Iron Sand Gloves

The day after the martial tournament, Qian Duoduo came to the Ye Family.

He arrived very early, reaching Willow Lane at the break of dawn, followed by two Qian Family servants who carried a rosewood chest. The chest was not particularly large, yet it was quite heavy, and the two servants carried it with sweat beading on their foreheads.

Ye An was practicing his martial arts in the courtyard when he heard the knock on the door and walked over.

Qian Duoduo stood at the entrance, wearing a brand-new brocade robe.

Seeing Ye An, Qian Duoduo grinned and stepped aside, letting the two servants carry the chest into the courtyard. "My family asked me to bring this."

The rosewood chest sat in the center of the courtyard, its lid flipped open to reveal porcelain bottles and silver ingots neatly arranged inside.

"Two hundred Body Tempering Pills, three hundred taels of silver." Pointing to the contents of the chest, Qian Duoduo introduced them one by one. "And there's one more item, which my father specially commissioned someone to procure from Clear River Commandery."

He retrieved a long, strip-shaped wooden box from the bottom of the chest and handed it to Ye An with both hands.

Ye An took the wooden box with a hint of curiosity and opened it.

Inside lay a pair of gloves, not made of ordinary leather.

They seemed to be crafted from some special material using exquisite workmanship.

Thin as cicada wings, the silk gloves had a dark gray, nearly transparent appearance. The fingertips of the gloves were thickened by a layer, and touching them yielded a rough texture, resembling fine sandpaper.

Ye An took out one of them and put it on his right hand. The glove fit perfectly, as if this pair had originally been Ye An's own skin.

The tactile sensation at his fingertips was exceptionally acute, allowing him even to feel the fine, raised pattern on the surface of the glove.

This meant that even while wearing this pair of gloves, Ye An would not suffer any significant reduction in his sense of touch toward other objects.

"What are these called?" Ye An asked.

"Iron Sand." Qian Duoduo felt a trace of small pride.

"Though not of the spirit grade, they're far superior to the mortal-grade high quality. The Iron Sand Gloves are woven from ice-silkworm silk and iron sand powder. The ice-silkworm silk is light, thin, and breathable, not hindering finger flexibility, while the iron sand powder clings to the fingertips, making every single finger strike carry three-tenths more force than usual."

Ye An flexed his fingers. The gloves expanded and contracted with his movements without the slightest obstruction.

The Iron Sand Gloves felt like skin born with Ye An, completely unaffected in finger movement.

"Good stuff." Ye An understood that the Qian Family had invested quite a heavy sum.

Seeing Ye An's fondness, Qian Duoduo thought to himself that this gift had not been chosen wrongly.

"As long as you like them."

Qian Duoduo counted the items in the chest once more, closed the lid, and sat down on the Shi steps in the courtyard.

For a moment, the two of them ran out of topics, especially Qian Duoduo, who seemed somewhat different than usual at this moment.

Feigning interest in the old locust tree in the courtyard, Qian Duoduo nearly burst into tears. "Ye An, you know what? My father said that without this mine, the Qian Family wouldn't be the Qian Family."

Ye An quietly listened to his complaints—the first friend he had made at the martial arts hall.

"I grew up in the Qian Family, and ever since I was little, I knew the mine was the lifeline of the Qian Family."

"But I never knew what the Qian Family would become without the mine. That night, when I got up to use the latrine in the middle of the night, I saw my father sitting in his study for the entire night. The lamp stayed on, and he didn't move an inch. I had never seen him look like that before."

Qian Duoduo never dared to look at Ye An, afraid that seeing him would make him unable to hold back his tears.

"Do you know what he told me afterward? He said, 'Duoduo, the most correct thing you've done in your life was inviting Ye An to be a retainer.'"

Qian Duoduo almost let snot run down, but luckily he pinched his thigh and held it back.

"Ye An, thank you."

Watching Qian Duoduo's expression, Ye An offered no comforting words, nor did he need any.

Ye An recalled when he had first broken through to the initial Body Tempering stage; Qian Duoduo's medicinal pills had always arrived right on time every month.

Back then, Qian Wanguan still did not acknowledge him, yet Qian Duoduo bore considerable pressure to provide him with cultivation resources.

"Don't thank me too early," Ye An joked. "I haven't reached the third Body Tempering stage yet."

Qian Duoduo froze, then smiled and praised, "Ever since you entered the martial arts hall, I've watched that persistent diligence of yours. The third Body Tempering stage is just around the corner for you!"

Seeing that his mood had improved, Ye An ignored him, walked over to the rosewood chest, and put on the Iron Sand Gloves.

The Iron Sand Gloves conformed to his fingers like a second layer of skin. Extending his right index finger, Ye An aimed at a Shi slab in the courtyard and lightly poked it.

"Thud."

A finger-hole appeared on the Shi slab with smooth edges and no cracks. Inner strength seeped inward along his fingertips, and stone powder drifted out from the hole, falling onto the courtyard floor.

Watching this scene, Qian Duoduo dropped his jaw and sighed in admiration.

"Awesome! If I had that level of skill..." Qian Duoduo drifted into fantasy.

Ye An compared the difference between wearing and not wearing the iron sand.

The reinforcement of the Iron Sand Gloves was even better than he had imagined; not only had his strength increased somewhat, but his force exertion had also become much more concentrated.

The iron sand powder at the fingertips condensed his inner strength into a single point, preventing it from scattering or leaking, driving the entire force into the interior of the target.

"Dream less, work harder," Ye An replied mercilessly.

Ye An took off the Iron Sand Gloves and carefully placed them back into the wooden box. Two hundred Body Tempering Pills, three hundred taels of silver, and a pair of Iron Sand Gloves. These resources were enough to bring him to perfection in the Body Tempering Realm.

Sending Qian Duoduo off, Ye An returned to his room and tallied the resources. He stored the items away in the hidden compartment beneath his bed, placing them alongside the silver taels he had saved previously. Now, he lacked no resources—only time.

The silver could provide quite a bit for his family; for Ye An, having food and Body Tempering Pills was enough.

The next day, Ye An went to the martial arts hall as usual.

Upon walking through the main gates, he spotted several newly arrived martial hall initiates practicing horse stances, their faces flushed red and their fingers somewhat swollen.

At a glance, it was clearly the result of practicing the Azure Cloud Finger.

Seeing Ye An enter, their horse-stance postures instantly straightened, their voices booming as if shouting a drill command.

"Hello, Senior Brother An!"

"Good morning, Senior Brother An!"

Ye An nodded in greeting.

The new disciples looked at Ye An with bright eyes.

Ye An's exploits were legendary: High-Grade C bone-structure, advancing from the first to the second stage in four months, and defeating the late second-stage Body Tempering Zhao Heng on behalf of the Qian Family.

As for how he won, it was only known that Ye An broke the enemy with a single finger!

Some said Ye An had an epiphany on exquisite finger techniques, others claimed Ye An relied on family-inherited movement arts, and still others maintained Ye An was simply lucky.

It just so happened that Zhao Heng hadn't eaten breakfast that day... Opinions varied widely, but one point needed no further debate—Ye An won!

To them, these events sounded like a legend. And the legend was standing right in front of them now, nodding in their direction.

Zhao Tieshan was practicing his martial arts when he saw Ye An enter, walking right over to greet him.

"Junior Brother An, I heard about that affair at the mine." Striking Ye An's shoulder with a moderate amount of force, Zhao Tieshan praised, "Defeating a late second-stage Body Tempering cultivator at the early second stage—you're the first one I've ever seen."

Ye An knew Zhao Tieshan's praise was always down-to-earth; if he said something was impressive, he genuinely believed Ye An was impressive, without any hollow pleasantries.

Su Qing walked over from the side, still holding a strip of unspooled cloth.

Looking Ye An up and down and finding him unharmed, she spoke with a hint of a smile.

"Little Junior Brother, not bad at all. Went out for a fight, and now you won't even spare many words when you get back?"

Ye An offered a greeting. "Hello, Senior Sister."

"Next time you fight, call me. I want to see just what level I can fight at, too."

Hearing this, Ye An finally understood why Qian Duoduo said Su Qing had a violent temper.

It turned out to be true.

Yet Ye An dared not voice it aloud.

The mockery duo stood under the corridor, remaining silent.

Zhou Yuanlong had been in the martial arts hall for so long, yet he remained just the same.

Meanwhile, Ye An, having arrived at the hall merely a few months ago, had already reached heights beyond Zhou Yuanlong's reach.

Neither of them had successfully broken through to the second Body Tempering stage.

"So what if he's at the second Body Tempering stage? The current head of my Zhou Family has reached meridian-opening—mere second-stage Body Tempering is nothing." Zhou Yuanlong was comforting himself once more.

Lin Shaoyun leaned against a corridor pillar with a blank expression on his face.

Ye An's defeat of Zhao Heng was beyond his expectations.

Yet no matter how strong the second Body Tempering stage was, it was still only the second.

Lin Shaoyun withdrew his gaze; his own target was the third Body Tempering stage.

At that moment, the back courtyard door swung open.

Su Yuanshan walked out, wearing a somewhat faded green robe, holding a teacup, his face expressionless.

Standing beneath the threshold, his gaze swept across the training grounds and paused on Ye An.

"Ye An, come inside for a moment."

The air on the training grounds seemed ignited by something.

"Is the hall master going to personally instruct Senior Brother An?"

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"Has Senior Brother An's strength reached the point where the hall master needs to take action personally?"

"Usually, the hall master only instructs the senior brother, second senior brother, and Senior Sister Su, because they are all at the second Body Tempering stage. Now that Senior Brother An is also at the second Body Tempering stage, isn't it only natural for the hall master to guide him?"

"But the hall master actively called him inside—that's different!"

Discussions surged from all directions.

Ignoring them, Ye An followed Su Yuanshan into the back courtyard.

Compared to the front training grounds, the back courtyard appeared exceptionally tranquil.

The shadows of the old locust tree fell in mottled patches upon the ground. Su Yuanshan sat down in a bamboo chair and gestured toward a nearby Shi stool.

"Sit."

Ye An sat down.

Taking a sip of tea, Su Yuanshan set the teacup down on the Shi table and looked at Ye An.

"Extend your hand."

Ye An held out his right hand.

Su Yuanshan grasped his wrist, pressing three fingers against his pulse gate.

Su Yuanshan's fingers were ice-cold, resting merely against the skin, yet Ye An felt a slender and delicate force seep in from his pulse gate, meandering through his meridians like a small fish.

This force coursed through his arm, shoulder, and chest before retreating.

Release his hand, Su Yuanshan picked up his teacup and took another sip.

"Your foundation is more solid than I anticipated."

"To what extent have you practiced the third tier of the Azure Cloud Finger?"

"Demonstrate it for me."

Hearing this, Ye An stood up, walked over to the iron plate, took a deep breath, and thrust out a finger.

"Clang—"

A white mark remained on the iron plate, slightly deeper than the previous days, but still far from shattering. Inner strength gushed from his fingertips, scattering along the surface of the iron plate without managing to drill inside.

Looking at that white mark, Su Yuanshan nodded slightly.

He walked behind Ye An, reached out, grasped Ye An's right arm, and stroked downward inch by inch from shoulder to wrist.

Every time his fingers passed a joint, they paused.

"When you exert force, your shoulder moves first, followed by the elbow, then the wrist, and finally the fingertip."

Releasing his grasp, Su Yuanshan walked in front of him. "Force travels from the shoulder to the fingertip, passing through three joints in between. With every joint it crosses, a tenth of it is lost. By the time it reaches the fingertip, less than seventy percent remains."

Ye An listened meticulously.

"The third tier of the Azure Cloud Finger doesn't rely on brute force. It's about sending power directly from the shoulder to the fingertip, bypassing the elbow and wrist." Su Yuanshan raised his right hand, keeping his index and middle fingers together, aiming at the iron plate.

"Watch closely."

Without exerting strength, Su Yuanshan merely performed a finger-thrust motion—a motion deliberately executed so slowly that Ye An could clearly see the movement trajectory of every single muscle on his arm.

Su Yuanshan's shoulder lowered slightly, and power transmitted directly from his scapula to his forearm. With his elbow and wrist barely moving, his fingertips were already positioned right before the iron plate.

"Understood?"

Ye An remained silent for a moment, recalling the movement before replying, "Understood."

Mimicking the hall master's posture, Ye An stepped before the iron plate, closed his eyes, and replayed Su Yuanshan's movements in his mind.

Shoulder, forearm, fingertip—three points connected into a single line.

The elbow and wrist did not exert force, but instead acted as conductors.

Power emerged from the shoulder, passed through the forearm, and delivered directly to the fingertip without any superfluous pauses in between.

Opening his eyes, Ye An thrust out a finger.

"Clang—"

The white mark on the iron plate was a fraction deeper than before.

The force had grown greater; the loss had grown smaller.

This was the accumulated experience of predecessors.

Nodding in approval, Su Yuanshan retrieved a thin booklet from his sleeve and handed it to Ye An.

The booklet consisted of only a dozen pages, the paper yellowed and the corners curled, covered densely in handwriting.

"These are some insights I've accumulated over the many years of practicing the Azure Cloud Finger. Force exertion, breath regulation, and strength-channeling techniques are all in here. Read it yourself, and ask if there's anything you don't understand."

Taking it with both hands, Ye An flipped through two pages.

Detailed annotations explained the application through various difficult bottlenecks.

Su Yuanshan had broken down and pulverized every key point of each tier of the Azure Cloud Finger, writing them out on paper.

Where errors were easily made, where details were easily overlooked, and where shortcuts could be taken were all written down with absolute clarity.

"Thank you, Hall Master."

Waving a hand, Su Yuanshan returned to his bamboo chair and picked up his teacup. "Go practice."

Ye An nodded in gratitude once more.

Su Yuanshan sat alone in the back courtyard, listening to the sounds of martial arts practice drifting from the front.

His eldest disciple, Zhao Tieshan, had failed three attempts to break through to the third Body Tempering stage, and his morale was no longer what it used to be.

Lin Shaoyun possessed fine innate talent, but he was still some distance away from the peak of the second stage, and his mind was not in the martial arts hall, always longing to venture out into a grander world.

He had originally assumed Lin Shaoyun would be the one among this batch of martial hall disciples who traveled the furthest.

Yet now, there was an additional Ye An.

Su Yuanshan took a sip of tea, closed his eyes, and enjoyed the beauty of this moment.

Ye An came out of the back courtyard and returned to the front courtyard.

Everyone on the training ground was looking at him, and the newcomers' eyes held curiosity and adoration.

After coming out, Ye An did not show off, nor would he keep a high profile.

He walked to a corner, placed the booklet given by Su Yuanshan on the stone Shi beside him, set up a slab of iron, and began to practice.

"Clang--" "Clang--" "Clang--"

The sound was neither hurried nor slow, just like before.

The new trainees looked at his back, and a surge of enthusiasm welled up in their hearts.

"Senior Brother An is already this formidable, yet he still practices like this."

“When he first came to the martial arts hall, his bone structure was High-Grade C, and nobody looked favorably upon him.”

“Yet he did it. First-stage Body Tempering, second-stage Body Tempering, and defeating Zhao Heng for the Qian Family.”

"When will I ever be able to be like Senior Brother An?"

“Never mind first-stage Body Tempering, can you just get your horse stance right first?”

The bodies of several newcomers were still practicing basic techniques, but their minds had already drifted elsewhere.

Who wouldn't want to step forward when others fell into a low valley? Who wouldn't want to stand up and prove they could do it when everyone thought they couldn't?

Ye An had done it, and they wanted to do it too!

By evening, Ye An finished his practice, put the iron slab back against the corner of the wall, picked up the booklet, and went home.

His father was not in the courtyard, probably still not back from the sundry shop.

His eldest brother was still reading inside the room, reading every single character with great earnestness.

After returning to his room, Ye An opened the booklet and read it page by page.

Su Yuanshan's handwriting was very small, but every stroke was clear.

For the first layer of the Azure Cloud Finger, he wrote down the points of force application, the force-bearing surfaces, and the angle of the fingers.

The second layer detailed the conduction path of inner force from the Dantian to the fingertips.

The third layer, meanwhile, wrote about the balance between power and control.

When Ye An saw the third layer, he paused.

Su Yuanshan had written a sentence above it.

"The crux of the third layer: if strength is lacking, speed can make up for it. If speed is lacking, strength can make up for it. When both are lacking, it cannot be made up."

Did the two complement each other?

Ye An recalled the movement Su Yuanshan demonstrated today.

Although it was intentionally very slow, the loss of power transmitted directly from the shoulder to the fingertips was extremely minimal.

How long would it take to comprehend the secret within this?

[Azure Cloud Finger (Third Layer): 84/500]

Ye An was not sure, but Ye An understood that he only needed time to grind it out.

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