After that day, Yun Qiang created a small routine for his team. Wake up early in the morning, push the cart to Area 17, then train, eat, and finally charge some corpses to the cart before going back to the fort.
Yun Qiang looked at them with a smile on his face, three days had passed since he gave out his cultivation method, and now his subordinates were sitting in the wagon, meditating, trying their best to acquire Qi from the surroundings.
He gazed at Sun and Lee, right now they were standing guard; ready to give the alarm and strike if anything dangerous approached them.
Sun noticed his gaze and gave him a light nod. The surroundings were clear.
'Good. Now it's my time to train'
He did some light stretches before sitting on a humid trunk. In reality, Yun Qiang had planned to spend a week reading and meditating on the meaning of the "Sacred knife" technique before starting practical training. However, his plans had changed. He had expected his subordinates to have some difficulties in sensing Qi and bombard him with questions, however this didn't happen! The entirety of his team found no difficulties in sensing Qi, and even now they gathered it with no problem as if it was second nature.
Yun Qiang cast them a quick gaze before closing his eyes and starting his meditation, he still remembered how difficult he had found sensing Qi and the discomfort he felt when absorbing Qi for the first time. Naturally, he was a little envious of them, but this feeling didn't last long.
This was for two reasons. First, Yun Qiang had long accepted his lack of aptitude in the Qi department, there was no reason to seethe for something he wasn't born with. Second, he knew that his talents lay in the Soul, not in the Qi, and this arguably made him more talented than someone with a good quality root.
Naturally, the second reason played a huge role in accepting his imperfection, but he thought this an improvement from his old self, who envied Nian and Wuji for their talents.
'Wuji'
The thought of his old friend and the false accusation he had made reignited some of the bitterness he had buried deep within him, however he quickly suppressed it, right now he didn't have the luxury to dream about revenge or anything else for that matter. He only needed to focus on his training and become stronger.
After having calmed down, Yun Qiang started circulating his Qi according to the manual instructions before mentally reviewing the next steps.
First, start circulating your Qi at a constant speed.
Yun Qiang did that without difficulties. Qi circulation was the basic of cultivation, and most cultivation methods already required circulating Qi at a constant speed when meditating after attaining the Qi gathering realm.
Second, choose a part of your body and focus on it. Slow down your Qi in that part.
Yun Qiang chose his hand as the manual suggested as a starting point and started slowing down his Qi. This caused him some discomfort, as he felt like his hand had become slower than other parts of his body, as if hand movements had some sort of delay.
Third, start emitting your Qi at the same speed as the rest of your body.
Yun Qiang did that, while feeling increasingly uncomfortable, if before it felt like his hand was delayed, now he felt like his hand had become a leaky barrel that was slowly sapping his Qi away. He passed directly to the fourth step, not wanting to waste all of his Qi on this step.
Fourth, slowly bring up your circulation speed in the body part you choose, while slowing down your emission speed until you reach a low enough speed.
At this point, beads of sweat started forming on Yun Qiang's forehead as he coordinated his hand circulation and emission speed.
Everything was going well, until his emission speed, which was slowly going down, met his circulation speed that was speeding up. At that point, a strange sizzling sound came from within his hand, causing him to lose concentration and open his eyes.
Once he opened his eyes, he could see a small mass of Qi had formed close to his hand, however, the moment he lost concentration, this mass was unable to persist and dissolved in the air.
A surprised expression formed on his face before quickly going back to one of determination, without saying a word, he restarted the entire process.
A few hours later...
Yun Qiang opened his eyes, letting out a long, fatigued breath. During this time training, he had managed to complete the fourth step a couple of times, however his success rate was still low, so he decided to stop and train more on the fourth step before trying the others.
"Sir?"
Lee's voice reached his ear, it sounded hesitant but calm.
"Oh." Yun Qiang looked at Lee, he hadn't noticed his presence while he was engrossed in his training. He got up.
"Sorry, it's my turn to stand on guard, right?"
"Don't worry, I didn't wait long."
There was an awkward pause between the two, it was clear that Lee wanted to say something else but didn't speak.
"..." Yun Qiang looked at his subordinates. They were still meditating in peace, all of them were clearly working hard to become cultivators.
"Is there something else?"
Lee hesitated again for a second before speaking.
"Are you going to start a school?" there was a hint of nostalgia in his tone.
"No. I'm not cut out for it, you can try it if you want though."
A bitter and nostalgic expression formed on Lee's lips. He shook his head.
"I'm not strong enough, but one day I will..."
"Then I wish you good luck, maybe you can invite me when you do."
After saying this, Yun Qiang moved towards his post at the edge of the bog.
He didn't ask Lee why he was so set on building a school; every cultivator of the Border Guard had his own problems and stories.
Besides, whatever Lee's tragic background was, Yun Qiang couldn't do anything about it. The people that could force you to join the Border guard were either well connected or powerful, he doubted a Foundation realm could deal with them.
Still, as he stood guard, he couldn't help but gaze at his new "students" and Lee's training. Even if they were in a dirty bog filled with mosquitoes, seeing them so immersed in cultivation gave him a sense of accomplishment that he hadn't found elsewhere.
"Who knows, maybe one day I will..."
He let out a few mumbled words before scanning his surroundings in search of any threats. No matter how accomplished he could feel, the place where he was didn't change. In the end, they were still in a bog at the edge of the Rose Kingdom.