Danwu Refining Spirit

Chapter Seven was just a warm-up.

When it was Xiao Chong's turn to go on stage, he was already in last place. Xiao Banqiu stared coldly at Xiao Chong, his face changing color from black to purple, as if he harbored a deep-seated hatred.

When the time came, Xiao Chong was not afraid. He simply walked slowly to the row of stone locks and stood there.

After tucking his clothes into his waist, Xiao Chong took a deep breath, grabbed the heavy stone lock, and with a strong lift of his arms, the stone lock slowly passed over his shoulders.

"It seems the furnace cauldron really did improve my physique last night; my strength has increased considerably compared to before." Xiao Chong was overjoyed and was about to lift the stone lock completely in one go.

Just as the stone lock reached above his head, Xiao Chong felt his strength was exhausted, and he couldn't straighten his arms no matter what he did.

After holding on for a few more moments, Xiao Chong was drenched in sweat, large beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and clinging to his broom-shaped eyebrows. His legs were also spinning in place as if he were drunk.

Seeing that the stone lock was about to fall on his head if things continued like this, Xiao Chong stepped back, loosened his grip, and threw the stone lock into the fine sand on the ground with a "thud".

"As expected, there's been no progress! Seeing your weak arms and unsteady stance, you must have been slacking off during your daily training."

Xiao Banqiu's eyes flashed, and he raised the ruler in his hand high.

"Xiao Chong, you can't escape this beating with the ruler! And your little maid won't escape it either!"

Huang Tianhua's face twitched, and he gritted his teeth. Because he was missing two front teeth, he spoke with a slight lisp, which sounded quite comical.

Xiao Banqiu's medicine was very effective. He was now able to stand up with difficulty, although he kept his legs tightly closed and covered his groin with his hands, looking quite strange.

His family ran a money exchange business, and their reputation was quite high in Feiyue City. However, simple merchants had a very low social status in the Tianyun Continent, and could easily become easy prey for some people.

Huang Tianhua's father knew very well what kind of person his son was. In order to prevent his son from squandering the family fortune he had worked so hard to build after his death, he reluctantly gave his seventeen-year-old daughter to Xiao Banqiu as a concubine, hoping to gain some protection in the process.

Xiao Banqiu was very satisfied with this marriage. Not to mention that the Huang family's daughter was quite beautiful, the generous dowry was something he couldn't refuse.

After all, martial arts cultivation is an extremely expensive activity. Even if a cultivator has outstanding talent, without the corresponding cultivation resources, their final achievements are likely to be very limited. But if a cultivator has poor talent, then there is truly no hope for them.

Unfortunately, Huang Tianhua belonged to the category of people with poor talent, and was also an idle and good-for-nothing playboy.

His greatest ambition was to spend his days in and out of the boudoir, killing him seven times over. Otherwise, he wouldn't have set his sights on Xiao Chong, that skinny little girl.

The poor Huang family has invested countless sums of money in him, filling his body with body-tempering pills like candy beans.

Logically speaking, with such a large amount of resources piled up, even a pig would have been spurred to its limit long ago, but the problem is that Huang Tianhua doesn't care about cultivation.

It's true that the Body Tempering Pill has the effect of strengthening the body, but he has always taken it as an aphrodisiac.

Imagine a student with poor talent and no ambition who can only bring some benefits to the Xiao family through his family's wealth. How could the higher-ups of the Xiao family take him too seriously?

This is the biggest reason why Xiao Chong dared to attack him.

If I can successfully temper my body before the age of sixteen, I will naturally come into the view of the Xiao family's higher-ups. If I can further improve my performance afterward and become an elite disciple, I will naturally receive strong support from the family.

In comparison, people like Huang Tianhua are nothing but clowns and not worth mentioning at all.

What about loyalty, filial piety, integrity, and righteousness? What about propriety, trustworthiness, integrity, and a sense of shame? What about laws, rules, and family regulations? In fact, they are worthless in these large families. To put it bluntly, it's all about "profit." And the larger the family, the more obvious this behavior becomes.

Xiao Chong hadn't understood this before, but after regaining his memories from his past life, he pondered it for a while and it became very clear to him. "There are no unchanging enemies, only eternal interests"—this line was already well-known in novels and movies in his past life.

Xiao Chong may not take Huang Tianhua seriously, but his brother-in-law Xiao Banqiu doesn't see it that way.

Although Huang Tianhua is not worth cultivating, he is a money tree, a source of pills, spirit stones, and a continuous supply of various cultivation resources!

It's rare for a fat sheep to come to your door to be slaughtered, so why does Xiao Chong dare to treat it like this? Therefore, Xiao Banqiu was very angry.

"Xiao Chong, you failed the test this time. According to the rules, you should be punished severely!" Xiao Banqiu was furious and his eyes flashed with malice. He took a step in front of Xiao Chong and almost broke the ruler in his hand.

"Wait a minute, I was just warming up. According to the rules of the sect, you can try again."

Xiao Chong's brows furrowed, looking like two thick brooms ready to sweep away these clowns.

"You're wasting your time trying to escape punishment!" Huang Tianhua swayed, clutching his crotch and grimacing as he shouted, "A person's strength is limited. I've never heard of anyone who can lift a stone weight the second time after failing the first time."

That's well said. Judging from Xiao Chong's appearance just now, he had clearly already done his best. Raising the ruler a second time would be pointless. Xiao Banqiu really wanted to strike down with the ruler, but he hesitated because the Xiao family's ancestral school did indeed have this rule.

Seeing that Xiao Banqiu was hesitant, a martial arts instructor who was observing said, "Brother Banqiu, let him try again, lest he break the rules of the sect."

The instructor who spoke was from a close branch of the Xiao family and placed great importance on selecting outstanding disciples, unlike Xiao Banqiu, who was solely driven by self-interest and therefore strongly upheld the clan rules.

"Alright, I'll let you try one more time, but if you still fail, the punishment will be doubled!"

Xiao Banqiu spoke slowly and deliberately, but a small sense of anticipation lingered in his heart, as if Xiao Chong were already kneeling before him, his flesh and blood torn apart, begging for mercy.

For disciples who overestimate their abilities, instructors have the right to impose heavier punishments, which is also a rule of the Xiao family academy.