Qi and Blood

There were very few people at Changfeng Martial Hall.

Aside from a few staff members, there were six people training and three practicing martial arts.

More than a dozen people occupied a total area of three thousand square meters, making the place seem rather deserted.

Of course, that might have been because it had only just opened.

Shanhu seemed to see what Li Pin was thinking and raised her brows slightly. "Ever since my master embraced qi into dan, many of his business friends and relatives wanted to send their children to train under him. Many of them are people of no small standing, and Master couldn't easily refuse them, so he simply opened this Changfeng Martial Hall."

She added, "The purpose of Changfeng Martial Hall is, on one hand, to give those people a common place to practice martial arts. On the other, when Master's friends come by wanting to exchange a few moves, there is also a venue for that. Opening the hall and teaching students is merely incidental; we only admit the best."

Fang Yubai looked somewhat awkward as he listened.

He could not help feeling that Shanhu's words carried a hidden barb.

"These are the coaches?"

Li Pin asked.

"Yes."

Shanhu nodded. "My two senior brothers, Xu Huan and Zhang Le, both have martial artist qualification certificates and work part-time as coaches alongside their training. In addition, we have hired five Trained Strength Martial Artists. Among them, Martial Artist Yang Danqing holds a Level Three professional qualification certificate and an Intermediate Title certified by the association."

"What a gathering of talent."

Li Pin praised sincerely.

At his peak in his previous life, when he came to this world, he could only have earned an Intermediate Title.

He became even more eager to see just how captivating the martial path of this world could be.

Shanhu came to a patch of dark green rolled rubber flooring and stopped.

Looking at Li Pin, she extended a hand and curled her fingers. "Come."

At one meter seventy-three, she was no shorter than a man, heroic and valiant.

Li Pin wanted to witness the Dan Jin of a Dan Jin Master, but they were neither family nor friends. Why would she demonstrate it for him?

Unless he himself was worth investing in.

At once, strength surged beneath his feet. He had clearly taken only one step, yet he skimmed more than two meters forward.

Without any preparatory swing, his upper body unmoving, he could propel himself two point three meters with the force of one foot. The sight made Fang Lingjue, who had remained silent until now, raise his brows slightly in surprise.

"Not bad."

He offered a brief assessment.

Seeing people spar, the other idle coaches also gathered around to watch the excitement.

"Please."

Li Pin made a courteous gesture.

"Please."

Shanhu answered, raising her hand to strike.

She showed not the slightest hint of the courtesy expected from a host.

Li Pin countered each move as it came, experiencing the differences between this world's martial arts and those he understood.

Shanhu was probably one or two years younger than him, yet her fistwork, footwork, and responses were all as natural as breathing.

Only...

She lacked a measure of ferocity.

Almost the instant that thought formed in his mind, Shanhu, having just completed a round of crossing exchanges with him, suddenly erupted.

Strength surged beneath her feet, and her body sprang forward with the nimbleness of an ape.

In that single movement, the strength of her toes, calves, thighs, waist, and shoulders merged into one line. More than ninety percent of her body's power was mobilized and condensed into that pounce.

Before the watching Fang Yubai could see clearly, she had crossed the four-meter gap between them. Her fingers became a palm as she struck toward Li Pin's chest.

Smack.

Li Pin had glanced at her shoulder the instant she exerted force. As she lunged before him, he sidestepped and seized with his right hand, accurately clamping down on her wrist.

Just as he was about to exert force through his arm and fling her away, Shanhu's wrist shook violently, wrenching itself free from Li Pin's grasp.

Riding the momentum of her lunge as she was about to pass him, she twisted at the waist and suddenly flung her body around. Her long right leg reversed one hundred and eighty degrees and swept high, like a battle axe swung sideways, chopping down at his head.

The power in the legs far exceeded that of the arms by more than a little.

Especially since, during their earlier contact, Li Pin had keenly noticed that the strength of this body...

Seemed inferior to Shanhu's!

Inferior to a woman's!

Therefore, when faced with that battle-axe-like descending kick, Li Pin advanced instead of retreating.

Strength burst beneath his feet.

At the inconceivable instant when the explosive force of Shanhu's downward strike was about to reach its peak, he slammed forward. His shoulder struck first against her thigh, while his right hand followed the charge with a fierce shove...

Even without releasing his strength, Li Pin still sent Shanhu's sixty-plus-kilogram body flying three or four meters.

Yet Shanhu, sent flying, did not crash to the ground. Instead, she twisted in midair and flipped once, dissipating the pushing force. After her right foot touched down, she tapped it against the floor and took three quick steps back to bleed off the momentum, steadying herself once more.

"You let me win."

Li Pin said calmly.

"It's not over yet. Again."

Shanhu was somewhat unwilling to concede and was about to step forward again.

"That's enough."

At that moment, Fang Lingjue spoke, stopping Shanhu from acting on impulse. "You were only testing hands with Li Pin so I could get a sense of his strength. It wasn't a matter of having to determine who was superior."

After saying that, he looked at Li Pin with scrutiny in his eyes. "You've had real combat experience?"

"After graduating middle school, I thought I had achieved something in my training. Skilled and bold, I went into the deep mountains and fought a lone wolf."

Li Pin said.

Fang Lingjue smiled when he heard that. It was impossible to tell whether he believed it, but he did not press further. He only said, "It looks like you truly stopped training for a long time. Otherwise, with your skill and technique in exerting force, your physique could not possibly be so ordinary."

Li Pin nodded.

This body had only trained for half a month.

At present, it was merely a little better than an ordinary person's.

"Come, test your physique and qi and blood."

As Fang Lingjue spoke, he took out a watch-like device and tossed it over. "Physique and qi and blood are the foundation of a martial artist! No matter how deep your understanding and application of force may be, it cannot compare to the crushing advantage brought by qi and blood and physique. Why can't Gang Jin grandmasters defeat Star Refiners who have never mastered force? Why do even Divine Strength Martial Saints dare not clash head-on with a newly initiated Star Refiner? Because their qi and blood easily break a hundred. There's no fighting that."

"A Qi and Blood Detector?"

Li Pin looked at the watch-like instrument.

Martial arts flourished in this world, and related industries and products emerged one after another.

Worn on the body, this device could detect one's physical strength when one unleashed fistwork or footwork that stirred the qi and blood throughout the entire body to its utmost.

A necessity for martial artists.

Depending on the manufacturer, even the cheapest cost more than a million.

That was enough to buy two homes in Canglong City.

He put on the device, but did not perform any fistwork.

Instead, he took a deep breath.

As he inhaled, his internal organs seemed to tremble faintly in unison, producing a wave of low-frequency sound that human ears could barely perceive.

The sight immediately made Fang Lingjue reveal an astonished expression.

"Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound!? Your force has transformed from bright to hidden!?"

Shanhu, who had been unwilling to accept the result, was also slightly stunned, and the resentment in her eyes eased somewhat.

Several dozen seconds later, Li Pin stopped the resonance of his internal organs.

After the device's numbers fluctuated for a while, they finally settled on 16.

"Sixteen. Xinghui's Qi and Blood Detector only has a fluctuation range of one to three points. It seems you really neglected your training for far too long. Otherwise, having reached the realm where your force transformed from bright to hidden, you should not possibly have such a number."

Fang Lingjue said.

Li Pin had learned about the divisions in qi and blood strength in this world.

An ordinary person's qi and blood physique ranged from 10 to 20.

Trained Strength Martial Artists could reach 20 to 30. Those masters and grandmasters who embraced qi into dan, or even exhaled qi into gang, often surpassed 30 points.

As for above 40, those were all people endowed with extraordinary talent.

The highest record a martial artist could achieve was 49 points, measured from a Central Dynasty Dan Jin Master who stood two meters thirty tall and possessed inborn divine strength.

Though he was a Dan Jin Master, relying on his powerful qi and blood physique alone, he might be able to beat a Martial Saint to death alive.

"I am indeed rusty."

Li Pin handed the detector back.

"You heard what Shanhu said earlier. I founded Changfeng Martial Hall mainly to deal with relatives and friends stuffing people into my care. I will not interfere in matters concerning the students."

Fang Lingjue spoke bluntly. "I intend to push forward on the road of cultivation and see the sights of Gang Jin, or even Divine Strength Martial Saints. I do not have that much time to teach disciples. And you are no beginner. With your comprehension and application of force, I'm afraid even Yang Danqing cannot teach you much. Once you replenish your qi and blood, entering An Jin will hardly be difficult."

Fang Yubai opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but he truly could not be generous with another's resources, so he could only fall silent.

"However, although I have no time to teach disciples, I will still come to Changfeng Martial Hall from time to time to sit around and exchange pointers with everyone. Therefore, I have a suggestion. You may as well hear it."

"Please go ahead."

"I want to hire you as a coach at Changfeng Martial Hall. The monthly salary is six thousand, with food and lodging included. Once you obtain your assistant martial artist qualification certificate, I'll raise it to ten thousand."

Fang Lingjue said, "There will not be many people at Changfeng Martial Hall. Those people forced here by their elders to learn martial arts will probably see more than half leave within a year or so. The work will not be too busy. In addition, if you have any questions regarding Hua Jin or Dan Jin, you may ask me. I will answer them to the best of my ability. What do you think?"

Six thousand.

Taibai's currency was rather valuable now.

Six thousand was equivalent to eighteen thousand on Blue Star.

That salary was the basic standard for a Trained Strength Martial Artist.

But with the opportunity to seek guidance from a Dan Jin Master added in, its nature became entirely different.

Li Pin was already in his third year and did not intend to waste more time at Hanyang University. Having revealed the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound Technique just now, he had already been considering applying for the position.

Fang Lingjue should have seen through that, which was why he had taken the initiative to make the offer.

"Alright."

Li Pin nodded decisively. "Master Fang, I'll be troubling you from here on."

"Hahaha, once you replenish your qi and blood and transform your force from bright to hidden, at your age, you'll become a living signboard for Changfeng Martial Hall."

Fang Lingjue laughed and extended his hand. "Welcome aboard."