Training

Five months passed in the blink of an eye.

The Medicine King Gang's Herb Gathering Hall, Training Ground.

Ye Qin sat cross-legged on a grass mat, his qi sinking to his dantian. With his eyes closed, he meditated, regulating his breath and gathering qi as he silently circulated the Gathering Qi and Focusing Spirit technique from the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra, completing the Greater Celestial Circuit.

Ye Qin had discovered that although the cover of the manual read Body Nourishing Classic, the text inside referred to it throughout as the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra.

The book was divided into two parts. The introductory section, Gathering Qi and Focusing Spirit, contained only one level of the technique.

The upper section, the incomplete Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness, contained the first three levels. The two sections that followed were missing.

After five months of practicing the introductory Gathering Qi and Focusing Spirit, Ye Qin had gone from feeling nothing for the first two or three months to finally sensing a faint, warm current flowing through the meridians in his body. The current was incredibly weak, but remarkably resilient.

Ye Qin thought to himself, This must be the legendary inner qi. It really is quite wondrous.

After completing a Greater Celestial Circuit, Ye Qin opened his eyes.

Over these five months, he had also gained some understanding of the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra.

It was said that practicing this technique made one hardy enough to go without food or water, and withstand cold and heat for three to five days. That wasn't entirely accurate.

This technique didn't just require food; it required a great deal of it.

Ye Qin's appetite had increased enormously. He consumed a great deal of food every day, which greatly boosted his stamina, made his limbs nimble, and gradually sharpened his eyesight. Only after reaching a certain level of cultivation and becoming full of energy could he endure three to five days without food or water.

The plentiful food over these five months had helped him cultivate his mental technique quickly. His appetite was excellent, and his body was no longer as weak and frail as before. He had grown sturdy. He could carry a hundred-pound sack and briskly walk several miles without feeling tired.

Still, whenever he thought of the strange inner art he had chosen, he couldn't help feeling a little regretful.

Ye Qin watched the other children in the Training Ground with envy.

Back then, he hadn't known what martial arts were for, so he had chosen according to what he wanted most at the time. He had asked for a mental technique that would let him endure hard labor, hunger, cold, and thirst. By the time he learned what martial arts were actually for, three or five months later, it was too late.

All across the practice grounds, blades flashed and swords glinted. There were mighty roars of the Tiger Fist and bursts of palm force, not to mention lightness skills that sent their practitioners flying and leaping more than a zhang into the air. Most of the forty-odd Herb Gathering Apprentices were learning powerful martial arts, and fought with astonishing force.

Take Ye Qin's four fellow disciples, for instance.

Yang Yicheng had learned the Tiger Fist, an external martial art that focused on the fists and palms. When choosing a manual, Yang Yicheng hadn't known what to pick, so he had asked the young guard to recommend a technique. Seeing that Yang Yicheng was strong and taller than most children his age, the young guard had decided he was suited to a powerful external style and recommended the Tiger Fist. When Yang Yicheng heard the senior brother say the manual suited him, he happily accepted it.

After five months of practice, he was still nowhere near tearing apart wolves and tigers. But he could punch a blue brick with enough force to crack it into several pieces. Yang Yicheng was ecstatic and spent all day looking for people to spar with.

The inner art Ye Qin practiced only strengthened his body. It had none of the defensive power ordinary inner arts possessed, so he didn't dare take Yang Yicheng's punches.

Feng Xiao was nimble and had chosen the Cloud Ladder Leap, a lightness skill. Since he was little, he had envied the martial experts from the county town who could run along rooftops and leap over walls. Now that he had the chance to learn martial arts, he had immediately chosen a lightness skill. It couldn't hurt anyone, but neither could anyone hit him. He could already balance on the tips of his toes and jump nearly a zhang, easily hopping around the Training Ground. Yang Yicheng's punches were fierce, but they couldn't touch him. Whenever they practiced, Feng Xiao would goad Yang Yicheng until he was hopping mad.

Qian Ruoxiu had chosen the Plum Blossom Folding Hand, a small, precise hand-to-hand technique.

Sun Ying had chosen a sword manual called the Spirit Sword, a close-combat style suited to women.

Any one of those four had a far more powerful technique than Ye Qin's Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra. Apart from making him stronger, more energetic, and more enduring, the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra could do almost nothing. If Ye Qin punched a brick, his fist would swell up red while the brick remained untouched. As for running, he was only a little faster than an ordinary person.

According to the Medicine King Gang's rules, Herb Gathering Apprentices in the outer hall had a three-year training period. During that time, they could learn only one technique and were forbidden from practicing a second. Exchanging manuals was strictly prohibited. Only the medicine-making apprentices in the inner hall were allowed to practice two.

Yang Yicheng, Feng Xiao, and the others had often teased him about it.

Thinking of this, Ye Qin couldn't help feeling regretful. His hope of becoming a martial arts expert would have to wait.

Still, he was satisfied.

For the past few months, he had studied three skills every morning: reading and arithmetic, identifying medicinal herbs, and emergency treatment. In the afternoons, he practiced martial arts: standing post, horse stance, body-strengthening exercises, and other basic drills, along with one external or internal technique.

The Herb Gathering Hall required apprentices to memorize at least a thousand common medicinal herbs within five months, including their flavors, properties, uses, habitats, and appearances. They also had to identify the value of unfamiliar herbs. That worked out to six to ten herbs a day.

Anyone who failed to identify the herbs would be whipped—and the disciplinary disciples of the inner hall would carry out the punishment.

That was when Ye Qin finally understood what the richly dressed young men and women he had first seen at the Herb Gathering Hall were for. They were all disciplinary disciples, martial experts specially trained by the inner hall. They learned advanced inner arts and external techniques, and were far stronger than people like them, who specialized in gathering herbs.

Ye Qin had no complaints. The training at the Herb Gathering Hall was grueling, but it was still far better than wandering the wilderness and begging.

During this time, he had gradually learned about the Herb Gathering Hall from some of his senior brothers. It was a branch of the Medicine King Gang, a major martial arts organization in Ping Province, and was divided into an inner hall and an outer hall.

The inner hall was managed by Vice Hall Master Ma. It was responsible for making medicine—including weighing, grading, drying, cutting, and preparing medicinal ingredients—as well as discipline, which was handled by core disciples; security, including guarding the grounds and transporting herbs; storefronts, where medicines were sold; and miscellaneous affairs. Grand Steward Zhang was in charge of all the day-to-day chores at the Herb Gathering Hall.

The outer hall was managed by Vice Hall Master Ji and was responsible for gathering and identifying herbs.

The Medicine King Gang's main headquarters was in Wanan Prefecture, the capital of Ping Province. Its main business was medicinal herbs. Gathering and preparing herbs were undoubtedly the most important tasks, so the gang was divided into two major branches: herb gathering and medicine-making. The Herb Gathering Hall in Zhuqi County focused primarily on gathering herbs, while also handling some medicine-making.

The Medicine King Gang had a strict hierarchy and rigorous promotion system.

The herb-gathering ranks were Herb Gathering Apprentice, herb-gathering trainee, Herb Gathering Artisan, Herb Gathering Master, Herb Gathering Grandmaster, and Herb Gathering Patriarch.

The medicine-making ranks were medicine-making apprentice, medicine-making trainee, medicine-making artisan, medicine-making master, medicine-making grandmaster, and medicine-making patriarch.

Figures at the patriarch level all served at the Medicine King Gang's headquarters. Branch halls in the various counties had only masters and grandmasters, and the grandmasters were generally on the same level as hall masters and vice hall masters. Vice Hall Masters Ma and Ji were respectively a medicine-making grandmaster and an Herb Gathering Grandmaster. The head hall master, Philanthropist Li, was a renowned martial arts expert in Zhuqi County. Although he knew nothing about gathering or preparing herbs, he was related by marriage to the Medicine King Gang's leader.

Ye Qin's master, Herb Gathering Master Wang Hong, was just one rank below a grandmaster in the Herb Gathering Hall. There were only a few dozen people of the same rank in the hall.

Once they reached the rank of master, they rarely went out to gather herbs themselves. Instead, they taught disciples, trained successive batches of qualified Herb Gathering Apprentices, and sent Herb Gathering Artisans out with the apprentices to collect herbs.

Herb Gathering Artisans were not qualified to take on disciples as masters. They could only take apprentices out for training, year after year venturing deep into the mountains to gather herbs in the most dangerous places.

Herb Gathering Apprentices had to follow an Herb Gathering Artisan into the mountains to collect herbs for three years. They were not allowed to go alone, and those who performed well might receive a tiny reward from the artisan. Once they had completed their training, their master would perform a ceremonial handover of the knife, and they would be promoted to herb-gathering trainees. Only then could they gather herbs on their own, either alone or in groups with other trainees. They would turn over what they collected to an Herb Gathering Master and receive a share of the proceeds based on the quantity. After seven or eight years, those with good results would be promoted to Herb Gathering Artisans. Their compensation was considered quite generous, since they could split the proceeds directly with the Herb Gathering Hall and earn a high income.

The Herb Gathering Hall assessed each herb gatherer's rank according to their record.

Ye Qin had occasionally heard people in the hall say that herb gatherers died in droves every year. The survivors became more and more valuable, and their standing rose, but they would also be sent to the most dangerous and complicated places to gather the rarest herbs.

These rumors struck fear into the hearts of the Herb Gathering Apprentices.

However, Vice Hall Master Ji had promised all the apprentices that once they had put in the required years and were promoted to Herb Gathering Artisans, they could choose whether to continue gathering herbs or work in a large county-town pharmacy, minding the shop and preparing medicine. From then on, they could enjoy an easy life without risking their lives in the mountains. That finally calmed the apprentices somewhat and gave them something to look forward to.

So Ye Qin's greatest ambition now was to graduate as soon as possible, build up a good record, and become an Herb Gathering Artisan.

He had no idea yet how difficult it would be to become one.