Making a name for himself

A few months after transfering over Huang Mu finally managed to stably settle into living in White Valley.

His progress, having established a solid routine, was swift.

He became proficient in all movement tecniques 4/5 months in, his internal cultivation reached the first level during his sixth, nine months in his muscle development was completed, his skin strenghtening attained the bronze level right around the time a new batch of disciples were brought to White Valley.

The tasks that had frustrated him and occupied most of his time could now be completed in a few hours, he had also expanded his wood's exploration to include hunting small game, after finishing his woodcutting task, improving his diet and giving him some chances of practicing his unarmed combat tecniques.

Still having more free time and access to the midday meal meant more potential sources of conflict, further with his newfound abilities and confidence Huang Mu was less likely to passively escape if someone crossed his bottom line.

Things came to a head at the new disciples' first meal.

Meng Wei was a slightly larger and more brutal boy than the rest of Huang Mu's batch, he also possessed some measure of cunning and had managed to ingratiate himself to elder Pin becoming something akin to an unofficial enforcer in the valley, especially now that the most promising kids and the elders were focused on the yellow promotion trials. He had also gathered a small following of like-minded kids, Huang Mu already had bad memories regarding him as he had been one of the more vicious during his early beatings.

One of Meng Wei's favorite times were meals, it gave him a chance to flex his muscles and show the rest who was boss, now that he had a new bunch of trash to pick from he was as happy as he had ever been since the testing stone. He picked one of the more dejected and small looking kids, waited for him to get his meal, charged over and screamed at him while waiving a meaty fist in front of his face:

"Little shit, let me tell you how things work around here, from now on you are my bitch, your meals are my meals, got it?"

He Jie, the kid, was already at his lowest point after the testing stone, elder Lin's march and "kind" introduction to White Valley, disoriented and scared he just threw up his hands while screaming histerically, much to Meng Wei's delight, as he now had a reason to beat the shit out of him. The tray however happened to also knock Huang Mu's meal flying, given the strict one meal rule in place that was his lunch going up in flames, so he turned around glaring, not having witnessed the previous altercation.

Meng Wei became even happier, not only did he have a second target to bully, he could also further cement his place by elder Pin's side, this must be his lucky day:

"Huang Mu, how dare you look at me like that? Piece of trash, come here, kneel and apologize..."

His tirade was interrupted as Huang Mu shockingly seemed to disappear and reappear besides him while his fist was aimed at his face, Meng Wei barely had time to process what was happening before feeling like he had just run headfirst into a wall.