Are You Deaf? I Said My Talent Has No Limits

Chapter 52. Conspiracy

‘But isn’t Instructor Xu supposed to be teaching the martial students? Why did he come here? Wait, there are three horizontal stripes embroidered on his shoulder, and even the color of his clothes has changed.’

Li Shun’s thoughts churned violently. Xu Yuan had actually broken through to the Third Meridian?

‘But how old is he? How could he advance so fast? Then what I did last month…’ At that thought, Li Shun felt even more like crying without tears.

‘Even if Instructor Xu did break through to the Third Meridian, why did he have to be assigned to the same training compound as me? Isn’t this just deliberately making things hard for me?’

On the other side,

Xu Yuan gave that student a faintly mischievous smile.

Seeing the expression on Li Shun’s face—worse than crying—he knew the boy was definitely panicking inside, afraid that he would make things difficult for him.

Xu Yuan shook his head and paid him no further attention. After briefly introducing himself, he began teaching the detailed essentials of Benlei Fist.

Now that there were no rear courtyard odd jobs to deal with, and he only had to take responsibility for the twenty people on this field, things were much less troublesome.

Afterward, Xu Yuan did not do as Li Shun had feared and go out of his way to target him. He finished the lesson as usual, then turned and left.

What a joke. His time was far too precious. With his next goal being the Fourth Meridian, he wished he could split every moment in half and use it twice.

Deliberately target Li Shun? Li Shun really thought too highly of himself.

And when he saw Xu Yuan leave, Li Shun let out a fierce sigh of relief. Still, during regular practice, he had better avoid getting too close. If he had any questions about martial techniques, he could just ask his roommates.

…

During the time that followed, Xu Yuan felt that the accumulation needed for the Fourth Meridian would take a long while. So this month, he trained even harder than he had the month before. Every day, he finished his basic teaching duties and left at once, using all of his remaining time for cultivation.

Other than eating, sleeping, and handling necessary matters, he devoted himself entirely to improving his cultivation.

With how diligent and enduring he was, everyone naturally noticed. They admired him quite a bit inwardly. Even after breaking through to the Third Meridian, he still showed no intention of slowing down.

Thus, little by little, Xu Yuan’s reputation as a martial fanatic began to spread. Whenever others ran into him on the road, they would whisper a few comments behind his back.

Xu Yuan himself did not care at all about such gossip and continued doing as he pleased. When Zhao Qiusheng saw this, he praised him even more highly.

Xu Yuan had already possessed considerable talent, and on top of that, he remained tirelessly hardworking. In that case, the rewards he would receive in the future would naturally be even greater.

Feng Xiao, however, advised Xu Yuan to slow his pace slightly and loosen the string he had pulled so tight. Xu Yuan agreed on the surface, but in reality, he changed nothing.

Feng Xiao had no choice but to give up. Every few days, he would send over some wine, food, and spirit beast meat to help Xu Yuan ease his pace a little.

And every time he came by, he only drank a few cups of wine, shared a simple meal, and then left without disturbing Xu Yuan’s cultivation.

Xu Yuan was quite moved by this and quietly remembered this kindness in his heart.

…

Yet while Xu Yuan buried himself in bitter cultivation,

Quan Xiong, out on the outskirts of the Prefecture City, lived in a state of constant fear and unease.

Ever since hearing from Liu Yue that Xu Yuan had already broken through to the Third Meridian, he had remained restless.

He was terrified that Xu Yuan might suddenly jump out from somewhere and kill him with a single palm strike!

Having been stuck at the Second Meridian for so long, Quan Xiong naturally understood the gap between those two realms all too well.

And besides, Xu Yuan’s parents really had died indirectly because of him. How could such enmity between them possibly be resolved so easily?

At this moment, Quan Xiong was beginning to regret it, feeling that the one hundred taels he had given back then had still been too little.

He had thought the situation was still under control, but who could have imagined that Xu Yuan’s rise would be so ferocious, charging straight into the Third Meridian!

“Ah…” Quan Xiong let out a sigh. The Wild Wolf Gang had now already been absorbed by the Bai Family, and there was no telling when they might be sent forward as cannon fodder to wear down the Shangyang Residence.

“Brother Quan, why do you look so troubled? What has you so worried?”

At that moment, a middle-aged man wearing a brocade robe with a red base and black patterns slowly walked in, his face carrying the confident look of someone with a plan already in hand.

“Brother Chen?”

Quan Xiong’s eyes lit up when he saw him, as though he had seized a life-saving straw. He hurriedly said, “We’re brothers who have gone through life and death together. You have to help me with this…”

This man was named Chen Qimei. In his early years, he and Quan Xiong had roamed outside as mounted bandits together. Later, after his cultivation improved, he decisively withdrew and entered the Bai Family as one of their martial instructors, living a very comfortable life.

Back when the authorities had launched a severe crackdown, it had also been this man who helped Quan Xiong handle affairs, allowing him to enter the Prefecture City and make a living there.

Their relationship was even closer than that of real brothers, so Quan Xiong immediately recounted Xu Yuan’s matter from beginning to end without leaving anything out.

“What? It has not even been six months, and he went from being a lowly odd-job servant to a Third Meridian martial artist? Are you joking with me?”

Chen Qimei’s expression changed at once, losing all of his former composure. As a martial artist himself, he naturally understood what that meant.

Take himself, for example. He had been stuck at the Second Meridian for many years, and only after serving the Bai Family for a long time and obtaining some rare medicinal treasures had he luckily managed to break through to the Third Meridian.

But Xu Yuan had reached the same realm as him in only a few short months, starting from nothing. What kind of concept was that?

That level of talent would not seem inferior even compared with the talented younger generation in the Bai Family inner courtyard.

“Brother Chen, you really have to help me with this!” Quan Xiong said when he saw the shifting look on the other man’s face. Then he added, “When the Wild Wolf Gang merged into the Bai Family, I only dared wade into that muddy water because I listened to you.”

Chen Qimei’s brows drew tightly together. He very nearly wanted to slam the door and leave the next moment. Who the hell still cared about brotherhood at a time like this?

By offending a genius who had already begun to cash in part of his potential, Quan Xiong, that bastard, had handed him a red-hot problem!

But if he did not help him resolve it, what if Quan Xiong steeled himself and disbanded the Wild Wolf Gang on the spot?

If that happened, the merit Chen Qimei had earned by recommending them would be wiped away. He might even be blamed for it, causing his overall work evaluation this quarter to drop and costing him his medicinal treasure reward.

And right now, he himself was at the bottleneck of the Third Meridian. If he failed this time, then once his body aged and his Qi and blood gradually declined, breaking through again would become even harder.

Moreover…

Xu Yuan was a man of the Shangyang Residence. Their Bai Family and the Shangyang Residence were already as incompatible as fire and water. Sooner or later, they were bound to clash. This time, it could also count as eliminating a potential threat in advance.

Countless thoughts flashed through Chen Qimei’s mind, and his brows gradually relaxed. Seeing Quan Xiong staring at him eagerly, he said irritably, “Why are you saying all that? If I, as your brother, do not help you, then who will?”

Then a vicious gleam flashed through his eyes. “Since we’re going to act, we cannot leave the slightest room for mercy!”

“I also have a few friends in the Bai Family who are at the same realm as me. It would be best to find a chance in the next few days and get rid of him…”

“But I heard from people that after that boy mastered both martial skills and fist techniques back then, he was awarded half a year of self-selected duty. Now he has been hiding in the Shangyang Residence the whole time and has not taken even half a step outside,” Quan Xiong said.

“This…” Chen Qimei was instantly speechless. He certainly did not dare charge into the Shangyang Residence to kill someone. That would be no different from courting death!

“Right, didn’t you say he still has an elder brother and sister-in-law?” he suddenly asked.

“That won’t work. Back then, even when I gave him one hundred taels of silver to reconcile, he was willing to agree, so it is obvious he’s a cold-hearted sort. Besides, the place where they live is not far from the Shangyang Residence either,” Quan Xiong said, shaking his head.

“He’s actually that cautious?” Chen Qimei was stunned after hearing this. He could not help sighing. That man was like a hedgehog—damn difficult to deal with.

“Then the only chance will be to wait until his self-selected duty ends and he gets assigned somewhere outside.”

Quan Xiong’s eyes rolled, and he suddenly said, “What if that boy breaks through again in these next few months…”

“Impossible!”

Chen Qimei cut him off decisively. Just hearing that possibility felt absurd to him, but he quickly suppressed the thought and explained to Quan Xiong:

“You haven’t reached the Third Meridian yet, so you do not understand how difficult it is. Going from the Third Meridian to the Fourth Meridian is the first major hurdle we martial artists encounter. Even someone with excellent talent will be stuck there for at least several months, if not a year or more.”

Quan Xiong could only smile bitterly again and again. He himself had been stuck at the Second Meridian for a long time, so how could he not understand the difficulty of bottlenecks?

It was just that Xu Yuan’s speed had frightened him too badly.