A Jaw-Dropping Rate of Progress

Yang Sheng wolfed down the medicinal meal.

After setting down the bowl, he picked up the bottled water beside him and gulped it down to wash the medicinal meal down.

Once he felt about sixty percent full, Yang Sheng stopped eating.

Eating too much would affect his training.

Now, he could gain one point of progress with nearly every elbow strike.

The Martial God Soul's enhancement effect was perfectly suited to this kind of technique.

One elbow strike was equivalent to a hundred.

Every Heart-Piercing Elbow brought fresh insights.

The more carefully he digested them, the more he gained.

Gradually, the only sound left around him was Yang Sheng swinging his elbows.

"Ha!" "Thud!" "Ha!" "Thud!"

The sky outside had completely darkened when Yang Sheng threw another Heart-Piercing Elbow.

His elbow slammed into the wooden board.

There was a sharp crack.

The board snapped in response.

[Bright Force (100/500)]

The Heart-Piercing Elbow had reached Lesser Completion!

Drenched in sweat, Yang Sheng lifted his shirt and wiped his forehead.

From Jiang Tian demonstrating the Heart-Piercing Elbow for him to grasping its fundamentals and reaching Lesser Completion, it had taken just over three hours.

"The Heart-Piercing Elbow truly deserves to be called the hardest move in Eight Extremes Fist when it comes to mastering force."

"Fortunately, I have the Martial God Soul's boost. Even so, it took a full three hours just to reach Lesser Completion. Under normal training conditions, that would take at least a month."

"And this is only Lesser Completion. For geniuses like Teacher Jiang, they could probably reach Greater Completion in at most half a month."

"And if I want to achieve the Force Penetration effect Teacher Jiang demonstrated, I'll probably need another full day of practice."

"Too slow. Far too slow."

Yang Sheng gritted his teeth.

"My talent is too poor. Only by working twice as hard can I get anything in return."

"Train! Only relentless training will give me any hope of taking the Martial Arts Entrance Exam in a month."

At the thought of the Martial Arts Entrance Exam a month away, the joy Yang Sheng had just felt over reaching Lesser Completion in the Heart-Piercing Elbow vanished instantly.

He was still only at Lesser Completion of Bright Force.

Since he had thoroughly offended Li Yan, Li Yan would certainly show him no mercy during the Martial Arts Entrance Exam.

If he grew complacent over such a minor accomplishment and slacked off in his training now—

Then he would never catch up to Li Yan, much less leave him behind.

If this were a race, Li Yan was already nearing the finish line.

While he was still only halfway there.

Only by flooring the gas pedal and chasing with everything he had would he have even a sliver of hope.

With that thought, Yang Sheng let out a long breath.

He picked up the wooden board that had just been broken by his elbow.

On the fractured surface, he found a distinct penetrating mark.

This was the impact created when the Heart-Piercing Elbow concentrated all its force.

A Heart-Piercing Elbow at Lesser Completion was like a spear, capable of piercing an opponent's body.

It could inflict severe penetrating damage.

But if he wanted to achieve the Force Penetration effect Jiang Tian had demonstrated, he would need to turn that spear into a sniper rifle.

Yang Sheng flexed his arms, which had already gone somewhat numb.

Then he straightened his back and began again from the horse stance.

He continued training with meticulous precision.

If Yang Sheng's level of effort during his three years at Martial Arts High School had been a five, then after awakening the Martial God Soul, his effort had not decreased but risen to a ten.

And after seeing Li Yan again today, that intense sense of danger drove him into a frenzied state of cultivation.

His level of effort had now nearly reached twenty!

And so, time passed second by second.

Nearly all the lights in the gym had been switched off, leaving only the one above Yang Sheng's training spot.

At his feet stood three stacks of broken wooden boards, each as tall as a person.

Any expert would have been able to see the progression in those boards: from the broad cracks at the beginning,

To cracks that became smaller and deeper, then to tiny dents on one side while the other became almost completely fractured.

If anyone said such an obvious manifestation of skill had been achieved in just a few hours, every expert would have had their jaw drop.

"Ha!"

With Yang Sheng's explosive shout—

The wooden board beneath his elbow was driven into the wall.

At the point where his elbow struck, there was only a coin-sized dent.

But when he turned it over, the other side was covered in dense cracks.

[Bright Force (153/500)]

The Heart-Piercing Elbow had already entered the hall.

Yang Sheng picked up the board and examined it carefully.

"Although it's still far from Teacher Jiang's result, I can already produce this effect of concentrating force at one point before bursting outward. All that remains is to slowly refine the technique, control the timing of my muscles' exertion, and practice diligently."

He looked up at the clock hanging on the wall and found that it was already eleven at night.

Only Yang Sheng and the Tianhai owner, who was dozing at the table, remained in the gym.

Yang Sheng walked over to the table and lightly knocked on it.

The Tianhai owner raised his head groggily. "Is it morning already?"

Yang Sheng gave an embarrassed smile.

"Boss, I'm really sorry. I got too absorbed in training and held you up from getting off work."

The Tianhai owner stretched and stood up.

"It's fine. I was expecting a shipment tonight anyway. There's a batch of new punching bags. They were supposed to be unloaded in the afternoon, but their people didn't show up until tonight. They're unloading them now."

Yang Sheng scratched his head and looked at the large half-pot of medicinal meal left in the dining area.

"Boss, can I have some more?"

The Tianhai owner said, "Of course. If you can't finish the rest, pack it all up and take it home. This stuff can't be kept anyway, and it'd be a shame to throw it out."

Yang Sheng gave another foolish grin.

He went to the dining area and opened the serving tray, finding that the medicinal meal was still warm.

He scooped out several large spoonfuls and began wolfing them down.

Now that he had started cultivating the more technique-intensive Eight Extremes Fist, he got hungry faster than before.

Even with something as filling as medicinal meal, hunger still came quickly.

Of course, that also had something to do with his cultivation efficiency being a hundred times greater than an ordinary person's.

After carefully finishing the medicinal meal in his bowl, Yang Sheng packed up all the rest.

After tidying the bowls and utensils properly, Yang Sheng prepared to leave.

"Wait."

The Tianhai owner called out to Yang Sheng, who was hurrying home.

"Almost forgot, I haven't settled your wages for today yet."

He took a stack of bills from his pocket, counted out five, and handed them to Yang Sheng.

"The arrangement we agreed on during the day takes effect starting today."

"Here's five hundred yuan. Fifty is your base pay, and the number of memberships sold today increased by quite a lot. Especially after you and Teacher Jiang left in the afternoon, memberships directly doubled. The remaining four hundred and fifty is your commission for today."

Yang Sheng accepted it readily. "Thanks."

After stuffing the money into his pocket, Yang Sheng strode out of the gym.

Just as he was about to head straight home—

He caught sight, from the corner of his eye, of three young men shoving around a gaunt middle-aged man carrying punching bags.

"You old bastard, you're so damn slow. How long are you going to take to move these two hundred punching bags?"

"I've already started timing you. I dock one yuan for every minute you're late. You're twenty minutes behind now, so I'm docking twenty yuan."

The gaunt middle-aged man hurriedly agreed, using his slack waist to shoulder a hundred-pound punching bag as he walked toward the gym step by step.

And when Yang Sheng saw the bag carrier's face clearly, he froze.

That man was his father.

Towering fury erupted from his heart.