After leaving the Precious Ganoderma Hall, Jiang Fa did not linger in the streets.
Four Blood Condensation Pills and five packets of Blood Strengthening Powder weighed heavily inside his robes, and he had less than two taels of silver left in his pocket.
He felt no pang of regret.
Better to spend silver on the blade's edge where it mattered than leave it molding in his pocket.
By the time he returned to the martial hall, it was nearly eleven in the morning.
The sun blazed over the training ground, baking the bluestone paving hot. A dry, dusty smell filled the air.
Several inner court disciples were practicing their punches bare-chested before ironwood posts. Someone noticed Jiang Fa enter, spared him a glance, then looked away and went back to training hard.
Jiang Fa walked to the southeastern corner of the training ground, where there was a relatively quiet patch of open space. Two waist-high ironwood posts stood nearby, their surfaces worn glossy and smooth by fists and feet.
He took a Blood Condensation Pill from inside his robes.
The pill felt slightly cool in his hand, its surface smooth as porcelain. Up close, he could smell a rich medicinal fragrance, far more pleasant than the bitter scent of Blood Strengthening Powder.
He tipped his head back and swallowed the pill.
Within a few breaths of the pill slipping down his throat, a warm current rose from his lower abdomen.
It was not the scorching, restless heat of Blood Strengthening Powder, but a gentle, lasting warmth, like a small stove sitting in his dantian, steadily radiating heat.
Jiang Fa settled his mind and assumed the opening posture of the Mountain-Breaking Stance's second layer.
He bent his knees and lowered his center of gravity, sinking deeper than in the first layer.
Following the formula in Zhao Zhong's annotations, he pressed the force throughout his body downward, into the soles of his feet, into his Yongquan acupoints, until it felt as though his feet had rooted three feet beneath the bluestone slabs.
Then he tried to slowly lift that sunken force.
This was the core of the second layer,
Lifting Jin!
The deeper it sank, the more fiercely it rose.
Just like drawing a bow: the farther back the bowstring was drawn, the farther the arrow flew.
Jiang Fa closed his eyes and focused on the warm current in his dantian.
The Blood Condensation Pill's medicinal potency was slowly releasing, flowing through his meridians like a warm stream.
He tried to guide that warmth downward with his mind, gathering it in his feet and merging it with the Sinking Jin, then sending it surging back up from his soles, along his calves, knees, thighs, waist, and hips, all the way upward.
The process was slow.
Each time he used the Lifting Jin, he could feel the muscles in his legs trembling slightly. His knees ached and felt swollen, as though someone were tapping his kneecaps again and again with a little hammer.
Sweat seeped from his forehead, ran down his cheeks, and dripped onto the bluestone, where the sun soon dried it, leaving faint white rings.
He did not stop.
Once, twice, three times...
The force traveled upward through his waist and hips, passed through his spine and shoulder blades, and finally gathered in his arms.
Jiang Fa's eyes snapped open, and he pushed his right palm straight out.
The palm strike was not fast-it could even be called slow-but as the wind from his palm passed, the air actually gave a low, muffled thump.
It was not the fierce, domineering air blast of the Mountain-Breaking Fist, but a deeper, more lingering sound, like the thunderous, muffled reverberation beneath the surface when a great rock sank into a deep pool.
It worked.
Jiang Fa withdrew his palm and stood still, his heart pounding in his chest, not from exhaustion, but from an excitement he could not quite put into words.
He closed his eyes and sank into his mind, and the panel quietly appeared.
[Mountain-Breaking Stance (Mid Yellow Grade) · Second layer (8/500)]
He had gained six points in a single morning.
The Blood Condensation Pill's medicinal potency truly was beyond anything Blood Strengthening Powder could compare with.
He was just about to practice the stance again before the medicinal potency dissipated when footsteps suddenly sounded behind him.
"Jiang Fa!"
Jiang Fa released his stance and looked back.
A slightly chubby young man was walking toward him with a beaming smile,
His face was round and his eyes small, narrowing into two slits when he smiled. He looked quite amiable.
He was Xu Feng, one of the disciples who had entered the inner court in the same batch as Jiang Fa.
On the day of the assessment, he had been behind Jiang Fa in line. His stance had been reasonably steady, but his blood and Qi had clearly been less robust than Jiang Fa's, and he had barely passed.
"Senior Brother Xu." Jiang Fa cupped his fist in greeting.
"No, no, none of that senior brother business. We entered the inner court in the same batch, and I'm actually two months younger than you."
Xu Feng waved a hand, walked up to Jiang Fa, and looked him up and down, clicking his tongue.
"Jiang Fa, your stance training really is impressive. I was watching from a distance for quite a while. Your stance is steadier than mine. Back in the outer court, you were the most diligent of all thirty-odd of us."
Jiang Fa wiped away his sweat and said casually, "Just a slow bird taking flight early. My aptitude isn't as good as other people's, so I can only practice a few more times."
"Listen to you. If you're a slow bird, what does that make me? A stupid pig?"
Xu Feng laughed at himself, then changed the subject,
"By the way, Jiang Fa, are you free tonight?"
"What is it?"
Xu Feng leaned half a step closer and lowered his voice. "There are only a handful of us in this batch of new inner court disciples. You know what Qin Xuan's like-he wears a long face all day. It's hard enough just trying to exchange a word with him."
"Xu Xiaomeng is nice enough, but she's a girl, after all, so some things aren't convenient to talk about. Ma Ping and Zhao Chuan are good for a few words, but that's about it. Of all these people, you're the one I've taken to most."
He paused, putting on a warm smile. "So I was thinking, we're fellow disciples who entered in the same batch, after all. We'll be seeing each other all the time, so we ought to get acquainted. Dinner's on me tonight. I'll book a table at the Immortal Gathering Pavilion, and we new disciples can get together. First, we can get to know everyone, and second, we can discuss taking up nominal posts in the future. What do you think?"
Jiang Fa considered briefly, then nodded. "All right."
"Great!"
Xu Feng's smile grew even brighter, and he patted Jiang Fa on the shoulder,
"Then it's settled. A quarter to seven, in a private room on the second floor of the Immortal Gathering Pavilion. I've already made the reservation. Oh, I haven't asked Xu Xiaomeng yet. I'll go now."
With that, he turned and jogged away, his round body bobbing along like a fat squirrel hurrying off to forage.
Jiang Fa watched his figure disappear around a corner of the training ground, then withdrew his gaze and assumed the Mountain-Breaking Stance again.
The Blood Condensation Pill's medicinal potency had not fully dissipated, and the warm current in his dantian was still flowing slowly.
He settled his mind and worked through the Lifting Jin he had just grasped once more, from beginning to end.
This time, it flowed somewhat more smoothly than before. As the force surged back up from his soles, the sense of obstruction at his knees had lessened considerably.
Five in the afternoon approached, and the sky gradually darkened.
The disciples on the training ground drifted away one after another. Jiang Fa released his stance, returned to his room to wash his face, changed into clean clothes, and left through the martial hall's main gate.