Twenty-Nine Days Later, Beat Gentleman Sword to Death!

"Each day of training can equal a year's work..."

Huo Yuanhong murmured.

A day gained him a year of skill. A month meant thirty years of skill, and a year meant three or four hundred years!

No matter how ordinary one's talent was, with three or four hundred years of skill piled up, anyone should be able to cross the three realms of Practicing Strength, Manifest Strength, and Dark Force, becoming a master of Transformation Strength, right?

With such astonishing results, even without a famous teacher or the deep foundation built from childhood, he could still advance at an unimaginable speed, rise late yet surpass those core disciples born into great lineages.

Hope!

After struggling in darkness for so long, now...

He had finally seen hope!

Hope to change his own fate, and the fate of this family!

Once, "martial arts prodigy" had merely been a false image he fabricated to deceive his father. But from this day onward, he possessed the ability to turn that lie into reality.

He...

Would truly become the pride his father envisioned!

After dinner, Huo Yuanhong digested for a while before entering the crude, cramped Practice Room on the second floor.

An old punching bag hung in the middle. Necessary protective measures had been arranged around it, along with yellowed boxing gloves, arm guards, and other protective gear.

This place for training had only been set up after his father scrimped and saved for two years to hire someone to arrange it.

Huo Yuanhong picked up the earthen jar in the corner and removed its seal.

"Whew!"

A pungent smell of Chinese herbs immediately rushed out.

These were medicinal pastes for internal use that his father had bought a few days ago. Together with the externally applied plasters, they could replenish the depletion of vitality caused by martial training and had some effect in strengthening the tendons and bones.

Huo Yuanhong scooped out some medicinal paste, mixed it with water, and drank it, then applied the external plaster.

Then he put on his gloves and arm guards, calmly stared at the punching bag before him, and assumed his stance.

He drove off the ground, twisted his waist, swung his arm, and threw a punch.

Bang!

The night was deep. A dull impact rang through the cramped Practice Room. The punching bag did not budge in the slightest; there was scarcely any visible change.

Baji Quan (Practicing Strength 21/100)

A line of words appeared before his eyes. This was the progress in fist arts he had attained through his previous solitary fumbling.

He was still a long way from stepping into Manifest Strength. It meant he had taken far too many detours over the years, and for most of that time, he had even trained himself further and further astray.

The four steps to mastering Manifest Strength—Strength Rising from the Root, Dominance of the Waist, Originating from the Spine, Forming in the Hands—he had not truly mastered even the first.

That was only normal. To truly learn martial arts thoroughly, one needed a master to guide them hand by hand.

But where did he have such conditions? In the past, he could only grope about in pitch darkness and train blindly by feel.

But at this moment, after throwing that punch, dense insights immediately surged into Huo Yuanhong's mind, as if he had continuously refined it hundreds of times in another time and space. In an instant, he realized its flaws and the deviations in his movements.

"The force is floating at the knees. The Tremor Stomp isn't powerful enough!"

The Tremor Stomp was a common movement in Baji Quan. It used the rebound force from the collision between the sole of the foot and the ground to enhance one's own power!

It corresponded to the first step of the Manifest Strength method of exerting force: Strength Rising from the Root, Dominance of the Waist, Originating from the Spine, Forming in the Hands—Strength Rising from the Root!

After absorbing the experience, Huo Yuanhong adjusted his posture. His toes gripped the ground tightly, like an old tree spreading its roots, lowering his center of gravity toward the Yongquan Acupoint on the soles of his feet.

Finding the feeling, he pushed off the ground with a Tremor Stomp, turned his hips and twisted his waist, then threw his second punch.

Bang!

This time, the punching bag swayed visibly. Its force was clearly much greater.

Baji Quan (Practicing Strength 22/100)

"My waist and hips are a little stiff. The force is getting stuck at the lumbar vertebrae, making it hard to transmit upward!"

Just as before, dense insights flooded his mind. After carefully experiencing them, Huo Yuanhong understood where the problem lay.

"Again!"

He adjusted his movements and punched once more!

Bang!

The instant his fist struck, the punching bag jolted violently, and faint fist marks appeared one after another.

Compared to the previous punch, this one was even stronger!

Baji Quan (Practicing Strength 23/100)

"Obvious improvement!"

This feeling was utterly different from his former blind groping in darkness, and Huo Yuanhong found himself becoming immersed in it.

Then came the fourth punch, the fifth, the sixth...

With every punch, tidal waves of insight surged through Huo Yuanhong's mind, as though he had instantly refined it three or four hundred times within his heart. He continuously adjusted his movements and the angles at which he exerted force.

As long as he digested those insights, his fist arts would improve by another notch!

"So this is the effect of Martial Path to Divinity. It's like a training multiplier—every punch brings results almost equal to throwing three or four hundred punches!"

"One part effort, three or four hundred parts return! Train for one day, and it's equivalent to training for a year!"

"More importantly, ordinary people inevitably make mistakes when practicing punches. Their skill advances and retreats; they might train for a year and not gain even two months' worth of results. There are even quite a few who train themselves into ruin... But I'm different!"

"My martial arts will never regress, never go wrong, and will always improve in the most correct direction, without end!"

"It may seem like the results of one year's training, but in truth it equals three years, five years, ten years, or even longer for ordinary people who keep advancing and retreating! And I can keep striding forward without end!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...

Punch after punch landed. The heavy punching bag that had initially been difficult to control began to vibrate and swing in rhythm beneath waves of fist force. Gradually, it became a toy between his fists and palms, swaying freely at his will.

It was as if he were not striking a punching bag weighing a full twenty pounds—

But a ball of cotton!

A ball of cotton he could knead however he pleased without the slightest effort!

The indented fist marks on the bag's surface grew deeper and deeper.

From less than half an inch at the beginning, they became a full inch deep later on, with nearly half his fist sinking into the punching bag!

As time passed, Huo Yuanhong could clearly feel a heavy force rising from the horse stance planted by his legs every time he punched, transmitting upward into his upper body with the twist of his waist.

Unlike the vague, half-right feeling of his former blind training, this sensation of his horse stance and waist linking together into a single whole was incomparably real.

"The power of waist and stance! I've already begun to initially integrate the power of my waist and stance!"

The unity of waist and stance was the integration of the strength in the waist and lower body—the horse stance. It was a necessary prerequisite for exerting Manifest Strength, ensuring that power could be transmitted from the soles of the feet through the waist and hips to the arms and the edge of the fist.

If the waist and stance were not integrated, exerting force would result in "broken force."

At this point, he had mastered the first two steps of Manifest Strength: Strength Rising from the Root and Dominance of the Waist!

As long as he completed the final two steps, Originating from the Spine and Forming in the Hands, he could integrate his strength into a single line and strike with Manifest Strength!

Baji Quan (Practicing Strength 51/100)

Train! Keep training!

The feeling of becoming stronger by a notch with every punch utterly enthralled Huo Yuanhong!

Not until the sound of roosters crowing rose outside did he finally come back to himself. His stomach was growling, and hunger made his vision blur.

He hurried into the kitchen, picked up a bowl of leftover rice, and shoveled it down in huge mouthfuls.

With his usual appetite, such a large bowl of rice would have filled him seven or eight tenths of the way.

But now, after wolfing down an entire bowl, he only felt four or five tenths full and was still hungry.

He mixed himself another bowl of fried flour tea and gulped it down. Only then did his stomach feel a little more substantial, though his body still carried a faint sense of hunger.

"My physical condition has improved, and so has my stomach's capacity!"

Martial arts experts who had achieved something in their training all had enormous appetites.

Back when Gentleman Sword stepped into Manifest Strength, he needed two bowls of Medicinal Cuisine for every meal.

At this moment, Huo Yuanhong's appetite had not yet reached the level Gentleman Sword possessed back then, but the gap between them had already shrunk greatly. He was far stronger than he had been last night!

Such astonishing changes in a single night were truly unbelievable.

"Huh? The external plaster has been absorbed already?"

Huo Yuanhong peeled off the plaster and discovered that the paste he had applied not long ago had faded from its dark brown color. This was a sign that its medicinal power had been completely absorbed.

One had to know that these plasters were not single-use. The immense medicinal power contained within them normally required at least a month of external application before it could gradually be fully absorbed.

Yet after training for just one night, he had absorbed it all!

And judging from its appearance, it had probably been fully absorbed long ago. He had simply been too engrossed in training to notice.

"Could it be that my Martial Path to Divinity talent can not only increase my fist-art progress by hundreds of times, but also increase my body's ability to absorb medicinal power by hundreds of times?"

Huo Yuanhong was somewhat shaken. If that were true, it meant that in a single day, he could achieve the effects others needed an entire year of internal and external medicine to attain!

If word of this got out, it would be utterly inconceivable!

"I ate so much and still feel hungry. Perhaps this hunger isn't hunger in my belly, but because the medicinal paste I took internally was digested long ago, and my vitality is insufficient?"

With that thought, Huo Yuanhong dug out the earthen jar containing the internal medicinal paste and directly swallowed a spoonful.

Before long, the faint hunger in his body receded considerably.

"Have some more."

He scooped out several more spoonfuls, eating what was roughly half a year's supply. Then he replaced the external plaster with a fresh one, and the hunger in his body vanished completely.

At that moment, Huo Yuanhong felt as if he had strength he could never exhaust. It was as though he had spent a full half-year taking medicine internally and externally, nourishing and training himself in tandem. When he clenched his hand, crackling sounds rang out.

"Just as I thought! My speed of digesting and absorbing medicinal power has truly increased by hundreds of times too!"

Huo Yuanhong's eyes lit up, full of delight.

On the martial path, one needed both training and nourishment. Practicing punches and tempering the body was training, while internal medicine and external application were nourishment. If nourishment could not keep up with training, one would train the body hollow.

But now, not only had his training speed increased by hundreds of times, his nourishment speed had increased by hundreds of times as well!

Hundreds of times the improvement in punch training combined with hundreds of times the speed of medicinal absorption—what a terrifying talent was that?

He looked again at the translucent panel showing his fist-art progress.

Baji Quan (Practicing Strength 62/100)

"Soon! Very soon!"

At this rate, today, he would truly step into Manifest Strength and become a genuine Martial Person!

And there were still twenty-nine days until the bout that would determine his fate!

"When the time comes, I'll represent the great lineages in battle. I won't let any lowborn wretch pass. If you dare appear before me, I guarantee I'll beat you to death."

Gentleman Sword's indifferent words from yesterday seemed to echo at his ears once more.

"Twenty-four years old. Two months ago, his Internal Force entered Dark Force from Manifest Strength, and he stepped into Dark Force. His practical combat ability is extremely strong..."

Recalling what he knew of Gentleman Sword and his strength, a savage fury lingered in Huo Yuanhong's heart.

At the bout twenty-nine days later, he would beat Gentleman Sword to death before every Martial Master in Jin Gate!

Considering Gentleman Sword's formidable combat ability, if he wanted to beat the other man to death, he had to first possess the strength of Minor Accomplishment in Dark Force, or even Great Accomplishment, before the bout began!

Just then, Huo Yuanhong heard laughter and conversation coming from the tiny living room, which was less than ten square meters.

"...In the blink of an eye, your A-Hong has grown so big!"

"Yes. Time spares no one. Before we know it, we're getting old..."

"I remember when A-Hong was only this tall. I took him to South Mountain Temple to burn incense..."

Judging from the voices, the speakers should be his neighbors from many years ago—Aunt Wu, Wu Xiaoxia, and her daughter Jiang Ting. They had once been on good terms with his family.

But unlike his family, Aunt Wu and the others had lived nearby back then only to conceal their identities and avoid disaster.

Later, when Jiang Ting was eleven or twelve, she was going to the Western Lands to study, and Aunt Wu went with her. There had been no news of them ever since.

The two families had not met for six or seven years.

After listening for a while, Huo Yuanhong understood.

It turned out Aunt Wu's Lineage had recently settled down, and Jiang Ting had also been admitted to Jin Gate's Women's Normal School. That was why they had returned to Jin Gate and stopped by to catch up.

Women's Normal School!

Huo Yuanhong's gaze shifted slightly.

As a modern-style academy, the vast Celestial Empire had only three Women's Normal Schools, all directly administered by the Imperial Academy, and each enrolled only around a hundred new students every year.

Those who could gain admission were talented women in the eyes of the world, and they were often of noble birth—not people ordinary folk could come into contact with.

And from his father's tone, it seemed he was deliberately trying to match Huo Yuanhong with Jiang Ting!

Though the two of them were worlds apart in both learning and background, utterly mismatched in status.

In his father's eyes, however, his son had always been the best.

"A-Hong is up. Come, this is your Aunt Wu, and this is Tingting!"

When Huo Yuanhong pushed the door open and emerged, everyone in the living room looked over.

"Aunt Wu, Tingting."

Huo Yuanhong greeted them.

"It's A-Hong! Come, sit, sit!"

Seeing Huo Yuanhong after his training, full of vitality and spirit, Wu Xiaoxia's eyes lit up. The traces of perfunctoriness on her face instantly vanished without a trace, replaced by a warm smile.

Fist arts could change a person's vitality and bearing!

The former Huo Yuanhong had spent years doing bitter, exhausting labor and serving as a laborer. The air about him had gradually become ordinary, and when he walked, he hunched slightly like any common worker.

But after practicing punches through the entire night and gaining changes nearly equal to what half a year of shutting out all outside affairs and focusing wholeheartedly on fist training would bring, he now walked with a straight back and waist, bright eyes, and the distinctive masculine bearing of Baji Quan.

More importantly...

His fist arts had improved, his body had grown stronger, and naturally, the confidence in his heart had grown as well. From within, he radiated confidence!

This sort of bearing was the most attractive of all. Even standing among a crowd, he would rise like a crane among chickens!

Wu Xiaoxia had initially been very unwilling regarding Father Huo's deliberate matchmaking. It was only because of their old friendship, making it difficult for her to refuse outright, that she reluctantly agreed to let the two youngsters get to know each other.

Yet the instant she saw Huo Yuanhong now, she was drawn in by that confidence radiating from within!