Martial Dao Resources

The martial arts hall's front courtyard.

When everyone saw Zhou Xing and Zhang Tiesheng, built like an iron tower, step into the front courtyard, they all greeted them.

Hearing the voices behind him, Zhao Hu turned his head and immediately spotted Zhou Xing and Zhang Tiesheng.

At that moment, Zhou Xing also looked toward Cheng Ran and Zhao Hu. Smiling, he walked straight in their direction.

"All my junior brothers are here! Looks like I was late! What's going on? I seem to have heard that Junior Brother Zhao wants to spar with Junior Brother Cheng?"

He then looked at Li Qing, the lone crimson amid ten thousand shades of green. "Junior Sister Li is here too! Have you officially entered the ranks of the ninth stage of Martial Dao, Junior Sister Li?"

"Senior Brother Zhou!" Zhao Hu said.

Li Qing also said, "It went fairly smoothly. I officially entered the ninth stage of Martial Dao yesterday."

"Congratulations!" Zhou Xing said with a smile.

Then his gaze drifted back and forth between Cheng Ran and Zhao Hu.

"I had just stepped through the martial arts hall's gates when I vaguely heard the two junior brothers talking. Does Junior Brother Zhao intend to spar with Junior Brother Cheng?"

Zhao Hu said, "Hmph! I've long found this Cheng Ran unpleasant to look at! I just don't know whether he dares to accept the challenge."

Cheng Ran immediately showed a helpless expression and looked toward Zhou Xing.

Zhou Xing could not help but smile knowingly. Then he said, "Junior Brother Zhao, asking Junior Brother Cheng to spar with you is a bit like bullying him!"

"Junior Brother Cheng has been in the martial arts hall for less than half a year. Junior Brother Zhao has reached minor mastery of the ninth stage of Martial Dao, and your Tiger Form Fist has reached perfection—you have long mastered Fierce Tiger Force. How is Junior Brother Cheng supposed to face you in battle?"

Li Qing also understood somewhat at this moment. She was not foolish; how could she fail to know that Zhao Hu had always been interested in her?

She looked at Zhao Hu with a trace of disgust.

"Senior Brother Zhao has gone a little too far!"

"I've gone too far?" Zhao Hu's eyes burned like fire as he shot Cheng Ran a vicious glare. "Fine! Cheng Ran, I'll remember you!"

Seeing this, Cheng Ran wore a helpless expression.

Jiang Ning inwardly clicked his tongue as well.

"Beauty brings calamity. The ancients truly did not deceive me!"

"Fortunately, it's Senior Brother Cheng Ran who has been targeted, not me!"

At that moment, Jiang Ning had already secretly made up his mind to stay farther away from women.

Especially women like Li Qing, who possessed such good looks and beauty.

At this moment.

Watching Zhao Hu leave, Zhou Xing smiled at Cheng Ran.

"Alright, Junior Brother Cheng, it's fine now!"

Cheng Ran cupped his fists. "Thank you, Senior Brother Zhou, for getting me out of that predicament."

"It was nothing!" Zhou Xing said with a smile. "Zhao Hu can't be swayed by oil or salt; he only clings to his stubborn reasoning. Junior Brother Cheng, you must be more careful in the future!"

"I understand!" Cheng Ran cupped his fists.

Zhou Xing smiled in response.

He had long tried to recruit Zhao Hu in private. With no hope of winning him over, Zhou Xing naturally chose to stand on Cheng Ran's side today.

In his eyes, Cheng Ran came from a fairly well-off family and possessed decent Martial Dao talent.

Cheng Ran also had no small chance of competing with Xiao Peng for a place in the Inspection Office. The odds between the two were roughly even.

Naturally, he had no intention of letting the chance to recruit Cheng Ran slip away.

In his view, the most important thing about entering the Inspection Office was power. The Inspection Office's authority was simply too great.

It inspected the myriad people and patrolled all under heaven. From princes and nobles above to common folk below, it could execute first and report afterward.

How could he not understand what immense power that was?

If the Zhou Family wished to prosper, to become a Lineage power like the Cao, Liu, and Xie families, or even surpass those three families and become the local emperor of Luoshui County, the key lay in the Inspection Office.

The Great Xia in extraordinary times had created extraordinary court institutions.

Therefore, he intended to befriend every person who might enter the Inspection Office.

However, there was truly nothing he could do about recruiting Zhao Hu. Zhao Hu came from the bottom rung of society and was born with immense hostility toward the children of wealthy households like Zhou Xing and Cheng Ran.

Zhou Xing also pulled several invitations from his robes.

"Junior Brother Cheng, three days from now, would you be willing to come to Fenghua Tower?"

"What is this?" Cheng Ran hesitated.

Zhou Xing smiled. "The Inspection Office will open in three months. I think highly of Junior Brother Cheng and hope to become colleagues with you! The terms I offer are inside; Junior Brother Cheng may take a look!"

Cheng Ran smiled knowingly. "Senior Brother Zhou, please allow me to consider it."

"No rush! No rush!" Zhou Xing smiled and shook his head. "Junior Brother Cheng has three days to think it over!"

He then looked toward Li Qing and took another invitation from his robes. "Junior Sister Li's family is quite wealthy, so you probably do not think much of the terms I am offering. Still, I hope to advance and retreat together with Junior Sister Li."

Li Qing accepted the invitation, glanced over it, and closed it.

"I appreciate Senior Brother Zhou's kindness! We are fellow disciples, so naturally we should advance and retreat together!"

Hearing this, Zhou Xing understood Li Qing's meaning. He then smiled.

"In that case, having Junior Sister Li's words is enough!"

Then Zhou Xing said, "Junior brothers and sister, I still have matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving first?"

"Take care, Senior Brother!" Cheng Ran said.

Li Qing nodded as well.

Jiang Ning cupped his fists at that moment. "Senior Brother Zhou, please wait."

"What is it?" Zhou Xing stopped.

Jiang Ning said, "I would like to buy several wild ginseng roots from Senior Brother Zhou to replenish my body's consumption."

"So that's what it is!" Zhou Xing smiled. "Usually, I sell ten-year wild ginseng to other junior brothers for ten taels of silver per root. What is Junior Brother Jiang's budget?"

Jiang Ning took out the fifty-tael banknote from his robes, along with the two twenty-tael silver ingots sent over by Jiang Li's messenger. "Senior Brother Zhou, this is a fifty-tael banknote and twenty taels of silver. I intend to exchange all of it for wild ginseng."

Zhou Xing accepted the banknote and put it away without even checking it, appearing quite forthright.

"Since Junior Brother Jiang is asking, I naturally cannot sell it to you at ten taels of silver per root. I'll have a servant deliver ten wild ginseng roots later. The extra three will be a token of goodwill from your senior brother."

"Then thank you, Senior Brother Zhou!" Jiang Ning said with cupped fists.

Zhou Xing smiled. "We are fellow disciples, and I am your senior brother. With the bond of fellow disciples between us, it is only natural for me, as your senior brother, to look after you. Saying thanks makes us strangers."

After saying that, he glanced at Jiang Ning. After a brief moment of thought, he gave up on the idea of investing in Jiang Ning.

He had an impression of Jiang Ning as well. On the first day he saw Jiang Ning, Jiang Ning had given him a not insignificant surprise.

Thus, he had remembered Jiang Ning then, along with his name.

However, to him, it had merely been a surprise.

Jiang Ning's performance at the time had only seemed to show an outstanding memory.

Now, Zhou Xing felt that Jiang Ning had practiced martial arts for too short a time and possessed limited strength. Jiang Ning had absolutely no connection to the Inspection Office opening before long.

He had missed this opportunity to leap through the dragon gate and grasp great power in his hands.

Even if Jiang Ning had decent talent in Zhou Xing's eyes, his future achievements would still be limited.

Therefore, although Zhou Xing thought somewhat highly of him, simply making a few friendly overtures was enough!

The current Jiang Ning was not worth paying such a great price to invest in.

After all, although Zhou Xing's family business was quite substantial, his expenses were also high. Moreover, investing in and recruiting the people he valued required enormous wealth and resources.

If he did not place a heavy wager, how could he obtain their goodwill?

Once his investments succeeded, if those he invested in seized the Inspection Office opportunity and rose meteoricly to success, the Zhou Family would rise with the tide as well.

The goodwill of Martial Dao experts and those in power could not be measured with mere gold and silver.

Investing while someone was still weak and had yet to rise to prominence—once it succeeded, the harvest would naturally be immensely rich.

Even if they could not rise meteoricly to success in the future, as fellow members of the Inspection Office, when Zhou Xing was promoted, they could still become people worthy of his trust and use.

Therefore, he naturally had no desire to waste wealth and resources on someone with no prospects.

In his eyes, a person had limited opportunities in life. Once an opportunity was missed, it was truly missed, and one's future fate would become utterly different.

Luck and opportunity were also part of one's strength. Zhou Xing deeply agreed with those words.

Having made his decision, he waved his hand before finally turning and leaving.

Seeing this, Li Qing also said, "You two junior brothers chat. I'll go pay respects to Master."

"Take care, Senior Sister!" Cheng Ran said.

Jiang Ning also said, "Take care, Senior Sister Li!"

(End of Chapter)