His Uncle Played Matchmaker

Xu Yang and Wu Yongfeng looked at each other's clothes, both feeling that the other looked much sharper.

"Come over here. Let me introduce you to the brothers."

Zhang Bo called the two over and began introducing everyone present.

Like them, these men had all recently been recruited by the Liu Family from martial halls. Most had only succeeded in gathering qi within the last ten days or fortnight.

A thought rose unbidden in Xu Yang's mind. What happened to the people who were here before?

Attendants like them, who neither married into the family nor formed marriage alliances with it, were supposedly free to come and go. Someone could leave at any time, so vacancies were normal.

But so many people leaving all at once was not normal.

Either the Liu Family had wronged these Attendants, prompting them to leave together in anger, or... the previous batch had all died, forcing the Liu Family to recruit so many replacements at once.

Sun Tao had not mentioned this. Xu Yang did not know whether he had deliberately concealed it, knew nothing about it, or simply felt it was unnecessary to bring up.

Looks like I'll have to ask around in private. If there's danger, I'm getting out immediately.

Xu Yang thought to himself.

He had barely warmed his seat here. Naturally, he had no loyalty to the Liu Family. If real danger arose, there was no way he would risk his life for them.

The two did not stay at the Liu Family estate long, as another shift arrived to relieve them.

Although the Liu Family provided rooms for them, those were only for resting while on duty. They were not allowed to live on the estate.

After leaving the Liu Family estate, the two returned to Mighty Far Hall to continue training.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye, and Xu Yang gradually settled into this new routine.

He spent his mornings at the Liu Family estate and his afternoons training at Mighty Far Hall.

Over those seven days, he never met the head of the Liu Family, nor was he sent out on guard duty. It was as though the job involved nothing at all beyond going to the estate for a meal every day.

As for his inquiries, he had learned nothing.

That day, Zhou Yang sensed an opportunity to break through, only to fail at gathering qi. The backlash from his true qi left him being carried out of Mighty Far Hall.

Two days later, his younger cousin Zhou Yuan also failed his breakthrough. Both cousins' efforts ended in gloom.

The cousins who had once ordered them around with such arrogance had become failures.

Another day passed. Xu Yang was sparring with Wu Yongfeng when he heard that Luo Dehu was attempting his breakthrough.

After letting Wu Yongfeng know, he ran to the Outer Court. By the time he arrived, Luo Dehu was already sitting on the ground, his face deathly pale, looking as though he had suffered a serious illness.

Zhang Hong, Zhang Yong, and Qian Jiaxing stood nearby, exchanging silent looks.

"I'm out!" Luo Dehu looked utterly lost, all his vigor and spirit drained away.

Only when Lu Ren appeared did a flicker of life return to his eyes.

Although he had failed, as long as he followed Lu Ren, he would still have food on his plate in the future. At least he would not have to return to the fields to grub out a living.

"Brother Lu Ren..."

He struggled to stand, but could not manage it.

Qian Jiaxing did not help him up, and Lu Ren remained where he stood.

"Go home and live as an ordinary man!"

Lu Ren stared at him for a while, then turned and strode away.

What use was a man who had failed his breakthrough? He could neither fight nor shoulder burdens, and would still cost money to feed.

Lu Ren was no wealthy young master. He could not afford to keep a lackey.

"Looks like those two months of bootlicking were wasted," Xu Yang said with a smile.

He was not the sort to repay hatred with kindness. Luo Dehu's fate only made him feel vindicated.

Luo Dehu's face grew even paler.

In the past, if Xu Yang had mocked him, he would have snapped back on the spot. Now, he did not even have the courage to look at Xu Yang.

After resting for a while, he staggered to his feet and disappeared from Mighty Far Hall for good.

Qian Jiaxing kept staring at his retreating figure. Who knew what he was thinking? Perhaps he wondered whether Lu Ren would kick him aside too if he failed his own breakthrough in a few days.

Zhang Hong and Zhang Yong rarely got to see Xu Yang. They soon put Luo Dehu's situation out of their minds and began chatting with Xu Yang in a corner, asking him for advice on breaking through.

Xu Yang held nothing back, sharing everything he knew. He also told them not to rush their breakthroughs. It would be best to spend more time tempering their bodies with the Turtle-Snake Great Stance and building up their blood energy.

"Xu Yang, I was wrong!"

Qian Jiaxing mustered his courage, walked up to Xu Yang, and bowed deeply.

Today, he had finally seen Lu Ren's true colors.

Xu Yang stopped talking to Zhang Hong and Zhang Yong, turned to look at him, and smiled. "No, you haven't realized you were wrong. You've only realized that you're going to fail and won't have anyone backing you in the future. You're scared, so you want to be friends with me again."

Even Luo Dehu, with his C-Grade Lower bone root, had failed his breakthrough. Qian Jiaxing's bone root was worse than Luo Dehu's, so his chances of failure were high.

Qian Jiaxing's face went white in an instant.

He was indeed trying to leave himself a way out. Even if he failed, he would still have a Martial Artist as a friend, someone he could rely on in the future.

"I'll be waiting for you in the Inner Court."

After saying goodbye to Zhang Yong and Zhang Hong, Xu Yang returned to the Inner Court to continue training.

[Techniques: Turtle-Snake Great Stance · Minor mastery (4/300), Mountain-Shaking Bear Fist · Minor mastery (6/500)]

This is too hard!

Nearly ten days had passed since he successfully gathered qi, yet his true qi was increasing at a snail's pace. Of course, this was mainly because he had no money for medicinal supplements and could only rely on arduous training and the nutrients he absorbed from food.

Things like Body-Strengthening Soup were no longer much use to Qi Gathering Martial Artists. What they needed was Blood-Energy Powder, or the even more effective Qi-Nourishing Powder.

Blood-Energy Powder cost two taels of silver per dose.

Qi-Nourishing Powder was even more outrageous, at five taels of silver per dose.

A single dose could equal seven days of arduous training. For someone with a good bone root who absorbed the medicine well, it could equal ten days or more.

Sometimes he even wondered whether he ought to live off a woman. Then he would not have to struggle so miserably.

"Comprehension, increase!"

After some thought, he put all the points he had accumulated over the past few days into comprehension.

[Comprehension: 27]

Another ten days, and my comprehension can rise another notch.

His true qi was increasing slowly mainly because his dietary and medicinal supplementation could not keep up.

His slow progress in the Turtle-Snake Great Stance and Mountain-Shaking Bear Fist, on the other hand, was mainly due to his comprehension.

There was actually a considerable gap between his comprehension and Lu Ren's. He had only been able to keep pace with Lu Ren before by relying on the panel to improve his techniques. Now that he was no longer using it for that purpose, his progress had slowed.

He practiced his fist technique for a while longer before an Outer Court disciple came over and told him someone was waiting outside.

"Cousin!"

Xu Yang went outside Mighty Far Hall and found his older cousin, Zhou Xia.

He had thought something had happened, but it turned out his uncle Zhou Shunchang had asked him over for a meal.

Seeing that it was about time, Xu Yang immediately left with Zhou Xia. When they reached Zhou Shunchang's home, his uncle had already prepared the meal.

"A Yang, you're not that young anymore. Now that you've made something of yourself in martial arts, it's time you started a family."

After they ate, Zhou Shunchang brought up the real reason he had invited Xu Yang over.

"Uncle, are you trying to introduce me to a girl?" Xu Yang asked with a smile.

He was at the right age to marry. As his eldest maternal uncle, it was perfectly normal for Zhou Shunchang to worry about his marriage.

Zhou Shunchang nodded. "That's right. A young lady from the Huang Family. They asked me to find out what you thought."

Xu Yang considered this briefly and understood. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "The Huang Family certainly knows how to work its abacus. They don't want to hire me as an Attendant, but they still want me serving them."

Zhou Shunchang glared at him. "What nonsense are you spouting? The Huang Family is willing to marry their daughter to you out of respect for your uncle."

Xu Yang did not take Zhou Shunchang's words to heart.

Although his uncle worked as a bookkeeper for the Huang Family, he was only an ordinary man and knew little about the dealings between Martial Artists.

He thought that a wealthy family's young lady taking an interest in a poor lad like Xu Yang was a blessing earned through eight lifetimes. He knew nothing of the twists and turns hidden beneath it.