Joining the Martial Academy

The young man narrowed his eyes, his tone laced with a hint of curiosity: "Someone intervened. Was it intentional, or just a coincidence?"

He shook his head immediately and asked: "What was the strength of those two subordinates of yours, and what about the killer?"

You Shahu said hurriedly: "They had both practiced True Technique, though their foundations were nothing special. One was at the first stage of martial arts, the other at the peak of the second. The person who killed them was skilled in fist techniques; the blade wounds were merely a cover. Judging by the angle and marks of the injuries from the coroner's report, the killer should be about one meter seventy tall, though we cannot rule out that this was a deliberate deception to hide their true strength..."

The young man frowned and shook his head upon hearing this:

"If they were hiding their strength, they wouldn't have left any traces behind. Those at the second or third stage of martial arts would never dare to get involved in Yuan Kuanglin's affairs. It seems more likely that this was just a coincidence... I just don't know if Yuan Kuanglin really left anything behind that this person might have taken."

Such a possibility was not entirely out of the question.

"But it doesn't matter. Yuan Kuanglin failed to break through to the seventh stage of martial arts; there is no way he could have obtained the truly formidable inheritance of the Demon Sect!"

Judging by his tone, he did not seem to think much of Yuan Kuanglin's strength, nor was he particularly obsessed with what Yuan Kuanglin might have left behind!

You Shahu said helplessly: "My men are spread all over the western suburbs of the county. For this person to disappear so quickly, either they are of extraordinary strength and fled long ago, or they are still hiding somewhere in the western suburbs—perhaps they are even a local! I have already ordered my men to search the western suburbs and screen the residents. If..."

The masked young man nodded slightly, cutting You Shahu off: "In that case, you take your time investigating. Contact me once you have results. I have stayed in Flying Spirit County long enough; I will take Yuan Kuanglin's corpse with me now."

Clearly, he did not care whether Yuan Kuanglin had been carrying any treasures on his person, or if some lucky soul had truly obtained an inheritance from him!

His target this time was merely Yuan Kuanglin's corpse!

You Shahu could not help but watch the masked young man leave, wanting to say something but ultimately remaining silent.

Time slipped away.

Several days passed.

The news of Pi Liu and his men's deaths did not spread at all.

It was not even as notable as the death of Wang Gang that day.

Chen Fan knew in his heart that the Black Tiger Gang must have deliberately suppressed the information.

Yuan Kuanglin's dying words seemed to involve some critical matter, something beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Over these past few days, Chen Fan also noticed that the members of the Black Tiger Gang were acting with increasing frequency, still searching for someone.

Chen Fan simply assumed it was related to Yuan Kuanglin.

What Chen Fan could not have imagined was that the person the Black Tiger Gang was searching for was none other than himself!

However, the Black Tiger Gang had miscalculated the killer's strength.

They never imagined that the killer could be a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy like Chen Fan!

Chen Fan's daily routine of working from dawn till dusk and his perfectly normal background meant he had no time to practice martial arts, so he was immediately excluded from their search.

His idle-grinding talent meant he had no need for grueling training.

No one could have guessed that he could become a martial arts expert just by working during the day and sleeping at night!

The low-level martial artists living in seclusion in the western suburbs were the ones who suffered.

Many were forcibly dragged away by the Black Tiger Gang to assist in the investigation...

The ring Chen Fan had obtained was placed under the moonlight every night to absorb the lunar essence, but unfortunately, it never showed any changes.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed.

During this month, the Black Tiger Gang had wasted too much manpower and resources, even drawing the dissatisfaction of surrounding families and martial arts academies.

The operations naturally came to a halt.

You Shahu could only give up in frustration.

Flying Spirit County might be small, but it still had a population of a million; finding one person under the wrong search criteria was no easy task.

Not to mention, no one even knew if Yuan Kuanglin had truly left behind any treasures!

Of course, Chen Fan remained completely unaware of all this, nor did he know that despite his apparent cleverness in killing those two, he had already been identified as someone suspicious!

He had simply remained inactive because his techniques were still being processed by his idle-grinding ability.

By now, Chen Fan had successfully mastered three more techniques, as well as the sixth form of the Tiger Fist.

He had now mastered a total of seven strength-building techniques!

His strength had increased once again.

The three techniques he was currently practicing would also break through in just a few more days.

Unfortunately, the pace of his strength improvement had slowed down significantly.

The effects of the subsequent manuals were far inferior to the Tiger Fist!

"I can't buy any new manuals from that guy at the Flying Tiger Sect. If I want to continue getting stronger, my only option is to join a martial academy..."

Martial academies in this world held a special status, maintaining deep connections with various noble families and even gangs.

Chen Fan immediately resigned from his clerical job at the Great Passage Trading Company.

Of course, he did not inform his sister-in-law and the others.

Carrying the silver he had scavenged from Yuan Kuanglin, he arrived once again at the White Cloud Martial Academy!

Chen Fan searched Yuan Kuanglin's body and found a silver ingot, along with a fair amount of loose silver.

The silver ingot was minted by the Great Qian authorities, with a single piece worth fifty taels of silver.

This was money that Chen Fan could only hope to save after two years of not eating or drinking!

Even in the county seat, this was generally the lifetime savings of an ordinary family!

Yet, it was merely something Yuan Kuanglin had carried on him casually while fleeing for his life.

Including the loose silver, the total value was seventy or eighty taels, which directly resolved his current financial strain.

It also solidified Chen Fan's resolve to practice the martial path.

After all, once his martial arts improved, the money would naturally follow!

And if he was going to learn, he would learn from the best.

Chen Fan was no longer the novice he had been at the start; he had already learned about the various martial academies in Flying Spirit County.

Although White Cloud Martial Academy was a new establishment opened only a few years ago and lacked the deep roots of others, it charged the highest tuition and had the most students. It was not hard to guess the strength of White Cloud Martial Academy!

In truth, it was the shock Li Linliu had originally left on Chen Fan that continued to ferment in his heart, leaving him filled with yearning!

Even now, having fully mastered the four secret manuals of strength training and being able to easily sense his internal breath, Chen Fan still dared not imagine how much strength it would take to knock down a galloping steed with a single, light palm strike!

He wondered what level of the martial path one had to reach to achieve such a feat?

The young lady at the front desk of White Cloud Martial Academy did not seem particularly surprised by the dozens of taels of silver Chen Fan produced.

Although there were few children from poor families who came to White Cloud Martial Academy to practice martial arts, it was not as if such people had never existed before!

Taking out one's entire family savings to gamble on an uncertain future.

Such people had always existed!

After registering.

As a newly enrolled disciple of the martial academy, Chen Fan received his own vest, and was then led by a sweet-looking girl into the academy's training grounds.

Disciples who registered to enter the academy were only the most ordinary peripheral disciples and could only wear vests.

Those youths dressed in uniform Daoist robes were the true core of White Cloud Martial Academy—the inner disciples. Their numbers were very small, and they were almost all over eighteen or nineteen years old.

The training ground Chen Fan arrived at was only used by peripheral disciples for basic training.

Inside the massive hall, there were disciples wearing vests everywhere.

"Currently, the newly opened fist technique classes are Master Bai Linjiu's White Crane Class and Master Feng Cong's Black Cloud Class. I wonder which class you would like to join, Student Chen?"

The protagonist in the first few chapters was Qin Fan, but as I wrote, it changed to Chen Fan. How awkward; I have unified it to Chen Fan. PS: Can I cast monthly tickets now that I've signed the contract? Thank you to the book friends for the monthly tickets, and by the way, I'm asking for some recommendations; the data is a bit dismal.

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