Diligent Training

After the snow, the skies had cleared, but the cold wind was still biting. Li Bufan stood before the side gate of Lin Manor, grander by far than the back door of Huichun Hall. He took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement and unease in his heart. He still wore that washed-out coarse cloth outfit, but it had been scrubbed clean, and his hair had been carefully combed. His entire bearing carried a steadiness beyond his years.

Just as the hour of the dragon arrived, the side gate creaked open. A sharp-eyed young man in a gray fitted uniform leaned out and swept Li Bufan with a piercing gaze. "You're Li Bufan? Nanny Wu gave orders. Come with me."

"Thank you, big brother." Li Bufan cupped his hands and followed closely behind.

The moment he stepped through the side gate of Lin Manor, it was as though he had entered another world. Within the high walls stood pavilions, towers, carved beams, and painted rafters. Though this was merely a corner of a side courtyard, its spaciousness and refinement had already far exceeded Li Bufan's imagination. The air held a solemn, taut atmosphere, utterly different from the medicinal fragrance of Huichun Hall.

After passing through several corridors, they arrived at an exceptionally spacious martial training ground. The ground was paved with Blue Stone slabs and swept spotless. Stone locks, wooden posts, weapon racks, and other equipment stood around its edges. Dozens of youths were already training there, most between fifteen or sixteen and twenty years old. All wore identical gray fitted uniforms, backs ramrod straight, practicing basic fist and kick techniques with meticulous precision under the command of a stern-faced coach. Their shouts rang without end, and the air was thick with sweat and vigorous Blood Qi.

Li Bufan's arrival caused a subtle stir. Quite a few gazes fell upon his shabby clothes, carrying curiosity, scrutiny, and even traces of barely perceptible contempt.

The young man led Li Bufan to a burly middle-aged man in black fitted clothes. His temples bulged high, and his eyes flashed like lightning. The young man respectfully said, "Coach Qin, I brought him. This is the boy Nanny Wu recommended."

Coach Qin's gaze settled on Li Bufan as tangibly as substance, inspecting him from head to toe as though he wished to see straight through him. An invisible pressure descended, making Li Bufan's breathing hitch slightly.

"What is your name? What have you practiced before?" Coach Qin's voice was low and powerful, with the texture of metal.

"This junior is Li Bufan. I practiced a body-nourishing fist technique on my own." Li Bufan steadied himself and answered respectfully.

"Oh? Show me." Coach Qin seemed mildly interested as he folded his arms.

Li Bufan did not dare slacken. He walked to an open patch nearby, focused his mind, calmed his breath, and performed the Nameless Fist Technique once more. This time, he knew it was a crucial moment, so he poured his whole mind into it. The strand of Blood Qi Power within him, nearly at completion, surged along with his movements. His fist wind was even sharper than it had been the night before, and his shifting footwork carried an added hint of smooth completeness.

After finishing the set, sweat beaded on his forehead, but his breathing remained fairly steady.

[Nameless Fist Technique] Proficient (990/1000)

Many of the youths training in the field slowed their movements and stared over in surprise. They could all tell that Li Bufan's fist technique was no ordinary farmer's routine. He had already entered the hall, attaining no small degree of mastery.

A flicker of surprise flashed through Coach Qin's eyes, and he nodded slightly. "To explore on your own and train an incomplete fist technique to the verge of the realm where practice makes perfect, even nurturing a strand of Blood Qi... though it is weak and impure, that is still rare. It seems you have put in hard work."

He paused, his tone remaining cold and hard. "Since Nanny Wu recommended you, I'll give you a chance. My Lin Family Guards do not take in trash. The beginning of martial arts lies in Body Nourishment. As the name implies, temper your muscles and Bones, nurture Blood Qi, and make the body strong enough to far surpass ordinary people. You are currently at the end of this stage. Your Blood Qi has just been born, yet you have failed to purify and strengthen it, much less use it to nourish your flesh in return."

Li Bufan pricked up his ears, afraid of missing even a single word. This was true martial knowledge!

"Once Body Nourishment reaches completion and Blood Qi arises naturally, you may attempt Skin Tempering!" Coach Qin's voice boomed like a great bell, making everyone's eardrums buzz. "The skin is the surface of the human body, its first line of defense. The Skin Tempering Realm uses Blood Qi to repeatedly wash and temper the skin and membranes, making them exceptionally tough. Ordinary fists, kicks, and clubs will struggle to injure you, while blades and swords will have most of their force weakened! At Grand Completion of Skin Refining, the skin takes on the color of ancient bronze and is tough as oxhide!"

Before his words had even faded, he suddenly brought two fingers together like a blade and slashed lightning-fast at a hard wooden post half a man tall beside him!

Rip!

A tooth-aching sound rang out. A mark nearly half an inch deep had been carved straight into the hardwood post, yet Coach Qin's fingers were entirely unharmed—not even the skin had broken!

Li Bufan sucked in a sharp breath, dazzling light erupting in his eyes. This was the power of martial arts! Far stronger than he had ever imagined!

The surrounding youths wore expressions of reverence and longing.

"After Skin Tempering comes Muscle Tempering!" Coach Qin continued. "Temper the muscles throughout the body until they coil like dragons. Explosive strength and endurance will multiply, and every gesture will carry hundreds, even nearly a thousand jin of force! At Major Muscle Tempering, the muscles become full and swollen, Blood Qi fills them to the brim, and one gains the strength to bear a cauldron!"

"After that comes Tendon Tempering! Tendons are like bowstrings, linking Bones and muscles, the key to exerting force. In the Tendon Tempering Realm, one stretches the great tendons and makes them tough and long, able to extend and contract freely. Explosive speed rises sharply, and one can better mobilize the strength of the entire body, twisting it into a single rope! At Muscle Tempering Great Accomplishment, the body is like a powerful bow, moving like a startled hare!"

"After that comes Bone Tempering! The skeleton supports the human body and is the root of strength. Blood Qi permeates the marrow and tempers the Bones, making them hard as iron and stone, able to bear greater force and weight! At Bone Tempering Great Accomplishment, the Bones are tough, resistance to strikes is extraordinary, and Blood Qi nourishes the body through the skeleton, giving one a deep foundation!"

"Finally, Blood Tempering!" Coach Qin's voice suddenly rose, carrying a trace of solemnity. "This is the final of the Five Foundation Barriers, and also the most crucial! Blood is the vessel through which Blood Qi flows. Temper the blood, cast away dross and preserve essence, until it becomes thick as mercury and contains vast energy. The efficiency of circulating Blood Qi will greatly increase, nourishing the entire body and remaking one from the marrow outward! At Blood Tempering Great Accomplishment, Blood Qi rises from the body like wolf smoke, energy becomes inexhaustible, a hundred illnesses cannot invade, and one's lifespan will also grow! Only once the Five Foundation Barriers are complete does one qualify to glimpse higher realms!"

Those words were like pushing open a brand-new gate before Li Bufan. Beyond it lay a vast and magnificent world where strength reigned supreme! Body Nourishment, Skin Tempering, Muscle Tempering, Tendon Tempering, Bone Tempering, Blood Tempering! This was the complete path at the beginning of martial arts!

His so-called "Proficient" realm had merely brushed against the edge of the Body Nourishment stage. He had not even truly crossed the threshold!

An intense desire burned in his heart like fire.

Seeing the blazing light in his eyes, Coach Qin said coldly, "It sounds simple, but training is fraught with a thousand difficulties and ten thousand hardships. It requires great perseverance, great resolve, and even more resources! Without enough meat and Medicinal Cuisine to replenish one's essence and vitality, without Medicinal Baths to temper the body, without a famous teacher to point out the secrets, blindly training will only ruin your body and leave you hopeless for life!"

He pointed at the youths in the field. "They are all household-born servants of the manor or promising seedlings selected from various places. They receive Medicinal Cuisine every day, a Medicinal Bath once every ten days, and my personal instruction. Only then can they hope to enter the Skin Tempering Realm within a year. You," he looked at Li Bufan, "have a meager foundation, but you are no longer young. Your foundation is shallow, and you have no resources. Even if you stay, you can only begin as the lowest-ranking menial apprentice. You will train alongside them, but your Medicinal Cuisine will be halved, and there will be no Medicinal Baths for now. Whether you can achieve anything depends entirely on your own fate. Do you still wish to remain?"

The conditions were incomparably harsh, practically a hellish beginning.

Yet Li Bufan did not hesitate in the slightest. He answered with decisive firmness, "This junior is willing! Thank you, Coach, for giving me this opportunity!"

Half the resources? No Medicinal Baths? He had Heaven Rewards Diligence! As long as he trained, there would certainly be gains! If others trained once, he would train ten times! A hundred times!

An imperceptible trace of approval flashed through Coach Qin's eyes, though his face remained icy. "Good. Zhao Hu, take him to collect his clothes, arrange his lodging, then begin training."

The young man who had led the way earlier, Zhao Hu, answered and said to Li Bufan, "Come with me."

Li Bufan bowed to Coach Qin once more before following Zhao Hu away from the martial training ground.

His new lodging was a row of communal sleeping platforms at the outermost edge of the Guard Camp. It was dark and damp, crammed with more than ten people, all outsiders like him or lowliest menial servants. The gray fitted uniform he received was old as well, washed until it had faded white and somewhat ill-fitting.

But he did not care in the least.

After changing clothes, he immediately returned to the martial training ground, joined the youths, and began learning the Lin Family Guards' basic body-tempering fist technique from Coach Qin—the Mighty Ox Fist.

This fist technique was far more complex and fierce than his Nameless Fist Technique. It had eighteen forms, each broad and forceful, designed to hammer the muscles and skin membranes of the entire body and stimulate Blood Qi. When practicing it, one had to coordinate with a special breathing method, mobilizing strength throughout the body. It consumed an enormous amount of stamina.

Li Bufan learned with extreme seriousness. With the foundation of his Nameless Fist Technique being nearly at the completion of Proficient, his control and understanding of his body surpassed ordinary people's. He learned several times faster than many youths who had arrived months before him. However, this fist technique consumed Blood Qi immensely. After only a few rounds, hunger gnawed at his belly, and his limbs felt weak.

After several rounds, servants brought the other youths fragrant Medicinal Cuisine. Though it was the lowest grade, visible bits of minced meat and Medicinal Herbs were mixed within. After wolfing it down, their Blood Qi was quickly replenished, and color returned to their faces.

What Li Bufan received, however, was only a small half-bowl of thin porridge with scarcely a glimmer of oil, along with two coarse flour buns.

The difference was immediately apparent.

Yet he silently accepted it, ate it without a word, then gritted his teeth and continued practicing. He constantly circulated that weak strand of Blood Qi, resisting fatigue and hunger as he tried his utmost to make every stance and movement standard.

[Mighty Ox Fist] Beginner (1/500)

[Nameless Fist Technique] Proficient (991/1000)

He discovered that while practicing the Mighty Ox Fist, the proficiency of his Nameless Fist Technique was also rising, albeit extremely slowly! The two fist techniques seemed to complement each other somehow—or perhaps any cultivation that exercised the body could feed back into the Heaven Rewards Diligence talent!

This discovery greatly lifted his spirits!

At dusk, after a day of brutal training, the other apprentices returned to rest or gathered in small groups to chat.

Li Bufan, however, went alone to a secluded corner of the martial training ground and assumed his stance again.

First, he practiced the Mighty Ox Fist, exhausting all his strength and hammering his fleshly body.

Then he practiced the Nameless Fist Technique, circulating Blood Qi, restoring his energy, and raising his proficiency.

Again and again.

Under the moonlight and in the cold wind, the youth's thin figure was drenched in sweat time after time, yet rose stubbornly each time. That strand of Blood Qi within him seemed to become a trace more condensed amid the frenzied squeezing and replenishment.

[Mighty Ox Fist] Beginner (35/500)

[Nameless Fist Technique] Proficient (995/1000)

Only when the night had grown still and he was so exhausted that he could not even lift a finger did he drag his lead-filled legs back to the cold, damp communal bed and collapse into sleep.

He had not gone home these past few days. First, he wanted to save some food for his family, letting his younger brother eat the little grain they had. Second, having just entered the Guard Camp, he needed to perform well and train fiercely.

The second day, the third day... day after day.

He became the one in the Guard Camp who rose earliest, slept latest, and trained hardest. He spoke little, only cultivating like a madman. That almost self-torturing diligence gradually changed the eyes of the youths who had initially looked down on him, adding traces of surprise and reverence.

Whenever Coach Qin's gaze occasionally swept over him, he would also give an almost imperceptible nod.

When Medicinal Cuisine was insufficient, Li Bufan saved every coin he could. He asked workers who occasionally went outside to buy the cheapest pork bones, scraps of meat, and ordinary herbs for him. At night, he secretly simmered them in a small pot outside his room, barely replenishing a thread of Vital Energy.

The high-intensity training and extreme lack of nutrition often pushed his body to the brink of collapse. But whenever that happened, the Heaven Rewards Diligence talent and his increasingly powerful Blood Qi Power always allowed him to hold on stubbornly—and become a little stronger the next day.

Ten days later.

Late at night, moonlight flowed like water.

Li Bufan finished another round of the Mighty Ox Fist, and every part of his body screamed and trembled. He did not pause, immediately switching to the Nameless Fist Technique.

Directly Strike the Yellow Dragon! Thousands of Soldiers Split Easily! Feint to the East, Attack to the West!

His movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water, Blood Qi rushing like a stream! The thin membrane that had blocked him for so long was blasted through at that moment!

Buzz!

His body shook. He heard a soft sound in his mind as the strand of Blood Qi within him abruptly expanded and solidified, its circulation speed soaring! A sense of power far greater than before flooded his entire body in an instant. His skin grew faintly hot, as though countless tiny currents of electricity were passing through it.

[Nameless Fist Technique] Breakthrough! Realm: Minor Mastery (0/2000)

[Mighty Ox Fist] Proficient (897/1000)

Effect: Strengthens the body, Blood Qi arises naturally (weak), slightly increases strength, speed, and recovery, initially gains resilience.

He had broken through! From Minor Mastery onward, it actually required two thousand proficiency! Yet the improvement it brought was enormous! He had officially crossed the threshold of Body Nourishment and reached the stage where Blood Qi arose naturally!

However, before he could carefully experience this newborn power—

[Heaven Rewards Diligence, Forged through a Hundred Refinements. Nameless Fist Technique realm increased, feeding back into the foundation.]

[Body Nourishment] Complete!

[Blood Qi] Refinement successful!

[Martial Arts Realm]: Skin Tempering (Initial Insight)

An even more violent change occurred within him! The newborn, purer Blood Qi Power seemed to receive an order and frantically surged toward the skin across his entire body! Violent numbness, itching, and stabbing pain swept over him, as though countless ants were gnawing and crawling beneath his skin!

Li Bufan clenched his teeth. Cold sweat instantly soaked through his clothes, yet wild joy surged in his heart!

Skin Tempering! Carried by the breakthrough of his Nameless Fist Technique and aided by the Heaven Rewards Diligence talent, he had actually crossed Body Nourishment completion in a single leap, begun tempering his skin, and entered the true first barrier of martial arts—the Skin Tempering Realm!

Though he had only caught a first glimpse of the gateway, countless people might be stuck at this step for years, or even their entire lives!

Under the moonlight, he could clearly see that the exposed skin on his arms and elsewhere had taken on an extremely faint, almost imperceptible bronze sheen. Its resilience had increased greatly!

He clenched his fists tightly, feeling the newborn strength surging beneath his skin and that solid sensation of firmness.

The road was difficult and resources were scarce, but at last, he had truly set foot on the path of martial arts!

Just then, a faint sound of footsteps came from not far behind him.

Li Bufan whirled around, his gaze sharp as an eagle's.

Under the moonlight, Lin Zhiyan, the eldest young lady of Lin Manor, stood silently beneath the corridor in robes as white as snow. No one knew when she had arrived. She was quietly watching him, and within her cool eyes was a trace of indescribable inquiry and surprise.