Book 1. Chapter 12. Aurora (1)

The Immense Wilderness is covered with high mountain ranges and thick, vast forests. Many magical beasts are hiding deep in it. The wilderness has a large area, which basically no one can measure. The 3 Eastern region counties declared to the outside that they have a 600,000 strong army in total whose 400,000 are stationed on the border with the wilderness.

The other 200,000 soldiers are stationed outside the Black Water mountain range. In the Black Water mountain range there are approximately 200,000 bandits. This is the number one place for bandits in the world. Because these bandits are very familiar with the terrain of the Black Water mountain range and have the advantaged geographical position, the 200,000 soldiers whom East Vanquishing Prince controls have always been stationed outside the mountain range to frighten the Black Water bandits.

In Tiefeng City on the border with the wilderness, there is a forbidding mansion. At this moment, East Vanquishing Prince Qin De is quietly reading a book in a room of the mansion.

'Your Highness,' standing outside the door, Zhao Yunxing bows and says.

'Yunxing, come on in.' Qin De basically says at once without raising his head. Then Zhao Yunxing enters the room with his body bent. He stands quietly on one side of the room waiting for Qin De to talk first. He holds East Vanquishing Prince Qin De in nothing but high esteem.

Qin De puts the book in his hand down and turns to Zhao Yunxing. He says with a smile: 'Yunxing, you have taught Yu'er for a year. Tell me, does Yu'er have any prospects on the path of external techniques?'

'Your Highness, Third Prince is exceptionally hardworking and persistent. His willpower is stronger than that of many adults,' says Zhao Yunxing immediately. Hearing that, Qin De's face has a faint smile. Zhao Yunxing continues: 'But Third Prince's aptitude can only be considered above average whereas most of those who have reached the peak of external techniques are highly talented people. But thanks to having the nourishment of Misty Villa's hot spring and eating precious medicinal meals frequently, Third Prince still has a chance of reaching the peak of external techniques.'

The peak of external techniques is the peak of the Houtian level and close to the Xiantian level. Anyone who has practiced external techniques to that extent can even give early-phase Xiantian internal experts a good run for their money.

'How long will it take?' asks Qin Yu in reply.

Zhao Yunxing considers carefully for a while and says: 'Perhaps it will take 30 years. And this will only happen if Third Prince is to persevere all along. On the path of external techniques, the closer one gets to its late phase, the harder it gets to improve. Take, for instance, strength. After practicing for 10-odd years, Third Prince won't have any difficulties lifting 300 or 400 jin with one arm. At the peak of external techniques, he should have 700 or 800 jin of strength in one arm. But it gets harder and harder toward the end. 30 years, won't be far from the truth.'

Qin De shakes his head and sighs: '30 years is too long. But if he can protect himself after 10-odd years, this could still be considered not bad.'

'All right, Zhao Yunxing, you should return first.' Qin De says with a smile. Zhao Yunxing immediately bows and says: 'I take my leave, Your Highness.' After that, he goes immediately, leaving only Qin De in the room. After a long time, a deep and low sigh rises in it …

******

Qin Yu is standing in a horse stance under the continuous attack of the waterfall. He is persevering on the blue rocks under the waterfall.

Feeling the hitting force of the waterfall, Qin Yu secretly rejoices. Luckily for him, when he just started training, Zhao Yunxing attached great importance to the body's resistance to attacks. In addition, he has consistently been having medicinal wine applied to his whole body. These occurrences have given Qin Yu a fairly high resistance to attacks. Otherwise, he basically would not have been able to withstand the hitting force of the waterfall.

'Persist.'

Qin Yu constantly asks himself in his mind. Zhao Yunxing is no longer here so there is no one to demand him. At one time, Qin Yu also had the thought of slacking off. After all, he has been training all by himself so even if he had slacked off no one would have reprimanded him. Moreover, he is still a kid.

But … as soon as that thought appeared, it was strangled into nothingness by him.

His big brother, his second brother, and even his father, none of them is lazy and none of them is a weakling.

As a son of the Qin clan's and a son of East Vanquishing Prince Qin De's, he naturally must not become a weakling either.

Strive!

'Persist! Persist!' Feeling his legs starting to weaken, Qin Yu continuously encourages himself in his mind. He even feels his legs trembling. Whenever he persists for a long time, there is strength flowing out from the depths of his muscles.

Suddenly — Qin Yu's legs go numb and he is thrown into the lake with a loud splash.

...

On the training ground, there are 6 hung sandbags. Qin Yu is quietly standing amid them.

'Hah!'

Qin Yu shouts loudly and hits a sandbag with a powerful punch. Almost at that moment, he smashes 3 other sandbags. Those sandbags immediately swing and hit the other sandbags. In an instant, all of the sandbags are swinging around.

Their trajectories are totally irregular. A sandbag which originally comes toward him from the front can collide with another sandbag resulting in a major change in the way it moves.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

With glittering eyes, Qin Yu quickly strikes any sandbags coming at him with his hands. This is to train his reaction speed. Reaction speed and arm muscles are related. At the same time it and the practitioner's reactions are also related. And through training, the reactions can be improved.

When experts fight each other to the death, the ones with faster reactions, even by a mere blink, will take the others' lives.

Due to Qin Yu's quick attacks, those sandbags swing increasingly faster. In a while, he feels the pressure building up. Suddenly, he is hit in the back. He immediately loses balance and 3 or 4 other sandbags collide with his body all at once.

Thud!

Qin Yu immediately falls onto the ground but he stands up after a roll.

'Ss~~~'

Qin Yu gasps in surprise then looks at his knees. At this moment, they have been torn badly by friction and are oozing blood. There is some sand and gravel on the ground. Obviously the knees hit the sand and gravel as he fell down.

'Why hasn't it been swept clean?' There is nothing Qin Yu can do. He himself gave the ground a sweep before training. Who could have thought it was not swept clean?

'Continue.'

Disregarding the injuries, Qin Yu sweeps the sand and gravel away. Then he rushes to the middle of the sandbags and starts the reaction training again.

...

In the middle of the courtyard, wearing only a pair of shorts and lying on a chair, Qin Yu is holding a book. His whole body is covered in medicinal wine. At this moment, there are several bright lanterns in the courtyard, one of which is beside Qin Yu. The lanterns are bright enough for him to read the writing of the book.

Even though Master Zhao Yunxing left, Qin Yu has not lowered any requirements in the least. He has even made them stricter. Every day he trains from dawn till dusk. In the evening, he soaks in the hot spring until midnight to absorb its nourishment and let the body recover. This period is also Qin Yu's sleep time.

At the moment, after being applied with medicinal wine by Weng Xian, it is his reading time.

'I haven't been watching the stars on the top of the mountain for so long.' Qin Yu shakes his head and looks into the boundless starry sky with a faint smile, 'but watching the stars in the courtyard is not bad. Xiao Hei, do you think so? Hey, Xiao Hei, are you an eagle or not? Why do you grow so slowly? Why do you have golden feathers on the top of your head?'

As he is saying, he strokes Xiao Hei, which is next to him.

Xiao Hei's eyes glitter. It flaps its wings repeatedly as if it does not allow Qin Yu to stroke its head. Then it raises its head proudly, looking very haughty.

Qin Yu bursts out laughing immediately.

'Alright, I'd better read books seriously rather than waste time on you. Tomorrow I'm going to have to continue training.' Qin Yu immediately reads the thread-bound book he is holding. It is a medical book. Qin Yu can remember clearly Zhao Yunxing said if he wanted to become a real external expert, he had to become familiar with the art of medicine.

At the side of the courtyard's door, Lian Yan is hiding in shadow and kindly watching Qin Yu.

Especially when Lian Yan heard Qin Yu say he did not want to waste time playing with Xiao Hei, he felt sorry for him even more. Qin Yu is only 9 year old, yet he does not waste a single minute of a day. He has planned to get the most out of every minute. Everything he has done is for his painful training. But what has he been training for?

The last time Qin De visited Misty Villa was a long, long time ago.

While he is reading the book, he does not notice that it is getting light. Some cakes beside Qin Yu's chair were already eaten up by him unwittingly.

Qin Yu puts the book down and looks up. He stretches his sluggish waist very happily and says with a broad, radiant smile on his face: 'A day starts off with dawn. A new day has come. Qin Yu, try hard! Try hard and you'll succeed.'

The training of a new day has started … …