‘Persist.’
Qin Yu constantly asks himself in his mind. Zhao Yunxing is no longer here so there is no one to demand him. At one time, Qin Yu also had the thought of slacking off. After all, he has been training all by himself so even if he had slacked off no one would have reprimanded him. Moreover, he is still a kid.
But … as soon as that thought appeared, it was strangled into nothingness by him.
His big brother, his second brother, and even his father, none of them is lazy and none of them is a weakling.
As a son of the Qin clan’s and a son of East Vanquishing Prince Qin De’s, he naturally must not become a weakling either.
Strive!
‘Persist! Persist!’ Feeling his legs starting to weaken, Qin Yu continuously encourages himself in his mind. He even feels his legs trembling. Whenever he persists for a long time, there is strength flowing out from the depths of his muscles.
Suddenly -- Qin Yu’s legs go numb and he is thrown into the lake with a loud splash.
……
On the training ground, there are 6 hung sandbags. Qin Yu is quietly standing amid them.
‘Hah!’
Qin Yu shouts loudly and hits a sandbag with a powerful punch. Almost at that moment, he smashes 3 other sandbags. Those sandbags immediately swing and hit the other sandbags. In an instant, all of the sandbags are swinging around.
Their trajectories are totally irregular. A sandbag which originally comes toward him from the front can collide with another sandbag resulting in a major change in the way it moves.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
With glittering eyes, Qin Yu quickly strikes any sandbags coming at him with his hands. This is to train his reaction speed. Reaction speed and arm muscles are related. At the same time it and the practitioner’s reactions are also related. And through training, the reactions can be improved.
When experts fight each other to the death, the ones with faster reactions, even by a mere blink, will take the others’ lives.
Due to Qin Yu’s quick attacks, those sandbags swing increasingly faster. In a while, he feels the pressure building up. Suddenly, he is hit in the back. He immediately loses balance and 3 or 4 other sandbags collide with his body all at once.
Thud!
Qin Yu immediately falls onto the ground but he stands up after a roll.
‘Ss~~~’
Qin Yu gasps in surprise then looks at his knees. At this moment, they have been torn badly by friction and are oozing blood. There is some sand and gravel on the ground. Obviously the knees hit the sand and gravel as he fell down.
‘Why hasn’t it been swept clean?’ There is nothing Qin Yu can do. He himself gave the ground a sweep before training. Who could have thought it was not swept clean?
‘Continue.’
Disregarding the injuries, Qin Yu sweeps the sand and gravel away. Then he rushes to the middle of the sandbags and starts the reaction training again.
……
In the middle of the courtyard, wearing only a pair of shorts and lying on a chair, Qin Yu is holding a book. His whole body is covered in medicinal wine. At this moment, there are several bright lanterns in the courtyard, one of which is beside Qin Yu. The lanterns are bright enough for him to read the writing of the book.
Even though Master Zhao Yunxing left, Qin Yu has not lowered any requirements in the least. He has even made them stricter. Every day he trains from dawn till dusk. In the evening, he soaks in the hot spring until midnight to absorb its nourishment and let the body recover. This period is also Qin Yu’s sleep time.
At the moment, after being applied with medicinal wine by Weng Xian, it is his reading time.
‘I haven’t been watching the stars on the top of the mountain for so long.’ Qin Yu shakes his head and looks into the boundless starry sky with a faint smile, ‘but watching the stars in the courtyard is not bad. Xiao Hei, do you think so? Hey, Xiao Hei, are you an eagle or not? Why do you grow so slowly? Why do you have golden feathers on the top of your head?’
As he is saying, he strokes Xiao Hei, which is next to him.
Xiao Hei’s eyes glitter. It flaps its wings repeatedly as if it does not allow Qin Yu to stroke its head. Then it raises its head proudly, looking very haughty.
Qin Yu bursts out laughing immediately.
‘Alright, I’d better read books seriously rather than waste time on you. Tomorrow I’m going to have to continue training.’ Qin Yu immediately reads the thread-bound book he is holding. It is a medical book. Qin Yu can remember clearly Zhao Yunxing said if he wanted to become a real external expert, he had to become familiar with the art of medicine.
At the side of the courtyard’s door, Lian Yan is hiding in shadow and kindly watching Qin Yu.
Especially when Lian Yan heard Qin Yu say he did not want to waste time playing with Xiao Hei, he felt sorry for him even more. Qin Yu is only 9 year old, yet he does not waste a single minute of a day. He has planned to get the most out of every minute. Everything he has done is for his painful training. But what has he been training for?
The last time Qin De visited Misty Villa was a long, long time ago.
While he is reading the book, he does not notice that it is getting light. Some cakes beside Qin Yu’s chair were already eaten up by him unwittingly.
Qin Yu puts the book down and looks up. He stretches his sluggish waist very happily and says with a broad, radiant smile on his face: ‘A day starts off with dawn. A new day has come. Qin Yu, try hard! Try hard and you’ll succeed.’
The training of a new day has started … …
Chapter 13: Aurora (2)
In the hot spring, Qin Yu is standing with a resolute expression in his eyes.
Of course, he is not soaking in the hot spring. Rather, he is carrying out the explosiveness training under water resistance. Explosiveness training under water resistance is useful for the body’s explosiveness. Compared to explosiveness training in lakes, explosiveness training in the hot spring is different because, firstly, the water of the hot spring also has resistance like that of the lakes, and secondly, it can nourish Qin Yu’s body nonstop. This is killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
Punch! Withdraw the fist!
Kick! Withdraw the leg!
Qin Yu punches and kicks very fast in the water and he explosively exerts all his strength in every attack to reach the fastest speed. As soon as Qin Yu takes a horse stance, he does not sway even in the water. He has this ability only thanks to having been working on the horse stance for a long time.
The water is rolling. It has its own path of movement. Every time Qin Yu attacks he tries to make his fist or foot reach the fastest speed, so very naturally the way his fists cut through the water and the way his legs move start to change. How should the path of his punch be?
Direct?
Curved?
Neither is correct! Nothing is absolute. Being direct must be coupled with being curved. Everything is for making the punches faster and stronger and minimizing the water resistance they experience. Everything is for pursuing an increasingly stronger offensive force and an increasingly faster attack speed. Qin Yu attacks nonstop.
At the moment, there are even small pieces of iron tied to Qin Yu’s arms and legs……
……
On the training ground, Qin Yu, dressed in a pair of shorts, is standing in a horse stance. There is a bodyguard man beside him. The man is holding a wooden stick. At the moment, Qin Yu is training his resistance to attacks. Only by being hit nonstop and absorbing medicinal wine can the body become tougher and tougher. If Qin Yu reaches the peak of resistance training, he will even be able to withstand real weapons.
‘Uncle Yang, a bit harder,’ says Qin Yu to the man beside him, Yang Shan, very discontentedly.
Yang Shan promptly advises: ‘Third Prince, it’s nearly enough already. It’s time you finished this hit-taking training.’ Seeing the various stripe-like red marks on Qin Yu’s body and then the unconcernedly expression on his ch
ildish face, Yang Shan is very distressed. When Qin Yu was 6, Yang Shan and his colleagues went to Misty Villa together with him. For the last 3 years, they have been watching this kid grow. Who among them would be willing to hit him?
But Yang Shan was forced to hit Qin Yu, because this is the attack resistance training in external practice.
‘I let you hit me, then hit me. Alright, I’ll hit myself.’ Qin Yu shakes his head and gives a laugh. As he is saying he signals for the wooden stick.
As soon as Yang Shan sees that, he quickly moves back. Determined not to let Qin Yu hold the stick, he says hurriedly: ‘Alright, alright, I’ll continue to hit you. A bit harder, is that right? I know.’ Yang Shan does not dare to let Qin Yu hit himself. If Qin Yu hit himself, he would do it with all his strength. Yang Shan remembers that day when Qin Yu’s body was even damaged entirely.
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! … …
The stick hits Qin Yu’s body continuously. He is standing in a horse stance with his lips closed tightly and taking the hits unflinchingly without letting out a groan. One after another, stripe-like red marks appear on his body, which makes Yang Shan feel unhappy. Even though he is now a soldier, when he was 9, he was still tending cattle at home. But Qin Yu, who is East Vanquishing Prince’s third son, does not waste any minutes and practices nonstop in order to reach the limits of the human body.
Qin Yu’s eyes glitter like stars. From the look in his eyes, it can be estimated how great his determination is -- a determination that is as unshakable as a great mountain.
……
‘Xiao Yu, today’s training load was a bit too much. Tomorrow reduce it a little bit.’
Qin Yu is lying on a bed. An old man with his head full of white hair is talking to him in a deeply concerned manner while massaging him. This old man is Weng Xian, a medical expert. He was one of the very best medical experts of East Vanquishing Prince’s mansion. When Qin De dispatched him to Misty Villa, the people in the mansion were amazed that their master was willing to send such a medical expert to a villa.
‘No matter, Grandpa Weng, if you massage me with your very special techniques, add to that the medicinal wine, I’ll be back to normal the next day.’ Qin Yu curls his lips. He does not care at all.
Weng Xian’s hands do not move very fast but they follow a pattern, either flapping, or kneading, or poking, or stroking. The various techniques are all different from each other. Moreover Weng Xian’s hands are also smeared with medicinal wine. With the help of his special secret massage techniques, this medicinal wine’s effective medicines fuse with Qin Yu’s body very fast.
Weng Xian shakes his head with a smile as he sees Qin Yu’s unconcernedly expression. At the same time he cannot help charging his secret massage techniques with internal energy.
‘It feels so good.’ Feeling bursts of warm energy entering his body one after another, Qin Yu cannot help shouting leisurely.
Weng Xian gives a smile. If he is not willing, even if a person has a higher status, he will not use all his power like this -- withholding not even a bit of internal energy. But Weng Xian cares a lot about Qin Yu. After all, seeing the kid train so hard every day, how could he not soften up and become fond of him?
‘Alright, Xiao Yu, later on you don’t need to risk your life training. That Zhao Yunxing guy was too much. What the devil is limit training? If it wasn’t for Misty Villa’s hot spring and my helping you to dredge your channels, fusing the effective medicines of the wine with your body, how could a kid like you have stomached it!?’ says Weng Xian with a sigh. Obviously he is very discontented with Zhao Yunxing.
Qin Yu smiles brilliantly at Wang Xian and says: ‘I know. You’re the best, Grandpa Weng. You should go to bed a bit earlier. Goodbye, Grandpa Weng!’ Weng Xian immediately smiles and nods. He also advises Qin Yu once more. Then Qin Yu leaves Weng Xian’s habitation.
Tonight, the sky has many stars and is very bright.
‘Master already left. Along with the everyday training, my body has become stronger and stronger. The training load must be increased. Moreover … I should add some other training methods.’ Looking into the starry sky, Qin Yu thinks.
After that, he goes into the secret floor under the north garden. He is very familiar with how to open its various protecting devices.
He enters the secret room where the secret books are being kept. Various secret books are lying on the table. Qin Yu has not tidied up these books. After all, only he and Lian Yan know how to open this secret room. Qin Yu immediately looks at the 28 external secret books.
These external secret books have various different training methods. Qin Yu wants to find some suitable methods for himself in them.
Suddenly, Qin Yu’s eyes are unconsciously attracted by the only golden book among those secret books. In the 96 secret books, only one book is written on gold paper so it is incomparably eye-catching. It is the Ancestral Dragon Art.
An idea suddenly springs to Qin Yu’s mind.
‘At that time I couldn’t practice internal techniques, but by now I’ve been training my body for over a year. I’m much stronger than in the past. Maybe my dantian’s problem has automatically disappeared,’ thinks Qin Yu. After all, generally, people who have problems with their health can automatically cure their illnesses by practicing martial arts.
But Qin Yu forgets that his dantian’s problem is different from ordinary people’s problems. It is not an illness. Rather, it is an innate disability.
But Qin Yu is still a kid. Moreover, he has always hoped that his power would increase quickly. Therefore, it is normal for him to have such an idea.
‘No matter what, I’m going to try it out first. In any case, several hours can’t be wasted.’ Qin Yu immediately sits with legs crossed on the table. He gets the Ancestral Dragon Art then starts to practice according to the contents of the first page. He enters an ethereal state of mind then his mind goes into a vague blank …
In only a short while, Qin Yu feels that the holy energy of the universe absorbed by him has formed a warm stream in his body. Moreover, compared to the stream of over a year ago, this stream is fairly bigger.
‘As expected, when the body becomes strong, I absorb the universe’s holy energy quite faster. Let’s start circulating it.’ Qin Yu immediately uses his mind to make that warm stream move in his body. According to the Small Round path of the Ancestral Dragon Art, the stream continuously changes direction then blends with the dantian.
Qin Yu becomes excited. He carefully tries to feel if this small stream of internal energy will be dissipated or not.
‘You must not dissipate. You must not.’ Qin Yu hopes for the best so his attention becomes even more focused. He uses his entire mind to feel this small stream of internal energy. In limit training, the thing that is trained the most is the mind. Having been training for so long, Qin Yu’s mind is much stronger than those of ordinary people. It is also much stronger than it was when Qin Yu just started his limit training.
He feels clearly the internal energy starting to disperse in the dantian. Then it goes away through the body in all directions.
‘Gee, failed again.’ Qin Yu groans.
Suddenly --
‘That’s not true!’ It is as if Qin Yu has just discovered a world-shaking secret. He focuses his entire mind on the dispersing lines of internal energy. Most of those internal energy lines dissipate into the air through the body, but unexpectedly a small number of them fuse with the body’s flesh and bones.
To draw an analogy, Qin Yu’s flesh and bones are like sandy soil and those internal energy lines are like a stream. The stream flows on the sandy soil, but a small part of the water is still absorbed by the soil. This is a fact. Even though Qin Yu’s internal energy flows to the surroundings, part of it is still absorbed by him.
Qin Yu’s eyes immediately glitter.
‘Very good. Very good. Very good.’ Qin Yu is so excited that his whole body trembles. ‘Even though absorbing the effective medicines of the medicinal win
e can reinforce the body’s flesh, how can it compare with internal energy? I can’t accumulate internal energy, but my flesh can absorb internal energy. The stronger my flesh becomes, the faster I practice external techniques!’
At the moment, Qin Yu is extremely excited. He can even hear his intense heartbeats.
‘Father, I’ll definitely succeed.’ Qin Yu’s eyes radiate rays of light. Never for a moment has he been so confident.
Above the bleak, dangerous path of practicing external techniques on which Qin Yu has been treading, dawn is breaking……
Stellar Transformations Page 11