The chubby kid babbled on, spraying spittle.
Li Qingshan quietly stepped back, and once the kid finished, gave a small nod.
"All right. Time to start today's lesson."
"Huh?" Cao Shaoyu froze, his excitement vanishing in an instant, and pulled a long face:
"We're really doing radio calisthenics?"
"What do you think?"
A smile at his lips, Li Qingshan cradled the blade across his chest.
Cao Shaoyu shivered, no longer daring to haggle, and obediently walked to the center of the room, spreading his limbs.
But compared to the talent he'd shown in 《Phantom Step》 yesterday, today could only be described as painful to watch.
The kid's movements were loose and sloppy — forget Entry, he didn't even meet the basic requirements.
Li Qingshan's brow furrowed deeper, and he cut in in a low voice:
"Stop! Is this how they teach you at school?"
Before age fifteen, the New Continent's standard for screening martial talent was the third stage of 《The Starry Sky Beckons》.
Primary and middle school PE teachers might not measure up to Wan Keshan, but they couldn't be this perfunctory.
"The teacher made it too hard, and they say it forges the body but it really has no effect."
Cao Shaoyu muttered, glancing warily at his coach.
"Trained like that, it'd be a wonder if it had any effect!"
Li Qingshan shook his head, not pressing the matter.
Because he recalled that before he transmigrated, his predecessor had also treated 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 as mere radio calisthenics, barely at Entry.
This, in fact, was the norm.
《The Starry Sky Beckons》 was easy to learn and hard to master; without reaching the second stage and grasping the force technique, one felt no Body Forging effect at all, and so couldn't kindle students' enthusiasm.
Primary and middle school PE teachers, facing thousands of students, couldn't supervise each one the way the Martial Dao Class did.
"All right, start from the top. I'll correct you one by one."
Li Qingshan stepped up with the blade and signaled the kid to begin.
The scabbard tapped at his limb joints now and then, correcting his movements.
Two hours later, the 108 movements were finally done; Cao Shaoyu slumped to the floor, grimacing.
Li Qingshan nodded, fairly satisfied.
He wasn't at Entry yet, but it was clear Li Qingshan's earlier guess was right: Cao Shaoyu did have talent.
But the kid wouldn't act without seeing the payoff, and 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 was too slow to show results, so he'd never taken it seriously.
"Coach, what do we train tomorrow?"
Cao Shaoyu wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked hopefully:
"Can we switch to 《Phantom Step》?"
"Of course." Li Qingshan shot the kid a sidelong glance, half-smiling.
"After you finish Body Forging tomorrow, I'll reward you with an hour of footwork training — and I won't charge you for the overtime."
"Coach, I was wrong, forget I said anything!"
Cao Shaoyu jolted and scrambled, rolling and crawling toward the door.
"I'm heading back to school."
But before he reached the door, he took a tumble.
Li Qingshan shook his head, steadied him, and asked, puzzled:
"You board at school?"
"My parents work in the provincial capital, only free on weekends. On weekdays I stay in the school dorm."
Cao Shaoyu looked utterly unbothered, without a shred of the self-pity of a left-behind child.
Not that Li Qingshan thought him pitiable — yesterday this "left-behind child" had bought a hundred and twenty thousand worth of lessons in one go.
***
With a hundred and twenty thousand more on his card, Li Qingshan didn't have to fret over nutrient fluid for now, and life settled into a routine.
Each day he shuttled between three points: school, gym, home.
《The Starry Sky Beckons》' proficiency rose steadily at about 30 points a day.
His Body Forging progress climbed slowly but surely too.
Day after day...
A month later, the Martial Dao Space.
ROAR!
Wolfsbane roared ferociously, the cold gleam of its fangs glaring.
A hundred meters off, Li Qingshan rested his blade against the ground, a smile at his lips.
"I'm in a good mood today — let me kill you once to celebrate!"
Man and beast charged at each other.
In a blink they crossed the hundred meters, claws meeting blade.
CLASH!
After the exchange, Wolfsbane spun quickly and pounced again.
Li Qingshan's eyes sharpened; instead of using 《Phantom Step》 to circle behind as usual, he simply swung his arm.
Whoosh!
The blade split the wind, howling without pause, faster and faster.
In an instant the solid blade had vanished into the wind, leaving only an unbroken stream of blade-afterimages.
"《Wind Shadow Blade》, Greater Achievement — blade-light becomes afterimages!"
The sky-filling blade-images, like a net, descended.
Wolfsbane's outstretched claws were knocked back at once, its forelimbs covered in wounds.
ROAR!
Wolfsbane howled in defiance and pounced again.
But the blade-images were airtight; it couldn't break through at all, and instead took wound after wound.
Blood scattered amid the blade-images, and Wolfsbane's howls grew weaker.
In under a minute,
Wolfsbane's massive body suddenly went limp and collapsed, blood gushing from its wounds to form a pool.
The sky-filling blade-images abruptly dispersed.
Li Qingshan sheathed the blade and stood before the pool, smiling in satisfaction at the dying Wolfsbane.
"Finally killed you once 'head-on.'"
In a month, his Body Forging progress had passed 18/100, reaching Body Forging Layer 2.
His speed and punch force still couldn't match Wolfsbane's, but paired with Greater Achievement 《Wind Shadow Blade》, he could now kill it head-on.
But that wasn't the reason for today's "celebration."
Li Qingshan watched Wolfsbane breathe its last, its corpse turning back into a statue, and with a thought, withdrew from the Space.
In the classroom, Cao Shaoyu, drenched in sweat, was at his Body Forging.
Compared to a month ago, a layer of the kid's fat had melted away, his movements impeccably standard — formally at Entry now.
"A great teacher breeds a great student!"
Li Qingshan smiled smugly, his gaze falling on the phantom Panel.
[Li Qingshan]
[Realm: Body Forging 20/100]
[Technique:
Radio Calisthenics Set No. 36 — 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 1/3000 (Greater Achievement)]
[Martial Skill: 《Phantom Step》 276/3000 (Greater Achievement), 《Wind Shadow Blade》 5/3000 (Greater Achievement)]
[Function: Martial Dao Space Lv1 (1/100)]
[Available Time: 150 days]
[Time Flow: 1:10]
"《The Starry Sky Beckons》, fourth stage — muscle-rhythm?"
Li Qingshan pinched the bridge of his nose, carefully recalling the information that had welled up in his mind when the technique leveled.
"Use the breath to mobilize the heart's power, feel the nerves hidden in the muscles, master the muscles' pulsing."
"At the moment of exerting force in each movement, rouse the nerves of the corresponding area and make the muscle quiver."
The content in his mind was no different from what Wan Keshan had taught before.
But unlike his earlier half-understanding,
the instant 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 leveled up, he'd fully "grasped" it, his body learning how to do it by instinct.
"The Panel plus the Space's time acceleration — I count as a budget version of 'heaven-defying aptitude' myself."
Li Qingshan smiled in satisfaction, then his gaze fell on the technique line.
[《The Starry Sky Beckons》 1/3000 (Greater Achievement)]
"Didn't they say it had only four stages? Why is there still a progress bar?"
Entry, Skilled, Mastery, Greater Achievement, Perfection — these were the five grades the Panel used, and also reality's grade divisions for martial skills.
But 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 was different.
When Wan Keshan first explained the technique, he'd made a point of noting it had only four stages.
Li Qingshan had always assumed techniques and martial skills differed, hence the distinction.
He hadn't expected that the now-Greater-Achievement 《Starry Sky Beckons》 was no different from 《Phantom Step》 or 《Wind Shadow Blade》 — likewise 3,000 proficiency.
"Could 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 rise to Perfection too — does a fifth stage exist?"
The thought flashed up from his heart, and Li Qingshan's eyes slowly brightened.
Every level-up of the technique meant a doubling of Body Forging efficiency.
In two months in the Martial Dao Class, his Body Forging progress had risen 11 points.
Now that 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 was at Greater Achievement and his Body Forging efficiency had doubled, even if further progress grew harder, he was confident of reaching Body Forging Layer 3 within a month.
And if 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 could rise to Perfection, doubling Body Forging efficiency again...
his Body Forging speed would become truly terrifying!