Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15. Exceptional Natural Talent!
On the third day after Li Shan moved away—
which was also the fifty-first day since the servants began practicing martial arts—
evening had fallen. A crescent moon hung high in the sky, scattering a hazy silver radiance that brushed the upturned eaves around them with a faint, frosty sheen.
As time passed, the servants gathered nearby to practice gradually dispersed one by one, leaving the surroundings increasingly desolate and still.
Xu Yuan seemed not to notice any of it. He had immersed himself completely in his stance training, as though cut off from the outside world.
When he finished one full set of the Stone Platform Stance,
Xu Yuan opened his eyes and looked toward the panel.
[Skills: Taiji Fist Routine (Great Mastery 1%), Stone Platform Stance (Beginner 99%)]
[Aptitude: 5 (Somewhat Outstanding)]
“It will happen tonight…”
A sharp light entered Xu Yuan’s eyes.
Like everyone else, he had been stuck at this bottleneck for quite some time.
Fortunately, tonight, he felt something stirring within. That sense of obstruction from the bottleneck had grown thinner and thinner, and even the progress bar was only one final push away from breaking through.
“One more time!”
He glanced around. The figures nearby had already grown sparse. It was clearly deep into the night.
Xu Yuan paid it no mind. His posture remained steady, standing upright like a green pine.
According to Instructor Feng, once one’s stance technique reached a certain level, one could topple eight horses with a horizontal push and drag nine oxen backward by force.
He could not yet do something on that level, but if two or three ordinary men tried to pull him now, it would still be exceedingly difficult.
Xu Yuan focused with complete concentration. His stance shifted slowly, like an old ox rolling over, like a fierce tiger crouching to the ground.
Then suddenly, he heard a crisp pop from somewhere within his body.
At once, warmth spread through his entire frame. The position of the Ren Meridian in particular flared with a momentary burning heat.
After that came a sense of natural, unobstructed circulation opening wide, while his blood and qi seemed to let out a cry of joy.
At the same time, a current of heat surged through his body like a rushing river, coursing freely through every part of him. It felt as though he were soaking in a hot spring, every pore opening, his tendons and bones growing lighter by several pounds.
“I… broke through?!”
Xu Yuan was still immersed in the feeling, but he quickly reacted, startled, and immediately opened his status panel.
[Skills: Taiji Fist Routine (Great Mastery 1%), Stone Platform Stance (Small Success 1%)]
[Aptitude: 8 (Exceptional Natural Talent)]
Xu Yuan’s Stone Platform Stance had advanced to Small Success, while his aptitude had risen from 5 points to 8!
And most importantly, his aptitude evaluation had changed from “Somewhat Outstanding” to “Exceptional Natural Talent”!
“By now, I should count as a true genius, right?”
Xu Yuan clenched his fists, his eyes blazing.
In that single instant just now, it had felt as though countless sparks of thought had collided in his mind like drifting afterimages of words, each impact producing still more flashes of insight.
Those 3 additional points of aptitude might have seemed simple on the surface, but in truth they represented a qualitative transformation, nothing less than a complete rebirth.
People with exceptional natural talent were usually those rare geniuses who stood apart from the rest. They learned far faster than ordinary people, and their bodies were naturally more agile and powerful as well.
And then Xu Yuan immediately felt the enormous changes brought by this transformation in aptitude.
First of all, when he practiced the stance technique again, he could clearly sense exactly where the flaws were and where his blood and qi circulation was not flowing smoothly.
Recalling the details of Feng Xiao’s stance practice, his body naturally adjusted and improved as it followed those memories. The increase in efficiency was remarkable.
“So this is how the world looks through the eyes of a genius? It is unbelievably clear!”
Xu Yuan stood there in a daze, savoring the sensation.
It was like a nearsighted man suddenly being cured—his vision had gone straight from blurry to crystal clear.
“However…”
Xu Yuan pressed a hand to his stomach, his face turning a little drawn.
He got hungry even more easily now.
“The kitchen has long since been closed. I will just have to endure it tonight.”
Xu Yuan could not help laughing bitterly.
When others became martial artists, they did so under the gaze of everyone, glorious and radiant beyond compare.
Yet when it came to him, not only had no one noticed, but his first reward was having to endure a whole night of hunger.
Still, perhaps this was better. Xu Yuan had always felt that being too high-profile was not necessarily a good thing.
In the end, just to be safe,
Xu Yuan still found a slightly damp wooden board and pressed his palm against it. A distinct sunken handprint appeared at once.
“A martial artist at last!”
Even Xu Yuan, who was usually steady in temperament, could not keep himself from voicing his joy.
Then he thought back to all the days before—his low-key endurance as a servant, how even getting a bite of meat had once been something he could only long for, the unease of having the Wild Wolf Gang lurking nearby, and those countless days of strict, disciplined training.
“Only because of everything that came before do I have today’s result!”
Xu Yuan slowly let out a long breath of stale air. His whole body and mind relaxed considerably. Now that he had become a formal martial artist, he was no longer in such a hurry.
“To me now, Li Daqiang is no longer worth fearing. The only thing is that I still do not know the full strength of the Wild Wolf Gang’s leader.”
He had now become a martial artist, but his weight within the Shangyang Residence was still too light. There was no way he could borrow their power to directly wipe out the Wild Wolf Gang.
But at the very least, he had become a true part of the residence. That tiger skin could now be draped over his shoulders naturally, and the Wild Wolf Gang would at least not dare act openly against him anymore.
“Mm… after I speak with Instructor Feng tomorrow, I should still go home once.”
After thinking it over for a moment, Xu Yuan quickly made up his mind and reached out to push open the dormitory door.
Inside the dormitory, aside from Li Shan, who had already moved away, and Xiao Sheng, who was still outside practicing,
almost everyone else was lying in bed.
Some of them were still awake, but unlike before, no one was idly chatting. Instead, they stared blankly at the ceiling, their thoughts clearly elsewhere.
After returning from extra practice at night, they were exhausted in both body and mind. They no longer even had the strength to wash up, let alone bear the pressure weighing on them mentally.
There were only a few days left before the two months would be over, yet most of them had made barely any progress.
They had seen others ascend to the heavens in a single step, while they themselves would soon have to return to their lowly place serving others. The gap was enormous—so enormous that it was hard to accept.
Among them, Liu Hong was the most obvious. His face was dark and shifting, gloomy enough to seem almost dripping with water.
When he had first found his blood and qi, he had thought himself something of a genius.
But now, even at this point, he was still only tempering his blood and qi. He had not even seen the shadow of a bottleneck.
It could be said that he was fated never to become a martial artist.
So today, he had no mood to ask about anyone else’s progress either. In any case, everyone was more or less the same.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan likewise did not deliberately go over and announce that he had broken through to become a martial artist just to slap Liu Hong in the face.
Not only would that easily stir up trouble, it would also be utterly meaningless. After all, they would hardly have any real chance to meet again in the future.
Although even if he said nothing tonight, everyone would know tomorrow when he reported it before Instructor Feng.
But by then, who would still care?
He would already have packed his things and left.
Xu Yuan might choose silence and restraint, but others were not necessarily the same.
At that very moment, Tian Yang burst into the room in a rush, his face lit with undisguised ecstasy, and declared in a loud, ringing voice, “Why does everyone look so lifeless?”
“Just now, I suddenly felt something click in my body. Guess what? I broke through, hahaha!”