Chapter Six: Refining Preparations

  Sleep after exhaustion is always refreshing, Yang Fu felt that lying down and closing his eyes, when he opened them again, the outside was already sunny, getting out of bed to stretch his waist, he found that fatigue had disappeared without a trace, only his stomach was a little hungry.

  When I was about to go out, I found a bowl of rice and a plate of wild boar meat from yesterday on the dinner table. The yard outside was also quiet, and I didn't know where the two little guys had gone. With the skills of the two of us, there's nothing to worry about around here. So I washed up and had breakfast.

  As Yang was about to finish his meal, he heard a faint panting sound. When he finished the last two mouthfuls of rice, the panting grew louder. He hastily put down his bowl and chopsticks, went out into the courtyard to look around, and saw Yang Tian carrying a large hemp sack three feet long and two feet wide into the yard, without even greeting him, sweating profusely as he quickly entered the forge, immediately followed by the sound of stones clattering.

  Yang Tianhao didn't come out for a while, and just as Yang Fu was about to go in to take a look, the heavy panting sound went over the wall and into the yard. Yang Erwu carried half a bag of things into the yard, sweating profusely, and when he saw Yang Fu, his energy dissipated, and the bag fell to the ground with a loud crash, splitting open to reveal shiny black stones inside. Yang Erwu stumbled and staggered into the yard, falling flat on his face.

  Just as he was about to go forward and help, Lei Meng suddenly appeared silently carrying a large hemp sack similar in size to Yang Tian's, walked into the courtyard, stepped over the sacks on the ground, and approached Yang Erwu. With one swift kick, Yang Erwu flipped over onto his back, panting heavily. Afterwards, Lei Meng said to Yang Fu, "Old Master, we've brought some ore back, take a look at its quality." After speaking, he walked into the forge. Seeing that Yang Erwu was fine, Yang Fu also went in.

  As he went in to look, he saw the rumbling sound of the dark ore pouring out, adding to the dark ore that was already one square meter; while Yang Tian was tidying up the messy forging room, and each object gradually had order.

  Yang Fu was surprised that they had brought back so many, and as he walked up to pick up a piece of ore to examine it, he found it felt heavy in his hand, seemingly half heavier than the ones he had found himself. He quickly asked Lei Ming: "How come these are so heavy? Where did you find them?"

  Yang Tiangang tidied up and, hearing this question, said with a smile: "Old master, these were found in that place where you picked us up last time. Leiming and I used some effort to smash those big rocks together, and from the broken rocks we carefully selected some, discovering that their quality was exceptionally good, so we carried them back."

  "Ah, almost caught up with Tie E. " Yang Fu weighed the ore in his hand.

  Lei Meng hummed and said, "To forge some good weapons, coal is still the best, but now we don't even have charcoal. When can we make some?" The charcoal used by Yang Fu was all prepared by himself.

  Lei Meng continued: "Yang Tian, go bring in that half bag of ore from outside and take a look at Yang Erwu."

  Yang Tian turned to leave the yard, Yang Erwu trembled as he got up from the ground, just about to pick up that bag of ore. Yang Tian hastily said: "Erwu, take a break, with your abilities, it's already not easy to get here for the third time. Go back and eat first, then come over again." Yang Erwu was like a pardon from heaven, excitedly replied: "Yes sir!" gritting his teeth, shaking his legs as he went home, having seen the prowess of the two kids, he must practice martial arts with all his might.

  Yang Tian shook his head, thinking that this person's willpower was not bad and it was almost time for him to start practicing qigong. He casually picked up the half bag of ore and saw that the ore had only been exposed without falling out. Yang Tian hurriedly walked towards the forging room. Before long, there were thirty or forty more pieces of ore.

  "Yang Tian, after dinner let's go to the mountain to burn some charcoal and find something to eat on the way back, how about it?"

  "Uh-huh, gotta go hunting or else that cheap apprentice's old man is gonna beat him up. Let him take a break this afternoon." Yang Tian chuckled and said.

  Yang Fu saw the extraordinary abilities of the two, and his heart was filled with joy, but at the same time, he also felt a tinge of sadness: if he were twenty years younger, perhaps he would have joined in on the fun with these two kids; now that he's old, he could only watch them with a happy heart. Afterwards, Yang Fu quietly exited the forge, and since it was almost noon, even though they had just eaten their fill, it was time to prepare lunch for the two kids.

  As soon as Yang Fugang walked out of the door, he entered another room. Lei Ming and Yang Tian exchanged a smile. Lei Ming said seriously: "Yang Tian, let's talk about these ores."

  "Alright. I've thought about it carefully, and I think we should get three Tang knives that can both stab and chop, and three short daggers, one set for each of us." This time Yang spoke out his thoughts after a moment of contemplation.

  "Uh, agreed. However, I think we still need to find some wood to make the sword hilt and scabbard. While we're at it, let's make a few bows too, they might be more useful." Lei Meng said with an air of old-fashioned solemnity.

  So, the plan was finalized. After dinner, Lei Ming and Yang Tian cut a lot of wood under Yang Fu's guidance and dragged it to the place where Yang Fu usually burned charcoal, waiting for five or six days to pick it up, and they were busy until nightfall before returning. When Yang Erwu came to Yang Fu's house after dinner, he found no one and was anxious in his heart, sitting at the gate of the courtyard waiting, and unexpectedly fell asleep leaning against the door due to the fatigue of the morning, and his old father didn't even come to find him for dinner, it seemed that he had given up on this son.

  Yang Fu and the other two men were carrying wood back when they saw Yang Erwu sleeping at the door, and couldn't help but burst out laughing. Yang Fu thought that his family would worry, so he quickly stopped laughing and shouted: "Erwu! It's getting dark, what are you doing blocking my door?" Yang Erwu heard the shout and jumped up with a start: "Ah? It's dark already? Oh, Master, you're back... uh, no! I have to go home, or else I won't get any dinner!" After saying that, he quickly ran towards his home. A little while later, a voice came from afar: "I'll be here on time tomorrow morning!" This was followed by several barks from dogs, which gradually subsided as time passed.

  Yang Fu and the other two people hastily made and ate their meal, then went to sleep. The night passed without incident.

  The next day, just as the sky was getting light, Yang Erwu arrived. As soon as he reached the gate of the courtyard, he saw two small figures standing in the yard, silently practicing their moves. Their movements were smooth and flowing, jumping and leaping, punching and chopping with fists and palms, sometimes straight, sometimes curved, sometimes soft, sometimes hard...

  Yang Erwu was completely bewildered.

  "Hey!" Yang Erwu hastily jumped to one side, assuming a defensive stance, and scanned his surroundings without finding anyone else around. Just as he was about to turn back, he felt someone pinch his right shoulder, causing his whole body to feel weak. A voice came from behind him: "It's your turn to practice, just watching is not enough." It turned out to be Master. Hearing the familiar voice, Yang Erwu understood what was going on and exclaimed with joy: "Ah, it's Master! You really scared me!" In his heart, he also thought: I thought it was a ghost, scaring me like that.

  "Starting today, I'll teach you to practice qigong. How well you do depends on your intuition and luck. Back then, I suffered a lot... In the beginning of heaven and earth, there was only chaos, which is one yuan. One yuan transformed into two qi, one qi transformed into three clearness, which are the six paths. The six paths gave birth to the heavenly mechanism, the heavenly mechanism gave birth to all things, which is the separation and transformation. The number of transformations cannot be counted, the number of separations follows each other, this is called wuji. And human transformation starts from one, divides into two, gives birth to four, transforms into countless, and finally becomes a person, this principle goes against the order of heaven's evolution. Therefore, our school's martial arts follow the meridians, penetrate the pulse network, and achieve the infinite divine skill...”

  Yang Tian was talking nonsense, saw the sun rising, Yang Erwu was confused, smiled complacently, and said: "Welcome the morning sun, absorb the jade dew, energy enters the dantian, intention guards the abdomen. Body follows the intention, walks along the meridians, shape is supported, channels are open, body is moistened, strength is solidified." Then, facing the morning sun, he made a Taiji starting gesture, opened his legs and shoulders to the same width, lifted his hands half-squatting in a horse stance, and absorbed air into his abdomen, intention gathered at the dantian. Yang Tian found that the absorbed energy was slightly warm, formed a line along the throat and chest into the abdomen, condensed at the dantian, and there was a hidden feeling of fullness throughout the body. Thus, he started practicing Taiji boxing with his body following his intention.

  Yang Erwu saw Yang Tiankai practicing, and he also followed suit, opening up his stance to practice. Just as he was about to inhale and condense his energy in the dan tian, he suddenly felt a strong gust of wind blowing against him, causing him to lose his balance. He looked around carefully and found that it was actually Yang Tian's powerful energy that had stirred up a cloud of dust. What made him feel terrified was that the airflow generated by Yang Tian's flying fists and feet not only caused pain on his body but also made him feel as if he was being struck, so he hastily retreated to a distance and quietly observed Yang Tian practicing martial arts with rapt attention.

  As Yang Tian continued to practice, his movements became more fluid and powerful, the aura around him shrinking until it disappeared. The internal energy in Yang Tian's body also transformed from being loose to becoming pure and condensed, eventually condensing into a small stream, although the quantity decreased, the quality increased nearly tenfold.

  The sun rose higher and the shadow grew shorter. An hour passed, and with a burst of energy, Yang Tian felt his qi surging from his life gate to his right shoulder, then down his arm to his palm, striking out in a swift motion. "Thud", the wall two meters away shook slightly, leaving behind a clear handprint. Exhausted but inspired, Yang Tian withdrew from his trance-like state, stood up, closed his eyes and carefully reflected on what he had just gained.

  Yang Erwu stood silently beside him, guarding Yang Tian from being disturbed, and also thinking about the previous move. Before long, Yang Tian opened his eyes and said, "Erwu, how's the harvest?"

  "Fantastic, too fantastic! I've learned something new." Yang Erwu excitedly replied.

  "If you study diligently, you can also achieve this. But this is still not the highest level, your road is still very long." Yang Tian said with a serious and sincere tone.

  "It's far from it, still needs hard work. Look at me!" Suddenly, a thunderous voice came from behind Yang Tianyou.

  Yang Tian and Yang Erwu turned their heads to see Lei Ming rushing out to where Yang Tian had just made his move, taking a bow step and swinging his palm straight forward, also using the "Force Penetrating Taihang" technique. All they heard was a loud "thud", and next to the handprint on the courtyard wall appeared another palm-shaped hole. Yang Tian opened his mouth in surprise: "Ah!" The two of them had learned martial arts and practiced their inner energy for almost the same amount of time, but Lei Ming was more diligent and focused, so how could there be such a big difference? After thinking about it for a moment, Yang Tian couldn't help but feel a sense of alarm, realizing that from now on he needed to practice his martial arts even harder and with greater dedication.

  Yang Erwu opened his mouth, but couldn't make a sound, wanting to say something else, but didn't know where to start.

  Lei Meng glanced at Yang Erwu, guessing that he wanted to learn more, but for the time being, he didn't want to teach. Having just arrived here, his meridians were unblocked, and his energy and martial arts skills improved rapidly. He needed to practice well himself first. When he had free time, he could give some pointers, but if there was too much, he wouldn't have the time. It would be better to let Yang Tian teach instead.

  Then Lei Meng said to Yang Erwu: "Erwu, you'd better learn from Yang Tian first, it's not your turn yet."

  "Ah... no... it's not..." Yang Erwu's thoughts were seen through by the clever child, and he hastily denied with a flushed face.

  "Why should I teach while you can't?"

  "Firstly, he is your apprentice; secondly, I still need to temper your weapon, or would you rather do it yourself?" Lei Meng said, counting on his fingers.

  Yang Tian thought that burning the stove was too hot and tiring, so he didn't want to do it. He hastily said: "Hehe, never mind, Uncle Lei, I'll teach my own apprentice."

  "In the end, you are still the one I taught. Hehe~" After saying that, Leiming flashed and jumped out of the yard, without a sound.

  "Ugh..." Yang Tianqi was furious, and then he saw Lei Meng's fleeing figure and felt depressed: He was too fast, it seemed the gap between them was still quite large.