Chapter 68: Eldest Uncle Acts as Matchmaker

Xu Yang and Wu Yongfeng looked at each other's clothes and both felt that the other looked much more spirited.

"Come over, I will introduce you to the brothers."

Zhang Bo called the two over and began to introduce the people present.

Several of them were just like them, recruited by the Liu family from martial arts halls, and basically all had succeeded in gathering Qi within the last ten days or half a month.

A thought couldn't help but arise in Xu Yang's mind: what about the people from before?

Retainers like them who didn't marry into the family or enter a marriage alliance were, logically speaking, free to stay or go; it was normal for people to leave at any time and for there to be a shortage of people.

But for so many people to leave all at once was not normal.

Either the Liu family had done something to wrong these retainers, causing everyone to leave in a collective fit of anger, or… the previous batch of people had all died, which was why the Liu family was recruiting so many people at once.

Sun Tao hadn't mentioned this matter; he didn't know if it was intentional concealment, if he didn't know, or if he felt it wasn't necessary.

"It seems I have to inquire about it privately. If there is danger, I will retreat and leave immediately."

Xu Yang thought to himself.

He hadn't even warmed his seat yet, so naturally, he couldn't have any loyalty to the Liu family. If there were truly danger, it would be impossible for him to risk his life for the Liu family.

The two didn't stay at the Liu family for long because the other shift of people came to take over for them.

Although the Liu family provided them with rooms, they were only for resting while on duty and did not allow them to live in the Liu family residence.

The two left the Liu family and returned to Weiyuan Martial Arts Hall to continue practicing.

In the blink of an eye, seven days passed, and Xu Yang gradually adapted to this rhythm of life again.

In the morning at the Liu family, and in the afternoon, he would go to Weiyuan Martial Arts Hall to cultivate.

In seven days, he hadn't seen the master of the Huang family, nor had he gone out to serve as a guard; it was as if this job had nothing to do, just running to the Liu family every day to eat a meal.

As for the matter of inquiring, he hadn't found out anything either.

This day, Zhou Yang touched upon the opportunity to break through the bottleneck, but then failed to gather energy. Under the backlash of true energy, he was carried away from Weiyuan Martial Arts Hall.

Two days later, his cousin Zhou Yuan also failed to break through, and the brothers ended up in a dismal state.

The brothers who once ordered them around had become losers.

Another day passed, and Xu Yang was sparring with Wu Yongfeng when he heard the news of Luo Dehu's breakthrough attempt.

After greeting Wu Yongfeng, he ran to the outer courtyard, where Luo Dehu was already sitting on the ground, pale as a sheet, as if he had fallen seriously ill.

Zhang Hong, Zhang Yong, and Qian Jiaxing stood to the side, looking at each other in silence.

"I'm out!" Luo Dehu was disheartened, his entire spirit and energy gone.

It wasn't until Lu Ren appeared that a glimmer of life appeared in his eyes.

Although he had failed, as long as he followed Lu Ren, he would still have a meal in the future and wouldn't have to go back to the fields to scrape for food.

"Brother Lu Ren…"

He struggled to stand up, but failed.

Qian Jiaxing didn't go to help him, and Lu Ren didn't move from where he stood.

"Go back and be an ordinary person!"

Lu Ren stared at him for a while, then turned and strode away.

What use was a person who failed to break through following him? He couldn't fight, couldn't carry, and still required money to support.

He wasn't a rich young master; he couldn't afford to support a follower.

"It seems your two months of flattery were in vain." Xu Yang laughed.

He wasn't someone who returned evil with kindness; regarding Luo Dehu's fate, he only felt relieved.

Luo Dehu's face turned even paler.

In the past, if Xu Yang had mocked him, he would definitely have retaliated on the spot, but now, he didn't even have the courage to look at Xu Yang.

After resting for a while, he stumbled to his feet and then disappeared from Weiyuan Martial Arts Hall forever.

Qian Jiaxing kept staring at his back, not knowing what he was thinking; perhaps he was thinking that if he failed to break through in a few days, Lu Ren would also kick him away.

Zhang Hong and Zhang Yong rarely saw Xu Yang, so they quickly forgot about Luo Dehu's matter and started talking in a corner, asking Xu Yang for tips on breaking through.

Xu Yang was not stingy; he said everything he knew and told the two not to be in a hurry to break through, and that it was best to temper their bodies and store up qi and blood with the Turtle-Snake Stance.

"Xu Yang, I was wrong!"

Qian Jiaxing gathered his courage and walked up to Xu Yang, bowing deeply to him.

Today, he finally saw Lu Ren's true face.

Xu Yang stopped his conversation with Zhang Hong and the other, turned back, and laughed: "No, you don't know you were wrong; you just know that you are going to fail, that you will have no backing in the future, and you are afraid, so you want to associate with me again."

Luo Dehu had a C-minus innate talent and failed to break through; Qian Jiaxing's talent was even worse than Luo Dehu's, so the probability of failure was very high.

Qian Jiaxing's face turned white in an instant.

He was indeed trying to leave himself a way out; even if he failed, he could still have a martial artist friend, which would count as a backing in the future.

"I'll wait for you in the inner courtyard."

After greeting Zhang Yong and Zhang Hong, Xu Yang returned to the inner courtyard to continue cultivating.

【Cultivation Method: Turtle-Snake Stance · Minor Success (4/300), Mountain-Shaking Xiong Quan · Minor Success (6/500)】

"It's too hard!"

He had succeeded in gathering Qi for nearly ten days, but the growth of his true qi was as slow as a snail. Of course, this was mainly because he had no money for medicinal supplements and relied solely on bitter cultivation and absorbing nutrients from food.

Body-strengthening soup and such things were already useless for a Qi Gathering martial artist; what he should be taking was Qi-Blood Powder, or the even more effective Qi-Nourishing Powder.

Qi-Blood Powder cost two silver taels per dose.

Qi-Nourishing Powder was even more outrageous, costing five silver taels per dose.

One dose down, it could equal seven days of bitter cultivation; for those with good talent and strong absorption of medicinal effects, it could equal ten or more days of bitter cultivation.

Sometimes he even thought, should he just go and live off a woman, so he wouldn't have to be so miserable?

"Comprehension, upgrade!"

After thinking for a while, he added all the points he had accumulated over the past few days to Comprehension.

【Comprehension: 27】

"Wait another ten days, and Comprehension can go up another level."

The slow increase in true qi was mainly because food and medicinal supplements couldn't keep up.

The slow progress of the Turtle-Snake Stance and the Mountain-Shaking Xiong Quan was mainly due to Comprehension.

His comprehension actually had a large gap compared to Lu Ren's. He had been able to keep up with Lu Ren initially mainly by relying on the panel upgrades; now that he wasn't using the panel to upgrade his cultivation methods, the progress of the methods slowed down.

After practicing his fist techniques for a while, an outer courtyard disciple came to find him, saying someone was looking for him outside.

"Cousin!"

Xu Yang arrived outside Weiyuan Martial Arts Hall and saw it was his cousin, Zhou Xia.

He thought something had happened, but it was his Eldest Uncle, Zhou Shunchang, asking him to come over for a meal.

Xu Yang saw that the sky was already getting dark, so he followed Zhou Xia away. When they arrived at Zhou Shunchang's house, Zhou Shunchang had already prepared the food.

"A-Yang, you are not young anymore. Now that you have achieved success in martial arts, it is time to start a family."

After the meal, Zhou Shunchang brought up the purpose of asking Xu Yang to come for dinner.

"Eldest Uncle, you want to help me introduce a girl?" Xu Yang laughed.

At his age, it was the right time to get married. As his Eldest Uncle, it was very normal for Zhou Shunchang to worry about his marriage.

Zhou Shunchang nodded: "That's right, it's a young lady from the Huang family. They entrusted me to come and ask for your thoughts."

Upon hearing this, Xu Yang understood after a moment of thought, raised his eyebrows and said: "The Huang family is playing a good game; they don't want to hire me as a retainer, but they want me to be used by the Huang family."

Zhou Shunchang glared and said: "What kind of nonsense are you talking? The Huang family is willing to marry their daughter to you; that is out of respect for your uncle."

Xu Yang didn't care about Zhou Shunchang's words.

Although he worked as an accountant in the Huang family, he was just an ordinary person and didn't understand many things between martial artists.

He thought that a young lady from a wealthy family taking a fancy to a poor boy like him was a blessing cultivated over eight lifetimes, not knowing the twists and turns involved. ===== CHAPTER 69 =====