Inner Power Cultivation Method

The contract was three pages long, crammed with dense writing. Duan Rong had inherited the original owner's memories and could barely make out this punctuationless script.

He skimmed through it quickly, reading only a few key clauses.

Six months as an apprentice, three years as a trainee, four years of service.

Including the three months as a menial disciple, nearly eight years would be gone.

The contract also stipulated the monthly pay for each stage. Duan Rong merely glanced at it before signing and pressing his fingerprint.

The contract was naturally full of overbearing terms. Even if one died during those eight years, there would not be a single coin of compensation or pension. But he had no room to bargain at the moment.

If he did not sign, he could only go back to being a menial disciple!

As for six months of apprenticeship, three years of trainee work, and four years of service—

That was how every trade operated.

Even in Duan Rong's previous life, with its modern industrial and commercial system, some traditional folk arts still worked this way.

When all was said and done, there was nothing wrong with it.

After all, the debt owed for being taught a skill was greater than heaven itself. Who would teach you for free?

Kong Bin was still reading the contract when he suddenly saw that Duan Rong had already signed and pressed his fingerprint. He immediately caught on, roughly skimmed a few sections, then signed and pressed his own fingerprint as well.

Seeing that the two had signed so quickly, Xiao Zongting's expression shifted slightly. In previous years, those boys had always dawdled; some would ask this and that.

But the outcome was always the same: sign, or get lost!

These two boys were so decisive that he could not help viewing them in a new light.

Xiao Zongting checked where they had signed and pressed their fingerprints, put away the two contracts, then took two tattered booklets from his robes and tossed them onto the low table. "These are copied secret manuals of the Five Tigers Herd Sheep Saber. Go read them in the courtyard and figure them out yourselves first. I'll take the contracts to the Inner Courtyard."

Xiao Zongting put away the contracts and walked to the door, then suddenly turned back. "Don't look at the forms in the front yet. Carefully study the Inner Power Cultivation Method in the back. When I return, I'll focus on explaining how to get started with the Inner Power Cultivation Method."

"Inner Power Cultivation Method?" Duan Rong's heart gave a sudden leap at those words.

Over the past few days, although he had devoted nearly all his energy to stance training, building strength, and practicing forms in preparation for the assessment, he still could not help pondering the Five Tigers Herd Sheep Saber's Inner Power Cultivation Method whenever he stood in stance.

Among the entry-level Five Tigers Herd Sheep Saber experience he had absorbed were the complete stance training method and the circulation method for the first level of inner breath that matched the forms.

Yet after several days, he still had not figured out what inner breath actually was. Nor had he had the time to rack his brains and delve deeply into this mystery.

Duan Rong and Kong Bin each picked up a battered secret manual with curled covers and torn corners, then walked excitedly to the Stone Table in the courtyard and began reading intently.

The booklets might have been worn and tattered, but these were genuine Martial Arts secret manuals!

Duan Rong first skimmed through the secret manual.

The first half contained all thirty-six forms of the Five Tigers Herd Sheep Saber, while the latter half contained the entry-level Inner Power Cultivation Method—the first level of the Inner Power Cultivation Method.

The realms of Martial Skills were divided into entry level, proficiency, Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishment, subtle mastery, and perfection.

Of these, the first four realms each had a corresponding Inner Power Cultivation Method.

That was because the inner breath cultivated by these four methods was a circulation technique of lesser vehicle Martial Arts, commonly called the lower four levels of cultivation methods.

This secret manual contained only the circulation method for the first level of inner breath at the entry-level realm. The circulation methods for the following three levels were entirely absent, so it was not a complete set of secret manuals.

With a little thought, Duan Rong understood the crux of it. Zhao Mu was already a Trainee Escort and had even begun escorting shipments, yet he was still only at the entry-level realm. It was clear that progress in Martial Arts was like grinding away at an iron rod until it became a needle.

This incomplete copy alone was enough to occupy an ordinary martial artist for one or two years, perhaps even several.

Having figured that out, Duan Rong opened the secret manual and began carefully reading the section on the Inner Power Cultivation Method.

Between the secret manual's descriptions and the entry-level experience he had absorbed, many things that had once eluded him now broke apart one by one like bamboo splitting before an axe. Yet several barriers still left Duan Rong deeply puzzled.

He rose several times and stood in stance, attempting to circulate his breath, but he still could not enter the state.

It was like being highly skilled at driving, yet not knowing how to open a car door.

If you could not get inside the car, no matter how skilled you were, you could not put that skill to use.

And perhaps opening the car door had been too simple in the experience Duan Rong had absorbed, leaving no trace of it behind.

By the time Xiao Zongting returned to the courtyard in the Back Courtyard, the time it took to burn an incense stick had already passed.

As soon as Xiao Zongting entered, he saw Duan Rong and Kong Bin seated before the Stone Table.

Kong Bin kept flipping through the book and scratching his head, his face full of confusion. Duan Rong, meanwhile, sat there with his gaze fixed on a spot in empty air, lost in deep thought.

Xiao Zongting coughed and limped over to stand before them.

The two turned around, rose from either side of the Stone Table, and looked at Xiao Zongting.

"Finished reading the secret manuals? Tell me, what are your thoughts?"

Both looked at the ground in silence.

"What is inner breath related to?" Xiao Zongting fixed them with an interrogating stare.

Kong Bin immediately lowered his head even further. After pondering for a moment, Duan Rong suddenly met Xiao Zongting's gaze and answered, "Breathing and blood circulation."

Xiao Zongting was slightly taken aback, then nodded. "What else?"

Duan Rong hesitated, not daring to speak recklessly.

Kong Bin kept his head lowered and shot Duan Rong a sidelong glance.

Xiao Zongting was already quite satisfied with Duan Rong's answer. To understand this much in only the time it took to burn an incense stick showed that the boy's intelligence and comprehension truly surpassed those of his peers.

No wonder he had stood out among all those menial disciples!

As for someone like Kong Bin, who knew nothing when asked three questions, that was the normal reaction.

"Actually, it is also related to Mental Strength." Xiao Zongting paused, then added, "What I'm about to say is crucial. Listen carefully, both of you."

"Mental Strength?" For some reason, when Xiao Zongting spoke those words, Duan Rong's heart began pounding hard, as though he were about to seize hold of something critically important.

Xiao Zongting's somber voice rang through the sunlit courtyard.

"You must deeply and delicately sense the way you breathe, as well as the state of your blood and qi circulating throughout your body."

"So-called inner breath is born where breath and blood qi meet."

"Feel carefully. Within the lungs, where breath and blood qi intersect and merge—in that hidden place, in that fleeting instant—lies the cradle where strand after strand of inner breath is born."

"Focus your spirit and soul. At the instant that strand of inner breath is born, merge with it, control it, and make it circulate through your blood vessels along a certain route!"

"This is inner breath and inner power!"

Xiao Zongting's words were like a door opening within Duan Rong's heart.

Duan Rong felt as though he had been hollowed out, his entire body suddenly clear and transparent!

Standing there, he naturally closed his eyes and assumed the Perfectly Round Stance.

The inner breath circulation that had always eluded him now began moving on its own, as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Duan Rong sank into the faint joy rising within his heart...

As Xiao Zongting continued speaking, he suddenly turned his head and saw Duan Rong standing in the Perfectly Round Stance.

It was the same stance, but once inner breath began circulating, there was a visible difference in the way it looked.

Kong Bin beside him could not see it, but Xiao Zongting saw it at a glance.

"This is?" Xiao Zongting's expression changed, shock flooding his heart. "This... he's already succeeded in forming the stance?"

"This kid is too damn... freakish! I only explained a few sentences, and he succeeded the moment he stood! What kind of damn talent is that?"