After the family finished exchanging New Year's greetings, the children of the village began to visit as well.
Yang Zhenshan had prepared a basket full of red envelopes and a lot of candy. Each visiting child received a red envelope and a piece of candy.
Inside each red envelope were only two coins of copper, but it was enough to send the children into cheers and leaps of joy.
The visitors were not only children from within the clan but also those from outside surnames. Yang Zhenshan treated them all the same; every visitor received something.
By the end of the morning, Yang Zhenshan felt his cheeks stiff from smiling, and his head woozy from the children's noise.
Lively as it was, it was indeed very noisy.
After the second day of the new year, it was time for reciprocal New Year's visits. The Yang family did not have many relatives, and excluding those related by marriage, Yang Zhenshan had no siblings, so he only needed to visit the Lu family in Qinghe Town and didn't need to go out again.
In the blink of an eye, the fifth day of the new year arrived. The festive atmosphere still lingered, but Yang Zhenshan had already resumed his habitual martial arts practice.
Early in the morning, he went to the back mountain.
His long spear swung through the air, bringing forth a fierce gust of wind, and the gravel on the ground scattered in all directions.
The speed of the spear's wind grew more and more intense, the brightness of the spear's blade faster and faster.
Suddenly, Yang Zhenshan leaped ten feet high, and the spear's tip fiercely stabbed into a millstone-sized boulder.
With a plunge, the spearhead entered, and the boulder shattered.
Seeing this scene, Yang Zhenshan's eyes suddenly burst with a sharp gleam.
Jin Qi!
This was the first time he had released Jin Qi.
When he killed Scarred Liu, he had already begun the process of stretching his tendons and bones, and nearly two months had passed since then. His cultivation had finally brushed against the threshold of Refining Power.
Body Refining Realm is divided into three stages: Strength Exchange, Sinew Transformation, and Refining Power, among which, the Refining Power stage is the most crucial.
Strength Exchange and Sinew Transformation are parallel stages, but Refining Power is a transcending stage.
If one can freely control Jin Qi, they can enter the Houtian realm.
Being able to release Jin Qi meant that Yang Zhenshan had seen the threshold to the Houtian realm.
"Again!"
Yang Zhenshan swung his long spear once more. Although he could not control Jin Qi with ease, he could roughly succeed once with ten attempts.
After numerous trials, he started identifying the issue.
Jin Qi is about gathering the dispersed energy around the body into the Dantian, reducing crude force, gradually increasing strength. Once the crude force is entirely eliminated and the strong energy is abundant, one can freely control Jin Qi.
Yang Zhenshan couldn't control it freely mainly for two reasons.
One was that his physical strength was insufficient. The foundation of Body Refining Realm is physique, and martial arts' foundation is the body. Only with a sufficiently strong body can one enter a higher realm.
Although Spiritual Spring Water can slowly improve one's physique and potential, Yang Zhenshan's training time was still short, and his physical strength was far from the strength required for the Houtian realm.
To reach the Refining Power level from the Strength Exchange stage, a common martial artist would need at least several years, while Yang Zhenshan had only taken two to three months.
The second reason was his insufficient control over Jin Qi. Having only just come to sense it, he naturally could not perfectly control the Jin Qi within his body.
This issue could not be compensated by Spiritual Spring Water; instead, it required Yang Zhenshan to persist in hard training, continuously attempting and summarizing experiences.
In this regard, Yang Zhenshan did not feel disappointed but rather joyful.
Having a problem isn't the issue; the scariest thing is not knowing where the problem lies.
Now that he had identified the problems, what remained was to overcome these two issues.
Yang Zhenshan knew this would not be a difficult task. It was merely a matter of arduous practice, and he possessed ample resilience and perseverance. The thing he feared least was strenuous training.
This was related to his upbringing. After his parents' divorce, he lived with his grandparents. Although his grandparents took good care of him, due to their age, they often lacked the energy to do many things, so Yang Zhenshan had to do them himself.
From taking care of himself to looking after his grandparents, he had always done well and never showed any signs of laziness.
He was the type who could endure hardship.
When he felt he had practiced enough, Yang Zhenshan put away his spear and returned home.
Upon his arrival, however, he received more good news.
His eldest brother, Yang Mingcheng, had become a Martial Artist!
Truly, it was a day of double celebration.
But Yang Zhenshan didn't tell anyone else about reaching the Refining Power Level, simply watching as his family celebrated for Yang Mingcheng.
Naturally, Yang Mingcheng's achievement of becoming a Martial Artist would not have been possible without the help of the Spiritual Spring Water.
Since the first time they used the Spiritual Spring Water to make tea, Yang Zhenshan secretly gave it to his three brothers every now and then. Not only the three brothers drank it, but other family members did too—though in lesser quantities than Yang Mingcheng and his brothers.
The Spiritual Spring Water had the effect of enhancing physical constitution; even occasional consumption could ensure one's health without illness.
This winter, not a single person in the Yang family fell sick, all thanks to the Spiritual Spring Water.
And for Yang Mingcheng to have become a Martial Artist held an extraordinary significance for both the Yang family and the entire Yang clan.
It meant that there was a successor for the Yang clan, that the heritage of the Yang clan could be extended for decades.
Thus, when this news spread, the whole Yang Family Village was abuzz.
Yang Zhengxiang, the Clan Leader, rushed over in a hurry, "Did Ming Cheng really become a Martial Artist?"
He was both astonished and overjoyed, yet somewhat incredulous.
"Yes, he has indeed stepped into the threshold of a Martial Artist!" Yang Zhenshan said with a light chuckle.
"Good, good, good, hahaha~~" Yang Zhengxiang laughed heartily.
No one knew of his previous years of urgency and fear. As the Clan Leader of the Yang clan, his greatest fear was that the Martial Arts heritage of the Yang clan would have no successor.
For more than ten years, he had failed to cultivate a single Martial Artist, which made him feel like he had let down his ancestors.
And after Yang Zhenshan had recovered from his injury, he was somewhat relieved.
However, Yang Zhenshan was not young, and could not be counted among the younger generation, so although he felt somewhat settled, he was not completely at ease.
Now that Yang Mingcheng had become a Martial Artist, the burden that weighed on his heart was finally lifted.
This exhilaration was something others could not comprehend or share.
Yang Zhenshan was also very happy, but his happiness could not compare to that of Yang Zhengxiang.
After all, it was within his expectations for Yang Mingcheng to become a Martial Artist—it was just a matter of time.
Yang Mingcheng, with his foundation in Martial Arts and the aid of the Spiritual Spring Water, would be a real oddity if he still couldn't achieve the rank of Martial Artist.
While the entire Yang Family Village was rejoicing for Yang Mingcheng's status as a Martial Artist, the study room within the Anning County government office was enveloped in a solemn and profound silence.
Luo Jin sat behind the desk, gripping an official document tightly in his hand. Both County Magistrate Li Qing and Chief Clerk Duan Changhe looked exceedingly solemn.
"My lord, the Hu Clan is about to invade our northeastern borders; we in Anning County must make preparations in advance!" Li Qing could not help but be the first to speak.
The Hu Clan's invasion was like a fuse to a great border war; if the border army could hold back the Hu Clan's forces, all would be well, but if they couldn't, Anning County would certainly be unable to escape catastrophe.
Although Anning County was not a border town, it was only three hundred miles from the northeastern border. Once the Hu Clan's army broke through the border army's defense, it would take only three to four days for the Hu Clan's vanguard to reach Anning County.
Luo Jin's eyes narrowed as he looked again at the official document in his hand—an order from the prefectural city, instructing the Anning County government to prepare to resist the Hu Clan's army.