The next day, the ten newly admitted children of the Yun Family began their new lives within the Estate.
Every day, at the beginning of Chen Shi, they would wake up, and a quarter of an hour later, they would eat breakfast.
Starting mid-Chen Shi, they would have two hours of study, which was a great blessing for Yun Sheng, and he cherished it immensely.
After lunch, mid-Wei Shi, they would begin their afternoon studies, which lasted an hour and a half.
At the beginning of You Shi, they would eat dinner, and after dinner, they had over half an hour of free play time.
At the end of You Shi, they would go to bed.
This schedule continued for more than half a year.
Yun Sheng and the others truly enjoyed several months of good living.
With meat every day and only needing to listen carefully to the teacher, their previously skinny bodies began to fill out.
However, after August, their studies began to change.
The morning study content remained the same, but the afternoons were different.
The ten children were separated, no longer receiving concentrated lessons, but instead, in groups of two or three, they followed a new teacher.
Yun Sheng and Yun Hua followed one teacher to study a manual of the Golden Jade Art.
The manual was very thin, less than ten pages, with no more than two hundred characters in total.
The teacher led the two in reading it once, then had them read along.
Yun Sheng noticed that the teacher's full reading was very peculiar.
Sometimes he would pause for two or three characters, and sometimes for just one character.
Moreover, the tone and intonation of his recitation were different for each character.
Yun Sheng recognized each individual character, but when put together, he didn't know what they meant, especially with such a strange way of reading them.
However, Yun Sheng dared not ask any questions, as he didn't want to lose the good life he currently enjoyed.
So, he followed the teacher in recitation.
It took a full five days for the two of them to be able to read it smoothly from beginning to end.
After reading, the teacher began to explain the meaning of each character and their combined meaning, to deepen their understanding.
He also had the two silently read it in their minds and taught them to sit cross-legged and silently recite it in their hearts.
Thus, Yun Sheng's studies gained another component, and when reciting the Golden Jade Art, he and Yun Hua both had to sit cross-legged in the small room to study.
By the time class ended, their legs were so numb they could barely stand, and it took a long time to recover.
When they asked the others, they found they were in the same situation, which made them feel a bit more balanced.
Another half year passed, and the daily reading, writing, and literacy lessons were canceled, with the entire day dedicated to studying the thin manual of the Golden Jade Art.
Furthermore, the teacher conveyed a message: only by cultivating a sense of Qi within their bodies would this lesson be considered passing.
As for what a sense of Qi was, the teacher did not explain.
However, he reminded them that if during the recitation process, a warm sensation rose from their lower abdomen and then floated out of their body through their forehead, it indicated the production of Qi.
After that, they could go to Yun Hanqing for examination.
This was because the Yun Family Master had explained very clearly when they began this new lesson.
If they could not Cultivate a sense of Qi before the age of twenty, they would be expelled from the Yun Family Estate and assigned to menial tasks, like servants such as Yun Xiang.
Upon hearing this, Yun Sheng secretly encouraged himself to Cultivate a sense of Qi as soon as possible to remain in the Yun Family Estate; he liked his current life too much.
Lying on his bed, Yun Sheng silently recited the Golden Jade Art for the third time, and Yun Hua, on the opposite bed, was doing the same.
Both were secretly competing.
Suddenly, a warm current rose from his lower abdomen, then surged towards his head, and subsequently floated out from the top of his head.
The entire process took no more than three breaths, just as Yun Sheng was savoring the feeling.
A cool sensation flowed into his body from his glabella, but upon closer inspection, this coolness disappeared.
Yun Sheng clenched his fist, resisting the urge to show off to Yun Hua, and decided to go to Yun Hanqing for examination first thing in the morning.
Early the next morning, after breakfast, Yun Sheng went straight to the Yun Family Master's study.
"Yun Family Master, I have cultivated a sense of Qi!" Yun Sheng announced the good news as soon as he entered.
"Really!" Yun Hanqing was also a bit stunned; it had only been about half a year since they started studying the manual, and this one had already cultivated a sense of Qi.
"Come here, let me examine you."
Yun Hanqing gestured for Yun Sheng to sit in the chair in front of the desk, and extended his right hand.
Yun Hanqing also extended his right hand and placed it over Yun Sheng's small hand.
A cool sensation penetrated from his palm, similar to the coolness that entered from his glabella last night.
The coolness quickly entered his body, circulated once, and then lingered in his lower abdomen for a long time.
After about half a cup of tea, Yun Hanqing withdrew his hand, and the coolness disappeared.
"Very good, you have cultivated a sense of Qi; I can now take you to another place."
Yun Hanqing said solemnly.
Yun Sheng was a bit confused, changing places again, but as long as it was within the Yun Family, it was fine.
So he gestured for Yun Sheng to go to the dormitory to get his clothes, and then meet at the main gate outside the Estate.
He quickly ran back to the room, stuffed his clothes into a bundle, and then ran towards the main gate.
Upon arriving at the main gate, it was Yun Hanqing himself driving the carriage, which surprised Yun Sheng a little.
"Come on up! Do I have to carry you in?" Yun Hanqing teased.
Yun Sheng quickly ran over, grabbed a wooden bar on the carriage with one hand, and then swiftly climbed up.
Yun Hanqing still reached out his left hand, grabbed Yun Sheng's clothes, and pulled him into the carriage.
Afterward, he drove the carriage forward along the main road.
"Yun Family Master, where are we going?" Yun Sheng leaned towards the front of the carriage and asked.
"To a place you should go." Yun Hanqing did not reveal the destination.
Several hours later, the carriage arrived in front of an archway.
The stone archway was about five zhang high, with the characters for Yun Family carved in the center.
Behind the archway, it was shrouded in mist.
After parking the carriage, Yun Hanqing came to the archway, took out a jade box from his chest, and then took out a piece of yellow paper, four fingers wide and six inches long, from the jade box.
Yun Hanqing quickly wrote on the yellow paper with his finger; after dozens of breaths, the yellow paper flew into the mist ahead.
After that, the two waited in front of the archway.
About half an hour later, a young man in his twenties walked out of the mist.
"Greetings, Senior Brother Yun Fan." Yun Hanqing clasped his fists and greeted first.
"Greetings, Yun Family Master. Is this the newly advanced Junior Brother?" The young man also clasped his fists, then turned his gaze to Yun Sheng.
"Indeed, this child had a Breakthrough last night, and I carefully tested him again this morning; he has indeed entered the first level," Yun Hanqing quickly said.
"Alright, I will take him into the mountains," Yun Fan said.
Then he extended his right hand, and Yun Sheng quickly stepped across the archway, extending his left hand to grasp the other's right hand.
Yun Fan turned and walked into the mist.
Yun Hanqing waited until the two disappeared into the mist before driving the carriage back to the Yun Family Estate.
However, on the way back, his expression was somewhat dejected.
Yun Fan led Yun Sheng into the mist; once inside, the mist automatically parted by a zhang, revealing the bluestone slabs on the ground.
Just as Yun Sheng wanted to experience the mist, a cool sensation came from his palm again, which he had already gotten used to.
It also circulated once inside his body, but this time it lingered longer than when the Yun Family Master had examined him.
The cool sensation only disappeared when the two walked out of the mist.
Before them was a plaza several tens of zhang in size, and opposite it was a two-story tall main hall, also with a plaque hanging, bearing the characters for Yun Family.
Upon arriving at the main hall, there were two rows of wooden chairs inside, and in the center, against the wall, was an offering table, behind which was a life-sized portrait.
Yun Fan led Yun Sheng to stand in the hall and wait; soon after, footsteps were heard from outside the hall.