"What's your name?" Tang Yan asked.

"My name's Chang Tie!" the burly man answered in a deep, muffled voice.

"What's your cultivation right now?"

"Origin Rank, ninth grade!"

"When did you enter the Tang Family?"

"Three years ago!"

"And what was your strength three years ago?" Tang Yan asked.

"Still Origin Rank, ninth grade."

"In other words, you've been with the Tang Family three years, drilled yourself bloody on the practice ground three years, and your strength hasn't improved one whit?" Tang Yan's words cut like blades, pressing in without mercy.

"This..." Chang Tie thought it over carefully, and it was true. He'd never noticed before, but hearing Tang Yan say it outright, he felt the shame of it. Wanting to salvage a little face, he argued, "Martial cultivation is hard to begin with. There's nothing strange about not advancing."

"How do you train each day?" Tang Yan asked.

"I start at six every morning, three hundred jin of weight, five laps around the grounds. Then two shichen of blade work, and one shichen sparring against others!" Speaking of his own training, Chang Tie puffed out his chest with no small pride. His load was no lighter than any other guard's.

"And for three years, you've trained like this every single day?"

"That's right."

"When you spar with the others, you hold back, don't you? You don't go all out," Tang Yan pressed.

"We're all brothers. We stop once the point's made. If someone got hurt-"

"Horseshit!" Tang Yan shot to his feet. "You show him mercy now, and on the day he stands on a real battlefield, who's going to show him mercy then? If you won't go all out to make him stronger, are you helping him or burying him? You live in the Tang Family, you're fed Pills on a schedule, you draw a fat salary-and your strength hasn't budged an inch! That's why I call you trash. Every damn one of you, trash! And not just trash-stupid trash!"

"Of course, in your hearts you don't accept it. What right does a pampered wastrel of a young master have to lecture you? Then let me tell you exactly what right I have-I'm the eldest young master of the Tang Family. Even if I never lift a finger, my grandfather will feed me and shield me!"

"But you? Most of you come from common families. You've got mouths to feed. Slack off, and all you'll ever draw is the base wage-and your wives and children will live no better than any commoner! You won't have the means to raise your own descendants. And if your children grow up wastrels like me, Tang Yan, then they're finished, well and truly!"

At these words, a wave of gloom passed through the Tang Family guards. Tang Yan's words were ugly, but they were undeniable truth.

They were Tang Family guards, yes, and they earned more than common folk-but only enough to keep their families a cut above the rest. To let their children enjoy the resources a clan disciple did was simply beyond them.

Taking in their reactions, Tang Yan was quietly glad they hadn't gone numb to it all. He raised his voice and roared, "I'd wager many of you are in the same boat as Chang Tie-your training fixed, never changing. Three hundred jin three years ago, three hundred jin today. Give you another hundred years and you'll still be stuck at Origin Rank, never once setting foot through the gate of Yellow Rank!"

"And I can say it for certain because you've grown too comfortable. You've lost even the courage to contend for the Martial Dao! Chang Tie, tell me-the first time you trained with weight, how many jin did you carry?"

Chang Tie could have kicked himself raw with regret. What had possessed him to provoke this little ancestor on a whim? Couldn't he have just stood there and taken the scolding like everyone else? Grit his teeth and let it pass? What had gotten into him, charging up here to humiliate himself?

"Ten jin." Every trace of his earlier bluster was gone from his voice.

"You rose from an ordinary man to Origin Rank, ninth grade, and your load climbed from ten jin to three hundred. So why stop there? Why not push to three hundred and fifty jin a day? Once that feels easy, make it four hundred. Keep raising it, step by step-tell me, over these three years, would your strength have crossed into Yellow Rank?" Tang Yan demanded.

At that question, not only the other guards, but even Mo Yanjun fell to reflecting.

"It should... it should have!" Chang Tie said, ashamed.

"You still know how to reflect, still know shame-then there's hope for you yet! Yun City churns with hidden currents now. One spark, and the great families could fall to slaughtering one another. If you want to live through the battles to come, you can only train yourselves as if your lives depend on it-grow strong enough to crush every last enemy. Only then can you keep yourselves safe! Only then can you spare your families the dread of losing you! Only then will a wastrel like me have no cause to call you trash!"

Tang Yan's gaze swept the grounds and settled on a wooden post.

"How much does that post weigh?" This time he asked Mo Yanjun.

"One hundred and twenty jin."

"How far do you think I can carry it?" Tang Yan asked.

"About..." Mo Yanjun frowned, calculating. "Less than a hundred meters, I'd say."

The others scoffed inwardly. A hundred meters was generous-this coddled young master might not even get it off the ground.

"Up!" Tang Yan stepped over, braced himself, and hauled the post into his arms by main force, then started forward.

One meter, two meters, three meters...

The guards silently laid their bets-would Eldest Young Master Tang collapse before ten meters, or give up before twenty?

Ten meters... twenty... fifty... eighty...

Tang Yan used not a thread of True Qi, relying on raw physical strength alone. Lucky for him, the tempering of the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron had left his body strong enough to bear it.

Even so, his strength felt wrung dry. Every step set his whole body shaking, and sweat the size of beans rained down.

The guards had meant to watch their young master make a fool of himself-but step by step, the mockery drained from their eyes, replaced by shock, astonishment, and respect.

By a hundred meters Tang Yan was swaying badly, yet still he pressed on!

A hundred and one, a hundred and two, a hundred and three... at last, at a hundred and thirty meters, he set the post down.

Dragging his exhausted body back to the front of the ranks, he swept his gaze across them and, breathing hard, said, "When I reached a hundred meters, I was just where you are now-certain I'd hit my limit.

"But when I took one more step past that hundred, I broke through the self I'd been!"

A brief silence-then every guard burst into applause and cheers, the sound rolling like thunder.

"Maybe you think three hundred jin is your limit. But I tell you, a man's Potential has no end. Only by digging into that Potential, again and again, will you keep advancing!"

His own weakness, and the Tang Family's place at the very bottom of the four great families, left Tang Yan without a shred of security. And in this moment he made up his mind-he would forge the Tang Family's strength, raise it into a true great family of Yun City. The foremost family!

Having said so much, Tang Yan finally laid out the prize. "In this world, only by growing stronger and stronger do we win more for ourselves. Don't bemoan a low birth. If your life is hard, blame your own lack of effort! As eldest young master of the Tang Family, I swear to every man here-any one of you who breaks through to Yellow Rank will have his salary tripled, on top of what he draws now!"

"From Yellow Rank on, every grade you break through adds a hundred taels of silver to your monthly pay! Each month, first-grade Pills as the situation allows! And any man whose strength reaches Yellow Rank, fifth grade-his child may enter the Tang Family, to be raised and nurtured from youth!"

The words landed like a thrown torch. The whole ground erupted, every heart blazing.

Their pay now was a few dozen taels a month. Reach Yellow Rank, and it would triple in an instant?

Work hard enough, and their families could live better, their children walk a brighter road?

"The young master is wise!" In that moment, the cry tore from every chest.

No one stirs before dawn without profit to chase-and Tang Yan, having lived two lives, knew that truth to the bone. Only when he saw their fervor fully kindled did he raise his voice again. "I'll say it once more-the Tang Family does not feed trash, and my offer comes with a price. The training ahead will be grueling. Grueling beyond anything you've known! Steel yourselves for a living hell. Anyone who wants out, stay where you stand. Anyone who wants to become strong, who'll take the training-step forward! I'll count to-"

Boom! Before the word "three" left his mouth, a single roar shook the air as every martial artist stepped forward as one, and the whole practice ground trembled.

Seeing the fervor in their eyes, Tang Yan knew he'd gotten what he wanted. He asked once more, "I'll ask you one last time-are you ready for hell?"

"We're ready!" a hundred and twenty voices answered as one, surging straight to the heavens.

"A realm has its laws, an army has its rules! From now on, you assemble at the sixth hour each morning. Late-and you're out!"

"From now on, you answer to me alone. Disobey an order-and you're out!"

"Still short of Yellow Rank in half a year-and you're out!"

"..."

Tang Yan's expression was stern. By the end of his words, the guards half felt they'd been marched into an army.

"Now-every man, on my command. Take up a three-hundred-and-fifty-jin post and run ten laps around the grounds in formation. If even one man can't hold on, no lunch for any of you. And if you're not running within a minute, no lunch for any of you. Begin!"

At his order they scrambled into motion, snatching up their posts, falling into line, and pounding around the practice ground.

On a distant pavilion, two old men watched the grounds, stunned.

After a long silence, Old Master Tang finally spoke. "Old Mo, take a good look. That white-robed youth-is that really my grandson?"

Uncle Mo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Master, that's the eldest young master, sure enough."

At the confirmation, Old Master Tang's eyes narrowed. In a low voice, he asked, "Tell me-after a stirring-up from that rascal, what will become of our Tang Family guards' strength?"