Chapter 14: Outer Sect Strife
“Su Yan, from Yun Qian Village, did not cultivate in the outer courtyard a few days ago due to some matters.”
Su Yan simply replied, and that person suddenly showed a regretful expression: “Ah, so you’re from a Mountain Household. I thought you were from Bai Lu Lake.”
The youth couldn’t hide his thoughts, but Su Yan saw it clearly.
“Is there a difference between Mountain Household and Lake Household?”
With this question from Su Yan, the several youths in the room all looked somewhat embarrassed.
After a long while, the slightly older youth Hu Qing on the opposite bed said: “Not really, the martial arts school treats everyone equally, but we ourselves will stick together.”
Wherever there are people, there will be the Martial World, let alone everyone coming from various places to learn at the Golden Ape Martial Arts School.
Su Yan slightly raised his gaze: “Mountain Household, Lake Household?”
“Not just that, Mountain Household, Lake Household, small families in the city, and those young masters from families with some wealth in the city.”
Four groups, four classes, truly sticking together.
“Has the outer disciples of this martial arts school already reached the point where they need to huddle together for warmth?”
With this question from Su Yan, it made Hu Qing and the others embarrassed.
“This… this isn’t the case, it’s just that if you don’t join a group, they look down on us. Mountain Household and Lake Household are still okay, relying on mountains to eat from mountains and water to eat from water, no disputes there. Even those from fallen city families dare to look down on us, calling us country bumpkins. And those rich ones, noses in the air, not even glancing at us.”
Zhou Yong grumbled on and on, roughly explaining the situation of the outer disciples.
Because they come from different places, there are places they can’t stand each other, and those who are excluded form their own circles.
It seemed because Su Yan was not from Bai Lu Lake, the few people only got to know each other simply, but didn’t say anything more.
The next morning, Su Yan got up early and went out. Before reaching the courtyard, he already saw someone practicing Golden Ape Stance Training there.
‘Breath turns to mist, form like an ape, such proficient stance training.’
That person had dark skin and a sturdy build, wearing only a short training shirt. Although he noticed Su Yan passing by, he didn’t say much.
Su Yan found a corner, mentally retrieved the Insect Yuan of the Yin Water Centipede, stood in Golden Ape Stance Training, and breathed out like an ape.
This strand of Insect Yuan entered his body, vastly different from the scorching heat of the herbal medicine.
With the stance training to absorb it, it first became like a warm current, then differentiated, becoming gentle like jade, rising and falling with the stance training, integrating into strands of Qi and Blood.
The Qi and Blood followed the meridians, accurately reaching the skin and muscles, constantly tempering and strengthening them.
With every breath and muscle tremor, Su Yan could feel his own improvement.
It was as if endless energy was continuously supplementing his body, until half an hour later, when a breath of white mist was exhaled, he finally stopped the stance step.
Five days passed in a flash. When the second batch of herbal medicine was distributed, he swallowed the herbal medicine and practiced stance training with the Insect Yuan.
Surging Qi and Blood poured into his body, and the tempering of skin and flesh advanced to a higher level.
His body was like opening a pass, Skin Refining tight like cowhide.
Su Yan exhaled like a sword, his eyes flashing with sharp light.
‘Golden Ape Stance Training has reached Minor Accomplishment.’
【 Body Tempering Realm: Skin Refining 80/100 (Entry-level ）】
【 Golden Ape Stance Training: 1/200 (Minor Accomplishment ）】
【 Monkey Fist: 50/100 （ Entry-level ）】
Over the past few days, getting up early and practicing late, he had already become the most diligent cultivator among the outer disciples.
Alternating between stance training and fist practice.
He didn’t care about the grouping that Hu Qing and the others mentioned that day. Even if people from Mountain Household came, he only got to know them briefly.
The so-called grouping was just deceiving oneself. Ironworking requires one’s own hardness; randomly mixing together would waste cultivation efforts.
Su Yan didn’t look down on those who grouped up; he knew some of them had no hope of progress, so they huddled together for warmth.
But he was different.
Among the outer disciples, only three or four out of ten had reached Skin Refining Entry-level, and among those three or four tenths, those reaching Minor Accomplishment or Great Accomplishment were even fewer.
‘Senior Brother Gao Zheng changed posts, and the inner sect senior brother Zhou Hui who has been guiding us these ten days is the son of a city tavern owner. Although from just a modestly wealthy family, he looks down even more on us lowly outer city folk, giving much less guidance. Better for me to practice on my own.’
His stance training had improved greatly, thanks to his own cultivation efforts, of course, and also to Gao Zheng’s guidance.
With someone pointing out deficiencies, adjustments would quickly accumulate proficiency.
However, as his movements became more standard, the proficiency feedback obtained would gradually decrease.
Now that Zhou Hui wasn’t guiding the Mountain Household and Lake Household outer disciples much, and he had spent much of his silver, it was better to go back and practice on his own, then return to the martial arts school when the herbal medicine was distributed.
This choice was actually the practice of most children from poor families when practicing martial arts, minimizing expenses as much as possible.
After telling the servant he was moving out and settling the costs for meals and lodging over these few days, Su Yan packed his luggage and was about to leave the middle courtyard.
“Junior Brother Su, wait. How come you’ve only stayed a few days and are leaving already? Could it be you’re eager to go back to drilling mountains?”
Light and teasing with a hint of mockery, a tall and thin man blocked his path.
This man had no excess fat on his face, a slightly pale complexion with sly eyes, wearing a light green shirt with a black cloth belt at the waist, blocking the courtyard like a door god.
“Something wrong?”
Su Yan just raised his eyes, his gaze sharpening. He didn’t know this person’s name, but he seemed to be from the small city families group.
“Heh heh, seeing Junior Brother practicing diligently from morning till night, the most assiduous in martial arts in this courtyard, Senior Brother feels inferior and wants to spar with you to see my own shortcomings.”
Wei Kang seemed well-intentioned, but anyone with eyes could see his intent: this was to establish prestige.
Su Yan not joining a group for warmth naturally made him an easy target, especially with his training method—anyone with eyes could see it, very eye-catching.
“Wei Kang, what do you mean? Want to fight again?”
A rough voice like a drum, a burly man strode between the two, confronting Wei Kang.
“Dian Jing, he didn’t plan to mix with you mountain folk.”
Wei Kang retreated half a step, but his mouth was mocking.
He naturally feared this Dian Jing. He was a hunter from the mountains with excellent bone structure. Though he had only entered the outer sect for three or four months, he had already reached Skin Refining Great Accomplishment. He was the leader of the Mountain Household group and one of the most likely to catch Master Bai’s eye in this month’s examination.
“What’s it to you?”
Dian Jing glared angrily, and several youths appeared behind Wei Kang, all from his group.
Someone shouted: “The martial arts school allows sparring. How can you decide for him?”
Zhou Hui had long noticed the commotion here, but he stood watching from the corridor between the inner and middle courtyards, showing no intention to move.
The martial arts school allowed sparring, as long as no major trouble was caused, he wouldn’t be punished.
If it were Gao Zheng, he would probably have come to scold already, but he was different.
It was just some petty tricks from a few lowly folk—what was it to him?
Dian Jing was in a difficult position. Su Yan reached out and patted his shoulder: “I’ll handle it.”
Dian Jing wasn’t good with words. Though a good person, children from the mountains couldn’t match the verbal skills of city-raised kids.
Wei Kang’s eyes flickered, looking like his scheme had succeeded.
“Let’s fight.”
As Su Yan’s voice fell, Wei Kang hypocritically cupped his fists, then used Monkey Leap Step to rush forward, gaining a body position.
At the same time, he clenched his fist and struck at Su Yan’s heart with Golden Monkey Takes the Heart—truly cunning.
However, facing this sudden assault, Su Yan was far more agile than him.
He stepped left to dodge Wei Kang’s heart-piercing strike, gathered force in his raised hand, suddenly formed a fist, and struck down heavily.
Old Ape Strikes the Crown
This heavy fist landed on Wei Kang’s nape. With a muffled sound, Wei Kang rolled his eyes and his body faltered, about to collapse.
Su Yan sneered—how could he let him off easy? If not in the martial arts school, breaking his bones would just be a minor lesson.
Just as Wei Kang was about to fall, Su Yan used a variation of White Ape Offers Peach, pushing out horizontally, hitting Wei Kang squarely in the body.
That tall, thin body flew out like an arrow, two or three meters, landing with a thud.
The person had already fainted. Even if he woke, he’d be bedridden for two or three days.
“Fist and foot techniques have no eyes. Sorry, everyone.”
The exchange was only two or three moves, and everyone thought Su Yan would get beaten, but unexpectedly Wei Kang ended up so miserably.
The crowd was silent, only Wei Kang’s close associates rushing forward to help him up.
The gate was clear, no one blocking anymore.
Su Yan strode out the door, ignoring the reactions behind him.
After a long while, Zhou Yong in the crowd murmured: “He’s only been here five or six days, how can he match Wei Kang? Could he have reached Minor Accomplishment?”
Among outer disciples, Minor Accomplishment wasn’t rare, but reaching this level in days showed too solid a foundation—even Dian Jing and the others couldn’t have done it back then.
“Trouble. If he keeps this progress by month’s end…”
In the corner of the crowd, another person had gloomy brows, watching Su Yan leave.
Ma Xiaodong was calculating plans in his mind. He had joined the outer sect for nearly a year, waiting for Master Bai to take disciples and enter the inner sect.
If someone ruined his plans, don’t blame him.
Sharing his thoughts were the group of modestly wealthy young masters from the city; among them, quite a few had reached Skin Refining Minor Accomplishment or Great Accomplishment, all eyeing this opportunity.
