So, Evan Bennett went to a very secluded spot in the royal back mountain. He then carried over eight iron pillars and drove them into the ground. After swallowing a Spirit Gathering Pill, he began practicing the Eight Trigrams Palm, using the eight pillars as his foundation.

　　He practiced walking in circles and the “mud-stepping walk, scissor legs, steady as riding in a sedan chair”...

　　After ten days, he became more and more proficient. He moved from circling below the pillars to fighting atop them, like a phantom. If anyone saw him, they’d think he was a ghost.

　　Bang bang bang...

　　With a final leap, he glided ten meters and struck fiercely with his palm into the forest. With a resounding crash, several small trees as thick as a bowl snapped in response.

　　Not bad, now a single palm strike should have the strength of a strong ox—delivering a thousand pounds with one blow is no problem.

　　Evan Bennett looked up and let out a long, turbid breath, then checked his dual dantians. Their size was now as small as a needle hole, about the same as the hole a veterinarian uses to inject a strong ox. That kind of needle is much bigger than the ones used for human IVs.

　　What does this mean? It means he had officially broken through to the second stage before the innate level of a martial artist.

　　However, when he reached for his leather pouch, Evan Bennett couldn’t help but pull a bitter face. Because there was only one Spirit Gathering Pill left.

　　Where could he get money?

　　He couldn’t do without Spirit Gathering Pills. Next, Evan Bennett planned to practice the Iron Sand Palm of that scoundrel ‘Sha Huihui’.

　　The Eight Trigrams Palm is known for its agility, but its palm force isn’t as fierce and hard as the Iron Sand Palm. Its attacks are nimble but lack dominating power.

　　So, Evan Bennett’s idea was to combine these two palm techniques. Borrow the agility of the Eight Trigrams Palm and merge it with the ferocity of the Iron Sand Palm. That way, he’d have both nimbleness and fierce strength—wouldn’t his attacks be even more powerful?

　　But to practice the Iron Sand Palm, he needed a large amount of iron sand as training material. After some selection, Evan Bennett felt that Yan Kingdom’s ‘Black Iron Sand’ was the most suitable. However, black iron sand is expensive—a ton costs three to four thousand taels of silver.

　　If he used ordinary iron sand, he’d save money, but the effect would be much worse.

　　If he was going to use it, he wanted the best. That’s Evan Bennett’s life motto.

　　But three thousand taels was astronomical for Evan Bennett. His mother’s expenses for two years added up to only three thousand taels.

　　Evan Bennett decided to go out and see if he could find a way to make big money.

　　He’d been in Yan Kingdom for several months, but this was the first time Evan Bennett left the palace alone. Except for that time at the sacrificial ceremony, he’d always stayed in the palace—almost becoming a shut-in.

　　“Qing’er, there are many strong people outside, and it’s very dangerous. The hateful thing is that I don’t have the authority to assign royal guards to protect you now. Otherwise, you’d be much safer with them.” Grace Carter said worriedly.

　　“Don’t worry, Mother. Your son is sixteen now. I’m an adult—look at this!” With a burst of true qi, Charles Bennett placed his hand on a millstone and lifted it up. The millstone flipped in the air, not falling from his palm for a long time.

　　“What a cool guy...” The maid Emily Carter clapped and cheered, her lively eyes full of excitement.

　　“See? Even if I run into a second-stage martial artist, I can escape if I can’t beat them. Besides, I’m going out to see the world and keep a low profile, not to pick fights,” Evan Bennett said.

　　“All right, I still have a hundred taels of silver here—take it in case of emergency.

　　Endure everything, never act rashly. There’s a lot of trouble in this palace, and we’re not like the other princes or young lords.

　　Even the sons of ministers and generals are people we can’t afford to offend.

　　Remember, once you leave the palace, you’re no longer the Eighth Prince—you’re just an ordinary person.” Grace Carter nodded worriedly, repeatedly reminding him.

　　“I’ll remember, Mother.” Evan Bennett nodded solemnly, then quietly left the palace.

　　“Emily Carter, follow him.” Not long after Evan Bennett left, Grace Carter instructed, still uneasy.

　　Although Emily Carter wasn’t very strong, she could at least deliver a message if something happened, and she was nimble.

　　After leaving the palace and turning a few corners, he saw a large crowd gathered. Squeezing in, he found it was a job posting:

　　Moving bricks for a day, thirty copper coins in wages.

　　No way he’d do that—at that rate, it’d take forever to save up three thousand taels. Evan Bennett shook his head and left. But he noticed there were plenty of applicants. It seemed Yan Kingdom wasn’t wealthy—even for such lousy odd jobs, people were scrambling.

　　Actually, Evan Bennett didn’t know that an ordinary family of five in Yan Kingdom only spent about ten copper coins a day. A bowl of noodles cost just one copper coin. Thirty coins a day was already considered high pay.

　　So, for a poor family to produce a martial arts expert was as hard as reaching the sky.

　　He wandered to another corner and found a restaurant hiring waiters—only twenty copper coins a day. Evan Bennett was even less interested.

　　A study hall was hiring copyists to transcribe books—forty copper coins a day. No way!

　　A funeral parlor was hiring corpse carriers—this paid more, a hundred copper coins a day. Too unlucky, this prince wouldn’t do that...

　　A latrine cleaner—seventy copper coins a day. Too smelly, couldn’t do it.

Chapter 9: Finding a Sucker

　　After wandering for nearly two hours, he found that none of the jobs paid more than a hundred copper coins a day. Corpse carrier was the highest.