This is also why all the descendants of noble families go to the academy. Although, except for The Clark Family, the other noble families are large and wealthy, with many hired thugs, they still can't send everyone out to hunt fierce beasts.

Besides, noble families have many members—how could they possibly take care of every single descendant? Only a limited few, who are given special training, might get to eat fierce beast meat every day.

Now, The Clark Family has only Henry Clark and Robert Hughes left. How are they supposed to get fierce beast meat?

"Looks like I'll have to hunt them myself," Henry Clark muttered. But with his thin arms and legs right now, going out to hunt fierce beasts? That would just make him a snack for them. "At the very least, I need to reach the Minor Accomplishment stage."

"Also, fierce beasts have thick hides and tough flesh, and their defense is even higher than martial artists of the same level. It's too dangerous to go barehanded."

"In a few days, I'll start practicing the Phantom Shadow Sword. I also need to prepare a sword, and the material must be top-notch. Otherwise, if I stab at a beast and can't even pierce its skin, what's the point?"

"In the end, it all comes down to money."

Henry Clark asked Robert Hughes about the situation with the restaurant and got one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news was that the restaurant's renovations would take only about twenty days. The bad news was that, although the publicity had already started, not a single person had come to reserve a table so far.

This made Robert Hughes so anxious that he grew even more white hair.

Martial arts training requires a lot of money, and buying or forging a good sword is also extremely expensive. So, no matter what, Henry Clark had to go all out and give it a try. Otherwise, even if the restaurant returned to a monthly profit of a thousand taels of silver, it would still be a drop in the bucket.

Day by day, Henry Clark's strength kept improving, and his understanding of the Triple Wave technique deepened.

On the seventh day.

Whoosh!

Henry Clark punched a wooden stake—thud, thud—two muffled sounds rang out from the stake. The two sounds came almost simultaneously; anyone with less sensitive hearing would think it was just a single hit.

Double force.

"Finally, I've added another layer of force, but it's only one more," Henry Clark said, clearly dissatisfied.

But if others knew about his progress, their eyes would pop out in shock. For most people, just mastering the complex moves of the ninth form of the Gale Fist would take over a month, but he learned it in just three days.

And to comprehend the "softness" and achieve force stacking would take even longer, but he managed to form the Double Wave in just four days.

"However, the Double Wave doesn't actually double the force. It's two strikes at the same spot—the first breaks the opponent's defense, and the second deals greater damage."

"It's like playing a game: if my strength is 10 and the opponent's defense is 5, a single hit only does 5 damage. Two normal attacks would do 10 damage. But with Double Wave, the first hit still does 5, but the second does 10."

"If I can pull off the Triple Wave, that would be 25 damage in total. Compared to the 15 damage from three normal attacks, that's almost double the power."

"The stronger the opponent's defense, the more lethal the Triple Wave becomes."

After reaching minor mastery of the Gale Fist, Henry Clark temporarily stopped studying the Triple Wave and began learning the Phantom Shadow Sword.

But this time, nothing went smoothly.

He learned the sword moves quickly—his powerful deduction ability made mastering the basic sword forms a piece of cake. In just one day, he fully grasped all six sword moves, much faster than learning the Gale Fist. But the problem was, he just couldn't grasp the essence of the technique.

No matter how he used it, it felt awkward, like asking a burly man to do embroidery—so frustrating it made him want to cough up blood.

Why was this happening?

Henry Clark thought about it for a long time but couldn't figure it out. He could only conclude that he wasn't suited to using a sword, so he went back to practicing the Gale Fist, determined to master the Triple Wave as soon as possible.

After another six days, he finally mastered the Triple Wave.

All in all, it had only been half a month.

In just one more day, the academy would start.

Thinking about "going to school," Henry Clark couldn't help but smile. He never expected to have the chance to go to school again. However, Qianfeng Academy was nothing like schools on Earth—they didn't teach language, physics, or calculus. It was all martial arts, teaching people how to fight.

There were many martial arts geniuses at the academy. Some were even younger than Henry Clark, yet had already reached the Intermediate Accomplishment stage.

"I won't lose to anyone," Henry Clark said, full of fighting spirit. He had all the makings of a strong warrior; he just started a bit late. But not too late, since being too young isn't suitable for intense training anyway.

His strength was now approaching the 500-jin mark. Combined with the Triple Wave, he could even stand a chance against a first-level Minor Accomplishment martial artist.

Chapter 6: I Will Protect You

"Hey, hey, hey, have you heard? A new restaurant called Fumanlou just opened. The cheapest table costs ten taels of silver, and you have to make a reservation. Plus, there are only fifty tables a day."

"Tch, that's just the lowest tier, Yinmanlou. I heard that Guimanlou only takes three tables a day, and a single table costs a thousand taels of silver."

"Tsk, that's so expensive. Does anyone actually eat there?"