Explosive Bear Force

Xu Yang held back his strength while sparring with Qiu Wenjie, but after only a dozen or so exchanges, Qiu Wenjie shouted his surrender.

He had only achieved qi gathering a few days ago and still lacked finesse in using his true qi. Lasting a dozen exchanges was already respectable.

"Senior Brother Xu, this is from my father."

The two stepped aside, and Qiu Wenjie handed Xu Yang three taels of silver.

"How about you stop giving me this from now on? You've achieved qi gathering, so the Qiu Family no longer needs me." Xu Yang did not take it.

Qiu Yongqiang had been willing to invest in him when he was weak, and he had always remembered that kindness.

The Qiu Family was simply too small-so small that it could not afford to support a martial artist as an attendant. Yet there were times when it might need one, so it had resorted to this arrangement: paying him without requiring him to stay at the Qiu Family estate, hoping only that he would lend a hand when needed.

Before, he had been able to accept the money with a clear conscience, because if anything happened to the Qiu Family, he would absolutely help.

But now that Qiu Wenjie had achieved qi gathering, the Qiu Family had its own martial artist. Taking their money again felt like holding something scalding, almost like the Three Harmonies Gang harvesting residence fees from the people of White Stone Ward. It was all hard-earned money.

"My father told me to give this to you. If I take it back, he'll definitely thrash me. If you want to return it, do it yourself."

Qiu Wenjie forced the money into Xu Yang's hands, then got up and left to continue practicing his fist technique.

The Qiu Family!

"Elder Brother, you wanted to see me?" Qiu Yongqiang cupped his hands toward his elder brother, Qiu Yongjian, who sat behind a desk.

Closing the ledger in his hands, Qiu Yongjian looked up at his younger brother. "Second Brother, I noticed you've withdrawn three taels of silver from the accounts every month these past few months. You withdrew another three today. What are you using this money for?"

"I'm using it to sponsor a martial artist I have high hopes for," Qiu Yongqiang said.

Qiu Yongjian frowned. "Three taels? What martial artist comes so cheap? Surely you haven't been swindled?"

"No. Elder Brother, let me explain..."

Qiu Yongqiang recounted everything in detail, from Qiu Wenjie first mentioning Xu Yang to him to all the events that followed.

"Second Brother, you've truly disappointed me. I know you want to strengthen the Qiu Family, but you should have discussed something like this with me. Leaving aside whether this Xu Yang is even worth investing in,

"You only give him money without requiring him to stay at our estate. If trouble befalls the Qiu Family one day and he stands by with his hands tucked in his sleeves, who can prove we sponsored him?

"End this sponsorship. Now that Wen Jie has achieved qi gathering, the Qiu Family can focus on nurturing its own martial artist. There's no need to let someone else reap the benefits."

After hearing him out, Qiu Yongjian immediately began reprimanding Qiu Yongqiang.

"Elder Brother, Xu Yang values loyalty and gratitude. If anything happens to the Qiu Family, he won't stand idly by," Qiu Yongqiang said with a frown.

He had known his elder brother would react this way, which was precisely why he had not told him.

"But now Wen Jie has achieved qi gathering. We should be putting everything into nurturing Wen Jie, not someone else. With our meager income, supporting even one martial artist is difficult. Do you know what spending another three taels means for us?"

Qiu Yongjian stared hard at Qiu Yongqiang until the latter lowered his head.

Of course he knew all of this. But once he had given his word, he had to honor it.

"Find a time to explain things to him. It's not that we refuse to keep our agreement. We simply don't have the money," Qiu Yongjian said.

"All right!"

Qiu Yongqiang nodded helplessly.

Bang, bang...

Sweat covered Xu Yang's body as he twisted and darted like a bear king, his fists striking the air with thunderous booms.

He felt his body growing hotter and hotter. His blood energy was like water on the verge of boiling, already approaching a critical threshold.

Explosive Bear Force!

He knew he was close to grasping the Explosive Bear Force of the Mountain-Shaking Bear Fist. With his comprehension approaching forty, understanding the fist technique was becoming increasingly easy.

Once he grasped Explosive Bear Force, his combat strength would increase dramatically. It was also a sign that his mastery of the Mountain-Shaking Bear Fist had reached a profound level.

From the day he entered the Inner Court, the senior brothers who had already mastered Explosive Bear Force had been helping Lu Ren comprehend it. He wondered whether Lu Ren had succeeded yet.

Boom!

At one moment, he felt as though his blood had exploded. His veins bulged, his muscles swelled, and his strength surged. Anger rose in his heart, and his true qi became like ignited gunpowder.

The great dragon of his spine seemed to come alive all at once, power piercing through it joint by joint with a series of sharp cracks.

"Has Xu Yang gone mad?"

A savage aura surged outward, startling Zhang Hong nearby into retreating repeatedly, afraid Xu Yang's fists would hit him.

"Quiet. He's comprehended Explosive Bear Force," Wu Yongfeng said, his face filled with envy.

He had achieved qi gathering before Xu Yang, yet he still had no idea how to grasp Explosive Bear Force.

"He actually comprehended Explosive Bear Force." Lu Ren looked incredulous.

Many senior brothers had fed him moves, sparring with him using Explosive Bear Force for more than a month. Yet it was only a few days ago, when he heard that his fiancée had been defiled by Jade Butterfly, that he had finally comprehended it in his fury.

He had never expected Xu Yang to master Explosive Bear Force through his own training just a few days later.

"Xu Yang's comprehension really isn't much worse than Junior Brother Lu Ren's," Zhao Zhifei said, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.

It was almost as though he were competing with Lu Ren. Whenever Lu Ren made progress in some area, Xu Yang immediately caught up.

Jiang Ping shook his head. "They're probably on par. Unfortunately, his bone root is far inferior to Junior Brother Lu's. What use is good comprehension? Cultivation is the foundation.

"There's less than a year left until the Martial Examination's dragon ascension. Without reaching great accomplishment of qi gathering, he won't even qualify to register.

"Look at his aura. The true qi in his dantian is probably only a third of Junior Brother Lu's.

"Forget reaching great accomplishment of qi gathering within a year. I doubt he could manage it in two or three. By then, he'll be over twenty, and he'll spend the rest of his life in a different world from us."

Gu Fang nodded along. "I admit I underestimated him a little, but he really is foolish. With comprehension like that, if he'd married into the Liu Family, even with a C-Grade Lower bone root, their wealth could easily have pushed him to great accomplishment of qi gathering within a year.

"He'd have had a chance at dragon ascension through the Martial Examination and might have amounted to something in the future.

"Now, this is all he'll ever be. With only a few taels of silver a month for cultivation resources, reaching great accomplishment of qi gathering in two or three years is probably a pipe dream."

Explosive Bear Force really is powerful. The aftereffects of unleashing it are rather unpleasant, though.

Xu Yang calmed his rampaging blood energy and true qi. His body gradually returned to normal, leaving him aching and weak all over.

Impossible to reach great accomplishment of qi gathering within a year?

That would indeed have been true before. But after obtaining the Vajra Skill, the rate at which his true qi grew had changed.

Mountain-

Shaking Bear Fist was, ultimately, only a fist technique. When it came to cultivating true qi, how could it compare to a technique like the Vajra Skill, which specialized in precisely that?

Even without relying on the panel, he was confident he could reach great accomplishment of qi gathering within a year.

He was not standing still.

His comprehension and bone root were constantly improving.

A year from now, both his bone root and comprehension would double from their current levels. His bone root alone would surpass Lu Ren's.

By his estimate, even if his bone root did not reach A-Grade Upper by then, it would still reach A-Grade Lower.

With his comprehension also reaching A-Grade, great accomplishment of qi gathering was only a conservative estimate. He might even reach marrow cleansing.

People like Gu Fang and Jiang Ping were not actually stupid, nor were they ignorant of the importance of comprehension.

It was simply that, while the comprehension Xu Yang displayed was decent, it was nothing exceptional to them.

To use a simple comparison, Xu Yang's comprehension was forty, while theirs might be thirty or thirty-three. There was a gap, but it was not large.

So even though the comprehension he displayed was about equal to Lu Ren's, few people thought highly of his prospects.

This was also why, on the first day, Lin Cheng had said that the most important thing in martial training was money, not bone root or comprehension.

For most people who successfully achieved qi gathering, the differences in comprehension and bone root were not especially great. With enough money, that gap could be bridged, or even surpassed.

If one tael was not enough, then ten. If the gap still could not be bridged, that only meant there was not enough money.

There really isn't much difference between thirty and forty. But what about thirty and eighty, ninety, or even a hundred?