The New Year had passed, and life at the martial arts school returned to its old rhythm.
Stance training, boxing, eating, sleeping. Newcomers arrived, old hands left. Everything was as it had always been, yet somehow, everything seemed different.
Xu Qing had stopped training, and Wu Mingyuan never returned either.
Ever since the Wu Clan's merchant ship had been robbed on the Yellow Dragon River last year, dealing the Wu Clan a crippling blow, Wu Mingyuan had never come back to the martial arts school.
Some said the Wu Clan had called him home. Some said he simply no longer wanted to stay at the school. Others said he was helping manage the family business. No one knew what had truly happened. In any case, someone else had long since taken the spot where he usually practiced his stance.
Xu Qing improved every day, changing with each passing day.
He said nothing, yet everyone could sense that something about him was changing. It was not a sudden transformation overnight, but a gradual accumulation, drop by drop, day by day.
His gaze had grown deeper, deep as a bottomless well. His steps had grown steadier, as though nailed to the ground. His fists had grown heavier, so heavy that even Zhao Yan, who exchanged moves with him, would sometimes reveal a look of astonishment.
He rose before dawn every day and was still training after night had fallen.
Where others practiced once, he practiced ten times. When others rested, he kept training. The blue bricks in the inner courtyard's Martial Arts Arena had been replaced several times, and now he had worn pits into them again.
The medicine he took had changed from Qi and Blood Pills to Mighty Origin Pills, and his medicinal broth had been changed to a new