Three days later, Li Jinshui emerged from the bathroom.
Over the past three days, he had eaten a total of twelve pounds of D-Grade Exotic Beast Meat.
The first nine pounds had already brought Basic Stance Technique to the Great Mastery stage. The remaining three pounds of Exotic Beast Meat had yielded somewhat less, though the drop wasn't significant. They had still added 90 proficiency points.
[Basic Stance Technique (Great Mastery 90/2000)]
"Great Mastery in Stake Standing has opened six of the Twelve Standard Meridians. Only the last six remain before I can reach Perfection."
Li Jinshui changed into a fresh set of clothes, his expression grave.
As expected, bringing Basic Stance Technique to Perfection would take a great deal of time and resources.
Even with Heaven Rewards Diligence, it was this difficult for him. Those who relied entirely on their own training would need at least several years to reach this stage, even with unlimited nutritional supplements and medicinal tonics.
"My advantages are obvious. I progress faster than they do, and even if they train entirely on their own, their results can't compare to what I get from Heaven Rewards Diligence."
Li Jinshui's lips curled upward.
But when he thought about how much proficiency Basic Stance Technique still required, he couldn't help sighing.
"I obviously don't have enough Exotic Beast Meat left. I should've asked for more back then."
After reaching Great Mastery in Stake Standing, each pound of D-Grade Exotic Beast Meat only added 30 proficiency points. He had 48 pounds left, which would give him only 1,440 points even if he ate every last bit.
"I need to get at least another 16 pounds of Exotic Beast Meat, but that'll cost over three hundred thousand yuan..."
He frowned, feeling a little troubled.
But there was no point worrying about it until he had finished the meat.
If it came to it, he could show off a little more talent and get another round of support from Old Huang and the others.
They'd already spent two million. Surely another three hundred thousand wouldn't be too hard to scrape together, right?
At that thought, a smile returned to his face, and the weight lifted from his heart.
With his own wisdom, he had solved a major problem in less than the time it took to draw a breath.
"As expected of me—a classic overpowered protagonist with a sky-high IQ!"
Quite pleased with his situation, Li Jinshui turned and left the room.
A short while later, he went alone to the testing room and checked his Qi-Blood value again.
He still needed to hold back, so he used only thirty percent of his Qi-Blood power.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After a few ordinary punches and kicks, the Blood Energy Tester quickly displayed the result.
[Qi-Blood value: 900!]
"Huh, this time it came out to a nice round number."
Li Jinshui raised an eyebrow and mentally calculated his total Qi-Blood value.
If thirty percent was 900, then a full-power strike would amount to exactly 3,000.
"Holy crap, that's one hell of a jump!"
Even Li Jinshui was startled.
He felt that ever since Basic Stance Technique had reached Minor Mastery, each increase in his level had brought a much more dramatic rise in Qi-Blood.
When Stake Standing had first reached "Minor Mastery," the test result was 508 Qi-Blood.
After Stake Standing reached "Proficient," the result was around 1,700.
Now that Stake Standing had reached "Great Mastery," his Qi-Blood had shot straight up to 3,000.
So how high would his Qi-Blood be once Stake Standing reached Perfection?
Would it really be comparable to the Thousand-Jun Realm?
"If things keep going like this, maybe I won't even have to run away next month. I could just wipe out the Security Company!"
At the thought, Li Jinshui immediately pulled out his phone and searched online for information about the Weihu Security Company.
He would've been better off not looking. What he found made his eyes widen.
The Weihu Security Company was a local company in Rong City that had been around for over a hundred years.
It had only one line of business: security.
Property security was its biggest operation, covering nearly every residential community and commercial building in Rong City.
It also provided private security, a high-end service that even included Thousand-Jun Realm bodyguards for personal protection.
The company's department heads and executives were all at least at the Thousand-Jun Realm.
The online information didn't reveal the exact strength of those in more senior positions, but it was obviously no lower than the Thousand-Jun Realm. After all, online commenters were the most reliable source.
One commenter mentioned having dinner five years earlier with a vice president of the Weihu Security Company. The man had already reached the Wing-Folding Realm back then.
The Wing-Folding Realm was the next level above the Thousand-Jun Realm!
And the Weihu Security Company had six vice presidents.
More importantly, it also had ten company directors and one big boss.
Some users had even revealed on a forum that several large gangs of vagrants operated in Rong City, and that the largest one, the Color Gang, was suspected of receiving funding from the Weihu Security Company.
"Tch, I've gotten way too big for my boots. Even the Youth Training Camp in Rong City and all those delivery stations can't do anything about them. Why the hell would I try to wipe them out?"
Li Jinshui abandoned the idea, put away his phone, and turned to leave.
In the days that followed, Li Jinshui fell back into his two-point routine.
He collected Exotic Beast Meat from the cafeteria in the morning, then couldn't be bothered to attend class in the afternoon. He told Old Huang he was going into seclusion to practice martial arts, then hid in his room and watched TV.
After Stake Standing reached Great Mastery, his body's capacity to withstand and digest the meat increased considerably. He went from four pounds of D-Grade Exotic Beast Meat a day to eight.
So, in just six days—
He had eaten all the remaining forty-eight pounds of D-Grade Exotic Beast Meat, and his proficiency had risen substantially.
[Basic Stance Technique (Great Mastery 1530/2000)]
"I finally finished it. If nothing unexpected happens, they'll come question me again today."
Li Jinshui lounged on the bed, idly playing with his phone.
Last time, he had finished sixty pounds of E-Class Exotic Beast Meat in ten days. This time he'd been even more impressive, devouring all sixty pounds of D-Grade Exotic Beast Meat in nine days.
Ye Mei and the others were bound to be unable to sit still.
Sure enough, his phone rang a little while later. It was Huang Lichen again.
"Hello?"
"Hello my ass! You really can eat, kid. I only took my eyes off you for a few days, and you've already finished all the Exotic Beast Meat again?" Old Huang sounded worked up over the phone.
"But my Qi-Blood value's over a thousand. To be precise, it's around 1,200 now," Li Jinshui replied calmly.
"..."
Silence fell on the other end. All that could be heard was someone breathing a little harder.
"Your Qi-Blood value... is twelve hundred?" After a long pause, Old Huang stammered, "So... you... finished converting the Ninth-Grade Stake Standing, and... and you even reached Great Mastery?"
"Yeah, that's right."
Those small numbers in the low thousands no longer meant much to Li Jinshui, so he answered casually.
"Shit!"
Old Huang swore loudly over the phone and slapped his thigh. Then he urged Li Jinshui to hurry over. "Get to the testing room, now! Hurry up! We're all waiting here. I can't fucking wait any longer!"
"Sure. I actually have something I'd like to discuss with all the leaders, too." Li Jinshui coughed, giving Old Huang some advance warning so asking for more meat wouldn't come out of nowhere.
"What? What did you just say? The signal's bad. Just get over here, okay? That's it." Old Huang shouted a few exaggerated words into the phone, then hung up.
"Heh. Such a childish trick!"
Li Jinshui curled his lips, shook his head, put on his shoes, and left the room.
He soon arrived at the testing room.
Ye Mei and the others were already there.
The moment Li Jinshui walked in, four blazing gazes fixed on him.
Huang Lichen opened his mouth several times, as if he had a hundred questions, but couldn't decide where to start.
"You're here?"
Ye Mei was the calmest. She simply greeted him, then pointed to the Blood Energy Tester nearby. "Test your Qi-Blood first."
"Okay."
Li Jinshui nodded and stepped forward.
Bang!
After a flurry of swift punches and kicks, the Blood Energy Tester displayed the result.
[Qi-Blood value: 1200!]
This time he used forty percent of his Qi-Blood power, giving him another nice round number: twelve hundred.
"Hiss!"
Huang Lichen sucked in a sharp breath.
Even though he had already heard what the result would be, seeing it with his own eyes still left him stunned.
"You're a monster—an absolute monster!" he exclaimed again and again, rubbing his hands together excitedly.
"It's only been nine days since the last test." Chen Yu, his hair silver, gave a slight nod. His gaze was full of curiosity as he stared hard at Li Jinshui, as though he wanted to dissect him and find out what made him tick.
The previous test had shown a Qi-Blood value of 681. Now it had nearly doubled to 1,200. That was definitely worth studying.
"In all my years, I never thought I'd live to see such a thing. I've witnessed a true genius!" Zhang Li was delighted. She pulled another cigarette from her pack to calm her nerves. "Ha ha ha!"
Ye Mei kept her face composed, her arms folded across her chest. But her fingers were gripping her upper arms tightly. Clearly, she wasn't nearly as calm inside as she appeared.
"Leaders, I, Li Jinshui, have always kept my word. Last time, I said that with sixty pounds of D-Grade Exotic Beast Meat, I'd break a thousand Qi-Blood next month. And what happened?"
Li Jinshui ran a hand through his hair, looking self-assured. "Not only did I do it ahead of schedule, but I exceeded the goal. My Stake Standing has now reached Great Mastery. I think we should press our advantage and make a direct push for Perfection."
"There's no need. Absolutely no need."
Huang Lichen was the first to object. He sprang to his feet. "A-Shui, you're already a middle-tier Second-Rate Martial Artist. There's no need to break through to First-Rate so quickly. You should focus your energy on martial skills now."
"Oh? Practice martial skills? Sure, I'll listen to the leaders."
Li Jinshui immediately gave them an innocent, sweet smile and nodded readily.
"But..." He scratched his head, his expression turning troubled. "I'm also running low on C-Grade Supplement Potion."
"..."
Huang Lichen's mouth twitched.
The moment Li Jinshui called him "leader," he knew it was going to be trouble.
He never would've guessed that if they didn't give him Exotic Beast Meat, he'd switch to asking for Supplement Potion instead.
That stuff was even more expensive than Exotic Beast Meat!
"How much Exotic Beast Meat would you need to reach Perfection in Stake Standing?" Ye Mei asked suddenly.
Huang Lichen and the others all turned to look at her in astonishment.
Before Li Jinshui could answer, Huang Lichen spoke first, his face already falling. "Hold on, Supervisor Ye. Don't get carried away. I want this kid to get stronger as much as anyone, but this time it's really not that I don't want to invest more. I'm genuinely out of money."
He went on to pour out a long string of complaints, talking about how he'd just paid tuition for his three kids and how his wife had bought several bottles of beauty serum.
Chen Yu also looked awkward. He smiled wryly. "I don't have much cash left either. A lot of the money I brought this time came from intelligence fees I collected in advance."
Zhang Li, on the other hand, was quite calm. She slowly exhaled a ring of smoke and said evenly, "This old woman still has a little in savings, but it's for my retirement. I can't hand it all over. I can contribute a little under a hundred thousand at most."
A hundred thousand!
Li Jinshui's eyes lit up. A hundred thousand would do.
"Supervisor Ye, give me another three hundred thousand. I'll figure out the rest myself. Before the Youth Training Camp wraps up, I can reach Perfection in Stake Standing." Li Jinshui looked at Ye Mei with shining eyes.
"I only have two hundred and fifty thousand. Add the hundred thousand from Commander Zhang, and that's three hundred and fifty thousand altogether. Are you sure that's enough to bring your Stake Standing to Perfection?" Ye Mei knitted her brows, looking doubtful.
Li Jinshui had already spent two million to bring Stake Standing to Great Mastery.
For a normal martial artist, the resources and time required to go from "Great Mastery" to "Perfection" would inevitably be greater than what came before.
Now Li Jinshui was saying that if they gave him another three hundred thousand, he would figure out the rest himself. She couldn't understand it.
"How are you going to figure it out? Even if you take out a loan, you won't be able to borrow much. I'd say..." Huang Lichen also frowned.
"Forget it."
Ye Mei suddenly shook her head, cutting Huang Lichen off.
She seemed unwilling to press the matter. Instead, she looked at Li Jinshui and said, with a hint of sternness, "I know you have your secrets, so we haven't intended to pry into everything. As I've said, we're all in the same boat. I can give you the money, and I'm not insisting that you reach Perfection in Stake Standing. I have only one request."
"Oh? Go ahead, Supervisor Ye. I'll definitely agree." Li Jinshui thumped his chest in promise.
"Heh."
Ye Mei suddenly smiled, her eyes carrying a hint of amusement. "It's simple. Stop climbing out onto the windowsill so often. The control room reported that you've set off the alarm over thirty times this month. What is it—are the views outside that good? Is that why you keep climbing up there?"
"..."
Li Jinshui's smile froze on his face.
Damn!
So every time he'd planned to run, the cameras had caught him?
That couldn't be right. He'd checked carefully... Damn it, there had to be hidden pinhole cameras!
"Relax, I'm not blaming you. You have a mental illness, so acting strangely is normal for you. Anyway, I trust you're not trying to escape."
After speaking, Ye Mei took out her phone and transferred 250,000 yuan to Li Jinshui.
Her words were clearly a warning, a way of telling Li Jinshui not to waste his energy planning an escape. He wasn't getting away.
"Ha ha! Li Jinshui, you're such a little rascal!" Seeing his miserable expression, Zhang Li burst out laughing. She took out her phone, too, and sent him 100,000 yuan.
That brought Li Jinshui's total to 350,000 yuan.
But he wasn't happy at all. His carefully planned escape route had been cut off from the very beginning.
He couldn't even get out of this building, yet he'd been dreaming of going to Southeast Asia. What a joke!
"Fine. Since we're all in the same boat, I'll go all in, too. Get me a Ninth-Grade Martial Skill. I'm badly short on ways to attack. As long as I don't die, I guarantee I'll find you a new station you'll be happy with."
Li Jinshui gritted his teeth. He really was going all in.
Once he reached the new station, they'd be short on people. As station manager, he'd have to go out and deliver food himself. He'd have plenty of chances to escape then.
Huang Lichen and Chen Yu agreed to his final request.
There were plenty of Ninth-Grade Martial Skills focused on attack, and they generally cost around a hundred thousand yuan. The two of them thought they could manage to scrape together enough.
The next day, Li Jinshui received the Ninth-Grade Martial Skill Meteor Chasing Moon from Old Huang.
To his surprise, it was a hidden-weapon skill.
"I discussed it with Old Chen. Given your current strength and the situation you'll face once you leave, learning hidden weapons will give you the most bang for your buck."
Huang Lichen explained, then went over how to combine hidden weapons with lightness skills.
Li Jinshui had already reached minor mastery in Basic Lightness Skill and had also learned Lightning Pulse Step. Whether he ran into a powerful enemy or got surrounded by several opponents, he could flee while hurling hidden weapons.
And if he faced a weak enemy who tried to run, he could chase after them while throwing hidden weapons.
All in all, a hidden-weapon skill was the best fit for Li Jinshui right now.
Li Jinshui accepted it gladly. It wasn't some flashy skill with a long spear or greatsword, but hidden weapons were no slouch. Using them to kite an enemy was downright satisfying.
Without a moment's hesitation, he learned the skill and added it to his panel. He also remembered to activate the genuine registration code.
Then he hurried straight to the cafeteria upstairs.
Of the 350,000 yuan Ye Mei and Zhang Li had contributed, Li Jinshui spent 320,000 without hesitation to order sixteen jin of D-Grade Exotic Beast Meat from the cafeteria.
He had already eaten eight jin the day before.
Today, the last eight jin remained!
"Eight jin of beast meat down the hatch, and now I know my fate's not in heaven's hands!"
In the shower room, Li Jinshui stood beneath the showerhead, letting the icy water slap his face.
He sank low on his legs, arched his back slightly, and shoved a big piece of Deep-Fried Blood Thorn Bug into his mouth. "I'll reach perfection in Stake Standing today!"