"Only seven remain! It seems Junior Brother Lin is the only one from this batch of disciples to stand out!"
Wei Yu looked at Wang Sheng and the others, shaking her head slightly as she spoke.
"Hehe, Junior Brother Lin's talent really is impressive. But Senior Sister, would you be interested in a wager? Ten taels of silver on who among them will hold out until the end today?"
Fang Mingguang leaned closer as he spoke.
"Sure!"
Wei Yu nodded.
She rather enjoyed gambling, and her gambling conduct was excellent.
"Then I'll pick Wang Sheng. Senior Sister, you can't pick the same one as me!"
Fang Mingguang said at once.
Wei Yu froze for a moment, then helplessly shook her head. "If Junior Brother Fang wants my ten taels of silver, he can just say so."
It had been nearly two months. Anyone could see how firm Wang Sheng's will was, training diligently day after day. Of the seven new disciples still present, anyone might give up—but Wang Sheng never would.
"Hehe, this junior brother of yours has just broken through to Ming Strength and urgently needs medicinal pills to nourish his strength. I can only come mooch off Senior Sister!"
Fang Mingguang said with a faintly smug look.
Ten taels of silver, if spent sparingly, could cover an ordinary country family's food and drink for a year. But in martial arts, it would only buy a few pills.
"Fine, then. I'll pick him!"
Wei Yu casually pointed at someone—Su Youwen.
The two spoke quietly. Besides, the Zhao family's outer courtyard was spacious, and the sounds of formal disciples practicing martial arts rose and fell all around them, so there was no fear the new disciples would overhear.
Elsewhere,
Of the seven remaining new disciples, all except Wang Sheng were anxious to the point of burning up inside. Looking at their scar-covered hands, they wished they could stain them jade-red with blood and step into the martial path.
How could I possibly fail! I have Mid-Lower Aptitude!
Sun Ping roared inwardly. In truth, he was already nearly desperate. He had thought that by cultivating diligently every day, he could, like the senior brothers from previous batches with Mid-Lower Aptitude, enter the martial path.
Yet even after all these days, there was still not the slightest sign of hope.
Only then did he understand that Mid-Lower Aptitude was not enough on its own. What he lacked might require buying medicinal supplements!
After all, literature impoverished, martial arts enriched.
Money was something one absolutely could not lack.
No martial academy had ever forbidden wealthy families from buying pills to speed up their cultivation.
After raging impotently for quite some time, Sun Ping looked around and saw Wang Sheng still practicing earnestly. At once, he felt much more balanced.
Wang Sheng, reputed to be the most hardworking person in the entire academy, was still in the same miserable state, without success.
That cooled the anger in Sun Ping's heart.
Looking at Wang Sheng, Sun Ping suddenly found him a little more pleasing to the eye. They were fellow sufferers, after all.
"Hmph, he's a stubborn mule too. A donkey's temper."
After commenting on Wang Sheng, Sun Ping went on to pity himself. "This martial path really isn't something ordinary people can walk. Having aptitude isn't enough—you also need money. But among the young masters of truly wealthy families, how many can actually endure hardship?"
At that moment, Su Youwen suddenly withdrew from his practice. He lowered his head to look at his hands as their jade-red color gradually faded, staring blankly.
Fang Mingguang had been watching Su Youwen from the corner of his eye. The moment he saw him stop, he was overjoyed and hurried over to Wei Yu. "Senior Sister, that man is about to give up!"
Wei Yu did not respond. She had not yet finished a set of Great Tablet Shattering Hand movements, and she would stop only after completing it.
Fang Mingguang was not in a hurry. While watching to see when Su Youwen would leave the martial academy, he also secretly admired Wei Yu's figure.
If Fang Mingguang had not been so desperately short of money lately, he would never have set his sights on Wei Yu and proposed this wager with her.
At that moment, Su Youwen raised his head. Seeing Wang Sheng still staring fixedly at the wooden dummy as he practiced the Great Tablet Shattering Hand, he walked to his side and could not help sighing.
"Brother Wang Sheng, what are you planning? Are you really going to wait until the final day?"
"I've started to resign myself to it too! I thought I had hope with my Mid-Lower Aptitude. But now... it's difficult!"
"It seems Brother Du Suo was right. We don't have that fate. We should have given up long ago."
Wang Sheng said nothing. He too had not finished his set of martial arts movements. His hands lashed like whips against the wooden dummy with sharp crackling sounds, making it hum.
Amid Su Youwen's half-defeated grumbling, he failed to notice that Wang Sheng's Great Tablet Shattering Hand was growing increasingly imposing. Not only did it resemble the form—it was gradually gaining the spirit as well.
And in Wang Sheng's eyes,
At a thought, his golden finger appeared.
[Heaven Rewards Diligence: Whatever you study, you shall master.] [Stone Stance Technique: Not Initiated (99/100)] [Great Tablet Shattering Hand: Not Initiated (99/100)]
All of a sudden,
Wang Sheng brought down a heavy whipping hand on the wooden dummy with a loud crack.
[Heaven Rewards Diligence: Whatever you study, you shall master.] [Stone Stance Technique: Initiated (1/300)] [Great Tablet Shattering Hand: Initiated (1/300)]
The other new disciples nearby also turned toward the sound.
Su Youwen was stunned. That strike had been genuinely loud. "You hit that hard—you must have slammed into the bone, right?"
Wang Sheng said nothing and spread open his hands.
They were covered in blue bruises, purple bruises, and bloodstains. Beyond that, both hands were clearly jade-red.
After practicing martial arts, jade-red coloring would appear on one's hands. The difficult part was keeping it there.
So when Su Youwen lowered his head and saw Wang Sheng's jade-red hands, he was not surprised.
But when Su Youwen noticed that the jade-red color on Wang Sheng's hands seemed even more vivid than his own, he looked a few more times.
Then,
When the signs of that jade-red color fading failed to appear for a long time,
Su Youwen's lowered body began to tremble faintly.
After waiting another dozen breaths or so,
Once he was more or less certain,
Su Youwen abruptly raised his head and stared at Wang Sheng with a face full of disbelief. His eyes were round as saucers, his lips trembling, as though he wanted to say something but did not know what to say.
Should he congratulate him?
But had he really succeeded?
He did not dare believe it. Wang Sheng, with a Low-grade Physique, had truly made it through sheer effort beyond ordinary people?
While Su Youwen stared at his hands, Wang Sheng experienced the benefits of having both the Great Tablet Shattering Hand and the Stone Stance Technique enter the beginner stage at once.
The Stone Stance Technique entering the beginner stage made Wang Sheng's legs powerful and his lower stance steady, no longer leaving his footing weak and floating.
With the Great Tablet Shattering Hand initiated, form and spirit became one. From now on, even three to five ordinary people would be no match for Wang Sheng.
When Su Youwen suddenly looked over, Wang Sheng nodded at him.
"He made it, he really made it!"
"Wang Sheng has entered the martial path! He's entered it!"
Su Youwen's face was full of delight. He abruptly grabbed Wang Sheng by the shoulders, even more excited than Wang Sheng himself as he shouted over and over.
He had thought only geniuses like Lin Shu could enter the martial path in a month. No one else could do it—not even in two months.
But Wang Sheng had done it. He had become the second among all these new disciples to enter the martial path.
Better still, his relationship with Wang Sheng was not bad.
When Sun Ping heard it, he was the first to disbelieve it. He cursed inwardly that if Wang Sheng, a Low-grade Physique, could enter the martial path, he would immediately turn left out the door and eat a pound of shit.
But when Su Youwen shouted repeatedly without stopping, causing the martial practice throughout the entire courtyard to fall silent and drawing everyone's attention, Sun Ping's expression changed.
His face was incomparably ugly, even carrying a trace of savagery.
Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could a mud-legged peasant like Wang Sheng, a lowly person, possibly enter the martial path!
The flames of jealousy and rage blazed fiercely in Sun Ping's heart. Not a trace of pity or sympathy for Wang Sheng remained—only overflowing jealousy and hatred so intense it drove him mad.
A mud-legged peasant had actually surpassed him!
"Entered the martial path? How is that possible?"
When Fang Mingguang heard Su Youwen's shouts, his expression changed on the spot, and he stood there in a daze.
"Junior Brother Fang, our wager was over who could hold out until the end today—not over who would enter the martial path first. Junior Brother Wang Sheng truly is unfortunate; he failed to hold out until the end!"
A bright smile hung on Wei Yu's sweat-dampened oval face as she spoke in an unquestionable tone.
"Wang Sheng? He could enter the martial path too?"
Li Hu was somewhat shocked. He had never imagined that Wang Sheng could enter the martial path merely by shedding a few more drops of sweat than others!
Once one entered the martial path, ordinary people would hold them in awe wherever they went.
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