The Quota Was Secretly Used Up By You?

The slots were used up by you in private? "What? You want to practice martial arts?"

"Do you think you're worthy of practicing martial arts? Why don't you take a piss and look at your reflection? Do you think just anyone who wants to practice martial arts can go practice now?"

"Look at those rags you're wearing, that poverty-stricken look from head to toe. Do you think you're worthy?"

At that moment, inside a main hall that was neither large nor small.

A woman with obvious impatience on her face, her tone filled with nothing but bitter sarcasm.

Was angrily berating the mother and son before her in a voice that was nearly furious.

Especially when she looked at the young man in front of her.

The disdain and disgust in her eyes were practically written all over her face.

However, there also seemed to be a trace of urgency and panic in her tone?

At that moment, Lin Tian looked at the woman before him with a somewhat strange gaze.

Of course, he did not have the time to bother with that.

After all, to him, the most important thing was to first obtain the qualification to practice martial arts.

The martial trial slot.

According to the Liang Kingdom's martial examination policy.

All descendants of those who enlisted and joined the army.

Were entitled to enjoy one chance at a martial trial.

The so-called martial trial was a qualification to practice martial arts for free for three months within one's local region.

And this qualification did not depend on gender, aptitude, family background, or the like.

As long as one was the descendant of someone who had enlisted, one had this qualification.

This was also practically the only chance for poor families like theirs to turn their lives around.

After all, in this world of martial arts, the status of martial artists was a transcendent existence.

This was especially true in a nation like the Liang Kingdom, which founded itself on martial might.

The state had also established the martial examinations for this very reason.

If someone from a poor family could distinguish themselves in the martial examinations.

Even if they were merely a martial licentiate.

That still represented the entire family completing a leap in class!

Putting aside everything else, just the most direct and simple policy of tax exemption, as well as the annual distribution of cultivation resources.

For ordinary commoners like them, who depended on the heavens for their daily bread.

Let alone the changes in status and position behind it.

Of course, the prerequisite for obtaining these things naturally came down to one thing.

That was attaining success in martial arts.

Only then would one have the qualification to pry open those things.

But judging by past experience.

Those who could truly use this martial trial to successfully turn their lives around.

Were practically one in ten thousand li, and there might not even be that single one at all.

So-called poor scholars, rich warriors.

This was practically an absolute law.

Especially when it came to cultivating martial arts.

The expenses involved were simply not something an ordinary commoner could bear.

The medicinal decoctions and nourishing food required for martial arts cultivation were both major expenses.

Lin Tian still did not know about medicinal decoctions for now.

But he did know about nourishing food.

He had heard that the nourishing food required for an ordinary person to practice martial arts for one month started at a minimum of five taels of silver.

Heh, five taels of silver. That was practically more than a year's worth of expenses for his family.

Not to mention this was only for one month.

So for ordinary people, especially the poor, practicing martial arts was almost a dead end. It simply would not work.

But these theories were not a problem at all for Lin Tian.

At this moment, Lin Tian once again looked toward a flickering fate in his mind.

Fate: Learning Leads to Success

As the name suggested, with this thing around, learning anything in his eyes was only a matter of time, and there was not even any bottleneck to speak of.

Even martial arts were the same.

So now, as long as he possessed the qualifications to practice martial arts...

Then he was bound to become that one in ten thousand.

And he just so happened to have that qualification.

After all, his father had once been a man who enlisted in the army.

As his only son, he naturally had that chance to take the martial trial.

Only, after his father retired from the army, the family had split up.

This matter had not yet been reported to the yamen.

Therefore, that slot was still in the hands of his father's father—in other words, his grandfather.

Now that he and his mother had come to the door, it was naturally to take back this slot.

But for some unknown reason...

These past few days, they had come asking for the relevant documents.

Yet his grandfather's family had repeatedly found excuses to put them off?

Until today, when he and his mother came to ask for them for the third time.

They were directly met by the impatient, sharp scolding of Zhang Cui, his second uncle's wife, who stood before them.

At this moment, Lin Tian looked at Zhang Cui, his second aunt, in front of him.

Especially that strange anger in her tone.

After all, even if the number of times they had come to the door could now be called too frequent...

They had not come looking for her.

If she found them unpleasant to look at, she could simply leave.

But why was her tone like this?

Especially when he looked at her posture just now.

It was obvious that she wanted to drive them away?

The more Lin Tian thought this in his heart...

The stranger the discordant anger on her face seemed.

But before he could react...

His mother, Zhao Clan, at the side directly stepped past Zhang Cui before her and spoke to the back.

She addressed an old man seated on a taishi chair, "Father, you know full well why we came today. Previously, you always said it was inconvenient, but today, as you see it, shouldn't the slot to practice martial arts—the slot the child's father obtained back then from joining the army—be given to us?"

Zhao Clan's words carried a tone of negotiation.

But there was not much emotion in her voice.

Especially when she faced the old man seated on the chair before her.

There was even a trace of indifference in her eyes.

Of course, Lin Tian naturally knew the reason for this as well.

Then he also looked toward the old man on the taishi chair.

Because this old man was advanced in years, the wrinkles on his face were deep and obvious, and his eyes carried a murky haze.

And this man was Lin Tian's grandfather, whom he had not seen even five times from birth until now.

As for Lin Tian, his deepest impression of this old man was his favoritism.

As he thought this...

Lin Tian's gaze immediately turned toward a middle-aged man off to the side, whose entire face seemed to have "lazy" written across it.

This was his father's younger brother, which was to say, his second uncle.

And he was the reason for the old man's favoritism.

He had heard that this second uncle had once had the same fair, clean appearance as the old man.

Therefore, from the moment he was born, he had received the old man's partial love.

By contrast, his father, the legitimate eldest son, had suffered neglect and exclusion.

And the coldness on Zhao Clan's face at this moment was naturally also because of that favoritism.

After all, the one who was supposed to enlist back then had not been his own father.

But this second uncle before him.

That was right. The one conscripted into the army back then had been this second uncle before him.

But at that time, how could this old man possibly have been willing to part with the son he doted on...

And send him to a battlefield where nine died and one survived?

So the old master had had no choice but to send his father, the legitimate eldest son, to war in his place.

Though his father had come back alive from that campaign, he had lost a leg because of it.

But the matter had not ended there.

Not long after his father returned home, he had been forcibly split from the family and made to move out of this little courtyard.

As for why the word "forcibly" had to be used?

Heh. Naturally, it was because when his father left back then, he had not been given so much as a single copper coin.

Just like that, penniless, he had been driven out.

By now, if he and the Zhao Clan had not come to visit, the two families could practically be considered to have cut off all contact completely.

So at this moment, toward this old man, his mother naturally had no pleasant expression to show.

All she maintained was the most basic courtesy one showed an elder.

Hearing the Zhao Clan's words before him, the old man in the grand tutor chair slowly raised his head at this moment as well.

But very quickly, he lowered it again.

Clearly, even he did not know how to speak of this matter.

After all, though he had favored his youngest son, what he had done back then had left him with some guilt toward that eldest son of his.

Added to the current matter, for a time, this old man who, in the eyes of the world, embodied the image of a feudal family patriarch, did not know how to begin.

But in the next instant, the second uncle at the side directly cut in. "Lin Tian isn't young anymore this year, is he? Sixteen. At that age, he should learn a craft and live his days steadily."

"Young people should keep both feet on the ground. Don't aim too high, and don't indulge in those unrealistic fantasies."

Hearing his words, Lin Tian only found it strange.

What did he mean by that?

Was he... educating him? A man who lived at home gnawing on his elders was advising him to keep both feet on the ground?

When the old master heard this, it was as if he had found an excuse, and he immediately followed along. "In these chaotic times, it's good to learn a skill. At least in the future you won't starve to death."

Even Zhang Cui immediately chimed in at this moment. "Of course, before doing anything, you should weigh yourself properly too. What you can do, what you can't do—if you don't have that fate, then don't go embarrassing yourself."

After these words, the entire place was filled with a strange, silent atmosphere.

But the meaning hidden in these words could not have been more obvious.

After all, the very first thing Lin Tian had said when he entered was that he wanted to practice martial arts.

Clearly, these people were now hinting for Lin Tian to give up on the idea of practicing martial arts.

Everyone's gaze fell on Lin Tian at this moment.

They were trying to use this method to make Lin Tian say those words.

"Grandfather, I want to learn martial arts."

At this moment, Lin Tian's voice immediately broke the silence.

Unfortunately, after this silence was broken, what followed was an even more extreme silence.

Inside the hall, this was especially true of Zhang Cui.

The look in her eyes as she stared at Lin Tian was practically filled with anger.

She was just short of pointing at Lin Tian's nose and cursing him outright with phrases like, "a toad lusting after swan meat" and "delusional fool."

And Lin Tian's words at this moment immediately drew the dissatisfaction of the old master sitting in the chair.

After all, as the person with the greatest say in the family, the hint he had given earlier had been more than clear enough.

Yet Lin Tian still wanted to openly defy him.

This was practically the same as openly opposing him.

But at this very moment, a youth who had been standing beside the old master stepped straight out.

Lin Tiansheng.

That second uncle's son counted as Lin Tian's younger cousin.

"Cousin, I've already begun practicing martial arts."

The other party's voice was calm, but his tone gave Lin Tian the feeling that he was looking down on him.

As those words left his mouth, the modest-sized main hall immediately stirred with wave after wave of unusual reactions.

"What? Tiansheng is actually practicing martial arts!"

The first to react was the eldest aunt's husband, who had been silent off to the side the whole time.

And after hearing that Lin Tiansheng was practicing martial arts, his tone carried a note of both surprise and fawning.

Clearly, he was about to start currying favor.

After all, in this family, who did not know that the old master favored that second son of his?

Love the house and the crow on its roof.

As the son of the one being favored, Lin Tiansheng naturally could receive the old master's support.

And although this old master could not exactly be called wealthy, he did run a shop in the city that was neither too large nor too small.

The savings he had accumulated over all these years of his life were naturally not lacking.

This much could be seen from this courtyard alone, built here in the outer city, where mud-brick houses were everywhere.

So in the eldest aunt's husband's eyes, Lin Tiansheng's martial training was eighty to ninety percent settled!

His future was also certain to bring success and fame.

He himself naturally had to hurry up and warm this stove in advance.

"I watched Tiansheng grow up, and I always knew this child would amount to something. Look, hasn't he made good now?"

Hearing the fawning in his voice, Zhang Cui, off to the side, immediately lifted her head high and said, "Of course. My Tiansheng is currently learning martial arts at the best martial hall in the inner city."

"Right now, every day, a coach specifically teaches him martial skills. A few days ago, he even received the hall master's wife's personal praise."

As she spoke, Zhang Cui took out an exquisite, splendid silk handkerchief and handed it to the old master beside her.

The old master rubbed the delicate, finely made handkerchief in his hands.

A flash of brightness actually passed through his originally murky eyes.

There was no other reason. This was a handkerchief that could only be bought in the inner city.

And moving into the inner city

could be said to be the greatest wish of this old master, who had been born in the outer city, for his entire life.

But at this moment, after hearing what Zhang Cui had said, the Zhao Clan and Lin Tian, off to the side, were immediately stunned.

Especially that phrase, training in the inner city?

It made the two of them react at once.

After all, although the inner city and outer city were only separated by a single wall, the gap in status between the two could not be explained by just that one wall.

It was the difference between heaven and earth.

Especially when it came to matters such as practicing martial arts.

People from the outer city had no chance at all of entering the martial halls of the inner city.

Even no amount of silver would help.

Because this was the rule!

Yet now Lin Tiansheng had been able to enter the inner city to train as a person from the outer city.

Adding to that what everyone had said before, as well as the excuses these people had given over the past few days, the Zhao Clan and Lin Tian immediately thought of the whole reason behind it.

The martial trial quota that had originally belonged to him had already been taken by this family in front of him

and used for Lin Tiansheng.

"Father, you all..."

After the Zhao Clan member at the side thought of this, dissatisfaction and anger surged up in her heart.

At this moment, she wanted to demand, "On what grounds?!"

Back then, after her husband had been driven out of this family.

It was one thing that he had not received even the share of things that had originally belonged to him.

After all, he knew those were the old master's own belongings.

If he did not want to give them, there was nothing they could do.

But now, this trial quota belonged to her son.

More than that, it had been exchanged for by her husband risking his life and losing a leg.

This was something that belonged to them.

On what grounds did these people make decisions on their own!

"Enough!"

When the old master heard the tone of the Zhao Clan member's words, he immediately guessed what she wanted to say.

He then cut her off at once.

In his eyes, did she think this was some glorious matter?

She actually wanted to say it out loud in front of everyone?

And in front of so many of his sons and daughters, no less.

Did she want to make him lose all face?

Thinking of this, the old master could not help but feel a surge of dissatisfaction toward the Zhao Clan member before him!