It wasn't that the Jun family's intelligence network was too poor; it was simply that the Jun family's intelligence agencies were accustomed to never relaying any news to this master. Furthermore, this master had indeed been quite busy these past few days, either cultivating and exploring the secrets of the Exquisite Hongjun Pagoda, or supervising the training of the manor guards. He even managed to snatch some time to prepare a large quantity of distiller's grains for fermentation! As a result, Jun Xie only learned about the major upheaval in the capital several days later!
Of course, there was another reason for the Jun family's relative peace: neither the Tang family nor the Li family had ever directed their suspicions toward the Jun family, let alone the legendary Jun Scion; the entire Jun clan consisted of the aged, the young, the crippled, and the dissolute—who among them was worth worrying about? Old Master Jun had always been upright and honorable, a fact even his enemies had to concede, so he certainly wouldn't stoop to such deeds.
As for Jun Mo Xie... even contemplating such a thing felt like an insult to the six people who died at the street corner! Who would believe that the utterly useless, ingrained dandy, Jun Mo Xie, possessed the capability to single-handedly slay a Silver-rank master and five Ninth-level Profound Experts?
However, not everyone in the Jun family was unscathed!
Precisely because Young Master Jun San had ample free time these past few days, he had managed to work those guards until they were practically skinned raw!
Yet, not a single one of these guards harbored any complaint!
The reason was simple: they were too embarrassed, genuinely too embarrassed, to even utter a word!
If the guards had each lost a layer of skin, Jun Xie himself had standardly shed three layers! Perhaps even more!
During these days, Jun Xie’s self-training regimen was so intense that even iron-blooded veteran Jun Wu Yi couldn't help but feel his heart tremble watching it!
A typical day’s schedule: Long before dawn, Jun Xie would awaken precisely from sleep and proceed to meditate and regulate his breathing in a hidden corner he had established in the courtyard—a spot deliberately chosen to catch the wind from all four directions. He avoided his room to be closer to the heavens and earth, closer to nature. The fresh morning air was truly a gift from the great outdoors!
An hour later, strapping weighted sandbags onto his legs, arms, and wrists, he commenced training in all basic movements: jabs, straight punches, hooks, uppercuts; kicks, front kicks, thrusts, side kicks, side chops, rear kicks; this sequence was performed without a single rest or pause. Immediately upon finishing this set, he moved onto push-ups, sit-ups, static core holds, duck walks, frog jumps, leg stretches, shoulder hangs, and inverted hangs. By the time this circuit was complete, his entire body was usually saturated to the point where no more sweat could be wrung out! Every muscle in his body was activated to its absolute maximum. For an ordinary person, completing this much would leave them exhausted to death, even if they could manage to finish at all!
But this was only the beginning!
After loosening up his limbs, it was finally time to practice the actual structured martial arts forms, executed meticulously, every move precisely replicated!
Even merely practicing these forms superficially, as mere flashy moves, would usually induce a heavy sweat; what chance was there when adhering strictly to the standards? With every punch thrown, force was channeled from the tips of the toes, through the heels, engaging the ankle twist, supported by the calf muscles, received by the knee bend, borne by the thigh, and then the waist converted all this accumulated power with a single twist, sending it upward. This power then converged into a torrent, transmitted to the shoulder, driving the entire arm, utilizing the strength of the whole body to deliver that single strike!
Every punch was thrown with maximum effort!
A martial arts sage once said: Do not look down upon a simple punch or kick; know that for every single punch or kick, the entire body must coordinate, every muscle participating in the operation, in order to unleash its maximum destructive power! Some men could kill with a single punch, while others might end up spraining their own wrist from the impact—this was the very reason!
The principle applied equally to all other movements.
Even mastering a single flawless punch was the Way of the Martial Arts!
The foundation of the Martial Way lies in the plain, unadorned fundamental training! And the pinnacle of the Martial Way is also that same simplicity, a return to the original, uncarved block!
Yet, it is this very simple, fundamental training that most rigorously tempers a martial artist’s temperament and foundation. Moreover, Jun Xie compounded the difficulty by tying sandbags around every joint—this increased the challenge tenfold, at least! And the expenditure of physical energy surpassed that tenfold as well!
But this level of difficulty was merely the prelude to Jun Xie’s official daily training! The bloody slaughter in the rainy night had instilled in Jun Xie an urgent desire to elevate his strength—this body felt far too frail!
After systemically completing all of his personal regimen, the Jun family guards would generally assemble before him, and he would then commence their brutal training session for the day. For every single drill, Jun Xie insisted on joining the unit, training alongside them, and completing every exercise!
These training methods were derived from the methods Jun Xie used to train super-assassins in his previous life; they could frankly be called hellish training! One could even say, "One would rather truly descend to hell than endure this monstrous regimen that surpasses human capacity!"
His fellow martial siblings in his past life once spread a secret adage: "Better to wander the Nine Hells of Yama than suffer one day under the training of the Evil Sovereign!" This spoke volumes about how perverse Jun Xie’s training methods were!
Jun Xie told himself only one thing: "If you wish to possess strength unrivaled under heaven, you must first possess the resilience and willpower unrivaled under heaven! Otherwise, forget it!"
And then, one must expend sweat and effort far exceeding what any ordinary person could give! Otherwise, it was likewise out of the question!
Only by achieving those two prerequisites does one even begin to talk about opportunity! If you do not strive, even if opportunity lies right before your eyes, you cannot seize it!
Merely hoping that an immortal will appear and magically elevate you to immortality is nothing more than impractical fantasy! Even if you possess the best luck in the entire world, holding the universe’s most powerful artifact, if you do not strive yourself, you will still amount to less than nothing!
A beggar who strives has a chance to become a famous general recorded in history books, but a great general who ceases to strive might also be recorded in history, yet only for being infamous for disgrace!
To place others, and indeed the entire world, beneath your feet, you must first stomp yourself beneath your own feet!
This is the absolute minimum requirement!
After finishing all his private drills, the guards would run twenty laps around the training ground; Jun Xie would not run a single lap less than them! In the other exercises, he followed suit, never taking less than the required measure! Although, given Jun Xie's current physical condition, he always dragged along at the very end, he stubbornly persevered through every single drill!
By the end of the first day’s complete training, Jun Xie was nearly so exhausted that his consciousness blurred, but the inherent pride of a top-tier assassin and the dignity of being the "Evil Sovereign" sustained him until he finished every last requirement without compromise!
Although this body had undergone cleansing and marrow refinement, Jun Xie had to cultivate its coordination to a state of absolute perfection as quickly as possible! Only when every muscle and bone in the body was perfectly synchronized would it meet Jun Xie’s initial, baseline requirement for himself! And where did all this come from?
From sweat!
Those who do not strive, even if a pie falls from the sky, will only be struck dead by the pie; they will never get to eat it!
And now, although Jun Xie possessed the Exquisite Hongjun Pagoda and the Heaven-Opening Creation Art, whether in martial arts or the Way, he needed both internal and external cultivation! If the physical body is not powerful enough, even immortal techniques will cause one to turn to ashes!
Initially, the three hundred guards held deep doubts about Jun Xie participating in the training, certain that the young master was merely amusing himself. Seeing him stumble and sway from the very start, everyone inwardly smirked, convinced that Jun Xie would absolutely not last long. Some of the more bored guards, even as they drenched themselves in sweat, had already placed wagers, complete with odds.