Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14. Breakthroughs One After Another!
On the way back,
Li Shan wore a strange expression, clearly wanting to say something but holding back. In the end, he still could not help himself and said,
“This is odd. Why do I feel like Sister Sun became much more polite and distant today? She was never like that before.”
“For maids and servants, becoming a martial artist is no different from ascending to the heavens in a single step. Once a person’s state of mind changes, the way they treat others naturally changes as well. There is nothing particularly strange about it.”
Xu Yuan was quite calm about it.
After all, the three of them had never shared that deep a friendship to begin with. They had only practiced martial arts together in the same courtyard.
Now, there was merely a thin layer of goodwill left.
But if the two of them ultimately failed to become martial artists, even that bit of friendship would fade in time.
“No way. Sister Sun does not seem like that kind of person.”
Li Shan looked doubtful.
Xu Yuan shook his head and stopped bringing her up. “What matters most for us right now is still martial training. There are only about ten days left.”
At that, Li Shan perked up and said excitedly,
“I feel like that bottleneck is about to wear away. It will probably happen within the next three days.”
“You really are impressive, Brother Li.”
“And what about you, Brother Xu?”
“I think I am still just a little short.”
Xu Yuan smiled and glanced at the panel in his mind.
[Skills: Taiji Fist Routine (Great Mastery 1%), Stone Platform Stance (Beginner 83%)]
[Aptitude: 5 (Somewhat Outstanding)]
Ever since his aptitude improved, he had temporarily set aside the Taiji Fist Routine.
Even though his efficiency in practicing the stance technique had risen considerably, he still could not be considered someone with truly outstanding talent.
Once the old problems were solved, new obstacles naturally emerged.
And with time running short, Xu Yuan could only focus on the stance technique first.
“Fortunately, I have already touched the bottleneck.”
At that thought, a flicker passed through his eyes.
…
Two more days passed.
At the center of the rear courtyard, when the hour of Si arrived,
as Feng Xiao strode over with the gait of a tiger, Li Shan nodded to Xu Yuan, stepped forward, and cupped his hands.
“Instructor Feng, I have broken through.”
As he spoke, he picked up a wooden board and left a clear palm print on it.
“Excellent. In less than three days, another martial artist has appeared.”
Each additional martial artist meant another half-tael of silver in hand. Even Feng Xiao, who usually kept a stern face, could not help but smile at this moment and raised a hand to pat Li Shan on the shoulder.
A few days ago, Wang Huan and Sun Rong had broken through. And today, Li Shan had done the same. The servants in the courtyard had already been greatly stirred by this, but the stimulation did not end there.
Soon afterward, news came from the other outer courtyards as well. Several more people had broken through to become martial artists.
Four formal martial artists had emerged in a single day!
At that moment, the servants felt as if the blood in their bodies was surging upward. They wished they could compress every inch of time and use it for martial practice.
Even Xu Yuan could not help feeling his chest rise and fall. He was somewhat agitated, and it took several deep breaths before he calmed down.
By now, forty-eight days had already passed, yet eighty percent of them were still stumbling around in the stage of searching for their blood and qi.
Among them, a scattered few had barely touched the bottleneck, but whether they could break through within the final twelve days was far from encouraging.
There were also several who had already given up on martial training. To avoid being dragged off to work by Fatty Wang, they were now merely putting on a show and standing in their stances.
After hearing the news, the envy in their eyes had almost become tangible, and they bitterly regretted why they had chosen to give up in the first place.
But after the envy passed, these people quickly grew slack again. Their stance practice never reached completion, and they often made mistakes in their work as well. Clearly, they would succeed at neither.
After reporting his breakthrough, Li Shan returned to the dormitory to pack his things, and at the same time waited for Xu Yuan.
When lunchtime came, the servants held their bowls of rice and looked on eagerly as Li Shan walked out of the room neat and composed, their expressions full of mixed feelings.
The servants from his dormitory, wanting to leave a good impression, all congratulated him repeatedly despite the envy in their hearts.
Liu Hong’s face was tight as well, but he still forced out a stiff word of congratulations.
Even Tian Yang spoke with a sour tone. “Li Shan, I did not expect you to get ahead of me. But do not worry. With my aptitude, I will catch up very soon!”
This was different from the breakthroughs of Wang Huan and Sun Rong.
When someone from the same dormitory succeeded in a single day and changed his fate, the impact on them was greatest of all.
Chen Sanli from the neighboring dormitory also shamelessly came over. It was as though the earlier estrangement had never happened. He paid no mind to the strange and disdainful looks from the others.
He walked up smiling, congratulating Li Shan sentence after sentence, until Li Shan, who had previously been rather dissatisfied with his recent coldness and distance, quickly let go of his grudge and responded with a smile.
After a round of small talk, Li Shan bid farewell to the people from his former dormitory. Then he came with Xu Yuan to the entrance of the courtyard, luggage in his arms.
Patting Xu Yuan on the shoulder, he laughed and said, “Brother Xu, there is no need to see me off any farther. I believe you will soon become a formal martial artist as well. Keep it up. I will be waiting for you over there.”
“Then I will accept your kind words, Brother Li.”
Xu Yuan smiled in reply and waved him off.
At this sight, some people in the courtyard said nothing aloud, but sneers appeared on their faces.
The three of them had started on the very first day together. Had that little group not always stuck tightly together?
No amount of money could force its way in.
But what did that matter?
Now only Xu Yuan remained. Looking at him, silent and unremarkable, with the end of the month already so near, he probably had not even found his blood and qi yet. He was practically cut off from becoming a formal martial artist.
Xu Yuan naturally paid no attention to the reactions of others. He went to the densely stacked pile of firewood and calmly, steadily split one piece of dead wood after another.
…
Because the stimulation of that day had been too great,
many servants were anxious to the extreme. They wanted to ascend to the heavens in a single step, yet also feared being punished by the household servants.
So the practice method of seizing every spare moment once again spread through the outer courtyards.
Fatty Wang and the others were worried that something would go wrong, but they also could not forbid the servants from practicing martial arts.
So before long, they slightly reduced some of the miscellaneous work and “with great difficulty” squeezed out an extra half hour for the servants to train.
Even so, some servants still felt that it was not enough. They ignored the rules and continued practicing their stances while working.
Seeing that only a few stubborn troublemakers remained, the household servants did not waste words and directly cut off their meals.
In less than two days,
everyone behaved.
…
Driven by the pressure of time, the servants became increasingly diligent.
Xu Yuan even noticed that Tian Yang no longer bragged and showed off so often. Instead, he had begun practicing his stance with full effort. Clearly, the success of Sun Rong and Li Shan had made even him anxious.
After moving to the new courtyard, Li Shan still came by now and then to visit Xu Yuan and the others, his old acquaintances.
After becoming formal martial artists, they were obviously much freer.
Xu Yuan asked why he had so much free time.
Li Shan said that they would not begin collective training until this month had completely ended, so before then, they had nothing to do.
As for Sun Rong, after becoming a martial artist, she gradually grew more distant from the two of them. Li Shan had gone to look for her once, but after exchanging only a few indifferent words, the matter had ended there.
Li Shan had been rather angry about it, saying that he had misjudged her.
Xu Yuan, however, felt neither joy nor sorrow and was not affected much.
Now that he went about alone, he actually felt lighter.
At dusk,
Xu Yuan was practicing his stance in a corner. After several rounds, sweat had soaked through his clothes, making them cling unpleasantly to his body.
Only then did he stop and look at the panel in his mind.
[Skills: Taiji Fist Routine (Great Mastery 1%), Stone Platform Stance (Beginner 93%)]
[Aptitude: 5 (Somewhat Outstanding)]
“It is almost here. I will stop for today.”
Xu Yuan had long since touched that barrier-like bottleneck, but now he could only rely on his blood and qi to slowly wear it down.
As he saw the night growing darker, he slowly straightened his waist and back, revealing tight, full muscle lines. Compared with when he had first begun martial training, even the width of his shoulders had broadened by nearly half a foot.
He then stripped off his clothes with practiced ease and fetched water from the side to wash them.
Now that blood and qi circulated through his body, even in the depths of winter, although the water still carried a slight chill, it was no longer as piercingly cold as before.
After washing his clothes, Xu Yuan hung them on a nearby pole to dry and then pushed open the door and entered.
The moment he stepped into the dormitory, he heard Tian Yang talking grandly.
“Heh, Li Shan was only a little faster than me. It was just luck. Yet he keeps coming back here from time to time to show off. He is simply getting carried away with himself!”
“Luckily, only the tiniest bit of my bottleneck remains. I will break through and become a martial artist very soon. It should take only two or three days at most.”
Unlike before, when everyone fawned over him eagerly, the smiles on the servants’ faces now looked rather forced. Several martial artists had already appeared one after another, and now they still had to listen to Tian Yang boast again…
Their intense resentment and jealousy were like poison, frantically devouring them from within.
The fact that they had not cursed aloud on the spot already meant they still retained a trace of reason.
Liu Hong was chatting with someone nearby. Seeing this scene, a stiff smile appeared on his face. Beneath the wavering candlelight, his meaningful eyes flickered between light and shadow.
The expressions of both men were somewhat strange.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan secretly shook his head.
When it came to things like one’s progress and realm, was it not enough just to know it oneself? Why insist on announcing it and savagely provoking everyone else?
They were all servants of the same level, all training with the same hardship. In the end, why should only you be the one to succeed?
He knew very well how frightening that kind of emotion could be. When anger surged to its peak, people were capable of doing anything.
For some reason, he suddenly thought again of the story Sun Rong had told.
The little maid had possessed excellent talent and could be said to have already placed half a foot into the ranks of martial artists. Yet because she had been too high-profile, a tragedy had eventually occurred.
At that thought, Xu Yuan ignored the others. After extinguishing the lamp, he simply drifted into a deep sleep.