Chen Erniu's death weighed like a heavy stone on the hearts of everyone in the outer courtyard.
But life had to go on.
As some left, others naturally arrived.
The martial arts school had no fixed schedule for taking in disciples.
Nearly twenty disciples arrived in the new batch, filling the vacancies left by the previous batch of "old disciples."
In the new disciples' eyes, Jiang Fa's batch were already "old hands."
Another senior brother from the inner courtyard, named Zhang Qi, took over teaching this batch.
Zhang Qi had a violent temper and liked giving people nicknames, never calling anyone by their name.
When teaching boxing, he made them stand as punishment for minor mistakes and beat and berated them for serious ones, leaving the new disciples in untold misery.
The dawn gong rang as usual, and everything seemed unchanged.
Yet it also seemed that things had changed without anyone noticing.
Li Tie grew less talkative.
During breaks in training, he had always been the one who talked the most.
Every so often, he would pinch his voice thin and imitate Liu Wen's snide tone, making Wang Dahu laugh so hard he could not straighten up.
But these past few days, he rarely spoke, and his mind wandered while practicing his punches.
Several times, he stopped halfway through a move and stared straight at the ground, remaining distracted all day.
When Jiang Fa asked what was wrong, he only shook his head and forced a faint smile. "Nothing. I just haven't been sleeping well."
Wang Dahu was hardly any better.
His boxing form grew increasingly loose, and he looked increasingly dispirited. Even when Jiang Fa called him to the dining hall, he begged off, saying he had no appetite.
Jiang Fa did not press him.
Everyone had hurdles they could not get past. Some questions could not be asked, and some burdens could only be shouldered alone.
He opened his last packet of Blood Strengthening Powder, tipped his head back, and poured it into his mouth.
He had grown used to the bitter medicinal taste, and the searing medicinal potency churned in his belly.
He closed his eyes, steadied his breathing, and felt the medicinal potency merge into his body bit by bit.
The numbers on his panel rose slowly, like droplets falling into a stone vat. No change was visible, yet they were steadily accumulating.
[Talents: Heaven Rewards Diligence, Learning Inevitably Bears Fruit] [Realm: None] [Cultivation arts: Mountain-Breaking Stance (Mid Yellow Grade) · First layer (177/200), Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art (Heaven Rank, Upper Grade) · First stage 102/1000)] [Martial arts: Mountain-Breaking Fist (Mid Yellow Grade) · Entry (196/200)]
The first layer of Mountain-Breaking Stance is almost at perfection. I'll soon be able to break through to Ming Jin. Seven-Colored Glazed Glass Art is progressing too, and Mountain-Breaking Fist is about to reach minor achievement!
As he looked at the information on the panel,
Jiang Fa's heart burned with anticipation.
After slogging through more than two months, his breakthrough was finally at hand. Even he could not help feeling excited.
Of the twenty taels of silver he had been spending, after food, lodging, and medicine, and including his own small savings, he had less than three taels of loose silver left.
He still had one last Blood Condensation Pill. By his estimate, it should be enough for him to break through to Ming Jin.
The three-month deadline drew closer by the day.
The atmosphere among the old disciples in the outer courtyard grew heavier each day, like a bowstring stretched to its limit.
Some continued to persevere, while others chose to leave.
The first to leave was a boy named Chen Ping.
He lived in the room next to Jiang Fa's. His aptitude was low, and his family was poor. His father had sold their plow ox to scrape together his tuition.
Sometimes he trained until midnight, his whole body as thin as a bamboo pole.
But his aptitude was what it was. No matter how much he trained, his blood and Qi simply would not rise.
Then came the Zhao brothers.
They were twins, both with low aptitude. After more than a month at the school, they still had not established a firm foundation in the first layer of Mountain-Breaking Stance.
On the day they left, the older brother stood crying at the school gates. The younger brother tugged his sleeve without saying a word, simply pulling him away.
Next were Zhou Wen, Wu Xiaoliu, and Zheng Shitou.
The rooms in the outer courtyard grew emptier by the day, and the dining hall's porridge tubs dwindled from the original three to two.
A few days before the three-month deadline, Li Tie did not come to morning practice.
Jiang Fa thought he had overslept, so after finishing the first round of stance training, he went back to the rooms to find him.
But when he pushed open the door, he saw Li Tie slowly folding a few old garments and stuffing them into a bundle.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up, his eyes red.
"Jiang Fa." His voice was hoarse, as though a wad of cotton had been stuffed into his throat. "I have to go home."
Jiang Fa leaned against the doorframe without speaking.
"My father had an accident at work last month. Some stone crushed his leg and broke it. The owner of the masonry shop gave him two taels of silver and sent him away. He's lying at home now. He can't even get out of bed."
Li Tie tied his bundle shut and tugged hard at the knot, his knuckles turning white.
"I still have two little sisters at home. One has only just learned to walk, and the other is still nursing. Mother can't hold everything together alone, and I'm not cut out for martial arts anyway. I thought... I might as well give it up..."
After speaking, he fell silent for a while, then took an oilpaper parcel from his bundle and handed it to Jiang Fa.
"I brought these from home. I could never bring myself to eat them." He pulled at the corners of his mouth, trying to smile, but could not.
"I saved half a piece each for you and Dahu. They're nothing special, just some sesame sugar cakes my mother made."
Jiang Fa accepted the oilpaper parcel and held it in his hand. A trace of warmth still lingered in it.
"I'll see you off."
"No need."
Li Tie shouldered his bundle and walked to the door, then stopped again.
He did not turn around. He simply stood with his back to Jiang Fa, his shoulders trembling slightly, as though words were lodged in his throat that he could not get out.
With that, he strode out of the room and never looked back.
Jiang Fa stood in the empty room, looking at Li Tie's bed, now stripped to its bare boards, for a long time.
Wang Dahu left three days later.
He gave no advance warning. One afternoon, he simply packed his bundle and sat outside the room, waiting for Jiang Fa to return.
"Word came from home."
Wang Dahu's voice was muffled, as though it rose from underground.
"My mother's sick. She let it drag on for over half a month. Only when she really couldn't manage anymore did she have my younger brother make a trip to the county town. The physician said it wasn't anything serious, just exhaustion, but she needs rest."
He hoisted his bundle onto his shoulder and stood up. Half a head taller than Jiang Fa, he cast a long shadow in the setting sun.
"Actually, to tell the truth..."
He paused, scratched the back of his head, and forced an awkward smile.
"Even without this, I was planning to leave. You've seen it yourself. The more I practice my stance, the more crooked it gets, and I can't keep up with the boxing either. Lately, I keep thinking that maybe I really am not suited to martial arts."
Jiang Fa wanted to say something, but Wang Dahu raised a hand to stop him.
"Don't comfort me. I might be a bit stupid, but I still know how much I'm worth. After what happened to Chen Erniu, I figured it out. Not everyone can make it down this road. I don't have the talent or the fate for it. If I stubbornly keep going, I won't be the only one to suffer in the end. I'll drag my parents down too."
He patted Jiang Fa's shoulder, his large, rough hand landing with a heavy weight.
"Keep training hard. Of the three of us, you work the hardest, your boxing is good, and your comprehension is the best. You have to make it into the inner courtyard."
With that, he wiped his face, turned, and left.
Jiang Fa opened the parcel of sesame sugar cakes Li Tie had left.
The cakes had dried out and hardened. A single bite could scatter crumbs across a whole table.
In the final few days before the assessment, fewer than ten "old disciples" remained in the outer courtyard.
Jiang Fa looked around. Only a sparse handful of familiar faces remained on the training grounds.
Some still buried themselves in grueling practice. Others simply smashed the already cracked pot, sitting at the foot of the wall and basking in the sun as they waited for the final deadline.
Jiang Fa took the celadon bottle from inside his robe and tipped out the last Blood Condensation Pill. Its medicinal fragrance assailed his nose, several times stronger than that of Blood Strengthening Powder.
Jiang Fa tipped back his head and swallowed it.
The Blood Condensation Pill's medicinal potency was scalding, like a stream of red-hot molten iron flowing down his throat into his stomach before exploding.
Jiang Fa abruptly sank into the Mountain-Breaking Stance, adjusting his breathing and keeping his body at a particular rhythm.
He clenched his teeth, veins bulging across his forehead.
His feet seemed to have taken root, nailed firmly to the ground.
An indescribable feeling of swelling surged simultaneously from every part of his body, as though something beneath his flesh were about to break through the soil.
Then the warm current abruptly contracted, gathering entirely in his dantian before bursting outward again, surging wildly through his meridians at a speed he had never experienced before!
Jiang Fa's eyes snapped open.
He threw a punch.
The wind of his fist tore through the air with a low, whistling howl.
That gust swept past an old locust tree three zhang away, shaking several leaves clean off its branches and sending them fluttering down.
"Abundant blood and Qi, strength projected outward-Ming Jin!"