Chaos and monsters begin with the red dragon's clone.

Early in the morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten, and the air was crisp and cool.

In the inner courtyard of the Flying Stone Fist in Dongluo Town, the light morning mist had not yet completely dissipated.

The pale yellow morning glories swayed gently in the wind on the tree. A drop of dew fell from the tip of a petal and slid into the air, reflecting a figure on the high platform of the stage.

"Everyone who comes to practice martial arts shares the same goal: to break through to a higher level, to become faster and stronger. Essentially, it's about becoming a better fighter. But progress and breakthroughs require patience and perseverance; you can't rush it. Sword techniques are different. The more proficient you are in practicing them, the more you master the moves, the more you integrate them, and the stronger your fighting ability becomes. You might even have the chance to defeat an opponent at a higher level than yourself..."

The man was about thirty years old, with a burly build and a full black beard. He casually brandished a wooden knife in his hand, and as he spoke, he looked down at the audience with a piercing gaze, exuding the imposing presence of a tiger.

Dozens of people stood around the stage, also holding wooden knives—two people in the corner whispered to each other, their cloth shoes worn white and patched.

A person with pockmarks on their face.

The other person, with a well-proportioned figure, straight eyes, and a prominent nose, was Zhang Xun, who had been in the inner courtyard for almost a week.

These past few days, Zhang Xun has been practicing boxing and swordsmanship, and has adapted to the rhythm of the inner courtyard. The burly man on the high platform is Fan Qi, the senior brother of the boxing academy. He explains and teaches the Flying Sand Sword Technique every five days. He always finds something new to learn, so many senior disciples also come to listen.

The pockmarked man next to him was named Chang Zhiliang. His voice was somewhat hoarse, like a duck's quack, which was unpleasant to listen to. Coupled with his physical imperfections, even though he was determined, extremely hardworking, and not bad at all, few people in the inner courtyard, except for Zhao Shaoting and a few others, took the initiative to contact him.

The two were at similar levels in their body tempering progress and came from ordinary families, so they were introduced to each other for sparring, and they became familiar with each other over time.

The other party already knew quite a few people and was introducing them to him at the moment.

"Have you seen the two people next to Song Zhou?"

Zhang Xun nodded.

At the front, closest to the platform, seven or eight people formed a small circle.

There were only three people in the central government. Apart from Song Zhou, there was a man and a woman. They had smooth skin and shiny hair. Their hairpins, hair ornaments, belts, boots, and other accessories all indicated that they came from well-off families and were definitely not commoners.

"They're the fastest progressing here. Their fist techniques have reached the level of four or five strikes, and they're all trying to break through to the third realm of body tempering," Chang Zhiliang said enviously.

"The man's name is Yu Jibai, and his family is the Yu family, which runs a cloth business in Du'an Town; the woman's name is Xie Ying, and she comes from Lingliu Town. She also comes from a prominent family in the outer city. They are both exceptionally skilled in martial arts."

"People from other towns come here too?" Zhang Xun asked doubtfully. "And wasn't it said that wealthy families from outer towns send their children to the inner city for training?"

Flying Stone Fist Academy is only somewhat well-known in Dongluo Town and perhaps the surrounding area; it is not considered a large force in the outer city, at most a medium-sized one.

Not to mention the inner city.

It might be a bit much for the inner city warriors to look down on the outer city warriors, but it's not just empty talk.

"Perhaps wealthy families have unique bone-reading techniques and know which type of bone structure is suitable for which martial arts style, or perhaps there are other reasons. Anyway, I don't know."

Chang Zhiliang shook his head. "As for the inner city?"

"Large families will send them, but it's very expensive. Usually, they arrange for the direct descendants to go in. I guess Yu Xie comes from a collateral branch." He looked around and then added in a lower voice.

"I heard that the training methods in the inner city are different from those in the outer city. As long as you have money and resources, your aptitude doesn't matter at all. Anyone can be trained. That's why the side branches have no chance to enter."

"Oh?"

Zhang Xun was shocked. He had been practicing martial arts all along, and he knew all too well the importance of aptitude. Yet, the inner city's martial arts training didn't consider this at all.

My own aptitude is average. If the inner city method is truly feasible, wouldn't it be even better with the help of the Red Dragon's body?

But in an instant, he secretly shook his head. He hadn't even solved the problem of basic training expenses. Even the big families found the inner city method expensive, so how could he possibly be expected to learn it?

At this time.

On the high platform, Senior Brother Fan Qi also explained the details and practical information. The two stopped talking and quickly focused their attention on listening.

"...This second move, Hidden Sand and Flowing Clouds, uses sand on the ground as stillness and clouds in the sky as movement. The essence of this move lies in concealing the sudden changes in the flowing clouds within the still sand, achieving victory by surprise. Hidden sand has three aspects: concealment of expression, concealment of body and weapon, and concealment of intention; flowing clouds also have three aspects: flow of stillness, flow of movement, and flow of layering. With each concealment and flow progressively combined, this move has at least nine variations..."

Senior Brother Fan Qi had a rugged and stern appearance, but he explained things in great detail, demonstrating his skills with a wooden sword and wooden stake.

Zhang Xun nodded repeatedly as he listened.

These tricks would take a very long time to figure out by trial and error, and there's no guarantee that everyone could discover them.

He used the red dragon's photographic memory to write down the explanations and demonstrations.

More than an hour later, the event ended, and Chang Zhiliang and I went to a corner of the venue to practice.

"As usual, let's familiarize ourselves with each other first before we start practicing."

"Um."

Zhang Xun walked to a wooden stake, and with a thought, his brain suddenly sank, entering a "super-sensory state" where the Red Dragon's brain soul consciousness was loaded onto his body.

He bent his knees slightly, lowered his center of gravity, and pushed off with his feet, taking a large step forward in an instant, closing in on the wooden stake. At the same time, he flipped his wrist, drew the wooden knife from his waist, and swiftly swung it down, producing a faint whistling sound as it cut through the air.

This is a simple draw-and-slash technique that combines the techniques of concealing the body and the stillness style. It emphasizes the combination of footwork, power generation, sword swing, and timing. The better the combination and the more accurate the rhythm, the stronger the effect.

He pondered it over and over again, adjusted its shortcomings, improved and optimized it... and then, with the next change, he repeated the process...

Swish.

Swish.

The sound of swords being swung was steady and continuous.

Chang Zhiliang, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but glance at him and felt that the other person's aptitude was not so mediocre.

But soon, seeing Zhang Xun lying on the ground panting heavily, covered in sweat and pale-faced, looking like he had exhausted himself, he secretly shook his head...

The Flying Sand Knife Technique is a fighting style. As long as you gradually master it and strengthen your body's memory, you can improve little by little. It is much easier than the Flying Stone Fist Technique, which is more focused on training. However, training is the foundation. No matter how well you master the fighting techniques, it is not as good as having a higher level of skill. Under the crushing force of speed and explosive power, you can overcome any technique.

The advancement of the training method requires repeatedly finding the right state and discovering more points of force to hone, so that the rhythmic movements resonate and produce the sound of punches.

If you manage to get into the zone once out of ten times, that's already good. If finding that zone is very difficult and time-consuming, then it's unlikely to succeed. This is also a sign of poor aptitude.

But he didn't know that—

With the help of his "super-sensory state," Zhang Xun was able to find the right spot every time.

This is different.

At this moment, Zhang Xun looked at the fictional text appearing below his field of vision.

'Flying Stone Fist Technique: 113/300, Proficient'

'Flying Sand Knife Technique: 16/100, Beginner Level'

Zhang Xun breathed a sigh of relief. His progress in the Flying Sand Saber Technique was good. He would probably be able to go from beginner to proficient in two or three months, at which point it would have a pretty good effect in actual combat.

The progress of the Flying Stone Fist technique was slow, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Without good food and medicine to replenish the body, it was impossible to refine the heat flow and thus impossible to judge whether the point of force application was accurate.

It's difficult to push forward.

After resting for a while, Zhang Xun recovered and got up to spar with Chang Zhiliang.

Except for taking a sip of water and catching their breath, the two of them didn't stop for a moment.

Before long it was noon, and the sound of clanging gongs came from the canteen on the side of the field.

Practicing martial arts is extremely physically demanding, and everyone was starving. The men and women in the inner courtyard all stopped their movements and headed there.

The canteen had rows of long benches and tables on both sides. Several female servants and kitchen helpers carried four huge wooden buckets to the middle. When they lifted the lids, there was steaming white rice, plenty of sweet potatoes, a large bucket of fragrant braised pork with cabbage in soy sauce, and a large bucket of soup made with brown mushrooms and white radishes.

After everyone got their food, they sat down on opposite sides, clearly separated.

Those from wealthier families formed small circles centered around Yu Jibai, Xie Ying, and others, sitting on the left side. They not only ate the cafeteria food but also brought along dried meat from exotic beasts. Then, those from ordinary families, like Song Zhou, who had outstanding talent, were also pulled over and shared some.

On the other side were Zhang Xun and Chang Zhiliang, who couldn't afford to eat the beast meat and just ate the cafeteria food.

The two sides were clearly divided into two groups: on the left, people were chatting and laughing, while on the right, they were quiet and each person ate their own food.

"It's getting worse and worse as we eat," Chang Zhiliang muttered under his breath, glancing at the table opposite him out of the corner of his eye, clearly not because of the food.

"I thought it was alright when I ate it."

Zhang Xun smiled. Yearning for the other side was human nature, but he didn't care. Seeing his swordsmanship improve every day gave him a great appetite, and he ate every last bite of his delicious food. He felt much of his fatigue had dissipated.

Soon after the meal, many people left, either to attend to family matters like Yu Xie, or to work and earn money. Only those who had just entered the inner courtyard or couldn't find work would stay in the boxing academy all day to practice.

This time, Zhang Xun was envious; only with a job can one have income.

Only by becoming stronger can one easily find work.

So in the afternoon, Zhang Xun and Chang Zhiliang increased their training intensity.

Until the sky turned yellow...

"Haha, Junior Brother Zhang, how's your swordsmanship coming along?" Zhao Shaoting suddenly appeared beside Zhang Xun, who was practicing on his own in a corner of the arena, and smiled as he watched Zhang Xun practicing diligently.

"I've barely gotten used to the moves, but I still need to practice more." Zhang Xun put down the wooden sword he was practicing with, his expression brightening. "Senior brother, is there any news?"