When he'd pulled the wooden spear out earlier, Chen Jinyang hadn't paid attention. It wasn't until he held it in his hand that he noticed his right hand was sticky. He lowered his head and looked closely. The spear was smeared with yellow-and-black slime, and it gave off a nauseating, sour stench. Feeling as if he'd just eaten a dead rat out of someone's stomach, Chen Jinyang flung the spear away like a bomb and rubbed his palm against the dirt again and again. He cursed loudly at the Goblin chieftain, who was cheerfully picking up the spear in the distance, then watched its bouncy retreating figure and made a universally understood gesture: he gave it the finger.
After that little episode, Chen Jinyang strolled over to the place where William usually felled trees. The wide clearing was dotted with foot-high stumps and scattered branches and leaves. Several felled pines had yet to be stripped of their branches. Those pines were Chen Jinyang's target. These otherworldly pines rarely grew taller than thirty feet. Their trunks were straight, their wood dense and rich in oil, making it easy to light and slow to burn. They produced little smoke when burning and gave off a faint, pleasant fragrance. They were the most popular firewood in the North. Chen Jinyang quickly chopped the branches off one of the fallen pines. Once he'd tidied it up and tied a rope around it, he set down his tools and began to practice in the clearing.
Chen Jinyang first ran through the Twelve Forms of Xingyi in the clearing to familiarize himself with the moves, then began studying the San-Ti Stance.
The San-Ti Stance was also known as foundational training. It was the source of all techniques and the basis of practice in the Xingyi Fist, one of the three great internal martial arts. When a martial artist trained in techniques, strengthening the sinews and bones came first. Bones were born of essence and connected to the sinews. Stretching and contracting the sinews increased strength, while strong bones filled the marrow. The flexibility of the sinews and the agility of the bones came entirely from training. Beginners first trained the skin: strengthening the skin and hair sealed the pores to prevent vital essence from leaking out, allowing them to store essence, strengthen the body, and build a solid foundation. This was the beginning of refining essence into qi.
But Chen Jinyang's constitution was unusual. Once he began standing practice, his pores tended to close, causing the fire within his bloodline to clash violently and become difficult to control. After thinking it over many times, he decided that his body had an excess of vital energy. He came up with a clever workaround: first, he would vent the fire in his bloodline using the method he'd discovered the previous day to breathe fire from his palm, then practice standing with his acupoints sealed and pores closed.
Inspired by the legendary palm thunder of Daoist magic, Chen Jinyang named the fire-breathing technique Palm Flame. After using Palm Flame five times, he felt an immediate depletion, like he'd entered the post-orgasmic state of clarity. He visualized his spine in the San-Ti Stance, imagining it coiling like a dragon and arching like a snake as it trembled slightly. His center of gravity settled over his tailbone, and his body hair stood on end, sealing his pores. Each time his spine flexed and trembled, his pores closed whenever his body began to sweat, forcing the perspiration back inside. Yet Chen Jinyang still felt weak and hollow. He understood that the five Palm Flames had depleted his vital energy. Although his body recovered astonishingly quickly, training this way wouldn't be very effective.
Drawing on his past-life experience, Chen Jinyang practiced controlling his pores until he had mastered the technique, then stopped his standing practice. He still lacked control over his pores. After briefly familiarizing himself with how to generate power through the five main Xingyi Fist forms, he resumed practicing the footwork of the Twelve Forms of Xingyi.
The Twelve Forms of Xingyi were the dragon, tiger, monkey, horse, alligator, rooster, eagle, bear, tai, snake, hawk, and swallow. The dragon had the art of searching through bones; the tiger, the courage to pounce on prey; the monkey, the ability to climb mountains; the horse, the power of the stamping hoof; the alligator, the skill of swimming; the rooster, the courage to charge; the eagle, the art of seizing its prey; the bear, the strength to raise its neck; the tai, the talent to raise its tail; the snake, the skill to part the grass; the hawk, the knack for flying through the woods; and the swallow, the agility to skim the water. Draw in your body as you rise, conceal it as you descend. Rise like the wind, fall like an arrow. Even after knocking your opponent down, you should think you were too slow. Rise like an arrow, fall like the wind, and chase the wind and moon without slowing.
Chen Jinyang repeatedly corrected his posture and practiced transitions, short steps, quick steps, and advancing steps. His feet drilled upward as they rose and turned over as they fell. His shoulders drove his hips, his hips drove his knees, his knees drove his feet, his feet drove his shoulders, his shoulders drove his elbows, and his elbows drove his hands. He practiced until the sun set and dusk fell, then stopped and dragged the pine back to the village by its rope.
When Chen Jinyang got home, he saw Mishaer looking rather pleased with herself. She was holding Horn of Kor and a quill, scribbling on parchment. Tiny black ink spots dotted her little face, and several small handprints marked Horn of Kor. A rusty iron sword, flint, and a little bottle of some unknown liquid were scattered across the bed. Chen Jinyang didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he put everything away. Facing the little girl, whose expression said, "I'm innocent," he fetched a bucket of clean water and gently washed the ink off her face and hands. He also cleaned her beloved Horn of Kor.
After dinner, Chen Jinyang chopped the log he'd dragged home into two-foot lengths, split them into arm-thick firewood, and stacked them up.
Only then was Chen Jinyang's day's work done.
Lying in his sleeping bag, Chen Jinyang reflected on the day's training. To practice the San-Ti Stance, using Palm Flame to expend the power of his bloodline before standing practice left him with too much vital energy to control; after exhausting his bloodline power, he had too little vital energy. If he used Palm Flame only three or four times, he could control it more easily while still retaining enough vital energy. Wouldn't that be twice as effective for half the effort?
As Chen Jinyang pondered his training, he witnessed an unforgettable sight. Alos, who had also become bald, suddenly glowed with a brilliant red light in his sleep. The temperature in the room rose sharply. Chen Jinyang thought Alos had caught fire and was about to help him when he realized the flames were only an illusion, nowhere near hot enough to ignite his clothes. Remembering the strange dream he'd had on the first night after his rebirth, he didn't wake Alos. Instead, he carefully watched over him until the red glow disappeared. Nothing else unusual happened, and only after spending half the night fretting over it did Chen Jinyang finally go back to sleep, his mind full of questions.
The next day, Chen Jinyang woke up aching all over. He'd overdone his training the day before, and his body hadn't yet adjusted. He endured the soreness in his hands and feet, continued feeding the horses in the morning, then practiced his lower-body strength by holding a horse stance while carrying water. In the afternoon, he returned to the logging site. Chen Jinyang began by performing Palm Flame three times, then used the San-Ti Stance to make his spine tremble and close his pores. A rush of heat surged through his body, still showing signs of breaking through his defenses, so he had to use Palm Flame a fourth time.
Chen Jinyang now felt slightly depleted. His spine trembled from top to bottom in sequence, and the heat rising through his blood was no longer so violent and difficult to tame. When the heat prepared to break through his defenses, his center of gravity dropped instantly to his tailbone. His body hair stood on end, forcing the heat back inside. It flowed through his sinews and spread throughout his body, making every muscle and bone seem to tremble as if being singed by a faint flame. When his spine stirred the heat again, it gathered once more, then he sealed his pores and sent it circulating through his body again. On the twelfth cycle, Chen Jinyang could no longer control the heat surging like a flood. He let it flow into a Palm Flame. This time, however, he felt less depleted than before, and a pleasant tingling warmth filled his body.
Chen Jinyang was greatly encouraged. He practiced the five main Xingyi Fist forms several times, then continued to work hard at the Twelve Forms of Xingyi.
As dusk approached, Chen Jinyang chopped down some thick pine branches and carried them back to the village. Felling trees was an assignment from the village chief, and the firewood belonged to the village and was for the night watchmen. These pine branches, however, were firewood Chen Jinyang had prepared for his family to use through the winter.
On the third day of practice, after performing Palm Flame four times, Chen Jinyang stopped stirring his spine once he'd controlled the heat through eleven cycles. His skin was now scorching hot and bright red, his spirit and energy overflowing. He felt as if he had boundless strength, and his third limb was as hard as stone, a sign that his fire was running a little high. Chen Jinyang continued practicing the Twelve Forms. He felt that training only in the afternoon didn't give him enough time, so he decided to get up earlier the next day and make the morning available for practice as well.
Winter was approaching, and fewer merchants traveled along the roads. The villagers of Gnome Village began repairing their carts and sorting through their belongings, packing what needed packing and storing what needed storing as they prepared for the journey back to Mirabar.
None of this had much to do with Chen Jinyang. His life had become far more regular. He got up before dawn, practiced his horse stance while carrying water, and fed the livestock. After breakfast, he shouldered his tools and entered the forest, returning only when the sun set. In the morning, he controlled the circulation of heat and practiced the Twelve Forms of Xingyi. In the afternoon, he practiced the five fist forms: splitting, crushing, drilling, blasting, and crossing.
The villagers had noticed something strange about William long ago. But after seeing Alos become much smarter following the awakening of his Fire Bloodline, they thought William might also have become more intelligent when his Fire Bloodline awakened. So they didn't think much of it.
The only one who might have been unhappy was the "little princess," Mishaer, because the mysterious Chen Jinyang spent much less time with her. So whenever Chen Jinyang prepared to leave, she looked at him as if to say, "I'm going to cry." Chen Jinyang would flee in inexplicable guilt, feeling as if he'd done something wrong. Then, when he returned in the evening, he had to offer her delicious roasted meat to "make amends" and win back the laughter of the adorable little elf. It was game he'd hunted in the forest. The animals were plump and delicious just before winter, and both Chen Jinyang and Mishaer loved the fatty meat.
Chen Jinyang was thoroughly enjoying this life. His previous life had been one of flight, leaving him weary and despairing. That dark, bloody journey had brought his boxing and skills to their peak, but it had also cut off his path to a higher realm—a grandmaster filled with despair could never step into the transcendent realm.
Several weeks passed, and the weather grew colder and colder, almost freezing. Chen Jinyang's progress in training accelerated as well. He felt he had nearly regained, or even surpassed, the peak physical strength he'd possessed as a grandmaster of internal power in his previous life.
Whenever Chen Jinyang felt he could control the heat circulating through his body fairly easily within the prescribed limits, he increased the number of cycles by one. By now, he could control thirty-seven cycles.
Chen Jinyang could now unleash Palm Flame seven times, and each blast was considerably more powerful. His formerly rigid muscles had become somewhat smoother, and his newly grown eyebrows and fiery-red buzz cut gave him an alluring, flame-spirit-like appearance. The only downside was that his fire was running too high. Even dousing himself with cold well water on freezing nights did little to cool him down. It was an awkward and frustrating problem.
Chen Jinyang was afraid he might lose control. Lately, even a mare could leave him dazed, which was a serious problem. He worried that if this kept up, he might lose his mind.
Of course, that wasn't the most pressing thing Chen Jinyang needed to worry about. First, he needed to figure out how to make sure the three siblings survived the cold, long winter.
Over the course of more than a month, Chen Jinyang had become part of this unfamiliar family and village. He'd learned a few simple everyday phrases in Common. After Sailu let slip that both brothers had awakened Sorcerer bloodlines, the villagers stopped thinking of Chen Jinyang as an ordinary idiot. Instead, they considered him a slightly smarter-than-before fool who was still rather dull and would certainly never learn complicated magic—a spellcaster-in-training. Meanwhile, the much cleverer Alos could now easily perform simple Prestidigitation, such as making a candle-sized flame or conjuring a warm breeze.
Whenever Chen Jinyang did something strange, the villagers weren't surprised. They were simply amazed and envious of the magical power that could make a fool clever, and some were even jealous.
Before you continue