Chapter 32
Senior Brother Qi Yangbing, An Unexpected Surprise
“It’s a pity that our Changshan Dojo’s breathing technique isn’t good at attacking. Every year, we’re ranked at the bottom of the eight martial roll.”
“Fortunately, Senior Brother Qi Yangbing is here. That’s how we managed to secure a spot in the top ten. Otherwise, we’d be dead.”
“Come to think of it, that Reihom from the Thunderbolt Dojo is really terrifying. He’s a fourth-level fighter who dominated the eight martial roll for two years at twenty-three years old. Even the old instructors of the eight big martial arts centers are not his match.”
“I heard he’s already been favored by the important people of the county city. Who knows when he’ll rush into the county city and become a very important and influential person?”
“Along with Reihom, there were two others named Little Hong and Hong San, who aren’t bad either. They’re considered Reihom’s successor by the people in their dojo.”
“He’s in the second refinement at sixteen. His Qi and blood are strong, and he’s a vicious person. He even defeated one-third of the second refinement martial artists in the eight big martial arts centers.”
“Correct. The difference between people is really too great.” The man shook his head in regret.
Qin Huai listened carefully to the introduction of the eight martial roll. But he didn’t notice that Qi Yangbing, who was not far away, was actually walking in this direction.
Finally, he stopped in front of Qin Huai.
“You must be Junior Brother Qin.” Qi Yangbing’s face was full of joy.
“Hello, Senior Brother Qi!” Qin Huai hurriedly bowed.
“No need to be so polite. Senior Brother Fang and Senior Brother Gu have been praising you for many days. You’re hardworking, humble, and eager to learn. You’ve been leaning on the wall every day to learn and observe the other senior and junior brothers ‘cultivation. I don’t know if you’re good at learning, but Junior Brother’s appearance does make people feel relaxed and happy.” Qi Yangbing was humorous and easy-going. He didn’t have the arrogance of a senior brother.
“Compared to Senior Brother, Junior Brother’s appearance can only be considered ordinary.”
“Hmm, that makes sense.” Qi Yangbing actually nodded, which made the crowd laugh.
“Junior Brother, are you here to confirm your forging skill level?” Qi Yangbing saw the sign in Qin Huai’s hand. He didn’t see the level clearly, but he didn’t think it was high. Qin Huai seemed to have been an apprentice of the apothecary.
Qin Huai nodded.
“This forging skill is divided into four categories: beginner, elementary, intermediate, and advanced. They correspond to our wooden tokens, bronze tokens, silver tokens, and gold tokens.”
“Senior Brother, Master Song said that I’m a genius in both martial arts and forging. I’ve been forging for four years, and now I’m only one step away from the intermediate level. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you must come and ask me.” Qi Yangbing’s voice was powerful.
Qin Huai opened his mouth and looked at the kind face in front of him. There was also a crowd around him, so it wasn’t a good time to take out his intermediate forging badge. If he took it out now, wouldn’t he be slapping Qi Yangbing in the face?
“Junior Brother, you’re going? Why are you so shy?” Qi Yangbing looked at the unmoving Qin Huai and was a little puzzled. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about having a low level. Who didn’t start from nothing, step by step?” Qi Yangbing ‘saw’ through Qin Huai’s thoughts.
“Senior Brother is right.” Qin Huai was still holding onto the wooden tablet.
“Alright, I’ll help you take care of it.” Qi Yangbing reached out to take the wooden badge from Qin Huai’s hand, but halfway through, he saw the word ‘Intermediate.’
The smile on his face suddenly froze. This Junior Brother might have a high talent in cultivation. How could he be an intermediate at such a young age?
He looked at Qin Huai. The latter had an innocent expression.
Qi Yangbing laughed bitterly. “So Junior Brother was thinking of me. It’s all my fault for being too confident.” He even bent down to make way for Qin Huai.
“What’s happening?” The group of junior brothers craned their necks in curiosity.
Qin Huai walked up to the counter and handed over his wooden badge. The next moment, the surrounding disciples and apprentices were in an uproar.
“Damn, an intermediate badge?”
“This is to ridicule Qin Huai?!”
The people around them looked at Qin Huai in shock.
“This guy can’t be compatible with forging, right?”
“There’s no such thing as compatibility in blacksmithing! This is called talent!”
“It’s so unfair. Where does Qin Huai live? I’ll go over tonight and have a chat with him.”
“Forget about it.”
Under everyone’s shocked and envious gazes, Qin Huai took the Qi and blood pill, drank the soup, and left quickly.
…
In the small courtyard, Qin Huai swallowed the two red pill pills in one go, and his vitality increased from 26.533 to 26.575.
“One pill has increased my vitality by 0.02 points. The effect is twenty times that of the soup.”
“But I actually didn’t get a nosebleed, hehe. I understand now. The Qi and blood soup and demon meat will cause a nosebleed and cause Qi and blood loss. Therefore, you can only take a certain amount every day, but the Qi and blood pill will have better tolerance. It can be integrated with the body very well.”
In this way, after getting the benefit of the intermediate forging skill, he would be able to use the skill.
The speed at which his vitality was increasing had increased by at least four times. An increase of 0.5 in vitality in a year was equivalent to half of the tenth level of a supplementary cultivation technique.
“Wait a minute, then how much does a blood Qi treasure medicine that’s as effective as hundreds of blood Qi pills increase in strength? Could it be that it’s equivalent to a supplementary cultivation technique?”
Qin Huai didn’t dare to think too deeply about how strong the first of the eight martial roll, the proud son of heaven, Reihom, was. The strong sense of danger made him want to become stronger.
Qin Huai was just about to practice martial arts when Sun Ziyao ran over excitedly.
“Qin Huai, I organized a tea party today, and many senior brothers and sisters will be there. Do you want to come?”
Sun Ziyao didn’t wait for Qin Huai to speak and continued, “Although you’re talented, you’re learning martial arts at the dojo. It’s not just about practicing martial arts. There’s definitely no harm in getting to know the senior brothers and sisters. Anyway, you’ve already rejected me twice. You can’t do it three times. Oh, and some senior sisters would like to thank you for saving them in the mine earlier.”
He had just come back for less than an hour, and the news of intermediate forging skills had already spread so quickly.
Qin Huai was stunned. His wish to keep a low profile as much as possible was shattered. It was a good thing that the news of him reaching level 20 breathing technique had yet to be exposed.
“Alright.” Qin Huai nodded in agreement. After all, Sun Ziyao’s words made sense.
However, this kid’s communication skills really made Qin Huai sigh in admiration. He couldn’t help but admire him.
In the dojo, martial artists like them, who had entered through small trials, were usually not welcomed. They were like a pack of dogs that suddenly had a few wild dogs. They would definitely be ostracized. Although the analogy wasn’t very appropriate, it was roughly the situation in the dojo.
Sun Ziyo was an exception. He didn’t rely on money. He got along with everyone with his glib tongue and his face that was full of smiles every day.
It was a tea party. In fact, it was just that a few senior brothers had gone to the city to buy some crushed tea leaves and started a fire in a forest in White Flow Mountain to boil tea. Even the wooden stool was cut on the spot, and it was very rough.
There were more than twenty people at the tea party, including apprentices and martial artists.
“Junior Brother Qin, it’s all thanks to you that you saved me in the mine during the day. If it weren’t for you, I would have lost this arm.” A senior sister with a good figure was holding a teacup and offering tea to Qin Huai. She was wearing a green robe with a high slit, and her actions were somewhat flirtatious.
Qin Huai only took the teacup and said that it was nothing.
Then, two senior sisters and one senior brother came to thank him. They must have been saved by him in the mine during the day.
However, Qin Huai really had no impression of these people. The mine was too dark, and his attention was not on their faces at the time, so he did not recognize them.
Normally, he would always climb over walls to gain experience, but he couldn’t even recognize them.
Therefore, he could only nod and echo with ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ ‘We’re all family, ‘It was nothing,’ and so on. He silently took note of the names of his senior brothers and sisters.
Halfway through the party, Qin Huai had no choice but to leave in a hurry. This was because many people were flattering him, and some of them went too far with their words. Even Qin Huai himself couldn’t bear to listen.
He wasn’t good with words and was usually introverted, so he really wasn’t suitable for this kind of occasion where he was being held in high regard.
“I won’t participate in such tea parties in the future,” Qin Huai thought to himself.
…
“Ding! You have collected a [Breath Control Essence] (Green), [Breath Control] experience +28!”
“Ding! You have collected a [Breath Control Essence] (Green), [Breath Control] experience +50!”
“Ding! You have collected a [Breath Control Essence] (Green), [Breath Control] experience +33!”
….
“Eh?”
The next day, when Qin Huai was collecting experience points, he found something strange.
There were a few experience orbs that gave much more experience. Moreover, the owners of those experience orbs were the senior brothers and sisters he had talked to at the party yesterday.
“The senior brothers and sisters I’ve talked to gave me five or six experience points on average.”
A person’s experience ball, without counting the increase in their own realm, would not fluctuate more than two points. But this time…it was obviously not normal.
It was the same when he was in the apothecary. Liu Xiaomei’s realm was not high, but the experience she gave him was one or two times higher than that of his fellow disciples.
There was also Luo Ya, who had a good impression of him. The experience she had given him back then was also very shocking.
The memories of the past resurfaced in his mind. He had noticed it at the time, but too much time had passed and there were too many people in the dojo, so he had forgotten about it.
Now that he thought about it again, the memory was even more profound.
“I understand. People who are close to me and have a good impression of me will give me more experience.” Qin Huai was suddenly enlightened.
He thought about it carefully. When he was collecting experience in medicine, it was also the people who came in at the same time who gave him more experience.
He pondered for a moment. “I can’t be introverted all the time. I have to learn to break through and grow. So, I have to attend more of Sun Ziyao’s tea parties in the future.”