Leaving aside his parents talking outside, once Li Ye entered his room, he stood in the center, first taking a deep breath. With his feet together, he swept both arms left and right like a great roc spreading its wings, stretching his tendons and bones as his breathing grew deep and powerful.
Five minutes later, Li Ye hooked his hands into dragon claws and fiercely pulled upward, stretching each section of his spine as far as possible. As his breathing found a rhythm, his outstretched arms rose straight toward the sky.
Opening his shoulders and drawing out his spine, activating his meridians, surging his blood and qi upward, rousing his spirit.
After holding the position for some time, Li Ye changed movements again. His feet rooted themselves in place, power flowing from his waist and hips as his shoulders and back slowly, heavily rammed the air. He exhaled in that instant, setting his tendons and bones trembling.
These movements and breathing techniques were the Guiding Method practiced throughout Divine Land from elementary school onward. They could strengthen one's tendons and bones and elevate one's blood and qi.
There were eighteen sets of movements in total. Those with the aptitude to become martial artists could use them to enter the Dragon Gate Realm directly.
The first of the Nine Realms of a Martial Artist, the Dragon Gate Realm, was also called "Fish Leap."
Nine leaps of blood and qi, Break Mortal Shell, Become Martial.
Every leap was a qualitative transformation for one's blood and qi.
It was also the foundation for fighting demons and devils.
It was not that weapons were useless. On the contrary, ancient Tang Dynasty texts had records of gunpowder driving away evil, so the greater the yield, the greater the effect.
It was simply that ordinary people could not handle the contamination of demons and devils. Only those with vigorous blood and qi could wield weapons to twice the effect with half the effort.
But crossing the Dragon Gate did not mean everything would be fine. If one could not complete all nine leaps and stabilize one's blood and qi, one would still decline with age.
When people grew old, they could no longer rely on their tendons and bones.
Especially those who had only made one leap of blood and qi—once they got older, they were merely healthier than ordinary people.
This was one reason many people gave up martial arts. If they could not Break Through Dragon Gate and enter the martial path while their blood and qi were flourishing in youth, could they still do so once they were older?
If you could not break through at eighteen, were you supposed to wait until twenty-eight? A man past twenty-eight was already sixty!
Someone like Fu Yan was truly rare.
Though Li Ye had given up martial arts, he could still practice the Guiding Method from time to time. It was good for strengthening the body and improving health, after all.
After completing the entire set of movements, Li Ye stood still, regulating his breath for several moments. Then his left foot suddenly twisted. Though he was wearing only socks, the floor beneath him strangely gave a squeaking scrape.
Whoosh!
His right leg shot out straight as a sword, carrying a gust of wind as it viciously slanted into the air.
Immediately afterward, Li Ye pressed his upper body down. His legs were like iron rods swung downward, their force immense and heavy. Just as they were about to smash down, they touched the ground lightly, propelling him high into the air as both legs launched a continuous chain of kicks.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
His legs tore through the air. Only then did Li Ye land. The instant he touched down, he tapped out three more kicks in succession, rising from below as though striking a person's knee, heart, and brain. Swift and heavy, yet flashing like cold stars—precise and powerful!
Training Method: Springing Legs!
The spring of a bullet!
This was the result of Li Ye's five years learning at the martial hall.
If the Guiding Method laid the foundation, then the Training Method further applied that foundation, raising blood and qi once more until it reached the point of leaping.
This was martial hall training, and it was also one of the mainstream paths through which Preparatory Students practiced martial arts.
Like cram schools in his previous life.
At most, school preparatory programs lasted two years, and what they taught was all about strengthening the body's foundation.
Running laps, climbing, weightlifting, clearing obstacles, striking punching targets, standing postures, moving postures, and so on. They solidified stamina, flexibility, and agility; combined with the Guiding Method, they were another way of strengthening oneself.
After all, the rise of blood and qi was not tied to physical strength, but physical strength was certainly tied to blood and qi.
Martial hall training, judged by the standards of his previous life, was equivalent to combat martial arts meant for killing.
To some extent, Li Ye was a martial arts expert.
That was how he had earned an "Excellent" in the preparatory physical assessment.
And that source was also the most expensive!
The Thunderclap Martial Hall he had enrolled in had some local fame. Its Springing Legs training was a method that relied on leg exercises to raise blood and qi from the soles of the feet through the entire body.
Tuition was one hundred thousand a year.
That did not include the food, medicinal baths, and other assistance provided inside the martial hall.
With the Guiding Method and preparatory training, as long as the family kept up with supplies in time—like the soup he had drunk today—there would be no problems. It was mild and suitable for the public.
Martial hall training, however, had to be paired with food and medicinal baths supplied exclusively by the martial hall in order to make up for the damage left behind by the training.
Li Ye had spent nearly three hundred thousand over five years on those supplements and medicinal baths alone. Especially during this final year of high school preparatory classes, tuition and supply costs together had consumed two hundred thousand.
Even so, countless people still failed to Break Through Dragon Gate.
His family's savings had long since run dry. He knew his parents had even borrowed money outside, so they had to cut their losses in time.
If he truly trained for another year, even two hundred thousand might not be enough.
The martial path was indeed captivating. Training methods alone had let Li Ye experience what it meant to be a martial arts expert.
For someone with the experience of two lives, he dearly wanted to know what scenery lay farther up the martial path.
But reality gave him no choice.
Li Ye threw a few kicks before finally ending his practice and releasing a breath. He stood still and breathed long and deeply for another ten minutes before pulling over a chair and beginning his worksheets.
In terms of knowledge, the only difference between Divine Land and his previous life was that the academic subjects were Chinese, mathematics, and General Knowledge. There was no such thing as foreign languages; those could only be taken as electives in university.
From now on, he needed to improve his grades in those subjects and strive to get into a better university a year later.
Another hour passed before Li Ye put down his pen and checked the time. It was exactly nine in the evening.
Time for his night run.
Li Ye pulled a backpack and a box out from under his bed, then began stuffing the box's contents into the backpack.
There was a saltwater pellet gun, a peachwood dagger, a high-powered flashlight, a small fire extinguisher, righteous and awe-inspiring songs, and even two homemade Molotov Cocktails.
Salt could suppress certain demons and devils.
Peachwood warded off evil.
Light dispelled evil spirits.
Foul qi feared clean wind.
Flames extinguished yin qi.
Righteousness repelled demons and ghosts.
These ancient methods were not uncommon in history. Li Ye brought them every time he went night running, so that he would have some way to respond if he encountered demons or devils.
As for why he did this—
It was because night running was the only non-pay-to-win way to train Springing Legs.
Once he was ready, he slung the backpack over his shoulders, left home, and began his night run.
As he ran, his legs exerted force and trembled according to the Training Method. He tried to train from thigh to sole with every step. After one foot stepped forward, the other immediately kicked straight out, then trembled as it landed.
Doing this for two hours could serve to consolidate his progress.
Practicing martial arts was like rowing upstream: if you did not advance, you retreated.
He had spent the money, so he could not waste it. At the very least, he had to maintain his current level.
At eleven that night, Li Ye ran back to the residential complex.
There was no night market around the old complex. Most people had already gone to rest, and only a few windows still showed light. The complex itself was quiet and tranquil.
Li Ye adjusted his backpack and continued ahead, but the faint strange smell beneath his nose grew increasingly pungent.
It was even stronger than when he had come home from school, making him hold his breath.
Tomorrow, he would call the property management and make them deal with it quickly. Otherwise, after another day, there was no telling how overpowering the smell would become.
The old residential complex had almost no streetlights. Only scattered lights from apartment floors and the moon overhead cast a little brightness, leaving the surroundings half-hidden and half-revealed.
Li Ye pressed onward through the stench. As he neared the building next to his own, he saw a figure rummaging through the trash in front of the garbage bin that was giving off the foul odor.
Only when he got closer could he see the hunched figure with graying hair.
Li Ye knew the man. He lived on the fourth floor of the neighboring building and was surnamed Zhao. Like ordinary elderly people, he enjoyed scavenging at night.
But unlike the others, he took it to ever more extreme lengths. Other people might at most pick up plastic bottles and aluminum cans, but Old Man Zhao took everything home.
Expired food, deflated dolls, discarded cigarette butts. Other than swill, it felt as though he would take anything.
His home stank even more terribly. Li Ye had seen the neighbors from that building quarrel with him several times because of it.
But he had no children and lived alone. In Divine Land, there was nothing anyone could do to him. The staff even had to cater to him—not only did he receive social security, but they had to bring gifts and visit him during every holiday.
No one could do anything about his strange habit.
Li Ye did not want to bother with him either, and quickened his pace slightly. Yet as he drew closer, he saw more clearly.
Old Man Zhao was still dressed in filthy clothes, all of them apparently picked up from who knew where. But compared to his clothes, it was what he was doing that made Li Ye freeze.
Trash lay scattered all around him, and Old Man Zhao himself was bent over inside the garbage bin. He reached in and pulled out a clump of food waste mixed with fish bones and other rotten matter. It was like mud in his hand as he stuffed it straight into his mouth!
He was eating garbage!
Old Man Zhao made no sound. Like a puppet, his dull face chewed twice while his hands kept digging through the garbage bin, as if he had been starving for a long time.
The bizarre sight left Li Ye rooted to the spot.
Old Man Zhao seemed to sense something. He raised his head and glanced sideways, allowing Li Ye to see those gray, hollow eyes like a dead man's, as well as something still squirming amid the mud-like food in his open mouth.
Something was wrong.
"Ah!"
The very moment he thought that, a hoarse, piercing cry like a shattered gong rang out beside his ear, making Li Ye jolt.
Old Man Zhao leaned forward, charging at Li Ye like a madly running Zombie, claws bared as he reached to grab him!
In the scattered light, Li Ye could even see the black grime beneath Old Man Zhao's nails, as well as the moldy green carapace growing from the backs of his hands!
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Li Ye's mind.
Zombie? Roaming Corpse? Puppet Corpse? Rotten Creature Demon? Returning Evil?
Demons and devils!
Before you continue