Rock-Still Stance at Minor Accomplishment

"Chu Yunjiang, I wonder what you're so pleased with," Cai Qingwen said coldly.

"That kid had barely entered the martial hall before Master valued him so highly. You'd better watch out. Don't let him snatch the position of seventh core disciple for nothing and turn all our efforts these past days into water down the drain."

"The reason Master has yet to decide on a seventh core disciple is because none of the current disciples have truly satisfied him." Chu Yunjiang was quite open-minded about it. "If that kid's martial talent truly is outstanding, then the identity of seventh core disciple naturally belongs to him and no one else."

"Can you really accept that?" Cai Qingwen pressed, unwilling to believe it.

"Not to mention that this matter has yet to settle into the dust." Chu Yunjiang added leisurely, "As far as I'm concerned, as long as the final winner isn't you, nothing else matters."

Those words were clearly meant to disgust him.

Sure enough, Cai Qingwen's face instantly turned black, and even his breathing grew several degrees heavier.

"Cai Qingwen, let me offer you a word of advice." Chu Yunjiang's tone deepened. "If that kid truly is as you say, and Master singled him out on his first day in the hall, then you'd best put away those dark thoughts in your head as soon as possible."

Otherwise, if Master found out and your Cai Family was dragged down with you, then when that time came, my Chu Family would show no mercy."

Both the Cai Family and the Chu Family dealt in tea and were direct business rivals.

If the Cai Family fell, the Chu Family would certainly benefit the most. Chu Yunjiang should not have said those words aloud, but with that bit of restraint in his heart, he could not pretend he had seen nothing.

"Chu Yunjiang, stop spouting bloody nonsense!" Cai Qingwen finally snapped.

"Heh. Do you think I don't know what kind of person you are?" Chu Yunjiang sneered, wearing an expression that said, "I know you too well."

The Chu and Cai Families had clashed constantly in business, and the eldest sons of the two families had naturally competed against each other in secret for years.

In Chu Yunjiang's eyes, Cai Qingwen's greatest traits were his narrow heart and filthy methods.

"Forget it. When I see that new junior brother later, I should remind him to beware of Cai Qingwen."

That way, I will have done everything duty demands and have a clear conscience."

"Hmph, Qian Biao, let's go!" Cai Qingwen snorted coldly and called for the pockmarked man to leave with him.

"Qian Biao, go find out that kid's background for me. I want to see exactly where he came from."

"Yes, Brother Wen!" Qian Biao hurriedly agreed.

"If he's merely a mud-legged nobody without any backing..." A vicious glint flashed through Cai Qingwen's eyes. "Then he can't blame me. What gave a mud-legged nobody like you the nerve to block this young master's path?"

Cheng Yang had no idea that he had already offended the Cai Family's eldest young master without realizing it.

At that moment, his mind held only one thing—martial arts.

Only with strength hard enough could one have a voice in this world. Cheng Yang took a deep breath, resumed the Rock-Still Stance he had learned that day, and emptied his mind of every distracting thought.

[Rock-Still Stance Beginner (15/100)]

[Rock-Still Stance Beginner (18/100)]

Time flowed over him without a sound. Cheng Yang was like a tireless machine, sinking into the stance frame again and again.

When he was hungry, he gnawed on several pieces of Breeze Wolf jerky. When his blood and vitality ran low, the jerky rapidly turned into energy in his stomach and replenished them.

Breeze Wolf meat truly deserved to be called exotic beast meat. It greatly improved his efficiency in martial training.

He trained until his spirit grew weary and dusk gathered from all sides, yet the proficiency on the panel still lacked that final bit.

Cheng Yang gritted his teeth and persevered.

Finally—

[Rock-Still Stance Beginner (99/100)]

[Rock-Still Stance Minor Accomplishment (0/500)]

Boom.

At the instant of breakthrough, Cheng Yang felt his heart thump heavily, like a war drum.

A dense, viscous stream of blood, thick as tribute silk, surged from his heart and rushed through his limbs and bones.

His muscles swelled slightly beneath his skin, tightened, and grew solid. His entire body seemed to have been stretched out by an invisible hand. He gained two centimeters in height out of thin air, barely reaching 1.8 meters.

"So this is a Skin Tempering martial artist who has practiced two stance arts?"

Cheng Yang examined himself and clenched his fists. His knuckles crackled sharply.

His physical abilities were more than twice as strong as before.

He stuffed several more pieces of jerky into his mouth. His stomach and intestines swiftly crushed and digested them, turning them into energy to fill the deficit caused by the breakthrough.

Of the eleven jin of Breeze Wolf jerky, he had already eaten more than a third.

This jerky was a great tonic. An ordinary person could last three or four days after eating just one or two pieces, yet he had eaten three or four jin in a single day.

In one day, he had ground the Rock-Still Stance from Beginner to Minor Accomplishment.

Should he tell Master about this tomorrow? Was this speed a little too outrageous?

But if he did not tell him, he would have no subsequent techniques to practice.

Forget it. Wasting time for the sake of hiding his ability simply was not worth it. One day of cultivation was worth a year; delaying for one day was equivalent to delaying for a year.

Besides, his strength was changing practically every day. If someone wanted to make a move against him, that alone was the greatest information gap.

"Thinking about all this and that only means I'm not strong enough."

Cheng Yang gathered his thoughts and patted the dust from his robes.

Meanwhile.

At one of the Golden Tiger Gang's halls, Li Qiang was reporting the day's events to Gang Leader Xu Chengfeng.

After hearing him out, Xu Chengfeng narrowed his tiger eyes slightly, revealing a trace of surprise. "Old Kui Street... produced a Skin Tempering martial artist from the Chen Clan Martial Hall?"

"Big Brother, I know that kid." Second Gang Leader Han Dezhu took over. "I heard Liu Yuan mention him. He had previously been nothing more than an apprentice at the Spirit Crane Martial Hall. He failed to break through the barrier, could not afford the tuition, and was expelled from the martial hall."

"Liu Yuan was his creditor. All the tuition money for his martial training had been borrowed from Liu Yuan."

"Liu Yuan had originally planned to eat that family clean, bones and all, but he was afraid that kid would jump over the wall in desperation, so he specially had Dong Hao stand watch at night. But I never expected that only a few days after failing to break through the barrier, that kid would succeed on his second attempt and break into the Skin Tempering Realm."

Han Dezhu changed the subject. "There's one point of doubt now. Where did that kid get the silver to pay the Chen Clan Martial Hall's apprenticeship fee? Twenty taels of silver isn't something a mud-legged nobody could produce."

"So, Second Brother, you suspect... that Liu Yuan and Dong Hao's deaths had something to do with that kid?" Xu Chengfeng's gaze darkened.

"That's right. But what I can't understand is, how could a kid who had just broken through to Skin Tempering possibly kill Dong Hao?" Han Dezhu frowned tightly.

"It truly is difficult to fathom." Xu Chengfeng could not make sense of it for the moment either. "But going by what you've said, that kid is indeed the greatest suspect."

"Tomorrow, I'll go meet him," Han Dezhu volunteered.

Xu Chengfeng waved a hand. "Dong Hao and Liu Yuan are dead, so be it. Second Brother, do not act rashly. If anything happens to that kid, the Chen Clan Martial Hall will certainly come looking for us immediately."

"I understand." Han Dezhu responded reluctantly.

He knew full well that the reason apprenticeship fees at such great martial halls were so expensive was that entering the hall meant not only learning martial arts, but also receiving the hall's protection. If a disciple met with trouble while studying, the martial hall would certainly step forward.

Before the great mountain that was the Chen Clan Martial Hall, he could only swallow this anger for now.

"However..." Xu Chengfeng changed the subject, his voice turning several degrees colder. "If we lose this battle against the Blackwater Gang, then the two of us will have no more scruples. When that time comes, even if I die, I'll drag that kid down to serve as my cushion."