Martial Arts Resources

Martial Arts Resources

The martial hall's front courtyard.

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

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

Zhou Xing also looked toward Cheng Ran and Zhao Hu. Smiling, he walked straight over.

"All my junior brothers are here! Looks like I arrived 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 red blossom amid the greenery. "Junior Sister Li is here too! Have you officially stepped into the ranks of the ninth martial grade?"

"Senior Brother Zhou!" Zhao Hu spoke.

Li Qing also said, "It went fairly smoothly. I officially entered the ninth martial grade yesterday."

"Congratulations!" Zhou Xing said with a smile.

Then his gaze wandered between Cheng Ran and Zhao Hu.

"I had just stepped through the martial hall gates when I vaguely heard the two of you talking. Junior Brother Zhao, are you planning to exchange martial arts with Junior Brother Cheng?"

Zhao Hu said, "Hmph! I've disliked this Cheng Ran for a long time! I just don't know whether he dares to accept."

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

Zhou Xing could not help but smile knowingly before saying, "Junior Brother Zhao, asking Junior Brother Cheng to spar with you is rather like bullying him!"

"Junior Brother Cheng has been in the martial hall for less than half a year. You are already at the minor accomplishment stage of the ninth martial grade, and your Tiger Form Fist has reached perfection. You have long mastered Fierce Tiger Force. How is Junior Brother Cheng supposed to fight you?"

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

She looked at Zhao Hu with some disgust.

"Senior Brother Zhao, you have gone a little too far!"

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

Seeing this, Cheng Ran revealed a helpless expression.

Jiang Ning clicked his tongue inwardly as well.

Beauty brings calamity. The ancients truly did not deceive us!

Good thing Senior Brother Cheng is the one being targeted, not me!

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

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

At this time.

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

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

Cheng Ran clasped his fists. "Thank you, Senior Brother Zhou, for coming to my rescue."

"A small matter!" Zhou Xing smiled. "Zhao Hu is impervious to reason and only believes in his own stubborn logic. Junior Brother Cheng, you must be more careful in the future!"

"I understand!" Cheng Ran clasped his fists.

Zhou Xing smiled in response.

He had long since tried to recruit Zhao Hu in private. Since there had been no hope of doing so, Zhou Xing naturally chose to stand on Cheng Ran's side today.

In his view, Cheng Ran came from a decent family and possessed good martial talent.

His chances of competing with Xiao Peng for a place in the Inspection Office were not low either. The two were likely evenly matched.

Naturally, he did not intend to pass up the chance to recruit Cheng Ran.

In his eyes, the most important thing about entering the Inspection Office was power. The Inspection Office wielded far too much authority.

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

How could he fail to understand what immense power that was?

If the Zhou Family wanted to flourish, to become a clan 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 extraordinary times of Great Xia had given rise to extraordinary government institutions.

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

But he truly had no way to recruit Zhao Hu. Zhao Hu came from the bottom of society and was born with deep hostility toward scions of wealthy families like himself and Cheng Ran.

Zhou Xing also drew several invitations from his robes.

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

"What is this?" Cheng Ran hesitated.

Zhou Xing smiled. "The Inspection Office will open in three months. I think highly of you, Junior Brother Cheng, and wish to become colleagues with you! The terms I am offering are inside. Junior Brother Cheng, you may as well take a look!"

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

"No rush, no rush!" Zhou Xing shook his head with a smile. "Junior Brother Cheng has three days to think it over!"

He then looked at Li Qing and took another invitation from his robes. "Junior Sister Li, your family is quite well-off, so you probably do not think much of the terms I have offered. Still, I would like us to advance and retreat together."

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

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

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xing understood what Li Qing meant and smiled.

"Since that is the case, those words from Junior Sister Li are enough!"

Then Zhou Xing said, "Junior brothers, junior sister, I have matters to attend to, so I'll be going?"

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

Li Qing nodded as well.

Jiang Ning clasped his fists. "Senior Brother Zhou, please wait."

"What is it?" Zhou Xing stopped.

Jiang Ning said, "I would like to purchase some wild ginseng from you, Senior Brother Zhou, to replenish my body's expenditures."

"So that's what this is!" Zhou Xing smiled. "Normally, I charge the other junior brothers ten taels of silver for each ten-year-old root. What is Junior Brother Jiang's budget?"

Jiang Ning took out the banknote from his robes, along with the two twenty-tael ingots of silver sent over by Jiang Li's agent. "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 inspecting it, appearing quite forthright.

"Since Junior Brother Jiang is asking, I naturally cannot sell it to you at ten taels per root. I'll have a servant deliver ten roots of wild ginseng shortly. Consider the extra three roots a token of this senior brother's regard."

"Then many thanks, 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 seem like strangers."

After speaking, he glanced at Jiang Ning. After thinking briefly, he gave up the idea of investing in Jiang Ning.

He had an impression of Jiang Ning as well. On the first day he met him, Jiang Ning had given him a modest surprise.

That was why he had remembered Jiang Ning and his name at the time.

But to him, it had only been a surprise.

In his eyes, Jiang Ning's performance then had merely shown an exceptional memory.

Now, Zhou Xing believed that Jiang Ning had trained in martial arts for too short a time and had limited strength. He had nothing to do with the upcoming opening of the Inspection Office.

He had missed this opportunity to leap through the dragon gate and grasp great authority.

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

Thus, though Zhou Xing thought somewhat highly of him, simply making a few friendly gestures was enough.

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

After all, though his family possessed considerable wealth, its expenses were also great. Moreover, recruiting the people he valued required enormous wealth and resources.

If he did not place a heavy wager, how could he win their gratitude?

Once an investment succeeded, if the person invested in seized the opportunity offered by the Inspection Office and rose rapidly to prominence, the Zhou Family would rise with the tide as well.

The gratitude of martial arts experts and those in power could not be measured by mere gold and silver.

To invest in someone while they were still weak and had yet to rise—once successful, the returns would naturally be incomparably generous.

Even if they could not rise rapidly to prominence in the future, as long as they entered the Inspection Office with him, when he was promoted later, he would have trustworthy people at his disposal.

Therefore, he naturally did not wish to waste wealth and resources on someone with no chance.

In his view, opportunities in a person's life were limited. Once missed, they were truly missed, and one's future fate would become entirely different.

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

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

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

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

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