Soon, the four of them arrived at the General Affairs Hall.
Han Shaoliang strode inside and called out to the fat deacon behind the counter, “Old Yang! Help me collect this month's cultivation resources for these three junior brothers.”
“Old Han, leading new disciples again this year?” The fat deacon replied with a smile, then looked at Yan Pingsheng and the other two. “Give me your disciple tokens.”
“Yeah, I had nothing better to do,” Han Shaoliang laughed, leaning his hands on the counter.
As they chatted, the fat deacon flipped through a ledger to match the information on the three tokens. He then picked up a writing brush, dipped it in ink, and made a couple of marks on them.
“Oh? There's actually a second-place winner from the Outer Court this year.” The fat deacon smiled warmly at Yan Pingsheng.
Hearing this, Han Shaoliang also looked at Yan Pingsheng in surprise.
“Not bad, Junior Brother Yan. You're actually a little genius.”
Zhuang Xun smiled. “I was just lucky. I got a bye in both rounds and managed to snag second place by pure chance.”
“Wow, with luck like that, I'll definitely have to bring you along next time I play cards with those guys. The two of us can make a killing off them.” Han Shaoliang draped an arm over Yan Pingsheng's shoulder and joked.
I could teach you a wonderful little trick with an extremely high win rate, but the price of being a caster is losing a few fingers... Zhuang Xun smiled but said nothing.
If you knew that Brother Yan is also from the same hometown as Senior Brother Bai, you'd be even more shocked... Liu Ziyang puffed out his chest, feeling a sense of shared pride.
“Don't you go corrupting him!”
The fat deacon scolded with a laugh, then took out four round blue iron boxes and four flat bamboo slips from the counter behind him, placing them on the desk.
“One box of Moon Toad Ointment, and you can claim four meals of one-year-grade precious meat with this bamboo slip. Since you were second place in the Outer Court, your monthly allowance is twice that of the other disciples.”
Hearing this, Wang Hou looked enviously at Yan Pingsheng, who accepted two boxes of Moon Toad Ointment and two bamboo slips.
Just then, Han Shaoliang spoke up, “Junior Brother Liu, Junior Brother Wang, you two had better buy another box of Moon Toad Ointment. One box is only enough for half a month of cultivation.”
Liu Ziyang immediately said, “Then I'll take another box.”
The fat deacon smiled. “That will be thirty taels.”
Liu Ziyang pulled out the silver without hesitation.
Wang Hou hesitated for a moment, but seeing that the other two both had two boxes, he gritted his teeth and pulled out his silver to buy an extra box as well.
Han Shaoliang added, “Junior Brother Yan, if you want to speed up your cultivation, you can buy a bottle of Essence-Boosting Pills. They accelerate the circulation of essence and improve the stomach's ability to digest and absorb.”
Saying this, he gave Yan Pingsheng a teasing pat on the shoulder.
“Junior Brother Yan, looking at you, it seems you haven't been eating light on the precious meat in your daily life.”
“Essence-Boosting Pills can help with that. But remember, don't take too many. Just one a week is enough. Taking too many will cause dependency, which actually lowers your body's natural digestive and absorption abilities.”
Ah, I forgot that ordinary people can use pills to cultivate... Zhuang Xun smiled and said, “Can it help with weight loss? Then I'll have to give it a try. Let's start with four pills.”
“Forty taels,” the fat deacon said with a smile.
Forty taels for just four tiny pills... Wang Hou gasped inwardly. That was literally his father's entire monthly wage.
His father was an Eighth Rank martial artist and a veteran escort of the Renwei Escort Agency. Their family was considered quite wealthy in Zechuan City.
This time, even Liu Ziyang hesitated slightly.
His monthly allowance from the Liu family was only one hundred taels.
And that was only because he was the most promising among the younger generation of the Liu family, so Old Master Liu had specially given him extra.
If he bought them, he would only have thirty taels left on him. It was only the beginning of the month, and he might need silver for other things later...
Since Brother Yan bought them, I might as well too... Liu Ziyang said, “I'll take four pills as well.”
Wang Hou remained silent, suddenly feeling a bit restless and out of place.
Seeing this, Zhuang Xun spoke up, “Brother Liu, I only bought them because of my poor digestion. Why are you buying them too?”
“Yeah, exactly. I don't think there's any need to buy them,” Wang Hou quickly chimed in, the restlessness in his heart dissipating quite a bit.
“Since I've already said it, I might as well see what the effects are,” Liu Ziyang said nonchalantly, having already tossed the worry of running out of money to the back of his mind.
Seeing this, Zhuang Xun said no more. He had only been giving Wang Hou a way out of the awkward situation just now.
As for the price of forty taels, he didn't care at all. Bai Yujing still had over thirty thousand taels, which was more than enough to support Yan Pingsheng.
However, he still needed to find a reasonable way for Yan Pingsheng's identity to make money, otherwise, having Bai Yujing support him indefinitely would eventually raise eyebrows.
After all, on the surface, Yan Pingsheng and Bai Yujing were merely from the same hometown, not biological brothers.
If the people in the martial academy found out that Bai Yujing was constantly supporting Yan Pingsheng, they would definitely suspect that their cold and aloof Chief Disciple had some kind of leverage held over him by this fat hometown friend.
“Yan Pingsheng, you must be feeling very pleased with yourself, aren't you!” Zhuang Xun almost burst out laughing at his own thoughts.
This was a simple matter, so Zhuang Xun didn't worry too much about it. With the identity of Bai Yujing's fellow townsman, it would be easy to find a cushy, high-paying job with little work.
Or, he could simply have Yan Pingsheng serve as Bai Yujing's attendant. That way, it would be perfectly logical for Bai Yujing to support Yan Pingsheng.
Zhuang Xun also felt that it was indeed time to have an attendant, otherwise, having to do everything himself was too troublesome.
For instance, when bringing people to the Formless Courtyard in the morning, having an attendant meant he could just send them in his stead.
Of course, this would only be limited to such insignificant matters.
Anything that involved his clones, even if it only touched upon them slightly, Zhuang Xun would do himself, no matter how troublesome it was. He could absolutely not tolerate even the slightest risk of his greatest secret being exposed.
...
Back at Yan Pingsheng's small courtyard.
Zhuang Xun began attempting to cultivate the Posuo Sword.
The Posuo Sword was also divided into three parts: the training method, the combat technique, and the mental cultivation.
But unlike the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method, the Posuo Sword placed greater emphasis on the training method. In fact, within the Lower Three Ranks, there was no need to cultivate mental cultivation at all; it would only be involved once one reached the Middle Three Ranks.
In terms of training methods, the difference between the Formless Phaseless Sublime Method and the Posuo Sword was also massive.
The Formless Phaseless Sublime Method shaped the martial physique by going layer by layer, from the skin, meat, bones, acupoints, tendons, to the internal organs... going deeper step by step.
On the other hand, the Posuo Sword shaped the body part by part.
For example, to reach the entry-level of the Posuo Sword, one needed to completely shape the skin, meat, bones, acupoints, and tendons of the wrist all at once.
“As long as one can make the palm rotate a full circle vertically while keeping the arm perfectly still, and still be able to use it normally without returning it to its original position, it proves that the Posuo martial physique of the wrist has been shaped, and the Posuo Sword has reached the entry-level.”
Zhuang Xun decided to start shaping the martial physique of his right wrist first.
He opened a box of Moon Toad Ointment and used his left index finger to scoop some out, spreading it evenly over his right wrist. Moon Toad Ointment had the effect of softening muscles and bones and reducing pain, while also reducing swelling and accelerating the recovery of injuries afterward.
Then, following the training method, he began to shape his wrist.
Pain, pain, pain... Zhuang Xun grimaced, breathing according to the rhythm of the breathing technique recorded in the training method.
A continuous stream of blood qi flowed toward his wrist, providing the material and energy for the shaping of his martial physique. At the same time, a warm sensation spread, and he immediately felt a bit better.
After some time, Zhuang Xun felt the hunger in his stomach and the depletion of his blood qi. He froze for a moment.
“Huh? It's already gone? I can cultivate for a long time in one go when using Bai Yujing. Well, at this rate, I'm definitely going to lose weight.” He stopped his cultivation and walked out of his room toward the dining hall.
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