Square Step, Imperial Strike Hand

Name: Zhou You.

Strength: 5.

Speed: 5.

Defense: 5.

Experience Points: 22.

Class: Martial Arts Apprentice.

Skills: Imperial Strike Hand (lv1/lv10), Square Step (lv1/lv10).

That afternoon, as usual, Tiger Subduing Fist was taught.

Before everyone, Lu Qiang demonstrated the eighteen stances one by one, explaining every variation in detail.

The one hundred and eight moves formed a complete system, training every part of the human body that could be used to attack.

"No wonder he's Iron Tiger."

A new apprentice murmured in amazement.

As Lu Qiang punched, a faint black wind swirled around him. Standing close, they could almost hear the roar of a fierce tiger, the gusts stinging the surrounding apprentices' faces.

His fists gleamed with a dark metallic luster, clearly a pair of deadly weapons. An ordinary person would die from merely grazing them.

Gravel from the ground was swept beneath his feet and instantly ground into powder.

"Boom!"

The straw dummy in the courtyard, packed dense and weighing well over a hundred jin, was sent flying more than ten meters away by a single punch. When it hit the ground, it shattered into scraps of straw.

"Tiger Subduing Fist is broad and profound—enough for you to ponder for a lifetime."

"A master can lead you to the door, but cultivation depends on the individual. Don't think of slacking off. When the hundred days are up, whether you stay or leave will depend entirely on your true ability."

After withdrawing his stance, Lu Qiang spoke sternly to the crowd.

Among the more than one hundred new apprentices in the Outer Court, only twenty or thirty would truly pass the three-month trial and gain an entry-level grasp of boxing.

Apprentices who became full members had separate training grounds and did not train alongside them.

"Listen well. Tiger Subduing Fist is not an empty form. You must cultivate Martial Force before it counts as entry-level."

"If your punches carry no Martial Force, you'll circle outside the threshold until the day you die."

"What is Martial Force? No one can teach you that. Train and figure it out yourselves!"

He was about to leave when he spotted an odd one out in the crowd.

"Zhou You, why aren't you practicing Tiger Subduing Fist? Why are you still practicing Imperial Strike Hand and Square Step?"

Song Fugui had only performed a few moves of Tiger Subduing Fist when he noticed something was wrong. Zhou You beside him was still practicing what he had learned that morning.

Lu Qiang stopped walking. He wanted to hear Zhou You's answer.

"I think I should first lay a solid foundation. If I don't train my hands and footwork properly, my punches will have no strength and my steps will lack order. Even if I force myself to cultivate Tiger Subduing Fist, I'll only get half the result for twice the effort."

Those words struck straight into Lu Qiang's heart.

The apprentices of the Outer Court were all aiming too high. Before their fundamentals were even steady, they were already dreaming of ascending to heaven in a single step.

Their punches were limp and powerless, turning a fine Tiger Subduing Fist into Drunken Cat Fist.

He gave Zhou You another look. With insight like that, this kid would rise above the rest in the Outer Court before long.

Zhou You looked at the System Panel's overall assessment and was speechless as well.

For Imperial Strike Hand and Square Step, one hour of practice earned +1 Experience Point.

Completing one set of Tiger Subduing Fist took at least two hours and earned only +1 Experience Point.

Moreover, Imperial Strike Hand and Square Step were calculated separately, making them far more cost-effective.

Since that was the case, he might as well focus on cultivating the foundations of his hands and footwork, accumulating Experience Points to improve Tiger Subduing Fist.

Over the course of the afternoon, Zhou You practiced for four hours and gained +8 Experience Points.

Name: Zhou You.

Strength: 5.

Speed: 5.

Defense: 5.

Experience Points: 30.

Class: Martial Arts Apprentice.

Skills: Imperial Strike Hand (lv1/lv10), Square Step (lv1/lv10), Tiger Subduing Fist (lv1/lv20).

There were twenty-four hours in a day. If he neither ate, drank, nor slept, he could gain at most +48 Experience Points.

But that calculation was clearly wrong. Humans were not machines and could not withstand such torment.

Zhou You recalled that, aside from daily accumulation, Experience Points had also come from the Trial Project he had experienced before.

But whether a Trial Project opened depended entirely on whether the System Panel deigned to favor him.

For now, his only choice was to keep his feet on the ground and train hard, increasing his strength bit by bit.

"Experience Points -10. Tiger Subduing Fist lv1 → lv2. Experience Points -20. Tiger Subduing Fist lv2 → lv3."

At night, while no one was around, Zhou You raised Tiger Subduing Fist to lv3.

In an instant, countless images of tiny figures practicing boxing flooded into his mind.

The muscles and bones throughout Zhou You's body began to tear and strengthen, improving along the paths of Tiger Subduing Fist.

This—this was the heaven-defying aspect of the System Panel. Through direct infusion, it granted him in an instant the experience and bodily instincts others could never obtain through bitter training.

His body was drenched in sweat. With a casual punch, the wind howled around his fist.

After completing Tiger Subduing Fist in one breath, he felt his blood boiling throughout his body, as if he could kill even a bull.

Though he had yet to cultivate the Martial Force Lu Qiang had mentioned, Zhou You's strength was already extraordinary. He could fight five or six burly men at once.

That was the advantage of practicing martial arts and boxing.

Looking up at the night sky, he did not want to sleep. He intended to seize another hour or two for training and accumulate Experience Points.

In truth, quite a few Outer Court apprentices trained through the night.

After all, the three-month deadline was too pressing. If they failed to cultivate Martial Force, they would be expelled from the martial hall.

Many had come to learn martial arts bearing their Lineage's hopes on their backs. Once eliminated, it was no different from losing all hope.

Take Li Hao, the person among this batch of new apprentices most likely to cultivate Martial Force.

Li Hao's father had been a City Gate Guard, killed by Robbers while on patrol several years ago. His household had swiftly fallen into decline.

To revive his Lineage, he had to achieve success in martial arts and reclaim his father's post as a City Gate Guard.

If he failed, his entire family would have to move outside the city and fall into utter poverty.

"My mother pawned her jewelry just to buy a small jar of Tiger Bone Wine, all so I could awaken the Martial Force in my bones."

"The Tiger Bone Paste distributed by the martial hall every seven days is actually refined from the leftover bone scraps of Inner Court disciples. Its essence has long since been boiled dry."

"Learning martial arts costs money. If Father were still alive, we wouldn't be in such straits."

Under the night sky, Li Hao threw punch after punch, ripping through the air and making the wooden post before him sway without end.

His Tiger Subduing Fist had reached eighty or ninety percent mastery, but its power was always just a hair short.

The Outer Court's wooden posts were made from century-old hardwood and could endure tens of thousands of blows.

Unless one cultivated Martial Force, no one could break one.

He trained until the latter half of the night, returning to his room only after exhaustion had drained him dry.

"Once I digest the Tiger Bone Wine and train Tiger Subduing Fist to a deeper level, I'll be able to cultivate Martial Force."

When Li Hao returned to his room, he saw a figure flash past. Curious, he wondered if someone was even more hardworking than him.

Once he saw the figure clearly, wasn't that Zhou You, the one who had just entered the hall during the day?

That fellow was interesting too. He treated Imperial Strike Hand and Square Step as priceless treasures, actually abandoning Tiger Subduing Fist instead of practicing it.

Didn't he know that only Tiger Subduing Fist could cultivate Martial Force, and that it was tied to passing the assessment when the hundred days were up?

"If your direction is wrong, no amount of desperate effort will help."

Li Hao put the matter out of his mind. He had only four hours to rest and needed to rise before dawn to train.

In the Outer Court, he always slept the latest and rose the earliest.

Meanwhile, because Zhou You worked through the night, he gained another +6 Experience Points.

Imperial Strike Hand and Square Step also grew more proficient through repeated practice.

At last, amid the repeated practice, the levels of both skills on the System Panel jumped at the same time, lv2 → lv3.

"Imperial Strike Hand skill level increased successfully. Experience Points +20."

"Square Step skill level increased successfully. Experience Points +20."

"Experience Points: 46."

New knowledge arrived again. Raising levels through cultivation not only did not deduct Experience Points from the System Panel—it actually gave him extra.

Going back and forth like this, Zhou You felt that he had made a killing.