Joining II

Inside Qingfeng Temple.

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On the practice grounds behind the main hall.

Rows of teenagers dressed in gray short-sleeved martial arts outfits stood in neat lines, holding short wooden branches, waiting for the Daoist priest in front to teach them martial arts.

"I am Ming Xiu, the instructor responsible for teaching you all the basic sword techniques." The Daoist had a face as handsome as jade, but his burly physique created a strange, jarring contrast, like a scholar's head placed on a bear's body.

He wore a deep blue Daoist robe and held a slender iron sword in his hand; the blade was silver, bright, and delicate, looking quite expensive.

"Most of you come from poor families. You pay to learn martial arts here so that when you encounter danger, you can run faster than others. As everyone knows, when it comes to the martial arts of our Qingfeng Temple, in the entire Xinyu Town, speed is number one! This is the prerequisite for you coming here to learn."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the twenty-four youths before him. He lingered slightly, especially when his eyes passed over two newcomers in the corner.

One of them had a square face and a resolute gaze. The other had plain features and was completely unremarkable.

The latter was Lin Hui from the Lin Family, who had arrived a week ago.

During this past week, Lin Hui had not begun learning martial arts; instead, under the arrangements of Huishen, he had performed basic physical conditioning tasks, such as chopping wood, fetching water, and moving heavy objects.

After a week, Lin Hui clearly felt his stamina had improved significantly. Although his arms and legs were still sore, his spirit was much better.

He had been living in the communal dormitory during this time. Huishen had originally intended to arrange a private room for him, but Lin Hui had declined.

He did not intend to separate himself from the others or act uniquely, as that would be too conspicuous.

At this moment, he looked around at the others who had come to learn martial arts.

"Are there really so many people our age coming to learn martial arts?" he asked, somewhat surprised.

"Definitely. Who wouldn't want to learn how to run fast? Besides, it doesn't cost much," the youth with the resolute gaze replied casually.

His name was Chen Zhishen. The name made Lin Hui involuntarily think of Lu Zhishen, though his personality was the complete opposite of that character.

This guy had an extremely strong willpower. Because he lived in the same communal dormitory as Lin Hui and their mats were right next to each other, they had become familiar. That was how Lin Hui knew that this guy would get up to train before the sky was fully bright and the Mist had even cleared. Running, fetching water, chopping wood—he did it all.

He even helped Lin Hui with quite a bit of work. Seeing that the other boy's family was poor, Lin Hui secretly shared a third of his food with him. In any case, he had silver and dry rations provided by his family; his background was far better than the other boy's, so he didn't miss that little bit.

Through this back-and-forth, their relationship warmed up rapidly.

"But don't be fooled by how many people are here. Many only come once every few days, learn a bit, and go back to practice on their own. After all, they still have to work and earn money. There are only about ten people who, like us, stay here and train all day."

"This kind of lecture happens three times a day, with twenty-some people each time, totaling seventy or eighty people, yet only ten stay?" Lin Hui raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I've been here longer than you, so I see it clearly. There are only about ten. Exactly how many, I'm not sure—my arithmetic isn't great," Chen Zhishen replied in a low voice.

"Look at those three standing in the front."

Lin Hui looked over and saw that although those three were dressed like everyone else, the craftsmanship of their clothes was clearly much better in the subtle details.

The three consisted of two men and one woman. Judging by their skin, features, and hair quality, it was obvious their family backgrounds were quite good.

"Those three are the best at martial arts in the temple. The men are the senior brother Chen Sui and the second senior brother Zhao Jiang'an. The woman is the senior sister Mu Qiao Zhi. They are all direct descendants of top wealthy families in the nearby towns."

"Chen Sui comes from a distant branch of the Chen Family; you know how powerful the Chen Family is. Zhao Jiang'an's Zhao Family owns the largest trading firm in his Qimen Town. Senior Sister Mu Qiao Zhi's family is in the medicinal herb business; the supply for seven or eight surrounding towns depends on her family."

Chen Zhishen looked honest, but his ability to gather information left Lin Hui in the dust.

"Then why would they come here to learn..." Lin Hui didn't finish his sentence.

Qingfeng Temple was, after all, just a place for external martial arts. Compared to the Three Greats in the inner city, these people clearly had the strength to enter them, so why...

"Naturally, they were screened out," Chen Zhishen shook his head and lowered his voice. "I don't know the specifics for the other two, but I heard that Senior Sister Mu Qiao Zhi's aptitude was far too low. After being disappointed and not wanting to just drift through life inside, she decided to just learn some survival skills so she could run the family business and manage affairs in the future."

Lin Hui wanted to ask more, but at that moment, the instructor Ming Xiu jumped onto a wooden platform, looking down at everyone.

"The skills of our Qingfeng Temple aren't great for brawling, but when it comes to saving your own life, they are second to none. Today, I will teach you the basic sword technique of the temple, which is also the prerequisite and foundation for learning the Light Body Technique. It is called: Seven Section Fast Sword!"

"This sword technique mainly consists of seven moves. The sword moves require the coordination of your entire body's muscles for training; it is primarily used to temper the body and cannot be used in actual combat. Everyone, keep that in mind."

Following this, the instructor Ming Xiu began to explain and demonstrate the specific content of the Seven Section Fast Sword.

The crowd below listened with rapt attention, and Lin Hui and Chen Zhishen also focused their concentration. After all, having endured a week of hard labor, they naturally didn't want to miss the martial arts instruction they had finally waited for.

"...To be fast, the sword moves must rely primarily on footwork for power. Although you are holding a sword in your hand, your true focus must be on your feet. Running and exerting force is nothing more than pushing off with the balls of your feet and tightening your calves, while simultaneously swinging your sword to increase your own level of danger, thereby making the pursuer give up on you and choose other, easier prey..."

The instructor Ming Xiu explained it in great detail, and Lin Hui nodded repeatedly as he listened.

But he hadn't been listening for long.

Suddenly, a familiar soft sound echoed in his mind.

Hiss.

Blood Seal!

The Blood Seal had moved again.

But this time it was completely different from before; below Lin Hui's field of vision, a line of small text appeared out of thin air.

"Seven Section Fast Sword: Basic sword technique of Qingfeng Temple. After training to Great Completion, you can obtain the special effect--Light Body. Can evolve into 2 branches."

"1--Nine Section Fast Sword."

"2--Clear Sword Technique."

Both the Nine Section Fast Sword and the Clear Sword Technique were formal martial arts of Qingfeng Temple that Lin Hui had heard of. He hadn't expected that he could evolve them just from the Seven Section Fast Sword.

"This Blood Seal is truly heaven-defying. But what use is it if it just evolves things directly? Does it mean I can learn the skill immediately once it finishes evolving?"

Lin Hui shook his head inwardly.

He tapped on the evolution branch, and as expected, the required time was once again measured in years.

But suddenly, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind.

"Wait, since the evolution time is too long, why don't I just try finding something with a shorter evolution time?"

"The items I tried before all required years to evolve, but based on my observations, the smaller the object, the shorter the evolution time. If I look at it this way, if I continue to break things down further..."

Thinking of this, Lin Hui, who had been without a clue for so long, finally grasped a potential idea.

At this moment, his eyes were locked onto Ming Xiu on the stage, while he focused all his attention on imagining the first move of the Seven Section Fast Sword—Denggao Wangyuan.

Yes, that was his plan: to break the sword techniques down into individual moves and use the Blood Seal to evolve them.

Soon, after a minute, it happened just as he expected.

A new line of small, blood-red text appeared at the bottom of his vision.

"Seven Section Fast Sword, first form: Denggao Wangyuan. This move is the foundation of the Seven Section Fast Sword. Through repeated practice and mastery, you can quickly grasp the third move, Songtao Zhenzhen. Evolvable count: 1."

Lin Hui quickly tapped on the number for the evolution count.

"1—Denggao Wangshan."

Without pausing, he continued to tap on this Denggao Wangshan.

"Evolve Denggao Wangshan?"

"Required resources: one wooden sword, sixty days of reserved stamina."

"Required time: sixty days."

Only sixty days—it was actually feasible!

Lin Hui finally let out a sigh of relief; he knew he had seemingly finally found the correct way to activate the Blood Seal's ability.

"Evolve Denggao Wangshan?"

The Blood Seal's inquiry appeared once again.

"Yes!"

This time, Lin Hui did not hesitate at all and immediately chose yes.

Hiss.

Suddenly, the Blood Seal on the back of his hand flashed red, changing from a diamond shape into a circle.

Everything went quiet.

And just at that moment, Lin Hui felt a sudden numbness throughout his body, sensing that his stamina had vanished just a little bit.

It wasn't much, but it was very clear that his stamina had been swallowed by something.

By now, Ming Xiu on the stage had finished demonstrating all the sword moves and began signaling for the others to come up and ask questions.

After the questions ended, he walked off the stage and began to quickly adjust the disciples' sword-gripping postures and footwork one by one.

Lin Hui observed for a moment, confirming that the Blood Seal's absorption of his stamina had no negative impact on him, and only then did he focus his full attention on watching Ming Xiu's instructions to adjust his own posture.

He couldn't just rely on the Blood Seal; many things still required his own hard work, otherwise...

Following the sword technique instruction, life soon returned to its previous dull and repetitive routine.

In the blink of an eye, two weeks had passed since Lin Hui arrived at Qingfeng Temple.

He had successfully learned the Seven Section Fast Sword through Ming Xiu, but he had only swallowed the information whole; Lin Hui didn't understand many of the details at all.

Because everyone was practicing in the same place, he observed, evaluated, and compared himself to others, and based on his comprehension and memory of the sword moves:

Out of the sixty-some students at Qingfeng Temple, he was considered slightly below average.

It had taken him a full week of self-study to memorize the set of Seven Section Fast Sword, but among the students, some had memorized the entire set in just two days.

This was the pure gap in talent.

But it didn't matter. He wasn't afraid of having average talent; as long as he studied and practiced diligently, he could always make up for the gap.

Thus, Lin Hui began to increase his training volume every day alongside Chen Zhishen.

But...

"Junior Brother Lin, how is your grasp of the Seven Section Fast Sword coming along lately?"

In the evening, while Lin Hui was adding extra practice in the corner of the field, Huishen, who had been guiding him, appeared by his side, watching the hard-practicing Lin Hui with a smile.

"I've barely managed to memorize it. My aptitude isn't very good, so I can only rely on practicing more to make up for it," Lin Hui said, putting down the wooden stick in his hand with a helpless expression.

"Don't be in such a rush. Martial arts are never mastered in a single day. Your father is Steward Lin, after all; you won't necessarily need to use these agility skills often in the future," Huishen laughed.

"Senior Brother is right, but I just want to master it myself so I can feel at ease," Lin Hui shook his head, stretched his joints, and walked up to him.

"Why did you have time to come find me today, Senior Brother?"

"Your father sent a message. The Door-Breaking Ghost in the Outer City has been caught. He told you not to worry," Huishen said.

"The Door-Breaking Ghost was caught?" Lin Hui was stunned.

"Yeah. According to the official investigation notice, there wasn't actually any Door-Breaking Ghost. It was the secret guards of two major clans from the Inner City. They were searching all over the Outer City for the whereabouts of some treasure and ended up committing several tragedies. I told you before, we're close to the No Fog Zone; it's not that easy for a Door-Breaking Ghost to get in." The smile on Huishen's face faded.

"So, what was the outcome?" Lin Hui let out a sigh of relief and pressed for more.

"Outcome? What outcome?" Huishen was also taken aback.

"I mean, for those two major clans." Lin Hui added.

"They were warned, and they aren't allowed to continue like that anymore. They also paid some compensation to the victimized households." Huishen replied.

"Just that?" Lin Hui was dumbfounded.

"Yeah. What else were you expecting?" Huishen looked at him strangely.

"..." Lin Hui had originally thought these two major clans would face much harsher punishment, but in the end...

"Right, Uncle-Master Mingde asked me to come and ask you: have you ever eaten Wanfu Meat while growing up?" Huishen continued.

"No... why?" Lin Hui carefully recalled, confirming that he had never eaten it.

"Then don't ever eat it in the future. That stuff might have good effects, but it's addictive." Huishen lowered his voice.

"Addictive..." Lin Hui's heart skipped a beat.

"Yes, and if you eat too much, your brain gets affected, and you'll spend all day just thinking about finding the opposite sex to sleep with. Just be careful yourself." Huishen dropped those words, looked left and right, and walked away quickly.

Lin Hui was left alone, his heart pounding from the content of those words.

Wanfu Meat, to think it actually had such secrets?