Early the next morning, while the sky was still gray, Qin Geng set out for Crouching Ox Alley.
After entering the back courtyard of the Ye Residence, Qin Geng glanced toward the stables out of habit, but Xiao Wei was nowhere to be seen.
Qin Geng figured he had left and thought no more of it.
Qin Geng spent the morning with a single-minded focus.
Apart from feeding the horses, hawks, and hounds, chopping firewood, and carrying water, he spent every spare moment on that patch of open ground.
As his Martial Artist realm grew more stable, his understanding of Xingyi Dragon and Tiger deepened. He broke down and rebuilt the Coiling Dragon stance and the fierce Clawing Strike over and over, each repetition coming more naturally than the last.
At noon, he ate the Ye Residence's usual special ration of meat.
Fed and watered, Qin Geng picked up the food box and made a brisk trip to Master Zhu Xin's place to deliver his meal.
The round trip, plus the journey to the Ye Residence, added up to eighty or ninety li in scattered stretches.
An ordinary Carriage Driver pulling a cart that far would have ended up with his calves cramping.
But Qin Geng felt wind beneath his feet and warmth surging through his body. He had barely broken a sweat.
At that moment, the Way Cultivator experience displayed on the Book of a Hundred Trades rose by eight points.
Qin Geng glanced at the numbers. His feet kept moving, but his thoughts turned inward:
Just walking around like this gives me experience.
It comes slowly, but a trickle can run a long way.
If I want to improve quickly, though, I still need to go somewhere dangerous.
*The Way Cultivator trains the legs, but it's also about