Fist Mastery in an Instant!

That night, the oil lamp in the gatehouse burned like a bean.

With his withered fingers, Jiang Ye turned the yellowed pages of the Five Animal Fist one by one.

His movements were slow, but his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

When he closed the final page, he sat quietly for a moment. Deep within his clouded eyes, a flash of amazement appeared.

"This Five Animal Fist is no simple thing..."

Although Liu Qingshi had said this fist art leaned toward health preservation and had little killing power.

With Jiang Ye's extraordinary comprehension, however, he could better appreciate just how remarkable it was.

The Five Animal Fist imitated the postures and spirit of five creatures: tiger, deer, bear, ape, and bird. It emphasized intent over force.

The tiger form was fierce, the deer form open and stretching, the bear form steady, the ape form nimble, and the bird form drifting and elegant.

"This fist art is definitely more profound than the Mountain Crushing Fist."

Jiang Ye slowly set down the manual. By the dim lamplight, within the cramped gatehouse, he followed the clearest image in his mind—the "bear form" stance—sinking his waist, lowering into a squat, and loosely circling his arms before him.

His movements still carried an old man's stiffness, and his joints gave off faint little pops.

He had only held the stance for a moment, yet Jiang Ye felt as though his body had repeated the movement thousands of times.

But when his mind sank into the image of "steady as a mountain, strength rising from the earth"—

"Five Animal Fist proficiency +3!"

A status panel appeared in Jiang Ye's mind.

Name: Jiang Ye

Lifespan: 75 years

Fate: Ascension Stairway [Effect 1: Extraordinary Comprehension]

Martial arts mastered: Five Animal Fist [Beginner, 3/100]

Jiang Ye froze slightly.

This system panel gave him an even more direct sense of just how terrifying his extraordinary comprehension was.

Ordinary disciples needed at least a month of boxing practice to get started, yet he had entered the beginner stage just by holding a stance?!

"One day equals one year..."

Jiang Ye forcibly suppressed the wild joy in his heart, his gaze sweeping over the "tiger form" diagram.

His thoughts moved accordingly. He imagined a fierce tiger crouching atop a boulder, its shoulder blades slightly raised, and assumed a "tiger form" stance.

"Five Animal Fist proficiency +3!"

About an hour later.

Martial arts mastered: Five Animal Fist [Beginner, 57/100]

Jiang Ye slowly withdrew from the final "bird form" stance. His chest rose and fell faintly, and the white breath leaving his mouth condensed into fleeting clumps of mist in the cold room.

He stood silently where he was, eyes lowered as he felt his body.

He had already practiced each of the Five Animal Fist's five stances several times.

At that moment, he only felt as if the sinews and bones throughout his body had been heated by a blazing fire. Even his shoulder blades and neck were faintly burning.

"If I keep practicing, I'm afraid I'll enter the realm of strength."

Feeling the heat within him, even Jiang Ye's clouded eyes brightened.

He had guarded the martial academy's gates for twenty years. Even if he had never eaten pork, he had seen pigs run.

He knew that the heat inside him was actually his qi and blood being tempered.

The first hurdle in laying the foundation for martial arts was refining strength!

Once a martial artist had tempered their qi and blood to a certain degree, they could challenge the threshold and cultivate Bright Strength.

Once Bright Strength emerged, one's power, speed, and resistance to blows would become qualitatively different from that of ordinary people.

Only then could one truly enter the hall, leaving behind the category of merely being better at fighting than ordinary people.

Most of Bluestone Martial Academy's Inner Courtyard disciples were at this level.

"Hiss... why is my head a little dizzy?"

Jiang Ye had been about to continue practicing.

Then a sudden wave of dizziness, like a cold iron hammer, smashed viciously into the back of his head.

At the same time, his hollow stomach convulsed violently, and an indescribable emptiness and weakness instantly surged through every limb and bone.

His body, which had just burned like a furnace, rapidly lost its heat. In its place came coldness and frailty seeping from deep within his marrow.

Hungry!

A hunger that seemed ready to swallow him whole surged over him like a tide.

Jiang Ye's body swayed. He staggered and grabbed the corner of the table beside him, barely managing to keep from collapsing.

This was bad!

His heart sank, and realization struck him in an instant.

His body could not keep up.

[Extraordinary Comprehension] allowed him to grasp the intent of the fist and temper his qi and blood at a terrifying speed.

But this aged seventy-year-old shell, whose flame of life was sustained only by meager meals, simply could not endure such fierce burning of qi and blood and such massive energy consumption!

Fortunately, the mung bean cakes Su Yan had given him were still on the table. Jiang Ye wolfed down the remaining two cakes.

A moment later, a faint warmth slowly spread from his stomach and flowed into his icy limbs.

He slowly slid down to sit on the floor, his back against the cold table leg. Closing his eyes, he waited for his body to slowly recover from this sudden "tribulation."

After quite some time, the heart-pounding dizziness and weakness finally eased somewhat.

Jiang Ye struggled to raise a hand and wiped the cold sweat from his face. His lips were cracked and dry.

He looked at the Five Animal Fist on the table, then lowered his head to look at his withered, trembling hands.

The blazing heat in his eyes had long since cooled, replaced by a calmer understanding.

"Meals have to be eaten one bite at a time, and roads have to be walked one step at a time..."

Jiang Ye muttered hoarsely.

Blood Strengthening Soup!

He remembered Liu Qingshi's arrangement. Tomorrow, he absolutely had to collect it on time.

After a while, Jiang Ye slowly stood up. Though he was still somewhat weak, his basic ability to move had returned.

"I should use the toilet and hurry to sleep."

Jiang Ye shook his muddled head, pushed open the door, and walked out.

At his age, if an old man did not finish using the toilet before bed, he would have to get up several times during the night.

Not long after stepping out of his room, he rounded a clump of short bamboo that had lost all its leaves.

Jiang Ye caught a refreshing, delicate fragrance drifting over from nearby.

His steps paused slightly, and he turned to look.

Under the clear moonlight, a tall, slender figure was approaching at an unhurried pace along another corridor.

She wore a fitted black training outfit. Her raven hair was simply tied behind her head, revealing an oval face as fair and lustrous as jade.

Her brows and eyes were exceptionally beautiful, yet they seemed covered by a thin layer of frost, carrying a cool aloofness that kept strangers at a distance.

Most eye-catching of all were her straight, long legs. Her steps possessed their own rhythm and made no sound, clearly showing that her lower-body foundation was extremely solid.

This woman was none other than Liu Qingshi's only daughter, Liu Yiyi.

"Miss."

Jiang Ye bowed slightly.

Hearing him, Liu Yiyi finally turned her gaze from the empty night ahead and let it fall on Jiang Ye.

She nodded. There was little expression on her cool face as she merely replied, "Elder Jiang."

Her voice matched her person—clear, yet touched with chill.

Having said that, she did not linger. She walked straight past Jiang Ye.

Jiang Ye straightened and watched the direction in which she vanished, no ripples stirring in his clouded old eyes.

He had watched her grow up, and he knew the girl had always possessed such a detached temperament. It was not that she looked down on others.

"Superior bones... Dark Strength cultivation..."

Jiang Ye silently repeated the assessment he had occasionally heard from Liu Qingshi's sighs.

By now, this girl was one of the few Inner Courtyard disciples who had broken through the Dark Strength threshold.

Dark Strength and Bright Strength appeared to differ by only one word, but in truth, they were the first true dividing line on the path of martial arts.

Those with Bright Strength released force outside their bodies, fierce and obvious, capable of splitting steles and shattering stones.

Dark Strength, however, was strength tempered into supple, enduring force. It could penetrate the body and injure one's organs invisibly. Its demands for control over force and circulation of qi and blood were more than a level higher.

In little Anxi County, cultivating Dark Strength was enough to secure a post at an escort agency or a wealthy household as a resident expert.

One could truly be counted among the ranks of "experts," respected by others and free from worries over food and clothing.

In the past, Jiang Ye would have felt all this was beyond his reach.

But now...

Jiang Ye smiled faintly and continued shuffling toward the latrine.