Chapter 7

The ten of them spread out, each striking the pose they had remembered.

“Not bad!”

Lin Cheng’s gaze swept over them, first looking at Lu Ren, who had the best bone structure, and couldn’t help but nod inwardly.

Although Lu Ren’s Turtle-Snake Great Stance was a mess, it was the best among the ten.

He looked at everyone one by one, keeping their first performance in mind, then took a big step forward and gave each of them pointers.

“Contain your chest and pull up your back!”

“Sink your qi into your dantian.”

“Your muscles and bones should be loose yet tight.”

“Don’t hold your breath deliberately.”

……

After finishing, he went to give pointers to the group of disciples who had been practicing punches earlier.

After everyone had been given pointers, Lin Cheng shouted toward the back courtyard: “Sun Tao, come over!”

The man in white who had appeared earlier soon arrived. Lin Cheng pointed at him and said: “This is your Senior Brother Sun Tao. From now on, he will lead you to get started.”

Having said that, he walked away with big strides.

Everyone looked at each other in dismay. Lin Cheng wasn’t going to continue teaching them the Turtle-Snake Great Stance, but was leaving it to this Senior Brother Sun Tao. One tael of silver had only bought them such a short time of guidance.

“Don’t think about the Master teaching you anymore. Before you enter the Turtle-Snake Great Stance, the Master won’t come to teach you again. This is just the outer courtyard; the Master usually comes once every half month.

If it weren’t for the fact that ten of you came at once this time, you wouldn’t even have seen the Master’s face.”

Sun Tao seemed to understand what Xu Yang and the others were thinking and immediately explained.

“Senior Brother Sun, how does one count as having entered the Turtle-Snake Great Stance?” Someone asked.

Xu Yang looked over and found that the questioner was the youth with the second-best bone structure, the one with Bing-Upper bone structure. He remembered his name was Zhang Yong.

Sun Tao smiled: “When you feel strength rising from the ground, and your qi and blood boil like boiling water while standing in the stance, then you have entered the Turtle-Snake Great Stance.”

He was responsible for leading new disciples in the outer courtyard, which naturally included answering various questions or martial arts common sense.

“How long does it usually take to enter?” This time the question came from Lu Ren.

Sun Tao looked at him and said: “Those with excellent talent might take three to five days. If it’s tough, it’s possible you’ll never enter in your whole life.”

This statement made several people’s expressions change drastically.

“Senior Brother Sun, does talent refer to bone structure?” Luo Dehu asked.

Sun Tao shook his head: “No. Martial arts talent isn’t just bone structure. Besides bone structure, there is also comprehension. I know you were checked by the Huang family, but I want to tell you that while bone structure is certainly important, comprehension cannot be ignored.

Weiyuan Hall doesn’t check bone structure because there are too many examples of people with good bone structure who didn’t become martial artists.

Alright, you don’t need to ask these useless questions now; you need to learn the Turtle-Snake Great Stance first.”

Everyone felt a chill in their hearts. Those who had been relying on their bone structure immediately put away their little thoughts.

“Martial Dao cultivation is indeed extraordinary!”

Xu Yang finally experienced the magic of the Turtle-Snake Great Stance.

His physique, when mining in the mines, could sustain one or two hours of labor without resting, but practicing this Turtle-Snake Great Stance for at most two or three minutes made him feel as if his whole body was falling apart, his muscles in sharp pain, and his lungs burning unbearably.

Sun Tao took turns giving pointers to the ten people. Within half an hour, Xu Yang had been given pointers twice.

He didn’t know how many times he had practiced the Turtle-Snake Great Stance; every time he couldn’t hold on, he would stop to rest for a while, and after recovering, he would continue practicing.

He had practiced at least a dozen times, but the progress of the Turtle-Snake Great Stance on the panel was still “0”.

By now, he was so tired he was about to fall apart, even more tired than after a day of mining, and his stomach was incredibly hungry.

“Stop, it’s time to eat.” Sun Tao said.

After the bone checking at the Huang family and practicing here for a long time, it was finally noon.

Hearing about eating, everyone regained their spirits and followed Sun Tao toward the cafeteria.

Along the way, Sun Tao began to introduce the various places in Weiyuan Hall.

“This is the Medicine Hall. Those of you with a share of body-strengthening soup, come here to register your information after eating. From now on, someone will notify you when it’s time to take the medicine.

Of course, this is paid for by the Huang family. If you have extra money to buy it yourself, that’s also possible. You can come here to inquire for details…”

Sun Tao deliberately took a detour. By the time they reached the cafeteria, Xu Yang and the others had almost figured out Weiyuan Hall and understood some of the services it provided.

Soon, Xu Yang knew what the one-tael-of-silver level of food looked like.

A bowl of beef, a bowl of large bone soup, a bowl of green vegetables and tofu, and rice and steamed buns—eat as much as you want.

Except for Lu Ren, everyone else’s food was the same, all at the one-tael level.

And Lu Ren’s food wasn’t actually much different from theirs.

They could eat as much rice as they wanted, but the vegetables were limited. Lu Ren could eat as much meat as he wanted—he could even just eat meat.

And the variety of meat was rich: chicken, duck, fish, beef, pork, and a bowl of ox blood with medicine added, which was very good for nourishing qi and blood.

“Good bone structure, eating even better than us. Is there no justice?”

Many people looked at Lu Ren’s food with envy. Eating so well, Lu Ren would surely pull away from the others very quickly.

Someone curiously inquired about Lu Ren’s food, and it was actually three taels of silver per month.

Xu Yang got his food, found a table at random, sat down, and started eating in large mouthfuls.

After a few bites, he discovered the difference. He clearly felt his stomach like parched earth, quickly absorbing the nutrients from the food. This was a feeling he had never had before.

“It really is about eating. No wonder Master Lin said that.”

People sat at his table one after another, all sponsored by the Huang family, but no one spoke, all eating like starving ghosts.

Xu Yang observed the cafeteria while eating and found that there were quite a few people in Weiyuan Hall—there should be more than forty.

The outer courtyard had the most, nearly thirty people, and the inner courtyard should have about a dozen.

The meal was finished quickly, and everyone was stuffed. Because of Master Lin’s words, Xu Yang also ate with abandon until his stomach couldn’t hold any more and he felt a bit nauseous before stopping.

“If only I could eat all meat!”

Although he felt nauseous, if there were more meat, he felt he could still eat; his body instinctively rejected the rice.

After resting in the cafeteria for more than ten minutes, the bloated pain in his stomach eased. The ten of them got up and left together, heading to the Medicine Hall to register, and were told they could come to drink the body-strengthening soup after dinner in the afternoon.

After much deliberation, Xu Yang took out one tael of silver to add to the body-strengthening soup.

He originally had two taels and five qian of silver. His uncle gave him five qian last night, and today he gave him another one tael, totaling four taels. He could afford to spend one tael to buy the strength of the body-strengthening soup.

In this way, he could drink six bowls of body-strengthening soup this month, the same as Zhang Yong.

“My parents don’t know I was selected, so they didn’t give me money. I’ll bring money tomorrow to add to the body-strengthening soup.”

Luo Dehu said. He just hadn’t brought money; who didn’t know that Xu Yang’s one tael of silver was given by his uncle?

Xu Yang glanced at this jerk and didn’t say anything.

The ten of them left the Medicine Hall and arrived at the outer courtyard, finding a cool place to sit and rest.

Xu Yang leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and digested the food while recovering his energy.

“I really want to sleep!” Someone said.

After practicing all morning, it would be best to sleep at noon. Weiyuan Hall also had beds for disciples to rest, but they weren’t free, and the Huang family hadn’t paid for that either.

“How is your Turtle-Snake Great Stance practice going? Has anyone memorized the whole thing?” Luo Dehu brought up the Turtle-Snake Great Stance.

“I still haven’t memorized part of it!”

A person named Qian Jiaxing said in a low voice, and several others immediately indicated they hadn’t memorized it all either.

“I’ve memorized it all, but I can’t make it coherent when practicing, and I often make mistakes.”

The person who spoke was named Zhang Hong, the last of the three with Bing-Lower bone structure.

As soon as this was said, those who hadn’t even memorized the complete Turtle-Snake Great Stance looked at him in shock. Sure enough, people’s comprehension was different.

Everyone received the same instruction, but the results achieved were completely different.

“I’ve memorized it all too.”

Zhang Yong said faintly. As the person with the second-best bone structure, he naturally didn’t want to be outdone by Zhang Hong. After all, they were youths; who didn’t want to show off in front of others?

“Me too. I’ve already learned part of it.” Lu Ren said.

At this moment, his face was glowing, as if he had been rejuvenated, showing no signs of fatigue.

This was why the Huang family valued his bone structure!

With the same training intensity, everyone else was exhausted, but he not only didn’t feel tired, he was getting more and more energetic.

The gap between them had already begun to appear.