Martial Arts Awakening, Bloodfire Fist Master

Three days later.

[Jiang Liu's Four-Bend Breathing Technique continuously circulates his energy, as if this energy were innate, becoming increasingly adept at it. His Second-Bend Hundred-Turned Breathing Technique has entered the proficiency stage.]

Zhang Qingshan let out a breath.

With a thought, internal energy arises, then it is tempered and refined, while also integrating with flesh and blood.

It's much better than when I tried it three days ago.

Although it doesn't progress as quickly as the breathing technique, it's enough.

Another advantage of breathing exercises is that the movements don't require the same deliberate effort as those in boxing or stance training.

As long as you have a strong will and a powerful mind, you can breathe and function anytime, anywhere.

Of course, this is in theory.

Most people still need a quiet environment to practice. It's impossible to practice while living and working. You should know that breathing techniques are not just about breathing. They also involve drawing in energy, tempering the energy, and refining the flesh and blood.

If you lose focus even slightly, your energy will go out of control, causing damage instead of improvement.

It's practically impossible for anyone to dare to try that.

More importantly, even if you can do it, maintaining a high level of concentration at all times is very mentally taxing. Theory is just theory, and only one in ten thousand can actually do it.

Zhang Qingshan is one in a million.

The Spirit of Martial Arts is an absolute martial arts fanatic, born with unparalleled focus, possessing a perfect breathing technique and Dao body. Cultivating anytime, anywhere is merely instinctive; there is no such thing as being distracted.

Therefore, even though the difficulty of practicing the Four Breathing Techniques is that each step is more complicated and tedious than the last, the path of a level seven or eight martial artist is more troublesome than the previous six or seven levels combined.

But Zhang Qingshan has also made visible progress.

Keep going.

There was no sign of Wang Zhi's powerful backers coming to his aid.

Everything is fine for now; continue your cultivation.

He then devoted himself to five days of arduous practice.

The second-stage breathing technique has finally reached a minor level of mastery.

The internal energy already felt like it had been tempered and refined over a thousand trials.

After arranging the affairs of the martial arts school and conducting a thorough inspection, Zhang Qingshan finally stepped out of the school.

When I saw a vendor selling snacks on the street, I bought some for my second sister and younger sister as usual.

When he got to his door, he found that his second sister was unusually present at the door.

Instead of waiting for him, he leaned against the gate, peeked out, and tilted his body slightly to look into the alley.

One part of them was looking after the little sister who was playing in the sand with other children in the alley.

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The other part, no, the main focus, was watching the people walking in the alley, observing their bodies, hands, and backs.

His eyes revealed a mixture of envy and inferiority.

They didn't dare to look openly, only daring to peek out to observe. As soon as the other person turned their head away, they immediately shrank back.

Zhang Qingshan smiled. There were several female students in the alley. They wore simple, elegant tops with stand-up collars and diagonal plackets, and straight skirts that reached their ankles or calves. They wore either plain cloth shoes or brown calfskin shoes.

Overall, it is simple and elegant, adding to its youthful vitality.

Some carried small blue cloth satchels on their backs or around their waists, some held two books between their hands, some were chatting like best friends holding hands, some were skipping around, and some were looking straight ahead like ladies.

The female students appearing on the streets now are mostly around fourteen or fifteen years old.

Occasionally, Zhang Xiaoyan would be caught peeking, and she would exude an air of arrogance and confidence.

Some people blushed when they saw Zhang Qingshan, and kept peeking at him. They had heard that although the new family was from the countryside, the young man in the family was said to be a powerful martial artist.

This was a dark and chaotic era.

Some say the appearance of demons is the prelude to the end times, while others say that the changing times will usher in the dawn.

There are lives that are slaughtered and devoured at will, and there are also a few things that progress.

Take these students for example. If it were a hundred years ago, if a woman wanted to learn to read and write, she would definitely be from a very wealthy family who could afford to hire a private tutor.

Things are a little better now; there are special girls' schools in the city that can teach girls to read and understand principles.

The families on Anmin Street where my family lives are not extremely wealthy, but they are all well-off and have a certain level of status. Therefore, most of them would not let their daughters become illiterate and would send them to school.

In some cases, it has even become a trend; otherwise, one would be looked down upon.

Zhang Qingshan smiled as he looked at his second sister's envious gaze towards the female students. He thought to himself that his second sister was already past seventeen, which in this world meant she was old enough to be married.

Whether it was a hundred years ago or now, a girl who is still unmarried at the age of twenty is considered an old maid.

For example, these days, my parents have started to adapt to city life and have been talking about finding a husband for my second sister. They also lamented that our family is not bad now and we definitely can't marry a farmer.

Zhang Qingshan was naturally different from his parents. He was a time traveler. In his previous life, girls were already twenty-three or twenty-four when they graduated from university, and some were still enjoying a free and easy life in their thirties.

In this life, I can't help my eldest sister who got married early, but my second sister has been working in the fields and at home since she was a child and has never had a chance to enjoy her youth. Now that she is in the prime of her life, I certainly don't want her to become a wife at such a young age and start taking care of her husband and children.

Although Zhang Qingshan is the younger brother.

However, after awakening his innate wisdom, he looked at his second sister as if she were his younger sister.

He strode into the house.

"Second sister, I'm so envious."

Zhang Xiaoyan realized what was happening and blushed.

"I'm not envious at all. What's so great about studying? I heard you have to do homework, which is more tiring than farming."

As he spoke, he ran into the courtyard.

Watching her flee in embarrassment, Zhang Qingshan teased her, "Second sister, if you really want to, just tell me and I'll arrange it for you. If you don't want to, then forget it."

Zhang Xiaoyan stopped running, nodded and hummed in agreement, then continued running back to the courtyard.

I don't know whether to nod in agreement to the arrangement or just let it go.

"Third brother, I want to go to school too!"

He touched his little sister's braids. After living in the city for a while, her hair had changed from dry and yellow to black.

"Okay, everyone go to school."

"Yay, thank you, Third Brother! I'm going to be a real city kid now!"

Zhang Qingshan smiled silently, hoping that she would be just as happy every time she got up early to go to school and do her homework.

As a publicly recognized level six martial artist and an inner disciple of a martial arts school, it's not surprising that two members of his family are attending school, and he faces no pressure whatsoever.

Zhang Qingshan is a person with strong execution skills.

The next day, I found an experienced disciple at the martial arts school who was familiar with these things, and then went to the girls' school to register.

Upon learning that Zhang Qingshan was a powerful figure within the martial arts school, the school's leadership immediately made an exception and granted Zhang Xiaoyan's application to enroll.

In such times, it was not surprising that Zhang Xiaoyan was illiterate, so she was first placed in a literacy class as a transition.

Next is my younger sister, Zhang Xiaocao, which is even simpler.

I simply found a private school near my home that specializes in teaching children, briefly identified myself, and paid the tuition.

Then she went home and took her second and younger sisters to the street to buy mainstream student clothes and school bags, etc.

After returning home, my parents were both complaining and proud, but I won't go into the details of their happiness and pride.

Day three.

Zhang's father took his groggy younger sister to the private school, while Zhang Qingshan took his nervous yet expectant second older sister to the girls' school.

The first time I went, I arrived quite early, and the girls' school gates weren't even open yet; many students were waiting outside.

Zhang Xiaoyan looked flustered, leaning against a corner, her inferiority and nervousness clearly showing.

Looking at the skin on her face and hands, and her fearful and uneasy expression, a group of female students saw this scene.

Someone subconsciously pursed their lips.

"Oh, even the country bumpkin is going to school now."

"Our girls' school is getting lower and lower; it accepts all sorts of people."

"Judging from her appearance, she's at least a sixteen or seventeen-year-old woman. She should be going to a literacy class. Why is she studying if she's not getting married at this age?"

Another student was spitting sunflower seed shells at them, saying, "Heh, stay away from me. She's so tacky and dirty. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about having to go to the same school as someone like her. Look at her hands, they're rougher than my old lady's. She's got the life of a maid but she's studying like a young lady."