Chapter 42: Everyone Advances!

White mist curled above the bathing pool.

Zheng Fan sat in the water with a towel draped over his shoulders, only his neck and head showing above the surface.

The water, of course, did not come from a hot spring. There was nowhere around Tiger Head City to divert hot-spring water from. But after Feng Siniang’s careful preparation, soaking in it was still extremely comfortable. Even after staying in for a long time, his skin did not turn pale and wrinkled.

Floating on the water before Zheng Fan was a stone.

A tiny towel had been draped over the stone as well.

One man.

One stone.

They soaked there quietly together.

It was hard to tell which one was accompanying the other.

Quite some time had passed since Zheng Fan awakened.

Yet the Demon Pill was still a stone.

Zheng Fan was rather helpless about it. He could not tell whether the thing simply looked down on him as its father or was just too lazy to move.

Probably just lazy.

Mm.

That had to be it.

Tomorrow, he would officially begin cultivating.

For a moment, Zheng Fan felt both anticipation and unease.

What he anticipated was easy enough to describe in slightly chuunibyou terms: he was about to embark upon the path of cultivation.

One day, he too might move mountains and overturn seas, shatter the heavens with one fist and split the earth with one kick!

A peerless Martial Artist terrifying indeed!

But perhaps he had read too many similar stories in his previous life.

It always seemed as though the protagonist had to begin as useless trash.

Zheng Fan was terrified that he might turn out to be trash too.

After all, he would not be hiding alone in some mountain ravine while he cultivated.

There would be all these people standing beside him and watching.

Once people were watching, there was embarrassment.

Zheng Fan lowered his head and looked at the stone floating in front of him.

Call it a stone if you wanted the damned thing could actually float.

Heh.

Ignore me, will you?

Zheng Fan reached out and shoved the stone underwater.

Before long, the stone floated back up.

It even managed to keep the little white towel perched on top of itself.

Still ignoring me?

Zheng Fan reached out again and forcefully pressed the stone all the way to the bottom.

“Glug.”

“Glug.”

Bubbles rose.

The stone floated back to the surface once more, still wearing its little white towel, and leisurely continued soaking in the pool.

“Fuck!”

Zheng Fan grabbed his own towel and scrubbed his face hard.

Actually, he had no need to worry or feel irritated.

Because outside, six classmates were already frantically previewing tomorrow’s material so they could “accompany the Crown Prince in his studies.”

...

“So it works like this?”

Feng Siniang studied the routes embroidered across A’Ming’s body while adjusting her own breathing.

Her specialty was controlling threads.

That itself required extremely delicate manipulation.

Now, she began controlling the qi and blood within her own body, directing it according to the prescribed circulation route.

One blood vessel after another became a target of her control, stimulated from within.

A moment later less than half a minute—

Feng Siniang suddenly opened her eyes.

A flash of pink light bloomed from her body, then vanished.

Success.

Half-step Ninth Grade!

Beside her, Ding Hao’s mouth remained hanging open.

Because he knew—he could clearly see—that these people had never cultivated martial arts before.

They had been complete outsiders to the Martial Path.

Yet he merely explained it once.

They practiced once.

And then...

Ding Hao could not help thinking: if the subordinates were already this monstrously absurd, then what terrifying level of talent must their Master possess?

Ding Hao did not believe they had been concealing their abilities simply to deceive him.

First, when they rescued him, none of them had emitted the radiance of a Martial Artist while fighting.

Second, they had absolutely no reason to deliberately fool him.

What?

Had the whole group made a pact to show off in front of a cripple like him?

“Maiden pink. Not bad. I like it.”

Feng Siniang was quite pleased with her color.

Young women wanted to make themselves look mature.

Mature women wished they could remain young maidens forever.

“Doesn’t match your age,” A’Ming teased.

At the moment, he was a living specimen.

The stitches could not even be removed today because Zheng Fan still needed to see them tomorrow.

He was, quite literally, a walking textbook.

Feng Siniang glared at A’Ming.

“Still prettier than your menstrual red.”

A’Ming shrugged and started putting his clothes back on.

“Wait. I want to try too.”

The Blind Man Bei reached over and tugged on the clothes A’Ming had only managed to put halfway on.

“Blind Man, whether I’m wearing clothes or not, is there any difference in your ‘eyes’?”

“Life requires a sense of ceremony.”

A’Ming laughed helplessly and took the clothes back off.

His expression deliberately carried the indulgent affection of a father humoring his child.

“Tsk, tsk. Back when I had all those sisters working under me in the red tents, even they didn’t receive customers as frequently as you do.”

A’Ming shook his head.

“That’s a heartless thing to say. You should appreciate my sacrifice.”

The Blind Man Bei closed his eyes though whether they were open or closed made little difference.

His mental power began controlling the faint energies within his own body.

In truth, everyone had some measure of qi inside them.

An ordinary person who exercised frequently could vaguely sense it.

The most extreme method was to clench your right fist as hard and rapidly as possible for ten seconds, then suddenly open it.

You would feel something.

Of course, that sensation remained far too vague and indistinct.

The Blind Man used his spiritual perception to search.

His mental power handled the control.

He treated his own body as a machine.

Add fuel.

Feed the fire.

Begin... operation.

The Blind Man Bei took somewhat longer.

But he was steady.

Like a student who was not satisfied merely with solving the problem in front of him and obtaining the correct answer, he wanted to thoroughly understand the definitions and formulas behind it.

Others practiced martial arts through opportunity and talent.

The Blind Man practiced martial arts with science.

Slowly, he opened those eyes that looked exactly the same whether open or shut.

A wisp of gray light flashed across his body.

A’Ming sat up beside him, covered his mouth with one hand, and whispered, “Heh. The exclusive color scheme of a sinister old bastard.”

Ding Hao, sitting nearby, was already numb.

Deep doubts had begun to form inside him.

Never mind all the body-tempering he had done since childhood.

After entering the army, it had taken him a full five years to reach half-step Ninth Grade.

Even that had been considered fast among the troops.

Otherwise, he would never have managed to claw his way upward.

But these people one, two, three...

They did it in moments?

What in the world had changed?

A’Ming started putting his clothes on again.

The Blind Man Bei reached out and stopped him again.

“Don’t bother. Liang Cheng and the others are already here.”

A’Ming looked helpless.

Feng Siniang reached out and stroked A’Ming’s somewhat pale cheek.

Clicking her tongue, she spoke softly.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Poor little sister. You’ve had such a hard time. None of these men know how to cherish you.”

“...”

A’Ming.

Liang Cheng, Xue San, and Fan Li indeed entered shortly afterward.

The Blind Man might be blind, but wherever he stood, it was as though a radar had been installed there.

Nothing within a hundred meters escaped his notice.

A’Ming continued standing naked as their textbook.

Liang Cheng went first.

He closed his eyes.

He opened them.

Then, a flash of purple light flickered across his body and vanished.

Standing beside A’Ming, Feng Siniang saw the purple glow.

She and A’Ming spoke almost simultaneously.

“Prison-gay purple.”

Feng Siniang punched A’Ming lightly on the shoulder and scolded, “You’ve got some nerve saying that about someone else.”

“Are we seriously never letting that joke die?”

A’Ming asked helplessly.

In truth, it was not as though A’Ming had never wondered why the soap in his bag that day had happened to slip out at precisely that moment, and then—by another astonishing coincidence—slid directly to Liang Cheng’s feet.

Immediately afterward, the Blind Man had just happened to appear as well.

And considering the Blind Man’s abilities...

Heh.

“There are only a handful of us. We have to keep a few amusing stories around to talk about, don’t we?” Feng Siniang said with a laugh.

Among friends, someone’s embarrassing story was often dragged out and retold at every gathering.

“Then we can change stories. Like that time a certain number-one assassin under heaven ambushed his prey from behind and got a face full of shit sprayed at him.”

“Pfft!”

“Fuck! Ruthless!”

Xue San, who was circulating his qi nearby, suddenly swayed and nearly suffered qi deviation.

Fortunately, he immediately stabilized his mind and continued circulating his qi and blood.

Not long afterward, a faint green glow appeared around him.

Feng Siniang said, “Congratulations. The color of nature. It’ll help camouflage you when you ambush people outdoors.”

Xue San did not seem particularly fond of the color.

He looked at Ding Hao.

“Hey, can I change this color? Dye it, maybe?”

Ding Hao shook his head.

“I’ve never heard of anyone changing it. The color is tied to your fundamental nature.”

“...”

Xue San.

“AAAAH!”

“AAAAH!”

“AAAAH!”

Nearby, Fan Li dropped into a horse stance, continually releasing low growls from his throat.

“A’Li, don’t force it,” Xue San teased. “Careful you don’t shake the shit out of yourself.”

A’Ming said, “Then shouldn’t you move farther away?”

“...”

Xue San.

Finally, after roughly ten minutes, yellow light appeared around Fan Li.

And thus, aside from a certain useless pill that had been slacking off the entire time and was currently soaking in the bath with Master, the other six had all gloriously advanced to half-step Ninth Grade Martial Artists.

Ding Hao’s jaw nearly dislocated.

The others, however, did not seem especially excited.

“Fourth Lady, arrange for someone to take good care of Mr. Ding. Tomorrow, have Master come over and attend Mr. Ding’s lesson.”

“Fine.”

The Blind Man Bei led everyone outside.

Once they left the room and entered the courtyard, he stopped.

In truth, they genuinely had little reason to be excited.

Whether they could glow especially with a glow that only flashed once and vanished meant very little to them.

Each of them had their own path.

What they had just done was no more than reading a little extracurricular material while taking a break from their own research projects.

It was like a high-level mage or high-level assassin casually learning the beginner level of the Martial Artist system in his spare time.

“Did you feel it?” the Blind Man Bei asked.

Everyone silently nodded almost in unison.

The Blind Man Bei raised his head, turning his face toward the setting sun.

Slowly, he said, “We can only reach half-step Ninth Grade.

“That final membrane—that last bit of understanding—isn’t actually difficult for us.

“But we simply cannot break through it.

“There is an invisible barrier suppressing us.”

Even Fan Li, who had taken the longest, had needed only ten minutes.

Then... what about Master?

The helpless thing was, when other teams calculated a score, they discarded the highest and lowest marks, then averaged the rest.

Here, they discarded everyone above last place and kept only last place...

The Blind Man Bei sighed toward the setting sun.

“From now on, we must spare no effort whatsoever to help Master enter the grades!”

At that very moment, the last-place student who had no idea such enormous expectations had already been placed upon him was still soaking in the bathing pool with that stone.

Two maidservants came over and added more hot water.

As the temperature rose, last place finally seemed to abandon his contest of wills with the stone.

He released a long, satisfied breath.

“So comfy...”

Beside him, several strings of bubbles rose around the towel-draped stone.

“Glug, glug...”

---

(End of Chapter)