From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Chapter 52 Youshen Palm

Xiong Kuo's side, composed of veterans from the military, is quite reliable.

However, their steps were too rigid, and they couldn't keep up with the bodyguard's agile movements at all.

"Sun Dayong, your attack team is too fast, the retreat team can't keep up." Lin Yan stood at the edge of the training ground. "Old Zhou, your support team should move two steps to the left, you're blocking the retreat team's way."

By the fifth day of practice, it started to look good.

The trio could maintain their formation within ten steps, and their movements were smooth. Xiong Kuo's team was particularly adept at switching between offense and defense, which made Sun Dayong envious. He took the initiative to ask Xiong Kuo for advice on footwork.

On the eighth day, Lin Yan began to increase the difficulty.

He divided the forty groups into two teams, who then attacked and defended against each other.

One group guarded the east side of the training ground, while the other attacked the west side. Whichever group was separated was punished by having to run laps. On the first day, both sides were separated seven or eight times, and on the second day, three times.

On the third day, it didn't disperse even once.

"It's done." Xiong Kuo squatted by the training ground, wiping his sweat as he spoke. "I've never seen this Bagua formation in ten years of fighting in the border army."

"It's better if you haven't seen it before," Lin Yan said. "If you've seen it before, it's not new anymore."

Five days before the martial arts competition, something happened.

That morning, all the training equipment was transferred from the military government's armory.

The supply battalion was given thirty standard waist knives, twenty wooden shields, twenty spears, plus some protective gear.

Sun Dayong was quite happy when he brought it back, exclaiming, "Wow, a new knife!"

Lin Yan picked up a waist knife, placed his fingers on the blade, and the perception of [Bone Identification] automatically emerged.

[Material: Impure iron; internal cracks in the blade; will break under 70% stress.]

He put down this one and picked up another.

[Dark crack.]

[Dark crack.]

Of the thirty waist knives, fourteen were found to be defective after inspection. The twenty wooden shields had loose iron-clad studs that could be easily pried off by hand. The protective gear was even more outrageous; the leather lining of the breastplate had been cut open, appearing intact but cracking under pressure.

"damn it."

Sun Dayong's face turned ashen. "This is—"

"Someone tampered with it." Lin Yan picked out the broken knife and lined it up. "Hu Tai or Fang Dahai?"

"have no idea."

Xiong Kuo squatted down, picked up a broken knife, and examined it. "But someone who could tamper with the armory must be at least a commander-in-chief."

Lin Yan stood up. "Send these defective ones back to the armory. Say that the supply battalion has poor eyesight and ask the armory's craftsmen to inspect them in person."

Old Ma was the first to arrive at the armory. When he returned carrying a stack of good swords he had exchanged, his expression was not very pleasant.

"The people at the armory said they didn't know anything, claiming that this batch was old stock transferred from the rear."

"You believe it?"

"I don't believe a damn thing."

Old Ma spat and cursed, "But I'm just an accountant, I can't exactly fight with them."

"No need to hit."

Lin Yan distributed the good knives, saying, "They want to send defective ones, so let's inspect them in front of them. After inspecting them, we'll return them. They'll lose face and naturally replace them."

In the afternoon, it was time for the grain.

The supply battalion's meals were prepared by each battalion itself.

Lin Yan had an old soldier named Tao Guanzi under his command. He used to be in charge of cooking in the mountain stronghold. Although his cooking skills were average, he worked diligently.

When he brought over a pot of freshly cooked mixed grain porridge, Lin Yan picked it up, smelled it, and her expression changed.

After advancing to the minor level of [Bone Identification], one can not only identify the material, but also distinguish some subtle smells.

The porridge had a faint bitter taste, so faint that it was almost indistinguishable from the flavor of the grains.

"Who delivered the food today?"

"Sent by the military government's grain supply department, saying it's a newly arrived batch of old grain."

The clay pot said, "I saw that there was nothing wrong with it, so I accepted it."

Lin Yan put down the bowl of porridge. "Don't touch this batch of grain yet. I'll talk to the Grain and Forage Department."

He went to a different granary and retrieved clean grain from there.

Then he asked the clay potter to go outside and buy a few live chickens to try.

Chickens that ate porridge laced with feed developed diarrhea and collapsed within half an hour. Although it wasn't fatal, people who ate this kind of food were so exhausted from diarrhea that they were practically useless on the battlefield.

"Some people are just disgusting."

Xiong Kuo picked up the pot of porridge and poured it into the swill bucket. "Chief, this matter cannot be left like this."

"Of course not."

Lin Yan said, "Keep the remaining grain safe, and have Old Clerk Ma keep all the grain delivery receipts from the Grain and Feed Department, making sure to record each batch clearly. Don't touch them before the competition, and have them return it all after the martial arts exercise."

Xiong Kuo nodded.

There are still two days until the martial arts competition.

That night, Lin Yan practiced his sword alone on the training ground.

After reaching the True Qi Realm, he gained a new understanding of the Layered Wave Force of the second level of the Swimming Body Palm.

He can now reliably execute the first two layers of the triple-layered technique, but he is still working on the third layer.

But what truly helped him improve was not the Swimming Body Palm technique.

It was something I figured out while teaching the supply corps how to practice the Eight Trigrams Formation during this period.

Formations are not about the skill of one person, but about the cooperation of a group of people.

Three people form a group, two groups form a team, and there must be an invisible thread connecting them when they move forward or backward. What is this thread?

It took him a long time to figure it out.

It's rhythm.

Why did Xiong Kuo's team train the best?

Because Xiong Kuo's military swordsmanship and Sun Dayong's scout footwork found the same rhythm, their attack speed and retreat distance were all on the same beat, so their coordination was seamless.

Lin Yan tried to apply this sense of rhythm to herself.

He first practiced the nine forms of the [Mysterious Blade Technique], each strike executed with the standard rhythm of the manual.

Then switch to the [Micro Dust Step], the rhythm of which is lighter and faster than the sword technique.

Finally, switch to [Swimming Body Palm].

He switched back and forth between the three rhythms, and the more he switched, the smoother it became, and the faster it became.

The final strike carried a triple force on the blade.

The downward slash of the [Mysterious Blade Technique], the side slide of the [Dust Step], and the overlapping waves of the [Wandering Body Palm].

The combined force of these three forces cleaved the wooden stake in front of them in two.

Lin Yan sheathed his sword and exhaled a long breath.

[Skill Advancement: Swimming Body Palm (Beginner) (1/800) → Swimming Body Palm (Minor Mastery) (1/1000)]

【Function: Allows the use of triple-layered wave energy】

He looked down at the knife in his hand.

The blade was intact, but the cord wrapped around the handle had loosened due to the vibration.

He'd had this knife for almost a year, taken from Zhao Yuanlang. He'd used it to kill barbarians and cleave through mountain bandits, and now he could barely hold the hilt.

"It's time to get a new one," he muttered to himself.

On the last day before the martial arts competition, Ye Qingxue visited the supply camp.

She stood by the training ground for a quarter of an hour, watching the groups of three move in and out of the field without saying a word.

"How is it?"

Lin Yan walked over.

"I can fight," Ye Qingxue said, "but there's one thing you need to be careful about."

"What?"

"The forward and left wing battalions may join forces."

Ye Qingxue looked at the soldiers on the training ground and said, "Although the team battles in the martial arts exercise are participated in independently by each battalion, the rules do not prohibit temporary alliances. If Hu Tai and Fang Dahai join forces, you will have to deal with two groups of people at the same time."

"I expected it."

Lin Yan said, "The Bagua Formation was originally designed for multi-pronged attacks. The Northern Barbarians' skirmish formations were able to harass three directions simultaneously at Qipanling, and I used the same principle."