Breaking Through to Martial Artist

Second floor of the cafeteria.

Situ Ting listened to the commotion downstairs as he ate, then chuckled. "That kid..."

"He's got quite the ambition!"

Having learned about Su Bo's past year at the martial high school, he knew Su Bo's personality well. Under normal circumstances, he should have been unwilling to involve himself in troublesome matters.

Yet he had agreed to guide his classmates in stance training.

It seemed he had truly taken Situ Ting's words to heart.

"What's wrong with having big ambitions?" Lin Bao, the head chef, approached carrying a serving of martial cuisine and handed it over. "When are you going to slaughter that half-dragon?"

"I've got all the ingredients ready."

"Wait a while longer. It's still of some use." Situ Ting narrowed his eyes.

"Of some use?" Lin Bao muttered.

A half-dead half-dragon whose dragon blood essence had been drained dry—what use could it possibly have left?

Oh, it did still have some use. With a bit of work, that half-dragon flesh could probably make several pots of spicy half-dragon hotpot.

Its half-dragon sinew could be pulled out and made into a belt with plenty to spare.

Its bones could be chopped up and simmered into a rich broth, enough to feed several Gang Realm martial artists.

Situ Ting said blandly, "Stop thinking about it. I'm waiting for that kid to break through."

"Hm?" Lin Bao grunted.

"Don't tell me you want to use dragon treasure cuisine to help him complete the first refinement of the skin-and-flesh stage?"

"Can't I?" Situ Ting asked.

"Sure, why not?" Lin Bao muttered indifferently. "That half-dragon is yours. Handle it however you like."

"As long as you give me enough cultivation ingredients, I don't care who you feed it to."

"Tsk. You really are willing to spend that much on treasure cuisine brewed from half-dragon blood essence."

"Consider it repayment for his insight into that wisp of martial intent!"

"Oh..."

Su Bo of Third High School breaking through to quasi-martial artist did indeed stir up a wave in Crimson Glow City's martial high school circles.

But that wave soon subsided.

For two days after Su Bo's breakthrough, Martial Arts No. 1 High School had two students in succession reach a full circulation of blood and qi, condense a hundred strands of blood and qi, and break through to quasi-martial artist.

Soon after, students from Second Martial High School and Fourth Martial High School also broke through to quasi-martial artist.

Meanwhile, Third High School, where Su Bo—the first to break through—studied, still had no second student reach quasi-martial artist.

Third High School's training grounds.

"Mountain-Shaking takes the form of Mountain Tortoise Breaks the Peak as its stance art. When you stand in stance, you must visualize yourself as a mountain tortoise, straining upward to shatter the mountain pressing down upon you..."

"What does it take to break open a mountain?"

"It takes an overbearing fist force that charges forward without hesitation. Your fists aren't overbearing enough, nor are they fierce enough. Your stance art likewise lacks the momentum to burst through a mountain..."

"How do you raise the realm of your stance art?"

After finishing his own training, Su Bo stood in a corner of the training grounds, guiding the other martial arts students in their stance arts.

Across the entire training grounds, several hundred martial arts students stood in neat rows, their eyes tightly shut as they visualized their stance arts, their feet rooted like ancient trees.

A faint trace of an overbearing aura that charged forward without hesitation emerged from their bodies.

In just a few short days, the stance arts of every martial arts student at Third High School seemed to have undergone a complete rebirth, producing a qualitative transformation.

Quite a few had made great progress in their stance arts, stepping from beginner to proficient, and breaking through from proficient to minor accomplishment.

Great accomplishment... there was none yet.

"Good grief, does this class even need me anymore?" Wu Bin wore a bitter expression.

"Is a perfected fist-and-stance mastery of Eight Mountain-Shaking Fists really that incredible?"

Having finally broken through to the second martial realm—the Gang Realm—he had emerged full of pride, originally intending to show off a little in front of his students.

Who could have imagined that in just these few days, Su Bo had nearly stripped him of his identity as a teacher?

The martial arts teachers from other classes passing nearby heard him and laughed. "Old Wu, Su Bo's perfected fist-and-stance mastery really is that incredible."

"Tsk, we've had it really easy these past two days... right, brothers?"

"Right, right~" the group of martial arts teachers chimed in.

As for stance arts, their cultivation of Eight Mountain-Shaking Fists had only barely reached great accomplishment, far inferior to Su Bo's perfected stance art.

So when it came to teaching stance arts, Su Bo really was much better than them.

That was why the martial arts teachers of every class were delighted to take it easy, directly handing the stance art lessons over to Su Bo. The results were genuinely far better than before.

Many students had made breakthroughs and progress in their stance arts, and their blood-and-qi condensation had sped up considerably.

Old Wu shot them a glare and said irritably, "You really have the nerve?"

"Have you no shame?"

"Can shame make students improve?" That teacher snorted, carrying off his teacup. "If it can get a few more students through the martial exams, I'll accept losing face."

Wu Bin: ...

The words were rough, but the reasoning was sound. That really was the logic of it.

If it had been him, he would probably have made the same choice as his old brothers.

"Brother Bo!!~~"

"No. 1 High School... cough, cough, someone at No. 1 High School... cough... someone broke through to martial artist!"

Su Bo had just finished demonstrating a round of Eight Mountain-Shaking Fists and was planning to rest for a while when several figures hurried into the training grounds from outside.

One of them panted heavily as he delivered the news he had learned.

In an instant, all the students in Third High School's training grounds erupted in uproar. Some found it hard to believe, even wondering whether that person from No. 1 High School was an idiot.

There were differences even among quasi-martial artists.

When ordinary quasi-martial artists condensed blood and qi, they would most likely break through immediately after condensing a single strand, directly triggering the first stage of blood-and-qi cleansing to refine their bodies.

They would directly break through and become Body Realm martial artists.

But more quasi-martial artists would use this realm to reach for the limits of their own blood and qi.

Even if they condensed only one more strand of blood and qi than other quasi-martial artists before breaking through, their foundation would still be far stronger than the others'.

For example, a martial artist who broke through with one strand of blood and qi would have a base punching force of roughly one thousand kilograms.

But a limit quasi-martial artist who condensed one additional strand of blood and qi before breaking through would have at least two to three hundred kilograms more base punching force.

Thus, the more robust one's blood and qi at the time of a quasi-martial artist's breakthrough, the stronger one would be after breaking through.

A limit quasi-martial artist like Su Bo, with one hundred and seven strands of blood and qi, would have a base punching force of at least four thousand kilograms once he broke through.

He could crush the former simply through punching force alone, leaving them unable to catch their breath.

"Wait, are those guys at No. 1 High School idiots?" Class monitor Zhou Tong asked, completely baffled.

"Don't they know that the more robust a quasi-martial artist's blood and qi is, the more blood and qi they condense, and the stronger their foundation will be after breaking through?"

"I know..." The few who had arrived later to deliver the news panted. "The guy at No. 1 High School who broke through to martial artist is my neighbor. After breaking through to quasi-martial artist, he condensed two more strands of blood and qi."

"His base punching force is around two thousand five hundred kilograms."

"I heard he originally could have condensed one more strand of blood and qi, but No. 1 High School's principal offered him some kind of conditions, so he broke through early."

"There's one more thing..." The speaker paused.

Zhou Tong immediately grew impatient. "Finish what you're saying, or you're asking for a beating!"

"My neighbor said that No. 1 High School plans to have him challenge students from the other three martial high schools..."

"Challenge students from the other three martial high schools?" At once, every student's gaze fell upon Su Bo, the strongest among them.

Third High School's only quasi-martial artist had yet to break through to martial artist.

The gap between a quasi-martial artist and a martial artist was even greater than the gap between a martial apprentice and a quasi-martial artist.

"Having a martial artist challenge quasi-martial artists—does No. 1 High School have no shame?" one student muttered, filled with contempt for No. 1 High School's behavior.

Everyone could guess what this was about.

They simply intended to take advantage of the other martial high schools' students not having broken through to martial artist yet, using their own martial artist student to ruthlessly crush everyone's spirit.

Or rather, they were mainly targeting the students of Third High School.

After all, the first student to break through to quasi-martial artist had come from Third High School.