Lin Xiaolu was feeling rather confused after hearing this. He didn't really understand what a Foundation Establishment beast was. Li Mingru then explained in detail, "That beast has a strength about equal to an army of ten thousand men. If Emei was dealing with this matter, they could easily subdue it by sending out a few inner sect disciples.
So, a warrior's limit is roughly equal to the strength of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. If they encountered this teacher who is at the Core Formation Realm, they would be easily killed like ants."
After hearing this, Lin Xiaolu was greatly shocked. From Li Mingru's words, he now had a rough understanding of how weak warriors were.
Master and disciple fell silent again for a long time. Li Mingru looked at the still stubborn Lin Xiaolu and suddenly sighed, taking out a tattered old book from his robe pocket.
The book was only half-intact, tattered to the extreme, as if it could turn to dust at any moment.
"This is a remnant I coincidentally obtained in my early years," Li Mingru said. "It records some rather fantastic and peculiar methods that seem to be able to enhance physical fitness. If you still want to continue learning martial arts and can successfully persevere for a year, your teacher will use the methods in this remnant to bestow an opportunity upon you. As for whether or not you can achieve anything in the end, that will be up to you."
Lin Xiaolu was stunned for a moment, then pumped his little fists and said, "Big bro, I will definitely work hard!"
Li Mingru smiled and tilted his head back to drink some wine.
In the next few days, Lin Xiaolu stayed in the cave to cultivate. Li Mingru was also very responsible - every morning he would personally teach Lin Xiaolu to recognize characters, and from the afternoon he would instruct him in training.
Push-ups, horse stances, running, carrying large rocks to lift weights, and so on in cycles, practicing for several hours at a time, almost tormenting Lin Xiaolu to death every day.
Of course, such training also required food. Lin Xiaolu quickly discovered that the monkey San'er who was responsible for delivering his meals every day would bring him special spirit food. In addition there were eggs and meat of various spirit beasts to nourish his body.
Lin Xiaolu knew this was certainly coming out of his cheap master's own pocket, which also reduced his dissatisfaction with this big brother quite a bit. After all, even though he was being confined, the food he was eating was really not bad, spirit food for every meal, who could get this kind of treatment?
Time gradually passed, and after about a month, Li Mingru added another item to Lin Xiaolu's original training regimen.
He would shoot out arcs of Qi from his fingers at Lin Xiaolu, who had to dodge these Qi arrows. The arrows flew extremely fast and had almost no physical form, making them very difficult to see clearly. At first, the seven-year-old Lin Xiaolu couldn't dodge any of them and was frequently struck by the arrows, which actually packed quite a punch - each hit made him grit his teeth in pain although he wasn't injured.
Gradually, because of this training, Lin Xiaolu's reaction speed became faster and faster, but even with his rapid improvement, it was still half a month before he succeeded in dodging the Qi arrows for the first time.
"Hahahaha!" Lin Xiaolu threw back his head and laughed loudly in the cave, "Big bro, after you shot me for half a month, I've finally dodged your Qi arrows!"
Sitting on the cushion, Li Mingru also smiled. The speed at which he shot the Qi arrows was about equal to the maximum speed of arrows in the mundane world. A seven-year-old dodging them was really not easy.
However, he wouldn't overtly praise him. Instead he poured cold water on him, "What's there to be smug about? Yesterday Miaoxin told me your sister has already reached the third layer of Qi Condensation. You've only made this little bit of progress and you're satisfied?"
When Lin Xiaolu heard this, he humphed and arrogantly retorted, "Anyway I'm not afraid of your Qi arrows anymore, come on, shoot me if you've got the ability!"
Li Mingru smiled slightly, took a swig from his wine gourd, and casually flicked his sleeve.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
Looking at the six oncoming Qi arrows, Lin Xiaolu's childish face fell into deep contemplation.
Damn your grandmother! I'm only freaking seven years old!
...
...
In the school, the chubby Dongfang Dan listened sadly as the teacher lectured, while little Xiao Yuer happily scribbled nonsense with her brush on the desk in front of him.
He sighed. He felt so miserable without Gege here. Now the second floor of the school had also been snatched back by Chen Nianyun and the others, and they taunted and jeered at him every day. Xiao Yuer and the others didn't pay them much mind, probably because she was so young. They had basically shifted all their resentment of Lin Xiaolu onto him.
Of course they still wouldn't hit him, after all they were also clear in their hearts that Lin Xiaolu was going to come back.
"Alright, class is over for today. When you get home, remember to review what we learned today," the teacher said hurriedly before leaving. With his departure, the children in the school were also happily chattering as they prepared to leave school and go home in groups of threes and twos.
"Xiao Yuer, when is your gege coming back?" Dongfang Dan asked as he walked out of the school building carrying a small cloth bundle, his face full of gloom.
"I don't know either," Xiao Yuer said dejectedly. "My senior sister said gege was confined for three months. I don't know how many days have passed now."
"Ai~" Dongfang Dan heaved a sigh, the very picture of hopeless misery. He was so bored without Gege here.
"Haha, looks like he's not getting out," a grating mocking voice suddenly rang out. Chen Nianyun, Yu Chuchu, and several other Spirit Sword disciples walked over.
Chen Nianyun's arrogant little face sneered, "Lin Xiaolu, this big villain, has finally fallen at the hands of justice."
When Dongfang Dan heard this, he was unhappy. He stuck out his fat belly and scolded, "Chen Nianyun, what are you acting smug for? You're just a loser under Gege."
When the other children heard this, they were immediately outraged. "Dongfang Dan, you're getting quite full of yourself, huh? Daring to talk to our Nianyun like that!"
"That's right, you've been cultivating for about a month now, right? You haven't even reached the first layer of Qi Condensation. Trash!"
When Dongfang Dan heard this, his fat face flushed red with anger. He pointed at them and taunted, "No matter how trash I am, at least I wouldn't tear up statement papers to falsely accuse someone, you despicable little cowards who dare to do wrong but not admit it!"
These words made Chen Nianyun and the others' faces turn extremely ugly. Chen Nianyun's forehead bulged with green veins in anger. "Dongfang Dan, you're asking for death!"
After saying this, he was about to teach this ignorant fatty a lesson, but the five-year-old Xiao Yuer stepped forward, her tiny body blocking Dongfang Dan.
Seeing the little girl in front of him, Chen Nianyun angrily said, "Stinky girl, get lost! I don't want to bully someone younger than me!"
Xiao Yuer lifted her palm-sized little face to look at the much taller Chen Nianyun and crisply said, "If you want to hit my gege's little brother then hit me first, but after hitting me you'll have to face my gege's retaliation."
When Chen Nianyun heard this, his heart lurched and he hesitated, not daring to make a move.
Xiao Yuer looked at the others contemptuously and snorted, "Let me advise you guys to eat whatever you want these days, otherwise after my gege finishes his confinement, you won't get to eat it anymore!"