The two lackeys immediately leapt into action, running towards the fat youth.
"Senior Huang, are you okay?" One of the lackeys asked.
The fat youth did not reply. He simply clutched the area between his legs and rolled around, as tears, sweat, and snot ran down his face.
Suddenly, a panel popped up in front of Zhang Ji's eyes.
"When one walks the jianghu, even a saint will find it difficult to escape all fights. But as the representative of goodness, one must always fight in an aboveboard manner and spread the gospel of gentlemanly combat. For kicking a place that should not be kicked, 50 Good Deed Points have been deducted."
Zhang Ji simply ignored the panel. He had no use for this silly system.
"You what did you do?" One of the lackeys yelled at Zhang Ji.
Hearing this, Zhang Ji looked at him as if looking at an idiot. Wasn't it obvious what he did?
Suddenly, Zhang Ji heard some noises coming towards the room. The next second, he ran to a corner of the room and crouched down.
Just as the two lackeys were surprised, the door to the room was opened from the outside, and an older man wearing a gold coloured robe with two small dragons etched on his sleeves. This was the instructor that the fat youth was talking about.
In every session, the Golden Dragon Dojo would accept a lot of disciples. They would be grouped in different buildings to stay, and each building would have an instructor to both teach them cultivation, as well as to watch over them.
"What is going on here?" The instructor asked.
When they saw the instructor, the eyes of the two lackeys lit up. "Instructor Li, please give justice for us. Zhang Ji hurt Huang Wen with a sneak attack and crippled him. Please punish him."
Hearing this, instructor Li frowned and turned to Zhang Ji, who was now cowering and trembling in a corner, a far cry from how he looked earlier.
"I-I didn't. It was an accident. He tried to hit me when I told him I don't want to do his chores anymore. I just tried to fight back. I didn't think this would happen. It was an accident. It was an accident." Zhang Ji was almost in tears by the time he finished speaking.
Hearing Zhang Ji's response, Instructor Li frowned. He knew what went on within the dojo's rooms, and usually thought that it was none of his problem. The people in these training halls weren't even members of the dojo, and were just taught a few basic tricks. Most of them would soon be gone anyway. So he never bothered with anyone.
But now that someone had been injured so badly, he had no choice but to step up. Not to mention that the peon was the son of a high ranking member of the Huang clan.
But just as he was thinking of what to do, the other two lackeys reacted.
"Shut up you bastard. How dare you lie to instructor Li." One of the lackeys yelled.
"Instructor Li, you should not believe him. He did all of this. Huang Wen did nothing wrong. It was all this bastard who attacked him with a sneak attack and hurt him. You must punish him." The other one said.
"Thats right. Huang Wen would never hurt anyone. You can ask his father about it." The first lackey continued.
"Shut up." Instructor Li snapped. These idiots were making things more difficult for him. In normal times, he could try to use his position to ignore a few things. But by now, many people had come to the entrance of the room and were watching the show. They all knew how Zhang Ji was normally treated and thought that the whole thing was amusing. It was impossible to be too impartial in front of everyone. Did these idiots think that everyone else was stupid like them? After all, the dojo had an image to protect.
"First of all, take Huang Wen to the infirmary." Instructor Li said. "We can figure out the truth of the matter after he is healed." And then he turned to Zhang Ji. "As for you, it doesn't matter why or if it was an accident. The fact of the matter is, you harmed a fellow disciple. You need to be punished. Thus, I sentence you to seven days of solitary confinement."
Hearing this, a frightened look appeared in Zhang Ji's eyes. He then slowly nodded his head. Seeing this, Instructor Li turned around and left.
Even though Zhang Ji put on a frightened expression, his inner thoughts were anything but. 'One week, huh. Well then, I shall be merciful and torture you for only one week before killing you.' Zhang Ji thought.
Seeing instructor Li leave, the two lackeys were also frightened. They quickly picked up Huang Wen and ran away.
Seeing that the commotion was over, the others also left. Though one could still hear some chucklings and whisperings.
Zhang Ji calmly watched these people go. He didn't remember any of them, and werent close to anyone.
After a few moments, Zhang Ji finally stood up, and slowly walked out. As he did, he held a complex, but scared expression on his face.
Zhang Ji walked out of the housing building and walked towards the main training hall. It was in this building that the major events related to their stay in the training hall were handled. This building had the resource hall, the mission hall, the technique library and so on. The prison and punishment department was also here.
Even though no one came to bring Zhang Ji to the prison, he had no desire to skip out on it. If he did, the other three would certainly complain, and then the situation would only get worse.
But that didn't mean that he was happy about it. He needed to improve his cultivation quickly. The upcoming test in less than a month's time was only the beginning. If he couldnt improve his cultivation fast enough, he would be kicked out. And each test would be harder than the one before. So he needed as many resources as he could get his hands on.
The most efficient way would be to make money first and then train quickly. But that was out of the window now.
Zhnag Ji quickly walked into the training hall and stammeringly reported his situation to the disciple in charge. These disciples were official members and not just temporary training hall members like Zhang Ji. Upon hearing that he was punished with a week's solitary confinement, the people there didn't say anything. They quickly brought him to the cell and locked him in. To them, neither this nor Zhang Ji was anything special.
As soon as Zhang Ji was left alone, his expression changed into one of indifferent majesty. After all, he was once the demon emperor. While he had no problem in playing the part of the helpless weakling for his purposes, it was indeed a bit difficult ot adjust to after all this time.
The cell that he was in was neither very large nor very small. It simply had a mattress and a toilet in a corner.
"Good its just big enough." ZHnag Ji muttered. The cells in the punishment hall were usually just big enough for people to cultivate body tempering.
But first, Zhang Ji had to decide on a cultivation technique. He certainly wasn't going to continue with the poor yellow snake body wiggling art. After all, he knew man,y many better techniques. So he quickly started to go through all the body forging arts he knew.
After an hour of deliberation, Zhang Ji finally settled on the heavenly demon body forging art. This was not the strongest cultivation art he knew, but all the stronger techniques required either precious materials, special circumstances, external help, or great plunder to pull off. If we were to cultivate an evil art with his current strength, there was a very high chance he would be discovered, and at the moment, there was no need to take such risks.
Besides, the heavenly demon body forging art was not too bad either. It was quite fast, could be cultivated even without any external aid, and its foundation was not too much weaker than the other supreme arts. But Zhang Ji wasnt someone who cared deeply about foundations anyway. In his past life, forget the geniuses of the vast universe; his foundation could only be considered ordinary, even compared to the geniuses of the planet he was on. And even then, he managed to reach the peak of the universe.
Once he decided on the path, Zhang Ji immediately got to work without waiting a single second. He might have been cursed for his evilness, but no one ever accused him of being lazy.
"At the very least, I don't have to worry about anyone else seeing me practise." Zhang Ji thought.
Since the rooms were quite small, everyone had to practise in the open spaces. Since he was cultivating very different techniques, he would easily be caught. If someone got greedy, they might try to kill him for the new technique. So hiding himself for the time being was essential. Thankfully, he was put into solitary confinement, thus solving this problem.
The cultivation techniques in the body tempering realm required one to stand in various postures and change between them to stimulate the body and trigger its growth. Different cultivation techniques used different poses, orders and frequency, so they had different effects.
Zhang Ji spent a long time making sure that he remembered the art perfectly, as well as studying it in detail to fit his body. Finally, he got up and started to practice.
But the moment he got into the first posture of the heavenly demon body forging art, Zhang Ji quickly realised that his body was simply not ready to cultivate the art. In some parts, it was due to not having enough strength. In other it was due to being too inflexible. All in all, his body was a mess.
Zhang Ji somehow managed to barely reach the first posture. From there, he took a deep breath and started to move into the second posture.
He completed one posture after the other. The first part of the heavenly demon body forging art consisted of thirty six postures, which were required to be followed in a specific order, with a breafic breathing timing and rhythm. Unfortunately, it was all Zhang Ji could do to barely complete the postures.
The moment he finished the last posture, Zhang Ji collapsed to the ground. His entire body was drenched in sweat and trembling wildly. But there was an excited look in his eyes.
Suddenly, a panel popped up in front of Zhang Ji's eyes.
Techniques: Heavenly Demon Body Forging Art(begininng 4%): A cultivation method that can build a solid foundation for the heavenly demons' cultivation arts.
Zhnag Ji glanced at the panel indifferently before dismissing it. This system was starting to get annoying, popping up all the time for no reason.
Zhang Ji lay down on the mattress and slowly recovered. As he did, he could feel his body absorbing the nutrients he had eaten ever since joining the training hall, but not digested. As it did, his body subtly started to get stronger, though there was still a long way to go before he could break through.
Suddenly, the flap at the bottom of the door opened, and a small tray of food was pushed through the door. No matter what, the training hall always provided good, nutritious food on time. After all, that was what most people were paying for.
After Zhang Ji ate lunch, he continued to rest. But even during rest, he would make small movements and breathe in a specific manner to speed up his recovery.
After dinner, Zhang Ji once again undertook another round of cultivation. Thanks to his earlier efforts, Zhang Ji was able to do slightly better this time around. This was soon verified by the system, which increased the progress of the Heavenly Demon Body Forging Art to sixteen per cent of the beginner realm.
Time passed slowly as Zhnag Ji continued to recover. Finally, just as he was about to sleep, another notification popped up in front of him.
Daily Task not completed. Twenty points deducted.