Pill-Popping Plan

Back courtyard dining hall.

The martial arts school's higher-ups were also eating at this time.

"The headmaster must have put quite a bit of thought into this batch. The disciples are all of excellent quality. I'd say at least thirty percent of them can reach the inner disciple standard within three months."

Lu Sandao had overseen the morning's test, and his words immediately drew no small amount of attention.

"Brother Blade, I saw a few whose families are fairly well-off. If they're willing to spend on medicinal soups, I reckon half of them can stay within three months."

Wu Yingcai was a generation junior to Lu Sandao, but both were Ninth-Rank Martial Warriors. In private, they addressed each other as brothers.

However, his words drew Xu Qingsong's rebuttal.

"Those who train by popping medicine in the end can hardly become great vessels. I still think more highly of the four disciples brought over from the Brokerage Guild."

As the deputy headmaster of White Ape Martial Academy, naturally no one would go looking for trouble by crossing him.

After all, everyone present had come out of the Brokerage Guild and benefited from that system. Yet now that the rules had changed, people like them had hope of taking another step forward.

The atmosphere turned cold for a moment.

Fortunately, someone soon broke the silence, setting their sights on Xie Guang, Chief Steward Xie, the highest-ranking person present.

"Elder Xie, you truly have a discerning eye. This Su Xinghe's fist technique is already no different from Third Guest and the others'."

Somehow, the matter of Elder Xie betting with an apprentice had spread around. It had originally been a joke for everyone to laugh over after meals, but today, seeing Su Xinghe demonstrate Golden Ape Fist in public, the perfectly rounded and flawless fist technique had stunned several knowledgeable higher-ups.

Xie Guang had not expected the topic to land on him. After thinking it over, he suggested:

"From the looks of it, this boy has already completely comprehended the fist technique. It is about time to teach him the mental method and combat method."

Someone immediately voiced a different opinion.

"Isn't that too early? He hasn't even become an inner disciple yet. Directly teaching him the latter half of the true art would break the rules."

At those words, Xie Guang abruptly rose to his feet.

"Rules?"

He swept his gaze over the bewildered crowd.

There was rare solemnity in his tone.

"Do you still intend to cling to the Brokerage Guild's old rules to develop the martial arts school?"

Seeing that everyone was still lost, he drew a deep breath and said in a low voice:

"We are all old hands from the Brokerage Guild, so I'll speak plainly. The martial arts school's current situation has turned some things completely around!"

He paused, his gaze sharp.

"Recently, haven't you barely seen the headmaster at all?"

Without waiting for anyone to reply, he revealed the answer.

"That is because the headmaster himself is running about outside, earning martial resources for us so the disciples can cultivate single-mindedly without distraction!"

"In the past, we earned resources for the Brokerage Guild. Now, the headmaster is the one raising all of us."

"I'm truly afraid... that if he keeps feeding us, he'll feed away everyone's fighting spirit and raise a pack of parasites that only know how to squander resources!"

"Some old rules are long overdue for change..."

At this, aside from the few who were unaware, everyone else lowered their heads.

Because they had all been so poor that they went outside the city to pretend to be Head-Chopping Bandits...

September's sunlight was still scorching.

In one corner of the training grounds, Su Xinghe had just finished a set of Golden Ape Fist.

"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, one hundred practices a day."

"Golden Ape Fist, experience +1"

The familiar prompt surfaced in his mind, and a warm current of Qi-Blood, heavier and richer than usual, surged out from within him.

"What's going on?"

He gently stirred his Qi-Blood and found that everything was normal.

Focusing his mind, he looked toward the Fate Panel in his mind.

Sets of data appeared.

At a glance, Su Xinghe discovered the problem.

Previously, with Golden Ape Fist at Perfect Mastery, relying on the Qi-Blood power brought by Listening to Tides Art,

each round of the fist technique increased the progress bar for Inner Tempering by about one-thousandth. Yet just now, that single round had increased it by two-thousandths at once.

Could it be because of that bowl of Bone-Strengthening Soup?

He secretly guessed to himself.

"Try again!"

Ten minutes later, the prompt appeared in his mind once more.

It was still that rich, warm current of Qi-Blood. Sure enough, the progress bar had increased by another 0.2 percent.

"Good stuff!"

Without stopping his fist technique, he continued testing how long this bowl of medicinal soup could last.

At the afternoon training grounds, Yu Miaomiao and her younger brother had somehow moved Liu Bin, the senior outer disciple. Under the blazing sun, he painstakingly taught the two of them fist techniques for over four hours.

Seeing the siblings occasionally glance over with pride written all over their faces.

Liu Bin had been very troubled lately.

He had been selected by the Brokerage Guild two months before Su Xinghe, but now he could only watch as this junior brother caught up step by step.

When the fist strength test results came out a few days ago, he had suffered an even greater blow. Su Xinghe had entered later than him, yet had already surpassed his results.

The martial arts school had always treated him neither warmly nor coldly. Recently, he could even feel Elder Xie's hidden dissatisfaction.

But what could he do?

He came from a small town, and both his parents had died early. He only had an older sister working in the city, washing clothes and cooking for a wealthy household.

He needed martial resources, even if it was only a bowl of medicinal soup.

Only then could he maintain his position as senior disciple.

Su Xinghe paid no attention.

After practicing twenty rounds of the fist technique, he sat silently beneath the shade of a tree.

That state from earlier had vanished halfway through his practice. In other words, the Bone-Strengthening Soup could only last one hour.

But that was already remarkable.

He planned to try drinking two bowls tomorrow at noon.

Three minutes later.

A familiar prompt appeared.

"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, one hundred practices a day."

"Listening to Tides Art, experience +1"

Focusing his mind, he looked toward the Fate Panel in his mind.

"Su Xinghe: White Ape Martial Academy (Outer Disciple)"

"Martial Path: Apprentice Grade (Inner Tempering 47%)"

"Fate: Diligence Makes Up for Dullness"

"Trait 1: Water-Tight, Unyielding"

"Trait 2: Many Grains Make a Tower, Success Follows Naturally"

"Listening to Tides Art (Perfect Mastery) 2152/10000"

"Golden Ape Fist (Perfect Mastery) 385/10000"

"Ascending Dragon Stance (Hall-Entering) 566/1000"

"Incomplete Red Lotus Treasure Vase Qi 0/10000"

Thanks to Golden Ape Fist at Perfect Mastery, the progress bar for Inner Tempering once again rose at a furious pace.

Together with Listening to Tides Art, which had reached Perfect Mastery even earlier, he should become a Ninth-Rank Martial Warrior in no more than ten days.

Of course, that did not include today's pill-popping method.

If the "Pill-Popping Plan" worked, then his breakthrough would come even sooner.

As for cultivating Listening to Tides Art, he could now maintain roughly three to four hundred practices a day.

Mainly because this art required no special movements and was not afraid of being interrupted midway. As long as he visualized Silver Fish in his mind, it counted as one successful practice.

Early the next morning.

At a wonton stall by Narcissus Street.

Su Xinghe was burying his head in breakfast when a thin, small youth hurried over.

"Boss, I think I saw Old Swindler yesterday."

"Old Swindler..."

Hearing that name, he froze for three seconds.

That old man who had once made Su Xinghe grit his teeth in hatred, whom he had wanted nothing more than to toss into Clearwater River to feed the turtles. Now that he heard of him again, he no longer seemed quite so furious, weighed down, or unable to breathe.

Perhaps the debt of forty taels of silver from back then had long since been repaid.

Perhaps forty taels were no longer worth mentioning to him now.

Or perhaps it was precisely the pressure of those forty taels that had given him such motivation to fight desperately in the Great River Gang. That was how he had caught the old gang leader's eye and been taught the Ninth-Rank true art, Golden Ape Fist.

And he truly liked White Ape Martial Academy's current environment.

Su Xinghe raised his head, the boundless seven-colored dawn clouds reflected in his bright eyes.

He lightly beckoned Little Beggar over.

"Come sit down. Have something to eat first."

Then he called to the stall owner boiling water nearby, "Boss, two more bowls of wontons and five portions of soup dumplings."

When the steaming soup dumplings were served, Su Xinghe wolfed down ten in one go.

"How is your Listening to Tides Art coming along?"

"Boss, I think I can hear ants crawling within three zhang now."

At this, Little Beggar immediately forgot about Old Swindler.

"Three zhang? Then you've already broken through to the Hall-Entering level. Have you seen Silver Fish?"

"Boss, what are Silver Fish?"

"Eat your buns!"