"Not bad, you've learned the moves, just need a bit more experience fighting people."

Hu Ma was quite satisfied with the skills of these workers, and said, "Da Tong, take them and train them more in the future. Use the method our Second Master taught us, and really go at it..."

"...But if you're practicing with knives, don't use them on those two bell-ringers."

"No matter how good Black Oil Paste is, it won't grow that thing back..."

"..."

Earlier, when Second Master taught them moves in the village, he really made them go all out.

The method was simple, but effective.

With this kind of training, there was no need for any fancy moves. After practicing for a long time, they would all become ruthless when they fought.

"Consider this level passed, now let's see how your Fire is."

As Hu Ma spoke, he crossed his legs and sat on the stool, thinking that it would be better to switch to a master's chair in the future, which would be more friendly to his back, and of course, mainly more imposing.

Listening to his instructions, Zhou Da Tong and the others were all apprehensive. They lined up in front of him, extending their wrists, waiting for him to test their Fire.

The method was actually simple, just a slight probing with his own Fire to get a sense of the other party's foundation.

Not everyone was like a transmigrator, able to hide their true cultivation by controlling the life incense in the incense burner.

"Hmm?"

After testing a few in a row, Hu Ma was slightly surprised, "Not bad at all..."

None of these workers had broken through a pillar of Dao attainment.

But several were actually close.

Zhou Da Tong already had eight or nine tenths of a pillar of Dao attainment, only a line away from one pillar. The others, Zhou Liang, Zhao Zhu, and so on, were also not bad, with seven or eight tenths of a pillar. They were not as good as Zhou Da Tong, but they were still quite impressive.

Hu Ma reacted slightly and understood the reason.

These young men with a strong foundation had been running in the mountains with Second Master since they were young, lifting stone locks, and strictly ordered to seal their fire furnace, not to let out even a fraction of it. Their foundations were actually stronger than anyone else. He was born without vitality, unable to generate life force.

But they were constantly generating vitality every day, their furnaces extremely旺盛, and in addition, they had eaten almost their fill of green vegetables in the village, so how could they not be replenished?

After all, to be fair, the treatment in his village was excellent.

In other villages, the workers' rations were not necessarily distributed so completely, and there was no shortage of inferior goods being used to make up the numbers.

After all, what was saved from the workers' mouths ended up in the hands of the shopkeeper.

But he had taken over the shopkeeper's affairs in this village a long time ago, and had never been stingy with them, because he didn't think much of it.

This had made their foundations good, close to one pillar.

But looking further down the line, he found that besides Zhou Da Tong and the other outstanding ones, there were others with six or seven tenths, some with five or six tenths, and in the end, there was even one with only two or three tenths of Fire. Hu Ma's face immediately darkened:

"Why is your Fire so shallow? Tell the truth, are you every day..."

"..."

He clenched his fist and gestured up and down a couple of times, looking at the worker extremely seriously.

"No...no..."

Seeing Hu Ma so serious, the worker was almost scared to tears: "...Not that many times!"

Hu Ma was speechless: "As I thought!"

One pillar of Dao attainment was twenty years of vitality.

Taking a man as an example, if he lived to twenty years old, had not lost his essence, had no major illnesses or disasters, and exercised regularly, his own vitality would reach a peak, to the extent that wandering evil spirits would not want to provoke him.

Of course, this was the most ideal. In fact, in this world, everyone was not full, and no one could guarantee that they would not have any injuries or illnesses, so their Fire would be far below the ideal level.

Ordinary people, even twenty-year-old adults, only had about six or seven tenths of Fire, which was still good, a relatively healthy type.

In the mystic arts world, this was one pillar of Dao attainment, and those inside the gate, with the nourishment of blood food, could reach three pillars of Dao attainment in a short period of time. In the industry, this was sixty years of Dao attainment, the highest Dao attainment that ordinary people could hope for but never reach...

These workers were not yet people in the mystic arts world, but they were all sixteen or seventeen years old. Although their physical functions had not reached their best, they were usually supplemented with green and white food, so it was reasonable that they should have reached six or seven tenths...

This guy's Fire was so weak, he was obviously not honest, at least he had to do it every day or two.

"Those miners in the blood food mine work themselves to death every day, and they can still hold it in, but you can't hold it in here eating delicious food and drinking spicy drinks?"

Hu Ma frowned and said seriously, "Give it up!"

"If this happens again, I'll give you a knife, either to chop off your hand or to chop off that thing, you decide!"

"..."

"I'll remember, I'll remember..."

The worker hurriedly agreed, almost vowing.

The other workers also looked at each other, frightened, all sixteen or seventeen-year-old young men. When they woke up in the morning, a row of flagpoles would be raised.

Although they all knew that they couldn't break their bodies and had to abstain from sex to build up their strength.

But there were also one or two times when they couldn't hold back, and the consequences were so serious?

Fortunately, Hu Ma only looked at each person's Fire and didn't catch everyone and ask them in detail. After asking, he had a number in his heart. He got up, called Zhou Da Tong, and followed him into the inner courtyard. After closing the door, he took out an oil lamp from the cabinet.

He smiled and said, "Da Tong, do you want to learn some skills?"

"Ah?"

Zhou Da Tong was called in by Hu Ma and was already uneasy.

Suddenly seeing Hu Ma holding out an oil lamp and suddenly changing his face, the light of the oil lamp shone up from his chin, making the smile particularly sinister. He was so frightened that his hair stood on end.

He knelt down with a thud and shouted, "Brother Ma, I was wrong. On the sixteenth night of last month, at the third watch, in the latrine..."

"...I did it once."

"Not only did I do it, but Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu have also done it, and that deaf guy, he did it next to the sheep pen last time..."

"..."

"?"

Hu Ma was stunned. What the hell was going on?

Were these guys usually so dishonest?

But in fact, now that he had reached this level of Dao attainment, entered the mystic arts world, and understood many things in the mystic arts world, he had already understood:

As long as he hadn't really lost his primordial Yang, it didn't matter if he did it once or twice. It was Second Master who didn't understand the ways of the world because he was outside the mystic arts world. Instead, he would guard these precepts like an ascetic monk, not daring to take a step across the boundary.

But it was okay if he didn't know about this, but now that he knew, he couldn't give him a good look...

...After all, he hadn't done it, so why should they?

"Do you know why I called you in?"

Hu Ma scolded Zhou Da Tong head-on: "It's to teach you skills."

"What do you think this is?"

"It's a skill that our Second Master learned for a lifetime but couldn't master. It's our good fortune that we learned it, and we can teach it to you again."

"But you're so good, you can't even bear this little bit of hardship. You finally saved up a little Fire, and you threw it all on the sheep. What, do you have to go back to the village to suffer again?"

"..."

Zhou Da Tong's face fell when he was scolded: "I know I was wrong, Brother Ma."

"It's all that deaf guy's fault. We didn't know about this before. We only learned it after seeing him do it once..."

"..."

"No, how do you learn this kind of thing without a teacher?"

Hu Ma felt a little strange: "Even in my previous life, I had a teacher to teach me..."

But it was enough for them to know the severity of the matter, so he didn't say much, just told him to be careful, and then pushed the oil lamp in front of him.

Now that his palm had been reborn as dead, he would not be affected by the poison on the oil lamp. This lamp was exactly the one that the old shopkeeper had passed down. He had to use three lamps in order to act, and now this was the only one left.

"For the sake of Second Master, I'll spare you this time. You have to give Second Master some good things for the New Year."

He said sternly, "Hold this lamp!"

Zhou Da Tong agreed repeatedly, tilted his head to look at it, and carefully reached out to hold it.

"Ah yo..."

But after holding the lamp for not long, he suddenly let out a low cry, pressed down on his left leg, and looked up at Hu Ma in disbelief.

"Don't panic, this is the first step for us to enter this path."

Hu Ma looked at Zhou Da Tong and said in a low voice, "This is also the secret that people outside the gate don't tell you, and will never understand."

Zhou Da Tong listened, his eyes widened, and suddenly said seriously, "If that's the case..."

"...Then Brother Ma, should I call you Master from now on?"

"..."

Hu Ma was also slightly stunned, thinking about it carefully.

That was indeed the logic.

He was passed down the method, but he didn't have a master, because Wu Hong, the shopkeeper, used other methods to repay the favor.

But Zhou Da Tong didn't have it. Logically speaking, if he passed down the method to him, he would be his master, which was a great favor.

But they were all from the same village, risking their lives together, and were of similar age. It wasn't necessary to take on this title.

So, after thinking about it briefly, he looked at Zhou Da Tong with a serious expression and said, "No need, even if we talk about our origins in the mystic arts world in the future, you can just call me Senior Brother."

"I'm accepting you on behalf of Second Master, and I'll accept the others in the future. But you remember this kindness on Second Master. Second Master is the master of all of us. We all learned this skill from him."

"..."

Zhou Da Tong was shocked and nodded repeatedly: "I understand, Brother Ma."

"Go!"

Hu Ma nodded and said, "Lean on that crutch by the wall. You made it for me back then, and I've been keeping it for you."

...

At this time, in the outer courtyard, when the workers saw Zhou Da Tong being called away by Hu Ma, they didn't know what was going on. Everyone was worried. It wasn't until night, when it was almost time to light the lamps, that they saw Zhou Da Tong come out, and he was limping, leaning on a crutch, looking extremely miserable.

"What happened?"

"..."

Everyone hurried over to ask. Zhou Da Tong said with a bitter face, "I, uh, did that once last month..."

"Brother Ma found out and broke my leg to teach me a lesson."

"..."

"Whoa..."

The workers were immediately stunned, and their necks shrank back a little. They all thought to themselves, "I don't dare, I don't dare anymore."

(End of chapter)