“Extra, extra! Great Master Guo of Xingyi Fist publicly declares opposition to Martial artists from humble backgrounds! What future awaits Martial artists from humble backgrounds?”
On the bustling street, a newsboy, clutching a stack of newspapers, shouted loudly.
Huo Yuanhong bought a newspaper, tucked it under his arm, and hurried through the throngs of people and rickshaws, entering a courtyard diagonally across the street.
“Senior Brother.”
Huo Yuanhong bowed respectfully.
“You don’t need to call me Senior Brother anymore.”
The man in the long gown in the courtyard didn’t even lift his head, continuing his Standing Meditation practice.
“The Tianjin Martial Arts Association has passed the Martial Arts Ban. From now on, all martial arts schools will no longer accept Disciples from humble backgrounds. Martial arts will only be open to Powerful Families…”
“You don’t need to come again.”
These few plain words, falling on Huo Yuanhong’s ears, were like a clap of thunder, making him feel dizzy.
“Senior Brother… Senior Brother must be joking. The Martial Arts Ban against accepting Disciples from humble backgrounds was only issued today, and I have been an apprentice at this school for ten years already…”
Huo Yuanhong tried to control his emotions, but his voice still trembled slightly.
“…The Martial Arts Ban from the Martial Arts Association indeed doesn’t include those who joined early like you…”
The man in the long gown was silent for a moment, then said indifferently, “But when I see a commoner practicing martial arts with me, I feel the Dao of martial arts is defiled.”
“Just because of that?”
Huo Yuanhong looked up in disbelief.
“Just because of that.”
The man in the long gown said indifferently.
“But… but… Senior Brother, it was you who personally promised that as long as I worked for ten years, you would introduce me to an instructor and give me the chance to learn true martial arts…”
“I completed ten years of work two months ago. You said then that you would pick an auspicious day and asked me to wait two more months…”
“You are the famous Junzi Jian, a man of your word…”
“If you’re not satisfied with me, I can change anything. Even if I have to work as an apprentice for another ten years, I can do it, I can do anything…”
Huo Yuanhong said in a hoarse voice.
A low-level apprentice from a common background like him was essentially free labor in a martial arts school. Unless recommended by a Core Disciple, he didn’t even qualify to train with an instructor.
And to learn true martial arts, at an age when he should have been playing freely and full of youthful vigor, he toiled and served Junzi Jian, a Core Disciple of the martial arts school, for ten years and two months!
A total of over three thousand seven hundred days and nights!
He never rested a single day, waking earlier than the chickens and sleeping later than the dogs.
It was exhausting, and countless times he was pushed to the brink of collapse, but at least he could count the days, watching the dawn of hope gradually appear, seeing himself getting closer and closer to his dream of practicing martial arts.
But now… just as he was about to touch that dawn, with a dismissive word from this Core Disciple from a Powerful Family… his ideal world was about to crumble.
“Since you put it that way, I’ll rephrase it.”
Junzi Jian’s tone remained indifferent, his gaze never falling on Huo Yuanhong. “Your conduct is improper, you failed your probation, and you are expelled from the martial arts school.”
Improper conduct… Huo Yuanhong felt an immense sense of absurdity and ridicule.
This… was so lazy that he couldn’t even bother to find a decent reason.
At this moment, how could he not understand that the so-called Junzi Jian before him had never intended to fulfill his promise and help him become a full Disciple, and had never regarded a low-level apprentice like him as a human being.
“Since we were once fellow Disciples, I’ll tell you one last thing.”
Junzi Jian said flatly, “In one month, the Martial Arts Association will hold a grand competition to decide the fate of those from humble backgrounds. All Martial artists under twenty-five can participate. You can also try…”
“Ultimately, if no Martial artist from a humble background can win three matches, then martial arts practice by those from humble backgrounds will be deemed a waste of resources. The Martial Arts Association will expand the Martial Arts Ban, not only prohibiting those from humble backgrounds from entering martial arts schools, but also forbidding them from practicing martial arts at home. Otherwise, they will be arrested by the enforcement team…”
Forbidden from practicing martial arts even at home!
These words made Huo Yuanhong’s heart sink completely.
Tianjin’s martial arts scene flourished, with martial arts schools occupying the most prosperous areas and controlling the lifelines of various industries.
Power controlled everything, and martial force controlled power—this was the current state of Tianjin!
But for hundreds of years, the true transmissions of martial arts had been firmly controlled by Powerful Families!
The qualification to practice martial arts, which children of Powerful Families were born with, was an entry ticket that ordinary people found difficult to obtain, even by selling everything they owned and exerting all their strength!
But as long as he could practice martial arts, he could endure any hardship or exhausting labor.
The only thing he couldn’t endure was having the very qualification to enter denied to him!
A competition to decide the fate of those from humble backgrounds… it seemed fair, but in reality, it was a joke.
Children of Powerful Families received the best herbal tonics and hands-on guidance from the best Great Masters from a young age. Even if their talent was mediocre, they could still achieve something.
As for children from ordinary families, just bearing the burden of life already exhausted all their strength.
Like himself, he nominally served as an apprentice in a martial arts school for ten years, learning martial arts for ten years, but in reality… for twelve hours a day, at least eight hours were spent doing odd jobs. By the time he finished the odd jobs, he was already utterly exhausted, with no energy left to practice martial arts!
Moreover, what he learned were only a few superficial, incomplete external martial arts techniques.
Neither having the time and energy to practice martial arts nor having obtained true martial arts… how could these humble apprentices compete with those children of Powerful Families who had built solid foundations from a young age and practiced true transmissions for many years… how could they fight?
Fight with their heads?
“At that time, I will represent the Powerful Families in the competition, and I will not let any commoner pass. If you dare to appear before me, I guarantee I will beat you to death.”
Junzi Jian’s indifferent voice extinguished the last flicker of hope in Huo Yuanhong’s heart.
“I can’t practice martial arts anymore…”
Huo Yuanhong murmured in a low voice.
He wasn’t sure how he left, only feeling that everything around him had turned grayscale, distant and hollow. The pedestrians, rickshaws, and streets in his eyes all distorted.
It was as if that familiar world was receding from him.
He also didn’t know what else that Core Disciple, known as Junzi Jian, had said.
It was like being violently pushed into icy river water; apart from the bone-chilling cold and suffocating numbness, he couldn’t hear or understand anything.
His dream… had collapsed.
The world he once yearned for… was also collapsing.
He walked in a daze, walked… until he saw the familiar house number 201, and only then did Huo Yuanhong’s pupils gradually focus.
He was home.
He rubbed his face vigorously until he managed a smile, then slowly took out his key and opened the door.
“A Hong is back, come eat quickly.”
Hearing the movement, his father brought out the warm food from the pot.
Two bowls of mixed-grain rice, a plate of stir-fried greens, a plate of scrambled eggs, and six crabs.
Tianjin had nine rivers, and crabs were cheaper than rice, so there was plenty.
As usual, Huo Yuanhong sat down, took a mouthful of mixed-grain rice, picked up some greens with his chopsticks, then grabbed a crab, peeled it, and began to eat.
In his extreme sorrow, he actually had no appetite and didn’t even know what he was eating.
But he still tried to eat, putting on a show of enjoying it very much.
Because he knew that these seemingly ordinary dishes were earned by his father, who pulled a rickshaw from dawn till dusk.
For so many years, he had relentlessly pursued martial arts, and his father had silently carried the burden of their home alone.
“How was your practice today?”
His father asked expectantly.
“Very good, Senior Brother said I’m very talented and promised to help me contend for a Core Disciple spot next month. Fearing I might be tired, he even specially arranged a few days off for me to rest…”
Huo Yuanhong looked up, his face beaming with a smile, his tone relaxed and natural, just like on thousands of previous nights, showing no trace of the numbness and despair he felt before entering the door.
“Good! Good! I knew it, our A Hong is a Genius! He will surely achieve something great!”
His father’s face was unshaven, full of traces left by wind and sun, and he was as thin as a sheet of paper. It was hard to imagine how he pulled the heavy rickshaw.
But whenever his son was mentioned, that face, almost crushed by the burdens of life, would reveal genuine pride!
Huo Yuanhong knew that in his father’s heart, his son was a Genius, who had already passed his apprenticeship two months ago and become a glorious official Disciple. He was also highly valued by a Core Disciple named “Junzi Jian,” and his future was boundless!
He didn’t want to disappoint his father, nor did he want his own sorrow to infect him.
So he painstakingly created a false image of a Genius, letting his father “know” that he was doing very well outside… exceedingly well… “Dad, don’t work too hard. Once I become a Great Master, I’ll buy a clean, big house and take you to enjoy life…”
Huo Yuanhong’s face was full of happy smiles as he tried to describe his ideal world with hollow words.
Every year at this season, cockroaches scurried through this dilapidated house, and he had to draw the curtains tightly even when sleeping.
When he was nine, he had said he would buy his father a big house.
He kept saying it until he was nineteen.
His father had always believed him implicitly, always proud of his son who had joined the martial arts school.
“A Hong, don’t work too hard either. Dad isn’t in a hurry, not in a hurry.”
Looking at his father’s proud smile, Huo Yuanhong lowered his head, took a large mouthful of rice, and suppressed the sourness in his nose.
He dared not let his father know that he… had been expelled from the martial arts school.
Even more, he dared not let his father know that in a month, even practicing martial arts at home would become a luxury.
His world… had already collapsed.
But his father’s world… was still intact.
At least for now, it was.
Just like during the thousands of days and nights before, he never dared to let his father know… that he was just a grunt being ordered around in the martial arts school, just an ordinary person exhausted to the point of collapse, without even the chance to learn martial arts from an instructor.
And not… the talented son in his father’s heart who had learned formidable martial arts and would achieve great things.
“In one month, everything will end…”
Thinking of the Martial Arts Ban from the Martial Arts Association, thinking of Junzi Jian’s indifference towards low-level apprentices, thinking of his father’s unwavering support and sacrifice, Huo Yuanhong felt an immense oppression, so much so that he could barely breathe.
It was as if a ball of fire was about to explode from the depths of his heart!
Boom!!!
Accompanied by a colossal roar, as if flames shot into the sky.
Vaguely, he truly saw a bright, scorching flame ignite from the endless darkness in his heart, illuminating a series of characters.
【Fate: Martial Dao Deification!】
【Effect 1: From this day forward, one day of martial arts practice is equivalent to one year of effort!】
【Effect 2: The Dao of martial arts will never regress, never suffer Qi Deviation, always progress in the most correct direction, endlessly!】