Instructor Wang's Gratitude

Chen Jing held the porcelain bottle, but his heart gave a stir.

Instructor Wang had said one Blood-Qi Pill could equal three months of bitter training. Could it directly raise the proficiency of the Fierce Tiger Stance?

What he lacked most right now was time. After the Fierce Tiger Stance had reached the level of entering the hall, if he wanted to train it to the next stage, he needed to fill up 2,000 proficiency points.

If he relied on himself, training day and night without cease, it would still take three or four months.

If he could use the Blood-Qi Pill to push forward a bit, then this really was like meeting a pillow just as drowsiness struck.

Wang Chong clearly had no intention of letting everyone take the Blood-Qi Pills home and enshrine them.

With a sweep of his large hand, he had everyone take and refine the Blood-Qi Pill right now.

"Pour the pill out and swallow it in one gulp. Then hold the stance, and use the Fierce Tiger Stance's method of circulating blood and qi to digest the medicinal power."

When everyone heard this, they all did as instructed.

Wang Chong paced back and forth through the ranks, giving pointers as he walked. "Don't be in such a hurry to use brute force. The medicinal power spreads outward. You need to use the force of your stance to wrap it up, then guide it bit by bit into your dantian."

"Take it slowly. You can't rush it."

"This thing's medicinal nature isn't fierce, but its aftereffect is long and lingering. If someone can't hold the stance and can't contain their qi, failing to refine it cleanly is just a waste."

Chen Jing pulled out the stopper and turned the porcelain bottle upside down.

A dark-red pill the size of a soybean rolled into his palm. It was perfectly round, and when he brought it close, he could smell a faint, fishy sweetness.

He took a deep breath, tossed the pill into his mouth, and swallowed it in one gulp.

The instant the pill entered his stomach, a hot current exploded from his lower abdomen.

The feeling was somewhat similar to the hot current that came when a martial art broke through, but it was gentler and denser.

Chen Jing immediately assumed the posture of the Fierce Tiger Stance, knees slightly bent, chest tucked and back drawn up, sinking his breath into his dantian.

Wang Chong's rough voice carried from afar into everyone's ears:

"Do you feel that heat? That's the Blood-Qi Pill's medicinal power. Don't let it scatter into your limbs."

"Use the stance force to hold it, follow your breathing, guide it upward, run it along the spine, pass through the jiaji, enter the niwan, then sink it back down from above into the dantian."

"Just cycle it like this again and again until you've refined all the Blood-Qi Pill's medicinal power cleanly."

Chen Jing followed his instructions and adjusted his breathing.

He used his intent to guide that hot current upward along his spine.

Where the hot current passed, his muscles trembled slightly, as if every tendon and meridian was being gently plucked by an invisible pair of hands.

He could clearly feel his blood and qi growing fuller bit by bit under the urging of that hot current.

And on the panel, the Fierce Tiger Stance's proficiency was also jumping upward at a speed visible to the naked eye.

One point, two points, three points...

The numbers did not jump quickly, but the advantage was that they kept going without stopping.

The drill ground was silent. Everyone was immersed in the state of refining the medicinal power, with only Wang Chong's occasional guidance and a few bird cries in the distance.

Those who had not received a Blood-Qi Pill stood at the edge of the drill ground, watching eagerly.

Zhao Tianli leaned against the weapon rack with his arms crossed, his gaze sweeping back and forth over the old soldiers standing with their eyes closed.

"If I'd known, I would've joined the bandit suppression too."

He said in a low voice to Liu Xiaolan beside him, "My Fierce Tiger Stance has reached minor accomplishment now too. If I could get a Blood-Qi Pill, maybe I could go a step further."

Liu Xiaolan glanced at him, a trace of unwillingness in her tone as well. "You're already training fast enough. These past few days, I feel like I've gotten stuck at a bottleneck. No matter how I train, I can't break through that barrier. My legs go numb from standing the stance, but my blood and qi just won't move."

Zhao Tianli nodded, looking thoughtful.

"I was stuck for a day or two too."

"When you get down to it, stance training is just finding the right fulcrum for force and blood-qi. Find it, and water arrives, the channel forms. Fail to find it, and you just keep spinning in place."

"This thing is hard to explain clearly. Everyone feels it differently."

Sun Tiezhu stood beside the two of them, scratched the back of his head, and looked completely blank. "What's the bottleneck you're talking about?"

Zhao Tianli and Liu Xiaolan looked at him at the same time, then shifted their gazes away at the same time, tacitly saying nothing.

Wang Chong moved through the ranks, checking everyone's refining progress one by one.

When he reached Chen Jing, his steps suddenly stopped.

Chen Jing stood the stance with his eyes closed, the blood and qi throughout his body surging and steaming under the urging of the medicinal power.

His breathing was long and powerful, his chest rising and falling slowly with each breath. Looking closely, his whole person unexpectedly carried the towering air of a crouching tiger seated upon a mountain.

Wang Chong's pupils shrank slightly, and in his heart, stormy waves towering to the heavens rose.

Only then did he realize that Chen Jing had actually practiced the Fierce Tiger Stance to the point of entering the hall and reaching the inner chamber!

Back when he was in the border army, which of those soldiers had not stood in stance training for more than half a year before they could even touch the threshold of entering the hall?

But the boy before him, counting from the day he began training until now, had spent less than two months in total.

Less than two months, and his Fierce Tiger Stance had entered the hall and reached the inner chamber.

This boy truly had talent!

Wang Chong suppressed the shock in his heart and did not make a sound to disturb him. He merely stood to the side and took a few more looks.

Then he turned and continued checking on the others.

Chen Jing did not know how shocked Wang Chong was.

He was immersed in the state of refining the medicinal power, his perception of the outside world growing hazy and sluggish, all his mind focused on guiding that stream of heat.

Following the method Wang Chong had described, he let the medicinal power travel along his spine five or six times. Each pass was smoother than the last, and with each pass, more of the medicinal power was absorbed into his sinews, bones, blood, and flesh.

Only when the final trace of heat had completely merged into all his bones did he slowly end the stance and open his eyes.

Breathing out a mouthful of turbid air, Chen Jing felt as though his whole body had been soaking in a hot spring for an entire day, every joint suffused with an indescribable ease.

His strength had risen again. When he clenched his fist, his knuckles cracked and popped, and the muscle lines on his arms were clearer than before.

Most important was the proficiency on the panel. He could not wait to glance at it.

The Fierce Tiger Stance's proficiency had risen by a full five hundred points.

Five hundred points! Chen Jing was endlessly excited. That meant this morning's work alone was equal to nearly a month of bitter training before.

Instructor Wang had said one Blood-Qi Pill was equivalent to three months of hard cultivation, and that was not wrong either. After all, the others were not as painstakingly diligent as Chen Jing.

Chen Jing felt that this Blood-Qi Pill truly was a good thing. If he could get a few more, pushing the Fierce Tiger Stance to major accomplishment would not be an extravagant hope.

The morning passed.

Everyone successively finished refining the medicinal power.

Those who had taken Blood-Qi Pills were all glowing with vigor, their faces ruddy, and even their voices carried a few more measures of full-bodied energy than when they had arrived.

The ones who had not taken any looked at their changes, their eyes nearly turning red.

Wang Chong gave a few more instructions about the points to pay attention to in tomorrow's training, then let everyone disperse.

Chen Jing was just about to leave when Wang Chong called out to him from behind.

"Chen Jing, stay a moment."

Chen Jing stopped and turned around.

Only after everyone else had gone far away did Wang Chong take another porcelain bottle from his robes and hand it to him.

This porcelain bottle was exactly the same as the one in Chen Jing's hand. Its wax seal was intact, and the body of the bottle glimmered faintly with porcelain light beneath the sun.

"This Blood-Qi Pill is for you."

Chen Jing froze for a moment and did not reach out to take it.

He looked at the porcelain bottle in Wang Chong's hand, then at Wang Chong's face, and shook his head.

"Instructor Wang, this should be your reward. How could that be all right?"

Wang Chong's face turned stern, and he pushed the porcelain bottle a little farther forward.

"How could it not be all right? You saved my life. I, Wang Chong, am not the sort of man who doesn't know how to repay a debt. Take it!"