Sweat drenched Wu Jian’s back, chest, face, arms, and legs as he balanced his entire body on his arms, which were bent at a forty-five degree angle with the ground. Meanwhile, he had tightened his core and spread his legs wide to form a triangle with the ground. This had the effect of working both his triceps, chest, and core muscles. Every time he lowered his body, his arms and chest burned, and the constant need to keep his stomach muscles tight caused an intense burning sensation to spread through his torso.

One month had passed since Elder Wu Han tried to force Wu Meiying into using her power. While the snake had been able to use that silver tongue of his to get out of trouble, Father and Mother were wary of his antics and told Wu Meiying that she could refuse anyone’s request if they did not bear the family head’s official seal.

Wu Jian was also on the lookout for Wu Fei. Since he was the grandson of Elder Wu Han, there was a good chance he was in collusion with the elder. Thinking on it, Wu Jian had always thought it odd that his half-brother had become so cruel toward him. It had not started until after he began spending time with Wu Fei. Perhaps it was coincidence, but he believed that his half-brother had changed because of something Wu Fei might have said.

Of course, several days had passed and Wu Fei had not acted any differently, so perhaps he really was just being paranoid.

“… One hundred.”

After doing one hundred of this kind of push up, Wu Jian lifted his legs above his head, doing a complete handstand, and began doing push ups like this.

“Hah!”

“Hup!”

“Haaa!”

While he was doing handstand push ups, Wu Jian was able to watch Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu spar. It was something they had only begun recently. After she got the hang of falling and taking hits, Hou Jingshu had tackled actual combat with the kind of enthusiasm he never would have expected from a princess before meeting her. Even now, she wasn’t giving ground against Wu Meiying despite clearly being outmatched.

“You’ll have to do more than just defend yourself if you want to defeat me!”

Wu Meiying threw another punch. It seemed like a simple straight, but as her first thunked against Hou Jingshu’s forearm, she grabbed the surprised girl and pulled her into a shoulder throw. Hou Jingshu screamed in surprise as she went down. Her scream was soon swallowed up, however, when her back hit the ground and all the air rushed from her lungs.

“Gaa… hack… cough…”

Straightening her back as Hou Jingshu coughed, Wu Meiying smiled and waited for the other girl to get her breath back under control. She extended her hand as her partner sat up.

“Are you okay? Think you can keep going?”

Hou Jingshu looked up at the hand, then at the face beyond it. With a wince and a wry smile, she took the hand, allowing Wu Meiying to pull her up.

“No… I don’t think I can continue fighting right now… I think you might have broken my hip bone.”

“Surely you jest. I’d never break something during a simple spar, but I’m sure you’re backside will be a little sore, considering how often you land on it.”

“And whose fault do you think that is?”

“Yours for not being strong enough to stop me.”

“Grrrr. I really dislike it when you use circular logic like that.”

“Hee-hee.”

Wu Meiying had begun teasing Hou Jingshu a lot more as the days passed, which went to show Wu Jian that they were becoming closer. He believed this was a good thing. Not only was Hou Jingshu his fiancee, but he also planned on marrying Wu Meiying, so it was important for them to become friends.

“One hundred…”

With a deep breath, Wu Jian lowered his feet back onto solid ground and stood up. The cool morning breeze caressed his sweaty back and sent goosebumps down his spine. It felt nice. He closed his eyes and allowed the gentle wind blowing through the clearing to cool down his burning body.

“Are you staring at Wu Jian’s bare chest? That’s quite bold of you. I didn’t know princesses could act so bold,” Wu Meiying said.

“Eeep!” Hou Jingshu turned away from Wu Jian, her cheeks bright red. “I-it’s not like I’m staring at him. I was just… um… admiring his strength… and stuff.”

“And stuff?” Wu Meiying held a hand to her mouth and giggled. “You’d be a lot more convincing if you weren’t blushing.” Hou Jingshu’s blush deepened as the other girl continued teasing her. “Don’t worry. I don’t blame you. I ogle Jian all the time.”

“M-Meiying!” Hou Jingshu shrieked.

“What? He doesn’t mind. Right, Jian?”

Having been put on the spot like this, all Wu Jian could do was shrug. “I don’t particularly mind…”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

It wasn’t like Wu Jian didn’t understand where either of them were coming from. Perhaps it was because he had reached the age when puberty began really going into overdrive, or maybe it was because his mother had given him “the talk,” but he’d caught himself staring at the girls several times during their training. If the feelings were mutual, he would feel a lot better about it.

“A-anyway, now that you are done exercising, perhaps you should spar with Wu Meiying?” Hou Jingshu suggested after coughing into her hand.

“I think we have time for a single match,” Wu Meiying said. She smiled at the thought of sparring with him. “What do you think? Are you up for a match against me?”

“Yeah. Sure. Do you want to place any stakes on this match?” asked Wu Jian.

“Stakes?” asked Hou Jingshu.

Wu Meiying tapped her lower lip in thought. “Hmmm. I know! How about the loser has to kiss the winner?”

“What kind of steaks are those?!” shouted Hou Jingshu.

“Pass. We kiss all the time anyway,” Wu Jian said.

“What?!”

“Hmmm. Then how about if I win, you have to let me feel your body. And if you win… I’ll let you do whatever you want to me? Does that sound good?”

“That doesn’t sound good at all, you two! We are far too young for such inappropriate behavior!”

“I’m pretty sure you would let me do whatever I want to you anyway, so there’s no benefit on my side. And you know I’d let you touch me if you asked.”

“Wu Jian!!”

“I guess you bring up a good point. Honestly, I only mentioned those stakes because I wanted to see Jingshu blush,” Wu Meiying admitted.

Wu Jian crossed his arms and nodded. “I don’t blame you.”

“You two are horrible!” Hou Jingshu shouted, her cheeks glowing brighter than a paper lantern after the candle inside has been lit.

***

After washing up and getting dressed in a red and black hanfu, Wu Jian met up with Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu by the dining hall and entered. A lot of people were already there. The buzzing of conversation was a dull sound in his ears as he wandered to the back, grabbed some congee for him, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu. While he got their food, the two girls found a seat and reserved the spot between them for him.

Wu Jian was aware of the eyes on him as he sat down between the two girls. He could feel the stares drilling holes into the back of his head. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he could have sworn people were glaring at him more than usual today.

I must be imagining things. People stare at me all the time.

“Tomorrow is our day off, right?” said Hou Jingshu as she scooped some congee onto her spoon. She lightly blew on it several times before taking a sip. “This is delicious.”

“Anything would taste good when you’re hungry,” Wu Meiying said as she slipped her own spoon into her mouth. A smile lit up her face as the taste of berries and nuts filled her mouth. “And yes, tomorrow is our day off. What do you two think we should do?”

“I would like to spend more time in the city,” Hou Jingshu said. “You two showed me around a bit, but I feel like we only scratched the surface. I’d also like to visit the library and see if there are any books on cultivating and martial arts. As you know, my father didn’t let me learn any martial arts, so I don’t have my own style.”

“You’re not going to find anything good at the city library,” Wu Jian told her. “We’ll check the clan library after we’re finished with our lessons for the day. Tomorrow we can travel into Zahn City and just enjoy ourselves.”

“We’ll need to tell uncle that we are going out,” Wu Meiying said.

“I’ll tell him at dinner tonight.”

After finishing breakfast, the trio headed for the training hall, where they took turns sparring against each other for several hours alongside their peers. Then they headed for the library.

“I haven’t see you kids in awhile. Are you here for a new book?” asked Grandpa Son when the three kids entered the library.

“Grandpa Son, this time we’re looking for a martial arts that will suit Jingshu,” Wu Jian said. “Can you think of anything that would work well with her?”

“Hmmm. She is a bit thin, but she has surprisingly dense muscles… girl, how often do you exercise?” asked Grandpa Son.

Hou Jingshu blushed only a bit at hearing her muscles described as “dense.” That probably wasn’t something most girls wanted to hear someone say about their musculature.

“Um. I just started a month ago,” Hou Jingshu admitted.

“And your muscles have already become this firm?” Grandpa Son raised an eyebrow, mumbled something to himself, and then nodded. “It looks like you might have a Perfect Physique.”

Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu all shared a glance. Each of them looked confused. None of them had ever heard of this perfect physique before. They turned back to Grandpa Son.

“What is a Perfect Physique?” asked Wu Jian.

As if he had been waiting for one of them to ask that question, Grandpa Son smiled and said, “A Perfect Physique is a unique and quite rare physical condition among cultivators whose bodies are uniquely suited for martial combat. Their bodies are perfectly maintained and balanced at all times, even when they don’t exercise at all, and they excel at using body enhancement techniques.”

There were many different kinds of techniques out there. Techniques were divided into three categories based on their power, complexity, and how much chi was required to activate them. Earth techniques were the weakest. After Earth came Spirit--intermediate techniques. And finally, after Spirit came Heaven. Heaven techniques were the strongest, said to be capable of moving mountains, splitting seas, and controlling the heavens themselves.

Of course, Heaven techniques were more rare than a unicorn’s horn or phoenix feathers. A technique like that would never appear in a tiny country like the Shang Kingdom.

“Body enhancement techniques are almost always in the Earth technique range since they primarily enhance a cultivator’s physical abilities, though I have heard of legends of a Heaven ranked body enhancement technique,” Grandpa Son said. Then he chortled to himself. “But you don’t need to worry about that right now. For now, let’s find you a martial arts style that is suitable for your body type.”

The Wu Clan had several different styles of martial art. This included weapon martial arts like styles for the yanyuedao and the ji. However, because they were a small clan, they were still lacking. There were around twenty different types of martial art in total. Wu Jian and Wu Meiying had already gone through all of them and not one suited either of them, but maybe they would find something that would work with Hou Jingshu.

“Um, if possible, I would like to learn a martial art that utilizes a polearm weapon like a yanyuedao,” Hou Jingshu said, her tone uncertain.

Grandpa Son snorted. “Hmph. Do not be so hasty to pick a martial art for a weapon, child. While you can certainly learn how to wield a yanyuedao or any other weapon, you must first learn how to wield your body. Hmmm. However, if you are interested in picking up a weapon, then you won’t want to learn a more complicated martial art… I think I have something that will both fit your body type and desire to use a weapon. Follow me.”