“The third move teaches you how to separate your Xuan Qi. You can’t unleash all your Xuan Qi every time you hit someone—sometimes it’s just to teach a lesson, not to kill. So you need to release part of it and keep the rest.”

“The fourth move is for you to learn how to guide your Xuan Qi out of your Qi Sea to attack an enemy, but then stop midway, letting the Xuan Qi stay in a certain meridian, ready to be unleashed at any moment.”

“The fifth move is about how to attack with Xuan Qi while quickly gathering fresh Xuan Qi from all your meridians back into your Qi Sea, preparing for the next strike.”

“The fifth move is the most important,” William Carter said.

“That’s right, the fifth move is the most important, and also the hardest,” Old Man said. “The body’s meridians are like streams and rivers, and Xuan Qi is like the water flowing through them. The lower abdomen’s Qi Sea is like a vast ocean—streams flow into creeks, creeks into rivers, rivers into great rivers, and great rivers into the sea. Xuan Qi comes from all things in heaven and earth; every pore and every inch of the body absorbs Xuan Qi. When the Xuan Qi in the Qi Sea is unleashed, the Xuan Qi in the meridians can quickly gather back into the Qi Sea. At the same time, every part of the body starts absorbing Xuan Qi from the world again. The whole process is continuous and unending. But the speed varies—if you use up all your Xuan Qi in one punch and it takes two whole minutes to gather more, you’d be dead ten times over by then.”

Next, Old Man began to draw the second, third, fourth, and fifth moves of the Zhengyang Fist in the snow.

“Summer is coming, and there will be less and less snowy weather, so you need to memorize all the remaining moves. In the days to come, I basically won’t open my eyes again. You’ll have to practice on your own. Remember my words: one hour of Qi training, three hours of fist practice,” Old Man said.

“You won’t guide me anymore?” William Carter asked.

“Zhengyang Fist and the Heaven and Earth Art are both foundational martial arts—they’re the simplest and most basic, but also the hardest and most important. Every Xuan martial artist must practice Zhengyang Fist and the Heaven and Earth Art before moving on to the next stage of martial cultivation. No teacher will give guidance, because it’s simply not possible. Every martial artist’s feelings and insights, and their way of communicating with Xuan Qi, are different. Any guidance is not only useless, but could actually lead a beginner astray, down a dead end.”

“So, Zhengyang Fist and the Heaven and Earth Art are the essential foundation for every martial artist in this world. In fact, you could say that from a person’s practice of these two, you can roughly see the highest level they’ll ever achieve in their life,” Old Man said. “So, this foundational period depends entirely on your perception and temperament.”

When William Carter heard just how important Zhengyang Fist and the Heaven and Earth Art were, he couldn’t help but ask, “So does that mean the faster someone completes them, the greater their future achievements?”

“For the most part, yes, but there are a few exceptions. The key is how a martial artist perceives and understands Xuan Qi during this foundational period, as well as their affinity and emotional connection to it. These are what truly determine a martial artist’s future accomplishments,” Old Man said. “Of course, this also relates to the Xuan meridians. If a martial artist has highly talented Xuan meridians, they can naturally absorb more Xuan Qi from heaven and earth, their Qi Sea will be larger, and they’ll naturally have a better grasp of Xuan Qi.”

“So overall, under equal conditions, a martial artist’s achievements are seventy percent determined by their Xuan meridians, and thirty percent by their temperament,” Old Man said. “Of course, if their Xuan meridian talent and temperament are equal, then seventy percent depends on their sect, treasures, and equipment, and thirty percent on chance encounters. But in the end, it still comes down to the Xuan meridians.”

“So how are my Xuan meridians?” William Carter asked eagerly.

Old Man showed a strange expression, then closed his eyes.

William Carter was immediately puzzled. What did that strange expression from Old Man mean? Was his talent really that bad? That couldn’t be, right? William Carter was actually quite self-confident, thinking he couldn’t be too bad in any area.

Then, he continued to train hard!

He mastered the first move in just five days.

However, the second move took him a full fifteen days before he could control his Xuan Qi to burst out from his fist. This Xuan Qi blew away a thin layer of snow, making William Carter extremely excited and even more fascinated by the mysterious martial arts of this world.

Next, still on the second move, he had to learn not just how to release, but also how to retract, and how to control the flow of Xuan Qi. It took him another 25 days to master these.

In other words, the second move took him a total of 40 days—more than twice as long as the first move. This made him a bit frustrated and slightly doubtful of his own talent.

Of course, if Old Man knew, he would definitely say: “Comparing people just makes you angry.”

You have to know, in this world, even the truly outstanding people need nearly half a year to master the second move.

Then came the third move, which made William Carter even more frustrated, almost to the point of annoyance, because it took him two whole months to complete.

During this time, Old Man never opened his eyes. As for the red blazing pills, Old Man had already given them all to William Carter, to be taken once every fifteen days. Besides Qi training and Zhengyang Fist, William Carter continued to do the ice step exercise whenever it snowed. As the little Xuan Qi mouse inside him grew bigger, he seemed to become more resistant to the cold, stronger, and lighter on his feet.

By the time William Carter finished the third move, spring had passed, summer had come, and half the summer was already gone.