Chapter 54

"I truly misjudged him; Fifth Brother is better at reading people than I am."

Huang Ping and his daughter eventually learned that Xu Yang had stood up for the Qiu family and beaten Hong Feng to death, and they could not help but sigh.

It was too late to say anything now; his daughter had done such a thing, and Xu Yang had not stepped forward to explain, clearly wanting to use this to settle the small debt of gratitude the Huang family owed him.

"Father, so what if he has reached the Small Success of Qi Refining? His aptitude is still Grade C-Lower, and there is still little hope for him to succeed in the Martial Examination," Huang Linger said with a curl of her lip.

She admitted that Xu Yang had indeed exceeded her expectations, but that was all; she did not regret her actions.

Compared to her face and the reputation of the Huang family, what was a martial artist with Grade C-Lower aptitude? As long as the Huang family was willing to spend money, they could soon cultivate a martial artist who had reached the Small Success of Qi Refining from the next batch of selected people.

Huang Ping shook his head: "What I admire is not his talent, but his character. If Lu Ren had even half of his sense of gratitude and righteousness, he would not have betrayed the Huang family. This person is indeed worth cultivating; it is I who failed to recognize his worth."

"This time, thanks to Xu Yang, otherwise, even if my Qiu family wasn't wiped out, we wouldn't have been able to keep our family business."

After seeing off Xu Yang and Zhang Yong and the others, Qiu Yongjian felt a wave of relief.

Fortunately, his second brother had not listened to him and had continued to secretly support Xu Yang, otherwise, the Qiu family would have been destroyed by his own shortsightedness.

Qiu Yongqiang shook his head: "That wouldn't have happened. Even if I had really listened to you, Big Brother, Xu Yang would not have ignored this matter; he values loyalty and righteousness."

"If not for that, how could those three taels of silver have made someone with the potential to succeed in the Martial Examination risk his life against a master of the same rank?"

Qiu Wenjie nodded in agreement; when he found Zhang Yong, he had told Zhang Yong to ask for as much money as he wanted, but Zhang Yong was simply unwilling.

Xu Yang's intervention was simply not a matter of money.

Qiu Yongjian nodded: "It was my shortsightedness before. You go to the accounting office to withdraw twenty taels of silver, prepare some gifts, and deliver them to Xu Yang's house yourself. We cannot afford much money, but we cannot fail to show our appreciation."

"From now on, the money for his support will also come from the family's accounts."

"After we annex the Hong family's business and it grows a bit, we will increase the support for Xu Yang."

Qiu Yongqiang nodded: "Leave this to me. Big Brother, you rest and recover; seizing the Hong family's business still requires you to preside over it."

With Xu Yang backing them, seizing the Hong family's business had become inevitable.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Xu!"

"Junior Brother Xu Yang!"

When Xu Yang returned to the Weiyuan Hall, everything had changed. Those senior and junior brothers who used to ignore him directly now began to greet him with smiles, their attitudes having changed drastically.

"How realistic they are!"

He knew this was the change brought about by his killing of Hong Feng.

At his age, being able to reach the Small Success of Qi Refining meant that even if he couldn't succeed in the Martial Examination, he would at least reach the Great Success of Qi Refining in the future, so these people began to associate with him.

People like Jiang Ping could look down on him, but not everyone had the confidence of Jiang Ping and the others.

"Junior Brother Xu!" Sun Tao walked over with long strides.

Xu Yang cupped his hands and said: "Greetings, Senior Brother Sun."

No one in the Weiyuan Hall dared to slight Sun Tao.

Although everyone called Lin Cheng 'Master' and were nominally his disciples, only Sun Tao had truly kowtowed to Lin Cheng and served him the apprenticeship tea; he was Lin Cheng's legitimate disciple.

Sun Tao nodded with a smile: "Your duel with Hong Feng was fair and square. If any experts from the Tiger Roar Fist Hall bully you because of this later, you can come find me; the Weiyuan Hall will stand up for you."

The implication was that if the Tiger Roar Fist Hall only sent people at the Small Success of Qi Refining to seek revenge, then you would have to handle it yourself; if someone at the Great Success of Qi Refining made a move, the Weiyuan Hall would intervene.

Xu Yang killing Hong Feng had raised the reputation of the Weiyuan Hall, and he had come specifically to inform Xu Yang of the Weiyuan Hall's stance.

After eating dinner at the Weiyuan Hall, Xu Yang walked back to White Stone Ward through the night.

"Brother A-Yang, wait for me!"

Not long after leaving the city, Xu Zheng chased after him, panting.

Both were in the Weiyuan Hall and were from the same Xu clan in White Stone Ward, so they should have been close.

However, in the past few days, Xu Yang had not sought out Xu Zheng, and this was the first time Xu Zheng had taken the initiative to find him.

"Brother A-Yang, I heard from people at the martial arts hall that you also have Grade C-Lower aptitude?" Xu Zheng asked.

Xu Yang noticed that the cousin who had previously been somewhat in awe of him no longer had that awe after being selected by the Huang family.

"That's right!" Xu Yang nodded.

Xu Zheng's face showed joy: "Does that mean the possibility of me reaching the Small Success of Qi Refining and becoming a martial artist is very high?"

Xu Yang roughly understood that he wanted to gain some confidence from him, so he immediately said: "In our batch, there were four people with Grade C aptitude, and only one failed to refine Qi."

Four people, one failure; Xu Zheng's smile grew wider: "The training intensity for our batch is higher than yours, so no one should fail."

Xu Yang was noncommittal, only continuing: "Of the four of us, besides the money the Huang family spent, we also invested over ten taels of silver ourselves for cultivation, and even then, one person did not succeed."

Xu Zheng's smile vanished instantly. If someone failed even after investing over ten taels of silver, he understood the difficulty, no matter how confident he was.

"Brother A-Yang, help me. If I become a martial artist, I will definitely repay you. When the time comes, our brothers can join forces and surely bring glory to the Xu family." Xu Zheng looked at Xu Yang earnestly.

Finally stopped pretending, huh.

Xu Yang said calmly: "I cannot help you. If you have confidence, then ask your uncle to support you with all his might."

Xu Zheng said in a low voice: "Brother A-Yang, we are brothers. If I become a martial artist, it will only benefit you."

Wants to become a martial artist, but doesn't want to spend the family's money, only wants to spend his.

This abacus was so loud it could be heard from miles away.

Xu Yang sneered: "Back then, when Second Uncle ignored whether Xiao Qing and I lived or died, you brothers all hid far away when you saw me, fearing I would ask you for a bite to eat. What kind of brothers is that?"

Xu Zheng's face flushed red, and he explained: "Before... before I was ignorant. In the future, we brothers will support each other."

Xu Yang found that he had still underestimated Xu Zheng's shamelessness. His own words were no different from a slap to the face, yet Xu Zheng still had the nerve to continue speaking and try to take advantage of him.

"Does 'supporting each other' mean I should spend money to help you practice martial arts?"

Seeing this, Xu Yang said no more and accelerated his pace, leaving behind a Xu Zheng with an ugly expression.

When he arrived home, he was surprised to see Qiu Wenjie and his son waiting there with several people from the Qiu family.

After a few pleasantries, he learned they were there to deliver gifts and specifically thank him for today's events.

Xu Yang did not refuse. Although his intervention was a repayment for Qiu Yongqiang's support, the thing called sentiment would eventually run out, and the Qiu family also wanted to continue to get closer to him.

If he really didn't accept, the Qiu family would be uneasy instead.

Qiu Wenjie and Qiu Yongqiang soon left with the Qiu family members, and only then did Xu Yang have time to look at the gifts the Qiu family had sent.

There was tea grown by the Qiu family, a wild ginseng of unknown age, and besides these, the rest were daily necessities like rice and meat, and a bag of silver wrapped in red silk.

Xu Yang opened it, and before his eyes was a white glimmer; there were a full twenty taels.

"Brother, so much money!" Xu Qing looked like a money-grubber; it was the first time she had seen so much silver.

"No ambition, what kind of money is this little bit."