After informing the security guards of how things stood, Ling Zhang, following the training methods provided by Yuwen Tong, started adjusting himself to his body which now held strength of a whole new level.

What Yuwen Tong told Ling Zhang to do first was go all out to attack him. "There's no need for you to worry about me getting hurt, because currently you're not powerful enough to cause me any harm."

Since Yuwen Tong put it this way, of course Ling Zhang chose to believe him. He launched an all-out attack on him sparing no efforts.

However, even so, Yuwen Tong still deflected Ling Zhang's every blow as easy as falling off a log without even moving an inch.

Ling Zhang fell speechless.

"How do you feel?" asked Yuwen Tong. "Have you got used to your strength now?"

Ling Zhang inclined his head, a somewhat excited look on his face. "I think so."

In the past he had merely felt that Yuwen Tong's kung fu was very good, but now he came to a more distinct perception of it – if his kung fu was likened to a trickle, then Yuwen Tong's would be a mighty ocean; if his kung fu was likened to a mound, then Yuwen Tong's would be a lofty mountain. Even so, a moment ago Yuwen Tong had told him that the mental cultivation method of internal energy he was cultivating right now was more powerful than the one Yuwen Tong himself was cultivating.

This was the first time that Ling Zhang had deeply felt a surge of yearning clutch at his heart, along with... ambition. Nobody would say no to an access to power, especially power more potent than that of anybody else. This was an inborn longing. It was just that Ling Zhang had never had any clear conception of this before because of the trammels of conventional education imposed on his mind. Though he had been reborn, it was the strong desire for vengeance that had been motivating him to improve his power. This time, however, things were different. This was a very clear, very pure yearning for greater power. He wanted to surpass himself, to reach the apogee.

'If some day I do reach the top of a lofty mountain like Yuwen Tong does, what kind of scenery would I be seeing?' Ling Zhang suddenly felt an urge to find out and as well as a craving to stand side by side with Yuwen Tong on the peak to enjoy the same view.

Now he had an opportunity. What else could possibly be more exciting than this?

"Let's try again!" said Ling Zhang.

Yuwen Tong gave a smile. He sensed Ling Zhang's thirst, which was very familiar to him, for he used to be like this as well. And this time Ling Zhang's yearning was giving him a different feeling. As if affected by Ling Zhang's craving, he couldn't help but anticipate the day that Ling Zhang would be as powerful as he was, which he firmly believed would be the most exciting moment in his life.

Ling Zhang still threw every punch with full strength, and he came to a clearer perception of his strength every time he went all out. He could even feel a wave of warmth surge out of his Dantian as well as the changes it brought inside him every time he threw a punch. Now he had come to a realization of the condition his body was in.

Yuwen Tong, seeing Ling Zhang had had some acquaintance with his bodily strength, began to teach him how to control it, which was more difficult than launching an all-out attack, but this was his own body after all, so it didn't take long for Ling Zhang to get the hang of it.

"With the experience of what you've just done, you'll gradually know what to expect in different circumstances and what kind of condition your bodily strength is in without any particular extra training. You won't feel unadapted again," remarked Yuwen Tong.

Ling Zhang, feeling that he was beginning to know the ropes, gave a bob of his head.

Motivated, Ling Zhang had Yuwen Tong spar with him on the drill ground for quite a while. Yuwen Tong understood very well why he was doing this. Ling Zhang was still in excitement, and the best way to help him cool down was to let him vent it.

At this moment, the two of them were the only ones left on the drill ground. Ling Zhang's security guards and Yuwen Tong's bodyguards were all standing outside the drill ground, watching Yuwen Tong training Ling Zhang.

"Childe Ling achieved such great progress after merely one night," Yue Qi exclaimed in amazement under his breath.

Unlike Wang Dashan and other security guards of Ling Zhang's, Yue Qi and other bodyguards were all internal energy experts and had a keener nose for this kind of changes. It had taken Ling Zhang only one night to achieve such progress. There was something called comprehension that was involved in this, which they felt was even more formidable.

"Not only does our young master have extraordinary comprehension, the mental cultivation method of internal energy he's been following is also uncommon, I'm afraid," commented Xie Shi, earnestly watching Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong sparring in the drill ground.

As Yuwen Tong's personal bodyguards, they were all top-notch kung fu experts compared with martial arts practitioners in Jianghu. Naturally, the mental cultivation methods of internal energy they had been using were also pretty good, which was why they had such discernment.

"I think it's no inferior than that of the Marshal," Xie Shi continued.

Yue Qi gave a gasp of astonishment and said in a lower voice, "The mental cultivation method of internal energy of the Marshal is already one of the best. If Childe Ling's is no inferior than his, it has to be at least one of the best as well. If that's really the case, I'd be very surprised. The Marshal couldn't be the one who gave him this cultivation method, so it must be from Childe Ling's own family. Ling family has such a powerful cultivation method?"

"I'm afraid this matter is not as simple as it seems," observed Xie Shi.

All of them had an intimate knowledge of the background of Ling family, for they had conducted an inquiry into Ling family back at the time when they had just arrived in Tanyang. Furthermore, in order to find out the origin of those martial formations of Ling Zhang, they had also gone to a lot of trouble to look into it, but eventually they'd got nothing, which was quite surprising. Of course, there was someone they suspected: Ling Zhang's mother; but what scared them the most was that they followed this lead and continued their investigation but still found nothing...

They were all Yuwen Tong's personal bodyguards, soldiers that had been toughened by countless fights on the battlefield. At the same time, they were also Yuwen Tong's most capable intelligence agents. They had really never encountered any situations like this before, especially in recent years.

Eventually, Yuwen Tong had told them to stop the inquiry, saying that he had already known the ins and outs of it.

Of course they had guessed that Ling Zhang had told Yuwen Tong something. During these days, they had come to a perception of what kind of person Ling Zhang was and how much they could trust him. Since Yuwen Tong told them further inquiry would be unnecessary, they naturally stopped.

"Knowledge of uncommon martial formations; a medicinal jade that can detoxify all kinds of poison, and the likes of which could hardly be found in the world; and now such advanced and powerful mental cultivation method of internal energy – Childe Ling never ceases to surprise us," remarked Yao Yi.

"No matter what, we just do what we're supposed to do," said Xie Shi.

"Yao Yi's right. I have faith in the Marshal's judgement, and Childe Ling is a pretty nice person. I trust him," commented Yue Qi.

Yao Yi, Xie Shi and a couple of others twisted their heads around to look at him. Yue Qi was thrown into perplexity by their gaze. "Why are you looking at me like this?"

Yao Yi, Xie Shi and the others took their eyes off him. All of them had got acquainted with Ling Zhang as early as when they had been in Tanyang, so surely they knew Ling Zhang better than Yue Qi did. Of course they also trusted Ling Zhang. It was just that they had a subtle feeling that Yue Qi beat them to some kind of opportunity. 'Why am I having this feeling?' they wondered.

It was like they were the ones who found a treasure first, but then someone else showed up and claimed to be the discoverer, which made them subtly annoyed.

Yuwen Tong, though sparring with Ling Zhang, had been on the alert all along, so naturally the private conversation between Yao Yi and the others didn't escape his quick ears.

He was very pleased with Yue Qi's words and of course not surprised that his subordinates were intelligent enough to sense Ling Zhang's secrets were not what they seemed.

It was not until another two hours passed that Yuwen Tong told Ling Zhang to stop. Ling Zhang, who was still in excitement, didn't notice, but Yuwen Tong had perceived that Ling Zhang was already exhausted. If they sparred a while longer, Ling Zhang probably would have to spend the rest of the day lying in bed.

It was not until the two of them stopped that Ling Zhang came to realize that his body had almost been pushed to the limit. Though he was panting heavily and sweating buckets with trembling limbs and his every muscle was tired, his spirits were very high, and his eyes were even more sparkling than they'd been before the training started.

Yuwen Tong walked up. "You need to get some rest."

Ling Zhang nodded and tried to lift his foot to walk only to find that he barely had enough strength to move his foot without his internal energy circulating. A moment ago he had been totally at ease, but now his whole body felt uncommonly heavy.

Yuwen Tong raised his hands and slowly kneaded Ling Zhang's arms. And then, holding Ling Zhang's hand, he took him for a walk around the drill ground at a gentle pace. After Ling Zhang's heart rate returned to normal, he slowly took him back to the main courtyard house, had a servant bring some hot water into the room, helped Ling Zhang strip and wiped his body for him. After Ling Zhang changed into clean underclothing, he kneaded Ling Zhang's limbs, massaged medicinal liquor into his skin and kneaded his aching muscles again, which kept him busy for quite a while.

Ling Zhang just watched with sparkling eyes as Yuwen Tong did all this. Following Yuwen Tong about, his eyes were even brighter than those of the white fox cub when it was waiting to be fed. And there was also an involuntary silly smile on the corners of his mouth.

Yuwen Tong, when looking at Ling Zhang, also had a passionate look in his eyes, and he couldn't help but kiss Ling Zhang several times in a row.

'This little guy still hasn't come to himself yet,' thought Yuwen Tong.

Ling Zhang meekly let him kiss and even raised his head and opened his mouth. He was so cooperative that Yuwen Tong could barely forbear to stop what he was doing, pin Ling Zhang to the bed and strip him naked.

Unfortunately, not only was Ling Zhang exhausted, his stomach started grumbling as well – he was starving.

Yuwen Tong applied some extra medicinal liquor to Ling Zhang's skin and gave him a massage. After changing clothes, Ling Zhang came to himself and happily put his arms around Yuwen Tong's waist.

Being hugged, Yuwen Tong lowered his head to look at him and gave him a kiss. "You recovered yourself."

"I'm so happy," said Ling Zhang with a sigh.

"I can see it on your face. Your excitement has cost you your sanity," commented Yuwen Tong with a smile.

Ling Zhang was not annoyed by Yuwen Tong's words, his arms still around Yuwen Tong's waist. "It feels so good to have internal energy at my disposal."

"Um. You are a kung fu expert now." Yuwen Tong was still smiling, feeling that Ling Zhang at this moment was unexpectedly clingy and had thoroughly melted his heart.

"Now I cannot even force you to move an inch in a fight, but I'm sure some day I'll be your match," Ling Zhang said, eyes full of fervent yearning and self-confidence.

Yuwen Tong thought for a few moments and replied, "Then I think I'll have to work harder. I don't want to be defeated by you."

Ling Zhang immediately felt somewhat distressed. 'Yuwen Tong will work harder? Then how long will it take me to be his equal?'

"All right. I can hear your stomach grumbling. Let's go and have breakfast," said Yuwen Tong.

Ling Zhang, whose arms were still around Yuwen Tong's waist, didn't move.

Yuwen Tong's eyes lit up and then he directly held Ling Zhang and walked forward. Just like that, the two of them in each other's embraces left the bedroom, as if they'd been stuck together.

It was not until Ling Zhang saw the surprised look in eyes of servants waiting outside that he abruptly realized how embarrassing what the two of them were doing was. He hurriedly loosened his arms, freed himself from Yuwen Tong's embrace, gave a soft cough, walked up and sat down.

He had just regained part of his strength and his limbs still felt somewhat limp, so his movements seemed fairly soft.

Yuwen Tong gave a chuckle and then sat down beside him.

Having had a fascinating glimpse into internal energy, Ling Zhang showed great diligence in his cultivation. For the next few consecutive days, he immersed himself in it. Every time he sat in meditation, he entered a state of such concentration that he himself didn't seem to exist anymore. And each of his cultivation sessions lasted very long – either all night or all day. Surprisingly, as if having got some kind of magic formula for it, he was really in his element during these days' cultivation, encountering no hindrance whatsoever.

Everybody was amazed by this, for Ling Zhang's perception was so amazing.

"It's true that the Marshal unblocked Childe Ling's meridians (each of a set of pathways in the body along which vital energy is said to flow) beforehand, but the progress he's been making is still too quick." Yue Qi and the others clicked their tongues in astonishment.Please visit website ReadNovelFull.com

Wang Dashan, other security guards, Xia Feng and Li Sicai all had little knowledge of this, so they had no choice but to strictly restrain the servants from approaching the main courtyard house. At this moment, after hearing the compliment Yue Qi and the others paid their young master, they naturally were secretly delighted.

Yuwen Tong was also surprised, but he was the one who had unblocked Ling Zhang's meridians, and who had read the secret manual of the mental cultivation method of internal energy, so he knew more about it than Yue Qi and the others did. He was aware that the mental cultivation method of internal energy that Ling Zhang was following was not suitable for everybody, that there were some highly exacting requirements. Even for him, some of the requirements and cultivation reactions mentioned in the manual were impossible to achieve, but for Ling Zhang they seemed very easy. It was not that his comprehension or constitution was not as good as that of Ling Zhang but that this cultivation method seemed to be tailor-made for Ling Zhang. It conformed to Ling Zhang's physical condition in a very ingenious way, which meant that this mental cultivation method of internal energy was solely suitable for a particular kind of people, and Ling Zhang was one of them.

As a result, Yuwen Tong was getting more and more curious about the parentage of Ling Zhang's mother. All members of Ling family were common people without any specialness, so what distinguished Ling Zhang had to be something he'd inherited from his mother.

'Exactly what kind of family background was her from?' Even he couldn't find any information about it. And about this matter, Ling Zhang had also adopted a cautious attitude tinged with subtle nervousness and wariness to; he hadn't even dared to try the mental cultivation method of internal energy given to him at first. Therefore, Yuwen Tong deduced that not only was Ling Zhang's mother's parentage shrouded in mystery, there was also something dangerous involved in this.

The fear Ling Zhang had been trying to conceal had been the very reason why he'd instructed Yao Yi and others to stop inquiring into Ling Zhang's mother's family background. He was worried that they might alarm some people if they kept digging into it. Maybe this was also the reason why that old man showed up on that day. Although from the vantage point of the present, the old man seemed to mean no harm, Yuwen Tong didn't want to take any risks for no good reason.

But playing a passive role was also not Yuwen Tong's style. Though he had told Yao Yi and others to stop digging into Ling Zhang's mother's background, he had already started inquiring into the pamphlet on martial formations given by Ling Zhang as well as that sentence he read on the inner side of the title page of the secret manual on that day. It was impossible that formations of such ingenuity had never been used before, and there must be some traces left behind; and that sentence that sounded familiar to him must have some particular connotations. The reason why it sounded familiar to him must be that he had read it somewhere before. During the past few days, he had returned to the residential compound of Yuwen family and consulted the ancient books and records left by his forebears. It was just that there were too many of them and he hadn't finished all of them; and for the moment he hadn't recalled where he had read a sentence similar to that one.

And there was also that mysterious old man. Since he had shown up in the Wu City once, it was almost certain that he would show up again, and maybe he was in the capital city right now. Given how important that mental cultivation method given to Ling Zhang was, it was impossible that the old man didn't care about what would happen next. The greatest possibility was that he was covertly observing Ling Zhang's each and every move right at this moment. After all, because of him, both Ling Zhang and the Ling Mansion were in the limelight, which made it very easy for anybody having the intention of keeping watch on Ling Zhang to find this place.

He had already instructed his men to keep every corner in the Ling Mansion under secret surveillance, but nothing suspicious had been found so far. Either that old man had not shown up or the old man's kung fu was so good that his men were unable to detect him. Yuwen Tong was more inclined to believe that the latter was the truth. He had had a brief meeting with the old man in the Wu City, and even he couldn't tell how good the old man's kung fu was. But he was not anxious; he believed that old man would show up again, especially when Ling Zhang was making such quick progress in his cultivation.

Thinking of this, Yuwen Tong decided to let Ling Zhang continue cultivating. When it came to cultivation of internal energy, comprehension was very important. Ling Zhang was now in a critical phase, and all other matters had to be put aside.

"Originally Zhang planned to teach you the seventh array of the formation in the next few days, but he doesn't have the time, so I'll teach you," Yuwen Tong informed Wang Dashan and others.

He had given clear-cut orders for matters on his to-do list to be handled, and he had also visited the emperor and asked for a couple of days' leave, which had been permitted by the emperor without any questions asked. As a result, he was at leisure now.