Li Chuan knocked on the gates of the Inner Courtyard.
A child wearing a tiger-head cap opened the door and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
Li Chuan said, "I'm looking for Senior Brother Luo, Luo Zheng."
The child in the tiger-head cap shouted, "What do you want with my father?"
Li Chuan froze for a moment and took a closer look at the five- or six-year-old child.
This was Senior Brother Luo's son?!
He himself was only eighteen, and Senior Brother Luo was merely two or three years older than him, right? Yet his child was already this big?
Still, this truly differed from his previous life. Women were generally considered old enough to marry as soon as they had their first menstruation.
Even eighteen counted as "left on the shelf."
On further thought, it was perfectly normal.
Li Chuan put on a smile.
"Just tell him that Li Chuan has come to discuss something with him."
The child in the tiger-head cap gave an oh.
"My father went home on business. Come back tonight!"
Li Chuan closed the gates of the Inner Courtyard, but doubts stirred in his heart.
At this time of day, Senior Brother Luo was usually in the Inner Courtyard.
For him to act so unusually today, had something happened at home?
Li Chuan shook his head. He knew there was no use thinking about it. He would find out tonight anyway.
He decided to return to the Common Dormitory first and practice the Thunder Shadow Leg he had just obtained.
As he passed the Martial Arts Arena, Yu Sinian stopped what he was doing and smiled.
"Heading back so early today? Not going to practice a while longer?"
Li Chuan smiled bitterly.
"Senior Brother Yu, I can't compare to a 'Martial Arts Maniac' like you. I've got something to do when I get back. I'll spar with you another time."
Yu Sinian looked deeply disappointed and sighed mournfully.
"It's fine. I'm not important."
Li Chuan gave him a strange look.
How had he never noticed that Senior Brother Yu had such green-tea airs before?
After passing the Martial Arts Arena, Li Chuan returned to the Common Dormitory.
He shut the wooden door and fastened the bolt before taking the Thunder Shadow Leg manual from his robes.
"When I used to read storybooks, I always liked complaining about why people carried secret manuals on them. Only now do I understand that you can only rest easy with it on your person..."
Li Chuan shook his head and began reading the Thunder Shadow Leg.
After rapidly skimming through it, the panel before his eyes changed as well.
[Skill: Thunder Shadow Leg (Not Initiated)] [Proficiency: 0/1]
"The method for Initiation is simple enough. I just need to hold a horse stance. There's nothing difficult about it."
"The only difference from a traditional horse stance is that I need to place a large stone on each leg."
Li Chuan thought about it and found it reasonable.
After all, it was a leg technique. Holding a horse stance first stabilized the lower body.
Only with a stable lower body could he proceed with the subsequent training.
Li Chuan found two square stones of roughly fifty jin each in the dormitory.
He had used them to train his strength before Gate-Knocking.
Now, they were just right for placing on his legs.
Li Chuan squatted down and set the stones squarely in the middle of his thighs.
Following the Thunder Shadow Leg's unique method of exerting force, he coordinated it with a breathing pattern of three inhalations and three exhalations.
Before long.
[Thunder Shadow Leg Proficiency +1] [Thunder Shadow Leg has entered Initiation] [Skill: Thunder Shadow Leg] [Proficiency: 1/500]
The instant the panel updated, Li Chuan felt an odd sensation in his legs.
It hurt, yet carried a sour, refreshing sting.
After setting the stones down, he gently raised his right leg.
He could clearly sense that although the strength in his legs had not changed much, they seemed more nimble.
His hips, groin, and knees had all become more flexible.
Li Chuan gave it a try and found that he could even do the splits!
It had to be known that Bright Force martial artists like them had powerful muscles and vigorous blood and qi, which instead made their joints less flexible.
This also indirectly made many evasive movements difficult to perform in actual combat.
Yet after practicing the Thunder Shadow Leg, everything seemed to be changing.
I chose the right leg technique! Li Chuan thought with satisfaction.
He practiced for a while longer, stopping only when his thighs were sore, swollen, and aching.
"I'm hungry too. I'll eat some donkey meat first."
Li Chuan put the fresh donkey meat into a pot and cooked it for half a shichen, then fished it out and devoured it.
Yet as he ate, his brows gradually furrowed.
"Although it still tastes good, the blood and qi it provides always feels somewhat insufficient."
Li Chuan knew that after growing accustomed to the superior venison, returning to donkey meat naturally created a gap.
But there was no helping it. Without silver, donkey meat was all he could afford.
"I'll keep practicing and see how large the difference is."
Li Chuan began practicing the Mountain-Holding Stance and Through-Arm Fist again in the open space.
Three hours later.
With a thought, Li Chuan summoned the panel.
[Skill: Mountain-Holding Stance (Minor Mastery)] [Proficiency: 1508/2000] [Skill: Through-Arm Fist (Minor Mastery)] [Proficiency: 1412/2000] [Skill: Thunder Shadow Leg (Initiation)] [Proficiency: 10/500]
The rate at which his proficiency increased was far too slow.
After eating venison for a month and a half, the Mountain-Holding Stance's proficiency had risen from a little over eight hundred to fifteen hundred.
That pace had been satisfying enough.
But now that he had switched back to donkey meat, it was as though he had returned to that sluggish, snail-like pace from before.
"Only two and a half months remain until the Martial Exam. If I can only eat donkey meat, at most I'll be able to bring the Mountain-Holding Stance and Through-Arm Fist to Major Mastery. The Thunder Shadow Leg will be hopeless. I don't know if that'll be enough."
Just as he was pondering this, someone knocked on the door.
Li Chuan opened the wooden door and saw a familiar face.
"Senior Brother Luo?"
Luo Zheng looked somewhat weary, though he quickly concealed it and smiled.
"Junior Brother Li, I heard from my son that you came looking for me."
Li Chuan intended to voice the question in his heart.
"Senior Brother Luo, you participated in the Martial Exam last year, right? What level was your strength, and what was your ranking?"
A trace of awkwardness flashed across Luo Zheng's face.
"I ranked sixty-ninth last year and failed to earn Martial Scholar status. As for my strength... at the time, I had only practiced the Through-Arm Fist to Major Mastery. Among the many Dark Force martial artists, I was considered middling."
Li Chuan nodded, thoughts racing through his mind.
If he could only practice the Through-Arm Fist to Major Mastery, then his ranking would probably be similar to Luo Zheng's last year.
He would still be far from the top fifty.
If he wanted to steadily earn Martial Scholar status, his strength needed to reach at least the top thirty, so he could handle the many unforeseen twists and turns.
In that case... he could not keep eating only donkey meat.
But if he wanted venison, he would need a large amount of silver.
And after his Thunder Shadow Leg reached Minor Mastery, he would also need to buy medicinal ingredients to prepare a medicinal paste, which would cost even more money.
Why did everything, everywhere, require money!
Sure enough, the poor pursued scholarship while the rich pursued martial arts. The ancients had not deceived him...
Li Chuan thought for a moment and made up his mind.
He had to make money.
"Senior Brother Luo, you mentioned some time ago that a shipment of precious medicine was to be transported tomorrow?" Li Chuan asked.
"What?" Luo Zheng seemed distracted, as though something weighed on his mind. "Oh, right. My uncle said there's a shipment of Tiger Heart Grass worth four hundred taels that needs to be delivered to Huangshi County tomorrow. He asked me to see whether you were interested."
"It has to take a special route, so it's a little dangerous. But if the delivery succeeds, you can at least get seven or eight taels of silver. Anything more will depend on your contribution," Luo Zheng added.
Li Chuan's eyes flickered.
The guaranteed seven or eight taels of silver would nearly cover a month's worth of venison.
If he could make some contributions like last time, earning ten taels of silver was not impossible.
As for danger, there was no such thing as making money without danger.
He was not afraid of taking risks. He simply did not wish to take meaningless risks.
Once he finished this job, the money he earned would be enough to sustain him until the Martial Exam.
"Senior Brother Luo, tell Uncle Hou Ping that I'll take this medicine shipment."
Before you continue