-----
-----
Wei Yuan's legs kept stretching outward while his crotch practically scraped the ground.
"Damn, this hurts like hell!"
He grimaced in pain, his face twisted like a pretzel.
It felt like something was about to tear down there, and his whole face was distorted from the agony.
Then suddenly— He felt a strange chill... down there.
He actually did it. He pulled off a perfect horizontal split.
Wei Yuan looked down—sure enough, he had managed a full sideways split, clean and perfect.
The moment of triumph made him ecstatic.
You have to understand, he'd never done this before.
A horizontal split was something he always thought was flat-out impossible for him.
Yet here he was, nailing it in one shot. Next up: perhaps a front split.
He twisted his body in all kinds of painful ways.
Waves of intense pain hit him again and again, but slowly, surely, his posture changed.
When he finally managed to pull it off, the excitement bubbling inside him was indescribable.
Being possessed by Kamui was seriously insane—it had turned him from an average Joe into a martial arts prodigy.
And he wasn't done yet. Wei Yuan didn't even take a break.
He laid flat on the ground and jumped into the next move.
With his hands by his sides and legs pointing straight up, he kicked both legs down with force while pushing against the ground with his hands.
Using the strength of his waist, he tried to launch himself upright from the floor in a move known as "the kip-up." But he failed.
Turns out the kip-up wasn't so easy after all.
Still, Wei Yuan wasn't discouraged at all. He kept trying over and over, again and again.
As he practiced, his body coordination got better and better, and his movements became smoother and more controlled.
After countless failed attempts, he finally took a deep breath, focused, and gave it his all.
His body shot up in one powerful motion—flawless. And he nailed it.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!!"
He burst into laughter, unable to contain his joy.
All the commotion caught the attention of the others around him.
Up until now, they'd all been too focused on their own training to notice what he was doing.
Inside the house, Old Man Li just glanced at him calmly, then returned to whatever he was enjoying.
"It's just a basic move, what's there to brag about?" he thought.
"Kids, man… can't keep anything to themselves." Wei Yuan planned to keep training and knock out all the basic moves in one go.
But then his body started to give out.
The soreness kicked in, and every muscle began to ache.
And just then, a wave of intense hunger crashed over him like a tide. Looking around, he noticed people coming and going freely from the training grounds.
Seems like training here was all about personal discipline.
He checked the time—still early. Turning to Zhang Wu, he asked, "Senior brother, I'm feeling kinda worn out… and hungry too. When can I leave?"
Zhang Wu smiled and said, "You can leave whenever you want.
We don't restrict anyone's freedom here. We only train during certain hours, and outside of that, you're free to do whatever.
Even Old Li won't stop you." Hearing that, Wei Yuan said goodbye and left the Li estate.
"I remember there was a place that sold meat soup around here…"
Riding his mule, he wandered down the street at a lazy pace. Just thinking about that rich, savory broth made his hunger spike. He soon arrived at the meat soup shop.
The mouthwatering aroma had him drooling, and since he was seriously starving, he downed two big bowls in no time. Seeing how much more he could eat now,
Wei Yuan realized that if he was gonna keep training like this, he'd have to seriously up his food intake.
He patted his money pouch—seemed like his expenses were about to explode.
Luckily, he still had a decent stash of cash and some mountain goods like ginseng and lingzhi.
He wouldn't need to worry about money for a while.
And hey, if he got lucky again with another "money miracle," cash wouldn't be an issue at all. Just then, his mule started getting fidgety—guess it was hungry too.
"You've been hauling me around all day.
Alright, today you eat well too,"
Wei Yuan said with a grin. He went to a nearby feed shop and bought a sack of fine fodder.
Then, making sure to leave before sunset, he rode his mule out of Caixu Town.
Outside the town, the road twisted and turned.
Thanks to the mental map he'd memorized earlier, it didn't take long before he was back at the little Earth Temple.
It wasn't exactly "home," but for now, it was the only place he could rest his head. He poured the fresh feed out in front of the mule.
After that, his whole body ached with soreness, so he lay down and practically passed out the moment his head hit the pillow.
"....."