“Do go easy on me, Captain Gu!”

Xu Yi held his fist in a salute and stepped back ten paces. He dropped into a low horse stance, displaying an extremely serious demeanour.

Evidently, with the threat of the Zhou family imminent, Xu Yi had to be cautious at all times to remain hidden. The true state of his cultivation, naturally, had to be hidden if possible.

The man in black nodded, gently shouting, “Get ready,” as his hands moved in an arc. With ease, he sent the stone weight flying accurately towards Xu Yi.

Xu Yi roared loudly, pushing out both hands as though blocking. The stone weight came to his hands, causing him to retreat dozens of steps back before he somehow managed to stop, finally dissipating all the force of the stone weight. When he lifted his head up again, his face was flushed.

While the crowd stared with their mouths agape, the man in black gently clapped his hands. “Not bad, not bad — using technique to counter the heavy weight. At the Body Forging stage, for you to withstand 50% of my strength is not easy at all. With that alone, you deserve to enter this Martial Lecture Hall.”

He had assumed that Xu Yi was in the early Body Forging stage, as to his knowledge, there was never any practitioner in the middle stages who would return to the Martial Lecture Hall.

And if one could reach the middle stages, how could they not know the most basic knowledge of the Martial Way!?

But Xu Yi was an example of a one in a million prodigy!

After Xu Yi exerted his “full strength” to catch hold of the stone weight, he put it down, and with his face still red, he said, “Thank you, Captain Gu for going easy on me!”

The man in black generously waved his hand, “Hurry and enter. They are about to start. Master Zhou has great knowledge and a great temper to match, too. If you go too late, you might not be allowed in.”

Xu Yi nodded and hurriedly entered the Martial Lecture Hall.

Entering the hall, he saw that none of the practitioners who had entered before him were seated properly, and they were standing along the walls to the left and right of the hall, staring blankly at rows of human figures drawn on the walls.

Xu Yi’s attention was captured. His eyes veered over to the walls only to see they were filled with little stories of people — roughly twenty stories or so. After a closer look, he understood what they were about.

Carved on the walls were twenty or so great practitioners who had reached the Qi Ocean stage. All of them had hailed from Furong Town over the last two hundred years that this Martial Lecture Hall had been built. On the walls were records of their lives and their feats of glory.

Why these people were carved on the walls was clear as day. Undoubtedly, they were meant to inspire the later generations.

As Xu Yi was absorbed in these stories, a loud and dull bang suddenly came from the small door that was exactly opposite the main door of the hall. The door crashed against the wall, creating an ear splitting sound.

With an appearance that could only be described as slovenly, a white-haired old man entered. He wore cloth shoes, carried a gourd of wine which had a much worn opening, and walked in with a swagger. His sleeves swayed around him, and the aroma of wine filled the air.

The moment the old man entered, the entire room was filled with sighs. Evidently, the old man’s appearance had utterly destroyed the crowd’s expectations of their teacher.

Xu Yi, however, found a seat near the front and quietly sat down. He was optimistic. For this Master Zhou to walk in so confidently and in such a carefree manner, it was likely there was more to him than met the eye.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A thick ruler as wide as a palm was slammed onto the podium made of heavy iron. The sharp sound was deafening.

“What are you sighing for? It’s your good fortune that I am willing to help you blind fools see the light, and you are complaining?! Bloody hell, now I’ve lost the mood to drink. There will be no lecture this year. You lot get ten questions, ask them and then piss off!”

Master Zhou flew into a rage, then sat down behind the podium with a huff. He opened his gourd of wine and started guzzling it down, totally ignoring the fact that this was the esteemed Martial Lecture Hall.

As practitioners of martial arts, most of them were hot blooded individuals. Instead of being scared off by Master Zhou, some lost their tempers instead, slapping their tables and shouting, “From what I know, all practitioners of martial arts have strong bodies. Look at that skinny body of yours. It looks like a gust of wind could blow you over. You cannot be a practitioner of the Martial Way. Since you are not, how dare you teach about the Martial Way!”

With those words, the crowd fell into an uproar, with everyone shouting over one another.

Indeed, Master Zhou was all skin and bones and did not look like someone who practiced the Martial Way no matter how one looked at it. If one did not practice the Martial Way, how could he have the right to stand at the center of the Martial Lecture Hall and teach the Martial Way?

In front of such a vicious accusation, everyone thought that the ill-tempered Master Zhou would fly into a rage once again, but little did they expect that he would simply take a sip of wine, smile, and reply, “When I was practicing martial arts, you were still sitting in your mommy’s womb. Nine questions left; who’s next!”

Wah!

The crowd went into chaos. Who knew that they would lose the rights to one question just like that.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of the ruler rang across the lecture hall once more. Master Zhou’s smile was gone as he spoke coldly. “Hurry and ask your questions. If you make any more noise, this year’s lesson will end!”

In front of Master Zhou’s twisted use of his authority, the group of men had no answer.

Indeed, they could not continue to question Master Zhou’s abilities, and there was no point either. No matter what, he was still someone sent by officials. This bunch of men had no one to support them in their lives, and it was the goodwill of the officials that someone was sent to teach them. If these beggars began to be picky and brought things up to the officials, they’d be the ones to lose out in the end.

This logic was simple and easy to understand. With that shift in mind-set, the crowd finally understood their position.

But still, Xu Yi did not dare gamble on the intelligence of this group of goons. Fearing that another fool would try to take on Master Zhou again, he quickly stood up. Bowing to Master Zhou, he loudly said, “I would like to ask a question, Master Zhou. I am a practitioner at the Body Forging stage, may I ask what is the actual source of my strength?”

With that question, the crowd was filled with looks of despise. If not for them being intimidated by Master Zhou’s behaviour, they would have turned their noses up in disgust.

All of them were training in the Body Forging stage, and all of them knew that they were strong. The source of strength was their strong bodies.

This was evident just from looking at all of their bodies. After toughening their skin and muscles, their strength increased. After strengthening their tendons and bones, their strength had increased even more.

This was such a simple logic, and Xu Yi had wasted a question just like that. Detestable!

Master Zhou fell in stunned silence for a moment, then looked at Xu Yi. For the first time, he placed

his gourd of wine down on the lecture podium.

If he thought about it, in his twenty years here at the Martial Lecture Hall, this was the first time he had heard a practitioner ask such a question.

He racked his brains but could not get a hold of what he wanted. With a sigh, he replied, “This question, I cannot answer.” He sounded a little down.

The crowd was in an uproar, which was completely understandable. Who would have guessed that for such a simple question, Master Zhou would be unable to answer.

Although they looked down on this Master Zhou, they had trust in the Martial Lecture Hall. The Martial Lecture Hall would definitely not send a fool who knew nothing of the Martial Way to teach them.

Right now, Master Zhou had said he could not answer. That meant that there was only one other explanation. It meant that the question that Xu Yi posed was not simple at all!

Xu Yi sighed deep down and was about to sit down when he heard Master Zhou say, “For you to be able to ask such a question, you clearly must have your own thoughts. Although I cannot answer completely, I can still share my views based on the experiences I have gone through in my life. Why don’t you share your thoughts on the matter first?”

Recognise what you know, and realise what you do not; that is true knowledge in itself!

For Master Zhou to speak those words, Xu Yi naturally labelled him as a wise man in his mind. He replied, “I do have my own thoughts about it. As you all know, we practitioners gain greater strength by training and forging our bodies. But as we reach the end of this, which is the peak of Body Forging, what then do we rely on to gain more strength?”