After Yan San left, Li Qing continued practicing his stance in his own courtyard, spending the next several hours on this basic Stance Training.
Only when his body was truly exhausted and unbearably sleepy did he return to his room to rest.
When he woke again, Li Qing was startled awake by a knock at the door. He did not dare sleep too deeply; after only three knocks on the gate, he had opened his eyes.
Opening the courtyard gate, he saw Yan San carrying over a pile of iron ingots and a stone slab engraved with mysterious patterns.
"Hehe, Little Master Li, the Yan family agreed to your demands. They're willing to let you view one secret manual first. Once the farm tools are made, they'll send over two more!" Yan San said with a grin.
Clearly, the Yan family had agreed to this deal readily, and he had profited quite a bit from it as well.
Yet from the very moment Li Qing saw the stone slab, his eyes could barely pull themselves away from the mysterious patterns engraved upon it.
"May I ask what kind of martial art is engraved on this stone slab?" Li Qing asked calmly after shifting his gaze away.
"That Yan family steward said this martial art is called Light Silk Leg. It was once one of the signature techniques of the Light Silk Martial Hall in the city. This stone slab was personally engraved by their hall master!" Yan San introduced it, handing the slab to Li Qing before adding, "Of course, the Yan family will take this stone slab back afterward!"
Taking the heavy stone slab, Li Qing examined it carefully once more.
There truly was an indescribable charm to it. He could sense the inner aura within it; it did not seem fabricated.
"Fine, I'll accept the stone slab. I'm rather tired today, so you should head back first. Come collect the sickles in seven days." Li Qing nodded and spoke calmly.
"Alright! Little Master Li, I'll come by again in seven days!" Yan San did not linger. As he left, he even pulled Li Qing's courtyard gate shut for him.
Bam!
Once the gate had closed, Yan San's fawning expression immediately turned into one of contempt and disdain.
Only after walking some distance away did he mutter, "What an idiot. At a time like this, he actually passes up Black Rye Mushrooms to practice such useless junk. Does he really think he can make something of himself?"
Inside the courtyard, Li Qing, whose ears and eyes were keen, naturally heard that mocking remark.
He did not care in the slightest. If anything, he found it rather amusing.
Training in this martial art might indeed consume a great deal of time and yield little visible progress, but time was the one thing he did not lack!
He would quietly build himself up, then once his martial arts reached great mastery, kick every last one of them to death.
It's fine. Even if my aptitude is awful, practicing for ten years or eight should yield some results. If that still doesn't work, I'll forge a few more weapons!
Li Qing silently made this ruthless vow in his heart.
As his body was truly exhausted beyond endurance, Li Qing returned to his room and fell asleep again the moment his head hit the pillow.
He woke almost exactly on time. His years as a blacksmith's apprentice in the army had long taught him a little trick for keeping time in his mind. There was no chance he would oversleep.
Leaving the stone slab engraved with Light Silk Leg in the Eternal Night World, he brought some of the iron ingots and the "Ancient Profound Hammer Technique" back into his camp tent.
After returning, despite having slept a total of ten hours, he had expended considerable strength again and was now panting heavily from exhaustion.
He rolled out of bed, feeling aching pain throughout his entire body. His legs in particular trembled faintly even as he walked.
The aftereffects of stance training!
But exhausted as he was, Li Qing could indeed feel that his stamina had improved a little. When he stepped on the ground, he felt firmly rooted, as though his feet truly stood solidly upon the earth. This was the force-relaying method of Stance Training influencing him.
"Grrr~"
Having gone nearly a day without food, his stomach naturally began protesting.
"Ah, if not for time flowing three times faster there and the harsh living conditions, I really would have liked to stay in the Eternal Night World forever without coming out."
It was not as though he had never considered using the Eternal Night World to avoid disaster. When enemies came attacking, he could simply duck into the other world, and everything would have nothing to do with him.
The drawback of traveling between the two worlds, however, was that wherever he was before leaving was where he would return afterward!
The border fortress where the Wu Li Army was currently stationed was an important stronghold. A nearby iron mine lay close at hand, and men had to be stationed here at all times.
If this place were occupied by the enemy when he returned, things would become truly entertaining.
He might be seized as a spy and subjected to severe torture.
Of course, the most crucial issue was that the Eternal Night World lacked food. He had no confidence that he could support the appetite his martial arts training would bring there.
Famished, Li Qing walked out of his camp tent. Outside, dawn had only just begun to lighten the sky.
He still carried two food bowls and hurried to the Kitchen Hall. To his surprise, Fatty Wu was once again on duty this morning.
However, compared with last night, Wu Chong's face clearly carried an extra trace of worry.
"What's wrong, Fatty Wu?" Li Qing asked.
Then he saw the white steamed buns piled high as a small mountain on the stove, and his eyes practically glowed green. Starving beyond measure, he felt that he could eat ten or twenty buns in one go without a problem.
"The master who taught me to cook went to check on the Grain Transport Team's food yesterday afternoon. He was supposed to be back last night, but he still hasn't returned!" Wu Chong could never keep things bottled up, spilling everything to Li Qing in one breath.
Li Qing looked around. No one else was up yet. He grabbed two steamed buns and stuffed them into his mouth, asking indistinctly through the food, "Did anyone from the Wounded Soldiers' Camp come to collect food this morning?"
Wu Chong shook his head, then stared in astonishment at Li Qing as he kept stuffing buns into his mouth. "Were you a starving ghost in your past life? How did you get this hungry? Didn't I serve you so much food yesterday?"
Naturally, Li Qing could not tell Fatty Wu that he had spent an entire day practicing stances in another world without eating.
He filled both of his food bowls with food, patted Fatty Wu on the shoulder, and hurriedly left the Kitchen Hall.
The border fortress was truly about to descend into chaos. If his guess was correct, the Grain Transport Team had very likely been robbed by bandits.
Someone had delivered food from the Wounded Soldiers' Camp last night, but no one had come this morning. Those several severely injured men who had returned yesterday afternoon were most likely more likely to be bad than good.
Still, the fact that they had held on for so long was beyond Li Qing's expectations. They were probably martial artists as well, protected by martial skills. If they had been ordinary people, they would have died on the spot.
The bandits at the border fortress all came from nomadic tribes on the eastern grasslands, which bordered both the Feng Kingdom and the Liang Kingdom.
It was only midsummer now, with winter still far away. For them to raid grain supplies so openly and even shoot soldiers dead was truly unusual.
They were forging a blood feud to the death! It looked as though they could not wait for the Feng Kingdom to send troops to attack and wipe them out.
But would bandits so easily court death? Naturally not. They were not idiots; offending the Feng Kingdom like this brought them no benefit.
Unless the bandits had colluded with the Liang Kingdom.
The quick-thinking mind honed in modern times made Li Qing consider many things, but he believed that whatever he could think of, the upper ranks of the Wu Li Army could not possibly fail to consider.
What happened next would depend on the court's attitude.
"Ah, I only wanted to quietly forge iron and build myself up some more. Why is that so difficult?"