Bone Structure

Zhao Feng shifted sideways, blocking Qiao'er. "Leopard Lord, my little sister is still too young to go out and have fun."

Leopard Lord had treated him as air all along. Only upon hearing this did he give Zhao Feng a proper once-over and say coldly, "Who the hell are you, kid? Is there any place here for you to speak?" His face turned fierce, yet Zhao Feng did not retreat. He remained firmly in front of Qiao'er, deliberately or otherwise revealing the training uniform beneath his outer clothes.

Leopard Lord's gaze instantly landed on the large Huo character. His expression changed slightly, and after a cold snort, he turned and left.

Watching him go, Zhao Feng felt a shadow settle over his heart. He added this Leopard Lord to the little ledger in his mind.

After returning to the martial arts school, he trained the stake skill even more diligently.

Several days later, he had managed to hold his stance atop the plum blossom stakes for nearly twenty minutes. A warm current spread from his tailbone along his spine and throughout his body.

A row of small words appeared before his eyes.

[Eight Extremes Stake Skill Beginner (185/500]

A few days ago, it had still been 130. Aside from the progress increasing after he began eating meat every day, it seemed closely related to how long he stood in the stance.

As the time he spent standing in the stance increased, it clearly helped raise the progress value as well.

Having confirmed these two crucial factors, Zhao Feng finally let go of the unease he had felt these past few days.

From now on, as long as he ate enough meat every day and extended his stance time as much as possible, he could effectively speed up his progress.

At that moment, Huo Shan walked out from the rear courtyard, and the disciples all saluted him.

"You have tempered your qi and blood for some time now and have built a certain foundation. You may begin learning fist techniques." Zhao Feng, Wu Tiezhu, and Chu Fan all stirred at his words. They had finally waited for this moment.

However, before teaching them the fist techniques, Huo Shan first needed to examine their bones and see what talent their bone structures possessed.

After a lengthy examination, both Zhao Feng and Wu Tiezhu proved to have fifth-grade bone structures, only slightly better than the worst sixth-grade grade. Huo Shan showed neither surprise nor expression.

But when he examined Chu Fan's bones, disbelief appeared on his face, followed by wild delight.

"Second-grade bone structure! It's actually a second-grade bone structure!"

A second-grade bone structure might not amount to much in a prefectural city, but it was exceedingly rare in a small county town. Huo Shan instantly realized Chu Fan's value.

"From today onward, you are my formal disciple. I will personally teach you fist techniques." Huo Shan suppressed the joy in his heart and spoke calmly.

As soon as his words fell, the disciples in the courtyard all looked at Chu Fan with envy. Even the four formal disciples wore astonished expressions, their gazes toward Chu Fan turning solemn.

After all, only those four were their master's formal indoor disciples. Even disciples who had broken through to Manifest Force were merely registered disciples, yet Chu Fan had become a formal disciple before even attempting the threshold. This showed just how much Huo Shan favored him, all because of his outstanding bone structure.

As for Wu Tiezhu and Zhao Feng, Huo Shan gave them fist manuals and personally demonstrated the fist technique once.

"I told you before about the characteristics of our Eight Extremes Lineage: fierce, powerful, and swift. Gather the force of the Six Openings, strike in all eight directions, and overwhelm others with momentum! Watch carefully. I will demonstrate only once." He suddenly stamped his foot, shaking the ground as though the earth itself were moving, seizing everyone's souls.

As Huo Shan launched into the form, his momentum was like racing thunder. The sounds of wind and thunder in the air gripped the heart and soul.

Press, embrace, single, lift, carry, and coil—the Cross Force. There were close-range short strikes as well as long-range Pigua chops.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Huo Shan's fists unleashed three successive explosive cracks, leaving the newly admitted disciples around him both terrified out of their wits and utterly entranced.

After finishing the entire form, he withdrew his fists and stood still.

"Wei Yuan, guide the two of them," Huo Shan said to Wei Yuan.

"The rest of you, disperse. Do not be lazy. Those who should stand in stances, stand in stances. Those who should practice fists, practice fists."

"Yes, Master!" Watching Huo Shan lead Chu Fan into the rear courtyard, Wu Tiezhu's face filled with confusion. Zhao Feng's expression remained unchanged. He had long known this would be the outcome, but with the panel at his side, he had confidence in his heart.

"Eight Extremes Fist consists of three forms in total. You will first learn the manual for the first form, which mainly focuses on rapid close-range strikes. Then I'll tell you what to watch out for, and afterward you can set up the fist frame," Wei Yuan said.

His gaze swept past Wu Tiezhu before lingering briefly on Zhao Feng. Over the past month, this junior brother had given him the impression of someone diligent and hardworking. He never joined any cliques or went out eating and drinking with others. His temperament was steady.

What a pity his bone structure was ordinary. Breaking through the threshold would likely be difficult.

After two days of studying the fist manual, setting up the fist frame, and practicing the moves, a flash of white light flickered through his mind.

[Eight Extremes Fist Beginner (1/500)]

Over the next two months, he needed to cultivate Manifest Force through the stake skill while raising his mastery of Eight Extremes Fist as much as possible to strengthen himself.

In the row house, steam rose from the stove as meat bubbled away inside. Its fragrance drifted out the door, making the neighbors on both sides crane their necks and drool. Every ordinary evening now, consuming sufficient meat had become an essential part of Zhao Feng's routine. To save money, he bought it home and cooked it himself, even if the taste was nothing special.

After taking up martial arts, Zhao Feng's appetite had surged. He needed seven or eight flatbreads for a single meal, and the more meat, the better.

At first, some neighbors in the workshop district, including a few idle troublemakers, had come looking for trouble whenever Zhao Feng stewed meat. But ever since Zhao Feng displayed the training uniform of the Huo Family Martial Arts School, none of them had dared cause trouble again.

Outside Treasure Brocade Workshop, Zhao Feng chatted with his aunt and cousin for a while before Qiao'er saw him out.

Several dark figures watched Zhao Feng's retreating back from afar at the street corner.

"Did you find out?" Leopard Lord asked his subordinate.

"Reporting to Fragrance Master, we found out that this man is called Zhao Feng. He entered the Huo Family Martial Arts School a little over a month ago and is only an apprentice," the subordinate replied.

"A little over a month? Then wait another two months," Leopard Lord said with a nod.

"Fragrance Master, he's only an apprentice. Why fear him? Little girls like this have good looks and sell well. If we sell her to those masters with peculiar tastes, we might even get twenty taels of silver for her," the subordinate said.

"What the hell do you know?" Leopard Lord rebuked him.

The gang leader had long instructed them to avoid provoking disciples of martial arts schools within the city whenever possible. The masters of those schools were all Transformative Force experts, figures whom even the gang leader absolutely could not afford to offend. Even if Zhao Feng was merely an apprentice, these Transformative Force masters cared deeply about their reputation. As long as an apprentice remained in their school, he could not be casually bullied.

Of course, once three months had passed, if he failed to break through the threshold and lacked the money to continue paying tuition, he would be expelled from the martial arts school. Then there would be no need to care. And this country bumpkin looked so shabby that paying tuition even once had probably already drained everything he owned.

Breaking through the threshold? How could it be so easy? Leopard Lord sneered faintly.

Within their Black Tiger Gang, aside from the gang leader, who was at the peak of Manifest Force, only the deputy gang leader had reached Manifest Force. Just two Manifest Force martial artists in all.

The weather gradually warmed, and the accumulated snow began to melt.

A minor incident occurred in Greenhouse Township. Several starving wild dogs dug up a mangled corpse in the woods. By the time people discovered it, it had already been gnawed to pieces. Only the remaining clothing identified it as Huang Biao, who had been missing for several months, while his money pouch was nowhere to be found.

With that, the fact that Huang Biao had been robbed and murdered was confirmed. In the villages throughout Greenhouse Township, many people secretly clapped their hands in delight. That ruffian leader was finally dead.

One day, Zhao Feng ran into Old Ding at the county gate and heard him speak of the matter. Though he showed no reaction on the surface, he felt vaguely uneasy inside. He had not expected the corpse to be dug up by wild dogs.

He carefully recalled the entire process and confirmed that there had been no loose ends. Besides, he gambled that the authorities in these times would not investigate the case closely.

Indeed, just as he hoped, the county yamen did not even bother with the case, and the matter came to nothing. Too many people died these days. Who had the leisure to care whether a ruffian lived or died?

Inside Li the Landowner's residence in town.

"Master, there's no way to investigate this. There are so many refugees and bandits these days, and Huang Biao offended far too many people," the steward said.

Li the Landowner's face was gloomy. The missing promissory notes had left him deeply irritated. Moreover, he felt that if refugees or bandits had merely robbed Huang Biao of silver, why had those promissory notes vanished as well?

"Where is the list I told you to compile last time?"