The two exchanged a glance, perhaps emboldened by the sudden increase in power, and charged toward Uncle Nine together.
Uncle Nine remained calm and composed. With a light step, his figure floated back several meters as lightly as a willow catkin, avoiding the attack from both men.
"Ah!" Wen Cai shouted, unleashing his "Farmer's Three Punches" at Uncle Nine's face.
"Hmph! Watch how I teach you to fight! Fight like this!" Uncle Nine caught Wen Cai's fist, glared at him, and said, "How can you throw a punch with your eyes closed like that?"
As he spoke, Uncle Nine shifted his feet, quickly approaching Wen Cai, and with a flick of his wrist, deftly grabbed his joint.
"Capture him!" Uncle Nine shouted, and with a quick pull, Wen Cai stumbled.
Before Wen Cai could even regain his footing, Uncle Nine's other hand had already patted his Jianjing acupoint as if by a shadow, with just the right amount of force.
"Go with the flow, use their strength against them!"
Wen Cai felt a gentle yet irresistible force surge towards him, and he involuntarily knelt on the ground.
Seeing that Wen Cai had been defeated by Uncle Nine in a single move, Qiu Sheng quickly circled around from the side and launched a series of kicks at Uncle Nine's back.
Uncle Nine lowered his head and swept his feet across the ground, causing Qiu Sheng to lose his balance.
"The lower body is the foundation; if the foundation is unstable, the whole body will be in chaos!"
"There's also the element of surprise attacks from behind!"
Seeing that Wen Cai had let his guard down, Uncle Nine grabbed his wrist and twisted it hard, instantly knocking Wen Cai to the ground.
"Remember, strength is the foundation, skill is the key, and mindset is the essence. All three are indispensable!" Uncle Nine clapped his hands and gave a few words of advice after quickly defeating the two men.
Wen Cai and Qiu Sheng, rubbing the spots where Uncle Nine had touched and pinched them, stood up, grimacing. After exchanging a glance, they replied in unison, "Disciples have learned their lesson!"
They didn't feel much pain when they fell to the ground, but their master's seemingly light pointers felt like a force drilling into their bones, causing them to gasp in pain.
After his body tempering, he was filled with an inflated sense of pride, thinking "I can take on ten of them." But Uncle Nine's two moves completely wiped that out, leaving him only with a heart full of shame. Just having brute strength wasn't enough; he couldn't even throw out a decent move in front of his master.
"It's good that you know the pain." Uncle Nine stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes softening, the sternness from before gone. "Getting cocky just because you have strength is no different from a baby with a knife. Go practice horse stance for half an hour first, get your lower body stable before you talk."
"Yes!" The two dared not say another word, obediently walked to the corner of the yard and stood in a horse stance, their backs straight, not daring to slack off in the slightest.
Half an hour passed quickly. Normally, if the two of them were to tie their legs like this for this long, their legs would be incredibly sore, but today they felt surprisingly relaxed.
Wen Cai stretched his legs and exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? My legs don't feel sore at all!"
Qiu Sheng was also surprised to find that, instead of feeling sore, he felt a warm current flowing under his feet, making him more stable.
"Alright, that's enough. You two go to sleep now, and get up to exercise when it's light!" Uncle Nine saw that it was already late and there wasn't enough time to exercise much anyway, so he told the two of them to go to bed.
After dawn
Lin Yu finished his night of cultivation and had just stepped out of his room when he heard gusts of wind from punches coming from the courtyard.
Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw Wen Cai and Qiu Sheng practicing boxing. Although they could be seen practicing at other times, it was always because Uncle Nine forced them to, and their movements were sluggish and perfunctory.
They were clearly not in the right state this morning; they were unusually serious and focused when they were boxing.
"Hey, is the sun rising in the west?" Lin Yu joked with a smile.
"Junior brother, this medicinal bath is truly miraculous!" Wen Cai said excitedly, putting down his fist and standing up.
"Indeed, I feel like I'm getting stronger every moment," Qiu Sheng echoed.
He can feel his power increasing with every punch he throws, and he doesn't get tired at all; it's a truly addictive feeling.
If things had continued like this, how could he have possibly slacked off?
"This is because the medicinal bath unlocks your potential, which is why you feel your strength increasing rapidly. It will slow down after a while as you adapt," Lin Yu explained.
"Ah! So this feeling won't last long!" Wen Cai was a little disappointed. He thought it would last forever, which would mean he would be invincible in no time.
Uncle Nine also sternly admonished from the side, "What are you daydreaming about! Cultivation is like rowing against the current; if you don't advance, you fall behind. Today's efforts are the foundation for tomorrow."
"Get ready, I hope you can hold on!"
To prevent the two from developing the habit of being "ambitious but incompetent," Uncle Nine decided to give them some intensive training.
For the next few days, Wen Cai Qiu Sheng truly lived a life worse than death, practicing from the moment they opened their eyes until they closed them.
Even those whose constitutions were strengthened after the medicinal bath were exhausted and too tired to even utter a word.
"How's it going, senior brother? It feels great to get stronger every day, doesn't it?" Lin Yu teased, as the two finally had a chance to rest for a while.
Qiu Sheng rolled his eyes at Lin Yu. He was too exhausted to even argue and lay on the ground like a dead fish.
At this moment, Lin Yu noticed that a woman seemed to walk in through the main entrance.
"Master, someone's here," Lin Yu reminded Uncle Nine.
Upon hearing this, Uncle Nine stood up and went to greet him.
"Miss, is there anything I can help you with?"
The woman, wearing a pink hair clip and a purple top, asked gently, "Master, is there any place here to adopt spirit infants?"
When Uncle Nine learned that the woman had come to adopt a spirit infant, he quickly replied, "Yes, adopting a spirit infant can accumulate good karma."
Upon hearing this, Lin Yu looked at the woman's familiar attire and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes. This time, since Wen Cai Qiu Sheng hadn't made any mistakes, how could this woman still find her master here to adopt the spirit infant?
"Sister, you don't look like you're from this town. Where are you from?"
Upon hearing this, the woman smiled gently and said, "Little brother, I am a servant from the Marshal's Mansion in the next town. My young mistress is pregnant, and I heard from Partridge that spirit infants can be adopted here, so I would like to invite one back to bless my young mistress and her child with safety."
"I see. Then please come with me." After learning the situation, Uncle Nine invited the woman to the Hall of the Spirit Infant.
Uncle Nine approached the group of spirit infants and explained the rules for adopting them to the woman, "Miss, you can choose any of the spirit infants here, but remember, adopting a spirit infant requires sincerity."
Lin Yu observed silently from the side, fearing that the woman had taken a liking to the three demonic infants again. One person can always be careless, and two people are always better than one.
The woman looked around, and finally her gaze fell on the three demonic infants. She noticed that the three clay figures were bound with red ropes and their eyes were covered with red cloths, and she became curious, so she tried to remove the red cloths to take a look.
"Hey! Girl, you can't adopt these three!" Uncle Nine was shocked to see this; who would pick the fiercest one as soon as they arrived?