Cui Yao was swift and decisive, explaining as he demonstrated.
He was a seasoned martial master and had always been responsible for teaching the escort agency's hands martial arts, so his experience was exceedingly rich.
As he demonstrated, his explanations were simple and clear. When he pointed out flaws in his disciples, he struck straight to the heart of the matter, often leaving them with the feeling that the clouds had parted and the moon had appeared.
Just from hearing him teach the stances of Tiger Form Fist, Li Cunxiao knew that the hundred taels of silver for admission had truly been worth every penny.
Things like Martial Arts Manuals could be bought with money. The key was having a teacher who could instruct each disciple according to their individual condition.
After all, no two bodies were alike. The same movement might be correct for someone else yet wrong for oneself, and vice versa. At times like that, only an experienced master could adjust things hand in hand.
The foundational stance of this Tiger Form Fist was called the Tiger Form Stance. What these disciples were learning was a static stance, the so-called "Dead Horse Stance."
As the saying went, "Practicing fistwork without stances is like a house without pillars."
This step was meant to solidify the lower body while using a special rhythm of breathing to guide the blood and sense the Blood Essence. Once one could sense the Blood Essence, Tiger Form Fist could be considered begun.
Li Cunxiao knew this opportunity had not come easily and did not dare slack off in the slightest. Following Cui Yao's instructions, he pushed his head upward, straightened his neck, pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and tucked in his chin.
He focused spirit through his eyes, planted both hands at his waist, filled his abdomen and broadened his chest, drew inward behind his dantian, sat into his hips and sank his qi, lifted his groin and drew in his belly, and clawed the ground with his toes.
In this way, every inch of his body exerted force, while an opposing pull stretched between above and below. Before ten minutes had passed, sweat poured from him like slurry and his legs trembled.
Even so, he gritted his teeth and held on, doing his utmost to keep his movements from deforming.
Looking up, he saw that the other several dozen hands were just like him, silently exerting themselves. For a time, the quiet training ground held only the rising and falling sounds of heavy breaths.
Another quarter hour passed before Cui Yao allowed everyone to rest. Yet they only had time to catch their breath before they began lifting stone locks to build their strength again.
Horse Stance and stone-lock lifting—those were the entirety of the hands' two-hour morning lesson.
When the sky began to brighten faintly, Cui Yao gave the order, and brawny men hauled over several buckets of yellow medicinal broth. Each hand received one bowl, not a drop more or less.
Li Cunxiao's hands had gone weak and his muscles numb from training. Yet after a bowl of medicinal broth went down his throat, a warm current immediately rose after the bitterness passed, leaving his hands and feet as comfortable as if they had been soaked in hot water.
But the feeling did not even last a minute before quickly fading away.
"So this is the escort agency's Vitality Replenishing Soup?"
It was Li Cunxiao's first time drinking a medicinal soup with such remarkable effects. To his surprise, Qin Yu curled his lip beside him when he heard that.
"Give it a rest. How could Vitality Replenishing Soup possibly be our turn? This is medicine boiled from the dregs left over after making it."
"What?"
Though Li Cunxiao was astonished, longing inevitably showed in his eyes.
Even water boiled from the medicinal dregs had such an effect. The original soup itself must be...
Qin Yu had arrived a month before Li Cunxiao and had already touched the threshold of Sensing Qi. Earlier, while Li Cunxiao had watched him hold his Horse Stance, Qin Yu had also been lifting a pair of ten-catty stone locks in both hands. Clearly, he too wanted to stimulate his Blood Essence and break through as soon as possible.
At that moment, even the hand holding his medicine bowl was somewhat unsteady. He had clearly trained himself too hard. Only after drinking a bowl of the medicinal broth did he manage to steady his raised right hand.
"There, see that courtyard? Everyone inside is in the Controlling Qi realm. The Vitality Replenishing Soup is for them."
Li Cunxiao looked over and happened to see a group of youths bowing to a middle-aged man who looked very much like Cui Yao.
The youths wore training clothes, their skin all fair and rosy. They were clearly children from wealthy households.
As for that man, he was obviously the Flying Tiger Escort Agency's other Great Escort, Cui Yao's elder brother, Cui Wei.
"When will I be able to manipulate blood essence and learn fighting techniques and weapons?"
It was not only Qin Yu whose face showed yearning. Eight or nine out of ten of the hands were also looking that way. Yet when Qin Yu turned back, he found that Li Cunxiao had already put down his bowl and headed toward the woodshed, so he hurried after him.
"Hey, don't you want to enter that courtyard?"
"What use is wanting it? We should finish today's work first."
In the blink of an eye, half a month passed, and Li Cunxiao had grown accustomed to life at the escort agency.
He rose before dawn each morning to train, finished his morning practice with a bowl of soup, and began the day's work.
As a hand, put simply, he had to do everything. Aside from meticulous tasks requiring dedicated personnel, such as feeding the horses, he had done every kind of miscellaneous job, from chopping firewood and boiling water to maintaining blades and spears.
Over half a month, his Tiger Form Stance gradually became proficient, and he had begun trying to hold five-catty stone locks to stimulate his Blood Essence.
Whenever he held the stance, the faint sensation of qi between his chest, abdomen, and limbs gradually became clearer.
The escort masters could rest after each escort mission, but hands like them only got one rest day a month. After all, even court officials only had a ten-day rest once every ten days.
It would soon be the thirtieth day of the eighth month. Li Cunxiao planned to use his rest day to visit an apothecary and buy medicine to replenish Blood Essence, or perhaps meat from fierce beasts, so he could reach the Sensing Qi realm as soon as possible.
After all, taking more than half a month to Sense Qi was only slightly fast among the escort agency's hands. He was merely a little ahead of his roommates Run Dong and Qin Yu.
Those two had Sensed Qi one after the other seven or eight days ago. They had already been taught the "living stance" and the Tiger Form Eight Styles fighting techniques. Now, every morning, they trained on the other side of the practice ground, beginning to break down forms with the others in the Sensing Qi realm.
Thus, during this period, Li Cunxiao instead became acquainted with his other roommate, He Bi, who had never appeared before.
Apparently, something at home had delayed the latter. He had supposedly practiced martial arts for only two or three days, yet after returning, he developed a faint qi sensation in just four days. His speed was nearly twice Li Cunxiao's.
He Bi was naturally lively and could not keep thoughts hidden in his heart. Thus, when Li Cunxiao probed around the subject, he could clearly sense that the other's words were somewhat unnatural.
"To Sense Qi, one either has a powerful enough spirit to perceive it."
"Or Blood Essence strong enough, so robust that it cannot be ignored."
"At this realm, as long as one has money, one can pile resources up until one gets in. But He Bi seemed to have some other method, one he could not easily speak of."
His rest day was also the day wages were paid at the end of the month. Li Cunxiao had arranged to take his younger brother out to buy clothes, and while waiting, he could not help quietly pondering.
In truth, he had always been trying to explore the mysterious Vajra Scepter in his mind.
But since Zhao Heishe, the Vajra Scepter had remained at one-quarter "charged." Even when he found chances to help in the escort agency's rear kitchen Butchery Room, there had not been the slightest change.
"Demons and monsters can't be found for now. Must I really kill people?"
"I'll deal with the Green Snake Gang eventually, but two fists cannot defeat four hands. Even if I launch a sneak attack, it would be safer to go only after I can manipulate blood essence."
As for provoking enemies on his own initiative and raising his blade against those weaker than himself—
Leaving aside that he disdained doing so, such a course itself carried immense hidden danger.
Killing was a means, not an end. If he deliberately created enemies just to increase his strength, then sooner or later he would play himself into disaster. One misstep, and it would be a catastrophe that swallowed him whole.
He still had family. He could not take risks.
"Big Brother!!!"
Faintly sensing the wind behind him, Li Cunxiao turned and caught his younger brother rushing toward him in an embrace. But the instant they made contact, he hurriedly dropped into a Horse Stance and asked in shock.
"Little Brother, how did you get so much fatter?!"
Wood Fork had originally possessed the delicate handsomeness of a melon-seed face. He was still handsome now, but he had visibly grown rounder.
"It was Que'er. She gave me lots of tasty food, and so did Madam and Third Miss."
Wood Fork was somewhat embarrassed, but Li Cunxiao felt much more at ease.
As long as he had not been suffering, a little weight gain was fine.
"Oh, right, Big Brother. I brought you something tasty too."
Wood Fork looked around, then secretly pulled out a small pouch. Inside were strips of reddish-brown dried meat.
Li Cunxiao had planned to take his younger brother out for a good meal, so he had skipped breakfast. Now, as an enticing aroma reached his nose, he instinctively picked up a strip of dried meat and tossed it into his mouth.
"Big Brother! You can only eat a tiny bit of that at a time!"
Wood Fork froze, then hurriedly spoke up. Li Cunxiao had not understood at first, but the next moment, heat exploded from his abdomen, its potency several times greater than the medicinal broth he usually drank.
Just as his expression changed, something else astonishing happened.
The light on the Vajra Scepter was growing.