New Playstyle

The next day.

Li Yun went about his usual escort duties, returning to the martial arts hall once finished.

He bought a packet of Blood Replenishing Powder and threw himself into practicing the Tiger-Subduing Stance.

[Tiger-Subduing Stance (Entry): 796/5000]

[Tiger Subduing Fist (Minor Accomplishment): 503/10000]

The accumulation of his blood and qi was still crawling along at a snail's pace.

However, if he could continue to obtain Blood Replenishing Powder from time to time as he had today, he might just accumulate enough blood and qi by the end of the year to condense Bright Force.

Compared to other senior brothers who couldn't break through for years, that would be much better.

His brief life-or-death struggle with He Xiuyong yesterday had caused his fist technique proficiency to surge by nearly two hundred points.

If he were to...

No!

Li Yun immediately suppressed the suicidal thought in his mind.

After finishing his practice, Li Yun found his second senior brother, Xiao Shun.

He handed over the remaining silver he had on him: "Senior brother, I'd like to pay my tuition for this stage."

Xiao Shun took the silver, nodded without a word, and prepared to leave.

Looking at Xiao Shun, he noticed that unlike the faint smile he always wore, there was something different today.

Li Yun could sense the underlying tension.

As a personal disciple, Xiao Shun spent his days running errands by Fu Huaixing's side.

Fu Huaixing was like an "old scumbag," suddenly taking in a "closed-door disciple" who would eventually inherit everything, leaving Zhu Daqi as the successor.

It was inevitable that Xiao Shun would feel a sense of disparity.

Li Yun had originally wanted to ask him to teach him the next stage of the Tiger Subduing Fist.

However, since it would ultimately require Fu Huaixing's approval, he didn't call out to him.

Li Yun was not in the habit of showing off, so he planned to find Fu Huaixing later that evening.

Instead, he turned and deliberately sought out Yu Qingqing to chat for a while.

Before long, a group of energetic sycophants found all sorts of excuses to spar with Li Yun.

Li Yun refused none of them.

"Senior brother, Senior Sister Yu looks so beautiful when she smiles."

"Senior brother, Senior Sister Yu said she likes my type."

"Senior brother, Senior Sister Yu is so cute when she skips around."

"..."

The sky gradually darkened.

In the corner.

Li Yun was drenched in sweat, his martial arts uniform soaked through, beads of perspiration dripping onto the ground to form small wet patches.

He slumped against the corner, his back pressed against the cold stone wall; the chill seeped through his clothes, slightly suppressing the scorching heat radiating from his body.

Sparring wasn't just about comparing moves.

It was about circulating blood and qi and engaging in real, hard-hitting combat.

Moreover, these animals were practically itching to beat Li Yun into a pulp.

Except for the martial arts hall rules forbidding killing, they were truly hitting him with the intent to maim.

However, with his Tiger Subduing Fist at Minor Accomplishment, Li Yun's blood and qi accumulation, while not as thick as the senior brothers who came to spar, had not lost to any of the Body Tempering Realm brothers who came looking for trouble.

Of course, there were times he got hit.

Those were all sycophants who had already reached Bright Force and lacked any sense of martial honor.

Relying on their deep blood and qi, they would play defensively and force Li Yun into a corner.

It was a pyrrhic victory, a brutal head-on collision.

They had agreed before starting to hold back their strength, but not a single one of them kept their word.

Fortunately, he had a bottom line in his heart and hadn't truly used his full strength.

He rested for a while.

Seeing that the people in the Subduing Tiger Martial Hall had mostly left.

Li Yun then slowly walked toward Fu Huaixing.

Since the day he joined the martial hall, he had seen Fu Huaixing lying on a grandmaster chair once.

After that, Li Yun had never seen Fu Huaixing lying in the outer courtyard again.

Only after entering the inner courtyard did he realize.

Fu Huaixing had moved the grandmaster chair directly into the inner courtyard to personally instruct Zhu Daqi every day.

"Daqi, now that you have condensed Bright Force.

While accumulating blood energy, you can begin to slowly comprehend Dark Force."

Halfway through his sentence, Fu Huaixing stopped and turned to look at Li Yun.

Fu Huaixing still had some impression of this disciple.

He had joined the martial hall on the same day as Zhu Daqi.

Perhaps because he was a hunter by trade, his physique was decent, and he had luckily opened the blood energy channels on his body surface in just over three months.

However, his aptitude was inferior, and he had to divide his attention to earn money.

Without the support of external forces, it was conservatively estimated that he would need three years, or even more, to break through to Bright Force.

Only then would he have a chance to achieve full blood energy and attempt to knock on the gate to condense Bright Force.

"Is something the matter?"

"Master, while sparring with my fellow disciples, I felt that my fist technique has improved.

I would like to ask Master to teach me the next stage of the fist technique."

Li Yun raised his hands in a salute and said respectfully.

Upon hearing this, Fu Huaixing could not help but be somewhat surprised.

It wasn't that there were no disciples who had reached minor completion in Tiger Subduing Fist, but if he remembered correctly, this kid had only been learning the combat techniques for a little over a month.

And he had already reached minor completion?

Fist techniques were not like stance training.

For stance training, even if one's aptitude was poor, as long as one had a little bit of money, progress could be very fast.

But for fist techniques, other than long periods of practice, it depended entirely on comprehension; there was no other way.

Fu Huaixing walked up to him and, without wasting words, directly signaled for Li Yun to spar.

True or false, a test would reveal the truth.

"Come."

"Yes."

Li Yun knew his own weight; in any case, he couldn't hurt Fu Huaixing.

He unleashed his Tiger Subduing Fist at minor completion to its fullest extent.

Taking a deep breath, he stomped his feet hard against the ground, his figure like a coiled tiger, pouncing forward with an unstoppable momentum.

Fu Huaixing was unhurried, dropping his shoulders and sinking his elbows. With just a light block of his hand, he precisely stuck to Li Yun's fist.

The wind of the fists whistled, and after dozens of exchanges, he confirmed that Li Yun's Tiger Subduing Fist had reached minor completion.

Fu Huaixing's gaze shifted from initial skepticism to astonishment, then to affirmation, and finally to gratification.

Bang!

With one punch, he gently pushed Li Yun back:

"Not bad, the Tiger Subduing Fist has indeed reached minor completion."

Standing to the side, Li Yun withdrew his stance and thought to himself:

It seems this must be what the Second Senior Brother mentioned before—combining hardness and softness, moving as one.

Just now, every time he threw a strike, Fu Huaixing would see through it in advance.

No matter where his fist aimed, it felt like hitting a mass of fluffy cotton, with all his force completely dissipated.

That feeling of being constrained everywhere, with every move predicted, was rather uncomfortable.

"Not bad, not bad.

It seems that for the year-end tournament, our Subduing Tiger Martial Hall can reserve a top-three spot for the Body Tempering Realm match.

Perhaps even first place is not impossible.

Work hard; if you truly win first place, there will be rewards."

Having confirmed that Li Yun's Tiger Subduing Fist had reached minor completion, Fu Huaixing was quite pleased.

If Li Yun manages to secure a good ranking, the reputation of the martial hall will improve.

The more apprentices they can recruit.

And naturally, the more money they will earn.

Fu Huaixing looked toward Zhu Daqi, who was standing to the side:

"Daqi, go to the backyard, stew the Monster Beast Meat with the Blood Ginseng, eat it, and then practice your stance."

"Yes, Master."

Zhu Daqi cupped his hands, glanced at Li Yun with a smile and a nod, then turned and left.

He remembered Li Yun, as well as Wang Xiaofei.

The three of them had joined the martial hall on the same day.

Yet their fates had diverged.

He was now a genius Bright Force martial artist, the closing disciple of the Subduing Tiger Martial Hall, adorned with all sorts of glory.

As for Wang Xiaofei, no one knew where he had gone.

And as for Li Yun, he could just be treated as an ordinary junior brother.

After dismissing Zhu Daqi, Fu Huaixing turned to face Li Yun:

"Your Tiger Subduing Fist has reached minor completion; your movements have taken shape and your blood and qi follow your strikes. Today, I will teach you the next stage of techniques.

However, I must remind you that the Tiger Subduing Fist and the Tiger-Subduing Stance complement each other.

You must never become obsessed with the fist techniques and neglect your stance training.

Only when techniques are bolstered by the strength of blood and qi can they possess true power.

This is also why everyone places such great importance on blood and qi."

As he spoke, Fu Huaixing began to demonstrate.

He set his feet into a half-horse stance, raised his hands to his chest with palms facing each other as if holding a round ball, then moved his right hand in a clockwise circle and his left in a counter-clockwise circle, his waist and hips rotating in sync with his arms:

"The fourth move of the Tiger Subduing Fist: Tiger Tail Silk-Winding."

"The fifth move: Fierce Tiger Disarms Armor."

"The sixth move: Subduing Tiger Lying in Pool."

Li Yun followed behind him, beginning to learn.

[Tiger Subduing Fist: +1]

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