Everyone, Get Grinding

Nothing happened that night.

At dawn, Li Dingguo woke from deep cultivation. Sensing the considerable increase in his Qi and Blood Power, he was pleasantly surprised and deeply satisfied.

The Body Refining realm was, bluntly put, about nurturing essence and transforming it into qi.

During the Lower Three Realms: Body Refining stage, this qi referred to Qi and Blood Power.

Unlike beginner, intermediate, and advanced cultivation methods, True Scripture-class Divine Techniques and Marvelous Methods could not only accelerate the refinement of energy obtained daily from food, spiritual herbs and roots, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, Demon Beast meat, medicinal soups, and the like, replenishing what cultivation required and continuously enhancing one's Life Essence and physical constitution while steadily strengthening one's Qi and Blood Power.

At the same time, True Scripture-class cultivation methods could also allow one to sit in meditation and visualize the profound cultivation runes within the Spirit Sea, using Mental Energy to continuously draw in the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. It entered through the Baihui point atop the head into the Spirit Sea, then circulated through the heavenly cycle of the cultivation method, likewise replenishing and increasing Life Essence and Qi and Blood Power.

This two-pronged cultivation method was the greatest difference between True Scripture-class techniques and beginner, intermediate, or advanced cultivation methods.

It was precisely because True Scripture-class techniques were so miraculous that they could be called Divine Techniques and Marvelous Methods, peerless divine arts.

Therefore, although the Circumstellar True Scripture Li Dingguo cultivated now consumed more than ten times the cultivation resources—such as Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and spiritual herbs and roots—required by ordinary Martial Artists at the same realm, he could replenish the energy needed for cultivation through seated meditation. His cultivation speed would not be slower than that of ordinary Martial Artists at the same level.

In fact, because his Mental Energy was powerful enough and the Circumstellar True Scripture was extraordinarily miraculous, each meditation session allowed him to absorb a great amount of heaven and earth spiritual qi into his body. His speed of cultivation breakthroughs was even somewhat faster than that of ordinary Martial Artists of the same level.

"Li Dingguo, I can feel that my Qi and Blood Power has increased quite a bit compared to yesterday!"

Ai Nengqi opened his eyes and got out of bed. As he put on his shoes, he excitedly spoke to Li Dingguo.

"Mm."

Li Dingguo nodded. "Mine too."

"However, we're both still the lowest-level Martial Artists. Our cultivation is only at the early stage of the first level of martial cultivation, so it's perfectly normal to feel as though we're advancing by leaps and bounds."

"Once our cultivation becomes deeper, the increase in our cultivation speed won't feel nearly so obvious."

"Oh, also..."

Remembering something, Li Dingguo hurriedly got out of bed and began dressing and putting on his shoes. "When our literacy lesson ended last night, the Eight Great Kings said he would teach us various basic skills essential for Martial Artists today."

"We'll begin learning riding, archery, saber techniques, spear techniques, and more!"

"We should hurry up and wash, then head to the main courtyard. Don't be late. It wouldn't be good if we kept the king waiting there."

As members of the Rebel Army from now on, merely possessing cultivation without understanding the arts of killing and warfare would naturally not do.

Thus, after Li Dingguo and the others broke through to become Martial Artists, their next step was to quickly master some combat and killing skills.

Only then could they swiftly become qualified Martial Artists.

And that was not all.

The Eight Great Kings, Zhang Xianzhong, had also said last night that once Ai Nengqi and Li Dingguo had gained a basic grasp of the various fundamental Martial Artist skills, they would need to begin studying military strategy and tactics.

Only then could they become qualified Rebel Army commanders and lead troops into battle in the future.

In short, for these gifted youths like Li Dingguo, at least until the government army came to encircle and suppress the Rebel Army, every day of their lives would be packed to the brim.

Naturally, this was also Zhang Xianzhong's wholehearted investment in nurturing them. He wished for every one of them to mature into talent as quickly as possible.

As for the other Rebel Army soldiers, including the three hundred Veteran Camp soldiers, they would never receive such treatment.

Even those Veteran Camp soldiers currently received only one bowl of Spirit Rice Meal and one bowl of Vitality and Blood Soup each day—nothing more.

Hungry?

Now that they had captured a county seat, money and grain were plentiful, and ordinary food was provided in ample supply.

As for the motley rabble of the Rebel Army, being able to eat two filling meals every day—one dry and one watery—was already quite good.

As for Spirit Food, they need not even dream of it.

If you wanted better treatment, that was fine—but you had to earn corresponding merit and show good performance, then you could receive appropriate rewards.

When it came to managing the Rebel Army, Zhang Xianzhong, who had risen from the ranks of veteran officers, truly had a good grasp of it.

"Oh, oh..."

As soon as Li Dingguo finished speaking, Ai Nengqi grew anxious. "Let's move faster. It'll be fully light soon."

"I wonder whether we'll start learning to ride horses today? I've wanted to ride a big horse around for ages!"

"Best of all would be a Spirit Beast Warhorse. That would be truly imposing to ride!"

For a simple-minded youth like him, his greatest wish now was to ride a warhorse and swagger about everywhere.

"Th-that... probably."

Li Dingguo answered with some uncertainty.

After all, the skill these gifted youths most urgently needed to learn was undoubtedly horsemanship.

Only then, when the government army came to encircle and suppress them, even if they could not defeat the enemy, fleeing on horseback would greatly increase their chances of survival.

As for whether they would have warhorses to ride today, that depended on just how highly Zhang Xianzhong valued these gifted youths.

Still, based on Li Dingguo's guess, setting aside the other youths who had not yet entered the Martial Artist path, he and Ai Nengqi would likely be given a Spirit Beast Warhorse to ride.

Riding a Spirit Beast Warhorse and becoming a cavalryman was not so simple.

First, one had to spend day and night with the Spirit Beast Warhorse, building a degree of mutual understanding and earning its recognition.

How could training a true cavalryman possibly be so easy?

Especially for Martial Artists like them who had only just entered the path, personally taming a Spirit Beast Warhorse would certainly be no small challenge.

Neither dared waste time. Once they were fully dressed, they quickly took their washing supplies to a nearby well, washed up, returned their things to the side room, then walked shoulder to shoulder toward the front courtyard.

At this time, other gifted youths emerged in haste from the nearby side rooms as well, carrying their things off to wash up.

They had not originally needed to rise so early today, nor had Zhang Xianzhong assigned them any extra training. Everything was meant to proceed as usual.

But Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi had stirred them up. Naturally, they did not dare dawdle any longer, lest they leave a bad impression on the king.

"Good, the king hasn't arrived yet."

"Liu Wenxiu and Zhang Huier actually got here earlier than us?"

Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi hurried into the front courtyard. Looking around, they breathed a sigh of relief, only to discover in surprise that Liu Wenxiu and Zhang Huier had already been there for some time.

The two of them were even standing side by side, practicing the Tiger Roar Fist move by move. Their little faces were exceedingly serious, and the wind from their fists burst forth with whooshing force.

"Those two are grinding way too hard, aren't they?"

"They're this hardworking?"

Li Dingguo immediately rolled his eyes inwardly and muttered a complaint, not knowing what else to say.

There was no need to think about it. Encouraged yesterday by the Eight Great Kings, Zhang Xianzhong, Liu Wenxiu and Zhang Huier had gained their drive and did not want to fall behind others.

They were probably both holding their breath, wanting to catch up to Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi through their own efforts.

This was healthy competition, and Li Dingguo had nothing to say about it, though it also spurred him to become more motivated.

Before long, life-and-death crises would surely come one after another. To preserve his life, he needed to get grinding too.