Translator: Myuu Editor: Kelaude
There was only one lesson scheduled every week at the martial arts academy and every lesson lasted only one hour at most. The duration of the shortest lesson was shorter than you could even imagine.
No attendance was taken during every lesson as the martial arts academy never made any lesson compulsory for students. The students of the martial arts academy were free to choose any lesson they wished to attend!
Students were not grouped by grades or classes in the martial arts academy. All lessons were open to all students in the academy.
Most importantly, there were no reviews or examinations in the martial arts academy at all! Everyone would have to voluntarily leave after either fulfilling their stay in the martial arts academy for six years or advancing as a Martial Warrior.
Just these few points alone were probably enough to make Yan Liqiang’s acquaintances back in university in his previous life cheer excitedly. To those who were obsessed with skipping classes, picking up girls and playing games, this martial arts academy was simply heaven.
In other words, the Pingxi Prefecture Martial Arts Academy wasn’t like an academy but more like a martial arts club for youths.
Academy tutors like Shi Changfeng and the rest were more like the club presidents instead.
In the martial arts academy, academy tutors might impart some knowledge to you which was not easily learned by ordinary people out there. However, if those skills could be learned by just anyone, then perhaps those skills weren’t that valuable in the first place.
There was a huge library in the martial arts academy that allowed students to borrow all kinds of manuals for reading. However, all these manuals were literature and historical classics. In the entire martial arts academy, there wasn’t even a single martial arts secret manual available to borrow.
There was only one lesson scheduled every week in the martial arts academy. At first, Yan Liqiang found it a little strange because the number of lessons conducted in the martial arts academy was too little. It was not until the lesson had commenced, that he understood that attending a lesson once a week was not too little but too much instead. That was because, in martial arts cultivation, skills required practice and not only listening to lectures. Nearly all skills and techniques could only be achieved through diligent practice. As the saying goes, ‘the master teaches the trade, but the apprentice’s skill is self-made’. Very often, a word of wisdom from the academy tutor would require a few years of diligence and cultivation.
The first lesson Yan Liqiang attended at the martial arts academy was so short that it was beyond his imagination.
That lesson was conducted by an old man in a huge classroom within the martial arts academy. During the lesson, that old man only demonstrated the Horse Stance in front of all the seven hundred newly recruited students this year and told them three things.
His first sentence was, “The Horse Stance is the result of hard work and persistence over time. Do not be lazy, and make sure your tendons are taut when you assume the Horse Stance!”
His second sentence was, “You will need to be able to hold the stance until you can maintain your entire body in a relaxed manner along with a peaceful state of mind. Only with a relaxed body and tranquil mind, will you be close to passing the Horse Stance stage.”
The third sentence was, “I will not be coming in for future Horse Stance lessons. This skill will only succeed through practice and not words. My words will not do any good. Go on and practice it independently, spend a few years time. You will achieve a great outcome if you can endure the hardship. That’s all, you are dismissed!”
The entire lesson ended in less than three minutes. When the old man left the classroom, students were looking at each other in dismay, unable to believe that their first lesson in the martial arts academy had ended just like that.
Horse Stance was a lesson scheduled for the first week of every month. Since the old man wasn’t coming from now on, then there would actually be no more lessons during the first week of every month.
This was the lesson style at the martial arts academy. The academy tutors here would not care how many students had been recruited or how the students fared. They would only convey truly useful things to you with just a few words and end the lesson there. The rest was up to your own diligence instead of counting on someone else.
Yan Liqiang had only discovered later that the old man who taught them during the Horse Stance lesson was the dojo master of the renowned Dragon Flag Dojo in Pingxi City, Song Tianhao. This Horse Stance technique was one that Song Tianhao could openly teach everyone in public. If one truly wished to learn the more advanced Horse Stance technique from the Essence Unifying Post stance, then they would need to visit the Dragon Flag Dojo to be formally apprenticed to a master. It went without saying that an honorarium of at least a hundred taels of gold would be needed to be apprenticed to a master. This wasn’t an amount that simply anyone could afford.
The following few academy tutors conducted their lesson in precisely the same way as Song Tianhao. Their instructions were concise, clear and quick. After their lessons, it was up to everyone to independently practice.
That included Shi Changfeng’s sword technique lessons.
During the first two months upon Yan Liqiang’s arrival at the martial arts academy, Shi Changfeng’s basic sword technique carried on for four lessons. In those four lessons, each consisted of a lecture from Shi Changfeng which lasted less than ten minutes. In those ten minutes, he only taught two or three basic movements in sword techniques — splitting, thrusting, poking, pulling, snapping, intercepting, smearing, piercing, flicking, lifting, twirling and sweeping. He would dismiss the lesson once he was done with explaining and let everyone practice it by themselves.
In contrast, Shi Changfeng would speak more during literature and history lessons instead. His lecture would usually last almost an hour during every literature and history lesson. At the end of every lesson, Shi Changfeng would introduce a book title to everyone so they could look for it and read on their own time.
There were also other lessons available, for example, introduction to saber techniques, introduction to hidden weapons, lectures on the art of archery, lectures on Tiger Roaring Consecutive Fist technique. However, these lessons were either very general or still emphasized on practicality. The things they taught were not really complex. After all, the educational objective of the top martial arts academy in the prefecture was only to nurture their students into a Martial Warrior. From certain aspects, a Martial Warrior was merely at the entrance of martial arts cultivation.
Perhaps the capability of the academy tutors here may not be limited to only this extent, but to obtain true skills, it was necessary for one to be apprenticed to a master. However, the requirements of being apprenticed to one were very demanding. Yan Liqiang heard that apart from Song Tianhao who ran a dojo, it was very rare for the academy tutors here to accept any disciples. The reason behind that was due to their origins from different clans or they were apprenticed under different masters. Hence, they weren’t allowed to casually accept any other disciples and also weren’t allowed to simply impart true skills and techniques to others.
The knowledge imparted at the martial arts academy wasn’t that in-depth and there were no secret manuals provided for reading either. However, the beauty of the martial arts academy was that they provided the most ideal environment for martial arts training to students. Such environment for martial arts training was unimaginable for most of them in the past.
In the martial arts academy, there was a dedicated archery range for those who wished to pick up bowmanship. There was also a horse arena in the martial arts academy if one wished to be trained in horsemanship. The steeds kept in the arena were all rhinodrakes. The martial arts academy also had a dedicated venue for spear technique training. It was even convenient if one wished to spar with someone as there were more than ten various kinds of arenas in the entire martial arts academy. There were no issues in a bare-handed battle or a fully dressed spar armed with weapons.
If one wished to practice the Horse Stance, the martial arts academy also had a clearing made in the pine forest, for students to practice. Yan Liqiang heard that practicing the Horse Stance together with many people could create good an atmosphere where everyone could supervise each other and improve each other while competing against each other in perseverance and endurance. The result was better than solo practice and one would find it easier to pass the Horse Stance stage this way.
Although Yan Liqiang felt that the things he learned in the martial arts academy were a little too simple, he never slacked. He remained diligent in his training every day at the martial arts academy.
Apart from cultivating Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Manual in the basement of his home every morning and night, Yan Liqiang spent the rest of his whole two months after the academy’s opening, either in the spear technique training field, the archery range or the sword technique training field at the martial arts academy. He refused to go home before his body was thoroughly worn out for the day every day.
In these two months, Yan Liqiang’s strength gradually stood out from the other seven hundred students among his batch in the martial arts academy, especially because he frequently sparred openly with Shi Dafeng in the academy’s arenas. They’d sometimes compete with their fists and legs or with weapons. Yan Liqiang would always manage to push Shi Dafeng into a corner. Sometimes, he would also invite some new students who were watching them enviously and were itching to challenge them, to spar in the arena. Yan Liqiang’s reputation gradually rose from nothing, to above the martial arts academy’s newest batch of recruited students. Someone even declared that Yan Liqiang was not only the first among the top three of Qinghe County’s martial arts trial but also the best among all the new students.
Of course, Yan Liqiang just smiled at the title given to him for being the best among all the new students. He didn’t mind it.
In just these two months, by the eleventh lunar month, Yan Liqiang had a feeling that he was about to pass the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone stage…
Shi Changfeng had told him before, that he wished that Yan Liqiang could strive to pass the Stretching Tendon and Extending Bone stage within these two years. However, Yan Liqiang’s speed in cultivation had exceeded everyone’s expectations. Even he himself didn’t expect to pass this stage so fast…
