"All of you, stand straight!"
Wang Shi paced through the ranks with his hands behind his back, his voice loud enough to blow the tops of their skulls off.
He stopped in front of a skinny boy and kicked him in the calf. The boy staggered, then hurriedly gritted his teeth and straightened up again.
Wang Shi swept his gaze over everyone.
"Stance training calls for being relaxed without going slack, tense without going rigid. If your knees go past your toes, your strength leaks away. If your lower back sags, your Qi disperses. All of you, remember this feeling."
He paused, his tone deepening. "Stance arts are the foundation of martial arts. Without a firm foundation, the earth quakes and the mountains shake. Everything that follows is a castle in the air. Don't think this is tedious, and certainly don't think it's useless. Whether you can enter ming jin three months from now depends entirely on how deeply you root this stance."
After Wang Shi's detailed explanation,
Jiang Fa spread his feet shoulder-width apart, sank his waist, and drew his arms in, coordinating with the prescribed breathing pattern as he attempted the first movement of the Mountain-Breaking Stance.
Yet the moment he sank his waist,
he felt something was wrong.
The muscles and tendons along his inner thighs tightened abruptly, as though pulled taut by an invisible rope, and an aching pressure surged through his knees almost instantly.
He gritted his teeth and steadied himself, trying to adjust his breathing, only to find that the rise and fall of his chest could not keep up with the rhythm of his exertions at all. The strain of holding his breath turned his face red.
Remembering it and actually doing it were two entirely different things. His body had yet to fully adapt.
It was like pairing the most advanced processor with the oldest components-the two had yet to settle into sync.
Only a dozen or so breaths had passed.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from Jiang Fa's forehead, and his arms began to tremble slightly.
He stole a glance around and found that most of the others were much like him. Some had legs shaking like chaff in a sieve, some had their backs slumped like shrimp, and others had simply dropped onto their bottoms and were gasping for breath.
"Get up!" Wang Shi's voice cracked like thunder. "Who told you to sit down? Letting your strength slacken midway is the greatest taboo in stance training. Once you sit down, all your earlier efforts go to waste!"
The brocade-clad boy sitting on the ground jolted at the shout and hastily scrambled up to resume his stance, but his legs shook even harder.
Wang Shi walked over with a frown and pressed a hand against his waist. "Straighten your lower back! I didn't tell you to stick your backside out. Sink your waist and settle your hips, hollow your chest and stretch your back. With your back arched like an old cat's, how is your Qi and blood supposed to flow downward?"
As he spoke, he kept adjusting the boy's back and waist with his palms, using enough force with his slaps to make the boy grimace.
"Remember, the key to the Mountain-Breaking Stance lies in one word: 'sink.'"
"Sink your shoulders, sink your elbows, sink your Qi, sink your force. All the strength in your body must go downward and root itself in the earth. Your legs ache and your lower back hurts because your tendons and bones haven't stretched out yet, and your Qi and blood aren't flowing freely yet. Endure it, and you'll be fine."
As Wang Shi spoke, he walked up to another boy, took one look, and kicked him straight in the calf. "Your knees are buckling inward. Are you trying to cripple them? In the Mountain-Breaking Stance, your knees need to press slightly outward. Only then can you sink your force into the soles of your feet instead of trapping it in your knee joints!"
The trainee stumbled from the kick and nearly fell, then hurriedly adjusted his posture.
Wang Shi inspected them one by one. Almost everyone had something wrong with their movements.
Some had their shoulders raised too high, some stuck their backsides out too far, and some had shifted their weight onto their left foot, leaving their whole bodies crooked.
He stopped briefly in front of a girl.
The girl's heart tightened, but she still did her utmost to hold her position, struggling to maintain her precarious stance.
Wang Shi looked her up and down a few times. He did not adjust her himself, merely saying evenly, "Push your knees a little farther outward, sink your waist a little more, and don't hold your breath. Breathe from your abdomen. Let your dantian expand when you inhale and contract when you exhale."
The girl adjusted as instructed,
and sure enough, she felt a little more comfortable. Her thighs still ached and felt swollen, but at least she no longer felt quite so stifled.
Wang Shi said nothing more and moved on to the next person.
Time ticked steadily by.
The sun rose above the eastern city wall, spilling golden sunlight across the training ground and dispelling the morning chill.
Yet the trainees on the field felt no warmth at all. Instead, every one of them was drenched in sweat, their faces flushed.
Several could no longer hold on. Their legs gave way, and they collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.
Wang Shi did not rebuke them. He merely glanced at them and shook his head.
"For the first level of the Mountain-Breaking Stance, the standard duration is one hour."
His voice was not loud, yet it made everyone's heart sink.
"For now, you're doing well if you can last the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Take it slowly. There's no rush."
The time it takes to drink a cup of tea?
Jiang Fa smiled bitterly to himself.
By now, he felt as though his legs no longer belonged to him. Everything below his knees felt filled with lead, aching, numb, and swollen.
The muscles in his lower back were protesting too, as though countless needles were stabbing them.
Worse still, his hands had begun trembling uncontrollably.
Although the Mountain-Breaking Stance was a standing exercise, his arms also had to maintain a specific posture: hands loosely curled into fists at his waist, elbows slightly bent, and shoulders lowered.
The posture looked simple, but after holding it for so long, his arms ached just as badly as his legs.
Jiang Fa gritted his teeth and struggled to hold on.
Only one thought remained in his mind!
Hold on. Just a little longer.
But his body would not obey.
Finally, after lasting a little longer than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Jiang Fa's legs suddenly buckled. He staggered forward a step and nearly pitched to the ground.
He hurriedly braced his hands against the ground, gasping for breath.
"Are you all right, Jiang Fa?"
A voice came from nearby.
Jiang Fa looked up and saw Li Tie.
Li Tie was not doing much better. He was soaked through with sweat, his face was pale, and his lips were slightly blue, but he was still in fairly good spirits and even grinned at him.
"This thing really is murder."
Li Tie shuffled a little closer to Jiang Fa while rubbing his thighs. "I swear these legs won't be able to walk tomorrow."
"Not just your legs." Having caught his breath, Jiang Fa moved his aching shoulders. "I feel like my whole body's about to fall apart."
"You two are done already?"
Wang Dahu's voice came from beside them.
The two turned to look. Although Wang Dahu was also drenched in sweat, his complexion was ruddy and his breathing steady. He looked far more at ease than they did.
"You..." Li Tie's eyes widened. "How are you not tired at all?"
"I am. Of course I'm tired."
Wang Dahu chuckled, walked over, and sat down too.
"But I've done farmwork since I was little-carrying water, chopping firewood, all of that. I can handle this much hardship."
Jiang Fa nodded thoughtfully.
Indeed, although the Mountain-Breaking Stance was difficult, its demands on physical strength were not particularly high. It was more a test of bodily coordination and muscular endurance.
Although he had also done farmwork since childhood, everyone's constitution differed, after all. Someone built like Wang Dahu was naturally fitter than most and would have an easier time adapting.
As for those young masters and young ladies from wealthy families, who normally lived in pampered comfort, suddenly undergoing such intense training would probably be even harder on them.
Jiang Fa turned to look the other way. Sure enough, Liu Wen was slumped on the ground, his face deathly pale and his forehead covered in cold sweat. He kept rubbing his calves, his expression pained.
"What are you looking at?" Noticing Jiang Fa's gaze, Liu Wen cursed under his breath.
Jiang Fa could not be bothered with him and looked away.
"Look, everyone! Qin Xuan is actually still holding on!"
A startled cry rang out across the training ground.