All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

He can't keep sneaking out in the middle of the night every time. This time, his family wants him to go to school, which is a good opportunity for him to ask his family to find him a teacher. He's so smart, an ordinary teacher definitely can't teach him.

Therefore, this person must be Mr. Ji Zongbu. Mr. Ji does not appear many times in the TV series, but Bai Jingqi's life values ​​are basically taught by Ji Zongbu.

Besides wanting to learn Mr. Ji's kung fu, Bai Jingqi also wanted to use this as an excuse to go out for a stroll. In the future, whenever he wanted to go out, he could just say he was going to see his master. What a great excuse!

The next day, Bai Jingqi approached the old man and made his request. He said that he and Mr. Ji had hit it off immediately and that he greatly admired Mr. Ji. He hoped that the old man could help him invite Mr. Ji to come and be his teacher.

The old man's health is deteriorating day by day. He looks sallow and often complains of back pain. After examining the old man, Bai Jingqi believes that he has cancer, possibly liver cancer. Cancer is a difficult problem, not to mention in this era, even in later generations.

Therefore, the only option is to use traditional Chinese medicine to regulate the body and try to prolong life as much as possible.

The old man had come to terms with it. As one approaches death, one values ​​family ties even more. He agreed to his grandson's request without hesitation.

First, he had someone inquire about Ji Zongbu's identity and learned that he was a talented person who was skilled in both literature and martial arts. He was overjoyed and had Bai Jingqi's father personally bring gifts to visit him.

Faced with the Bai family's invitation, Ji Zongbu readily agreed to become Bai Jingqi's tutor.

Bai Jingqi didn't expect Ji Zongbu to agree so readily. Little did he know that even if the Bai family didn't invite him, he was prepared to offer himself up.

Since their last parting, Ji Zongbu had been thinking about Bai Jingqi. Such a prodigy, only six years old, had already accomplished so much. If left unchecked, this prodigy might become a scourge to the country and its people in the future.

He had already planned for this, and during the New Year, he would take the opportunity to recommend himself, hoping to become Bai Jingqi's teacher. With his guidance, this young man might become a pillar of the imperial court in the future.

Neither of them expected that, being of one mind with each other, the Bai family would come to their door first.

And so, shortly after the Spring Festival in 1886, Bai Jingqi had his first real master, who was also the only master in his life.

Bai Jingqi hired a teacher for himself, but for the group of little beggars at the City God Temple, Bai Jingqi, also known as Black Seventh Master, was their teacher. With the code name Black Seventh Master, Bai Jingqi officially established a small territory in the capital, and now has twenty-three underlings. Most of these little beggars are between seven and sixteen years old.

Bai Jingqi does not plan to expand the scale for the time being. He wants to use these twenty-three people as a test field to experiment for at least two years to determine whether it is effective before continuing to expand the scale. If these teenagers become deformed after two years, he does not plan to carry out this project in the future.

In short, as the saying goes, Bai Jingqi doesn't know what the future holds. If he truly cannot change his fate, perhaps he will lead the Bai family to live in seclusion overseas.

In short, he should be able to live a carefree life in this lifetime. He will not only learn a lot of skills, but also live his life according to his own wishes. Otherwise, this life would be too regrettable. In the future, there will probably be no more worlds where you start as an infant. It is really great to be in complete control of your own life.

Although Ji Zongbu was of Han Chinese Eight Banners origin, he was not blindly loyal to his master. He did not blame Bai Jingqi for the obvious discriminatory remarks he made about the Qing Dynasty.

Although he came from an official family, his skills were genuine and of high quality. Although he had a deep concern for the country and its people, his personal strength was limited.

His position in the Shenji Battalion was merely that of a martial arts instructor. Although he was a student of the Imperial Academy, the Qing Dynasty, from top to bottom, valued money above all else, so Ji Zongbu was always the type who was frustrated and unfulfilled.

As for Bai Jingqi, Ji Zongbu soon realized that all his previous guesses about this kid were too one-sided and simplistic. This little guy really deserved the title of "prodigy".

Although Bai Jingqi is only six years old, he has already read hundreds of books. He is proficient in not only reading, calligraphy and painting, but also in calligraphy, which he personally passed down to his grandfather. He has no trace of the childishness that a child should have.

Most importantly, Bai Jingqi has his own set of principles for doing things, and he is extremely self-disciplined, even frighteningly so. Ji Zongbu even felt a little helpless with this little guy, because he really didn't know what he should teach him.

But soon, Ji Zongbu knew what he should teach the other party, because on his second day as a teacher, Bai Jingqi took the opportunity to ask him for advice on martial arts techniques.

Ji Zongbu didn't think much at the time. He picked up a brick, broke it in half with one hand in front of Bai Jingqi, and then grabbed a small brick and crushed it into powder in his hand.

This move truly shocked Bai Jingqi. These were blue bricks, not the standard red bricks of later generations, performance props that would crumble at the slightest touch. At this moment, Bai Jingqi finally believed that there were indeed some good things in this world.

Seeing Bai Jingqi's shocked expression, Ji Zongbu was also pleased. Finally, something had impressed the little guy. Bai Jingqi quickly asked Ji Zongbu what kind of skill it was.

Ji Zongbu snorted and said.

"This kind of skill isn't something a child like you can learn. It also requires talent. I'll teach you when I have the chance!"

Bai Jingqi was not happy about this. Was this a disrespect to him?

In Bai Jingqi's opinion, Ji Zongbu's move was indeed impressive, but Ji Zongbu was only flesh and blood and could not withstand bullets, but he could crush blue bricks. This showed that the other party was indeed skilled in hand techniques, and perhaps even a craft that had been lost in later generations.

Seeing that the other party was unwilling to teach him, Bai Jingqi smiled and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to Ji Zongbu.

"Teacher, actually, I don't have much to learn from you. I really want to learn your skills. Oh, I forgot to tell you, my skills are pretty good too. How about we have a competition?"

Ji Zongbu became interested and said...

How to compete?

Bai Jingqi chuckled and then said.

"We'll engage in close combat. Within ten breaths, each of us will attack the back of the neck, lower back, and calf. A simple tap on these areas will count as a successful attack. How about that?"

Ji Zongbu laughed heartily. He thought Bai Jingqi was just joking with him and didn't take it seriously. He then nodded to indicate that he could.

Bai Jingqi spoke again.

"Let's make this clear first: if I win, the teacher has to teach me the kung fu you're using."

Ji Zongbu nodded nonchalantly, indicating that there was no problem. He was already thinking that when he caught the little guy, he would give him a good spanking.

Seeing that the other party agreed, Bai Jingqi slyly cupped his hands and shouted.

"Master, I'm here!"

Ji Zongbu crossed his arms, his attitude casual, and nodded.

Bai Jingqi wanted the other party to be careless, so he jumped around Ji Zongbu like a child, making Ji Zongbu shake his head helplessly.

Just as Ji Zongbu shook his head, Bai Jingqi suddenly accelerated and kicked Ji Zongbu in the thigh. Ji Zongbu was no ordinary person; he immediately sensed something was wrong and quickly raised his leg.

Bai Jingqi, however, had a smug smile on his lips. He slid his entire body down between Ji Zongbu's legs, grabbed the other man's trouser leg, and climbed up Ji Zongbu's back like a monkey doing a rock climbing. Ji Zongbu's expression changed at this moment. He hurriedly tried to shake him off, but as soon as he used his strength, he regretted it. The other man was still a child. If he used his strength like that, the little guy would fall down and that would be troublesome.

But Ji Zongbu was overthinking it. Just as he threw Bai Jingqi away, the other man kicked him in the back of the neck while standing upside down. Then, he quickly struck Ji Zongbu's lower back and calves twice with both hands. Before Ji Zongbu could turn around, Bai Jingqi had already flipped over and jumped off Ji Zongbu's back. He then stood up steadily, cupped his hands, and smiled at Ji Zongbu.

"Mr. Ji, you flatter me!"

Ji Zongbu stared in disbelief at Bai Jingqi, dumbfounded. This...this is not right!

Chapter Eleven: Training

Ji Zongbu never expected that he would lose.

Moreover, the little guy's attack was clearly not something that could be explained by a simple sneak attack; he possessed a skill that I had never seen before.

Ji Zongbu looked at the little guy in front of him with a complicated expression. He was only as tall as his waist. He was starting to understand the little guy less and less.

However, the more he couldn't understand it, the more he felt a great responsibility to educate this little guy.

Ji Zongbu kept his promise and agreed to teach Bai Jingqi kung fu. His skill of crushing blue bricks was a tough skill that required both hand technique and hard work to develop strength. This kind of skill could not be mastered overnight; it took ten years of dedicated practice to achieve even a small degree of proficiency.

It took ten years to achieve some success.

Bai Jingqi suddenly lost his strong interest. He imagined a scene: Wang Er, who had practiced hard kung fu for ten years, was shot in the head by him with a Desert Eagle drawn from his waist. He blew the smoke from the muzzle of the gun, looked at the corpse with disgust, and walked away.

Of course, this was just a thought. Bai Jingqi decided to learn Mr. Ji's special skills anyway, since he was idle anyway, and besides, he didn't believe that someone as talented as himself could possibly need ten years to learn.

And so, Bai Jingqi formally became Ji Zongbu's disciple. The ceremony involved kowtowing and offering tea, which was considered a formal acceptance of him as a student. As a student of the Imperial Academy, Ji Zongbu was more than capable of teaching a child prodigy, whether in literature or martial arts.

Bai Jingqi did indeed learn a lot of knowledge from Ji Zongbu that he had never learned in the Bai family, and he enjoyed the impact of this new knowledge.

Although he believed that this knowledge would be useless in the future and was nothing but feudal education, it was precisely this kind of knowledge, which had long been eliminated and lost, that gave him a deeper understanding of life.

Since the hunt ended, the City God Temple has returned to peace. However, the eight burly men who disappeared last time seemed to have died like eight wild dogs, without attracting anyone's attention.

It did indeed attract some attention, but people gradually developed a sense of unease about the City God Temple, because they didn't know when it started.

At night, around midnight, a group of little ghosts would wail and howl, occasionally accompanied by screams. Although the area was sparsely populated, people would still occasionally pass by. As time passed, these rumors gradually made the area even more deserted.

Every day at three o'clock in the morning, Bai Jingqi would appear at the City God Temple as the Black Seventh Master. In order to support these little ghosts, Bai Jingqi used those silver notes for the first time.

Those silver notes were produced by several large banks in Shanxi, and their credibility was absolutely guaranteed. In fact, if the Bai family went to the banks and asked them to cancel these silver notes, Bai Jingqi would have nothing but worthless paper in his hands.

Bai Jingqi had actually been prepared for this. The day after he returned home, he told his grandfather about killing Guiwu and also confessed that he planned to leave the ransom behind because he was worried that after his grandfather passed away, there would be no one to take charge of the Bai family, so he had to leave something behind as a precaution.

Over the years, Bai Jingqi has shared almost all of his secrets with Old Master Bai, except for the secret of his own rebirth. Now that Old Master Bai is nearing the end of his life, he has fewer and fewer concerns.

The old man was actually somewhat anxious about his impending death. After all, his three sons were all disappointing, and it would be difficult for the Bai family to maintain its current status in the future. Now that his grandson had already made plans, he finally agreed to Bai Jingqi's arrangements.

Since Bai Jingqi was going to train these kids, he naturally couldn't let them beg on the streets like before. In this world, there are beggars everywhere, and it's not easy to get enough to eat. If they want to have the energy to train at night, they must eat their fill; this is the most basic requirement.

Therefore, inevitable expenses were unavoidable. For this reason, Bai Jingqi had to use those silver notes. But it would be strange if people didn't suspect that a child like him was trying to exchange a silver note worth several hundred taels.

Therefore, Bai Jingqi went directly to the beggars' group, selected a beggar who looked quite well-off, carefully cleaned and dressed him up, and put him in a set of silk. He looked quite presentable. Bai Jingqi promised this old beggar named Lao Xu that he would find him a dilapidated house near the City God Temple to live in and guarantee him three meals a day, just as a way to keep an eye on him.

And so, Bai Jingqi accompanied Lao Xu to the Shanxi bank, where they exchanged five hundred taels of silver. They then had Wang Er carry the silver back to the City God Temple in two backpacks.

With money, Bai Jingqi began to make bold reforms. The first issue was the food for everyone. More than twenty young men consumed dozens of kilograms of rice and flour every day, and they also needed to eat meat. These were all big problems, but fortunately, with money, they were easy to solve.

Every day, Bai Jingqi would have Wang Er accompany Lao Xu to buy ingredients, which would then be carried back to the City God Temple. Every day, they would cook a large pot of food, including meat, oil, rice, and noodles. Although it didn't meet Bai Jingqi's ideal of nutritious food, it was still a hundred times better than their previous lives.

To be honest, doing these things in the capital is a bit inconvenient. Fortunately, they are a group of beggars, and in recent years, this place has been a gathering place for beggars. It is also a deserted place, so no one has paid attention to it.

Bai Jingqi's training for them consisted of two parts. During the day, he trained them to familiarize themselves with the terrain, gather intelligence, and learn to draw maps and measure. They would gather back in the afternoon or evening, have a meal, and then go to sleep. After 3 a.m., Bai Jingqi would quietly come to train their physical fitness.

The training ranges from easy to difficult, including weighted night runs, striking, swimming, and in the future, they will learn assassination, night raids, and some real killing techniques that only special forces soldiers learn. Right now, they are learning some simple things.

There's a river nearby, which is the perfect training ground. Bai Jingqi made them swim a kilometer round trip every night.

Bai Jingqi's plan was to proceed step by step, but a plan is still just a plan. In the first week, two people were lost: two children drowned.

Bai Jingqi merely glanced at them coldly and indicated that the training would continue. Since they had agreed to follow him, they had to endure torment that ordinary people could hardly bear, and death was just one of them.

But Bai Jingqi didn't expect that training a group of children would be far more difficult than training a group of seventeen or eighteen-year-old youths. These children were 100% illiterate and didn't know a single character. To learn to draw and measure would be harder than climbing to heaven.

Helpless, Bai Jingqi could only teach them some simple characters by lamplight at night and bought many copies of the Thousand Character Classic for them to learn from each other. From then on, they had an additional task during the day: each of them had to silently recite five characters.

In the process of learning to read, they can also learn loyalty and obedience. Bai Jingqi wants them to know that he is their second parent, and without him, they would have long since died in the wilderness.

These things can be done gradually, they can't be rushed, they need to be done slowly and gradually. Fortunately, Bai Jingqi has plenty of time.

After three months of training, the effects were finally noticeable. The boys' complexions were noticeably rosier. With plenty of food and water every day and the added training, everyone's demeanor was slowly changing. At least, the cowardice was no longer visible in their eyes.

A group of teenagers who appeared and disappeared mysteriously all day long eventually attracted the attention of some people. Of course, the first to set their sights on them were their peers.

In the beggar circles of the capital, there are quite a few factions. These twenty or so half-grown children who suddenly appeared all had rosy cheeks and did not look like people who often went hungry.

They thought these teenagers were doing well and might have some stable income. They wouldn't let such a lucrative opportunity slip by, so a group of beggars set their sights on these teenagers.

Unfortunately, they were clearly mistaken this time. After more than three months of training, Bai Jingqi's first lesson for them was to learn how to track and counter-track. Because this place needed to be kept secret, Bai Jingqi paid special attention to this aspect of training.

Moreover, although they haven't learned any killing skills yet, these three months of training have certainly built up the courage of these teenagers.

Soon, several children realized they were being followed. They quickly informed Wang Er, who promptly told the children from the City God Temple not to go home that day and to wait for Black Seven's instructions.

That evening, after Bai Jingqi arrived at the City God Temple and learned the news, he was overjoyed. They had been training for more than three months, and it seemed it was time to let them see blood.

So Bai Jingqi began to instruct Wang Er to set up traps and prepare weapons, waiting for the enemy to fall into the trap.

The next day, the group of teenagers went out as usual and did not return until evening. However, they were followed by a number of spies. After watching them enter the City God Temple, these spies began to wait. As darkness fell, a group of ragged beggars appeared one after another. Each of these beggars carried a stick and a knife and fork, and there were more than a dozen of them.

The group quietly approached the City God Temple. No longer hesitant, they lit torches and began to rush into the temple. Leading them was a burly man with a beard, about 1.8 meters tall, carrying a harpoon. He strode into the temple.

As the firelight shone in, the scene inside was immediately revealed: a dozen quilts were neatly arranged inside, and the place was clean and tidy, without a single person in sight.