Li Pingsheng neither laughed nor got angry.
He glanced at the pill, pinched it between his fingers, and tucked it into his robe.
Like nothing had happened.
Zhao Ming's face was already set for a good show. He was just waiting for this country bumpkin to blow up, then get publicly humiliated by Instructor Wu.
But Li Pingsheng didn't say a damn thing.
He turned and walked away.
Zhao Ming was so frustrated he could barely stand it. He couldn't help tossing a remark at the people beside him.
"See that? People from the Wealthy District are spineless."
The few auditing disciples hurried after him.
"Right? I would've blown my top."
"Pick a fight? With what? He's got no family, no connections in the martial arts school."
"He's a total pushover."
The group burst out laughing.
Instructor Wu had already prepared several speeches, just waiting for Li Pingsheng to challenge him. Instead, his punch had landed in empty air.
This kid wasn't taking the bait.
Instructor Wu glanced over at Zhao Ming's group. Seeing that Zhao Ming didn't look any happier about it, he felt rather put out. He carried the empty box away in silence.
In a corner.
Li Pingsheng crouched down with his back against a stone pillar beside the Martial Practice Field, then pulled the Bone Strengthening Pill back out of his robe.
The brown pill smelled bitter.
He opened his mouth and swallowed it.
As soon as it slid down his throat, a ball of fire sprang to life in his stomach.
The heat coursed through his blood vessels and into his arms and legs. An ordinary disciple would need to circulate his energy for at least the time it took an incense stick to burn before the pill could be absorbed.
But the Blood Strengthening in his body stirred on its own. His qi and blood surged, swallowing up the medicinal power in one go.
The panel before his eyes flickered.
[Talent Potential: 0.1]
It had risen by 0.05.
Li Pingsheng ran the numbers in his head.
Light Body would take 1 point of potential to unlock. He only had 0.1 now—still a long way off.
If he relied on Instructor Wu giving him one pill a month?
He'd never save up enough, not even in a million years.
The pill route was a dead end.
He'd have to find another way.
He stretched his arms and legs, but didn't touch the book on Thunderbolt Fist.
He'd tried it in the courtyard last night. The technique was too fierce. One move drained him so badly he was left half-dead with exhaustion, and the potential on his panel only went up by a tiny fraction.
Too much effort, too little gain. A losing deal.
At least for now, it was a losing deal.
Li Pingsheng set his feet apart, bent his knees slightly, and held his hands loosely in front of his stomach.
The Health Preservation Stance.
Everyone else on the Martial Practice Field was training their fists, whooshing and shouting as the wind picked up around them.
He alone stood in a corner, holding the Health Preservation Stance. Even the little kids from the outer courtyard couldn't be bothered to practice that thing.
Zhao Ming was the first to spot him.
He was taken aback at first, then shook his head.
Zhao Ming had been about to say something, but seeing Li Pingsheng standing there like a corpse, he lost interest.
"Fine, let him go die."
Zhao Ming turned away and continued practicing his Thunderbolt Fist.
The few auditing disciples laughed along, then paid him no more attention.
What could you do with a Health Preservation Stance, anyway?
Li Pingsheng closed his eyes.
His breathing slowed, each breath stretching out long and deep.
His chest rose as he inhaled and his stomach drew in as he exhaled. The qi and blood in his body were compressed, growing denser and denser.
Tiger Bone and Blood Strengthening activated at the same time.
The qi and blood coursing through his meridians moved a full three times faster than normal.
His legs looked steady, but the flesh deep in his thighs trembled nonstop, his tendons and bones grinding against each other.
He seemed to be standing still, but his entire frame creaked as a force repeatedly worked it over.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Sweat dripped from his brow onto the blue bricks, leaving dark spots one by one.
The back of his clothes soaked through first, then the front.
On the fourth round, Li Pingsheng opened his eyes.
Hunger.
A ravenous hunger surged through him. His every organ screamed, and only one word filled his mind: food.
He lowered his stance and headed straight for the dining hall.
The martial arts school's dining hall was on the west side of the Inner Courtyard, in a bright, spacious building.
True Disciples and Inner Courtyard disciples ate there for free, and the food was pretty good.
Big chunks of monster meat were stewed until tender with coarse salt. Medicinal herbs to replenish qi went into the broth. It didn't taste great, but there was plenty of meat, and it was filling.
Monster meat wasn't cheap. It contained much more blood essence than ordinary livestock, and martial artists needed to eat it every day.
Li Pingsheng took a huge basin of meat and sat down. He hugged the basin and shoveled the food into his mouth, with none of the manners of a proper diner.
Once he finished one basin, he went back for more.
A second basin.
A third basin.
Fat Chef stood behind the stove with a big ladle in hand, staring at him with his mouth hanging wider and wider open.
When Li Pingsheng carried off the fourth basin, Fat Chef couldn't hold back any longer.
"Young man, did you skip breakfast?"
Li Pingsheng had half a rib stuffed in his mouth. He answered through a mouthful of food.
"I ate."
Fat Chef froze and said nothing more. In silence, he tossed two more bones into the pot.
He'd been in this line of work for over a decade and had seen plenty of martial artists with hearty appetites. But this was the first time he'd seen someone on just his second day at the school eat enough to make the whole dining hall feel like an enemy.
A fifth basin.
He didn't even spare the bones. He stuffed them in his mouth, chewed them up, and swallowed.
A sixth basin.
Fat Chef had scraped the bottom of his pot clean.
"Uh... that's all we've got for this morning."
Fat Chef rubbed his hands, a little embarrassed.
"If you're still hungry, could you come back later?"
Li Pingsheng drank the last of the soup, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and nodded with utmost seriousness.
"Sure. I'll come back at noon."
Then he stood up and left.
Behind him, Fat Chef stared blankly at the pile of empty basins for a long while. Then he turned and bellowed at his assistant.
"Go, get another side of meat from the storeroom. We're running short for today."
After six basins of monster meat, the number on the panel jumped again.
[Talent Potential: 0.15]
It had only risen by 0.05.
Li Pingsheng had a rough idea now.
The pills gave him too little, and training his fists was too costly. It looked like he could only take this route: exhaust himself with stance training, then eat his fill in the dining hall.
The more energy the stance training consumed, the more his body absorbed from food, and the faster Blood Strengthening worked.
The most valuable thing in this martial arts school wasn't those lousy pills.
It was the dining hall.
That afternoon, he practiced three rounds of the Health Preservation Stance in a row on the Martial Practice Field, half an hour per round. After each round, he was so hungry his eyes turned green.
Then he went to the dining hall and ate.
After eating, he went back to practice.
Lunch was another six basins.
Fat Chef had learned his lesson this time and stewed an extra pot in advance.
Watching Li Pingsheng sit down and get right to it, Fat Chef leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"What was your name again?"
"Li Pingsheng."
"The new True Disciple?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, my ass. Are you here to practice martial arts or tear my stove apart?"
Li Pingsheng looked up from gnawing on a giant bone and answered with complete seriousness.
"Both."
Fat Chef was so choked up he could barely speak. Grumbling and cursing, he went back behind the stove.
He kept cursing, but his hands never stopped. He tossed another couple handfuls of medicinal herbs into the pot.
By dusk, Li Pingsheng had finished his final round of stance training. His martial arts uniform was soaked through and could've been wrung out, but he seemed more energetic than he had that morning.
The number on the panel jumped several times.
[Talent Potential: 0.4]
One day.
What took others three to five days of hard practice to build up, he'd managed in a single day.
Night fell.
Lights glimmered here and there across the Inner Courtyard. Most of the disciples had gone to bed long ago.
The oil lamp in Li Pingsheng's little courtyard was out.
But he wasn't asleep.
Bare-chested, Li Pingsheng stood in the middle of the courtyard and assumed the Health Preservation Stance once more.
With people watching during the day, he'd had to hold back a little.
Now there was no one around.
He could go all out.
Just then.
A shadow ambled slowly along the path outside the courtyard wall.
Instructor Wu was on night patrol tonight.
Carrying a lantern, he made a lackluster round of the Inner Courtyard. He hadn't planned to stop when he passed Li Pingsheng's courtyard.
But then he caught a smell.
A sharp mix of sweat and medicine drifted out through a crack in the wall.
Instructor Wu stopped in his tracks.
He brought his lantern close to the wall and peered inside through a crack barely a finger's width.
The moment he saw what was inside, his eyebrows shot up.
Li Pingsheng stood shirtless in the middle of the courtyard, steam rising off his body. It was a rather alarming sight.
What was he practicing?
Instructor Wu narrowed his eyes and took a closer look. The surprise on his face gave way to mockery.
The Health Preservation Stance.
Up in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, practicing the Health Preservation Stance in the courtyard?
Instructor Wu didn't take it seriously.
Having excellent natural roots was a good start, but it still depended on whether he knew how to make use of them.
Everyone else was working hard at Thunderbolt Fist, but this kid was clinging to some lousy technique from the outer courtyard.
People from poor families were so ignorant.
The kid probably couldn't make heads or tails of Thunderbolt Fist and was too embarrassed to ask, so he was sneaking off to practice the only thing he knew, just to put on an act.
Tomorrow, he would have to tell the Hall Master about this, so the Hall Master would understand just how wise he'd been to give him one fewer Bone Strengthening Pill.
That way, the pill wouldn't go to waste.
Instructor Wu turned and left, carrying his lantern.
His footsteps grew fainter and fainter.
In the courtyard, Li Pingsheng wasn't distracted in the slightest.
He had no idea Instructor Wu had come by.
He didn't know how many times he'd practiced the stance.
As he finished the final movement of the Health Preservation Stance, a bone in his body gave a single crack.
[Talent Potential: 0.8]
He looked down at his hands. The veins on the backs of them throbbed in time with his heartbeat.
He was still 0.2 short of Light Body.
At this rate, he'd have enough by tomorrow.
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