After five months, Henry Clark had been cultivating the preliminary chapter “Gathering Qi and Focusing the Mind.” In the first two or three months, he felt nothing at all, but now he could finally sense a faint, warm stream of energy flowing through the meridians in his body. Although that stream was extremely weak, it was remarkably resilient.

Henry Clark thought to himself that this must be the legendary internal true qi, and indeed, it was quite marvelous.

After completing a full cycle of energy circulation, Henry Clark opened his eyes.

Over these five months, he had also gained a certain understanding of the “Sitting Forgetfulness Sutra.”

The claim that practicing this technique would allow one to endure hardship, go without food or water, and withstand cold and heat for three to five days was actually quite inaccurate.

Not only did this technique require eating, but it required eating a lot.

Henry Clark’s appetite had greatly increased, consuming large amounts of food each day, which greatly boosted his physical strength, made his limbs more agile, and his gaze gradually sharper. After reaching a certain level in his cultivation, only when his spirit was fully energized could he go three to five days without food or water and still hold out.

With ample food over these five months, his cultivation progressed rapidly, his appetite was excellent, and his body was no longer as frail and weak as before, becoming much sturdier. Carrying a hundred-pound sack on his back and briskly walking several miles no longer tired him.

However, every time he thought about the strange internal technique he had chosen, Henry Clark felt somewhat regretful.

Henry Clark looked enviously at the other children practicing in the training grounds.

At the time, he had no idea what martial arts were for, so he chose based on what he most wanted then. So he asked for a technique that would allow him to endure hardship, hunger, cold, and thirst. By the time he realized what martial arts were really for, three to five months had already passed, and it was too late.

On the training grounds, there were flashes of blades and swords everywhere, as well as the fierce roars of tigers and powerful palm strikes. Some would even leap lightly, jumping over ten feet high with their lightness skills. Of the more than forty herb-gathering children, most had chosen those powerful martial arts, and when they fought, they were extremely formidable.

Take Henry Clark’s four fellow disciples, for example.

Charles Baker practiced a set of external palm techniques called “Tiger Fist.” At the time, Charles Baker had no particular preference when choosing a martial arts manual, so he asked the young guard to recommend one. The young guard, seeing that he was quite strong and taller than the average child, thought he was suited for a powerful external technique and recommended “Tiger Fist.” Charles Baker, hearing that the senior brother said this manual suited him, happily accepted it.

After five months of practice, although he was far from being able to tear apart wolves and tigers, he could smash a blue brick into several pieces with a single punch. This made Charles Baker ecstatic, and he spent his days looking for people to practice boxing with.

The internal technique Henry Clark practiced only strengthened his physique and lacked the defensive power of ordinary internal arts, so he didn’t dare to take Charles Baker’s punches at all.

Lucy Brooks, being agile, chose a lightness skill manual called “Leaping Clouds.” Since childhood, he had admired the martial artists in the county who could leap across rooftops, so when given the chance to learn martial arts, he immediately chose a lightness skill. Although this technique couldn’t be used to attack others, it also made him hard to hit. He could already touch the ground lightly with his toes and leap nearly ten feet, easily jumping around the training grounds. Although Charles Baker’s punches were fierce, he couldn’t touch him at all. Every time they practiced, Lucy Brooks would tease Charles Baker, making Charles Baker furious.

Yvonne Reed chose a close-combat palm technique called “Plum Blossom Hand.”

Emily Harris chose a sword manual called “Spirit Sword,” a close-combat sword technique suitable for girls.

Any one of the four of them had martial arts far more powerful than the “Sitting Forgetfulness Sutra” that Henry Clark practiced. Aside from making Henry Clark’s body strong, spirit vigorous, and stamina abundant, the “Sitting Forgetfulness Sutra” could do almost nothing else. If Henry Clark tried to punch a brick, his fist would definitely swell up while the brick remained unmoved. As for running, he was only a bit faster than ordinary people.

According to the rules of the Medicine King Sect, outer hall herb-gathering children had a three-year training period, during which they could only choose one martial arts technique to learn and were not allowed to practice more than one. Exchanging manuals was strictly forbidden. Only inner hall medicine-making children were allowed to practice two techniques.

After three years, herb-gathering children could be promoted to herb-gathering apprentices, at which point they could go to the manual room to choose another manual.

Charles Baker, Lucy Brooks, and the others often mocked him because of this.

Thinking of this, Henry Clark couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful; the hope of becoming a martial arts master was out of reach for now.

Still, he was already satisfied.

These past few months, every morning he learned three skills: literacy and arithmetic, identifying herbs, and emergency treatment. In the afternoons, he practiced: standing postures, horse stance, physical conditioning, and other basic training methods, as well as one external or internal martial arts technique.

The Herb Gathering Hall required the children to memorize at least a thousand types of common medicinal herbs within five months, including their flavors, functions, main uses, habitats, and appearances. As for unknown herbs, they at least had to be able to identify their value. On average, they had to memorize six to ten herbs a day.

Those who failed to identify the herbs would be whipped—by the inner hall’s disciplinary disciples, no less.

This finally let Henry Clark understand what those well-dressed young men and women he first saw at the Herb Gathering Hall were for—they were all disciplinary disciples, specially trained martial artists of the inner hall, who practiced advanced internal and external martial arts, and whose skills far surpassed those of the herb-gathering children.