Watching the frenzied crowd, Qin Fang fell silent for a moment before finally walking away.

...He saw several members of the Fish Dragon Gang in the crowd, also frantically pushing to buy Qi Blood Pills.

Honestly, if he didn’t have a nagging feeling that something was wrong with these Qi Blood Pills, and if he wasn’t considered well-off now...

He probably would have been tempted by now, too.

’I’ll wait and see.’

He shook his head and walked away.

Not long after, he found Monkey. Monkey was also at the marketplace, staring at Ganlu Hall in the distance, a conflicted expression on his face.

He didn’t snap out of it until Qin Fang called his name. Seeing who it was, he hurried over.

"Boss?"

Qin Fang nodded and explained why he was there.

Upon hearing he was to make another trip to True Martial, Monkey immediately agreed. He followed Qin Fang home, where Qin Fang wrote a letter. Taking the letter, Monkey set off on his journey.

Qin Fang settled in at home to wait patiently.

Early the next morning, Qin Fang resumed his Standing Pile practice as usual.

He discovered that his Pile Method proficiency was, as expected, still increasing, but the gains were much smaller, only about ten points. Plus, the experience needed for the next level had now turned to infinity... This left Qin Fang feeling somewhat unsettled.

’So, what’s the point of this experience, then?’

As Qin Fang was pondering this, a knock came from the courtyard gate.

Still pondering, he subconsciously walked over to the gate. After habitually peeking through the crack in the door, he froze for a moment before hurriedly pulling it open.

"Senior Brother?"

His Senior Brother, Zhou Xing, was standing right outside.

Seeing the look of astonishment on Qin Fang’s face, Zhou Xing offered a faint smile. "What? Are you that surprised?"

"It is a bit of a surprise... Senior Brother, what brings you here?" Qin Fang was genuinely surprised, but also delighted.

"Your letter said you have truly developed ’Strength’ and asked Master if there was a more advanced Root Skill... Naturally, Master sent me to verify your progress."

Zhou Xing remarked with a sigh.

’How many days has it even been? Is he really at the Late Stage already?’

Qin Fang snapped out of it and quickly invited his senior brother into the courtyard, served him tea, and only then sat down.

"There are, of course, more advanced Root Techniques, and one of them is a High Grade Root Technique that leads directly to Huajin. The reason we didn’t teach it to you at True Martial the other day was because you hadn’t reached the Late Stage and hadn’t developed true Strength. Teaching you another Root Technique rashly would have only disrupted the rhythm of your practice."

After taking a sip of tea, his senior brother explained, "Actually, Master told me after you left to constantly check on your progress. The moment you developed Whole Strength, I was to come and teach you the new Root Technique."

"I just never expected... it to be this fast."

Zhou Xing looked at Qin Fang with a sigh.

...At this point, he was almost too numb to be shocked.

He had heard their master’s analysis that day. He couldn’t understand it at the time, but after mulling it over, he was starting to get the gist of it...

To put it simply... this junior brother of his had built his entire cultivation by throwing money at Elixirs!

His aptitude was so poor that he couldn’t retain the medicinal energy, which had paradoxically become his greatest advantage... or so their master had judged.

But...

’Was that really all there was to it?’

Zhou Xing shook his head.

He knew that each of the Mingjin Third Realm—the Skin Membrane Drum Sound, the Muscle-Bone Thunder Sound, and the Qi and Blood Tide—was a small bottleneck that had stumped countless Mingjin Martial Artists.

Yet his little junior brother had broken through all of them with nonchalant ease.

It was as if it were as simple as drinking water for him.

’Could you really say... that such an aptitude was poor?’

’Then what did that make him...’

’Oh, well. Forget it.’

’No use getting hung up on it.’

The fact of the matter was... in just over half a year of practice, his little junior brother had gone from being an ordinary person to reaching the Late Mingjin Stage, even developing Whole Strength.

That was all one needed to know.

...Facts triumph over all theories.

There was really no need to get bogged down by esoteric concepts like talent and aptitude.

Then, Zhou Xing said, "Come on. First, let me see if you’ve truly developed Whole Strength."

Qin Fang hesitated, "Senior Brother, the power of Whole Strength is immense. If we were to spar, I’m afraid one of us might get hurt with just a moment of carelessness..."

"Who said anything about fighting you?" His senior brother shot him a look. "Can’t you just hit a training pile?"

How could he not know how destructive Whole Strength was?

The last time he’d sparred with his junior brother, he hadn’t dared to use Whole Strength for fear of a mishap.

When both parties possessed Whole Strength, they would most likely be evenly matched, but getting injured would be a huge hassle.

Hearing his senior brother’s words, Qin Fang realized his mistake. With a quick "oh," he walked over to a wooden pile.

He took a deep breath and, in the next instant, shot his palm forward.

There were no accompanying sounds, but the force of his entire body naturally condensed into Strength and was expelled from his palm.

CRACK!

An explosive sound erupted.

The wooden pile, over twenty centimeters thick, instantly sprayed a cloud of wood splinters from where Qin Fang’s palm had struck before snapping in two!

Even though he was prepared, Zhou Xing’s eyelid couldn’t help but twitch...

’He really mastered it!’

He couldn’t help but recall the first time he’d seen his junior brother. At the time, he was chopping wood. He already had some training, but his power generation was very stiff, very ’dead.’ Zhou Xing had even given him a pointer once.

’Who would have thought that now...’

He looked at the wooden pile.

’I probably couldn’t have done much better myself.’

With a soft sigh, Zhou Xing collected his thoughts, then nodded and said, "Not bad. That being the case... today, I will formally teach on Master’s behalf and impart to you our sect’s High Grade Root Technique, the ’Spiritual Snake Listening Wave Pile’."

The Spiritual Snake Listening Wave Pile!

Qin Fang felt a jolt of energy, his focus sharpening as he looked at Zhou Xing and nodded seriously.

Zhou Xing began, "The Wild Bull Qi Strength Pile is a Mingjin Posture Method. Its True Intent is to be ’as firm as a great rock,’ to move with ’grand openings and closings,’ and to be ’unyieldingly rigid.’ The final goal is to grasp a rigid Whole Strength, using absolute hardness to shatter external objects."

"The Spiritual Snake Listening Wave Pile is different. Its True Intent is no longer to charge head-on and shatter external objects... but to look inward, to transform the rigid into the pliable. You must be like an undercurrent, like mercury—all-pervasive. You must penetrate, erode, and resonate within. What you will feel is ’stillness’!"