Formal Training

Without warning, one morning, what should have been the usual time for the instructors to lead everyone in martial arts practice suddenly turned into a lecture in the main hall.

And this lecture had nothing to do with the Huangtian Sutra they had been reciting all along. Instead, the instructors taught them practical training techniques.

For example: breathing methods that conserved stamina; ways to exert force using the correct muscles; techniques for protecting the joints, and so on.

Most people were somewhat baffled. They had all endured the long trek fleeing the Northern Frontier, and each had their own ideas about conserving stamina and protecting themselves.

What did it mean that Xuanming Manor was taking such pains to teach them these most basic techniques?

—What did it mean? It meant the good days were over!

Only a small number of them, including An Jing, grew wary, recognizing this as a signal. An Jing carefully noted down every technique the instructors taught. It didn't matter if he had already learned some of them; there was always something to learn by filling in the gaps.

That very afternoon, everyone, An Jing included, got a taste of how brutal "formal training" could be.

The One-Eyed Instructor was leading them today. "Xuanming Manor has always upheld the principle of selecting only the best. When it comes to granting our legacy, we value quality over quantity. Stamina and endurance are the foundation of our martial arts, so a full physical training session to test everyone's limits is very important."

"Now, we'll run up and down the mountain ten times."

With that, he led the group, taking the lead himself. As the one everyone had tacitly accepted as the head of the line, An Jing could only set off after him.

Now he understood. The easy first half-month had simply given this batch of children time to recover physically, regain their energy, and develop an initial sense of camaraderie.

In essence, they had been laying the groundwork, so they wouldn't piss blood after a little training or drop dead from a slight increase in intensity!

To be fair, most of the Child of Calamity candidates, who had survived the Frost Calamity and been specially selected by Xuanming Manor, were quite talented. They had strong endurance and willpower, and were certainly no strangers to hard work.

The half-month of rest hadn't weakened them. On the contrary, it had made them much stronger.

These carefully selected boys and girls were even in better shape than ordinary adults.

But Xuanming Manor stood among the mountains, and the slopes of its trails ranged from twelve to twenty degrees. In some places, they were almost sheer.

The round trip covered more than five li of rugged mountain paths.

Running that difficult route ten times... No matter how he looked at it, the intensity was absurd.

More importantly, they had to keep up with the instructor's pace. They couldn't slow down; if they did, they would fall behind.

Sure enough, before they had even finished four rounds, some people were already slowing down or dropping behind, unable to keep running.

By the sixth or seventh round, more than half had collapsed.

The passing standard is probably just finishing half the course, right?

An Jing still had plenty of energy to spare at this point.

He had trained in martial arts, after all. Fifty li of mountain roads would tire him out, but the breathing methods and techniques he knew made it much easier for him to persevere than the others. He even had enough energy to look back and observe his fellow candidates who "showed potential."

As he did, he spotted a few familiar faces.

First, there were two of his roommates: Zhang Ying and Ye Xiuyuan.

Zhang Ying's family had once been a family of mountain hunters. She had roamed the mountains with her parents since childhood, so her stamina was naturally impressive. She looked winded, but her strides were still steady.

She was rather simple-minded and had once been quite dissatisfied with An Jing's status as "Senior Brother" and "leader." On their second day at the manor, she had challenged him to a test of strength. After An Jing pinned her down with one hand and nearly made her knees buckle, she accepted him as her big brother and followed close behind him ever since.

Ye Xiuyuan's family had once been a family of scholars. He was rather gloomy, but clever.

An Jing knew that before Zhang Ying had come to challenge him, she had spoken with a group of people, led by Ye Xiuyuan.

After using Zhang Ying to test An Jing, Ye Xiuyuan had directly accepted him as his boss, too. He often led the others in saying that they would follow their "big brother," An Jing, in everything. As a shill bolstering An Jing's authority, he had helped An Jing secure his "Senior Brother" position. Without him, An Jing might not have found it so easy to hold on to it.

Ye Xiuyuan didn't have much stamina, and even after half a month of rest, he was still quite slight. But he had carefully memorized every technique the instructors taught, and spent the time before and after lunch experimenting with them. Somehow, he had managed to persevere, keeping up behind An Jing.

Besides those two, there was also a girl running with An Jing.

Her name was Gu Yeqi, and she came from the same hometown as An Jing. She was the one whose chilblains had been cured. A year younger than An Jing, she had seen him bargain with the One-Eyed Instructor and sell himself to pay for his mother's sake. She admired him deeply and followed him everywhere, no matter what he did.

Gu Yeqi's family had once been a great lineage. The whole family had served a medicinal herb manor, and they had their own family martial arts. It wasn't especially powerful, but its foundations were solid. Like Zhang Ying, she was breathing unevenly, but still managing to persevere.

Noticing An Jing's gaze, she flashed him a big smile.

Of these three, Ye Xiuyuan rolled his eyes back and fainted during his seventh and a half round. Gu Yeqi held on until she was almost at the ninth. If Zhang Ying hadn't tripped herself, she could have finished alongside An Jing, but a fall at that point was practically the same as passing out.

At that moment, they finally understood why the manor was named "Hanging Life."

An hour later, of the more than two hundred people, only fourteen could still stand after completing the entire course.

"So many?"

The One-Eyed Instructor was quite surprised, too. He hadn't run slowly, and had even sped up toward the end. Covering more than fifty li of mountain trail in under an hour—with half uphill and half downhill—was beyond the limits of ordinary people in Da Chen, both in speed and difficulty.

Only truly "special" children could finish the whole course.

He couldn't help laughing. "Your batch really is talented. More than half of you finished half the course, and fourteen still have energy to spare. The last few batches we've had in the past ten years didn't produce this many altogether."

But then he put on a rather "troubled" expression. "But in that case, how do we choose the best among you to lead the group?"

At those words, An Jing kept his posture still and raised his brows slightly, his expression subtle. But the other thirteen boys and girls who had completed the course all turned their heads toward him, their gazes fixed on him.

The One-Eyed Instructor also looked at An Jing. The corner of his mouth curled up as he waved his hand. "Keep going! Back to the manor. Two hundred stone-lock lifts!"

Three people collapsed during the stone-lock lifts. But after that came two hundred staff swings, two hundred horse-stance punches, and two hundred stone-lock squats on the spot... Before he collapsed, An Jing sank into deep thought. Are we going to have to do this every day from now on?

Even he felt a trace of panic in the face of this primitive training method, which was even more terrifying than a modern leg workout.

But An Jing soon had no time to think about any of that.

Because on the third day, ten people applied to challenge An Jing for his "Senior Brother" position.