The Elusive Sense of Qi

By this point, Zhou Ye had gradually figured it out.

These disciples had probably formed a little clique. Xu Feng came from a relatively well-off family, so he had become the big brother of the group. Disciples like Cheng Jianghe had become Xu Feng's underlings, hangers-on, attendants, and lackeys...

Call it whatever you liked—it meant the same thing.

As for what Xu Feng had said just now, he had simply been enjoying the feeling of being the big brother. Enjoying the thrill of bullying the weak.

Like those little student cliques in schools on another plane, the ones that bullied others. The reason did not matter, and neither did the process. What mattered was inflicting violence on the weak, making them obedient—conditioning them, PUAing them, even extorting, insulting, and beating them.

At that moment, Zhou Ye did not know whether to laugh or cry. Damn it! Do you all see me as the weak one?

To be honest, Zhou Ye could not even be bothered getting angry at these cringe-addled brats. They would not need to deal with one another in the future, much less become friends, so he could just stay far away from them.

Yet once a person's luck turned bad, misfortune often came one after another. After an entire morning of hard training, Zhou Ye still had not found his sense of qi. In other words, the panel showed no reaction whatsoever.

That made Zhou Ye a little anxious. This had never happened before. If even the technique section on the panel could not appear, how was he supposed to grind his life away? How was he supposed to verify it once and have it verified forever?

While eating lunch, Zhou Ye once again sought advice from his Third Senior Brother, Han Guang, and learned a few basic things about the sense of qi.

A sense of qi, a sense of qi—it meant sensing the qi and blood within one's own body!

In truth, everyone was born with more or less qi and blood. Those without qi and blood were called dead people. Therefore, in theory, as long as one kept training, even someone with terrible aptitude could still find their sense of qi. It was just that by then, they would already be seventy or eighty years old, and it would be utterly useless.

Cultivating all kinds of techniques was the process of taming the qi and blood within one's body. It was the process of nurturing and strengthening the naturally chaotic qi and blood into controllable qi and blood within the body.

Thus, after long years of exploration, the martial arts world had reached a conclusion at this stage—if one could not find the sense of qi within ten days, then one was not suited to martial arts. Even if one endlessly poured in resources, time, and effort, it simply was not worth it.

And this was only finding the sense of qi! It was not even time to enter the Force stage yet.

Even if one barely managed to enter the Force stage in the end, would they not still be just like an ordinary person—a weak chicken?

So what was the point of practicing martial arts? With that much money and time, what could one not do? Why stubbornly butt heads with martial arts? There was absolutely no need, got it?

Yet after hearing this, Zhou Ye became even more resolute. He had ten days anyway, so he would patiently continue cultivating like this for now.

If ten days did not work, then... he would do another ten days. Ten days after ten days, ten days without end!

Would he not find the sense of qi sooner or later? That was to say, the panel would appear.

As long as he could make the panel appear, he could verify it once and have it verified forever!

That was why they did not understand the world of a cheat-user. He was fundamentally different from the other disciples. Awesome, no explanation needed!

That afternoon, after cultivating for only half an hour, the panel issued the same warning as yesterday—today's cultivation limit had been reached.

Zhou Ye decisively stopped cultivating. There would be plenty of days ahead.

If he developed hidden injuries now, perhaps nothing would be visible for the moment, and perhaps his young body could tough it out for the time being. But once too many hidden injuries accumulated, they would affect his future breakthroughs. They would also affect his lifespan. When he grew old and frail and his qi and blood declined, all those hidden injuries would erupt at once.

That would be seeking a momentary thrill by burning away his own life. There was simply no need to do that.

After finishing martial arts practice, Zhou Ye greeted Huang Sheng and Wu Jun, packed up his things, and went home.

Since someone already could not stand him, there was no need to keep acting. Who did not know how to go home early and rest...

However, just after returning home, Gao Xiaoyi came looking for him again.

"Brother Ye, they asked me to beg you for something." Gao Xiaoyi looked very embarrassed.

"It's fine. Go ahead."

"Last night, Brother Big Gold took several people from the Brotherhood and found Black Six again. In the end, he agreed to let Xinghua stay for three days. But the interest still has to be counted, and they need eight taels and five..."

Zhou Ye smiled faintly. "Are you asking to borrow money? You know that mountain runners like us are all poor folk. We cannot keep much money on hand. I do not have much saved up either. I can scrape together one tael of silver. I wonder if it can help?"

Zhou Ye did not mind doing a good deed in passing. Besides, Big Gold and the Brotherhood were quite loyal. Whether or not their methods were childish, Zhou Ye rather admired this group of young men.

Gao Xiaoyi's face lit up. "Of course it can! That helps enormously. Now we're only short a little over two taels. With your one tael, we can scrape together the rest. If it still isn't enough... I'll go ask my mother!"

"Heh."

Unexpectedly, by dinner time, they had already brought Xinghua back. Xiao Jie even came to Zhou Ye's door with Xinghua to thank him.

When Xiao Jie saw Zhou Ye, he looked timid and submissive. Perhaps he was not used to dealing with strangers. Xinghua, on the other hand, was bolder, her eyes secretly darting around everywhere.

"Brother Ye, thank you for this time."

"No, no, I did not help much." Zhou Ye hurriedly said politely. "Xiao Jie, you're a little older than me, aren't you? You don't need to call me brother. Just call me Zhou Ye."

"Alright! Zhou Ye, the money we borrowed..."

"There's no rush to repay it. Wait until you have some money on hand." Zhou Ye did not care about that one tael of silver at all. But after thinking it over, he came up with another idea. "Xinghua, I have some work at my house. I wonder if you'd be willing to do it?"

"What work?"

"You know I often run the mountains, and when I come back, I'm filthy from head to toe. I'm too exhausted to do housework. If you wash my bedding and clothes from now on, I'll pay you 250 cash a month. To be clear, I may be away for many days and you will not need to do anything; or after I return home, there may be an especially large pile of clothes to wash at once. I won't fuss over any of that. I'll give you a flat 250 cash?"

So long as I keep to the path of staying alive, I can play the saint once in a while!

For a washerwoman, 250 cash was slightly on the high side, but it was still within the market rate.

Sure enough, both Xiao Jie and Xinghua were delighted. "We're willing! That's wonderful."

As long as she washed clothes for four months, the one tael of silver Zhou Ye had lent them could be repaid. And afterward, they could continue earning this income.

"Then it's settled. I'll bring you the bedding and dirty clothes in a while. Let's count this month as a full month!"

"Thank you! Thank you so much."

"Heh."

Before long, Xiao Jie and Xinghua left happily, carrying a huge pile of things in their arms.

Zhou Ye smiled. He had shed a great deal of housework and gained much more time to practice martial arts. It was only that he had too many secrets, making it inconvenient to hire a servant or cook. Otherwise, he would not even need to cook for himself every day...