Training Resilience, Emptiness and Fullness

[Basic Achievement—Deep Sleep (2/7)]

The next morning, the moment Qin Shi opened his eyes, lines of text flickered past and swiftly sank into the depths of his consciousness.

Within the black-bordered Monument Panel, the flesh-and-blood embryo that resembled a sprouting seed seemed to have grown larger and sturdier.

[Anchor: Qin Shi]

[Growth Stage: Embryo]

[Progress: 0.008%]

[Monuments: 2]

"Although the progress hasn't moved, the improvement feels significant. Besides, the Growth Value has been accumulating all along. There shouldn't be anything wrong with what Old Liang taught me!"

After a night of Deep Sleep, Qin Shi was full of energy. The fatigue from yesterday's training had been swept away instead of building up inside his body.

"Xie Yucheng said that after Muscle Twisting for the first time, your muscles would ache so badly that you couldn't even crawl out of bed the next day... Old Liang put me through such intense training because he probably thought this body of mine couldn't take it. Once I suffered enough, I'd back down."

Qin Shi quickly washed up. His youngest sister, Qin Lan, had already gone out early, leaving a bowl of rice soaked in water and a pot of hot water on the table.

He filled two small dishes with pickles from the sauce jar in the corner of the room, then poured hot water into the covered bowl of rice and ate it with the pickles.

Only after wolfing down two large bowls did his growling stomach feel five or six parts full.

Back when his family's circumstances had been worse, they often made do with meals like this.

"Training really burns a lot. Two bowls used to be enough, but I'm still hungry now. My stomach feels completely empty."

Qin Shi could not help missing the school cafeteria's Nutritional Meals. The synthetic food tasted awful enough to make him nauseous.

But they were packed with energy, definitely enough to support the demands of training.

He tossed the bowls and chopsticks into a plastic basin filled with water, planning to wash them when he returned. After tightly shutting the doors and windows, he jogged toward No. 9 Vocational Middle School.

"I don't know how much my Life Force has improved for now, but after Old Liang twisted my muscles, they really have become firmer and stronger."

Qin Shi quietly calculated in his heart. A journey that had previously taken half an hour took him just over twenty minutes this time.

And he felt relaxed, without sweating buckets or gasping for breath.

"The enhancement Muscle Twisting brings to physical fitness is obvious to the naked eye."

Qin Shi steadied his breathing a little, then bought several large meat buns from a breakfast shop near Ninth High School and stuffed them into his stomach.

Only when he saw a familiar figure slowly entering the guard booth did he wipe his mouth and cross the road.

"Hey, kid, why are you here again?"

The old guard froze.

"Someone had to carry you home yesterday, and you still haven't given up? You just had to come suffer under Old Liang again?"

Qin Shi smiled obediently.

"What student runs away after just one lesson? I've always been an excellent student since I was little. I've never failed anything."

The old guard looked at Qin Shi, who seemed so well-behaved and sensible, like his own eldest grandson, and sighed.

"Old Liang running a tutoring class and taking students was already against the rules. What's more, you aren't even from our Ninth High School..."

Qin Shi took out the pack of hard-case Liming Cigarettes and slipped it through the little window of the guard booth.

"I really want to learn from Teacher Liang and build up my foundation. I want to improve so badly. Please make an exception for me."

The old guard's eyelids twitched. Helplessly, he said, "Ah, it's not like I'm deliberately making things difficult for a kid like you. Fine, fine. I'm old, my eyes are bad, and I didn't see anything.

Remember to enter through the back gate. Don't use the front gate."

Qin Shi nodded vigorously, thinking that Eldest Sister had been absolutely right. There was no small problem in the world that a pack of cigarettes could not solve!

If one pack was not enough, then two packs!

"You... why are you here?"

Teacher Liang was instantly dumbfounded when he saw the lively Qin Shi.

"Didn't you tell me to learn from you for two days and attend two lessons?"

Qin Shi looked utterly sincere as he tried hard to suppress the upward curve of his lips.

No matter how thoroughly Old Liang planned, he could never beat someone with cheats!

"You can walk?"

Teacher Liang was extremely surprised.

"I ran here."

Qin Shi answered truthfully.

"This... makes no sense!"

I must have drunk myself stupid and still haven't sobered up!

Teacher Liang thought.

Even if Qin Shi attended New No. 1 Middle School in the Metropolitan Area, and his Life Force development was a notch stronger than that of Ninth High School students from Old Factory Street,

he still should not have been able to withstand the brutally rough test of Muscle Twisting!

"Did you get injections or take medicine?"

Teacher Liang gave him a suspicious look.

In recent years, a "technology craze" had emerged in the Metropolitan Area. Whenever people faced a problem, they popped supplements first; when their strength was lacking, they frantically injected banned drugs.

Admittedly, this method could allow ordinary people to achieve a huge leap in overall physical ability in a short period.

It improved everything, from body shape to muscles!

But the price it demanded was even greater than Old Martial Arts training.

Cardiovascular blockages and premature organ failure were nothing more than minor issues.

Some reckless lunatics who blindly took massive doses through injections even suffered physical mutations, transforming into inhuman creatures.

Qin Shi tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Do I look like the kind of person who has money?"

Teacher Liang was speechless. This kid had even needed to secretly hide his registration fee in his underwear. The poverty radiating from every inch of him was impossible to conceal.

"Come here. Raise your arm and let me feel."

He reached out, gripped Qin Shi's shoulder, and secretly kneaded it with force.

A moment later, the surprise in his eyes deepened.

"After such intense Muscle Twisting yesterday, he hasn't accumulated even the slightest muscle fatigue. No wonder he isn't sore... This kid is really built to train!"

On the open ground beside the athletic field, Xie Yucheng stopped warming up.

"Damn, how does this guy look completely fine? Old Liang worked him over so hard, and he can still get out of bed?"

Li Yuan was stretching his legs nearby. He glanced at the delicate and refined-looking Qin Shi.

"His build doesn't look tough either. Old Liang must have gone easy on him!

If someone could still be full of energy after twenty minutes of Muscle Twisting, what kind of legendary training monster would that be?"

Xie Yucheng scratched his head. After taking Qin Shi home, he had specifically asked around and learned that this guy attended New No. 1 Middle School in the Metropolitan Area.

He was a fairly famous example of a "good student" and "well-behaved kid" on Old Factory Street.

"Hard to say. He doesn't attend Cadre School. Brother Ze said that rich kids from the Metropolitan Area start soaking in training centers during middle school. Some are already ranked at eleven or twelve."

Li Yuan stood up and spat on the ground, his face openly turning cold.

"Bullshit Metropolitan Area. If Dangyang hadn't been feeding it resources, could it have developed so quickly? Does it really think it's some lord from the Imperial Capital?"

Xie Yucheng grinned, taking it in stride.

"Brother Yuan, weren't you paying attention in class? Eastern Xia's development policy for new administrative stars has always been to concentrate resources on building large Metropolitan Areas around central cities, which bear the task of providing support.

The surrounding regions are the suppliers. Uh, it's called local support—those who get rich first help those who get rich later."

Li Yuan seemed full of resentment and could not help cursing.

"Tai'an Metropolitan Area was built by draining Dangyang District dry, but what happened? Over all these years, when have any of those aid programs ever included our Old Factory Street?"

"Ahem, who knows how Old Liang will train this guy today."

Xie Yucheng changed the subject.

Brother Yuan had once come from a standard worker's family. His father had worked in an arms factory assembly workshop, while his mother had been a female worker at a cotton textile mill.

Later, they had been hit by that wave of layoffs. In an instant, both pillars of the family were gone, and the household had fallen into ruin.

That was why he harbored such deep resentment toward Tai'an Metropolitan Area.

Li Yuan curled his lip.

"Muscle Twisting is only a test. Grasping Qi Sensation is the real challenge.

Without that step, he won't even be able to see the threshold of Old Martial Arts!"

"Not bad, not bad. It seems your 'tendons' are very sturdy. You have the physique suited for Old Martial Arts."

Beside the athletic field, Teacher Liang gave rare praise.

"Fine, I'll teach you another lesson today!

Life Force is an ethereal thing. It Cannot See and cannot be touched. This is called 'emptiness.'

The human body is the root that nurtures bloodlines and forms limbs. This is called 'fullness.'

The secret behind Old Martial Arts developing Life Force lies in Nourish Void with Substance."

Qin Shi listened until he wanted to scratch his head. No wonder Eastern Xia promoted New Martial Arts. With these long-winded, literary explanations, anyone would be left dizzy. How could they possibly understand what it really meant?

So he asked seriously, "Teacher Liang, what does Nourish Void with Substance mean?"