Chapter 90: Fast-Learning Martial Arts
When the middle-aged man saw Zhang Yu display a level 10 Limitless Cloud Hand, a trace of respect entered his eyes.
“Level 10 Limitless Cloud Hand… Such high-quality goods are a rare sight indeed. Impressive, most impressive.”
In the middle-aged man’s mind, anyone who could cultivate a combat art like Limitless Cloud Hand to level 10 had to be at the peak of Qi Refinement. It would require money, leisure, and the dedication to study such a practical martial art after graduating from high school.
After all, most people believed it was impossible for someone to neglect their Dao heart, magic power, and physical body just to raise Limitless Cloud Hand to level 10.
Anyone with the time to raise Limitless Cloud Hand to level 10 would most likely have pushed their other attributes to the absolute limit of the Qi Refinement stage as well.
The man thought to himself, He might be a martial arts teacher from one of the high schools, secretly moonlighting for some extra cash.
However, he had no intention of digging deeper. Prying into the secrets of others was the biggest taboo in this line of work.
The middle-aged man spoke again. “I’ll need to register your information, if you don’t mind. Just a few questions.”
Seeing Zhang Yu nod, the man asked, “Are you looking for part-time or full-time work?”
Zhang Yu: “Part-time.”
The middle-aged man: “And what is your teaching experience?”
The doll’s voice sounded in his head. “Tell him you have ten years of teaching experience. Trust me on this.”
Zhang Yu considered it for a moment. Since he was hiding his identity anyway, he said, “Ten years of teaching experience at a key high school.”
The middle-aged man nodded slightly, as this confirmed his initial guess. He made a note and continued, “Do you have any areas of specialty?”
Under the doll’s guidance, Zhang Yu was gradually getting the hang of how to answer.
“I specialize in teaching cultivation techniques. Besides the Limitless Cloud Hand, I have many other level 10 arts.”
The middle-aged man asked another question. “In your classroom, how do you typically improve student engagement and focus?”
Zhang Yu: “The most basic method is to make underperforming students kneel during class while the top students ridicule them. Different performance in the classroom is met with different treatment.”
The middle-aged man nodded in satisfaction and then asked, “Are you willing to accept clients with relatively low intelligence?”
Zhang Yu was taken aback by the question.
“Relatively low intelligence?”
The middle-aged man gave a helpless smile.
“We are, after all, targeting the lower end of the market. The students who buy our classes are generally average, with a combined score below 450 across the six subjects. Their intelligence isn’t high, so teachers need to be exceptionally patient and speak in very simple terms. It’s quite different from teaching at a key high school.”
Good grief, Zhang Yu thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. So in your view, students and graduates from regular high schools are just idiots?
He nodded and said, “I’m very good at teaching slackers.”
The middle-aged man added, “Also, our clients here are quite poor, so teachers are tasked with promoting financial services. Would you be open to that?”
Zhang Yu frowned. “Financial services?”
The middle-aged man smiled. “Things like promoting tutoring loans, installment plans for course fees, that sort of thing…”
Seeing Zhang Yu’s silence, the man smiled again. “No matter. As long as your teaching quality is exceptional, it’s fine even if you don’t promote financial services.”
Then the middle-aged man asked, “During a tutoring session, if you are attacked by corporate security teams or other gangs, are you willing to participate in the fight? And if you fight, are you willing to kill?”
Zhang Yu fell silent at the question, thinking to himself that this was indeed the dark world of tutoring. A teacher had to consider combat and killing on top of their lessons.
To his slight relief, however, the man was at least considering his feelings by asking if he was willing. It showed a sliver of morality, at least.
The middle-aged man continued, “We understand your hesitation. After all, fighting and killing can be costly. But please rest assured, according to the rules of the Dark Learning Gang, we will reimburse you for any and all fines and compensation fees incurred from fighting or killing during a tutoring session.”
Zhang Yu retracted his feeling of relief. So they just thought the price wasn’t right. Gang warfare was that mundane to these people?
Naturally, Zhang Yu couldn’t agree to such terms. Although he had several cultivation techniques at level 10, his magic power and physical strength were still at the level of a first-year high school student. He wouldn’t dare take part in any gang fights.
Hearing Zhang Yu’s refusal, the middle-aged man nodded in understanding. After another series of questions and answers, he smiled at Zhang Yu.
“I’ve recorded all the necessary details. However, what kind of classes we can arrange for you and how we price your courses will have to be decided after your trial lesson.”
The so-called trial lesson was an opportunity for Zhang Yu to teach a sample class, after which the Dark Learning Gang would determine his course assignments and pricing based on his teaching quality.
The middle-aged man added, “…Although your Limitless Cloud Hand is formidable, the market for pure combat arts isn’t as large as the market for health, academic, and work-related techniques.”
The man was concerned that this ‘suspected high school teacher’ might be limited by his experience teaching at a key high school and wouldn’t be able to accurately grasp the demands of the lower-end market.
So, the middle-aged man continued, “Of course, I’m not saying that Limitless Cloud Hand is bad. There will certainly be people willing to pay to learn it. It’s just that our clientele is often more interested in more foundational techniques…”
Hearing his words, Zhang Yu was suddenly reminded of the rankings he had seen when purchasing cultivation techniques online.
Zhang Yu spoke. “The Health-Preserving and Sickness-Dispelling Art, Excavator Palm, Crane Claw, Sports Car Legs… these have a larger market?”
The middle-aged man smiled faintly. “Indeed, the demand for tutoring in those types of techniques is the highest. Although the fee per student is lower, a single class can often accommodate dozens, or even hundreds, of students at once. In the end, they earn more than high-end, small-group courses like Limitless Cloud Hand.”
“Besides those, there are the basic high school cultivation techniques, such as Freehand Combat, Basic Swordsmanship, and Basic Breathing Exercises.”
Hearing this, Zhang Yu’s eyes flickered as a thought took shape in his mind.
Excavator Palm and Crane Claw have the biggest market? Perhaps I can use the Feather Book’s specialization to raise these arts to level 10 in a short period and then teach them.
The middle-aged man continued, “Let’s schedule a time for the trial class, then. I still need to arrange for teachers to observe. Are you free in five days?”
After a quick mental calculation, Zhang Yu nodded. “No problem. Five days from now is fine.”
The middle-aged man asked again, “Besides Limitless Cloud Hand, what else do you plan to teach during the trial class? We’ll need to arrange for teachers who have studied in that area to observe and give you a rating.”
Zhang Yu thought to himself, The Health-Preserving and Sickness-Dispelling Art is an expert-level technique. It’s not cheap, it involves the entire body with complex movements, and it likely won’t be fast to master.
On the other hand, advanced-level techniques like Excavator Palm, Crane Claw, Sports Car Legs, and Elevator Leap are inexpensive and have simple forms. They should be much faster to learn, just like a martial art like the Dragonback Mountain Toppler Hand.
To be on the safe side, however, he mentioned fewer than he planned.
He said, “In addition to Limitless Cloud Hand, I can also teach Excavator Palm and Sports Car Legs.”
This demonstrated 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.”
“Oh, by the way, would it be convenient for you to leave a method of contact?”
After confirming that Zhang Yu was unwilling to leave his phone number, the man said, “In that case, could I trouble you to download a game called Kun Shen World? Add me as a friend, and we can discuss course details in the game from now on.”
On the way out of the park.
The doll couldn’t help but ask, “You’ve practiced Excavator Palm and Sports Car Legs as well?”
She found it impossible to imagine that a student from a key high school would practice such blue-collar arts.
She had originally thought that Zhang Yu could leverage his level 10 Limitless Cloud Hand to sell some high-end, small-group classes.
She never expected that he would also plan to teach low-end, large-group courses like Excavator Palm and Sports Car Legs.
Zhang Yu opened a shopping website on his phone and, while purchasing Excavator Palm and Sports Car Legs, said casually, “I’ve never practiced them, but five days is enough time for me to learn.”
Zhang Yu knew that since he would be spending every moment with the doll from now on, certain things would be impossible to hide.
The doll frowned. “How is five days enough? And even if you do learn them, with all the teachers from the dark world of tutoring in the Dark Learning Gang, how can you possibly compete with them when you’ve only been learning for five days?”
“You should stop messing around with all this and just focus on teaching Limitless Cloud Hand.”
Zhang Yu naturally paid no mind to the doll’s skepticism. With the purchase of Excavator Palm and Sports Car Legs, his account balance dropped by another 3,500, leaving him with a little over 12,000.
After returning to the unfinished building, Zhang Yu immediately began to practice his newly acquired cultivation techniques.
First up was Excavator Palm.
This palm art was a power-based technique that mimicked an excavator, allowing the user to condense a thread of bucket force to dig materials and level ground.
Because it was a purely work-oriented palm technique, containing no combat or body tempering elements, the moves were very simple, consisting of only three: the forward shovel, the reverse shovel, and the sweeping shovel.
Zhang Yu nodded to himself, thinking, I should be able to run through a full set in just a few seconds. This ought to be easy to learn.
After briefly scanning the manual, he switched the Feather Book’s specialization to this cultivation technique.
He immediately saw his palms striking out through the air, sending forth waves of formless power that seemed to build momentum, only to lose control the next moment and dissipate into the air.
Seeing Zhang Yu standing there, stunned and without any effect after completing a full set of the Excavator Palm, the doll sighed.
“I told you that you were wasting your time. You think you can master this technique in such a short time and compete with teachers who have taught for years? How could you…”
But before she could finish, Zhang Yu, who had been frozen in place, moved again.
This time, as he struck, his palms created a whistling sound, as if a gigantic excavator bucket were actually scooping through the air.
The doll stared, dumbfounded, at the scene.
“Wait… he learned it just like that?”
“He learned it that quickly?”
“And from the looks of it… it’s as if he’s been practicing for a long, long time.”
“Is this the potential I unlocked in this kid? The ability to rapidly learn cultivation techniques?”
But what happened next shocked the doll even more.
In just over an hour, she watched in utter disbelief as Zhang Yu’s Excavator Palm progressed by leaps and bounds. He went from a complete novice who had never learned it before to an expert whose palm strikes flowed like water, looking as if he could level the entire unfinished building.