Zhang Ping returned to Iron Soul with only one feeling: he was poor.
The fees at martial arts halls were all too expensive. Even small halls charged between 300 and 500, and he would need to save for at least several months just to enroll in the most basic program.
"I wonder if I can apply to Liu Sishan for activity funds."
Zhang Ping lay on his bed and suddenly thought before falling asleep that the organization Liu Sishan belonged to was probably quite wealthy.
Over the next week, Zhang Ping's life became extremely regular.
He stayed at Iron Soul to study during the day, then continued investigating martial arts halls at night, while also identifying Heavenly Foxes for Liu Sishan.
The Cleanup Team did not act immediately after he identified a Heavenly Fox. Instead, they occasionally moved to eliminate them. It was only several days later that Zhang Ping noticed several Heavenly Foxes had disappeared.
The Cleanup Team had clearly taken action.
Zhang Ping knew very well that the Cleanup Team did not trust him. After all, Liu Sishan had never mentioned the name of her organization. The only reason he knew it was the Cleanup Team was because his Appraisal Technique had leveled up again.
Contract Gems could increase potential, and potential had three possible uses.
The first was gradually releasing potential through training.
This allowed him to continuously break through the limits of the human body and attain physical qualities ordinary people could hardly hope to match. If he kept training, he felt that one day he would be able to contend with Awakened specializing in physical enhancement.
The second was having a one-percent chance of awakening a new talent.
In a sense, Zhang Ping was quite lucky. After all, he had already awakened three talent abilities.
The third was upgrading his existing talents.
From "Unstable Appraisal" to "Stable Appraisal," Appraisal Technique was Zhang Ping's most frequently used skill, so it improved extremely quickly. Two days ago, it had evolved again into "Strategic Appraisal."
Strategic Appraisal could identify a target's faction or affiliated organization. If the target belonged to no faction, no faction would be displayed.
After the skill upgraded, he appraised Liu Sishan again and learned that her organization was called the Cleanup Team.
He had also finally swallowed his pride and applied to Liu Sishan for activity funds.
The day after he applied, Liu Sishan gave him 10,000 Pearl City Coins.
With operational funds, Zhang Ping planned to join a martial arts hall first and investigate the situation. Once he understood enough, he would try approaching several trustworthy hall masters and see whether he could recruit more fighting strength.
Midnight.
Zhang Ping came to Beast King Fist Hall once more.
Beast King Fist Hall was not actually the best choice. The problem was... it was close enough to Iron Soul.
Zhang Ping purchased the course for the first three forms of Beast King Fist and finally entered the inner section of the hall. The hall had five floors in total, two above ground and three underground.
Led by a young female attendant, Zhang Ping arrived at a room.
There were already quite a few apprentices in the room, but most were between twenty-five and thirty years old. Zhang Ping stood out among them until a boy about his age entered, making things slightly better.
"Hello."
The boy came up beside Zhang Ping and spoke.
Zhang Ping nodded. "Hello."
"You're here to learn Beast King Fist too?" Wang Jieming asked.
Zhang Ping narrowed his eyes at him and said dryly, "Unless I'm here to learn flower arranging?"
"Ah, sorry. That was a pointless question. My name is Wang Jieming." Realizing he had asked a stupid question, the boy scratched the back of his head and spoke awkwardly.
"Zhang Ping," Zhang Ping introduced himself.
Fortunately, the dry conversation ended there because the instructor arrived.
The instructor was a burly man who appeared to be between forty and fifty years old. In fact, most Awakened specializing in physical enhancement were huge and powerfully built, every one of them a muscle-bound brute.
The instructor had a full beard and wolf-like eyes. When he spoke, a pair of canine teeth could be seen.
While the instructor introduced himself, Zhang Ping directly activated Appraisal Technique, and the instructor's information was revealed.
[Appraisal Successful] [Name: Bai De] [Race: Human] [Affiliation: Beast King Fist Hall] [Potential: ?] [Lifespan: 159] [Rank: High-Level Awakened] [Level: 25] [Talents] [You Are What You Eat: Gradually alters the body through food.] [Advanced Skills] [Running Wolf Form: Draws out the body's latent power, gradually transforming into a wolfman form and greatly increasing speed.] [Berserk Lion Form: Draws out the body's latent power, transforming into a powerful lionman form and strengthening the body in every aspect.] ...
Very strong.
Judging from his attributes alone, he could almost rival Liu Sishan.
However, who was stronger between Liu Sishan and Bai De could probably only be determined through a fight. After all, it was difficult to imagine from the descriptions alone just how fast Running Wolf Form was or how strong Berserk Lion Form could be.
After Bai De finished introducing himself, he did not waste any words and went straight to the point.
"The first three forms of Beast King Fist are Ape King Form, Giant Crocodile Form, and Phoenix Claw Form. Like Pearl Fist, the three forms correspond to three creatures. Ape King Form is unpredictable and ever-changing. Giant Crocodile Form trains finger strength; once mastered, it can tear apart tigers and leopards with bare hands. Phoenix Claw Form also places extremely high demands on finger strength. I suggest learning Giant Crocodile Form first and Phoenix Claw Form last."
"Alright, now we'll begin the practical lesson. Follow my movements."
After Bai De spoke, he began teaching Ape King Form.
Ape King Form was not a style that imitated apes. It was a fist technique with extremely fast attack speed. It was called Ape King Form because of the meaning behind "a restless monkey mind."
The fist technique came with a corresponding footwork, and while learning it, Zhang Ping felt that this footwork was the true essence of Ape King Form.
During the first lesson, everyone learned slowly. They were mainly afraid of making mistakes, preferring to be slow rather than wrong.
Bai De taught the first move, then had the apprentices repeatedly practice it. He moved among them, constantly correcting each apprentice's mistakes.
When he came to Zhang Ping, he watched for quite a while before nodding. "Not bad. Keep going."
When he reached Wang Jieming, his brows immediately furrowed. He repeatedly corrected Wang Jieming's movements, but after every correction, Wang Jieming's form quickly became distorted again.
"Your feet. Watch your feet."
"Wrong. The point where your feet exert force isn't your toes, it's your heels. Watch carefully."
"Are your pelvis and lower body disconnected? Otherwise, how are you managing to move your upper body without your lower body cooperating at all?"
"..."
After teaching for more than ten minutes, Bai De was completely speechless.
He thought for a moment, walked over to Zhang Ping, and said, "Try sparring with him."
Sometimes, actual combat was the best teacher.
Some people were simply gifted. If made to study properly, they might not even get started after years of learning, yet they could improve quickly in actual combat.
Bai De was now hoping Wang Jieming was that kind of genius. Otherwise, teaching him the first three forms of Beast King Fist would definitely be painful work.
The other apprentices moved aside slightly as Zhang Ping and Wang Jieming faced each other.
"You may not use any other abilities. You may only use Ape King Form. Begin," Bai De said.
Zhang Ping attacked in an instant. He feinted to the left, then rushed in from the right to Wang Jieming's side. Wang Jieming immediately threw a punch on instinct. Like a monkey climbing a tree, Zhang Ping moved with his body pressed against Wang Jieming's arm, then punched Wang Jieming in the face. At the last moment, however, he held back and did not use any force.
"..."
Bai De looked at the two of them in the ring and finally sighed. Zhang Ping fighting Wang Jieming was like an adult beating up a baby. There was no suspense at all.
Clearly, Wang Jieming was not a combat-type genius.
The Awakened around them joked and laughed. Anyone with eyes could see that Zhang Ping was not merely holding back—he had held back an entire ocean.
Wang Jieming was about the same age as Zhang Ping, but the gap in their strength was far too great.
At the very least, Zhang Ping had already reached the beginner level in Ape King Form, while Wang Jieming had not even learned the basics.
"Alright, stop," Bai De sighed.
Zhang Ping clasped his fists. "You let me win."
"..."
Wang Jieming could only smile bitterly. The onlookers could tell Zhang Ping had held back, but as the one being hit, he understood even more clearly. Every time Zhang Ping's fist struck him, he had pulled his strength. Otherwise, Wang Jieming would have been coughing blood long ago.
"You're not suited to boxing. I can refund your tuition," Bai De stepped forward and said to Wang Jieming.
Wang Jieming hurriedly said, "Instructor Bai, I want to learn. Please believe me, I can learn it!"
"..."
Bai De was somewhat speechless. He truly did not want to teach Wang Jieming.
Every instructor could only teach so many apprentices. Teaching geniuses meant they could graduate quickly, while teaching deadwood required enormous amounts of time. With the same amount of time, he could teach three or four geniuses instead of one talentless apprentice.
"Let me learn for a few more days. Please, Instructor Bai," Wang Jieming pleaded with a miserable expression.
Bai De said helplessly, "Then five days. If you still haven't reached the beginner level in Ape King Form within five days, I'll only refund seventy percent of the tuition."
"Alright, thank you, Instructor Bai," Wang Jieming immediately agreed.
Zhang Ping was somewhat curious. Since Wang Jieming had no talent, why was he so determined to learn boxing? Judging from Wang Jieming's physique, he did not seem to be an Awakened specializing in physical enhancement either.
Out of curiosity, he simply used Appraisal Technique on Wang Jieming.
[Appraisal Successful] [Name: Wang Jieming] [Race: Human] [Potential: ???????] [Lifespan: 92] [Rank: Novice Awakened] [Level: 5] [Talents] [Diligence Makes Up for Lack of Talent: Learning ability reduced by 90%. Any skill can improve through persistent training. For every day of persistence, the growth speed of the same type of training increases by 10%, up to 1000%.]
So that was it.
After reading Wang Jieming's attributes, Zhang Ping finally understood.
It had to be said that Wang Jieming was completely a late-game Great God. Although learning skills would be difficult early on, once he got started and continued persevering, his growth speed would become faster and faster.
Moreover, Wang Jieming had seven-star potential. At worst, he would become a High-Level Awakened, and he might even become a Top-Tier Awakened.
This guy was a talent.
Although Mingzhu City had a large number of Awakened, most were actually Intermediate Awakened. High-Level Awakened and Top-Tier Awakened were extremely rare. Besides, Awakened were ultimately still flesh and blood. Illness, old injuries, age, and other factors would slowly weaken their strength.
Take Liu Tiefeng, for example. Although he was an Intermediate Awakened, he could not even defeat Zhang Ping, a Novice Awakened, now.
Even ordinary people could injure him if they caught him off guard.
Time spared no one. That was reality.