Practicing Kung Fu

  Five months have passed in the blink of an eye.

  Hall of Herbal Medicine, Arena of Martial Arts Practice.

  Ye Qin sat cross-legged on a grass mat, his breath sank into the dan tian, he closed his eyes and meditated, inhaling and exhaling to gather his energy, silently circulating the techniques of the "Zuò Wàng Jīng" (Sitting Forgetfulness Scripture) in the great cycle of heaven.

  Ye Qin found that although the cover of this book was written with "Yangsheng Jing", the text inside all referred to it as "Zuowang Jing".

  The book is divided into two chapters, with a preface and only one layer of gongfa.

  The remaining upper volume, the first to third layer of Gongfa. The middle and lower two volumes are incomplete.

  After five months, Ye Qin had been cultivating the preface, from initially having no reaction for two or three months to finally being able to feel a faint warmth of air flowing through his meridians. That faint airflow was extremely weak, but it was incredibly resilient.

  Ye Qin secretly thought that this should be the legendary internal family true energy, and indeed it was very wonderful.

  Ye Qinyun finished turning a big circle and opened his eyes.

  In these five months, he also has a certain understanding of "The Scripture of Sitting and Forgetting".

  It is said that practicing this method can withstand hard work, not eating, not drinking water, and enduring cold and heat for three to five days, which is actually quite inaccurate.

  This method requires not only eating but also eating a lot.

  Ye Qin's appetite increased greatly, consuming large amounts of food every day, which greatly enhanced his physical strength, making his limbs agile and his eyes gradually sharper. After cultivating to a certain level, when his spirit was full, he could go three to five days without eating or drinking water and still be able to withstand it.

  In the past five months, with abundant food, his cultivation of heart methods has been very rapid, and his appetite is extremely good. His body is no longer as weak and feeble as before, but has become solid. He can carry a 100-jin sack on his back and walk quickly for several miles without feeling tired.

  Every time he thought of this strange internal skill he had chosen, he couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

  Ye Qin looked at other children in the training field with some envy.

  He originally had no idea what martial arts were for, so he learned according to his most desired goals at the time. So he asked for a technique that could withstand hard work, hunger, cold and thirst. By the time he knew what martial arts were for after three to five months, it was already too late.

  On the martial arts arena, everywhere was filled with gleaming knives and sword shadows, as well as the mighty tiger's roar and palm energy. Otherwise, it would be a light body flying high, jumping over a dozen feet of qinggong. More than 40 medicine-picking children, most of whom were learning that kind of powerful martial arts, fought fiercely with unmatched might.

  Take Ye Qin's four fellow apprentices for example.

  Yang Yicheng learned a set of external family kung fu called "Tiger Fist". At the time, Yang Yicheng had no idea what to choose from the secret manuals, so he asked the young guard to recommend one. The young guard saw that Yang was quite strong and his physique was larger than average, suitable for an external family's powerful kung fu, so he recommended "Tiger Fist".

  After five months of practice, although it's far from tearing wolves and tigers apart, but with a punch on the green brick head, he can smash the green brick into several pieces. This made Yang Yicheng ecstatic, and he spent all day finding people to practice boxing with.

  Ye Qin's internal strength only strengthened his physique and didn't have the defensive power that ordinary internal strength possessed, so he didn't dare to take his punches.

  Feng Xiao, agile and nimble, chose a lightness skill manual "Ti Yun Zong". He had always admired those county town's flying eaves and walking walls Jianghu masters, this time he got the chance to learn martial arts, he opened his mouth and chose a lightness skill. This skill although couldn't hit people, but others also couldn't hit him. He already could tiptoe on the ground, one jump nearly ten feet, lightly jumping around in the training field. Yang Yicheng's fist wind was fierce, but couldn't touch Feng Xiao's edge. Every time during practice, Feng Xiao would go tease Yang Yicheng, making Yang Yicheng angry and furious.

  Qian Ruoxiu chose the compact and agile close-range technique "Zhe Mei Shou".

  Sun Ying chose a sword manual called "Ling Jian", which is suitable for women to practice close-range swordsmanship.

  Among the four of them, any one was much stronger than Ye Qin's "Sitting Forgetfulness Sutra". The "Sitting Forgetfulness Sutra" could only make Ye Qin physically strong, spiritually abundant and full of energy, but almost nothing else. If Ye Qin used his fists to punch a brick, his fists would definitely become red and swollen, while the brick wouldn't move at all. At most, he could run faster than an ordinary person.

  According to the rules of Yao Wang Bang, the medicine-collecting disciples in the outer hall have a three-year training period during which they can only learn one skill and are not allowed to practice multiple skills at the same time. It is strictly forbidden for them to exchange secret manuals with each other. Only the medicine-refining disciples in the inner hall are allowed to cultivate two skills.

  Three years later, the medicine-picking child was promoted to a medicine-picking apprentice and could go to the secret book room to choose another secret book.

  Yang Yicheng, Feng Xiao and others, because of this, did not treat him with less courtesy.

  Just thinking about it, Ye Qin couldn't help but feel a little regretful. The hope of becoming a master of the jianghu would have to be put on hold for now.

  But he is already satisfied.

  These months, every morning I learn three skills: literacy and arithmetic, identifying medicinal herbs, emergency treatment. In the afternoons, I practice basic exercises: standing stake, horse step, strengthening body etc., as well as one external or internal skill.

  The Medicine Hall requires the medicine-taking children to memorize at least 1,000 types of common medicinal materials within five months, including their taste, function, main treatment, growth environment, and shape. As for those unknown medicinal materials, they must also identify their value. On average, they need to memorize six to ten medicinal materials per day.

  If you can't identify the medicinal herbs, you'll be flogged - and it's done by the inner hall's law enforcement disciples.

  This also made Ye Qin finally understand what the brocade-clad young men and women he had seen at the beginning of the Medicine Pavilion were for. They were all law enforcement disciples, high-level martial arts experts who were specially cultivated by the inner hall to learn advanced internal skills and external family kung fu, their martial arts far surpassing those of these professional medicine collectors.

  Ye Qin was not dissatisfied with anything. Although the training in the Medicine Hall was hard, it was at least much better than wandering and begging outside.

  During this time, he also gradually became familiar with some things about the Medicine Hall from some senior brothers. The Medicine Hall is a subordinate hall of the Medicine King Gang, a large gang in Pingzhou Jianghu, and is divided into inner and outer halls.

  Nei Tang, Ma Fu Tang is in charge of medicine production (medicine production, including medicine testing, grading, drying, cutting and processing), law enforcement (core disciples), security (gatekeeping, transportation of medicinal materials), storefront management (store operations, buying and selling) and miscellaneous tasks (all trivial matters of the Medicine Hall, managed by Zhang Da).

  Outer Hall, managed by Vice Abbot, in charge of collecting and identifying herbs (herbalism).

  Yaowangbang General Hall is located in Pingzhou's capital, Wan'an Prefecture, and its main business is medicinal materials. Medicinal material collection and production are undoubtedly the most important, divided into two major systems: medicinal material collection and medicinal production. The Medicinal Material Collection Hall in Zhujicounty city also focuses on medicinal material collection, while also considering medicinal production.

  The hierarchy within Yaowang Gang is strict, with a rigorous promotion system.

  Herbalism system: Herbal apprentice, Herbal disciple, Herbal artisan, Herbal master, Grandmaster of herbalism, Sage of herbalism.

  Pharmaceutical system: Pharmaceutical apprentice, pharmaceutical disciple, pharmaceutical artisan, pharmaceutical master, pharmaceutical grandmaster.

  People at the level of Grandmaster are all in the main hall of the Medicine King Gang. The branch halls in various counties only have people at the level of Master and Pharmacist, and most Masters are at the level of Hall Master or Deputy Hall Master. Ma Deputy Hall Master and Ji Deputy Hall Master are respectively the Master of Medicine Refining and the Master of Herb Gathering. The current Hall Master Li Daxin is a famous high-ranking figure in the Jianghu of Zhugui County, although he doesn't understand herb gathering and medicine refining, but he has a close family relationship with the leader of the Medicine King Gang.

  Ye Qin's master Wang Hongcai is a medicine collector, and in the Medicine Collection Hall, he is only one level below the Grandmaster. There are only a few dozen medicine collectors of this level in the hall.

  At the level of a pharmacist, they rarely go out to collect medicine in person, but are responsible for teaching apprentices and cultivating batch after batch of qualified medicine collectors, and letting the medicine workers take the medicine children to collect medicine.

  A medicine boy, not qualified to be a master and take on apprentices, can only bring young boys out for training, often entering the deepest and most dangerous parts of the mountains to gather herbs.

  The young medicine collector must follow the medicine collector into the deep mountains to collect medicine for three years and is not allowed to enter the mountain alone. If they perform well, they can receive a very small reward from the medicine collector. After three years of training, the master will hold a sword-handing ceremony to promote them to a medicine collection apprentice. Only then can they collect medicine alone, either by themselves or with other apprentices, and hand over the collected medicinal materials to the medicine collector to receive a certain income based on the amount collected. Seven or eight years later, those who perform well are promoted to medicine collectors, which is considered a relatively high treatment, and can share profits directly with the medicine hall, with high income.

  The Medicine Pavilion will evaluate the medicine gatherer's level based on their gathering achievements.

  Ye Qin occasionally heard people in the hall mention that many medicine collectors die every year. Those who survive will become more and more precious, their status will rise, and they will be sent to the most dangerous and complicated places to collect the most precious medicinal materials.

  This rumor caused great panic among the medicine-collecting children.

  However, the deputy master of the Medicine Hall promised the medicine boys that once they reached the age of medicine collection and became medicine craftsmen, they could choose to continue collecting medicine or go to the county town's large pharmacy to guard the store and make medicine. From then on, they would enjoy a peaceful life without having to risk their lives collecting medicine. This slightly calmed the minds of the medicine boys and gave them something to look forward to.

  So Ye Qin's biggest concern now is to leave as soon as possible and accumulate achievements to become a medicine collector.

  At present, he has no idea how difficult it is to become a medicine picker.