Huaiyin Martial Academy.
The youths swung their broad arms, cleaving waves and breaking swells. Transparent droplets flew from their fingertips, racing from the center of the lake toward shore like white flying fish.
On the Martial Arts Field, banners snapped in the wind.
The rhythmic exhalations gradually ceased. The young men sparring clasped their hands and stopped. With no more leg winds, the fine yellow dust drifted and spun, half falling, half floating. The martial apprentices successively halted their Stance Training, gathering noisily in the middle of the field. They looked up at the sky and pointed.
"Is that Master Liang?"
"Dragon Blood Horses—there are fewer than a hundred in all of Pingyang Prefecture, and only one that can fly. It has to be!"
"Hey, Xing Lai! Is that Master Liang up there?"
Everyone turned to look at Fan Xinglai, who emerged from the shadows of the Martial Arts School.
Fan Xinglai raised a hand against the sun, glanced upward, and gave a slight nod.
An uproar broke out. Fan Xinglai was an absolute authority.
He had personally confirmed it.
There could be no mistake! "Earl Xingyi! It really is Earl Xingyi!"
"Earl Xingyi is here!"
A half-shrill, half-rough voice in the midst of puberty let out a howl that directly called out the boys soaking in Medicinal Baths in the backyard. Wrapped in cotton bathrobes, they hurried outside, making the already dark mass of people on the Martial Arts Field even more crowded.
The academy apprentices were both shocked and delighted.
At the end of summer, Earl Xingyi had advanced to Grandmaster, and the imperial court had held a Grand Feast for the World. Liang Qu had thoroughly become a legend of the Jianghuai region! Martial arts foundations had once been much the same everywhere. Some students learned half