The man was an old Muscle Therapist from Xing’an Hall, an expert at massaging muscles and setting bones. With his decades of skill, he now served as Fu Juemin’s "private physical therapist" for his martial arts training.

Just as Fu Juemin had thought, as long as he stayed home and behaved himself, causing no trouble, he would most likely receive support from his father, Fu Guosheng, no matter what he did.

The day after he began training with Li Tong, his daily meals became nourishing medicinal cuisine, meticulously prepared by the master chef of Furui Tower.

On the third day of his training, two people from Xing’an Hall came to take up residence at the Fu Family estate. One was tasked with massaging away his fatigue after practice, while the other monitored his physical condition daily, fearing he might develop some latent injury from his training.

Because of all this, Fu Juemin’s body had grown stronger at a rapid pace over the past week.

His body, once a bit frail and thin after a serious illness, had now filled out and become well-proportioned.

Fu Juemin lay on his stomach on a soft couch, enjoying the massage while sipping the iced plum soup Little Locust Flower fed him, staring at his character panel.

He wasn’t looking at the lines of text at the top, but rather at the circular groove at the bottom, shaped like the yin-yang symbol.

Compared to over a week ago, the empty left side of this groove was now almost half-full of blue energy.

Fu Juemin had only recently discovered that the accumulation of energy in the groove seemed to be related to his daily training and nourishment.

It hadn’t budged before he started his martial arts training, but ever since, it had been shooting up rapidly, with a visibly noticeable increase each day. At this rate, he estimated the left side of the groove would be completely full in about another half a month.

As for what would happen once it was full, he had no idea. He would just have to wait and see.

Fu Juemin lay on the soft couch for half an hour. The Muscle Therapist from Xing’an Hall finished massaging his entire body, then carefully applied a special medicinal oil for protection and maintenance.

"Young Master Fu, we are finished."

Fu Juemin grunted in acknowledgment and rose from the couch. He stretched instinctively, and a series of crisp, soft pops rippled through his bones and joints, a testament to his comfort.

"Young Master, are you going to continue training?"

Little Locust Flower, who had been fanning him from the side for a long while, wiped the sweat from her brow and asked.

"Not right now."

Fu Juemin waved his hand and asked, "Locust Flower, have you seen Uncle Tong?"

"No, I haven’t seen Master Li all morning."

Little Locust Flower shook her head.

Fu Juemin pouted. Li Tong had promised to teach him something new today, and he had been quite looking forward to it. Yet, he hadn’t seen the man at all since waking up. ’Surely he didn’t have something come up and decide to stand me up,’ he thought.

"Forget it. I’ll go practice shooting for a while."

Fu Juemin shook himself off, threw on a robe, and grabbed a crisp plum from the fruit bowl by the couch. He began walking toward the house, munching on the plum. The sun was already high, and it was getting unbearably hot outside.

Just a few days ago, Fu Guosheng had assigned two men to him.

One was named Ma Dakui, and the other Qian Fei. They were said to have been transferred from his Second Uncle Fu Guoping’s command—elite agents from the Civil Affairs Bureau, assigned specifically to protect him.

Fu Juemin owned a revolver and had been wondering how to learn to shoot it. So now, whenever he grew tired of his daily stance training, he would have the two bodyguards practice shooting with him. After a few days, his marksmanship was starting to look quite decent.

When firing all six rounds from his revolver at the clay pots set up twenty meters away, he could always manage to hit one or two.

On a good day, he could even hit three.

Even though he was now practicing martial arts, Fu Juemin hadn’t given up on his interest in firearms.

After all, achieving any real skill in the Martial Dao was a lengthy process. In the short term, only a gun could rapidly improve his ability to protect himself.

As Fu Juemin walked away, the entire setup under the apple tree was immediately dismantled and cleared out.

He had only taken a few steps when he heard the honking of car horns.

Fu Juemin stopped and squinted toward the main gate. He saw several cars driving up the main driveway of the Fu Family estate, one after another.

In this day and age, cars were not a common sight.

Most people traveled on foot, by rickshaw, or by tram. The wealthy might have an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage.

In all of Luan River County, only a handful of families could afford a car. You could count them on one hand, and it looked as if half of them had gathered here today.

’Are the bigwigs from the city here to discuss some major business with Father again?’

Fu Juemin wondered to himself, but didn’t pay it much mind.

He practiced for a while at the makeshift shooting range he had set up at home, ate lunch, and waited until a little past one in the afternoon, when Li Tong finally made an appearance.

Under the gazebo in the backyard, all unnecessary personnel had been sent away, leaving only Li Tong, Fu Juemin, and a Fu Family guard that Li Tong had brought along.

"Uncle Tong, what exactly are you going to teach me today?"

Fu Juemin was wearing an ivory-white, high-collared poplin shirt, its sleeves tied back, and a pair of Brocade Trousers with the cuffs also bound tight. His attire was loose yet practical, showing he was fully prepared for the afternoon’s lesson. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Li Tong, dressed in his unvarying black short coat, said, "Young Master, your Mixed Element Stance is already quite good. Today, I will teach you a fist form."

"This way, when you get bored with stance training, you’ll have something else to practice."

"You should have done this a long time ago, Uncle Tong."

Fu Juemin couldn’t agree more. He had grown rather sick of practicing his stance over the past few days.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to practice, but that stance training was all he could do; it was the only thing he had to practice.

If Li Tong hadn’t taught him something new soon, he was considering pulling out the fitness routine from his past life and doing some extra flexibility and strength training on his own.

"The fist form is called Long Fist, but it’s also known as Ming Fist, which implies something that is open and honorable."

As usual, Li Tong wasted no words. He simply took a stance and said coolly, "Watch carefully, Young Master."

Fu Juemin’s eyes were glued to Li Tong’s movements.

The fist technique involved specific body postures, hand shapes, and footwork. Li Tong first demonstrated it once slowly and deliberately, then again in a single, fluid motion at full speed.

The entire form was not complex, and its movements were simple, yet in Li Tong’s hands, it possessed an indescribable, natural fluidity.

After watching, Fu Juemin was eager to give it a go, unable to wait to try it himself.

But while Li Tong had made it look effortless, when Fu Juemin tried it himself, it was a disaster. He was either performing the moves incorrectly or forgetting them entirely.

’Looks like I’m no Martial Dao genius...’

Fu Juemin sighed to himself. In the novels he’d read, true martial arts geniuses could learn a technique just by seeing it once and perfect it after a single practice session.

He was just an ordinary person—maybe even less than ordinary.

Then again, he was the Young Master.

Li Tong taught Fu Juemin personally, breaking down the entire form and having him practice it one move at a time.

After they had gone through it more than a dozen times and Li Tong felt that Fu Juemin had more or less memorized it, he raised a hand and beckoned to the guard who had been watching nearby. "Shuisheng, come spar with the Young Master."

The guard whose name was called acknowledged the order and quickly stepped into the training area.

Fu Juemin recognized this guard, Wang Shuisheng. He had a dark, sturdy build, but his eyes glinted with a sharp intelligence.

"Young Master."

The moment Wang Shuisheng entered the training area, he winked at Fu Juemin and grinned. "I’m here to be your practice partner. Feel free to throw whatever you’ve got at me—don’t hold back."

Fu Juemin couldn’t help but laugh at that.

He clapped Wang Shuisheng on the shoulder and, without any further ceremony, launched a lunging punch straight at Wang Shuisheng’s face.