

"All right... Just don't push yourself. If we scrape things together at home, we can still come up with a little more."

Zhou Ningyue agreed, but still reminded him one last time. She didn't tell Zhou Yun that his parents' coffins had already been pawned.

"Sister Ningyue, Uncle has looked after me since I was little. He went off for military service and never came back, so you're my own sister. Whatever happens, be careful and put yourself first."

Zhou Yun spoke seriously.

"All right. You take care of yourself too... Oh, this is Zhang Hu's tuition. Could you give it to him for me as well?"

As she spoke, Zhou Ningyue took a bundle from inside her clothes.

"What about his mother? Why didn't she come?"

Zhou Yun frowned, but still took the bundle.

"His mother passed away yesterday. Before she died, she told me not to tell Hu'er until he reached Bright Force."

Zhou Ningyue sighed and patted Zhou Yun's hand. "I'm leaving. If you need anything, tell the family. I'll find a way to help."

"All right."

Zhou Yun watched his cousin's departing figure and fell into a deep silence.

A large part of the reason Zhang Hu had worked so hard at martial arts was that his mother had been bedridden for years. She could only make a living doing needlework.

Even the tuition for the martial school had come from the compensation paid for his father, who'd been conscripted as a soldier and sent home as a corpse.

They'd sold the old family home and given up everything, staking it all on one of them becoming a martial artist.

But now, the root of Zhang Hu's pursuit of martial arts had been severed.

Zhou Yun didn't say another word on the way back. He planned to return to the Common Dormitory and hand Zhang Hu the money himself.

When he returned to the Common Dormitory, Zhang Hu was still nowhere to be seen, and Zhou Yun couldn't help feeling puzzled.

Could the boy have taken the blow so hard that he'd run off with his bundle?

As Zhou Yun puzzled over it, he noticed that the clothes he'd been washing for Lu Meng were gone from beside his bed.

"Maybe he put them somewhere else? No..."

Those clothes could fetch nearly half a string of cash.

The fellow disciples in the dormitory all knew they belonged to Lu Meng. They wouldn't steal them.

And Zhang Hu just happened to be half a string of cash short of buying the Blood Coagulation Pill.

On top of that, he'd been missing all day. An ominous feeling rose in Zhou Yun's heart.

Zhou Yun looked down and, sure enough, found a note tucked between the bamboo mats on his bed.

"Brother Yun, I'm sorry."

"Oh no!"

Zhou Yun's heart lurched, and before he could react—

At the door, Lu Meng's voice suddenly rang out.

"Zhou Yun, bring out my clothes!"