Chapter 21: Have You Ever Killed Anyone?

Chen Mo's posture was like a boulder lying prone, unmoved by the Wind, unshaken by the rain.

As the saying goes, one must practice the stance before practicing martial arts; the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist is the same, possessing a set of stance techniques that match it.

Or rather, this martial art is purely a technique of standing stances; the actual fist techniques used for attacking and killing do not amount to many moves in total.

Military Martial Arts do not focus on hand-to-hand combat.

Because once truly on the battlefield, surely no one would go empty-handed; everyone carries weapons.

The Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist is merely a technique used to condense Qi and Blood and increase a Martial Artist's strength.

Chen Mo has been practicing this technique for only half a month now, yet his strength has increased by a full hundred jin.

Of course, this is mainly because he has only just begun practicing this technique, so the initial progress is bound to be significant; as time passes, the speed of progress will gradually slow down.

The further one goes, the harder it becomes to improve even a little.

After entering the Personal Soldier camp, Chen Mo privately tested his strength carefully and found that he could lift a six-hundred-jin stone wheel when exerting his full power.

This was not his limit, but he could not lift a seven-hundred-jin stone wheel.

From this, it can be seen that his strength was between six and seven hundred jin, which did not differ much from the level he had originally anticipated.

After undergoing some training in the military camp, he was indeed able to lift a seven-hundred-jin stone wheel.

But Chen Mo understood that this was not because his strength had suddenly increased.

It was because, through practice, he was better able to exert his own strength when lifting the stone wheel, which is why he could lift it.

Yet, practicing the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist truly increases one's own strength; this effect is indeed very rapid, making one unable to stop.

Practicing this technique, of course, also has its drawbacks: it constantly consumes Qi and Blood during practice, which slows down the progress of the Transformation Pearl in accumulating Qi and Blood.

But ever since he started practicing this fist technique, Chen Mo's greatest realization is that he can eat more—far more than before.

Previously, he would eat at most one large bowl of vegetables and ten steamed buns per meal.

Now he eats fifteen steamed buns per meal, plus a large sea-bowl of heaped vegetables, and his appetite is climbing day by day.

By eating more, the total amount of Blood Qi power he absorbs daily increases.

General Sun also had people send them medicinal soup to replenish Qi and Blood, ensuring the progress of their practice.

While Martial Dao practice techniques are important, the medicinal soup used to nourish the body is even more precious.

Otherwise, one might end up with a depleted body while practicing martial arts.

Even if one manages to succeed in the end, once past one's prime, the sequelae caused by the decline and decay of Qi and Blood will be extremely severe.

A bowl of nourishing medicinal soup every day can replenish a significant amount of Qi and Blood, and combined with eating more.

So even though he is practicing martial arts now, Chen Mo's progress in accumulating Qi and Blood has not only not fallen behind, but has even improved slightly.

Originally, he anticipated it might take more than two months, but now it seems two months will suffice, and it might even be faster.

As Chen Mo continuously practiced the postures of the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist, he could already sense a force of Qi and Blood condensing within his body.

This is the Qi and Blood condensed by a Martial Artist practicing stance techniques; every practice session can condense a wisp.

When the practice ends, this Qi and Blood will disperse, enhancing the Martial Artist's physical body.

The Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist, while having its drawbacks, does not prevent this technique from being a top-tier external hard style.

The improvement gained from one year of practice surpasses ten years of bitter cultivation in Internal Martial Arts.

Apart from being increasingly harmful to the body the further one goes, it can be said to have no flaws.

Therefore, Martial Artists who practice this technique will switch to Internal Martial Arts to nourish their bodies after reaching a certain realm.

Once the set of fist techniques was finished, Chen Mo slowly ended his practice; he could sense a mass of Qi and Blood power in his abdomen gradually dispersing.

The Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist is divided into seven levels; the first level can increase a Martial Artist's strength by one hundred jin.

The second level by two hundred, the third by three hundred, the fourth by six hundred, the fifth by one thousand two hundred...

By this logic, mastering all seven levels can increase one's Qi and Blood power by nine thousand six hundred jin; adding the strength a Martial Artist already possesses, it would be no exaggeration to say one carries the strength of ten thousand jin.

However, even though this technique is simple, reaching the seventh level is not an easy task.

It is easy to learn but hard to master, just like the spear techniques in the army.

One can certainly learn it, but how many levels one can reach depends only on individual destiny.

Chen Mo is currently only at the beginning of the first level and does not know when he will be able to master the second.

The highest level reached by other Personal Soldiers in the camp is only the third level; as for which level General Sun has reached, no one knows, but it is certainly above the third.

The practice ended; although it was already winter, Chen Mo still had a thin layer of sweat on his body.

"Chen Mo." Mo Hu knocked lightly on the door and called out.

To avoid being seen by those Personal Soldiers who did not practice, Chen Mo would either go to the Yanwu Ting or stay in his own room when practicing the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist.

"What is it, Fifth Brother?" Chen Mo opened the door and asked with a laugh.

"The General is calling for you; there's good news." Mo Hu winked, as if he were about to see a good show happen.

Chen Mo's eyes lit up; if the General wanted to see him, there was an eighty percent chance it was truly good news.

"Where to?" He stepped out of the room and asked.

"Go to the kitchen first and call all you new recruits." After Mo Hu finished giving these instructions, he went to notify the other new recruits.

Chen Mo immediately took action, calling a few new recruits he was familiar with to help notify the others.

Before long, dozens of new recruits gathered in the kitchen.

The tables were filled with meat dishes rarely seen on ordinary days, and the richness was no less than the monthly reward banquet.

Although it was still a long way from the New Year, he did not know why the General had suddenly prepared such a feast, but this did not hinder Chen Mo's plan to have a big meal.

Besides needing to eat more to accumulate Qi and Blood, he was also genuinely hungry after just practicing the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist.

"Everyone sit down first and eat, but you have work to do later, so no drinking allowed." General Sun looked at the crowd with a smile.

These new recruits had been training for two and a half months now; they were quite decent in individual combat, but lacked coordination.

Furthermore, there was one biggest drawback: they had never killed anyone and had never seen a scene of flesh and blood flying; if they were thrown onto the battlefield now, they might not even be able to hold their weapons tightly.

If a couple of their comrades beside them were to die, most of these new recruits would lose control and rout.

There is no good solution for this; one can only find opportunities for these Personal Soldiers to kill and temper their courage.

For this matter, over these past few months, Chen Mo spent quite a bit of effort managing relationships just to keep some of the prisoners in Xingyuan Prefecture, who were sentenced to be executed after autumn, alive until today so his Personal Soldiers could practice on them.

First, let them hack at the prisoners to practice, then wait until the spring after the New Year to drag them out to encircle and suppress the roving bandits within Xingyuan Prefecture.

Of course, it is hard to guarantee that no one will die during the process of suppressing bandits, but this is an unavoidable matter.

As the commander, he can only train them more and provide more equipment, doing his best to ensure fewer of them die.

After training like this for a year or two, as long as he supplements them with enough four hundred men, he can request to go to the border to fight again.

Although they did not know what they were going to do, the many famished new recruits could not care less about that; one by one, they let go and feasted to their hearts' content, having a wonderful, full meal.

The pile of bones in front of Chen Mo, however, was rising continuously at a fast and steady speed.

It is just a pity that there is no drinking this time; he still has things to do later, so he cannot swipe some dishes to take back to eat slowly at night.

Until the table was a mess of cups and plates and the many Personal Soldiers had stopped using their chopsticks one after another, Chen Mo spat out two sheep bones and stopped eating as well.

Even though he could still eat some more, since everyone else had stopped, it would inevitably be inappropriate for him to continue eating.

Seeing that everyone had stopped, Sun Jiangjun smiled lightly, stood up to scan the many new recruits, and asked in a low voice, "Have you ever killed anyone?"

(End of this chapter)