Chapter 90
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Chapter 90: Rapidly Learning Martial Arts
When the middle-aged man saw Zhang Yu demonstrate Level 10 Limitless Cloud Hands, a flicker of genuine respect appeared in his eyes. “A Level 10 Limitless Cloud Hands. It’s truly rare to see goods of such high quality. Impressive, truly impressive.”
In the man’s estimation, anyone who could cultivate a combat art like Limitless Cloud Hands to the 10th level must already be at the peak of Qi Refinement. Such a person would likely be a high school graduate with the wealth, leisure time, and dedication to specialize in practical martial arts.
After all, most people believed it was impossible to reach Level 10 of Limitless Cloud Hands without also cultivating one’s Dao Heart, Magic Power, or physical body. Anyone capable of refining Limitless Cloud Hands to such a level would likely have pushed all their other stats to the limit of the Qi Refining Stage.
The man thought to himself, He’s probably some high school Martial Arts Teacher secretly here to earn extra cash by teaching private lessons.
However, he had no intention of probing further. In this line of work, prying into others’ secrets was the biggest taboo.
The middle-aged man continued, “Now, I need to register your details and ask a few questions.”
After Zhang Yu nodded, the man asked, “Are you looking for part-time or full-time work?”
“Part-time,” Zhang Yu replied.
“And what is your teaching experience?”
The doll voice sounded「Tell him you have ten years of teaching experience. Trust me, it’ll work.」
Zhang Yu thought for a moment. Well, I’m hiding my identity anyway, he reasoned, so he said, “Ten years of teaching experience at a Key High School.”
The middle-aged man nodded slightly. This confirmed his initial suspicions. As he took notes, he continued, “Do you have any particular areas of expertise?”
Guided by the doll, Zhang Yu began to grasp the right approach to answering. “I specialize in teaching cultivation arts. Beyond Limitless Cloud Hands, I’m proficient in many Level 10 techniques.”
“How do you typically engage students and maintain their focus in your classes?” the man inquired.
“The most fundamental method,” Zhang Yu replied, “is to have underperforming students kneel during lessons while high-achieving students ridicule them, and I treat them differently based on their classroom performance.”
The man nodded approvingly and asked, “Would you be comfortable teaching… intellectually challenged clients?”
Zhang Yu was taken aback. “Intellectually challenged?”
The man chuckled wryly. “We cater to the lower-end market. The students who buy our courses generally have mediocre academic records, with average scores below 450 across six subjects. They lack intelligence and require teachers with immense patience and the ability to explain concepts in simple terms. It’s quite different from teaching at a Key High School.”
Good grief. So you consider ordinary high school students and graduates to be idiots, huh? Zhang Yu suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and nodded. I’m actually quite adept at teaching underachievers.
The middle-aged man continued, “Our clients here also tend to be quite poor, so teachers are expected to promote financial services. Would you be comfortable with that?”
Zhang Yu frowned. “Financial services?”
The man chuckled. “Basically, it means selling tutoring loans and installment payment plans for lessons.”
Seeing Zhang Yu’s silent hesitation, the man smiled again. “Don’t worry. As long as your teaching quality is excellent, promoting financial services isn’t strictly necessary.”
Then, the man posed another question, “If you encounter attacks from our company’s security team or other gangs during tutoring sessions, would you be willing to fight? And if it came down to it… would you be willing to kill?”
Zhang Yu fell silent, thinking, This is the Dark Tutoring World, alright. A teacher not only has to tutor but also has to be ready for fights and murder.
However, what gave Zhang Yu a slight sense of relief was that the man at least considered his feelings by asking if he was willing. It was a faint glimmer of morality.
The middle-aged man continued, “We understand your hesitation. After all, combat and killing can be expensive. But please rest assured. According to the rules of our Shadow Study Gang, we will reimburse you for all fines and compensation related to combat and killing during your tutoring period.”
Zhang Yu retracted his initial relief. So it was just about the price? You consider gang fights to be perfectly normal?
Of course, Zhang Yu could not accept these terms. Although he had already reached the 10th level in multiple cultivation arts, his fundamental attributes like magic power and physical strength were still at a first-year level. He dared not participate in any gang fights.
Hearing Zhang Yu’s refusal, the man nodded in understanding. After a series of further questions and answers, he smiled at Zhang Yu and said, “I’ve recorded most of the details.”
“But what course we can arrange for you and how we will price it will depend on your trial lesson.”
The so-called trial lesson involved Zhang Yu teaching a sample class. The Shadow Study Gang would then evaluate the quality of his instruction to determine the course and its price.
The man added, “Although your Limitless Cloud Hands are impressive, purely combat-oriented arts do not have as large a market as health preservation, study, and work-related techniques.”
The middle-aged man was concerned that Zhang Yu, who appeared to be a high school teacher, might be too limited by his experience at a key high school to accurately grasp the needs of the lower-end market.
He continued, “Of course, I’m not saying Limitless Cloud Hands is bad. There are definitely people willing to pay to learn it. It’s just that our customers are often more interested in more basic cultivation arts.”
Hearing this, Zhang Yu suddenly recalled the rankings he had seen when buying cultivation arts online.
He said, “The Health Preservation and Disease-Eliminating Art, Excavator Palm, Crane Claw, Roadster Legs… these arts have a bigger market?”
The man smiled faintly. “Indeed, the demand for remedial classes in these types of arts is the highest. Although the fee per student is lower, a single class can teach dozens or even hundreds of students at once. The profit from these mass classes often exceeds that from high-end small group courses like Limitless Cloud Hands.”
“Besides these, there are also the basic cultivation techniques taught in high school, such as Freehand Combat, Basic Swordsmanship, and Basic Breathing Techniques.”
Zhang Yu’s eyes flickered as a thought occurred to him. So Excavator Palm and Crane Claw have the biggest market? Perhaps I could leverage the Feather Book’s specialization to quickly advance these techniques to Level 10 and then teach them.
The middle-aged man continued, “Let’s schedule the trial lesson. I need to arrange for a teacher to observe, so are you available in five days?”
Zhang Yu quickly calculated in his head and nodded. “No problem. Five days from now works.”
The man asked, “Besides Limitless Cloud Hands, what else do you plan to teach in the trial lesson? We need to arrange for a teacher with expertise in that area to observe and evaluate you.”
Zhang Yu thought to himself, The Health Preservation and Disease-Eliminating Art is an Expert-Grade Cultivation Technique. It’s expensive, involves complex movements affecting the entire body, and is likely slow to practice.
On the other hand, Advanced-Grade techniques like Excavator Palm, Crane Claw, Roadster Legs, and Elevator Leap are cheaper and have simpler forms. They should be much quicker to learn, similar to practical martial arts like Dragon-Back Mountain-Toppling Hand.
To be safe, however, he decided to under-promise.
He said, “Besides Limitless Cloud Hands, I can also teach Excavator Palm and Roadster Legs.”
This meant he could teach both high-end and low-end classes. The middle-aged man smiled and nodded. “We look forward to your performance in five days then.”
“By the way, would you mind leaving your contact information?”
After confirming that Zhang Yu was unwilling to provide his phone number, the middle-aged man suggested, “Then could I trouble you to download a game called ‘Kun God World’ and add me as a friend? We can discuss course information through the game in the future.”
***
On the way out of the complex, Doll could not help but ask, “You’re going to practice things like Excavator Palm and Roadster Legs too?”
She could not imagine a student from a key high school practicing such beast of burden arts.
[Note: The term used is 牛马功法 (niú mǎ gōng fǎ), literally “cattle and horse cultivation arts.” “Niú mǎ” is modern Chinese slang for people who are overworked like beasts of burden or low-class laborers, so the term refers to techniques for the working class.]
She had assumed Zhang Yu could make a living teaching high-end private lessons with his Level 10 Limitless Cloud Hands.
She never would have thought he also planned to teach low-end mass classes for techniques like Excavator Palm and Roadster Legs.
Zhang Yu opened a shopping website on his phone and casually purchased the Excavator Palm and Roadster Legs techniques while speaking. “I haven’t practiced them before, but five days should be enough time for me to learn them.”
Zhang Yu knew that since he would be with Doll constantly from now on, some things would be impossible to hide.
Doll frowned. “How is five days enough? Besides, even if you learn those two techniques, how can you compete with the many teachers of the Shadow Study Gang in the Dark Tutoring World? You will have only practiced for five days!”
“You should stop messing around with this and just stick to teaching Limitless Cloud Hands.”
Zhang Yu naturally couldn’t be bothered by the doll’s pessimism. After acquiring the Excavator Palm and Roadster Legs, his account balance dropped by another 3,500, leaving him with just over 12,000.
Upon returning to the abandoned building, Zhang Yu began cultivating his newly acquired cultivation arts.
He started with the Excavator Palm.
This was a strength-based palm technique that mimicked the power of an excavator. It could condense a thread of “bucket force” to excavate materials and level the ground.
Since it was a purely utilitarian palm technique with no combat or body refining components, its moves were also simple, consisting of just three total forms, the Forward Scoop, the Reverse Scoop, and the Sweeping Scoop.
Zhang Yu nodded slightly and thought to himself, I could probably complete a full set in a few seconds. That should be easy to learn.
After briefly skimming the manual, he switched the Feather Book’s specialization to this cultivation art.
His palms then began to strike the air repeatedly, unleashing surges of invisible force. The force seemed to be gathering into a tangible power, but in the next moment, it would lose control, scatter, and dissipate into the air.
Seeing Zhang Yu frozen in place after completing a full set of Excavator Palm strikes with no apparent effect, the doll sighed. “I told you this was a waste of time. You think you can cultivate this art in such a short time and compete with teachers who have taught it for years? How could you possibly…”
But before she could finish speaking, Zhang Yu, who had been frozen in place just moments before, sprang into action again.
This time, his palm struck, whistling through the air, creating gusts as if a massive bucket scooping through the space around him.
The doll stared in disbelief at the scene. No way… Did he just learn it?
He learned it that quickly?
And from the look of it… It’s like he’s been practicing this for ages.
Could this be his unlocked potential? The ability to learn cultivation arts at this speed?
But what happened next left the doll even more shocked.
In just over an hour, she watched in utter disbelief as Zhang Yu’s Excavator Palm advanced by leaps and bounds. He transformed from a complete novice who had never practiced it before into a master of the art. His strikes flowed with practiced ease, as if he could flatten the entire abandoned building with a single sweep.
