After half a day at full speed, everyone had seen Ye Chuqi's extraordinary stamina. They were so exhausted they could barely stand, while her breathing hadn't even changed.
Kang Nan, eager to learn, asked Ye Chuqi how she usually trained. She had been meaning to give Xiaojiu some pointers anyway, so she told Kang Nan too.
And so, before he'd even had a chance to rest, Kang Nan found himself holding a horse stance beside Xiaojiu.
Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
Ye Chuqi took pity on Kang Nan, since this was his first taste of such torment, and let him stop after thirty minutes. Sprawled on the ground, he continued to question every choice he'd ever made. Then he saw Xiaojiu still holding on and silently swallowed all his complaints.
Xiaojiu rolled his eyes. The fierce look he gave Kang Nan made his contempt unmistakable. On his first day, he'd held the horse stance for a full hour before collapsing. Granted, afterward he'd looked much like Kang Nan did now—a dead fish—and could barely walk the next day.
Though Xiaojiu had never trained systematically and was younger than Kang Nan, growing up in the wild had given him a much stronger body. After days of practice, he could hold a horse stance for two hours with ease. His back didn't ache, his legs didn't hurt, and he had a spring in his step.
When the other Intermediate Class students raised doubts, Ye Chuqi told them to spar with Xiaojiu. No techniques, just brute strength: they had to see if they could push him over.
Not only did Xiaojiu stay on his feet, the little rascal caught on quickly and used their own momentum to throw every opponent down. In the blink of an eye, five