Zhou Chen did his utmost to stay composed. Looking at the woman in the bamboo hat before him, he said calmly, "Sorry, there's nothing I want here."
With that, he lifted his foot to leave. But before he could take a step, the woman suddenly chuckled. "Didn't you just tell the neighboring stall you wanted a martial art for toughening your body? I don't have any martial arts, but I do have a cultivation method that suits you extremely well."
Zhou Chen froze at her words.
Ever since he had begun practicing martial arts, all he had encountered were Stake-Standing Exercises and martial arts.
What was this "cultivation method," then?
The woman seemed to see his confusion. After a pause, she laughed again. "I nearly forgot. You people don't use that term here. 'Stake-Standing Exercise' is a name from long ago, and it slipped my mind. Very well, I'll explain the difference."
She stood up, drew a gold-covered booklet from the thick stack of books before her, and handed it to Zhou Chen. "Stake-Standing Exercises are cultivation methods, and cultivation methods are Stake-Standing Exercises. Both are ways of refining your blood vitality. But the way Stake-Standing Exercises refine blood vitality is nowhere near as ingenious or effective as cultivation methods. People who truly have the means generally practice cultivation methods to build their foundations."
"There's a distinction like that?" His curiosity piqued, Zhou Chen patiently listened.
"Of course." The woman nodded. "You have no idea how antiquated the term 'Stake-Standing Exercise' is. Only people around here still call them that. Elsewhere, if someone heard you were using Stake-Standing Exercises to lay your blood vitality foundation, they'd probably laugh out loud."
"Around here?" Zhou Chen looked at her and asked, "So people in Azure City practice cultivation methods rather than Stake-Standing