Soon, at dusk during the hour of the Rooster, Su Yu, who had trained all afternoon, couldn’t be bothered with the whispers of others in the Martial Hall.
Exhausted, he dragged what felt like not his own body back to the Su Family Courtyard.
“Oh, our martial artist Su Yu is back? Reeking of sweat. Eat your steamed bun in the courtyard. Don’t stink up the place.”
Although he had returned, Aunt Qi Shi didn’t give Su Yu a pleasant face.
In her view, all that sweat on Su Yu was from who knows where he’d been gallivanting.
As for martial training, she would never believe that Su Yu actually went to the Martial Hall today.
“Okay.”
Su Yu couldn’t be bothered to argue, nor did he have the energy.
He grabbed a steamed bun with some vegetables and sat on the steps in the courtyard to eat.
Now the annoying countdown had finally stopped, allowing him to relax a bit.
At this moment, in his vision, the progress bar of the schedule had increased a bit compared to this morning.
[Standing Stake Skill Training Progress: 10/100 → 18/100 (First Level·Left Eye Acupoint)]
‘After using Senior Brother Zhou’s method in the afternoon, compared to this morning’s one hour gaining one point of progress, training for one hour in the afternoon can gain two points of progress.’
‘At this rate, it seems that in four more days I can fill the progress bar and open the first acupoint…’
‘Looking at it this way, it seems I actually have quite some talent… I remember when my little sister trained, it took her a full three months to open her first acupoint.’
Su Yu couldn’t help but find this strange.
After all, when he was 13 and tested for martial talent at Lin’s Martial Hall, the Vice Hall Master had said his meridians were blocked, his root bone was average.
He could still train if he forced it, but it would cost a fortune in silver and decades of years before he could possibly enter the Martial Path…
So back then, he naturally gave up on training and let Su Rou have the chance.
After all, his Su Family was not a prestigious clan, just a minor family with some reputation among ordinary people in Brook Stone Village.
Scraping together all the family wealth and emptying Grandpa Su’s coffin fund would only be enough for one child in the family to train.
He thought it better to waste the silver on someone like him with slim hope of entering martial arts than to let Su Rou, who had more talent, train.
But… now it seemed, did he not look like he had no talent?
‘It might also be that this isn’t my talent, but something brought by the schedule.’
‘But… regardless, I need to open the acupoints as soon as possible. Who knows when the Xisha Gang will come looking for Er Gou again, or even trouble the rest of us.’
Su Yu’s gaze hardened.
He was not the type to be passive!
That short fat duo from the Xisha Gang would sooner or later put him in danger.
So rather than passively being threatened, he might as well take the initiative to eliminate the threat.
Once he opened his first acupoint and inner force was born within him, killing those two half-assed non-martial artists would be no problem for him!
After all, even the weakest orifice-opening martial artist, when facing ordinary people, could easily take on three at once.
Unless surrounded by dozens, it was basically a dimensionally crushing blow!
“Yu Ge, you’re back?”
Just as Su Yu was thinking, a graceful figure in a plain white form-fitting training uniform pushed open the door and entered.
“Rou’er is back? Quick, quick, I specially bought a fish today. Just out of the pot. Come eat quickly.”
Seeing Su Rou return, Qi Shi immediately came out smiling and called out.
“Okay, I’ll be right there, Mom.”
Su Rou replied with a smile, then couldn’t help but look at Su Yu sitting on the steps.
“Yu Ge, come eat inside too. I heard people say you’ve been training at Lin’s Martial Hall all day. With all that sweat, you must be exhausted. It’s good to eat some meat to replenish.”
Just as she finished, before Su Yu could say anything, Qi Shi immediately yelled, “What does he need to replenish? That sweat of his is probably from who knows where he went gallivanting. You really believe Su Yu would train? For a whole day? Don’t mind him. Come in and eat the fish quickly, before it gets cold and tastes bad.”
Su Rou looked at Su Yu. “Whether you trained or not, let’s eat together. We’re family.”
Qi Shi didn’t say anything more, just went back into the house impatiently.
Su Yu’s face suddenly showed a hint of bitterness as he shook his head.
“Little sister, you eat yourself. You have the Martial Recruitment soon, you need to replenish. I’m already full. I plan to stand stake in the courtyard for a while. Don’t worry about me.”
[Notification: Half-hour rest schedule plan has ended. Plan ‘Training at Home’ pending execution]
To be honest, Su Yu certainly wanted to taste some meat, even just a bite.
But damn it, that annoying countdown started again.
Rest time half an hour.
It took him nearly 20 minutes to get home from the Martial Hall.
After eating a steamed bun and sitting for a while, the rest time naturally came to an end.
“Alright… then I’ll secretly leave some for you later, Yu Ge.”
Su Rou lowered her voice.
Su Yu couldn’t help but feel a warmth in his heart.
Living under someone else’s roof, although his uncle and aunt didn’t treat him well, and the old man looked down on him, his little sister had always been very gentle and good to him.
[Detecting…]
With the cold mechanical sound again, Su Yu didn’t dare to chat or overthink.
He quickly got up and went to the courtyard to start his stance.
“…”
“Still standing stake… like he really went to train.”
But as Su Yu walked into the courtyard with his back to Su Rou, she couldn’t help but shake her head and smile silently.
Although she had indeed heard at Mo’s Martial Hall that Su Yu had shown up at Lin’s Martial Hall today, all the rumors also said he was just putting on a show.
She thought Su Yu’s situation was just like her mother said: he was stimulated yesterday, so today he laughably pretended to be diligent in training to prove himself.
But training… fake effort was useless.
She knew that all too well.
For the basic stance, it took her three or four full days just to get the form right.
‘Train, go ahead and train. If you don’t eat meat, fine. With an empty stomach, how many days can you last? If you can’t last, then I won’t have to worry… You just keep muddling along, and I’ll keep being your good little sister. How nice.’
Su Rou watched Su Yu start to assume the stance, her gaze flat, murmuring inwardly.
Then, not bothering to continue watching Su Yu, she smelled the aroma of fish from inside and turned to go back into the house.
But just as she had one foot through the door, her brow suddenly furrowed slightly.
She hesitated and turned back to look at the courtyard.
As the motionless back of her always disappointing cousin came clearly into view, Su Rou’s expression suddenly froze.
Smile, indifference, calm—all disappeared in stiffness.
She couldn’t believe it and blinked hard, thinking it was an illusion.
But when she opened her eyes again, the scene was exactly the same, unchanged.
The boy she looked down on in the courtyard was now standing in a stance that couldn’t be more standard.
More importantly, his legs, hands, and body were all rock steady, not moving a bit, not even trembling.
And she herself, who had already opened both eye orifices, could even detect that wisps of wandering Qi and blood were quietly being born on her cousin’s body.
For a moment, all the usual tenderness in Su Rou’s eyes was gone, leaving only a frightening jealousy that kept fermenting hideously.