AST 1992 - A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Transforming from a chick into an eagle (1/2)

The young man seemed to be hesitating. When Qing Shui saw his eyes, he simply waited it out. This went on for quite a while before the young man decided, “Though we may be beggars, we have never done anything which may harm other people. If the reason you’re looking for us today is for us to do something ethically wrong, we would rather be beggars for our entire lives.”

The young man’s answer was completely out of Qing Shui’s expectations. He then laughed and responded, “Don’t worry. I can assure you that it won’t be something like that.”

“Alright, we will believe you.” The young man looked around and made up his mind.

The Barbarian Emperor and the others were all shocked to see Qing Shui bringing back so many beggars after only going out once. After coming back, Qing Shui sent people to help them buy some clothes. Following on, he told the beggars to go and take a shower.

By the time they all finished changed into new clothes, more than 10 good-looking young men appeared before Qing Shui. Qing Shui didn’t say anything much. Instead, he made a lot of food and added in a bit of flavoring in it. To these children, these dishes were the most delicious food they had ever tasted.

When they finished their meals, Qing Shui told them to gather in the backyard. By now, among these people in their minds, quite a lot of them had actually let out a sigh of relief when they found out that it was the Imperial Cuisine Hall. What did the Imperial Cuisine Hall do? They treat others. In fact, quite a lot of them had once accepted free treatments from the Imperial Cuisine Hall.

“I didn’t know what you guys were called before but now, I am going to give you new names. If one day, you guys manage to achieve a certain level in strength and if you want to, you can recover back your original name. You, come out.” Qing Shui pointed at the young man from before who supposedly led the group as soon as he finished speaking.

The young man went forward and stood up straight.

“In the future, you will be called Qing Er. There will be no Qing Yi. Slowly moving on, they will be called Qing San and so forth. It doesn’t matter how you arrange them. In the future, that will be their code name. I will give you 15 minutes to rearrange them and remember their names.” Qing Shui told the young man.

“Got it!”

The young man very quickly started arranging the people starting from Qing San all the way until Qing Forty-Five. The remaining children who were aged between three to four were left out. They could have fun with Qing Ci’s child. Those brats were just like children of a normal family. In fact, they might be even more independent than those geniuses.

“In the future, the both of us will be training you guys. You guys can call me your master. On results day, those who catch our eyes will have a chance to be under me or become his disciple.” Qing Shui pointed at the Barbarian Emperor and said.

By now, the Barbarian Emperor could already figure out what Qing Shui wanted to do. However, because the people whom he chose were all beggars, the effect might not seem to be too ideal. These people were all past the age of cultivation. Even if they were to start cultivating now, it would be very hard for them to make a reputation for themselves unless some sort of miracles happened.

“Big brother, go easy on them for the first three days when you start training them. After that, feel free to practice their willpower and nature by using some sort of cruel methods. If a person only has mediocre strength, he can nurture it slowly. But if he is not persistent enough, things wouldn’t work out well for him even if he was born a genius.”

“That, you don’t have to worry. I can help you deal with it.” The Barbarian Emperor smiled and nodded. He would support whatever decision Qing Shui made.

Qing Shui told these people that the training wouldn’t be easy and if they couldn’t handle it, it would be best if they leave now. However, in their eyes, Qing Shui could see a kind of persistence. They had always lived their lives at the bottom of society. Their normal lives were already tough enough. Children born in this background tend to get mature faster than the normal ones. They wouldn’t be afraid of suffering in a bit of hardship.

For the following few days, the Barbarian Emperor took the group of people to go swimming, mountain-climbing and did some marathon-runs as well as squats, push-ups, and so on. So long as they were things which required effort to do, he would include it in his training regime. It was of utmost importance for him to improve their persistence first. This way, they wouldn’t have to work as hard cultivating in the future but still receive twice the result.

During the training, from time to time, there would be people who fainted but no one had yet complained that it was too much for them. Knowing that, Qing Shui was very satisfied. This was the result which he wanted. He was quite happy with their perseverance.

Qing Shui planted a lot of wooden boards and a few wooden puppets in the backyard. These wooden puppets were made of iron curtains. Though they might be called wooden puppets, it was actually just adding a few more hardwood onto the already made wooden board, making it looked like the arms of an actual man. Qing Shui started off by first teaching them the Solitary Rapid Fist and Stump Step.

Qing Shui wasn’t sure what the Barbarian Emperor had taught them himself, but Qing Shui had already gone through with the Barbarian Emperor about the directions which these children would take.