Stealing Martial Arts, Fierce Tiger Fist!

Elsewhere.

Little Five noticed something strange as well.

Today, his strength had surged while chopping wood. With a casual swing of his axe, he could chop off a thick branch.

Even after loading the wheelbarrow full of firewood, he had not collapsed from exhaustion, nor had he felt the despairing fatigue that usually plagued him.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been almost impossible.

Little Five stared at the axe in his hand in shock, his eyes filled with disbelief. "Could this axe really adapt to the grain of the wood?"

Mo Chen's words surfaced in his mind. Turning his head, Little Five saw that Mo Chen had already filled his wheelbarrow with firewood.

This time, Little Five was completely convinced.

"Brother Mo really didn't lie to me!"

Little Five now admired Mo Chen so deeply that he nearly wanted to embrace him in gratitude and thank all eighteen generations of his ancestors.

Ever since he had been sold into the Landowner Lu Estate a year ago, not a single day had he been able to finish his wood-chopping task with ease.

Every day, he was exhausted half to death. At night, lying in bed, he was even afraid he would not wake up the next morning.

But now, Little Five inexplicably felt a little more confident.

"With this old axe, I won't have to worry about being worked to death anymore!"

Seeing Little Five looking at him gratefully, Mo Chen smiled faintly. "Well? This old axe is useful, isn't it?"

Little Five nodded wildly like a pecking chick. "Useful! It's incredibly useful!"

Mo Chen smiled, then glanced at Li Dazhuang and Shi Yong before warning him, "Remember, this is our secret. You absolutely cannot tell them."

Little Five immediately covered his mouth and nodded hard, terrified that Shi Yong would ask for the axe back.

"Well, well! You two brats chopped pretty fast today!"

Shi Yong had just finished chopping his own wood. After wiping away his sweat, he was about to rest for a while.

But the moment he turned around and saw that Mo Chen and Little Five's wheelbarrows were full, he cried out in surprise.

"Brother Shi, you only saw that we filled our carts. You didn't see how the two of us nearly gave up half our lives doing it!"

Mo Chen plopped down onto the ground, putting on an exhausted act.

Little Five was quick-witted too. He immediately began panting heavily. "Brother Mo, if I ever die from exhaustion, please help collect my corpse."

Mo Chen nodded. "No problem, no problem. When the time comes, I'll even set up a gravestone for you. It'll read—Great Mystic Woodcutter, Wang Xiaowu's Grave!"

Little Five's eyes lit up, and he perked right up. "That's good, that's good! Great Mystic Woodcutter—how domineering!"

With the two of them joking around like this, Shi Yong's suspicions gradually faded, and he could not help laughing as he teased them.

"Enough, Little Five. Great Mystic Woodcutter, my ass. With that tiny bit of firewood you chopped, it'd be embarrassing even if you worked yourself to death."

Just then, Li Dazhuang pushed his cart over.

"Let's go, let's go! We need to get back before dark. If we miss the time, the city gates will close, and we won't be able to get in."

Mo Chen cast Li Dazhuang a rather helpless glance. They had only just sat down to rest for a moment, yet they were already being urged onward again.

Still, Mo Chen knew Li Dazhuang was telling the truth.

Once night fell and the sky darkened, Yunyi County's city gates would close.

One reason was to guard against the bandits and robbers outside the city; the other was to prevent the wild beasts in the surrounding area from entering the city to eat people.

"Fine. The sooner I get back, the sooner I can find a chance to learn martial arts."

With that thought, Mo Chen gathered his strength again and pushed his cart after Li Dazhuang.

Everyone in the Chore Servant Courtyard was asleep.

Snores rose and fell one after another.

The stench of sweat mixed with the smell of feet, making Mo Chen, whose heart was full of thoughts, cover his nose as he lay awake.

He looked left and right. Once Mo Chen saw that all the other servants were sleeping like dead pigs, he quietly got dressed and slipped outside.

"I wonder whether any of the estate guards are working overtime to practice martial arts tonight?"

There was only one month left until the estate's martial competition.

The reward of fifty taels of silver, along with the chance to follow the Second Young Master to the Martial Suppression Academy and broaden one's horizons, would definitely stir many people's hearts.

Mo Chen had snuck out tonight precisely to gamble on whether the guards on night duty would be doing extra training, so that he could secretly learn a move or two.

The moon shone bright while the stars were sparse.

Crickets chirped without pause.

Beneath the shadows by the wall, Mo Chen ran forward on tiptoe.

Before long, he reached the front courtyard. Before he could climb the wall, low shouts came from next door.

"Fierce Tiger Leaves the Forest!"

"Furious Tiger Roars!"

"Black Tiger Steals the Heart!"

"Hungry Tiger Pounces on Prey!"

Mo Chen's spirits lifted. "There really is someone training extra?!"

Excited, he scrambled up the wall in a few quick movements and lay prone atop it, peeking over.

There he saw:

In the courtyard, a burly man dressed in a black estate guard's uniform was tumbling, clawing, and throwing punches like a fierce tiger.

At times, both claws shoved mountains aside; at times, he planted his feet and twisted his waist; at times, fists struck as knees crashed forward; at times, he bent low like a drawn bow.

The entire set of movements howled with the wind, fierce and forceful.

Merely watching him brought enormous pressure upon Mo Chen, as though he had been fiercely targeted by a starving, savage tiger.

If I stood in front of him, one move would probably be enough for me to extort compensation from him!

Mo Chen watched and memorized with ravenous hunger, even secretly mimicking the movements with both hands to deepen his memory.

He possessed the Martial Arts Master System. As long as he remembered all the movements of this fist technique, he could go back and spend money to cultivate it.

RMB warriors were terrifying indeed, but my memory leaves something to be desired.

After watching it once, Mo Chen had only remembered a rough outline.

Fortunately, the burly man in the courtyard showed no intention of stopping. After finishing one set, he began another.

From time to time, the man would even pause to ponder his movements and the angle at which he exerted force, giving Mo Chen ample time to memorize and understand.

The burly man performed the fist technique seven or eight times in total before finally stopping, panting heavily.

"My Fierce Tiger Fist has been at the minor accomplishment level for three years. If I can become more proficient in the techniques of exerting force over this next month and strike with tiger intent, I should be able to break through to major accomplishment!"

A major accomplishment fist technique would definitely place one among the finest of the estate guards.

There were twenty estate guards in total, yet only three had cultivated a fist technique to major accomplishment.

One was the chief guard, and two were deputy chiefs.

And he was about to become the fourth!

The burly man could not stop himself from grinning. "Once my Fierce Tiger Fist reaches major accomplishment, the strength of my entire body's muscles will surge, joining together as one. Then I'll achieve major accomplishment in Flesh Tempering and begin Skin Tempering. One of the top three spots in the estate competition will surely bear my name!"

He did not dare compare himself to the chief guard in the Sinew Tempering Realm, but compared to the two deputy chiefs who had only just begun Skin Tempering, he believed that aside from the toughness of his skin and membranes, he was no weaker than them in any other respect.

After resting for a while, the burly man began practicing stance training and basic skills again.

Stance training used motionless standing, combined with specific breathing patterns and body postures, to adjust the body and strengthen one's physique.

Long-term stance training could strengthen the body, improve the digestive system, correct one's posture, and cultivate mental vigor and bearing.

It also had a certain therapeutic effect on mental strength and insomnia.

Mo Chen lay atop the wall, staring unblinkingly at the burly man's movements.

Seeing the man stand still with long, even breaths and his chest rising and falling, Mo Chen immediately understood that this method of standing and breathing had to be extremely important.

"Martial arts novels say: train the sinews, bones, and skin externally; train a breath internally. Is he regulating his breathing in that stance to cultivate qi?"

Mo Chen took it extremely seriously and imitated the other man's breathing rhythm.

"Exhale—inhale—"

"Exhale—inhale—"

Suddenly, footsteps sounded from the direction of the Chore Servant Courtyard.

Mo Chen's breathing stalled. He glanced back, then immediately kicked off with both legs and dropped from the wall, hiding behind a nearby millstone.

A moment later, a burly figure approached while hunched over and moving stealthily.

He swept his gaze over the surrounding night, then nervously climbed up the wall.

"It's him!" Mo Chen was slightly stunned when he saw the newcomer.