Early the next morning, before dawn had even broken, Zhao Ping'an opened his eyes right on time.
After dawdling for a while, he got up and began washing up.
This was a good time to mention what he ate every day.
As the saying went, "Poor scholars, rich martial artists." Those who practiced martial arts not only had much bigger appetites, but also needed to eat well.
As a personal disciple, Zhao Ping'an had nothing to complain about when it came to food. He was allotted two catties of First-Tier Demonic Beast Meat every day.
In this world, where Heavenly Qi was stored, there were not only many rare and precious plants; many wild beasts could also transform into Demonic Beasts. Their flesh, blood, sinews, and bones were like a potent tonic for humans.
Of course, hunting them was no easy feat. One careless move, and you could become a Demonic Beast's next meal.
Demonic Beasts were divided into nine tiers, from the first to the ninth. These corresponded to the human realms of Martial Warrior, Martial Artist, Innate Martial Master, Grandmaster, Great Grandmaster, and so on.
In other words, any Demonic Beast—even a chicken—had at least the combat strength of someone in the Warrior Realm. An ordinary person who ran into one would be doomed, with not a single chance of survival.
After eating First-Tier Demonic Beast Meat and resting through the night, Zhao Ping'an had fully recovered his energy and was feeling fine.
Once he had washed up, Zhao Ping'an went to the woods behind the house and did three sets of jumping jacks to warm up.
Only when the sun had just begun to peek over the horizon did he head to the dining hall, where he ate breakfast with his Master, Mistress, and fellow senior disciples.
In the Training Ground, Zhao Ping'an stood facing his Master, Zheng Hetong.
"Ping'an, are you ready?"
"Ready, Master!"
"Good! Then let's begin with the first set of movements—Monkey Step Technique!"
The Monkey Step Technique was the method used to practice the first three stages of the Body Tempering Art. It mainly involved learning how monkeys leaped about in order to train one's sinews.
The movements themselves weren't very difficult. What was hard was that every leap and bound stretched his sinews, and the resulting, tearing pain was no fun at all.
But to avoid drawing his Master's attention, Zhao Ping'an endured the pain and practiced for the entire morning.
He discovered that if he completed the Monkey Step Technique from beginning to end, his Body Tempering Art Training Progress would increase by one point.
Unfortunately, by the end of the whole morning, he had only managed to complete it once, thanks to a stroke of incredible luck.
Every attempt after that had fallen apart halfway through when his movements went out of form.
"Haah! Haah! Haah!..."
The sun blazed overhead as Zhao Ping'an panted heavily beneath its scorching rays.
"All right! That's enough for today! We'll continue tomorrow morning. Come to the Medicine Room after lunch!"
"Yes, Master..."
Zhao Ping'an answered listlessly. He was so exhausted he didn't even want to speak.
After forcing himself to eat lunch, Zhao Ping'an went to the Medicine Room next to his Master's study. Inside a large wooden tub, more than a hundred kinds of medicinal herbs were soaking. He didn't recognize a single one of them.
A fire burned beneath the tub, heating the medicinal liquid inside until it was scalding hot.
Of course, the fire wasn't directly beneath the wooden tub. A huge stone slab stood between them.
"Get in!"
Zheng Hetong pointed at the roiling, blackish-green liquid in the tub and ordered Zhao Ping'an.
"Master! Are you sure I'll be fine if I get in like this? Won't I get boiled alive?"
Looking at the liquid already boiling in the tub, Zhao Ping'an instinctively took a few steps back. The mountain was high above sea level, but boiling water still had to be at least ninety degrees.
If he jumped straight in, he'd end up as human meat soup.
"Of course not! It only looks that hot. The medicinal ingredients bring it down to the temperature of a hot spring—just a little warm! Get in, hurry up..."
Zheng Hetong assured him confidently, though a flicker of evasiveness crossed his eyes.
"All right, Master. I'm still young, so don't lie to me. Otherwise, you might never see me again!"
Zhao Ping'an still wasn't entirely convinced, so he checked once more.
"Enough talk... If you won't get in, don't blame me for making you!"
Zheng Hetong closed in and grabbed Zhao Ping'an in an instant. In just a few swift moves, he stripped him and tossed him into the tub.
"Aaaah!!! It's so hot! Master!!! Is this what you call a little warm? This is a whole lot more than a little!!!"
His agonized shriek rang out from inside the tub. The people hiding outside the room all covered their mouths and burst into laughter.
They had all gone through the same thing back in the day, though the Third Senior Sister had been thrown in by Mistress.
Zhao Ping'an's screams stopped after only a little while.
Zheng Hetong hadn't lied to him. The water in the tub was only a little over sixty degrees. Once he'd gotten used to it, it wasn't so bad.
Before long, Zhao Ping'an felt streams of heat seep through the pores all over his body, nourishing his sinews and bones and easing his fatigue.
After soaking for a full hour, Zhao Ping'an was nearly asleep when his Master called him out.
That more or less brought the medicinal bath to an end.
Zheng Hetong patted Zhao Ping'an a few times and, after confirming that everything was fine, sent him back to rest.
Training the sinews and bones couldn't be rushed; it had to be done gradually. Forcing growth would only leave hidden problems behind.
So from then on, Zhao Ping'an trained only half a day. The rest of his routine consisted of eating, taking medicinal baths, and resting.
His appetite also began to grow day by day.
Of course, after returning to his room, Zhao Ping'an slept for only an hour before getting up and sneaking off to the clearing in the woods behind the house. There, he kept doing set after set of jumping jacks.
According to his Master, Zheng Hetong, he would need about two months to formally master the Monkey Step Technique—that was, to raise his cultivation to the first level of the Martial Disciple Realm.
By then, he would be able to practice on his own.
But he couldn't stop taking the medicinal baths. They had to continue until he broke through to the Martial Warrior Realm.
And so the days went by.
Zhao Ping'an was exhausted every day, like a dog, and collapsed into bed as soon as he got back.
At last, on the morning of the seventh day, as he finished his final jumping jack, streams of heat suddenly surged into the long sinews throughout his body, strengthening their resilience and durability.
He had finally broken through to the first level of the Martial Disciple Realm!
He had done it more than a month and a half ahead of his Master's prediction.
Zhao Ping'an had long since decided to hide his true progress, so he had no intention of telling anyone about his cultivation. And unless he said so himself, nobody would be able to tell what level he was at before he broke through to the Martial Artist Realm.
With the breakthrough, Zhao Ping'an found that his strength, stamina, and speed had all improved. His body's flexibility had increased as well.
He could now easily perform many movements that had been impossible for him before.
"The Game Panel really didn't lie to me!"
In high spirits, Zhao Ping'an looked at the cultivation requirements for the Body Tempering Art's second stage. They were exactly the same as when he had first started, and his fighting spirit blazed.
[Body Tempering Art (Unranked): 2/100 (First Stage, Simplified), 100 jumping jacks increase proficiency by one point]
That was how he had programmed it from the start. Once any cultivation technique had been simplified, its training method would never change again, from beginning to end.
In other words, the faster he practiced the Body Tempering Art, the faster he would get!
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