“Fifty-four… fifty-five… fifty… six… huff… huff…”

Wu Jian felt the strain in his arms as he did pushups. He was resting his weight on his knuckles as he lowered his torso, held position for several seconds, then lifted himself back up. It was a process he repeated over and over. He didn’t even know how long he had been doing this for.

His hands, arms, and legs stung as the cold air froze the sweat forming along his skin. Winter might have ended, but that did not mean the temperature had changed much. Zahn City was located at a relatively high elevation, so even though spring had technically begun, it would be at least another few weeks before the weather became easier to bear.

As if to emphasize this point, white powder remained on the ground, sparse though it was.

“Fifty-seven… fi-fifty-eight… huff… fifty-nine…”

Another reason for the temperature might also be due to the time. It was early morning. The sun was just beginning its climb into the eastern sky, but even with its appearance, the forest remained dark. The trees kept sunlight from reaching this place, save the sparse geometric sprinkles of light caused by the sun peeking in through the canopy.

“Sixty… sixty-one… haaaah… sixty… two…”

Twigs and rocks scraped against Wu Jian’s knuckles, causing bursts of sharp discomfort to travel from his hands up his arms. He was lucky they didn’t bleed anymore. His first month of training like this had been harsh, not only because it was during the winter, but also because he kept getting cut. His blood had become thoroughly soaked into this section of the forest. But now his skin had formed hard calluses that protected his hands to an extent.

“Sixty… three… si-sixty… four… sixty… five…”

Sweat poured from his body in rivulets, caking his training gi to his skin, as the muscles in his triceps, shoulders, and chest burned. His arms shook with every repetition.

Pushups were obviously one of the most straightforward methods of exercising and detailed in the scrolls Grandpa Son had given them. There were several different kinds of push-ups, and Wu Jian began every morning doing at least one variation alongside his other exercises.

“Sixty… six… sixty… se… seven… sixty… eight…!”

Wu Jian was not the only person exercising that morning, of course, as Wu Meiying was also doing exercises, but hers were wholly different from his. While his exercises were all about strengthening the body through tearing and restoring muscles with explosive bursts of energy, Wu Meiying’s exercises relied on slowly building strength through stretches and training the core muscles.

What she did looked a lot more graceful than what he was doing. He was a little envious of how she appeared like a beautiful swan as she went through the motions, but he knew their exercises were different because their styles of combat would diverge as time went on. Wu Meiying would eventually begin learning combat meant specifically for those with slighter figures and a lower center of gravity.

“Sixty-nine… haaaah! Haaaaah! Haaaah! Just… one… more… seventy…!”

After finishing his set of seventy, Wu Jian collapsed stomach first onto the ground. He ignored the sharp pain of rocks stabbing his chest and stomach. He was too tired to get up.

This was the most he could do at this point in time. The number of pushups he could do had increased from a month ago when the most he could do was five. Seventy seemed like a vast improvement, but he still didn’t think he was growing stronger fast enough.

Wu Jian was motivated to continue and didn’t stay down for long. He caught his second wind and moved into his next set of exercises, which included doing dips between two branches, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, hanging sit-ups (he hung upside down from the branches by his feet), pull-ups, and a variety of other workouts. By the time he was done, his lungs were burning, his muscles felt like they were on fire, and his body was drenched in sweat.

“All done?” asked Wu Meiying.

Wu Jian felt slightly jealous as the girl stood easily in place, not even breathing heavily. A light sheen of sweat had formed around her forehead and neck, her hair had been tied into a ponytail that caused it to trail behind her like a glossy black whip, and her clothes seemed a bit damp, but that only made her look prettier than usual. There was something he found captivating about seeing her like this.

Why does she look so pretty after she exercises, while I look like something a magical beast dragged in? How is that even fair?

“Y-yeah, I’m… I’m done,” he said, his own breathing ragged.

“In that case, let’s do some light stretches and then go for a run,” Wu Meiying suggested.

Wu Jian grimaced. “All right.”

Wu Jian and Wu Meiying stretched their arms, legs, back, and other muscles to limber up, then began running through the forest. They didn’t maintain a simple jogging pace either. The scroll they had on running said that to build up endurance and speed, they needed to run in intervals. Every minute, they sprinted as hard as they could for thirty seconds, then slowed down for a minute, and then sprinted for another thirty seconds. It was a process that repeated itself for nearly an hour. By the time they were done, even Wu Meiying looked like she was going to collapse from exhaustion.

He felt vindicated seeing her like this.

Just a little.

“Ugh… water… I need water… what did we do… haaah… haaah… with our canister?” asked Wu Meiying.

“It’s… over here…”

Wu Jian grabbed the water canister and handed it to Wu Meiying. It was just a simple animal skin flask filled with refreshingly cool water taken from a nearby stream. All the water flowing down from the nearby Twin Fang Mountains was incredibly pure. Wu Jian had heard someone say it was because a monk who reached the Deva Realm had cast a spell on the mountain that purified it, but who knew if that was true.

Once she had her fill, Wu Meiying handed the flask back to Wu Jian, who chugged for several seconds before releasing the flask from his mouth with a content sigh. Nothing could beat the feeling of water quenching his parched throat after strenuous exercise.

With their exercises finished, the two sank to the forest floor and sat back to back. They were both exhausted.

“This is so hard,” Wu Jian said as he leaned his head back. His hands were pressed against the cold dirt. The last bits of snow melted under his skin, which emitted an intense heat. His body felt like it was both burning and freezing at the same time.

“It is, but we’re getting stronger. I can feel it,” Wu Meiying said. “You’ve become a lot stronger now than you were before.”

“Father’s pills helped a lot. I wouldn’t be nearly as strong now if it wasn’t for those,” Wu Jian admitted.

The Bone Hardening Pills that his father had given him had been used up near the beginning half of this month, but they had done their job. Wu Jian’s bones were harder than steel. He was certain they wouldn’t break again even if Wu Yong hit him with all of his strength.

Of course, he had no desire to test this theory.

“Yes. They did. But that’s not the only reason you’ve gotten so much stronger,” Wu Meiying chided as if he was forgetting the most important thing. “Your determination to get stronger is the biggest reason. You have never trained this hard before. You only did the bare minimum required, but now you’re putting your all into this training. It’s inspiring to see.”

There was always something odd about the way Wu Meiying praised him. It felt like she was an older person encouraging someone many years her junior. However, Wu Jian was not the type to look too deeply into these sorts of insights—not where Wu Meiying was concerned. He instead basked in the feelings her words brought him. It was a warm feeling.

“Thank you,” he said. Then he sighed, stood up, and turned around, extending his hand. “Since our training is done for the day, I guess we should head back… we should probably wash ourselves before going to breakfast.”

“You’re right.” Wu Meiying smiled as she accepted his hand and let him pull her up. “It would be a bad idea if we entered the dining hall smelling this bad.”

“Are you saying I stink?”

“I thought that was obvious.”

“Harsh.”

***

After parting ways, Wu Jian traveled to his compound, wiped his body down with a wet rag and some soap since it took too much time to draw a bath, and met back up with Wu Meiying at the dining hall. They entered together and sat down. A young maid came by and placed a bowl of congee in front of them both. Another bowl full of nuts, berries, and a small flask of honey was set beside the congee.

Dumping the nuts, berries, and honey into his congee, Wu Jian surveyed the people around them as he stirred it all together. A lot of the people eating at this time were his peers or kids slightly older. He spotted a large number of branch family members. Sitting at a table to his left was Wu Liufeng, a sixteen-year old who had managed to complete his right of passage by breaking through to the Hunger Realm just a few days ago. A party had been held for him the other day. Not only had he been given a large sum of money as a reward, but they said he would be allowed to take the entrance exams for the Imperial Academy when it came around this year.

Wu Meiying had not only predicted that he would break through, she had also predicted that he would fail to pass the exam this year but succeed and set off for the Shang Kingdom Imperial Capital next year.

Strength was always celebrated in this world. This fact had been drilled into Wu Jian’s head from a young age. He didn’t understand it himself, but he knew from seeing how happy everyone was at Wu Liufeng’s breakthrough that it was important for someone to be strong—if for no other reason than to make people happy. Get stronger. Make people happy. It was certainly a motivating reason if you cared about the joy of others.

Of course, he had another, even more powerful reason to grow stronger.

He glanced at Wu Meiying as she ate her congee. She noticed his eyes on her and turned her head to look at him, a smile lighting up her face.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No, but you have some congee on your face.” Before she could wipe it off herself, he reached out, swiped it off with his thumb, and licked it. “Got it for you.”

Wu Meiying blinked several times in surprise, but then she beamed at him. “Thanks. By the way, don’t look now, but Wu Yong is here.”

While she told him not to look, the very act of informing him that his bully had appeared forced him to swivel his head around, until he found Wu Yong. He had just entered the dining hall and was heading toward a table. As if he could feel someone’s eyes on him, the young man turned to look at him. Their eyes locked. However, after another moment, Wu Yong gave him a nasty sneer before ignoring him.

“He’s still not doing anything,” Wu Meiying observed. “I’m a little surprised he hasn’t tried to bully you more.”

Wu Jian shook his head. “He wouldn’t do that since our challenge has been recognized by Father and the elders. If he did something, it could be seen as him attempting to sabotage me. And he’s confident he won’t lose to me, so he won’t do anything that could jeopardize his position.”

“I guess not.” Wu Meiying tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She took a bite of her congee. After thoughtfully chewing her food, she leaned over slightly and gazed into his eyes. “So, do you think you can defeat him?”

Wu Jian closed his eyes and struggled to come up with an answer. He wasn’t all that confident in his victory, but at the same time…

“It doesn’t matter.” He opened his eyes again. “Even if I didn’t have any confidence, I still have to beat him.”

“That’s a good answer.”

“Thanks, I guess. But there’s still the problem of whether or not I’m strong enough to beat him.” Wu Jian set his spoon inside of his now empty bowl. “The last time he took the strength test, Wu Yong’s strength was at three thousand two hundred units. Mine barely surpassed a thousand. I’m sure I’m stronger now, but I doubt Wu Yong has been lazing around. He’s probably even stronger than he was before. Have I caught up to him, or is he still beyond me? I just don’t know.”

The Wu Clan’s annual strength test was taken at the Testing Stone, which measured the strength of one’s punch, converting the kinetic force from the one punching into measurable units. This let the clan know which members had enough strength to break through to the Hunger Realm. According to his lessons, a cultivator needed at least five thousand units worth of strength to break through. Of course, that number was the bare minimum. The more physical strength someone had, the easier it would be for them to reach the Hunger Realm.

“You are worried,” Wu Meiying stated.

“Of course, I am.” Wu Jian sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “How can I not be? Even if I have gotten a little stronger, the gap between Wu Yong and I is already so big that it feels like I’m trying to reach heaven while lying in the dirt.”

“In other words, you want to find a faster way to increase your strength,” Wu Meiying said, entering what looked like a trance.

“That would be nice, but how am I going to do that?” asked Wu Jian.

“By traveling to the Twin Fang Mountains,” Wu Meiying said. Wu Jian fell silent when he saw the look in her eyes. It was the glazed over expression she wore whenever she announced something that would eventually come true. “There are many powerful herbs in the Twin Fang Mountains that can enhance your body. If we go there soon, we can gather a powerful medicinal herb that will increase your strength several fold.”

Known by many as natural treasures, medicinal herbs had a range of uses, from increasing one’s strength or perception, to even helping cultivators break through when they reached a bottleneck in their training.

Of course, natural treasures could not compete with alchemy pills, which combined many natural treasures and medicinal herbs to create an even more powerful effect. However, for someone who could not attain alchemy pills easily, it was sometimes better to consume natural treasures as they were. And there were some benefits to consuming them without refining them.

Wu Jian nodded. “In that case, let’s ask Father if we can travel there after our lessons today.”

“Good idea,” Wu Meiying agreed.

Noise from other conversations echoed around them as the pair worked to finish off their breakfast.