"You unfilial wretch! You insolent dog!"
Inside the main hall, Xue Dingyi knelt on the floor, eyes lowered, not daring to utter a sound.
The entire Xue manor was dead silent, save for Master Xue Chengquan's furious roaring.
"If someone hadn't told me, I wouldn't even know you caused such an enormous disaster out there! Four months! A hundred taels of silver just for tuition! And I provided you an extra fifty taels for medicinal herbs! Tell me, what have you learned? Huh?
"Idling about outside, showing no drive to improve, stirring up trouble! And at home, defiling maidservants, defying your father, indulging in wine and lust without restraint! How did I ever spawn an unfilial wretch like you!"
Xue Dingyi stiffened his neck. "How did I defile a maidservant? Qiuhua seduced me first! She was the one who flirtatiously offered me brown sugar water!"
"You—you!"
Xue Chengquan pointed a trembling finger at Xue Dingyi's nose, his face turning pale as gold leaf from sheer rage, his features twisting out of shape.
"Oh, my son, please, say less!" Xue's mother cried in agitation from the side.
"You shut your mouth too! If you hadn't helped him cover it up, how would I only be finding out now? Two days! Two whole days he spent fooling around outside! I thought he went to the martial hall, but he was at a brothel!" Xue Chengquan looked at the servants to his left and right and barked, "Gag his mouth and beat him within an inch of his life!"
The servants trembled like quails, but none dared disobey—the master was still the head of the household.
They could only hold Xue Dingyi down on a wooden bench, raise their heavy paddles, and strike a dozen times. Yet their blows were all bluster and little bite.
"Fine, fine, fine! Playing games with me, are you?! Huh?! Get out of my way!"
Xue Chengquan kicked the servant wielding the paddle aside, seized it himself, gritted his teeth, and struck furiously thirty to forty times.
Weeping and wailing, Xue's mother threw her arms around Xue Chengquan's legs, tearfully begging him to stop. But Xue Chengquan refused to listen; in fact, he struck even harder.
"A doting mother spoils the child! You're the one who ruined this wretch with your pampering! And now you dare plead for him? Another word and I'll beat you along with him!"
Frightened, Xue's mother let go and fell silent as a cicada in winter, sitting alone on the ground and wiping her tears with a handkerchief.
Xue Chengquan beat him until he was panting for breath. Only when his arms could no longer lift the paddle did he collapse heavily onto a bench to rest. Gulping down two mouthfuls of tea, he bellowed, "Tomorrow! Tomorrow you come with me to Yixing to make a formal apology to Master Yang's ninth disciple!"
No answer.
"Did you hear me?"
Still no answer.
Xue Chengquan's brows shot up in fury. Just as he was about to raise the paddle again, a servant beside him hurriedly wailed, "Master, please stop! The young master has fainted! If you keep beating him, something terrible will really happen!"
***
"Tungsten gold is different from ordinary metals. It is exceptionally heat-resistant, and normal furnaces can't melt it at all. But it has a unique property: it absorbs fire essence easily yet releases it with great difficulty. So by calcining it continuously with a large amount of fire-red stones, it will gradually soften after being heated for a certain period."
Lu Gang sat before the furnace, pouring fire-red stones inside. The muscles across his body gleamed with a metallic sheen.
"I haven't used a Scarlet Flame Mourning Feather to forge a weapon before, but I've handled similar materials, so I'm fairly confident. Perhaps this spear will turn out to be my masterpiece."
Liang Qu listened with delight from the side. "Thank you, Senior Brother Lu."
"No need to thank me. Forging a sharp weapon is the finest reward for a smith in the first place. Even if you hadn't come, once I got hold of a Scarlet Flame Mourning Feather, I would've found a way to forge it into a weapon anyway. The only difference is what kind."
"Right, Senior Brother Lu, if we use the Scarlet Flame Mourning Feather, will the spear take on fire attributes or something?"
Liang Qu felt a prickle of worry. Fire-red stones, a Scarlet Flame Bird's mourning feather... in another setting, this would be a textbook fire-attribute spiritual artifact.
Yet he was a Water Monkey—their elemental affinities clashed completely!
"It won't. The defining trait of tungsten gold is its stable affinity; its elemental properties don't shift easily. Besides, fire-red stones are essentially just high-heat charcoal, nothing extraordinary.
"As for the Scarlet Flame Mourning Feather, it is intrinsically life essence. Though it carries fire energy, unless you use special methods, you can't integrate that into the tungsten gold. It can only bestow spirituality upon the tungsten gold weapon. Were you hoping to add an elemental attribute, Junior Brother? If so, we'd need to change the material for the spearhead."
"Oh, no, no need. It's great as it is."
"Alright then."
Around noon, Liang Qu ate a meal at Lu Gang's place and took his leave.
Staying there wouldn't help at all; watching his senior brother bustling about while he sat idle felt improper.
Returning to the martial hall, Liang Qu performed another round of skin tempering, drawing one step closer to breaking through.
Everything progressed in an orderly fashion. Each day brought enough positive feedback to keep him thoroughly engaged. Even as the weather grew colder day by day, he felt no desire to linger in bed in the mornings—his mind was entirely consumed by one thought: breakthrough, breakthrough, breakthrough!
Once his skin tempering concluded, Xiang Changsong came looking for Liang Qu.
It turned out Senior Brother Hu had returned earlier. Seeing Liang Qu deep in cultivation, he hadn't disturbed him, instead asking Xiang Changsong to guide Liang Qu to the academy so he could find his way around, while Hu Qi went to report the matter of the mountain ghost to Master Yang.
Martial arts practice, watching the smith at work, studying at the academy, and finding time to dive for treasures...
Liang Qu suddenly felt his schedule grow intensely crowded, like a child signed up for multiple tutoring classes by demanding parents.
Yet attending these "classes" was undeniably a sweet torment.
Practicing martial arts, studying literature, obtaining a spiritual weapon—ordinary people never had the chance to touch even one of these, yet now he had them all.
At the academy, the two were received by a white-haired elder dressed in a long gown.
After jotting down Liang Qu's details, the elder stroked his beard and said, "Tomorrow is a rest day. Starting the day after tomorrow, young sir, you may come each day from the end of the Wei hour until the end of the Shen hour—one shichen of study. Ten days of classes followed by one day of rest. How does that sound?"
"Whatever you deem best, sir."
"Very well. When the time comes, seek me out and I will take you to meet the teacher. If you ever need to request leave, remember to give advance notice. In a true emergency, you must still send someone to notify us."
"This student understands."
"Good. Please feel free to look around. You may stroll through the academy and observe as you wish, provided you do not disturb others."
Hearing this, Liang Qu took a walk inside. The courtyard had a simple pond, a bamboo grove, and a small gazebo containing a stone table and stone stools.
It was practically the standard scenic layout for an academy. Beyond that were several small rooms serving as classrooms, holding around sixty students in total, some reading and others practicing calligraphy.
After touring the grounds and familiarizing himself with the surroundings, Liang Qu returned to the martial hall and began his second round of skin tempering for the day in the quiet chamber.
After two or three days of skin tempering, Liang Qu discovered that his physical constitution was far better than he had imagined.
Unlike Hu Qi, who had said one could condense qi and blood slightly more than twice a day, Liang Qu could fully condense it three times a day!
Moreover, the qi and blood he condensed was no longer the thickness of an index finger, but as thick as a thumb!
Remembering that qi and blood was the fruit of physical constitution rather than its cause, Liang Qu guessed that when his fusion with the marsh spirit reached over forty percent, the physical enhancement it brought had not been entirely converted into qi and blood at the time. Had he pushed himself harder back then, the qi in his chest could have grown even thicker.
Consequently, both his recovery rate and physical constitution far surpassed those of others at the same stage.
The benefit of this was that after completing this round of skin tempering, the sensation across his skin and fascia was remarkably intense, as though a qualitative transformation were right on the verge of happening.
Judging by his current progress, could he break through in just two or three more days?
Unable to contain the joy in his heart, Liang Qu endured his fatigue and resumed his stance, looking forward to the moment he broke through.
Toward evening, Li Libo knocked on the door. "Ah Shui, someone's looking for you at the entrance. It's that fellow Lin Songbao."
"Coming."
Liang Qu relaxed his stance, took a towel to wipe the sweat from his face, changed into fresh clothes, straightened his attire, and stepped out the door.
Once outside, Li Libo asked curiously, "What does Lin Songbao want with you?"
"His father probably found out Master Yang took me as a personal disciple and wants to treat me to dinner."
Li Libo's eyes lit up. "That's great! Isn't Lin Songbao's father the boss of the fishing yard? Talk to him and see if he can give us a better price for our fish from now on."
"Don't worry, leave it to me."
Chapter 52