Debt

The waiter's expression did not change. Without the slightest surprise, he smiled and held out one hand.

"Got it! Sir, take care!"

A traveler from out of town beside him tugged at the person next to him and asked.

"What does that mean?"

"Forked over! Two fingers stuck onto the tabletop make a Y-shape—that's a fork, isn't it?"

"Oh, it means he's running up a tab..."

Gao Fei walked a few steps before realizing that it was a habit of owing debts from his previous life.

He had never known there was such a gesture for owing money.

Penniless, he had no mind to look at anything else and hurried toward the west side of the city.

He had not gone far.

"Big brother, I'm hungry!"

A little girl of around six stared timidly at the buns in Gao Fei's hand and swallowed.

The girl was thin and frail, her hair dry, yellowed, and tangled.

"Here!"

Gao Fei took out two buns and gave them to her. Two were enough for a little girl.

Besides, he had not eaten his fill either.

System prompt: Merit Points +1

"Eh!"

Gao Fei quickly stopped and handed over the remaining buns—nearly a whole steamer basket's worth.

"Thank you, big brother!"

After thanking him, the little girl did not care whether the buns scalded her hands. She clutched them to her chest and ran into an alley.

Gao Fei waited for a long time, but no system prompt appeared.

"Does it calculate merit according to Daoist principles?"

The Dao gave birth to all things; virtue bore all things.

Only when one's heart and actions were as one, when one did good without seeking recompense, could it be called merit.

If that were truly the case, then methods like releasing animals or doing good deeds to rapidly amass merit would be cut off at the root.

He could only wait and test it next time. If that failed, then he could only overturn shrines and raze temples, slay demons and exterminate devils.

As he made his way onward.

The passersby on the street acted as though they had seen the God of Plague, all keeping far away from him.

The gate of a three-section courtyard stood wide open.

Gao Fei walked straight inside.

Some memories still remained. He still recognized people he met often.

For example, the three people before him.

"Second Uncle, I'm going to rest for a while."

"Come here. Where have you been loafing around these past two days? You're eighteen already, an adult..."

The middle-aged man was Gao Fei's second uncle, Gao Linyue. In his thirties and dressed in fitted martial clothes, he had broad fingers and carried an elder's intimidating authority whenever he spoke.

"Enough, stop talking. He finally came home to rest for a bit—don't make him worry. We've all been that age before, so say less."

The middle-aged woman advised with a smile. After speaking, she turned to Gao Fei. "Have you had breakfast? If not, eat something before you rest."

"I have!"

Gao Fei smiled, then headed for his own room. He was too tired to say much. After closing the door, he lay down fully clothed.

"Just look at this brat. Such a fine Pure Yang Constitution, yet he lost his virginity just after beginning martial training. I went through so much trouble to secure him a constable's post, but instead of doing his job properly, all he does is bully the innocent and tyrannize the market. He's going to anger me to death!"

The woman beside him interrupted the middle-aged man and comforted him softly.

"Enough. Don't be angry. He chose all this himself. We've already done all we could."

Turning around, the two of them began lecturing the sixteen-year-old boy beside them together.

"Don't learn from your cousin. Train properly in martial arts..."

Two hours later.

Bang bang bang!

"My lord, hurry and get up! It's almost time for the martial hall to distribute Qi-Blood Soup!..."

A shrill voice rang out. It was not loud, yet it carried with astonishing force.

Gao Fei dressed himself neatly before opening the door. A youth of seventeen or eighteen stood outside.

"Lead the way! And tell me about the history while we go!"

"My lord, the martial hall taught that when we learned to read..."

"I want to hear it. Tell it again. And when you speak, don't be so affected."

The visitor was called Lu Xiaoliu.

Along the way, Gao Fei came to understand that he was now in a world where demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters ran rampant.

A thousand years ago, immortals had still existed in this world. That had been humanity's golden age, and cultivators could often be seen flying through the sky.

Afterward, the laws of Heaven and Earth became complete. Spiritual energy grew too thin; low-level cultivators found it difficult to absorb spiritual energy, while high-level cultivators fell in cultivation.

Cultivators gradually disappeared without a trace.

Demons and devils ran rampant, and even ghosts began appearing in great numbers.

Demons and devils were also affected, but their bodies were powerful. Demonic cultivators had always killed people and refined souls, so they instead lived freely.

Several years later, the Great Gan Imperial House spread martial cultivation, declaring that everyone could cultivate.

Martial cultivation was the complete opposite of immortal cultivation. From the start, one had to temper the body and establish a foundation, forging a physique that conformed to the laws before one could draw spiritual energy into the body.

It was called the Four Body-Tempering Practices.

First, temper blood and qi; second, temper skin and flesh; third, temper sinews and bones; fourth, temper the internal organs.

Once Foundation Establishment was complete, one could draw qi into the body and enter the Spirit-Absorption Realm.

Without exceptional talent, an ordinary person could never reach the Spirit-Absorption Realm in an entire lifetime.

"Poor scholars, rich warriors" was no empty saying.

Many medicinal ingredients for Organ Tempering were over a hundred years old and only occasionally appeared at auctions.

The original owner's Pure Yang Constitution was a genius-level physique for martial cultivation.

Even so, a middle-class family would have to spend every last coin to complete body tempering.

For commoners, unless their talent was extraordinarily high, joining the Martial Suppression Guard was their only hope.

Yueyang County had more than two hundred thousand people, suburbs included, yet only a scattered handful succeeded in body tempering each year.

His second uncle, Gao Linyue, was an instructor at the martial hall: Organ Tempering Realm, the highest realm attainable by the middle class.

His second aunt was a housewife.

They had one son, Gao Yan, sixteen years old, who had entered the martial hall this year to polish his blood and qi.

Monsters did not have so many realms. Their first realm was divided into Awakened Intelligence and Unawakened Intelligence, with little difference in combat power between the two.

After Awakened Intelligence came Foundation Establishment, making one a "Minor Monster."

The Qi Assimilation Realm was the Greater Monster realm.

This young attendant only knew this much. He had never even left the area governed by the county seat. As a newly joined martial hall apprentice, knowing this much was already quite impressive.

They were not moving quickly, but the distance was not far, and they soon reached the martial hall.

Though it was called a martial hall, it was merely a somewhat larger two-courtyard residence.

The front courtyard was about the size of a football field, with no rooms at all. Two-person-high walls surrounded it, and all sorts of weapons lay to one side.

At that moment, two instructors stood in the middle of the sparring platform, with a large barrel before them.

Everyone whose turn came received a bowl, drank it on the spot, then went to stand in a horse stance nearby with flushed faces to digest it.

Gao Fei's second uncle was up there ladling the soup.

This time, no one gave up their place for him. They merely glanced at him.

No one spoke to him at all.

Gao Fei was happy for the peace and quiet. It soon became the two of their turn—the final two people in line.

Taking the bowl, he drained it in one gulp.

A wave of heat quickly spread from his stomach throughout his body, then was rapidly absorbed by his flesh and vanished.

He could clearly feel his blood and qi increase by a notch.

Seeing that the young attendant behind him had just finished drinking, Gao Fei immediately looked into the barrel. There was still quite a lot left.

"I'll take the rest?"

With only one month left to live, he needed to raise his cultivation desperately. Whoever tried to stop him, he would fight them to the death.

The instructor beside him also knew Gao Fei and knew of his relationship with Gao Linyue. He simply folded his arms and watched with a smile, saying nothing.

"Didn't you attend theory class? With your current talent, you can only drink one bowl of this medicine every ten days. Your realm isn't high enough to absorb it, so it'll just be wasted..."

Gao Fei did not argue. Seeing that his second uncle did not refuse, he walked over and picked up the barrel.

Gulp, gulp!

He drained it in several mouthfuls.

The heat was quickly digested. After sensing it, he estimated that, together with the remaining energy from raising his Yin Soul to the middle stage, he still needed around ten portions to reach the late stage of the Blood-Qi Realm.

After setting down the barrel, he burped. "Second Uncle, is there any more? I can still..."

Gao Linyue did not answer. Looking at Gao Fei's unchanged expression, he frowned.

With that amount, his whole body should have turned bright red long ago. Even standing in a horse stance, he should have struggled to digest it. How had he drunk it as if it were plain water?

Hearing his words, Gao Linyue was just about to lecture him when a young man's voice from the inner courtyard interrupted him.

"Instructor Gao, you're wasting the martial hall's things on a cripple like this!"