"Junior brother, are you all right?" Shen Yan hurriedly asked.
"I'm fine, Senior Brother Shen."
"By the way, training every day is so exhausting. How can we recover in just one night?" Chen Tie asked curiously.
Shen Yan took Chen Tie to the dining hall and brought out a bowl of pitch-black herbal decoction. "Junior brother, drink this bowl of black soup, and I guarantee all your fatigue will be gone by tomorrow."
After Chen Tie downed the bowl of medicine, he felt warm all over, his fatigue slowly fading away.
Only then did he realize that the martial arts of this world were certainly extraordinary.
After all, the tuition of fifty taels for three months was enough to feed a family of five for a year.
As usual, the dining hall served an evening meal. This time, it was a bowl of thin porridge and two meat patties.
That evening, he went home wearing his Fierce Tiger Martial Hall uniform. When he encountered gang members collecting protection money in the alley, they immediately reined themselves in.
Chen Tie silently approved of this tiger skin he wore, while his desire for strength grew even greater.
"Brother, you joined a martial hall?" Chen Xi asked happily when she saw his clothes.
Chen Tie nodded. "Yes. Once I've learned enough, I'll get you a bigger house."
"That's wonderful! You're the best, Brother."
The next day.
Chen Tie arrived at the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall early. Only a few people had reached the outer courtyard ahead of him.
He looked around. They were mostly children from poor families whose households had scraped together the money to send them here to learn martial arts.
After warming up, Chen Tie began practicing the Fierce Tiger Stance Art with great seriousness. Raising his hands, bending his knees, drawing in his abdomen-he performed every movement meticulously.
Gritting his teeth, Chen Tie practiced without stopping. Beads of sweat soon soaked his training clothes, and as he followed the breathing method, a faint mist rose from his entire body in the sunlight.
As time passed, the other disciples arrived one after another. Shen Yan looked surprised when he saw Chen Tie in the courtyard.
Most disciples who had just joined the martial hall were late on their second day.
"Junior Brother Chen really is a diligent, hardworking fellow."
"I wonder how many days this kid can keep it up."
When Chen Tie saw Shen Yan arrive, he immediately went over to greet him.
From that day onward, Chen Tie trained diligently under Senior Brother Shen, rising early every morning to practice alone and temper his blood and Qi.
Although the martial hall provided three meals a day, Chen Tie still needed extra food and bought meat for himself. As it happened, Shen Yan's family were butchers, and they sold it to him cheaply every time.
After all, martial training required a great deal of nourishment. As for money, after paying his tuition, he had six taels left from what Old Zhang had given him. Beyond that, he could only earn a little by running errands whenever he had time.
By Chen Tie's calculations, it should just barely cover three months of expenses.
Before he knew it, a month had passed.
[Fierce Tiger Stance Art: Beginner (35/100)]
Through Chen Tie's diligent practice, his Proficiency in the Fierce Tiger Stance Art had increased considerably. He reckoned he should be able to master the basics within three months.
His height had also increased from 1.65 meters to 1.7 meters. His build had visibly grown larger, and the contours of his muscles had begun to show.
Chen Tie was now the first to arrive in the outer courtyard every day, and everyone else had grown accustomed to it.
One morning, Chen Tie practiced the Fierce Tiger Stance Art diligently as usual, then lifted weights to train his strength.
Outside the courtyard wall, Mo Hong watched this astonishingly hardworking disciple and could not help nodding slightly.
He walked over slowly and asked, "You've been here a month. How do you feel?"
Chen Tie answered respectfully, "Elder Mo, I feel that I'm improving every day."
Mo Hong immediately extended his thin fingers and felt Chen Tie's bones from top to bottom. A trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes.
This lad works hard, but unfortunately, his bone structure is inferior. He probably won't succeed in Skin Refining within three months.
Mo Hong's expression remained unchanged. "Your foundation is already very solid. Starting today, learn fist techniques from Shen Yan. After all, training your blood, Qi, and strength is ultimately meant to lay the foundation for fist techniques."
Mo Hong thought that even if this disciple failed to make a breakthrough in martial arts, he would at least have some fighting skills. It would not be difficult for him to earn a living as a guard or something similar.
After all, outer courtyard students who had not broken through Skin Refining did not count as true disciples.
Clearly, this Chen Tie was no genius disciple, nor did he have any backing, so few people in the outer courtyard paid him any attention.
For his part, he focused on diligent training and could not be bothered to deal with the senior disciples either.
Chen Tie cupped his hands. "Yes, Master."
Mo Hong turned and returned to the inner courtyard. He took down the birdcage hanging from a branch and fed the bird a little food, his gaze occasionally passing through the window to survey the disciples in the outer courtyard. Then he sighed softly.
Chen Tie trained hard as usual, rarely resting as long as his body could hold out.
[Fierce Tiger Stance Art: Beginner (37/100)]
In the blink of an eye, another day of practice was nearly over. Chen Tie had practiced the Fierce Tiger Stance Art five times and also learned fist techniques from Shen Yan.
After finishing his training, Chen Tie was eating heartily in the dining hall when a disciple suddenly walked up to him.
"Junior Brother Chen, it's your turn for chores today."
These chores involved not only cleaning but also washing clothes, cooking, and finishing all the miscellaneous work in and around the outer courtyard.
Normally, two people handled them, but the other person had something to attend to today, leaving Chen Tie to do everything alone.
"All right, Senior Brother."
After eating, Chen Tie immediately began cleaning the grounds. The latrine, originally the hardest place to clean, had been altered following his suggestion last time: a wooden rod ran through a bucket, with water directed into it to drip slowly. It filled in roughly an hour, then tipped its water out, flushing the latrine clean.
There were no shortcuts when it came to washing the bowls and chopsticks, though.
"Senior Brother Chen, let me help you wash the dishes."
Chen Tie looked up. It was a newly arrived junior brother named Zhang Long. Like him, he lived in a small alley, and his parents had emptied their savings to send him here to learn martial arts.
"No need. I can do it myself."
"It'll be faster with two." Zhang Long sat down too and deftly began washing the dishes.
The two soon finished washing the bowls and chopsticks.
They walked part of the way home together.
Zhang Long asked quietly, "Senior Brother Chen, I'm actually learning martial arts to make money. My parents have emptied their savings for me and taken on quite a bit of debt. What are you doing it for?"
"To stay alive, to live better, and then to see how big this world is," Chen Tie blurted out.
Zhang Long froze at his words. After a moment of silence, he continued, "I'll learn martial arts and rise above the crowd, so everyone in my family can live a good life. Then no one will be able to bully me!"
Chen Tie turned to look at his somewhat stubborn junior brother and patted his shoulder.
"All right. Let's work hard together!"
Another half month passed, and Chen Tie continued training hard.
[Fierce Tiger Stance Art: Beginner (50/100)]
He could feel himself improving every day. At this rate, reaching the Skin Refining realm within three months was practically assured.
"Junior Brother Chen, take a break. Martial training requires a balance of work and rest too. Working too hard will hurt your body."
Second Senior Brother Shen Yan spoke with a serious expression.
"That's right, Junior Brother Chen. More haste, less speed."
On the other side, Third Senior Brother Xu Da echoed him, his arms crossed.
Over the past month and a half, aside from Shen Yan, he had been the closest to Chen Tie.
As for the outer courtyard's supposed eldest senior brother, Chen Tie only learned later that someone had beaten him to death while he was escorting a shipment.
At first, Xu Da had not thought much of this junior brother either. But after getting to know him, he discovered that this diligent, hardworking junior brother was actually very intelligent and had his own unique views and opinions on many things.
Thus, Xu Da wanted to befriend this junior brother.
Xu Da joked, "Junior Brother Chen, hard work alone is useless. In truth, it also depends on your talent."
"You might not know this, but Zhang Long, who only arrived a month ago, has already touched the threshold of Skin Tempering. It looks like he isn't far from a real breakthrough."
Chen Tie looked surprised at this.
Xu Da continued, "Elder Mo has already waived his tuition and even gives him special instruction often. I reckon he'll break through to Skin Tempering in the next few days."
Chen Tie could not help looking envious.
The differences between people really are enormous. But with Proficiency in hand, as long as I work diligently, I'll definitely catch up with him. I won't be worse than anyone.
That evening, Chen Tian went home alone. He noticed that the streets had grown even more desolate. Most of the people who occasionally appeared were gang members, adding an unseen measure of danger.
Late that night, Chen Tie suddenly heard footsteps outside the alley. They stopped at the gate to his courtyard, followed by a clattering barrage of knocks.
"Open up! Hurry and open the door! Wusheng preaching!"