The following day, early morning.
The Martial Dao Gym was bustling.
Zhao Hongzhou, freshly changed into his Martial Dao uniform, had just stepped out of the locker room.
Spotting a familiar back ahead, his eyes lit up, and he strode forward to clap the figure on the shoulder.
Before his palm could land, the figure abruptly spun, turning side-on, eyes like lightning, his right hand chopping down in a knife-hand strike.
Whoosh!
The hand-blade stopped an inch from his neck, a gust of force scraping past.
Zhao Hongzhou's outstretched left hand froze in midair, a stiff smile pulling at his face.
"B-Bro Shan, it's me!"
"Reflex. Sorry!"
Li Qingshan shook his head, withdrew his hand, and glanced at the locker room behind Zhao Hongzhou.
Good thing he'd left the blade in the locker room just now, otherwise...
At the thought, he pinched the bridge of his nose and added a warning.
"Don't clap me from behind these days. I'm afraid I won't be able to pull the strike."
"Won't do it, won't do it."
Zhao Hongzhou rubbed his neck, still rattled, then asked curiously:
"Bro Shan, when you went home yesterday, you weren't practicing martial skills the whole time, were you?"
Li Qingshan hadn't had such a terrifying "reflex" before.
"We just started the Martial Dao Class — what martial skills would I be practicing? It's just a bit of combat instinct."
Li Qingshan shook his head lightly, looking past Zhao Hongzhou to where Yu Lei was walking over.
"Li Qingshan, can you tell me how you train?" Yu Lei's eyes were bright;
she'd watched that whole scene just now.
Compared to the other students in class, she'd had the chance to encounter the Martial Dao earlier and had long been practicing martial skills.
But reflexes as fast as Li Qingshan's were something she absolutely couldn't manage.
Li Qingshan met those bright eyes, mused a moment, then said:
"It's not hard, really. You just need enough imagination."
"Imagination?"
Yu Lei's mind went blank; she hadn't expected an answer like that.
Zhao Hongzhou frowned in hard thought, but no matter how he racked his brain, he couldn't see what this had to do with "imagination."
"Mm... when you practice, don't be bound by your surroundings. Give your imagination free rein and conjure up an opponent — say, a Wolfsbane!"
Li Qingshan held forth, growing smoother as he went.
"Bro Shan, I get it." Zhao Hongzhou's eyes lit up.
"You mean to imagine a powerful opponent and use the life-and-death crisis to spur your own progress."
"The lad can be taught."
Li Qingshan patted his arm and nodded in satisfaction.
"A life-and-death crisis?" Yu Lei seemed to half-grasp it.
Martial-skill training naturally couldn't do without sparring; even her uncle Wan Keshan had personally sparred with her.
But that kind of "sparring" could never carry any mortal danger.
Still, surely it was more reliable than "imagination"?
Yu Lei looked at Li Qingshan, her gaze turning increasingly odd.
Manufacturing a life-and-death crisis on "imagination" alone, with better results than real sparring?
Without realizing it, Yu Lei took a step back.
She'd seen this kind of "imagination" before — not in the Martial Dao Class, but in a psychiatric ward!
Li Qingshan noticed Yu Lei's strange look too, but he was in no mood to dwell on it just now.
His right hand pinched the bridge of his nose again despite himself, weariness flashing in his eyes.
As if it were so easy to learn.
It was bought with lives — hundreds of them!
Though what died was only his projection and he took no real injury, the pain was utterly real.
As time passed, the students arrived one after another, and the line naturally took shape.
But as they lined up, Li Qingshan noticed every student standing behind him.
It forced him out of the middle of the line and squarely into the first row, with Zhao Hongzhou, Yu Lei, and Hong Qian beside him.
Li Qingshan glanced back around the group and found two people missing.
"Liang Mingyu and Liu Jingya didn't come?"
Hong Qian shot him a glance and said:
"One got scared faint by the beast, the other dropped to her knees because of you — probably too ashamed to show up."
"I heard the two of them quit the Martial Dao Class on their own right after class yesterday."
Zhao Hongzhou gossiped in a furtive whisper.
Yu Lei's mouth quirked, and she added:
"Wrong. They were expelled outright by Teacher Wan."
Clearly, Yu Lei's information was more accurate.
"What a pity." Li Qingshan sighed.
Hm?
The other three paused and looked over, puzzled.
Li Qingshan rolled his right ankle and said with regret:
"I'd been meaning to spar with her often from now on."
Him?
Spar with Liu Jingya?
Yu Lei frowned, not understanding, and had just opened her mouth to ask when she abruptly shut it.
At the gym's front entrance, a burly figure was striding toward them.
Wan Keshan had arrived.
"Good discipline. I hope you'll keep it up."
Looking at the quiet, orderly line, Wan Keshan nodded in satisfaction.
"Starting today, for the next six months, our focus will be entirely on the technique 《The Starry Sky Beckons》."
"I know some of you may scoff, thinking it's just a set of radio calisthenics."
"But let me tell you..."
Wan Keshan's gaze swept the crowd, and he grinned.
"This set of radio calisthenics is the most advanced thing on all of Planet Ziying — indeed, in the whole Chihong Star Region."
The most advanced?
Li Qingshan was a little stunned.
He didn't look down on the technique, but he hadn't imagined it was this impressive!
Li Qingshan wasn't the only one stunned; the other students wore the same expression.
"Don't believe me?"
Wan Keshan glanced at them and shook his head.
"Planet Ziying is just an ordinary planet in the Chihong Star Region."
"Whether the comm-bands on your wrists, the Sky Patrollers in the sky, or even all the high-tech products of the New Continent — none of them can match those of the greater planets."
"Only 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 is different! It's the crystallization of countless Federation forebears, refined across thirty-six generations."
"Every time it's updated, it's immediately spread to every planet across the entire Chihong Star Region."
"Even though some great martial planets possess more profound Body Forging techniques, those techniques all have thresholds; the only one truly disseminated among the common people is 《The Starry Sky Beckons》."
After all that, the students understood, and their spirits lifted considerably.
Wan Keshan saw it, a flicker of amusement in his eyes, and got down to business.
"《The Starry Sky Beckons》 has four stages in all: Movement, Force, Breathing, Muscle..." Wan Keshan spoke unhurriedly,
going into especial detail on the force technique and breathing coordination so the students could measure themselves against it.
An hour later,
Wan Keshan finally finished explaining the third stage.
Just as Li Qingshan, eyes shining, prepared to probe the mysterious fourth stage,
"Ten-minute break. When you're back, we begin cultivating."
Wan Keshan waved a hand and said no more.
The line broke up; Li Qingshan stood rooted in place.
He'd thought he understood Wan Keshan well enough by now — turns out he was still too green.
Wan Keshan smiled and said nothing, waiting until everyone returned before speaking:
"Split into groups by your technique stage, spread out, and prepare to cultivate."
The students automatically split into three groups, spread out, and took their stances.
Li Qingshan was a group of one, with plenty of empty space around him.
He'd just finished the first movement when—
"Settle your mind, calm your breath. Mind your breathing." Wan Keshan's voice reached his ear.
Just as expected!
Unsurprised, Li Qingshan moved on to the next movement.
"The fourth stage hinges on muscle-rhythm."
Getting to the heart of it, Wan Keshan's voice turned serious.
"Throughout the muscles of our whole body run countless fine nerves."
"Think carefully — have you ever suddenly felt a muscle in your arm or thigh twitch in time with your heartbeat?"
"The fourth stage is about using the breath to mobilize the heart's power, to feel out the nerves hidden in the muscles and master that pulsing."
"At the moment of exerting force in each movement, simultaneously rouse the nerves in the corresponding area and make the muscle quiver. Achieve that, and your cultivation efficiency will double again."
Wan Keshan's explanation was plain and easy to follow.
But feeling out the nerves hidden in the muscles?
Li Qingshan settled his mind and carefully felt his heartbeat with each breath.
But only sinew and bone exerted force; mastering the fine nerves beyond them was easier said than done.
"Don't rush, take it slow. Your aptitude is good; it shouldn't take you long to grasp it."
Wan Keshan offered the reminder and turned away.
Li Qingshan simply stopped agonizing over it; the phantom Panel flickered before his eyes.
The teacher wasn't wrong — it wouldn't take him long to "grasp" it!