Xu Yi’s interest was piqued. He approached, only to see the crowd gathered in front of a white tower-like structure. From afar, he could see a large antique golden sign hanging from the centre of the white tower. On the sign were the three words: Martial Lecture Hall! He thought, Could it be a place that teaches all there is to learn about the Martial Way?

As he was wondering, his eyes landed on a bunch of carved text on the wall of the white tower. After sweeping his eyes across the text, he had managed to read everything.

It was a narrative, recording the year and month that the Martial Lecture Hall was built, the subject matters, and so on.

The narrative was dry, but from it, Xu Yi found what he wanted.

It seemed that the Martial Lecture Hall was official property, built by the Dayue Imperial Court in order to recruit men.

The world was dominated by the Martial Way, with different sects and families being established. For the disciples and members of large sects and powerful families, they receive training from a young age, and techniques are passed on to them from their elders. When it came to progression in the Martial Way, their path was much smoother compared to the average person.

On the other hand, for the poor commoners, hard work and toiling could bring about some initial success but rarely any hopes of further progress.

The Dayue Imperial Court had built the Martial Lecture Hall for the common practitioner to receive education, in order to win over the many practitioners across the country.

After reading the narrative, Xu Yi was overjoyed, almost wanting to cheer out loud.

His experience was, after all, quite a miracle. He had reached the peak of Body Forging, entering the realm of martial experts, but his knowledge in the Martial Way was greatly lacking. His accomplishments today were solely based on the unimaginably tough training he had put himself through, and the brilliance of his Ox Demon Strong Fist.

Liaochen was a disciple of an esteemed sect and had passed on the Ox Demon Strong Fist to Xu Yi, but that was just to repay his debt to him. Other than that, he had not given any advice to Xu Yi on how to practice the Martial Way, and he had not even talked about any Martial Way classics or basic martial knowledge.

Over the past three days, other than restoring his strength at the Mu’s, Xu Yi had spent even more of his time on contemplating his future.

No matter how he thought about it, he merely had two primary missions. One was to thoroughly eliminate Zhou Daogan, and the other was to find Liaochen’s precious scriptures and return them to the Heavenly Jhana Temple to fulfil Liaochen’s dying wish.

And to accomplish these two missions, the only thing he could rely on was his own cultivation in the Martial Way.

Breaking through the Body Forging stage and entering the Qi Ocean stage! That was Xu Yi’s first goal as of now!

If not, even Zhou Shirong, a man of a family of slaves, could easily send him to hell, not to mention taking on Zhou Daogan.

As such, what Xu Yi kept thinking about was how to find a “teacher” to receive some education in the Martial Way. With his chance discovery of the Martial Lecture Hall, he was naturally overjoyed.

At once, Xu Yi quickly made his way forward, only to see someone in the middle of the crowd, hauling a dense, black stone weight. After a careful look, he found that it was actually made out of heavy iron.

A man in a black shirt pointed at the stone weight and loudly exclaimed, “By the heavenly grace of the Imperial Court, we have once again come to our annual lecture. You all are the talents of this town. Should you gain any enlightenment from this lecture, remember this kindness graced upon you by the Imperial Court, and train hard in the Martial Way in gratitude to the heavens…”

After a long speech like that from a government official, the man in black stepped back, pointing to the stone weight. “Let’s begin according to the rules!”

The moment he stepped back, the man in green closest to the stone weight quickly stepped forward. In front of the stone weight, he began a flurry of exercises, then, with a loud roar, he bent over and grabbed the stone weight. With another loud roar, his muscles bulged as he raised the weight above his head.

Immediately, the crowd roared with cheers and applause.

With a bang, he dropped the stone weight. Delighted, the man in green held his fist in a salute and walked into the gates of the Martial Lecture Hall with broad steps.

With the flashy opener from the man in green, the enthusiasm of the crowd was stoked. In just a few minutes, around fifty people had a go at the stone weight, but only less than half passed.

After a while of watching, Xu Yi had an understanding of things. The stone weight made out of heavy iron was a full five hundred pounds. Five hundred pounds is a line in the Body Forging stage that, once crossed, means that you have properly entered the Body Forging stage.

With that realization, Xu Yi finally understood. Only one who had entered the Body Forging stage was worthy enough to have someone to guide them.

A few more minutes passed, and a few dozen more people tried. This time, the number of people who passed was much smaller — only three.

The man in black saw that the time was almost up and said, “Are there any more who wish to try? If not, please leave early. If you can’t this year, come again next year. As long as you do not give up, I believe that everyone will eventually be able to step into this Martial Lecture Hall!”

With those words, he picked up the stone weight easily with one hand, eliciting gasps from the audience.

“Let me try!”

Xu Yi spoke loudly as he stepped forward.

The moment he spoke, the crowd was filled with murmurs of suspicion. All of these martial arts practitioners had come from Furong Town. Furong Town was not large, and each member of the crowd knew everyone else there.

For a stranger Like Xu Yi to speak up, it naturally caught everyone’s attention.

“Who is this? How dare he come to our Furong Town Martial Lecture Hall!”

“Don’t be so cocky, outsider! A bag of bones like you trying to lift heavy iron? Forget it!”

“Captain Gu, this person isn’t from Furong Town. How can he enter our Furong Town’s Martial Lecture Hall? Please get rid of him, we’ll be ashamed to have this outsider join us.”

After the first person spoke out, the rest chimed in. this group of failed practitioners had insufficient cultivation, but they had plenty of experience ganging up on others.

Xu Yi held his fist in a salute and said, “I may be young and uneducated, but I am pursuing the Martial Way with all my heart, despite my foolishness and despite all the things that I do not yet know. Coincidentally, in my first visit to this treasured place, the Martial Lecture Hall is being opened. I was overjoyed and thought that my doubts could finally be cleared. Brothers, as fellow practitioners of the Martial Way, why deny the wonders of an individual’s growth? Furthermore, when his highness, Emperor Wuzong, built the Martial Lecture Hall, wasn’t his wish to make the Marital Way affordable for all practitioners under the heavens? Why would there be distinction between whose hometown this is? If you all were to stop me, I’m afraid it would be going against the goodwill of the Imperial Court.”

In his previous life, Xu Yi was no good in his studies, but he was great at seeing the bigger picture, or else he would not have been able to stand out amongst millions of players in such a large scale game to become one of the five great commanding officers.

In this life, as a young scholar who had read classics since he was young, he had excellent talent. After familiarizing himself with all the classics, his knowledge was now supreme.

With the melding of the two individuals, the Xu Yi of today had been born.

At that moment, he spoke words that were logical and well substantiated with evidence, especially at the end when he even brought out Emperor Wuzong of the Dayue Dynasty. It had even moved the man in black.

The man in black paused to think for a moment before coldly replying, “A glib tongue indeed. I must acknowledge that you make a good point. But, since you dare to stand out like this, you must have a few skills. How about this, you step back ten paces, and I shall throw this stone weight at you. If you can catch it, I shall allow you entry. What do you all think?”

The man in black had thought it through. Xu Yi spoke of Emperor Wuzong, and was wielding the authority of the Imperial Court’s laws against him. If he refused just like that, it would not be good for his influence if word got out.

But at the same time, facing the practitioners from his village, Gu naturally did not want to offend all of them.

Thus, imposing a challenge to test the newcomer would be the best of both worlds.

All of Furong Town knew the cultivation level of the man in black. He was one of the few who had reached the middle stages of the Body Forging stage, and the man was an impressive martial artist.

The stone weight was extremely heavy, and with the man in black throwing it, it would take more than the ability to lift five hundred pounds for Xu Yi to be able to catch it.

Seeing the outsider in a difficult spot, the crowd cheered in approval, holding their breaths to see how the man in black would teach Xu Yi a lesson.