For the new apprentices of the gang, the theory of the three major dantians is still more profound and does not have much significance for their current practice.

In the courtyard, under the guidance of Pharmacist Li Kui, the young men calmed down and began to practice the dantian introductory practice.

Under the old locust tree, Li Yaoshi carried his hands on his back and said with a serious expression: "Beginner in practicing martial arts, start from horse stance, and combine legs, waist, and back. This is to temper your muscles, bones, qi and blood. Only when your blood and qi are strong can you produce strength."

The teenagers stole horses in the yard, their backs were as tight as bows, and their legs were bent.

After only half of the incense stick, Su Chen felt his legs, waist, and back were congested and swollen, especially his thighs were like thousands of ants sucking, sour and swollen, as if the flesh and blood were beginning to burn.

According to Master Li Kui, this is precisely the phenomenon that the thighs are tempered and the muscles and blood qi are strengthening.

After a while, the teenagers in the yard couldn't stand it, and their legs were trembling and could not hold on.

Although it is just the simplest horse-piercing stance, it is difficult for martial arts apprentices to persist. After just one stick of incense, their legs were sore and their backs were almost broken, and their teeth were almost broken.

"This is the first step to quench the body in the lower dantian and practice martial arts. Even the minimum horse stance is not stable, the waist and back are weak, and the legs and feet are floating. Even if you hold a peerless sword in your hand, it is just a child wielding randomly without lethality. This kind of inefficient strength cannot be resisted in front of third-rate warriors."

Pharmacist Li Kui snorted coldly.

Only then did Su Chen and others realize that Li Yaoshi said it was true.

Even the introductory practice of the lower dantian is not easy for them, and it will take at least half a year to achieve something.

For new disciples like them, it is already a long time for the higher-level middle dantian to refine Qi, let alone the illusory upper dantian.

The young and girls practiced horse stance for a whole morning. They rested when they were tired, and then practiced again. Their muscles and bones were sore, their walks were floating, and their legs were trembling.

During the lunch break, Su Chen, Zhang Tieniu and other disciples ate several large bowls of rice, three or five large steamed buns of coarse grains, and when they returned to the hut, they fell on the kang and fell asleep.

Even the noisiest and poor-mouthed boy on weekdays was so tired that he didn't want to say a word. The snoring sounds in the room were not awake, and it took an hour to take a lunch break before he recovered a little.

In the afternoon, Yaoshi Li began to teach the new disciples to recognize words and identify many medicinal materials.

Only by learning to recognize words can you learn introductory pharmacies to "identify medicinal materials" and identify the names and patterns of up to thousands of commonly used medicinal materials.

As for low-level pharmacies, they include many aspects such as "sorting, drying medicine, cutting medicine, and dispensing medicine", which will not be taught a year later.

Intermediate pharmacy includes "patient consultation and prescription", which is something that only disciples of the Internal Affairs Council will learn.

Advanced pharmacy involves "refining pills", which is an area that inner disciples can only enter after reaching three years.

Wang Fugui and Li Jiao both went to elementary school, so naturally they didn’t need to learn about literature. They just skipped this part and started reading the medicine books given to them by pharmacist Li Kui, and identified thousands of medicinal materials.

The five outer disciples, including Su Chen, Zhang Tieniu, Yang Dezhi, etc., are all civilians and have never attended the county school. They have to start from one word at a time. It is not easy to learn three or four thousand big characters.

Fortunately, pharmacist Li Kui didn't force them to learn all the characters, and only taught them to identify the names of herbal medicines in the medicine books and understand the herbal medicine map as soon as possible.

After all, I have to learn too much, and I only learned introductory pharmacy knowledge in the first half of the year, and time is still very tight.

...

Before we knew it, the twelfth lunar month passed, and it was New Year's Eve.

The Medicine King helped the disciples take a day off, and many new disciples from Gusu County went home for the New Year.

But there are still a few new disciples left. Because they are far away from home and are afraid of delaying their practice, they spend the New Year on the mountain.

During the New Year, the remaining teenagers gathered in the fire kitchen in Yaowang Villa to knead noodles, cut vegetables, and make dumplings, which was also quite lively and atmosphere.

Some teenagers miss homesick, crying and making a fuss.

Su Chen ate a bowl of hot dumplings that had just been baked. Thinking of the embarrassment at home, he couldn't help feeling sad.

I don’t know how my parents are doing recently, but I have paid the county government’s boat donation and the scale fee for the Giant Whale Gang, and whether my younger brother and sister have new clothes to wear this year. Although he is no longer a burden for the family, the family still has a total of two taels of silver this year, and it is probably difficult to endure this year.

It was night, and there was noisy inside and outside Yaowang Villa. Some teenagers were idle and used bamboo to make a barrel filled with saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal to make a powerful explosive rod.

In the distance, every household in Gusu County is decorated with lights and hanging couplets, full of festive atmosphere of celebrating the New Year.

Su Chen was alone on the kang in the cottage, listening to the "crackling" sound of poles outside, and was worried and unable to sleep all night.

...

The New Year passed quickly, and many new disciples who left the villa returned and began to practice nervously. In addition to horse stance, they began to practice entry-level martial arts, such as entry-level boxing, entry-level leg skills, entry-level footwork, etc.

Su Chen and five other outer disciples made a surprising discovery.

Under the guidance of Li Kui Pharmacist, Wang Fugui and Li Jiao used some medium and low-level body quenching formulas, using herbs to assist in cultivation and stimulate the blood and energy of the body's bone marrow.

I heard from Pharmacist Li Kui that using herbal medicines to assist in body tempering has many benefits. First, it can accelerate the qi and blood and improve the progress of cultivation. Second, it can also heal the wear and tear caused by martial arts practice, and can practice martial arts for a longer period of time.

Because when practicing martial arts, you often use your fists and feet to beat hardwood stakes, repeatedly stimulating your muscles, bones, skin and flesh to strengthen your blood and energy.

This way, it will cause some minor bruises and hidden dangers to the body, so you can practice for up to two hours a day. You should not be too frequent, otherwise it will exceed the limit of the body's blood and flesh bearing.

Body-quenching herbs can better cure these damage without leaving any hidden dangers.

If the body tempering is not used to assist medicinal materials, it will take about two or three years for novices to complete the tempering of the tendons, bone marrow, and skin of the whole body, so that the qi and blood are full, and the lower dantian will be slightly improved, and they will never be promoted to a third-rate warrior.

If you use body-tempering herbs, you can save at least half of your time, and make rapid progress in your cultivation, quickly exceeding the cultivation level of your fellow disciples.

Only then did Su Chen realize that there was such a magical body tempering method that would make body tempering practice twice the result with half the effort.

But this method is too expensive and it is simply burning money. Even the cheapest body-tempering medicinal materials cost more than one tael of silver.

Only Wang Fugui and Li Jiao, two inner disciples, can afford to spend money, and the family is rich and rich and rich, and the support of the money.

The five outer disciples, Su Chen and Zhang Tieniu, were in a very difficult family, but they could not afford expensive herbs, so they could only envy them.

The sun and moon were flying outside the villa, and the apprentices turned a blind eye to the things outside the window, and focused on practicing martial arts, identifying texts and learning medicine.

In this way, it was another two or three months in a flash.

The new disciples are all decent, whether they are horse stance or entry-level fist and footwork.

Su Chen used his fist to beat the wooden stake, and his fist was full of strength. He thrust his horse with one breath and incense stick. His legs were as stable as wooden stakes, and he did not tremble at all.

Zhang Tieniu has the best physique, and can even raise a large stone weighing 100 pounds in one breath, which makes Su Chen and Yang Dezhi and other fellow disciples envious.

However, in general, these five new disciples still have few martial arts skills and are still not in the level of the third-rate warrior.

The two inner disciples, Wang Fugui and Li Jiao, were naturally far ahead with the help of body-tempering herbs, leaving their outer disciples behind, very close to the realm of a third-rate warrior.

Over time, Su Chen and others gradually forgot the elimination rules that once every six months and were completely immersed in the martial arts practice of learning medicine and the lower dantian.

...

Early that morning, Li Kui Pharmacist Li Kui gave his disciples a day off and took a day off because he wanted to go out for business. He allowed them to go to the county town, but he had to come back before night.

The disciples immediately cheered and held in Yaowang Villa for two or three months, studying medicine and body tempering, and finally able to have a good rest.

"Let's go, let's go to the county town! Now the sun has just come out, and I can still go to the county town to play all day, and come back after the sunset."

"Go to the county town and go home by the way."

Zhang Tieniu, Yang Dezhi and others made an appointment to go to the county town to play.

"I won't go... I'll read medicine books in the villa."

Su Chen sat under the old locust tree, holding a thick book of herbal medicines and reading it, hesitating for a moment, and shook his head.

He was not familiar with Gusu County and had no relatives and friends in the city. He didn't know what to go shopping. It would be better to stay in the villa and learn more about herbs.

"Senior Brother Su, if you continue to watch, you will become a nerd. I have been in the villa for several months and finally took a day off, so I haven't taken the opportunity to play."

Qin Huihui smiled and pulled Su Chen and left.

Su Chen couldn't help but leave Yaowang Villa with his fellow brothers and sisters and went to Gusu County to play.

Yaowang Villa is only four or five miles away from the county town. They walked quickly and arrived in just one stick of incense.

Wang Fugui and Li Jiao never played with them, the five outer disciples. They went home after leaving the villa, and only the five outer disciples left to visit the county town together.

When you enter Gusu County, the streets are full of bustling crowds, which is obviously bustling. Farmers carrying vegetables, woodcutters carrying firewood, merchants rushing to the road and rushing tourists, and endless carriages entering and leaving the city gate.

Su Chen clearly felt that the pedestrians and people on the road looked different when they saw the five new disciples of the Medicine King Gang, and seemed to have a hint of awe, consciously alienated, and dared not get close.

They all wore brand new clothes for the disciples of the Medicine King Gang, which was very conspicuous. The Medicine King Gang has a high status in Gusu County. Even the lowest-level outer disciples in the gang were beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Su Chen couldn't help but think in his heart that his identity was different after all. As a disciple of the Medicine King Gang, he had become a disciple of the martial arts world. Although he was far from those big rich men riding tall horses, he was no longer a flat-headed commoner in the county.

Zhang Tieniu, Yang Dezhi and others also noticed the strange look of passers-by, and they couldn't help but look at each other, feeling that they were full of the heroic spirit of disciples from the world.

The five of them wandered around Gusu County. They may have not been to the county town for too long. They walked around the streets and ate a few bowls of hot stinky tofu on the street shops. The famous crab shell yellow on the street, the plum blossom cakes of dealers, and the fish-flavored spring rolls. Everything was full of fresh fun.

This was the first time Su Chen had actually traveled in Gusu County. After listening to Yang Dezhi's introduction, he understood the layout of Gusu City.

The city center is the place where the county yamen is located. The mansions and mansions of the county magistrate and many noble officials are all here, and the atmosphere is so serious.

The west of the city is a shop area, with shops on both sides of the streets, and most of them are the property of wealthy families in the city. Warehouses, rice tea and salt merchants, restaurants, teahouses, and various shops can be seen everywhere. Because there is the convenience of river transportation outside the west gate, the west of the city is the most prosperous and lively, gathering merchants from all walks of life.

The south of the city is a residential area with tens of thousands of civilians living in it. They are all narrow and afflicted earthen houses and wooden houses. The low streets are crowded and the smelly stinking ditches are everywhere.

Despite this, it is still expensive to own a rustic house in the south of the city, and it is not something that the towns and towns can hope for.

The north of the city is a mansion of wealthy families, big merchants, gentry and local tyrants in various towns. There are many martial arts halls, academies, mansions, and forest gardens, which stand shoulder to shoulder. The streets are spacious and quiet, and carriages and sedan chairs enter and exit the north of the city on weekdays.

At the intersection of the west street of the city, there is also a famous brothel "Yuyu Tower" in Gusu City. Inside, the orioles sing, the flowers are waving, and the sound of the piano is misty.

The madam led a group of girls to roam outside the building, attracting rich young men, and the rich men from the world into the building to enjoy themselves.

When passing by the intersection of the west street in Chengxi, Zhang Tieniu looked into Yanyu Building with a gaze, quite envious, but unfortunately he was short of money. In addition, Li Kui's pharmacist's precepts, You Yan dared not act rashly.

After all, the new apprentices were young and did not dare to stay in front of the brothel and left in a hurry.
To be continued...