The Strange Meat Soup!

Next came the transmission of the technique.

Lian Taoze was serious and responsible, breaking down every move and stance of the Stake-Standing Exercise and teaching it to him piece by piece.

Zhou Chen's comprehension was fairly decent. After a few rounds, he had memorized the framework. Once he finished a full set, a new line of text indeed appeared above the gray-mist Divine Statue in his mind.

[Realm: Skin Tempering Realm (Initiation) (1/1000)]

His heartbeat suddenly accelerated. Just as he had expected, if it could be displayed, then he could use Mist Incense to level it up.

Seeing how quickly he learned, Lian Taoze became even more attentive, patiently explaining in detail even the subtle intricacies of qi and blood.

After teaching him, Lian Taoze said he was going to practice martial arts. In reality, he went to pit crickets against each other, leaving Zhou Chen alone to painstakingly practice the Coiling Python Stance Technique. This stance technique was truly difficult. Before he had stood for long, his legs began to tremble and his muscles ached unbearably.

Yet Zhou Chen still gritted his teeth and persisted.

"Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles. Keep going, keep going!"

The entire morning passed in the blink of an eye. Zhou Chen wiped away his sweat, sat on a long bench, and looked at the panel before him.

[Realm: Skin Tempering Realm (Initiation) (3/1000)]

"Looks like my aptitude really is terrible!"

Zhou Chen could not help cursing under his breath. "A whole morning only gave me three proficiency points. Even if I train hard all day, I'll get six points at most! It'll take five or six months just to reach Initiation! Good thing I have a cheat. Otherwise, once three months are up, I'll have to slink away with my tail between my legs!"

"About time. Let's eat first."

As Zhou Chen pondered this, Lian Taoze came over and patted him on the shoulder.

"Alright."

Zhou Chen nodded, wiped off his sweat, and followed Lian Taoze to the side courtyard.

What he did not know was that Old Zheng was standing in a corner of the courtyard with his hands behind his back, silently watching him.

He secretly observed every disciple who came in. First, to examine their temperament and character; second, to judge the quality of their comprehension. A master like him only needed to watch a newly admitted disciple practice martial arts once to tell what kind of comprehension they had.

To put it more dramatically, one morning's performance could determine the path of martial arts for the rest of one's life.

"His bone structure is below average, and his comprehension is ordinary too. At this age, his muscles and bones have already grown fixed." Old Zheng frowned, shaking his head in disappointment. "It is absolutely impossible for him to reach Initiation in three months! Forget it. After three months, I'll keep him here to do odd jobs. At least I won't have accepted his Black Taisui for nothing!"

Lunch was indeed as Master Zheng had said. He ate at the same table as the Direct Disciples, not in the main dining hall but in an elegantly decorated little restaurant next door.

Pushing open the door, he saw several round redwood tables arranged in a scattered pattern. An unnamed spice burned in an incense burner in the corner, its smoke light and faint as it mingled with the steam from the food.

Several large pots stood in a row, filled with big chunks of beef stewed in crimson oil. The aroma assaulted their noses.

Zhou Chen filled a huge bowl. The fatty meat piled up inside, quivering and jiggling, making saliva flow uncontrollably.

After finding a place to sit with Lian Taoze, Zhou Chen did not say a word. He did not even care that it was hot, picking up a piece of meat and stuffing it into his mouth. In an instant, the fat burst open. The beef was soft and fragrant, its rich aroma filling his mouth. Blissfully, he closed his eyes, nearly moved to tears.

Fragrant!

Too fragrant!

Besides Miasma Poison, the worst thing about contaminated meat was that it tasted awful! Poor folk like them could not afford decent spices. In these times, spices were precious goods; only wealthy households could use them for cooking.

How many years had it been since he had eaten such proper meat?

According to Lian Taoze, the beef they ate was only lightly contaminated and contained abundant nutrients.

In the current age, cattle had been twisted beyond recognition by the Black Mist. Some grew two heads, some sprouted four horns, and their temperaments became violent and carnivorous.

The kind they ate had merely grown an extra row of udders.

That row of udders extended from the cow's belly all the way to the roots of its legs, packed tightly together like a string of pale grapes hanging beneath its hide.

The benefit was that they produced more milk. The milk squeezed from them was thick, fishy, and gamey, yet it left behind a strange sweetness once swallowed. It was said to nourish beauty and preserve youth as well. Naturally, its price was outrageously high; ordinary families could not drink even one bowl of it in an entire year.

When Lian Taoze said this, a trace of pride actually appeared on his face, as though being able to eat such beef was an immensely prestigious thing. Then he suddenly lowered his voice, leaned closer, and muttered, "Do you know why Master Zheng doesn't raise cattle in our martial hall?"

"Why?"

Zhou Chen asked indistinctly through a mouthful of food.

"Ha!" Lian Taoze slapped his thigh, smiling rather strangely. "We practice fist arts, and Master Zheng requires us to guard the yang gate and avoid leaking primordial yang whenever possible. Holding it in gets uncomfortable, you know. After a while, lots of disciples start... feeling something when they see female cows. Master Zheng wouldn't dare raise cattle here!"

"..."

Zhou Chen's chopsticks paused. Not knowing what to say, he chose to keep his head down and continue eating. This was truly good meat. He had already eaten two bowls, yet the Divine Statue in his mind had only absorbed a tiny bit of Miasma Poison.

It had been a long time since he had eaten such flavorful food. Unfortunately, he could eat as much as he wanted here, but he could not take any away. Otherwise, he could have brought some back for his father, mother, and younger sister.

But then Zhou Chen thought again: once he became a Martial Warrior, would he not be able to let his family live good lives in the future?

At that moment, Lian Taoze brought over another bowl of Qi-Blood Soup brewed through a secret method. It contained chunks that looked like fatty meat, yet tasted like jelly, and he urged Zhou Chen to drink it quickly.

Zhou Chen happened to be a little choked up, so he lifted the bowl and gulped it all down in one go.

"Refreshing!"

A current of warmth slid down his throat into his stomach, and he instantly felt all four limbs and every bone in his body grow warm. Most importantly, he discovered that there was even less Miasma Poison in this meat soup!

"Senior Brother, what kind of meat is this?"

Zhou Chen wiped his mouth and asked curiously.

But Lian Taoze kept him in suspense. "Better not ask yet. Just eat. This is good stuff cut from the Meat Field. Only Direct Disciples get to eat it. Others can wish all they want, but they won't have that blessing! Once you're qualified to follow me out and cut meat, you'll naturally understand what it is."

"Meat Field? Cutting meat?"

Zhou Chen silently committed the words to memory.

This world truly was different from what he had imagined.

While eating, he suddenly caught a fragrant breeze. Looking up, he saw a girl approaching in a fitted white martial outfit. Her brows and eyes were picturesque, her skin as pale as jade, and her black hair was pinned up with a jade hairpin. She seemed like someone who had stepped out of a painting.

She was a very beautiful woman, carrying an innate air of cold aloofness.

Lian Taoze leaned over, waggled his eyebrows, and lowered his voice. "Pretty, right? She's your Second Senior Sister, Su Mengyao, the daughter of the Su family, one of the four great Lineages of the Outer City. It's just that she's a little cold by nature and ignores everyone."

Zhou Chen nodded. He knew of the four great Lineages of the Outer City Lian Taoze spoke of: the Su, Cheng, Li, and Sun families. To people of the Outer City, they were equivalent to the heavens.

After pausing, Lian Taoze added, "Stop staring. Be careful, or she'll get angry and dig out your eyeballs."

Zhou Chen was rather speechless.

He had merely given her an appreciative glance before lowering his head and continuing to eat. His strength was not sufficient yet, and he knew his own limits well.

His senior brother, on the other hand, looked as though his eyeballs wanted to stick to her.

But Zhou Chen understood that there was no such thing as an iceberg beauty. Take the various socialites and beauties from his previous life, for example. Many people thought they were proud and cold, too scared to utter an extra word before them. Yet in front of rich second-generation heirs, these women turned into lapdogs and became their playthings.

It was not that women were too cold; it was that your strength was insufficient.

So once his strength was sufficient, what woman could he not have?

After Su Mengyao finished eating, she went off to cultivate. No one spoke to her along the way.

Several more Direct Disciples arrived one after another.

Lian Taoze introduced them one by one, and only then did Zhou Chen gain a basic understanding of the martial hall.

Master Zheng had five Direct Disciples under him in total, one of whom was away year-round. There were more than twenty Ordinary Disciples, while Registered Disciples numbered over a hundred throughout the year.

At first, when some people saw an unfamiliar face in the little restaurant, they thought Master Zheng had taken in another Direct Disciple and came over smiling, hoping to make his acquaintance.

But when Lian Taoze added that Zhou Chen had exchanged a treasure for one year of Direct Disciple status, and that he came from an ordinary background with merely below-average bone structure, those smiles vanished completely.

No one paid him any more attention, and they dispersed on their own.

Every world had deep divisions of status. If you had no value worth befriending, why should others curry favor with you? It would only waste time and energy. Zhou Chen did not feel uncomfortable about it.

If anything, this only made Lian Taoze's easygoing nature stand out all the more.