After breakfast and some more pleasantries, Li Chu personally drove Gongsun Zhe and his daughter to town.
On the way, they passed a broad open space where a large crowd had gathered, making quite a commotion. From their shouts, it seemed they had discovered the corpse of an Eldest Spider, so enormous it was terrifying.
Some said the Spider Demon had failed its tribulation, while others immediately said those were clearly sword wounds, and that some immortal must have slain it.
Li Chu did not stop. He even flicked his whip and sped past.
The Gongsun Father and Daughter were both clever people. From what they heard in passing, they roughly understood what had happened and guessed that the Eight-Armed Asura Li Chu had killed the previous night had revealed its Original Form.
Gongsun Zhe then asked, "Young Daoist, why not get down and explain that it was a demon you slew? Would that not raise the prestige of your Virtuous Cloud Temple?"
"My master has always taught me that one should vanquish demons and defend the Great Dao, not seek empty fame," Li Chu said.
Gongsun Zhe froze for a moment, then sincerely cupped his hands. "Master and disciple alike are truly remarkable people."
Li Chu rubbed his nose.
The reason he did not explain himself was, first, because he did not care much for fame, and second, because...
There had originally been a pavilion there.
In his urgency yesterday, he had hit a little too hard. Half River Pavilion had been built with money pooled by the local villagers. If they made him pay for it, the loss would outweigh the gain.
The carriage soon stopped before the county government office.
The three got down and said their farewells.
"Young Daoist Li, I will never forget your grace in saving our lives," Gongsun Zhe said, bowing deeply.
"It was merely the duty of one who cultivates. Mr. Gongsun need not take it to heart," Li Chu said lightly.
Gongsun Rou fixed her beautiful eyes on Li Chu, pressed her lips together, and said, "Young Daoist Li, thank you for helping us."
Only the father and daughter knew that what might have been no more than a lift of the hand to Li Chu had been an escape from certain death for the two of them.
Li Chu smiled faintly, then took his leave.
Gongsun Rou watched his retreating back for a long time without moving.
Her old father turned around, saw the look on his daughter's face, and waved a hand before her eyes. "All right, he's already gone far away. There are so many talented scholars, noble young lords, and wandering young heroes in Zhao Ge City, yet I've never seen you look at anyone like that."
Embarrassed by his words, Gongsun Rou lowered her head, then shook it. "None of them compare to him."
Gongsun Zhe gave a teasing smile. "Compare to him in what way?"
Gongsun Rou pressed her lips together again. Only after a long while did she mutter, "They aren't as handsome as he is."
"Oh?" Gongsun Zhe blinked. "I seem to recall my daughter saying that she never judged men by their faces?"
Gongsun Rou's cheeks flushed red, and she ignored him from then on.
There had never been anyone in this world who truly did not care about faces. If there was, it only meant she had yet to encounter a face beautiful enough...
Especially when the owner of that face was also her savior.
Li Chu had not come specifically to see the Gongsun Father and Daughter off. He himself had some business in town.
That morning, he had asked Yu Qi'an in his room whether there was any method for tempering the body.
He would never forget Yu Qi'an just after getting up, sleepy-eyed, with his face unwashed and hair unbound, gurgling out a mouthful of rinse water before raising his head to the heavens and declaring, "The Dao is the source of all things. Techniques are merely branches and leaves of the Great Dao. To abandon the source and seek the branches—Disciple, you have become fixated on appearances."
At that instant, Li Chu seemed to see Yu Qi'an shrouded in an indescribable aura. That presence was so overwhelming that Li Chu, who had asked the question, even felt ashamed.
But...
That did not change the fact that his physical body was still fragile.
He understood that he might never in his life comprehend his master's realm.
Later, Yu Qi'an had told Li Chu to look around the Miscellaneous Bookstore in town. He might find something there.
As its name suggested, the Miscellaneous Bookstore was a bookstore with all manner of miscellaneous books.
The bookstore's decor carried a deeply antique charm. It was open from north to south, well lit, and the fragrance of paper drifted through the air.
Half the books inside were new, while the other half were secondhand books collected by the shopkeeper. Thus, there was a dazzling variety, everything one could possibly want, filling two whole floors.
Li Chu wandered through both floors and gave them a cursory look, but there did not seem to be anything like cultivation manuals.
So he went to the counter.
The shopkeeper of the Miscellaneous Bookstore was an old scholar. Though already in his fifties, he was still studying hard to take the scholar examination, and his eyes could barely see anything anymore.
But though his eyesight was poor, he knew the location of every book in the store like the back of his hand. He could truly find them with his eyes closed.
Li Chu stepped forward and asked, "shopkeeper, do you have any manuals here?"
"What kind of manuals?" the Old Shopkeeper asked blankly.
"The kind concerning the physical body," Li Chu said. "My master said you might have some here."
The Old Shopkeeper immediately revealed a meaningful smile. "Oh—"
He rose and led Li Chu to look for them, saying as they walked, "Like master, like disciple indeed. Who would have thought that a lad with such thick brows and big eyes would also like these..."
Li Chu was completely baffled.
Not until he saw the Old Shopkeeper lead him to a hidden cabinet, open it, and reveal it packed full of Picture Albums did he understand.
Jin Ping Qi Tan, Liao Zhai Feng Yue, White Jade Futon, Guan Ren Wu Yao...
Li Chu looked at those strange titles and fell into thought for a moment.
"Old Shopkeeper, I think you may have misunderstood." He shifted his gaze away. "What I want is a Cultivation Manual, a Body Tempering Manual! I want to temper my body, not look at bodies."
"Cultivation?" The Old Shopkeeper furrowed his brows. "You came from a Daoist Temple to my bookstore seeking cultivation methods? I really don't have those. Ah, but for tempering the body, there seem to be some Martial Arts Manuals. I wonder whether any of them will suit you."
As he spoke, the Old Shopkeeper pondered for a moment, then led him to the other side. In a dusty corner, he rummaged out a cabinet of books, all of them methods for martial cultivation.
Cultivators centered around the Buddhist and Daoist Schools were also called Qi Refiners in ancient times.
To them, martial arts were learned only during the entry stage, when true qi had not yet formed and they needed to protect themselves. Once they cultivated true qi, they would no longer practice martial arts.
What Qi Refiners pursued was divine abilities.
But the threshold for becoming a Qi Refiner was high. One had to possess a spiritual root to cultivate. Those born with spiritual roots were one in ten thousand.
Martial cultivation had no such restrictions. Anyone could train in martial arts to strengthen their body and increase their power.
Thus, in any era, there were more martial cultivators than Qi Refiners. Accordingly, martial arts inheritances were spread more widely among the common folk. Even a bookstore in such a town would have a cabinet full of Martial Arts Manuals.
It was just that manuals so easily obtained could hardly be of particularly high quality.
Perhaps because of spiritual roots, Qi Refiners had always looked down upon Martial Artists.
Even though Mortal Warriors who cultivated to the utmost were no weaker than peak Qi Refiners, and were even stronger in pure combat power.
Even though one of the Twelve Immortal Sects, the Heavenly King Mountain Lineage, cultivated pure martial arts.
Still, they looked down on them anyway.
Therefore, a proper Daoist cultivator would certainly disdain cultivating Martial Arts Manuals.
But Li Chu was not a Daoist cultivator at all. He did not even have a spiritual root, so naturally there was no chain of contempt in his heart.
Thus, he asked, "Sorry to trouble you, shopkeeper. Are there any body tempering methods among these?"
"There are." The Old Shopkeeper bent down and buried himself in searching, stirring up clouds of dust. After a while, he finally shoved a thin, old Yellow Booklet into Li Chu's face.
Eight large characters were written on it.
Learn Iron Cloth in Thirty Days
Before you continue