Prodigy

Cai Qingwen did not have enough silver, so he could only leave Star Tower in disgrace.

Gritting his teeth, he calculated that if all else failed, he could only ask his father for help and see whether he could persuade that senior to act.

By the time he returned to the Cai Residence, it was already deep into the night.

Ignoring the hour, Cai Qingwen headed straight to his father Cai Qiming's bedroom and recounted the entire matter from beginning to end.

Yet what awaited him was not his father's support, but a fierce, head-on scolding.

"You unfilial son!" Cai Qiming slammed the table and rose. "Do you know how precious an opportunity for that senior to act is? It must be used on the blade's edge, not wasted playing house with you here!"

"Father!" Cai Qingwen hurriedly defended himself. "Not only did Cheng Yang seize my core position, he has humiliated me in public time and again. I can't swallow this anger!"

He exaggerated his grievances, trying to win his father's sympathy.

But Cai Qiming calmly shook his head. "Listen to me.

"You already spent silver to hire Star Tower's assassins to make a move once. What was the result? Failure.

"In my view, this matter should end here. Cut your losses in time."

He raised three fingers. "I'll give you three choices. First, spend silver to smooth things over and let the matter rest. Second, if he mocks you, endure it and pretend you never heard it. Third, leave the Chen Clan Martial Hall outright and join another one. Qinglin County has more than just the Chen Clan Martial Hall. Wherever you go, you'll still be training."

"I don't want any of those three choices!" Cai Qingwen nearly jumped up. "I just want him dead! Father, when have I ever suffered such humiliation since I was little?"

"If your skills are inferior, who can you blame?" Cai Qiming snorted coldly. "In my opinion, your mother spoiled you rotten from childhood. Now that Cheng Yang has come along to temper your disposition, it may not be a bad thing in my eyes."

"Father, how can you..." Cai Qingwen roared.

"Enough. Do not speak of this again." Cai Qiming cut him off, his tone beyond dispute. "Tomorrow, buy Cheng Yang a gift worth a few taels of silver and personally deliver it to his door. Put this matter behind you."

"A gift?" Cai Qingwen's eyes went round, his face flushing scarlet. "Not only will you not help me, you want me to give that bastard Cheng Yang a gift?!"

"You don't have to go." Cai Qiming had long since made up his mind. "Tomorrow, I'll personally make a trip to the Chen Clan Martial Hall, meet Cheng Yang on your behalf, and deliver the gift."

Cai Qingwen stared wide-eyed in silence for a long while before finally gritting out, "...Fine. I'll go myself."

He truly did not dare imagine his father personally delivering a gift to Cheng Yang—if anyone else at the martial hall saw it, would he have any face left?

"Too late." Cai Qiming settled the matter with a single hammer blow. "Tomorrow, I'll accompany you to the Chen Clan Martial Hall. It's decided. My mind is made up."

Hearing that, Cai Qingwen felt as if the sky had fallen.

The night was dark and still; all things were silent.

The courtyard of the Chen Clan Martial Hall lay empty, with only heavy, drawn-out breaths echoing through it.

Cheng Yang stood silently in the Back-Piercing Stance. The blood and qi throughout his body slowly boiled, turning him into a human-shaped furnace that radiated scorching heat from within.

His clothes had long since been drenched in sweat, clinging tightly to his body.

As time passed, his body temperature climbed ever higher, rising all the way until it finally halted at a critical threshold.

No one knew how much time passed before that intense heat finally began to recede. In its place came a strange sensation of clarity and connection, as though a river channel blocked for years had been violently blasted open by a flood. His blood and qi surged through his limbs and bones like a rolling river, flowing without obstruction.

The pores across his body seemed to awaken at once, greedily opening and closing as they inhaled and exhaled the cool night air.

Boom!

Something inside his body seemed to explode, then swiftly fell silent.

Cheng Yang slowly opened his eyes. Looking at the line of text that appeared before him, the corners of his mouth curled upward beyond his control.

After training all day, he had finally broken through.

[Great Mastery of Back-Piercing Stance (1/2000)]

With every movement of his hands and feet, strength so abundant it nearly overflowed coursed through his muscles and bones. It felt as if his entire body had been infused with inexhaustible ox-strength.

Cheng Yang clenched his fist and silently calculated. It had only been seven days since he had last broken through the Skin Tempering barrier.

Subtracting the two days in between when he had no stance techniques to train and had been forced to leave them idle, he had actually taken only five days to complete his breakthrough from Skin Tempering to Flesh Tempering.

And he had forced his way across with the foundation of four stance techniques at Lesser Mastery.

If others learned of this, their jaws would probably drop all over the floor.

"Now that I've reached the Muscle Tempering Realm, I need to spend time properly tempering my foundation."

Things like Gold Bone and Silver Bone would never satisfy him.

As someone with a cheat, Cheng Yang had to aim for something like Qin Wudi's Supreme Divine Bone. He set himself a goal: accumulate blood and qi in this realm until he reached his body's limits, then make his breakthrough.

The human body could be imagined as a container, with blood and qi as the liquid inside. Different containers could hold different amounts—one large enough for a thousand jin, another only five hundred.

What he needed to do was fill this "vat" of a body completely to the brim.

"I wonder how many stance techniques this body of mine can bear at most."

Cheng Yang was somewhat curious, but had no intention of continuing to train.

Too much was as bad as too little. Tonight's gains were already enough. He washed up and went to sleep.

Since coming to this other world without the distractions of electronic products, Cheng Yang's routine had become exceptionally regular. He went to bed early and rose early, far healthier than he had been in his previous life.

But the place where he slept tonight was not the dormitory, but his master Chen Feiyi's room.

Chen Feiyi had two residences. One was within the martial hall, while the other was in Qinglin County's bustling district.

His wife and second senior sister lived there year-round, while Chen Feiyi moved back and forth between the two homes.

Inside, the flame of an oil lamp flickered.

Chen Feiyi had not yet rested. He sat in the living room, slowly sipping tea, clearly waiting for Cheng Yang.

"You're back?" He took a sip of tea and looked up at Cheng Yang as he pushed open the door and entered.

"Yes, Master." Cheng Yang entered the room and went straight to the point. "This disciple broke through to the Muscle Tempering Realm today."

He said it frankly, with no intention of concealing anything. Hiding his strength? There was no need whatsoever.

He had two purposes in doing this—first, to let his master know his progress and secure greater resource support. The consumption of the Muscle Tempering Realm was many times greater than that of the Skin Tempering Realm. The resources he had on hand might seem plentiful, but once he truly began training, they would not last even a few days. Second, he wanted to use this opportunity to reveal his desire to participate in the Ascending Dragon Conference and ask about the registration process while he was at it.

Pfft!

The tea Chen Feiyi had just swallowed sprayed out in an instant, splashing across the table.

"W-what?! You said you broke through to Muscle Tempering?!"

Even Chen Feiyi, who had kept himself tightly wound for many years, could no longer hold it together.

"Yes, Master." Cheng Yang nodded.

Chen Feiyi looked his disciple up and down, without the slightest suspicion that he was lying.

He had personally witnessed Cheng Yang's feat of grinding the Rock-Still Stance to Lesser Mastery in a single day. That level of comprehension and talent for accumulating blood and qi could not be faked. But even so, only five days from Skin Tempering to Flesh Tempering?

What kind of monstrous prodigy was this?

For ordinary disciples, breaking through to Flesh Tempering in two or three years was already considered fast. Those who did so within a year could be called geniuses.

Five days? Breaking through to Flesh Tempering in five days? This could no longer be described as genius. This was a prodigy—a genuine, thoroughbred prodigy!

The hand holding Chen Feiyi's teacup trembled slightly. Complex emotions churned within him. He, Chen Feiyi, had actually taken a prodigy as his disciple?