Riverside Martial High School, Cousin He Tang

Chen Jue's loan application went very smoothly.

His innate physique was above average, his background was clean, his record could be verified, and he was an intern at the guard station.

Chen Jue easily secured a 100,000-limit "Martial Arts Loan" with an annual interest rate of 12%.

Damn! His talent had awakened too late. The excellent-student scholarship loan at Linjiang Martial Arts College only carried an annual interest rate of 6%!

Chen Jue exchanged 20,000 notes for two low-grade spirit stones.

Another 200 was deducted as a handling fee during the process, making his heart ache so badly he trembled.

"An annual rate of 12% means 12,167 in interest a year. That's 1,014 in monthly interest payments, leaving me 1,436 from my salary. What a bloody steal..."

Chen Jue calculated his principal and interest payments as he carried his enormous sum of 80,000 to Pei Pharmacy behind the building for a thoroughly satisfying shopping spree.

One bottle of the premium Qi-Nourishing Capsules, containing thirty pills, cost 30,000.

Thirty bottles of oral nutritional fluid that aided digestion and swiftly restored stamina cost 12,000.

Adding in a few miscellaneous supplements, the loan Chen Jue had just received was reduced to only 30,000.

Yet Chen Jue did not regret it in the slightest.

Money hoarded away and never used was wasted. Once stinginess went too far, it became another form of extravagance.

Everything had its proper time. His extravagant spending now might have looked insane, but was it not also a form of respect for his own talent?

With that thought, Chen Jue felt even more clear-headed. He took out a Qi-Nourishing Capsule worth a thousand notes and popped it into his mouth.

The capsule shell was faintly sweet, carrying the flavor of something called money.

Chen Jue guided his qi and blood from his stomach, bringing out the medicine's potency. He felt threads of warm current flow through his meridians and circulate throughout his body, as though he were soaking in a hot spring.

"No wonder it's a premium product from Pei Pharmacy. Its effects far surpass those off-brand capsules the school rewarded us with when I attended martial arts college!"

Chen Jue returned to the park, downed another bottle of nutritional fluid to aid digestion and restore his stamina, then began practicing his stance again, condensing his qi and blood.

Cultivation was, in truth, an exceedingly dull and tedious affair. It required one to endure a loneliness ordinary people could scarcely bear.

During his three years at martial high school, Chen Jue had still been immature. Afraid of hardship and difficulty, he had barely put any real effort into practicing his stance art.

On top of that, his mother, Madam He, had indulged and spoiled him without limits for years.

By the time he failed the martial arts entrance exam, he saw classmates whose aptitude had once been inferior to his get into martial universities and soar into the heavens.

Only then did Chen Jue finally wake up, consumed by regret.

It could be said that the period when his Primordial Stance Art truly advanced by leaps and bounds was during his three years at martial arts college.

At that time, he worked extremely hard.

So hard that many martial arts college students could not stand him. They collectively isolated him and said all manner of nasty things.

The force of his stance repeatedly ground over his body as qi and blood slowly grew within him.

An hour later, the speed at which Chen Jue recovered his stamina gradually failed to keep up with the speed at which the Primordial Stance condensed qi and blood.

Left with no choice, he temporarily ended his practice and used the interval to drill the Six Directions Saber Art.

Compared to the seamless perfection of the Primordial Unity One-Qi Stance, Chen Jue's proficient Six Directions Saber Art looked rather lacking.

But this was not because Chen Jue had been lazy. The Six Directions Saber Art itself was incomplete, containing only saber forms without any corresponding mental cultivation formulas or subtle secrets.

Linjiang Martial Arts College used it only to judge its students' comprehension. It did not expect them to cultivate anything remarkable from it.

For Chen Jue to have trained the Six Directions Saber Art to proficiency was already the result of hard work.

He performed the broad, sweeping saber routine seven times in succession.

Chen Jue rested briefly for fifteen minutes, bought some food to fill his stomach, then began grinding away at his stance practice again.

This time, he lasted even less time. After only forty-five minutes, his body began issuing warnings again.

There was nothing he could do. Chen Jue could only continue practicing his saber.

After repeating this cycle several times, it was nearly six in the afternoon.

In Linjiang's autumn, night fell at seven-thirty in the evening, and after eight, the outer city was placed under curfew.

Chen Jue returned to his uncle's home to take a shower, put on his uncle's intimidating inspection uniform, and headed for Riverside Martial Arts High School.

The inner-city streets were bustling, thronged with people. The countless GG signs on the tall buildings lining both sides dazzled his eyes.

Among them, a preview for a new drug soon to be released by Qi Pharmaceuticals caught Chen Jue's attention.

The new medicine was called the Lesser Body-Tempering Pill. It was advertised as having half the effects of a Body-Tempering Pill, yet cost only one-tenth as much.

That pricing was highly unreasonable.

The reason was that the Body-Tempering Pill was the "true pill" of True Qi realm martial artists, possessing many wondrous effects: tempering the physique, refining true qi, healing hidden injuries, and more.

The care devoted to its ingredients and the complexity of its refining process were far beyond what ordinary supplementary medicines could compare with.

"The Rat Gang was using people in Kaiyang District to test drugs. Could it have been this stuff?"

Suspicious, Chen Jue passed through several bustling streets and arrived before a school that covered an enormous area.

Its buildings sprawled across the grounds, towering high into the air. Their modern atmosphere stood in stark contrast to Linjiang City's overall antique architectural style.

Chen Jue blended into the crowd of people waiting outside the gates for their children to get out of school. Looking up, he saw six grand characters written in soaring, dancing strokes across the school's marble entrance: "Riverside Martial Arts High School."

The characters stood lofty and imposing, their form tyrannical, like the majesty of a temple court gazing down upon all living things beneath its gates.

"When I studied here back then, why did I never feel these characters were so mystical?"

Chen Jue sighed inwardly. Just as he was about to take out his phone for a picture, the security guard at the entrance stopped him with a sharp glare.

He had forgotten that the signboard of Riverside Martial High School had been inscribed by a great figure at the Martial King level. Photography and check-ins were strictly forbidden.

As a piercing bell rang out from within the school, huge numbers of students in blue-and-white uniforms poured out through the gates.

"Cousin! Cousin!"

He Tang pulled along a younger girl, deftly weaving through the crowd as she waved at Chen Jue.

The little girl had inherited the best features of both Chen Jue's uncle and aunt. She was tall and slender, with delicate features and an oval face that perfectly suited traditional Eastern aesthetics.

Her personality was somewhat lively and unrestrained, creating a stark contrast with her rather ladylike appearance.

The girl beside He Tang was only slightly shorter than her, standing just over 1.7 meters tall. Her long hair fell to her waist, her figure was slim and slight, her legs long, and her oval face exquisitely delicate.

Perhaps because the weather was too hot, or perhaps because her stamina was poor, the girl breathed slightly heavily, a faint blush staining her cheeks.

"Cousin, let me introduce you. This is my best friend, Pei Qingying. You can call her Qingqing too, just like I do."

"Qingqing, this is my cousin. I didn't lie to you, did I? Isn't he devastatingly handsome?"

He Tang sounded as though she were trying to set them up, and Chen Jue could not help getting a head full of black lines. He almost wanted to flick her forehead hard.

But with the young girl present, he could only force out a friendly smile and nod at Pei Qingying.

"Miss Pei, a pleasure to meet you."

"Brother Chen, a pleasure to meet you."

The young girl was somewhat shy, but she did not neglect proper etiquette. She extended her snow-white little hand to shake Chen Jue's.

Their large and small hands touched only briefly before separating.

So quickly that Chen Jue almost felt the cool, silky sensation at his fingertips had been an illusion.

"Are we taking your friend home first?" Chen Jue turned and asked He Tang.

He Tang shook her head.

"Qingqing is coming to my house as a guest today. A car will pick her up later."

Chen Jue's heart stirred at those words. From the corner of his eye, he examined Miss Pei.

The young girl was dressed simply: a pale yellow floral dress paired with well-fitting little white shoes. Only a golden bracelet, half a finger thick and glowing with a warm luster, encircled her left wrist.

In Linjiang, the capital of Southern Province, a family that owned a car was no ordinary family. That this young girl was still so low-key and plain made her a truly fine girl—one you could search for with a lantern and still struggle to find.

"Cousin, the way you are today... you don't look like someone who got shot in the dark yesterday!" He Tang circled around him, studying Chen Jue suspiciously.

"I'm a quasi-martial artist at the ninth level of qi and blood. What's wrong with recovering a little faster?" Chen Jue rolled his eyes at his cousin and led the two girls back.

As they passed a street corner, a sudden impulse rose in Chen Jue's heart. Using the motion of crouching down to tie his shoelace, he looked back over his shoulder.

Several furtive figures stood not far behind the three of them. Some lowered their heads to look at their phones, while others looked up at GG signs, their gazes occasionally flicking toward He Tang and Pei Qingying.

Without giving anything away, Chen Jue rose to his feet and slowed his pace slightly, walking level with the two girls.

"Has anyone been giving you trouble at school lately?" Maintaining his pace, Chen Jue asked the two girls as though making casual conversation.

"Who would dare cause trouble for us? This lady ranks in the top ten of the whole school in body-tempering class! By next year's martial arts exam, reaching the sixth level of qi and blood will be a piece of cake!"

He Tang puffed out her chest and raised her chin, proud as an immature little peacock.

Pei Qingying fell silent for a moment, then revealed information completely contrary to He Tang's.

"There have been. Recently, a Star God faith called the Room Fire Cult has become popular at school."

"A few ill-intentioned classmates have repeatedly invited Tangtang and me to serve as sacred maidens at their gatherings, promising us a high appearance fee of 20,000..."

Chen Jue's brows slowly twisted into a knot.

Cracking down on licentious temples and heretical sacrifices, and eradicating Star God faiths, had always been an unshakable national policy of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty.

"That counts as trouble? They're just buzzing flies. Can't you just reject them hard?" He Tang said, waving a fist.

Chen Jue glanced at his cousin, genuinely unsure whether she was simply thick-skinned or confident.

"Doesn't the school administration do anything?" He turned to ask Miss Pei.

A group of martial high school students openly breaking the law in defiance of the rules was highly unusual.

"It's hard for them to deal with it. Whenever they're questioned, they just say they're fooling around."

Pei Qingying explained the situation. "Most of the students leading them are children of Linjiang's powerful clans. The school is mindful of those clans' dignity and cannot exactly come down on them with an iron fist."

"Then you two need to be more careful while you're at school. Once certain strange beliefs latch onto you, they're hard to shake off. Learn to protect yourselves."

Chen Jue was acting somewhat like an elder brother standing in for a father, earnestly lecturing them with an unavoidable hint of paternal fussiness.

He Tang gave a perfunctory response, convinced that fists could solve every problem.

Light rippled through Pei Qingying's almond eyes, as though the concern from this unfamiliar older brother had touched her.