Chapter 117: Training
Starting from the next day, the four Lu Yun began to undergo the Lu Clan’s devilish special training. The following day before dawn, he followed Lu Xin to the Luo River Bridge to meet up with the three Lu Bai living north of the Luo River, then they all headed together to the training ground specially cleared for them north of Sanwei Hall to begin the day’s morning practice.
At this time, Lu Wei had long been waiting at the training ground.
This Martial Guard Steward had been responsible for teaching the clan disciples martial arts for many years and had plenty of ways to torment these four pitiful boys.
On the training ground, there were four pairs of stone locks, each weighing fifty pounds. After warming up, Lu Wei ordered them to grip a pair of stone locks each like ordinary martial arts practitioners, stand firmly in horse stance, and then raise their arms flat.
For Lu Yun, this was naturally easy. Even for the three Lu Bai, this hundred pounds of weight was nothing. The four of them held the stone locks steadily without any change in expression, and after the time of one incense stick, they still hadn’t moved an inch.
“Looks like I underestimated you.” Lu Wei chuckled and waved his hand, saying: “Switch to eighty pounds.”
Guards immediately came up and replaced their stone locks with larger ones. They held on for another incense stick’s time like this, and Lu Song’s face started looking bad, his arms beginning to tremble slightly.
Lu Wei ignored Lu Song who was gritting his teeth to persist, and seeing the other three still calm as ever, he ordered again: “Switch to one hundred pounds for those three.”
At this point, Lu Song had already dejectedly dropped the iron locks, rubbing his sore arms with a bitter smile. However, his strength wasn’t in martial arts, so he didn’t feel too embarrassed.
The guards then swapped the stone locks in the hands of the three Lu Yun for iron locks. This time, before even one incense stick, Lu Bai couldn’t hold on anymore. He barely persisted a bit longer before dropping the iron locks and retreating to the side to silently regulate his breathing. What Lu Wei hadn’t expected was that Lu Yun remained completely unfazed, and even seemed more relaxed than the robust and powerful Lu Lin.
“I heard your son beat Xie Tian until he was searching for his teeth on the ground; now I believe it.” Lu Wei, seeing this, said to Lu Xin beside him with a shocked expression: “He really has Black Rank strength.”
Lu Xin nodded without speaking.
If it were an ordinary martial artist who hadn’t cultivated true qi, even if they trained all their excess fat into muscle and could instantly lift several hundred pounds, without true qi they couldn’t persist. In less than half an hour, their muscles would ache and they couldn’t support it. Only reaching Yellow Rank and cultivating true qi allows storing true qi in the joints, using dark force instead of overt force, true qi instead of muscle, to support the load for a long time.
But Yellow Rank doesn’t know how to restrain and control vital energy, so while raising heavy weights with the arms, the whole body’s true qi is involuntarily consumed in sync. Naturally, it takes twice the effort for half the result, wasting too much true qi in vain, and soon it runs dry, unable to persist—Lu Song was in this situation.
Only advancing to Black Rank, with true qi freely retractable and flowing as desired through the whole body’s meridians, can one control the true qi outside the arms from being consumed. Whenever the arms tire, gather some true qi from elsewhere to support them, greatly reducing unnecessary consumption and greatly extending persistence time.
As for how long one can persist, it depends on the total amount of true qi in the body and proficiency in controlling it. For Black Rank, the moment true qi is completely depleted will always come. Only by opening the Ren and Du Meridians, with true qi endlessly generated in the body, can one persist to an astonishing degree, until the energy stored in the body is completely depleted and no more true qi can be produced… With this rate of consumption, an Earth Rank Grandmaster would take at least a day or more before showing signs of exhaustion.
True qi is also a form of energy, naturally impossible to produce from nothing, but converted from the body’s essence and blood. So-called grandmasters with inexhaustible true qi can at any time convert their abundant essence and blood into true qi; as long as not in day-and-night successive fierce battles, there’s no need to worry about true qi consumption…
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Lu Wei’s training method, though extremely simple, was remarkably effective. He could precisely judge their cultivation stage from how long the four persisted. For example, the three Lu Yun all showed Black Rank strength at this moment, but clearly Lu Bai was only early Black Rank stage, while Lu Yun and Lu Song were at mid-stage, or even higher.
This way, Lu Wei could tailor different instructor strategies for the four based on their situations, neither pulling up seedlings to help them grow nor delaying their improvement.
Before, Lu Wei had a rough understanding of Lu Bai, Lu Song, and Lu Lin’s situations, so their performances were within his expectations. The only surprise was Lu Yun. His original thought was that as long as Lu Yun was about as good as the weakest Lu Song in martial arts, he’d be satisfied. After all, the Lu Clan relied on Lu Yun’s articles, and martial arts could just go with the flow…
Later, seeing Lu Song unable to persist while Lu Yun remained very relaxed, it showed Lu Yun was at least on par with Lu Bai, already making Lu Wei delighted beyond expectations.
Until Lu Bai also failed, with only Lu Yun and Lu Lin still persisting, Lu Wei’s mouth was agape enough to fit an egg. One must know, Lu Lin was the Lu Clan’s recognized number one expert of the young generation, the greatest hope for upholding the Lu Clan’s dignity in the martial examination!
“Switch to two hundred pounds!” Lu Wei suppressed his shock, his voice somewhat altered.
The guards were also secretly amazed. This time they couldn’t carry the massive iron locks one in each hand; each had to carry one. Just carrying from the edge of the field to the two made them feel strained. The two had been lifting nonstop for half an hour; now doubling the weight, how could they possibly persist?
But what made the guards admire immensely was that the two actually held one two-hundred-pound iron lock each in their hands and persisted a full incense stick’s time. Only then did Lu Lin’s pair of muscular, knotted arms begin to tremble slightly—this was a sign of true qi depletion.
What made Lu Wei’s jaw drop was that Lu Yun’s condition was even better than Lu Lin’s. He couldn’t help exclaiming: “Could this kid be even stronger than Lu Lin?”
This time Lu Xin couldn’t pretend to be deaf and dumb anymore; he lightly coughed toward his son, meaning it was about enough.
Lu Yun persisted another dozen breaths before seemingly exhausted and ‘having to’ drop the iron locks in his hands.
Lu Lin had actually been exhausted long ago, but as the Lu Clan’s number one young expert, his pride wouldn’t allow him to admit defeat easily. So he relied purely on willpower, gritting his teeth and holding on desperately, heedless that continuing would even injure him.
Hearing Lu Yun release his grip, Lu Lin’s mind relaxed, his arms drooping dejectedly, his hands unable to grasp anything anymore. The two large iron chains crashed to the ground, smashing two dents in the solid ground.
Seeing Lu Lin’s arms spasming uncontrollably, his pale face covered in rolling sweat beads, gasping for breath in big mouthfuls, Lu Yun realized he couldn’t act too unfazed. He quickly shook his arms too, gasping a few big breaths, pretending to be very, very tired.
By this time, Lu Song and Lu Bai had already recovered. Seeing the two persist for almost exactly the same time, they were stunned speechless for a good while. Finally, Lu Song burst out laughing: “Lu Lin finally has a rival!”
“I’m still not as good as him.” Lu Yun affectedly rubbed his arm, humbly saying.
“Just a hair’s breadth away!” Lu Song laughed: “Put in some effort, strive to surpass him in one or two months!”
“I think highly of you.” Lu Bai also smiled. Though he felt a bit dimmed that Lu Yun was so much stronger than him, it also meant the Lu Clan had a few more chances of winning in the future Grand Competition. He felt very happy too.
Lu Lin rolled his eyes at these two heckling friends, wanting to retort a few words, but he had to fully calm his churning qi and blood, unable to even speak for the moment.
The three Lu Song didn’t notice anything unusual, but Lu Wei meaningfully sized up Lu Yun. As the Lu Clan’s number one grandmaster and this Martial Guard Steward, with extremely vicious vision, how could he not see that Lu Yun had held back for Lu Lin at the end?
So Lu Yun likely hadn’t reached his limit at all, but being considerate of Lu Lin’s condition and feelings was rare and valuable. So Lu Wei didn’t point it out, merely saying indifferently: “Go eat breakfast.”
“Great,” the four immediately felt as if granted a general amnesty. After Lu Lin’s bout of training, their stomachs were rumbling like thunder, feeling the unprecedented hunger of their lives.
“I feel like I could eat a whole cow!” Lu Lin said.
