Tianning County. Nanguan Second Senior High School.
Year Two, Class Six was in the middle of Martial Arts class.
It was late summer, and the sweltering heat was accompanied by the ceaseless chirping of cicadas.
Yu Fei, drenched in sweat, struggled to hold his stance, trying to perfect his form to match the requirements of the Ox Subduing Pile Skill.
Sweat poured from his pores, forming tiny rivers that flowed down the bridge of his nose and dripped off, one drop at a time.
The intense heat made the air shimmer, and Yu Fei's vision blurred. It was as if he'd been plunged into a hellish mirage.
His muscles trembled.
Pain. Frustration.
Yu Fei felt like a fish gasping for air on sun-scorched land. He could almost see his great-grandmother in the distance, smiling at him.
"Train during the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter."
"If you want to become a Martial Artist, you must have an iron will! A will that can shatter solid rock!"
The martial arts teacher's voice was hoarse yet powerful, grating like a rusty iron blade against stone, yet possessing a strange, piercing quality.
"Raise your hands higher! Straighten your backs!"
"Put some force into it! Do you understand? Use your strength!"
"You can't cultivate Qi Blood with flashy, impractical moves!"
Dressed in a black martial arts uniform, Yan Sea patrolled between the rows of students, a teaching stick in hand, constantly correcting their form.
The path of the Martial Dao begins with refining the skin, working from the outside in, on a journey toward the transcendent.
These second-year students had only been studying the Martial Dao for a month, so this was the crucial time for laying a solid foundation.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Yan Sea was taking this phase of their training very seriously.
"Change stance! Shift to the Ox-Butting Charge!"
After glancing at the time, Yan Sea barked the order.
The teenagers on the field shifted their stances, but their movements were far from synchronized. A few even stumbled and fell.
Yu Fei dropped into a forward lunge, his fists clenched and raised to shoulder height with palms facing down, his center of gravity shifting forward.
"Hah!"
He followed the pile skill's instructions, imagining he was ramming his head against a boulder.
Perhaps it was just an illusion, but he felt a current of warmth surge within him. It rose from his lower back, flowed for a few inches, and then vanished.
The Ox Subduing Pile Skill was a fundamental cultivation method for the first realm of the Martial Dao. Its purpose was to cultivate and strengthen one's Qi Blood and to open the first gate on the path of a Martial Artist: Skin Refining.
Yu Fei had already attended 12 of these martial arts classes, which were held three times a week, yet he still hadn't felt the slightest hint of Qi Blood.
There were 54 students in Year Two, Class Six: 30 boys and 24 girls.
Yu Fei's performance in Martial Arts class was poor. After a month, 21 of his classmates had already sensed their Qi Blood. He was falling behind.
The stances of the pile skill were bizarre, pushing one's body to its physiological limits.
"On the path of the Martial Dao, the most important thing will always be your will.
Talent and wealth might give you a head start, but how far you can go on the path of a Martial Artist will always depend on the strength of your own will!"
Yan Sea's voice was firm and resonant.
The students on the field, however, were completely drained of energy.
'What a load of crap,' Yu Fei thought to himself. 'It's obviously talent and wealth that are most important.'
Yu Fei had awakened the memories of his past life at the age of three. Thanks to his deliberate training ever since, his physical condition was stronger than most of his peers, but that was the extent of his advantage.
If there was one other thing that set him apart, it was the blue bead he could perceive in his mental space whenever he calmed his mind and relaxed.
At first, the bead's surface was completely dark. As time went on, it began to emit a faint sliver of light. Now, the glow covered almost the entire bead, leaving only a dim patch the size of a sesame seed.
Yu Fei guessed that something might happen once the light covered the entire surface.
All he could do was wait.
Yu Fei had realized early on that even after being reborn, his life wasn't exactly taking off.
Before middle school, he'd relied on the study techniques and mature mindset from his previous life, and his grades had been outstanding.
But once he got to high school, Yu Fei discovered that having more wisdom didn't translate to a higher IQ.
Especially in math. If he couldn't solve a problem, he simply couldn't solve it.
It made sense. In his past life, he'd known that most students who repeated a year of school didn't score much higher the second time around; some even did worse.
The Martial Dao was no different.
The first student in Year Two, Class Six to sense Qi Blood was the class's academic ace, Jiang Yifan.
Jiang Yifan always scored above 145 on his math exams, and he showed an equally incredible aptitude when learning the Ox Subduing Pile Skill.
He managed to sense his Qi Blood after only the third class.
In just half a month, the guy had become visibly more muscular.
The second student to sense Qi Blood was Du Mingxuan.
Du Mingxuan came from a wealthy family; his father owned several businesses in Tianning County.
According to the rumors Du Mingxuan himself had bragged about, his father had spent 100,000 to buy him five portions of Blood Storage Powder.
Thanks to those five portions of Blood Storage Powder, Du Mingxuan not only sensed his Qi Blood but also made significant progress in the Skin Refining stage.
That's why Yu Fei was convinced that on the path of the Martial Dao, talent was the most important thing, followed closely by wealth.
When the grueling Martial Arts class finally ended, Yan Sea wheeled out a flatbed cart carrying two and a half crates of energy liquid. He handed a bottle to each student and watched them drink it all.
Martial arts training was extremely draining. The school had limited resources, so they only provided the most basic energy liquid. Classes were held three times a week; any more than that and the training would do more harm than good.
When all was said and done, Yu Fei felt that to succeed on the path of the Martial Dao, you either needed to be exceptionally talented or fabulously wealthy. Otherwise, it was nearly impossible to make any real progress.
Martial Arts class started at 2:00 PM and ended at 3:30 PM. All that was left for the day was one history class and a study hall period.
During history class, a vast number of students were knocked out, slumped over their desks. Only a handful were still trying to pay attention.
No matter how many times the history teacher, Liu Ximao, slammed his hand on the lectern with a loud THUD, it had no effect.
Yu Fei drifted in and out of consciousness. When he finally opened his eyes, the study hall period was already half over.
"You're awake?"
Li Mengyao pulled a yogurt drink from her desk, her voice soft and sweet as she looked at Yu Fei with an expectant expression.
"It's peach-flavored, your favorite. I brought an extra one and can't finish it, so you can have it!"
Yu Fei's brain was still rebooting from his nap. He stared blankly at Li Mengyao and took the yogurt without a word of thanks. Ever since they became deskmates, she had been feeding him constantly.
He'd tried to refuse at first, but thanks to Li Mengyao's persistence, Yu Fei had been forced to develop the shameless habit of accepting.
He casually poked the straw in and began to slurp it down with leisurely satisfaction.