“Fifteen days is more than enough.”
“There is no need to allocate points to break through. I will break through on my own!”
From that day on, Zhuang Xun controlled Yan Pingsheng to start practicing martial arts at the hour of Mao every day and only return at the hour of Xu.
Although he was not the most hardworking disciple in the Outer Court, his performance was a stark contrast to his past laziness, causing the other disciples to look at him in a new light.
Was that lackadaisical Yan Pingsheng finally going to get serious?
That's right, I'm going to start putting in the effort!
When the instructor saw me dressed in all black, changing from a short tunic to long trousers, tying my loose hair back into a ponytail, and treating everyone warmly yet maintaining an air of arrogance, the instructor knew his trump card had returned.
Now making his appearance is the T0 top-tier powerhouse, the hardworking Yan Pingsheng, who would catch up to Bai Yujing's realm in a matter of minutes.
...
“To grieve in vain!”
Fifteen days later, Zhuang Xun was feeling melancholic all by himself in the bamboo forest.
He shook his head and sighed, opening the Character Creation Panel.
——Character Creation Panel——
[Character One: Yan Pingsheng]
[Age: 15]
[Realm: Eight Stones of strength]
[Skeletal Structure: 50 (Average Skeletal Structure)]
[Comprehension: 54.7 (Average Comprehension)]
[Charm: 50 (Ordinary)]
————
[Character Two: Bai Yujing (Expandable)]
————
[Character Three (To be created)]
【Current Points: 124】
“As expected, do I still have to resort to this taboo power?” Without the slightest hesitation, Zhuang Xun tapped the button next to his realm.
“Argh—!”
【Current Points: 124 → 123】
As the numbers shifted, a warm current surged within Yan Pingsheng's body, flowing through his meridians to every corner of his physique. Everywhere it passed, his flesh and blood grew firmer and more powerful.
“Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho~ This feels amazing.”
[Realm: Eight Stones of strength → Nine Stones of strength]
After a moment, the stat allocation concluded, and Zhuang Xun exhaled a breath of turbid air.
Flexing his limbs, which felt both lighter and more powerful, he rushed to the Seventh Courtyard's martial arts field, heading to the area where the stone locks were kept to test his strength.
With great ease, he lifted a Nine-Stone stone lock off the ground.
It was completely unlike his previous experiences, where he had to exhaustively train his body to naturally increase his strength and struggle immensely to lift them.
“How does that saying go again? Cultivation gained through self-training is superficial and weak, while cultivation obtained through system upgrades is immediately superior.” Zhuang Xun smiled slightly and gently placed the stone lock back in its original position.
At that moment, he noticed a few disciples staring at him in a daze. He gave them a nod, turned, and walked away.
Once he was far enough, those disciples looked at each other.
“...Did Brother Yan just lift a Nine-Stone stone lock?”
“It seems... yes.”
“And he did it so effortlessly too. He must have been able to lift it a long time ago.”
“But didn't Brother An say that Brother Yan wouldn't make it in time for today's promotion assessment?” The speaking disciple refused to believe it and tried to pull the stone lock Yan Pingsheng had just used, only to turn red in the face without budging it in the slightest.
For a moment, a silence fell over the group.
...
The promotion assessment would not begin until the hour of Chen, and since it was still early, Zhuang Xun controlled Yan Pingsheng to return to the dormitory and let him sleep.
Later, he woke up at the same time as An Dafu and Zhang Tie.
The two were somewhat surprised to see Yan Pingsheng, but in their hearts, they assumed he had given up knowing he wouldn't make it in time, so they offered a few comforting words.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Xun remained completely silent, holding back his laughter.
On the grand martial arts field.
An Dafu stared expressionlessly at Yan Pingsheng, who was effortlessly lifting a Nine-Stone stone lock on the stage.
Now, it was his turn to fall silent.
“Yan Pingsheng, Nine Stones of strength!”
“Whoa—!” A small commotion broke out among the crowd.
Feeling the inquisitive gazes directed at him from many around, An Dafu couldn't help but cover his face and rub it vigorously.
“Oh, my goodness, oh... I've been fooled by this guy again!”
“Weren't you sighing and groaning all night yesterday? How did you suddenly... Oh, why did you do this? Wouldn't it have been nice for us to enjoy ourselves together in the Outer Court for another half a year? Why did you secretly get promoted all by yourself?”
After stepping down, Zhuang Xun looked at the complaining An Dafu and chuckled, “I was just sleepy last night.”
“You're buying! Pingsheng, you absolutely must treat us! We even comforted you this morning, what a total waste of our feelings. You definitely have to treat us!” Zhang Tie said, grabbing Yan Pingsheng.
“Alright, alright, alright. My treat, my treat. What do you guys want to eat?”
Zhuang Xun thought to himself that this would likely be their last meal together, as they probably wouldn't see much of each other in the future.
The promotion assessment was divided into two rounds.
One was today's strength test.
Those who passed the strength test would proceed to the second round a week later—the martial competition.
The top ten in the martial competition would secure a spot in the Upper Two Courts, while the rest could only choose one of the Lower Three Courts.
Therefore, after today, their parting was inevitable.
...
The next day, Zhuang Xun found out that a total of ninety-four disciples had successfully advanced to the second round, which was slightly more than he had anticipated.
At the same time, his successful advancement to the second round drew the attention of many who sought to gather information about him.
Some tried to test his strength under the guise of sparring. Zhuang Xun did not reject anyone, showing them the great perfection-level martial arts they wanted to see before stopping at the appropriate moment.
Zhuang Xun was not the only one receiving this treatment; the same went for other disciples who had mastered, or were suspected of mastering, great perfection-level martial arts.
However, it remained strictly at the level of probing strength, and no one took it a step further to play dirty tricks.
This made Zhuang Xun feel that killing Xu Wenli was indeed the right decision; otherwise, the Outer Court would definitely not be as peaceful as it was now.
Furthermore, as one of the only two disciples who had openly mastered great perfection-level martial arts, and being in a different camp from Xu Wenli, he would have inevitably been regarded as a major threat by the latter.
A few days later.
Another two disciples were revealed to have mastered great perfection-level martial arts during the sparring.
These two, along with Yan Pingsheng and Yu Xiao—the sole survivor of the Five Great Experts—were collectively referred to as the new Four Great Experts of the Outer Court.
They were: the “Ascetic” Yu Xiao, the “Sleepless Scholar” Li Zigeng, the “Green Leaf” Chen Qing'er, and the “Crouching Tiger” Yan Pingsheng.
“Are they all elementary schoolers? Why do they love giving people nicknames so much?”
“Crouching Tiger, a tiger lying low in ambush... Huh? Come to think of it, this fits Yan Pingsheng's experience quite well. After all, in the eyes of others, I must have reached Nine Stones of strength long ago, only hiding it until the promotion assessment to reveal it.”
“I suppose it's not bad, as long as they don't call me Gian.” Zhuang Xun pinched the large roll of fat on his stomach.
Some time ago, in order to train his way to Nine Stones of strength, he had eaten precious meat once a day. In just fifteen short days, he had gained twenty pounds, and now he truly looked a bit like a fat pig.
Fortunately, his Charm was still fifty, having not dropped.
Therefore, Zhuang Xun had no immediate plans to make Yan Pingsheng lose weight, because the low-tier martial art he practiced, the Thousand-Jin Fall, became more powerful the heavier he was.
He would worry about it after the promotion assessment was over.
In fact, whether he lost weight or not didn't seem to matter much, since his face would remain the same anyway.
Without losing weight: an ordinary-looking fat guy.
Losing weight: an ordinary-looking thin guy.
“Uh, that's strangely depressing. Thankfully, my real self looks like Bai Yujing, and Yan Pingsheng is just my clone.” Zhuang Xun patted his bouncing chest muscles and comforted himself.
“Well, I should still lose the weight. I want to play Yan Pingsheng's character as a jacked, muscular hunk. I'll have to look for some cultivation techniques that allow transformation into a monster for Yan Pingsheng to practice later.”
“Also, I need to arrange a meeting between Bai Yujing and Yan Pingsheng,” Zhuang Xun pondered.
He realized there was a loophole in his previous plans: he had never had Bai Yujing speak up. Over time, this would easily make others suspect that Yan Pingsheng was actually not close to Bai Yujing at all, and was merely riding on his coattails under the empty name of being from the same hometown.
For instance, over the past few days, if Bai Yujing had acknowledged their shared hometown connection, who would have dared to come and test his strength?
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