Bitter Training

Lin Mo, Su Qingyang, and Wang Mian gathered together, their expressions smug and full of pride.

The three came from similar family backgrounds and were all geniuses, so they naturally gravitated toward one another.

Feng Cong looked over the crowd and said thoughtfully,

"To be honest, your performance is much better than I expected. I thought it would already be quite good if two or three of you had the talent to cultivate the White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm."

"However, don't get too proud. The reason you've made such progress over the past half month, aside from Chen Fan... is that everyone else's families have put in quite a bit of effort as well, isn't it? Reaching the standard in half a month is still far from enough. You must maintain this pace for the next three months, or even years!"

"If you can't, then don't waste your time. There's no need to wait for the second assessment. Choose another martial art and switch to it yourselves."

White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm was extremely difficult to master. At present, it seemed that four or five people in the Black Cloud Class had a chance, but in Feng Cong's view, apart from He Hongshan, there was no certainty about the other four!

Perhaps two months later, the others would be unable to maintain their progress and would all have no choice but to give up!

He Hongshan's expression remained unchanged, but the other three youths could not help glancing at Chen Fan.

Being better than a commoner disciple like Chen Fan did not seem all that glorious.

Time passed.

White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm truly was extraordinary. As his progress increased, and with the medicinal soup to supplement it, Chen Fan's body, which had gradually stopped growing stronger, began improving rapidly once more!

His appetite also increased again during this time.

At his current level of consumption, it was simply too frightening. He even had to hide it from his sister-in-law and niece. After eating in the county town beforehand, he still had to eat again when he returned home, and he had to secretly have a late-night meal as well!

White Cloud Martial Academy.

Free training time.

Having drunk the medicinal soup, Chen Fan looked at the special characters floating in the air, visible only to him.

A smile unconsciously appeared on his face.

The medicinal soup provided by the White Cloud Martial Academy had an additional effect after being consumed: it could actually increase the idle-training efficiency of White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm!

It was similar to a buff.

It just had a time limit.

After drinking the medicinal soup, the idle-training efficiency could increase by about four times, but it would only last four shichen.

It was equivalent to gaining an extra day's worth of idle-training progress from one bowl of medicinal soup.

"Normally, it would take me more than five months to complete the cultivation. One bowl of medicinal soup is provided for free each month, but if I buy it myself, I can drink at most one bowl a week. I can buy three extra bowls per month. If I drink them all, I can master it nearly half a month earlier!"

Drinking the soup did not merely improve his idle-training effect; it also strengthened Chen Fan's physique. Naturally, he would not let such an opportunity pass.

Moreover, the White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm of the White Cloud Martial Academy was rather special. Even He Clan descendants had specifically come here to cultivate it, so Chen Fan naturally wanted to master it as soon as possible.

"To buy three extra bowls of medicinal soup each month will cost three taels. Add my current appetite to that—one person eating as much as an entire family, and needing meat at every meal—and the silver I have left probably won't last more than a few months."

Chen Fan silently calculated in his heart.

Once again, he felt the many difficulties faced by commoners practicing martial arts.

As a martial academy student,

one could freely browse the martial arts and manuals stored within the academy.

All thirty-three basic martial arts could be borrowed and cultivated!

The students who had given up cultivating White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm had each borrowed manuals they liked and begun cultivating anew.

At noon that day, after having a simple lunch nearby, Chen Fan borrowed two manuals and quietly arrived at the Black Cloud Class's dedicated training room.

Cultivating martial arts required gradual progress and a balance between work and rest. This was especially true in the strength-training stage: blindly training hard could instead damage one's foundation, so sufficient rest had to be ensured.

Since there was still training in the afternoon, students generally slept and rested at noon.

There was no one else in the training room at the moment.

Chen Fan's other two manuals had also reached full progress, so he borrowed another two manuals.

The White Cloud Martial Academy had a total of thirty-three strength-training manuals. Most of the manuals Chen Fan had cultivated before were among them, but their quality was quite ordinary.

Even the best, Tiger Fist, was merely a second-tier lower-grade manual.

All the others were third-tier manuals.

Of course, after Chen Fan broke through to the sixth form, the quality of the Tiger Fist he possessed had improved by an unknown amount.

The two manuals Chen Fan borrowed this time were both excellent second-tier manuals, each better than Tiger Fist.

The cultivation efficiency of these two manuals was also faster than Chen Fan had expected.

Because Chen Fan's physique was far stronger than before and his idle-training efficiency had increased, although these two manuals were of higher quality than Tiger Fist, he could still complete their cultivation within two months!

This made Chen Fan understand even more clearly the gap between White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm and other manuals.

Just as he was practicing, the door to the training room suddenly opened.

The girl named He Hongshan walked in!

This training room was meant for the Black Cloud Class students to train in.

Chen Fan was slightly surprised upon seeing her, but merely nodded at her before continuing with the practice of his second martial art.

On the other side, He Hongshan resumed practicing White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm.

Seeing Chen Fan holding two manuals, she could not help frowning.

She remembered Chen Fan as well. He was one of the few students in the Black Cloud Class who had not been directly advised to give up cultivating White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm!

Yet now, he seemed to be dividing his attention by cultivating other martial arts.

Could it be that he had already given up on White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm?

Or was he being distracted by other things and wasting his talent?

However, He Hongshan merely shook her head in silence and said nothing.

The only reason they had the chance to stand beneath the same roof was that Chen Fan could afford the White Cloud Martial Academy's enrollment fee.

Because of the inherent difference in their statuses, there was unlikely to be any chance for them to interact later on.

Though He Hongshan was young, she did not like telling others what to do.

She could not be bothered to meddle in other people's affairs.

Chen Fan had no idea what the girl was thinking. After practicing briefly and confirming that he had gotten started, he nodded to her again and left with the manuals.

Though they were students in the same class, they did not exchange a single word during the time they shared the room!

When he reached the doorway, he saw a bear-like figure hurrying toward the training room.

"Hongshan!"

The man strode like a dragon and tiger, running straight into Chen Fan.

When the bear-like man saw that only Chen Fan and He Hongshan were in the training room, his expression changed slightly.

Then, as he studied Chen Fan's face and suspiciously swept his gaze over Chen Fan's increasingly sturdy body, seeming to sense something different, he asked, "You are...?"

The man was tall and burly, around twenty years old. Yet he wore the robes of the White Cloud Martial Academy rather than the vest of an outer disciple.

He was actually an inner disciple!

He was huge, with a slightly fat face full of fierce flesh, yet he carried an air of natural authority.

Judging by the way he addressed He Hongshan, he was clearly no ordinary person.

Feeling the unconscious pressure the man exuded, Chen Fan neither humbled himself nor acted arrogantly. "I am a disciple of the Black Cloud Class. This is our Black Cloud Class training room. I came here to practice martial arts."

Back then, that young master of the He Clan had ridden through the streets on horseback and treated human lives as worthless.

Chen Fan knew the nature of rich young masters like these. Determined not to cause trouble, he explained everything in one sentence.

The big black bear could not help giving Chen Fan another look. "Oh, oh."

Chen Fan dipped his head, then directly took his leave.

The bear-like youth watched Chen Fan depart. Only then did his expression change as he turned and approached the training room, calling out, "Hongshan! Your brother is here again!"

He Hongshan turned her head and glared viciously at the newcomer. Somewhat irritated, she said, "Get lost!"