Feng Qianjun stopped Wu Youren. His basic demand was to become the spokesman for the five hostages from the Red Pine Martial Academy!
He did not think there would be a problem with this part. For now, at least, the other party did not deny him that... that was enough.
Then he said, "Now that we're at the Martial Academy, our families can send us some money through other channels."
There was nothing wrong with that. The hostages' allowances were watched like hawks at Jin Garden, but things were different at the Martial Academy.
"My family... is poor," Wu Youren answered even more bluntly. Without his windfall grandfather, his family could not even afford twenty silver dollars!
Surely they knew that?
"I'm not after your little bit of money," Feng Qianjun stated bluntly. "What I want right now is for everyone to advance and retreat together."
"Of course we should advance and retreat together," Wu Youren replied without thinking. I'm not even fucking qualified to sell out Great Jin!
The Ancient Divine Poster did not lack self-awareness. With his strength, he could only cooperate.
Anyway, as long as money was not involved, they were all in similar straits, and he had no reason not to cooperate.
"There are martial instructors from Kang in your area," He Wenhao spoke up. "But I still wouldn't recommend taking a master."
Kang's relations with Great Liang were poor too, but it was normal for some people to be willing to serve Liang.
"Even if I wanted to take a master, I don't have the money." Wu Youren sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Do you really have to keep watching me?"
"If you don't take a master, you won't count as a graduate of the Martial Academy," Feng Qianjun said, clearly not entirely convinced.
This was easy enough to explain. Having studied at the Martial Academy was not the same as the Red Pine Martial Academy considering you qualified to graduate.
Jin held martial artists who graduated from Liang's martial academies in high regard, but there was a prerequisite: you needed a diploma!
Otherwise, anyone could take a stroll through a martial academy in Liang and boast that they were a talent.
"A graduate? I have to make it back first." Wu Youren thought this fellow was getting a little ahead of himself, but he could not be bothered to say more.
More importantly, something had occurred to him. "Oh, right, you can actually buy cultivation techniques here!"
Feng Qianjun and He Wenhao laughed when they heard that. "Do you think the people of Liang could be that stupid?"
What the Techniques Hall sold were only the lowest-level cultivation techniques and combat techniques and tactics. Advanced versions were not things anyone could simply buy.
You either had to study under a master or pledge allegiance to certain departments of Great Liang.
As for beginner techniques being rare even on the market? Rest assured, few who entered the Martial Academy were ordinary people.
Many of Great Liang's basic techniques had long since flowed into other countries. There was no stopping that.
Take Wu Youren, for example. Even without becoming a hostage, he could have found a way to buy some ordinary techniques in Jin.
But high-level ones? Sorry. Even at the Red Pine Martial Academy, only techniques for the Knight Apprentice stage were openly available for purchase.
As for cultivation techniques for the Knight stage, those could only be obtained through various channels.
What Wu Youren currently practiced was Great Jin's Gale Inner Breath Technique, which could lead straight to Divine Might Knight.
However, what he possessed were only the methods for the Knight Apprentice and Knight stages.
After advancing to Knight, if he wanted to advance to Great Knight, he would still need to go to Jin to find the subsequent techniques.
Red Pine's Techniques Hall was only responsible for getting people through the door, so naturally there was no pressure in passing those techniques on.
"Even that is pretty remarkable," Wu Youren could not help commenting.
If he had not become a hostage, obtaining even an introductory technique in Great Jin as an ordinary person would have been extremely difficult.
Here, money was enough to get one, and he could choose freely too. It really was worthy of being a mid-tier Martial Academy.
"Is your technique Blazing Flame or Gale?" Feng Qianjun could not resist giving him a pointed reminder: where did his loyalties lie?
"Gale," Wu Youren replied casually. "Don't worry, you two. I'll still have to seek the later parts from Great Jin."
"As long as you understand." Leaving him with those words, He Wenhao strode away with Feng Qianjun.
Wu Youren smiled and shook his head, taking none of their words to heart.
Circumstances arose from the mind. If he regarded those words as a threat, things would develop in that direction.
Then why not simply take them as a friendly reminder and leave it at that?
More importantly, those two had only just arrived, yet they had already figured out the situation at the Techniques Hall. They clearly had channels of their own, and he needed companions like that.
After returning to his dorm room and seeing his two frosty roommates, Wu Youren grew even firmer in his resolve.
At the Martial Academy, he could not possibly become friends with the people of Liang. He could hardly sour his relations with the Hostage Prince Corps as well.
Over the following days, he spent most of his time wandering here and there, prioritizing learning about the various aspects of the Red Pine Martial Academy.
In his two roommates' eyes, this fellow was neglecting his proper business. He had been here four or five days and had not attended a single open lecture.
Wu Youren had his own pace of doing things. Only on the sixth day did he attend a free open lecture.
The instructor giving the lecture did have some substance. At least, it was better than fumbling through cultivation on his own.
When the lecture ended, only one student stood up to ask a question, and the instructor gave a brief answer.
-If you wanted to know more, you had to pay.
Wu Youren did not seek that sort of limelight. He only wanted to keep as low a profile as possible.
On the eighth day, he attended another open lecture. Once the instructor finished, he slipped straight away.
On the ninth day, his communication watch vibrated. It was a message from the academy's mailroom: a package had arrived.
Wu Youren calculated the timing. It was about right, so his allowance should have arrived. Aside from that, there was no one who might send him a package.
He really had no idea where the mailroom was, so he could only pick a female martial artist at random and catch up to ask for directions.
His Jin accent was not particularly strong, but any male martial artist who could distinguish it usually treated him poorly.
There was nothing he could do about that. He could only ask female martial artists for directions-alone in a foreign land, he had to make good use of his advantages, didn't he?
Unfortunately, not all women cared about good looks. As a skinny dog, he sometimes met with disdain.
This female martial artist was fairly friendly. Not only did she point out the way, she said she happened to be heading in the same direction, then asked him all sorts of questions along the way.
As they chatted, three people approached from ahead. Hearing him speak, they paused. "From Jin?"
From the accent of those words alone, Wu Youren could tell that they were also from Jin.
"Mm." He gave a quiet acknowledgment, then nodded without saying anything more.
His attitude clearly said to keep away.
Meeting people from home in a foreign country was not necessarily a good thing.
Even if this really was a purely chance encounter, his own identity was highly sensitive. Why drag his countrymen into trouble?
Seeing his cold attitude, a burly young man with a scar at the tip of his eyebrow sneered. "Which family's young master is this, then?"
Wu Youren did not even lift his eyelids, acting as though he had heard nothing.
At those words, the female martial artist's eyes brightened slightly. After they passed the three, she asked, "Why did you ignore them?"
"People from a defeated country shouldn't be so conspicuous," Wu Youren replied mildly.
"Then you..." The female martial artist looked him up and down twice before asking uncertainly, "Is your family very well-off?"
In all honesty, judging solely by what he wore, she did not quite believe it.
At the same time, however, she hoped what those three people from Jin had said was true.
"Very... ordinary," Wu Youren said after a moment's hesitation.
Leaving aside the grudges of the previous generation, what his windfall grandfather had given him over the past eight years was a huge sum.
And with him coming here as a hostage, his family had been well looked after too.
He could not hide his family's true circumstances from his companions, but when dealing with outsiders, he could not say that his family was very poor.
His hesitation displeased the female martial artist a little. "I'm not after anything... my family isn't short of money!"
"Of course." Wu Youren smiled. "How could a poor family afford to support a martial artist?"
In the end, the two still exchanged contact details on their watches. She counted as the first person he had gotten to know outside the Hostage Prince Corps.
The female martial artist was named Cynthia. She was seventeen and also a Knight Apprentice, about to attempt the breakthrough to Knight.
After that, Wu Youren's life underwent a clear change.
At first, Cynthia was fairly restrained, chatting about information related to open lectures. She knew he was a newly arrived martial artist.
But after two days, she began discussing other things and even invited him to spar.
Wu Youren's perfunctory attitude was extremely obvious, stopping just short of openly showing impatience. Yet the more he acted like this, the more enthusiastic the female martial artist became.
On the seventh day after they met, Cynthia actually came straight to his dorm room!
"It's... the watch ran out of power." Wu Youren was quite speechless.
In the middle of the night, a female martial artist could actually enter the men's dormitory, but male martial artists... this was very unfair.
"It's my friend's birthday tomorrow," Cynthia stated bluntly. "If I don't have a male companion, I'll lose face!"
My heart is set solely on the Dao! Wu Youren thought for a moment before answering, "My mother said I'm not allowed to have a girlfriend before I advance."
He had no idea whether this world had a term for a mama's boy.
"Isn't your mother in Jin?" Sure enough, Cynthia was very surprised.
"Yes." Wu Youren nodded and answered seriously, "Before I came to Liang, she reminded me over and over."
"I thought she'd come to Great Liang." Cynthia was somewhat disappointed.
If his mother were in Liang, she could think of a way to persuade her. But Jin... that was too far away.
Then she forced herself to rally a little. "As for being your girlfriend, we're not at that stage yet. I just need a companion."
"You could consider me," one of his Liang roommates spoke up. His name was Salinen, and he was the tall, thin type.
However, he said he only looked thin because he was shooting up in height. There was not a single thin person in his Lineage.
It was just that his looks... were rather too rough-hewn.
Cynthia did not even look at him, instead fixing her eyes firmly on Wu Youren.
Wu Youren hesitated before saying, "I'd still need my mother's permission. Actually, even my marriage has to be decided by her."
Cynthia was clearly surprised. "Do women in Jin have such high standing at home?"
"At least, my family takes it rather seriously." Since Wu Youren had started making up stories, he was not afraid to make himself sound even worse.
"Our ancestral teachings emphasize that we must uphold male virtue!"
"I get it, a live-in son-in-law!" Cynthia actually caught on quickly, a look of longing appearing on her face. "I'm so envious of families like that!"
His other roommate, named Subar, could not quite stand watching this. "Don't listen to him. There's no such thing as male virtue!"
"Did your head get caught in a door?" Salinen glared fiercely at him and quietly gave him a meaningful look. "He's talking about Jin!"
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