Mighty Far Hall

After the Huang Family finished assessing their bone aptitude, exactly ten boys remained out of the nearly two hundred who had come.

The boy with upper-B aptitude had the best potential and was the only one in the B grade. Second place went to the sole boy with upper-C aptitude.

Xu Yang's lower-C aptitude ranked third, though he was not alone: three boys had lower-C aptitude. The remaining five all had upper-D aptitude.

The old master who had examined their bones left immediately. Then another important figure from the Huang Family appeared: Huang Ping, the family's second master and the younger brother of its patriarch.

"Congratulations to all you young talents for distinguishing yourselves..."

Huang Ping looked amiable as he first congratulated everyone who had been selected.

Next, he explained how the Huang Family would support their training, with different levels of investment according to their aptitude grades.

The boy with upper-B aptitude, Lu Ren, received the most: eight taels a month toward his training.

Of course, they would not give him the money directly. It would come in the form of tuition, food, medicinal decoctions, and so on.

Upper-C aptitude received four taels a month. For Xu Yang's lower-C aptitude, the monthly investment was three taels.

Apart from the tuition paid to the Martial Arts Hall, his meal allowance there was one tael of silver a month, enough for meat at all three daily meals. He would also receive three bowls of body-strengthening decoction each month, worth exactly one tael of silver.

In other words, when the Huang Family sent them to the Martial Arts Hall to train, the tuition was lower than if they enrolled themselves: just one tael of silver.

As for upper-D aptitude, the investment was only two taels of silver. After one tael went toward tuition, the remaining tael paid for meals, with no medicinal decoctions.

Huang Ping said a great deal. He explained that once they became martial artists, they would have to become Attendants of the Huang Family, and that anyone who went back on the agreement would face the family's retaliation.

He spoke for a full quarter of an hour, only stopping when his mouth and tongue were dry. No one withdrew. They all accepted the Huang Family's support and the condition that they become its Attendants in the future.

After Huang Ping left, the middle-aged man who had appeared alongside Zhou Shunchang earlier returned. He was ready to take everyone straight to the Martial Arts Hall to begin training.

"Please wait a moment, Fifth Master. Let me have a few words with my nephew," Zhou Shunchang said, pointing at Xu Yang.

Only then did everyone realize that this middle-aged man also belonged to the Huang Family.

"This boy with lower-C aptitude is your nephew?" Huang Jin looked surprised.

Zhou Shunchang lifted his chin. "My own sister's son!"

Huang Jin smiled. "So he's one of our own. That's excellent."

Because of Xu Yang's connection to Zhou Shunchang, Huang Jin showed him goodwill.

Zhou Shunchang hurried over to Xu Yang. In truth, he had little to say. He simply pressed a tael of silver into Xu Yang's hand and urged him to train diligently and not squander this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity.

The ten boys soon followed Huang Jin out of the Huang Family compound and arrived before another large compound, from which shouts rang out.

"It's Mighty Far Hall!"

Looking at the three large gilded characters above the compound, Xu Yang felt a flicker of understanding.

His original plan had also been to come to Mighty Far Hall to enroll and train once he had the money. Of the dozen or so Martial Arts Halls in Qingyuan County, this one charged the lowest fees. He had not expected the Huang Family to choose it too.

The Huang Family had probably chosen Mighty Far Hall because it was cheap as well.

Following Huang Jin inside, the first thing they saw was an enormous training ground furnished with every kind of training equipment: stone locks, swords and sabers, plum-blossom stakes, and more.

A dozen or so powerfully built boys practiced their punches, their bronze skin gleaming as though oiled, sweat pouring down like rain.

Not far away, a man in white training clothes spotted the group from atop the plum-blossom stakes. He leaped down and landed without a sound.

"Greetings, Fifth Master Huang!" He strode over and saluted Huang Jin with clasped hands.

"Wait here quietly. I'm going inside to see Master Lin."

Leaving them with those words, Huang Jin departed with the man.

"I can finally train in martial arts!"

"I'm definitely going to become a martial artist."

Without anyone from the Huang Family beside them, the selected boys could no longer contain their excitement.

Although some of their families were reasonably well-off, they were not much better off than someone like Xu Yang, who scratched a living from the soil. Otherwise, they would not have needed to "sell themselves" to the Huang Family for a chance to train.

Naturally, they were thrilled to finally have that chance.

"Everyone, whether we're at Mighty Far Hall or with the Huang Family, from now on we're brothers eating from the same pot. We should join hands and move forward together," Luo Dehu declared spiritedly.

"Of course we should!"

"That goes without saying, doesn't it? Anyone with a working brain knows there's strength in unity."

As soon as he spoke, several boys chimed in.

His lower-C aptitude placed him in the third tier, so his words carried considerable weight.

Xu Yang watched coolly from the sidelines without joining in.

Even he and Old Xu Second, his own father, were not of one mind, let alone ten people meeting for the first time today. Merely eating from the same pot did not make even fellow travelers trustworthy.

Several others remained silent as well. Clearly, they had little faith in this sort of alliance. They were not truly eating from the same pot; they would be rivals in the future.

The Huang Family could not fund their training forever. Eventually, some would be eliminated, and some would have their resources reassigned to those with greater talent.

Although Huang Ping had not stated any of this outright, he had hinted at it earlier.

"Brother Lu, you have the best aptitude, and you'll be leading us in serving the Huang Family in the future. Tell us, should we stick together?"

Seeing no response from Xu Yang and the others, Luo Dehu did not mind. Instead, he turned to Lu Ren, the boy with upper-B aptitude.

Lu Ren was his real target. He was the only person Luo Dehu actually wanted to unite with.

Others might not know what upper-B aptitude meant, but Luo Dehu knew all too well.

Among the hundreds of thousands of people in Qingyuan County, even a whole year might not produce someone with such aptitude. He was a true genius.

"Of course... of course we should stick together."

Lu Ren's face flushed. He still seemed rather shy and self-conscious. Judging by the heavily patched clothes he had worn earlier, his family must have been very poor.

But things were already somewhat different. After discovering his upper-B aptitude, the Huang Family had given him a fine new set of cotton clothes, lending him something of the air of a young prodigy.

"Haha... everyone heard Brother Lu. Now let's introduce ourselves so we can get acquainted." Luo Dehu laughed.

The fellow had a born lackey's potential. Already carrying a hint of a dog throwing its weight around on its master's backing, he began issuing orders.

"I'll go first. My name is Luo Dehu!"

He spoke first, but before the next person could say anything, an angry voice rang out from a distance.

"If you want to bark, get the hell outside. Don't stand

here disturbing our training."

His voice was loud, and he had been jumping about and babbling incessantly. At last, he had drawn the displeasure of someone training nearby.

Xu Yang almost burst out laughing. The others also struggled to hold it in.

Luo Dehu's face turned crimson, but he was too frightened to talk back.

He was a man who fawned on the powerful and excelled at currying favor. Naturally, he knew that those training at Mighty Far Hall were "young masters" whose families could afford to send them here.

Even if they were not young masters, they had begun training before him. He could neither afford nor dare to provoke them.

He looked to Lu Ren for help. Though Lu Ren had been swept along by him, he was no fool.

Just then, Huang Jin approached with a burly, imposing middle-aged man, relieving his embarrassment.

That middle-aged man was none other than Lin Cheng, the master of Mighty Far Hall!