Early the next morning, bright daylight broke across the sky.
In the dilapidated courtyard, Zheng Jun wiped his face with cold water to keep himself awake.
Although he had eaten meat and drank wine last night, how long could a meal really take? Returning fully satisfied with no other entertainment available, Zheng Jun could only break off a fire poker and haphazardly practice the Cloak and Dagger for a while before hastily going to sleep.
[Current repayment progress: 30/5000.]
After returning to his room last night, he had practiced the Cloak and Dagger three times with the fire poker, never expecting it to only increase the progress by fifteen points.
It seemed that not using a real saber and relying solely on a fire poker for practice caused a significant deviation in the final results.
Zheng Jun shook his head. After washing his face, he turned and went back into the house.
His muscles ached faintly, seemingly from practicing the Saber Technique for so long the night before. However, Zheng Jun paid this slight soreness no mind. Instead, he energetically put on his Arresting Official uniform inside the house, then strutted out the door and headed toward the County Government Office.
While drinking last night, his brother-in-law had mentioned that because Zheng Jun was injured, the Historian had granted him five days of leave.
However, Zheng Jun did not intend to rest at home. Although he had injured the back of his head, applying medicine and practicing his saber had significantly improved his condition. For Zheng Jun, his movements were already unhindered.
With no food at home, Zheng Jun went out, planning to grab a quick bite before figuring out how he should practice Martial Arts.
"Flatbreads, flatbreads!"
"Pears, big white pears! Don't miss out as you pass by!"
The sky had just brightened, but the streets were already bustling with people.
Zheng Jun patted his pockets and slapped down two cents. Under the terrified gaze of the short, dark-skinned man selling flatbreads from a shoulder pole along the street, he bought one and took a bite as he walked.
The texture wasn't very good; it was gritty and had no filling. It was like a coarse grain steamed bun. Or rather, it was exactly that.
Eating the flatbread, Zheng Jun began to ponder his way out.
There was a saying that scholars may be poor, but martial artists must be rich. Yet in reality, neither literature nor martial arts had anything to do with the poor.
Even the so-called "poor scholars" needed wealthy landlords to supply money for books and to pay respects to a master. Practicing Martial Arts was even more demanding.
If he really wanted to walk the path of Martial Arts, he naturally couldn't skimp on his daily meals. Even a once-in-a-century martial prodigy would struggle to gain strength if they ate nothing but flatbreads and vegetable gruel all day.
"Those who eat meat are brave and fierce; those who eat grain are wise and clever; those who consume Qi are divine and long-lived; those who consume nothing are immortal deities." If one wanted to temper their body, eating grains every day wouldn't cut it. It simply couldn't build strength. Even a prized stallion capable of running a thousand miles a day could not reveal its true worth if starved of fodder. Without enough strength, how could anyone expect it to go the distance?
"The monthly salary is only two maces of silver," he thought. "This little amount of money is barely enough to feed myself, let alone eat meat at every meal... No wonder those Arresting Officials bleed people dry, extorting money whenever they can."
Zheng Jun thought to himself, "With just this much money, I really can't afford the tuition to acknowledge a master and learn fist techniques."
Among the Arresting Officials, most had only learned some superficial moves.
It was true that Arresting Officials belonged to the lowborn class. However, if one could enter Martial Arts and reach the "Qi Storage and Meridian Opening" stage, according to the Great Zhou Martial Law, they could shed their lowborn status. They could be promoted to the Garrison Command and become the Ti Cavalry of the Great Zhou Dynasty, no longer bound by their lowly origins!
Black Mountain County naturally had a Garrison Command, but its numbers were sparse, totaling no more than a dozen people.
The Garrison Command's Government Office was independent of the County Government Office and acted as a Zhili, directly subordinate to the Royal Family. Only when Demon Fiends wreaked havoc and the Imperial Family issued an edict would the Garrison Command be mobilized. On ordinary days, even the County Magistrate had no authority to deploy them!
Therefore, many Arresting Officials, Black Officials, and Civilian Soldiers in the Three Squads paid to learn skills at various Martial Arts Halls. Not to mention Qi Storage, even if they only reached Blood Refining, they could pull some strings and become respectable figures in this neck of the woods. At the very least, they wouldn't be beaten to death by suspects with just two punches while out on an arrest.
"It seems that if I want to get ahead, tempering my body and becoming a Blood Refining Martial Artist as soon as possible is the right path!" Zheng Jun gnawed on the flatbread and clenched his fists. "It looks like only when my fists are hard can my spine be straight!"
His savings weren't insignificant. He had a massive sum of two taels and five maces on his person. Besides that, he had dozens of large coins, which didn't even amount to one mace of silver.
After filling his stomach, Zheng Jun immediately rushed to the Xu Family Martial Arts Hall. However, the county town was simply too large. He wandered around the city three or four times before finally finding a sprawling courtyard of single-story houses.
Outside the grayish-white walls of this courtyard, Zheng Jun could hear the vigorous shouts of training echoing from within, even from a distance.
Looking up, he saw the words "Tiesha Xu Clan" written right above.
Seeing that he had found the right place, Zheng Jun immediately felt at ease. He stepped forward and knocked. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.
A moment later, the door was pulled open, and a cold, emotionless face poked out from the crack.
The man glanced at Zheng Jun. Seeing his Arresting Official uniform, the fierce flesh on the man's face twitched. Unsurprisingly, he asked, "Here to learn fist techniques?"
"Yes."
"Did you bring money?"
"I did... How much are the fees?"
"Five taels a month. You Arresting Officials can only come at night. A meal of vegetables and grains is included every evening. If you want meat, you have to pay extra."
Hearing the fees, Zheng Jun casually mentioned that he hadn't brought enough and turned to leave.
Seeing him walk away, the fierce-faced man was unsurprised. SWISH. He slammed the door shut. Zheng Jun could vaguely hear something along the lines of, "Another delusional, broke Arresting Official."
"I can use the Fruit of the Future from the Great Tao Martial Book to advance Great Success Martial Arts," he thought. "Once I finish paying off the debt for the Cloak and Dagger, I'll only need a month to grasp the basics of the Xu Family Martial Arts Hall's Martial Arts, and then I won't have to come back..."
As Zheng Jun thought this, he couldn't help but feel that the Great Tao Martial Book was overwhelmingly domineering. It was truly the unparalleled choice for secretly learning Martial Arts!
Enjoy the ride first, pay the fare later.
Ordinary Martial Artists needed the guidance of a renowned master and years of steady learning to build up their strength drop by drop. But as for him, once he took out a loan, he instantly became a master. He could practice on his own and didn't need any renowned master's guidance at all.
With a method like this, which Martial Arts Hall could withstand his exploits?
At this thought, Zheng Jun immediately visited two other Martial Arts Halls, repeating the same process to ask about their prices.
One of them, the Ma Family Fist, required two taels a month. The other, Hard Qi Skill, demanded a staggering eight taels a month.
Zheng Jun shook his head. He then went to the market and bought three taels of pork, along with some pig offal. Spending seventy or eighty coins, he wrapped his purchases in straw paper and returned home.
Just as he arrived home and set the meat down, he heard bold, unconstrained footsteps outside the door.
"Junzi, open the door!"
Zheng Jun recognized the voice of his brother-in-law, Zhou Pu, and immediately went to open it.
The moment the door opened, Zheng Jun saw Zhou Pu walk in, hugging a saber. After entering the room and closing the door, Zhou Pu didn't beat around the bush. With a flick of his wrist, CLANG, he drew the saber from its sheath.
Instantly, a gleaming blade appeared before Zheng Jun.
The style of this saber was no different from his brother-in-law's, though it looked somewhat newer. It appeared to be a standard Great Zhou military saber. The entire blade was well-maintained, with the only flaw being... it was incomplete. The tip had been broken off, leaving about a third of the blade missing.
It was a broken saber.
"The Government Office organized some men to pick up this broken saber from Black Mountain a few days ago. That damn Old Zhu asked for a full two taels and six maces of silver for it! Damn it, two taels and six maces! If it weren't for the fact that this saber was forged by the Court, made without impure iron, and is several times better than what you'd find in an ordinary blacksmith shop, I would have just scraped together a bit more money and bought you a new one!"
His brother-in-law, Zhou Pu, complained, cursing this "Old Zhu"—whom Zheng Jun didn't know—for a long while. Suddenly remembering something, he pulled four maces of silver from his clothes. "After deducting the two taels and six maces to bribe for the saber, there are four maces of silver left from the medicine money!"