Grace and Severity Balanced

Grace and Severity Balanced

"You orphan youths who passed the initial selection, do not celebrate too early!"

Looking at the orphan youths whose numbers had already decreased by seventy percent, Zhang Xianzhong shouted loudly once more, "Starting today, I will personally teach you a set of basic introductory martial arts fist techniques."

"During this period, in addition to a serving of first-level spirit food and rice dishes supplied to each person every day, there will also be a bowl of vitality and blood soup administered daily!"

"Those who fail to stimulate their own Qi and blood power and break through to become a first-level martial artist by the time the final deadline arrives will all be expelled!"

"To repeat the old saying, the money and provisions of I, Zhang Xianzhong, do not blow in on a strong wind, and I will not support useless people!"

His tone remained detached as he continued, "I hope each and every one of you has good luck, and that you do not waste the precious time ahead. Strive hard to become a martial artist, for only then will you have the chance to become soldiers of our rebel army..."

As someone who had walked this path before, Zhang Xianzhong was thoroughly clear on the situation of entering martial arts cultivation.

To become a martial artist, these illiterate commoners not only needed someone to impart cultivation methods, but they also required the investment of sufficient martial arts resources to assist their cultivation before they could achieve success.

It was not a matter of just anyone luckily obtaining a cultivation manual and thereby becoming a martial artist.

Even if you were literate and possessed a cultivation manual in hand, without anyone to guide you, without clarity on the actual circulation method of your own Qi and blood, and without an intimate understanding of the exact locations of the meridians in your body, it was basically impossible to become a martial artist through your own efforts alone.

Every cultivation manual contained professional terminology, and without personal guidance from someone, it was very difficult for you to figure it out.

The best method for entering the martial arts was for a martial artist to use Qi and blood power to provide on-site guidance for newcomers.

This also had to be coupled with auxiliary resources that advanced martial arts cultivation, providing the necessary consumption and replenishment required for a martial artist's practice.

The first three stages of the martial art path were the Body Tempering Realm, also called the Essence Nurturing and Body Tempering Realm.

The core of this was through the absorption and nourishment of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, along with spirit herbs and spiritual roots, and through specific Qi and blood circulation methods, to continuously increase the quantity and quality of the life essence within one's body.

It also required utilizing the life essence that continuously increased through cultivation growth to exercise and nourish the physique, persistently raising one's physical fitness until finally reaching the complete and flawless state where essence overflowed from fullness.

Life essence, also called life origin qi, was the fundamental basis for any living creature to live healthily.

Life essence was also the source of a martial artist's own Qi and blood.

If life essence could be utilized effectively and replenished continuously, it could vastly strengthen one's own Qi and blood, enhance the practitioner's physique, and even augment a martial artist's mental energy to a small extent.

A person's essence, qi, and spirit complemented and supported one another, with not a single one being dispensable.

When essence and qi were sufficient, a hundred illnesses would not arise.

Conversely, when essence and qi were insufficient, not only would a myriad of illnesses sprout, but it would also cause the human body's own resilience and resistance to decline, and even one's lifespan would suffer a tremendous impact.

Within these three realms of the Essence Nurturing and Body Tempering Realm, during the breakthrough process along the path of cultivation in each major realm, a martial artist had at most three opportunities to break through the physical limits.

Ordinary martial artists could mostly only break through their physical limits once or twice in each major realm.

Only those martial artists with exceptional innate talent had the possibility of achieving three limit-breaks in every major realm.

Such heaven-favored darlings could effortlessly crush ordinary martial artists of the same rank within identical realms.

With every single limit-break in the Body Tempering Realm, a martial artist's own Qi and blood power would double!

Therefore, within identical realms, the gap between those with exceptional innate talent and ordinary martial artists was even greater than ordinary people imagined.

The life essence of the human body also possessed an inherent storage location.

That was the place felt to be tingling and numb in the lower back and spine region when men and women performed together and were about to finish.

It was precisely the exact center of the human body's lower back spine bones, also known as the essence sea.

The human body had the essence sea located at the lower back spine, the qi sea located three inches below the navel Dantian, and the spirit sea located at the Yintang point in the exact center of the eyebrows.

These three locations where the human essence, qi, and spirit resided were the three crucial gates of life of the human body, serving as the foundation of human essence, qi, and spirit, and governing one's own essence, qi, and spirit.

Standing upon the high platform, Zhang Xianzhong spoke in a loud voice to these orphan youths, explaining in meticulous detail the basic common sense of martial arts cultivation that was so rarely heard by ordinary people.

It was not that his patience was good, but rather that he had already made up his mind to cultivate some loyal, peerlessly talented orphan youths as quickly as possible for his own use.

To reap their unwavering loyalty in the future, many things had to be done personally, balancing grace with severity, so as to leave an indelible impression in the hearts of these youths.

Having suffered enough of the frustration of having no capable men available under his command, he was now dead set on resolving all of this as swiftly as possible.

Among these youths who had passed the preliminary elimination selection, a large portion would still be unable to pass the hurdle of entering martial arts, and half a month later they would likewise be weeded out and cast aside.

Entering the martial arts was extremely important. Right now he was merely explaining some basic common sense regarding martial arts cultivation, and furthermore, it was restricted to the Body Tempering Realm. What would be imparted later was only the first layer of a basic fist technique, so there was no need to worry about confidentiality or anything of the sort.

"Alright!"

"I will leave these words here for now!"

Having had a somewhat special initial encounter with these orphan youths, Zhang Xianzhong had no wish to continue speaking.

Chiefly, after the intimidation of the recent selection trials, the majority of these youths were still shaken and unrecovered.

If he spoke too much, they might not necessarily remember it.

"You are dismissed to rest for a while. Shortly, the cooks will send over the spirit rice meals, along with a bowl of vitality and blood soup for each person."

Zhang Xianzhong continued in a loud voice, "Even though these precious cultivation resources are only first-level, you are currently nothing more than people who have yet to enter the martial arts doors, and your bodies can only endure the nourishment of this first-level spirit food!"

"After everyone has eaten breakfast, I will personally teach you to carry out the cultivation for entering martial arts."

"I hope you youths who passed the initial screening selection can have some better fortune."

"As long as you can smoothly become martial artists within the next half month, you can become members of our rebel army. So long as you dare to fight and struggle, you can lead a life free from worries of food and clothing henceforth."

He had already made up his mind that for the coming half month, barring any extremely critical situations, he would go nowhere and simply stay in this large courtyard, devoting his utmost effort to teaching these little fellows.

Compared to the matters he plotted for the future, the mob of rebel soldiers currently under his command was simply not worth keeping on his mind.

So long as the three hundred veteran camp soldiers already assembled under his command were well-managed and the money and provisions were securely held, that was enough.

With the supplies in hand, that mob of soldiers was incapable of stirring up any truly massive trouble.

If anyone dared to continue defying military orders, he, Zhang Xianzhong, was not a soft-hearted person either, and they would serve nicely to execute and establish his authority!

Zhang Xianzhong was even looking forward to certain individuals continuing to ignore his warnings and jumping out to make trouble.

This would facilitate his further control over this founding troop, bringing no small benefits for the future.