You Want to Scam My Pension Too?

Zhou Guifang placed a huge piece of pork rib into her son's bowl and said to her husband:

"I'm planning to take up tutoring tomorrow. We can't waste the two months of summer vacation. Didn't our son want to go to the Martial Arts Academy?"

Old Zhang shoveled down a mouthful of rice.

"One of my old customers paid off a batch of debts. Together with our remaining savings, it's just enough for the tuition. We'll send Fusheng to the Martial Arts Academy tomorrow."

After a pause, he smiled.

"It's only just vacation, and several students are already clamoring for extra lessons. How long has it been since the two of us traveled? Let's go to East Ridge Snow Mountain tomorrow and have some fun for a few days."

As he spoke, Old Zhang reached out and brushed the chalk dust from Teacher Zhou's temple hair.

"East Ridge Snow Mountain..."

Zhou Guifang was somewhat tempted.

"Then what about our son?"

"The Martial Arts Academy provides food and lodging." Zhang Wentao smiled. "The kid has finally crossed the hardest hurdle. It's time for us to relax too and properly enjoy some time alone."

Zhou Guifang thought it over, then nodded.

"That works. Resting for a couple of days would be good too."

Zhang Fusheng gnawed on a rib and spoke indistinctly.

"So, in the two of your considerations, there was never an option to bring me along, right? Don't worry, don't worry. I wasn't planning to ruin your little world for two anyway."

After a moment, he said seriously:

"Doctor Zhang, Teacher Zhou, you can start preparing to enjoy your retirement. I'll support you from now on."

The couple exchanged smiles. Teacher Zhou placed another braised rib into her son's bowl.

"Alright, alright, we'll wait to enjoy your blessings. But your father and mother aren't at retirement age yet. We're still young! We can save up a few more years' worth of money for you to marry a wife!"

After dinner.

Back in his small room, Zhang Fusheng rubbed his bulging belly, and the smile on his face faded somewhat.

It seemed the Lower-Level District truly had not been very peaceful lately.

Otherwise, his father would not have been so anxious to take his mother out on a trip.

After dinner, Zhang Wentao had specifically reminded Zhang Fusheng to stay at the Martial Arts Academy for the next few days. The academy would be very safe.

Had his old man learned some kind of news?

Zhang Fusheng silently pondered it, trying to calm himself down and cultivate the [Morning Sun Basic Visualization Method] and the [Third Standard Breathing Technique].

In his mind, he stirred the Ancestral Aperture between his brows, visualizing the Heavenly Light of dawn and the rolling morning glow. At the same time, he adjusted his breathing, attempting to use the standard breathing technique to stir the blood and vitality throughout his body.

The visualization went smoothly. Amid the hazy Heavenly Light and morning glow, he could vaguely sense the invisible "Mysterious Factor" in the air. But as expected, the breathing technique failed again.

Visualization methods depended on comprehension, but time could also grind through stone. Zhang Fusheng had ground away at it for three years before finally entering the door. He could visualize the Ancestral Aperture between his brows and sense the Mysterious Factor.

But that alone was still not enough for cultivation. He needed a breathing technique to coordinate with it, mobilizing the blood and vitality throughout his body, drawing the Mysterious Factor into himself, then steadily delivering it through every inch of his body.

Breathing techniques, meanwhile, depended on one's innate bones. If one's innate bones were poor, then no matter how one practiced a breathing technique, it would be difficult to mobilize one's blood and vitality. One might even be unable to absorb or transport the Mysterious Factor.

Put simply, blocked blood and vitality, depleted essence and qi, or obstructed meridians.

Zhang Fusheng happened to have all three.

Normally, for someone with a "Triple-Whole Physique" like his, unless he cultivated a top-tier secret breathing technique or had a true master personally guide him hand in hand, it would be nearly impossible to even enter the door of a breathing technique.

He had no top-tier breathing technique, nor could he afford a famous master.

"A warrior's First Refinement requires a visualization method to draw in the Mysterious Factor. Combined with the flow of blood and vitality, it carries the Mysterious Factor throughout the body, circulates it through the heavenly cycle, and tempers the skin and flesh."

Zhang Fusheng muttered to himself.

"I'm stuck at the step of making my blood and vitality flow. I can't make any progress at all."

"If I bought it, what would I need most?"

"[Comprehension], [innate bones], or ready-made [cultivation]?"

Thoughts whirled through his mind. He wrote the words comprehension and innate bones on a sheet of paper, then immediately wrote, "Must first obtain comprehension and innate bones."

According to the information he had naturally understood from the Contract Book, buying cultivation could directly grant him another person's cultivation progress.

He could also choose to obtain years of cultivation.

For instance, if he bought one year of cultivation, the other party would regress to where they had been one year before after bitter training, while he would gain a year's worth of cultivation results out of thin air. But if his own talent was trash, then his improvement would probably still be negligible.

Take himself, for example. It had taken him three years just to enter the door of the basic visualization method.

"Chen Nuanyu."

Sitting at his desk, Zhang Fusheng wrote down that name.

He needed her talent.

But how could he buy it?

Why would she sell it?

Unless he could learn what she urgently needed, something she recognized as being equal in value to her own talent.

And he also had to possess such a thing, something he could sell to Chen Nuanyu.

Or else, he had to create such a need for her—create something that would make her willingly sell her talent, without even a hint of coercion.

That was difficult. At least, it was difficult for his current self. He even felt as though he had nowhere to begin.

"If one's talent is high enough, and one catches the Martial Arts Academy's School Master's eye and becomes a true inner disciple, not only can the tuition be waived, I hear there's even a salary. And you can learn the real, true teachings."

Zhang Fusheng's thoughts turned over and over.

"To create a need for Chen Nuanyu, or see through what she needs, is almost impossible for me right now. I need to borrow momentum. The Martial Arts Academy might be a source of momentum, but how do I borrow it? How do I catch the School Master's eye?"

"Wait."

"I may have been trapped in a misunderstanding all along!"

His thoughts grew increasingly clear as he crossed out comprehension and innate bones on the paper.

In the days since seeing the [Contract Book], Zhang Fusheng had remained in a state of extreme excitement. He had not truly calmed down to think things through.

"People with high talent are rare and difficult to find, but there are plenty of fools who train bitterly. Like Old Master Wang next door. He's even more foolish than I am. He has practiced visualization methods for fifty years and still can't sense the Mysterious Factor. He's practically no different from someone who has never cultivated."

"Maybe I can pretend to be a genius first?"

Zhang Fusheng took a deep breath. He felt eager to give it a try, and his thoughts became ever clearer.

That's right!

Pretend to be a genius.

Normally, comprehension outweighed innate bones, because innate bones could be made up for later in life and piled up with resources, but comprehension could not.

Of course, earthshaking innate bones were another matter.

As long as he entered the Martial Arts Academy School Master's sight, as long as he displayed extraordinary comprehension.

"But I've already entered the door of the visualization method. When entering the Martial Arts Academy, they'll supposedly verify your progress first. It took me three years just to enter the door. Not to call me an idiot, but I'd still be a completely ordinary person."

Zhang Fusheng rose decisively to his feet.

"I want to forget the visualization method. I want to destroy my visualization results!"

"I want to sell my cultivation progress."

His eyes shone brightly. The Contract Book had already perceived it; even if he lost the ability to visualize, he could still summon it freely.

Though after using it, the Contract Book would dim once more, and who knew how long it would take to fill again, but—

"What matters is the present."

"Without breaking, there can be no rebuilding!"

Zhang Fusheng flicked his lighter. With a snap, the paper covered in writing caught fire, and ashes curled and flew.

One second later.

"Zhang! Fusheng!" Teacher Zhou's demonic voice rang out from the living room. "Are you smoking?!?"

The paper burned to ash as Teacher Zhou charged in with fangs bared and claws brandished.

"I'm not!!!" Zhang Fusheng fled like a rat with his head in his hands.

The next morning.

Watching his father and mother happily pack their luggage, then drive away in their little car, Zhang Fusheng clearly saw his father plant a greasy, smacking kiss on his mother inside the car.

"Tch. Was I getting in their way at home?"

Zhang Fusheng shrank his neck, clutched the bank card in his hand, and took a deep breath.

He did not rush to the Martial Arts Academy to pay the tuition. Instead, he knocked on the neighboring door.

After a while, the door slowly opened. Old Master Wang, wearing a white tank top, short shorts, and flip-flops, said cheerfully:

"Little Fusheng? Have you come to exchange cultivation insights with Grandpa again?"

"Something like that, but there's something else too." Zhang Fusheng handed over a bottle of aged liquor his father had treasured and grinned. "I want to make a deal with you, sir."

"A deal?"

Old Master Wang accepted the aged liquor with great delight and stepped aside.

"Come in and talk, come in and talk!"

Zhang Fusheng slipped inside, casually shut the door behind him, and plopped down on the sofa as though he were back in his own home.

"Little Fusheng, what kind of deal is it?" Old Master Wang picked up a fragrant pear, thought about it, then switched it for a cheaper apple and offered it to Zhang Fusheng.

Zhang Fusheng did not reach out to take it. He visualized the Heavenly Light of dawn and the rolling morning glow, sensing the vague Mysterious Factor around him. A peculiar aura suddenly appeared about him.

His smile vanished.

"Grandpa Wang."

Zhang Fusheng's voice was low and solemn.

"If I can let you sense the Mysterious Factor, if I can let your visualization method enter the door, would you make this deal?"

Old Master Wang froze for a moment, then suddenly became wary.

"You want to scam my pension too??"