"You bought it all this fast?" Fang Yu was startled by his father's speed.
Click.
Fang Ping'an had already opened the case. First he lifted out five exquisite jade vials, then two large boxes of sealed serums, marked with the words Star River Group.
"Cell Vitality Serum?" Fang Yu recognised one of the boxes at a glance.
"Mm."
"You're a junior-college student, you should know both of these. Cell Vitality Serum and Vital Regeneration Serum, six doses each." Fang Ping'an pointed at the two boxes.
Something shook hard in Fang Yu's chest.
How could he not know them?
At the junior college he had a wealthy classmate who used these two high-grade serums now and then, and their tempering effect on the body was far beyond Blood-Qi Compound and Bone-Strengthening Pills.
Which was why, for all that the man did not train especially hard and his talent for skill was middling, his Life Tier was remarkable — Level 18 at the third-year final assessment.
But the price was staggering too.
Cell Vitality Serum and Vital Regeneration Serum were high-grade serums that only the eight great groups could produce reliably, and a single dose cost fifty thousand Star Coins.
The twelve doses his father had produced came to six hundred thousand Star Coins in all.
"These two serums work best used together. Normally a Low-Rank Warrior can take one dose every ten days; more than that wastes most of the potency, or even over-nourishes the body — too much is as bad as too little," Fang Ping'an said. "But your control of your own body is at Great Completion in Subtlety. Your tempering efficiency is far higher."
"A month should be just about right."
Fang Ping'an did not lay down exact dosing times for him. A man at Great Completion in Subtlety could sense his own condition far better than a Low-Rank Warrior like himself.
How a drug should be used varied from person to person.
"These two serums, with a small amount of Blood-Qi Compound and Bone-Strengthening Pills alongside, will raise your Life Tier at maximum efficiency," Fang Ping'an said.
"But the important thing is this."
Fang Ping'an pointed at the five jade vials. He opened one of them, and a wave of cold breathed out of it: inside lay a fruit the size of a little fingertip, its surface like frozen ice.
"Is that an Ice-Heart Marrow-Cleansing Fruit?" Fang Yu said hesitantly.
"So the 《Natural Treasures》 course at school wasn't wasted on you after all. You can actually name it." Fang Ping'an smiled.
Powerful warriors would all be venturing onto the Primordial Star one day.
That was the warrior's battlefield, and it held no end of natural treasures... Over the years, so that the new generation of warriors would not walk past a treasure on the Primordial Star.
Every martial junior-college and university student was required to take 《Natural Treasures》.
At minimum, you had to be able to recognise them.
"Dad." Fang Yu could not help himself. "These five jade vials — are they five Ice-Heart Marrow-Cleansing Fruit?"
Fang Ping'an nodded.
Fang Yu's breath caught. The Ice-Heart Marrow-Cleansing Fruit, like the Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit, was for laying a solid foundation.
But the Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit's potency was extremely gentle, releasing over as long as several years, which made it ideal for beginners on the martial path... and rather a waste on a Low-Rank Warrior.
The Ice-Heart Marrow-Cleansing Fruit, by contrast, was a foundation treasure with a far more overbearing potency, meant chiefly for Low-Rank Warriors inside the Golden Age Bracket.
And precisely because the effect was so overbearing.
Many Low-Rank Warriors would not buy it. Its price was not especially high, but "not high" was a relative thing: five of them together still came to nearly two million Star Coins.
"You can only use them because you're at Great Completion in Subtlety."
"And you went through three years of junior college without any other foundation treasure, so the effect should be good," Fang Ping'an said. "Take all of them within the month. It'll make up a little of your foundation."
"Which reminds me — not giving you Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit in high school was my mistake." Fang Ping'an sighed softly.
Back then.
He had supported Fang Yu on the martial road, true, but Fang Yu's failure to awaken a Void Star Aspect had genuinely made him hesitate... and three Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit meant six million Star Coins.
"Dad."
"I hadn't awakened an Aspect. Using Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit would have been pure waste," Fang Yu said, to put him at ease. "And you bought Star Spirit Life-Giving Pills, which laid a decent foundation anyway. Without them there's no way my physical standard would have hit Level 8 the moment the entrance exam finished."
"And no way my training would have gone so smoothly once I got to college."
One of the Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit's key effects was to guide a beginner into drawing Star Force into the body faster.
The Star Spirit Life-Giving Pill, a grade below it as a foundation treasure, worked mainly to temper the body, and one pill still cost six hundred thousand Star Coins.
"Mm."
"Fang Yu, you've given me very little to worry about since you were small, and now you're fully grown. Your strength on the martial path is well past my peak." Fang Ping'an looked at him steadily. "Of you three, your brother and sister are still young, and from here on I'm bound to look after them more."
"And now they've awakened Sun-Devouring Python Aspects. Signing with a warrior conglomerate will bring no shortage of sponsorship, but if they're to advance faster and test into a key martial arts university, the outlay only grows... From here on, I'm afraid there'll be a good deal less looking after you."
"These few things."
"They're the last substantial help your father gives your martial path." There was a trace of apology in Fang Ping'an's voice.
"Dad!"
"I understand all of it." Fang Yu shook his head, smiling. "You've helped me more than enough already. In any other family, who would sink that kind of money into the martial path for a child who never awakened an Aspect?"
That was Fang Yu's honest feeling.
Counting this, across nearly ten years of martial training, the money his father had put into him came to close to ten million Star Coins... And how much could his father earn in a year?
Never mind that the family did not have that kind of money.
Even a genuinely rich man with assets in the hundreds of millions might not have done it.
"Son."
"Honestly, your old man has been in business his whole life, and investing in your martial path really is the most like gambling. Plenty of people told me I'd do better to save it for you." Fang Ping'an laughed. "But this investment is also the one I most want to win."
"And I think."
"It's the investment your great-grandfather most wanted to win, too."
"I'm going away on business shortly. You're home this month, so keep after your brother and sister... and listen to your grandfather. He put in a great deal this time," Fang Ping'an said.
"Grandad?" Fang Yu was taken aback.
By the sound of it his grandfather had put up a fair sum... but where would his grandfather get money?
***
Standing on the second floor, he watched his father walk out through the courtyard gate.
"With my father's ability."
"If it weren't for the three of us, he'd have had a far easier life." Fang Yu's gaze went back to the case on the desk.
"Given this much."
"The transfer has to succeed." The hunger in him sharpened. "Get into a university, train on the state's resources, become a Mid-Rank Warrior as fast as possible — then I'll be able to take some of the weight off him."
The warrior's road has to be paved with money.
But if a man can make something great of it, the rate at which he earns is staggering too.
***
The next day, at six in the morning, while Fang Yu was training with the blade.
On the villa's second floor.
"Do you see?"
"It's six o'clock. Your eldest brother has been training since three." Fang Zhiyuan's tone was severe.
In front of the laptop, Fang Siyue and Fang Long watched their eldest brother on the monitor feed, hours deep into hard training already.
"Nobody makes him do it. He's been like this since middle school."
"Yes, he's at a junior college — but you should understand that most people who test into a martial junior college have awakened an Aspect, and your brother hasn't. His training resources aren't top-tier either. Your father gives him five hundred thousand Star Coins a year. And his results are steady inside the top ten."
"Do you know how many students there are in one intake at that college? Five thousand!"
"And in martial skill he is the absolute first of his year," Fang Zhiyuan said flatly. He did not actually know Fang Yu's precise results, which did not stop him from laying it on.
Exaggeration lands harder.
Shock showed on both their faces, and they believed every word; they had looked up to their eldest brother since they were small.
"How does he manage it?"
"By exactly the effort you're looking at."
"That is the martial path. Train a day and you gain a day's work; miss a day and a hundred days are empty." Fang Zhiyuan's eyes moved between his grandson and granddaughter. "Your Aspect talent is far stronger than your brother's."
"Which is why your brother is willing to sacrifice himself — taking only a basic allowance and asking nothing more from this family."
"Your father is willing to pay the price too."
"The day before yesterday he was making calls, ready to mortgage the supermarket, to buy you foundation treasures and lay you the best possible base on the martial path," Fang Zhiyuan said.
Mortgage the supermarket?
Fang Siyue and Fang Long were both stunned. They knew what that supermarket meant to their family.
"Just for the foundation treasure, one fruit is two million Star Coins, and it has to be taken three years running — six million. For the two of you together, twelve million," Fang Zhiyuan said bluntly. "Your father told me not to tell you, so you wouldn't feel the pressure."
"But you're both fifteen. You're not children."
"You should understand what that money means."
Twelve million? It was an astronomical figure.
Fang Siyue and Fang Long stopped breathing altogether. Their pocket money ran to a few hundred at most.
"Now, the training treasures haven't been brought home yet, and I want you both to think this through."
"Do you truly have the resolve and the endurance to set foot on this road, and work the way your brother works? Are you confident you can be worth what your father is giving up?" Fang Zhiyuan fixed his grandchildren with his gaze. "Your grandad isn't forcing this responsibility on you."
"If you haven't the confidence, that's fine too. Then be like your grandad — take it easy. I never had the courage to carry that kind of responsibility."
"And I've lived very comfortably."
"But once those treasures are in this house, there is no road back."
"I'll give you a day to think it over." Fang Zhiyuan said. "No martial training today. Get the road you mean to walk clear in your heads."
"Settle the heart, and the legs stride better."
***
Having seen the dazed Fang Siyue and Fang Long out of his room.
Fang Zhiyuan went back to the laptop and looked at Fang Yu on the monitor.
"For will and resolve, this grandson and granddaughter of mine are nowhere near where their brother was at their age," Fang Zhiyuan thought. "Looked after too well, that's the trouble."
"Hmph."
"Awaken an Upper Aspect and you'll become a powerful warrior, will you?" Fang Zhiyuan murmured to himself. "Dream on! The warrior's road is a savage thing. If they can't take even this much pressure, they'd do better to lie flat right now."
"Settle for High-Rank Warrior and be done with it. Still a million a year, and a good deal more relaxing."
***
In the basement martial arts hall.
Fang Yu, finished with his blade training, took out an Ice-Heart Marrow-Cleansing Fruit.
"Let's see what it does." Fang Yu ate it in a few bites.