Path of the Physical Body

Inside Evergreen Courtyard.

He Jianlan sat with dignified poise in that polished Golden Phoebe grandmaster chair. As she listened to the young household servant before her make his trembling report, something stirred faintly in her heart.

She had long heard that child was precocious, terribly clever, only it was a pity he had no martial talent, wasting all that cleverness for nothing.

Thinking of that family letter from the frontier, He Jianlan sighed inwardly and said lightly, "Xue Jian, go keep an eye on that child. As long as he doesn't tear up the books, it's fine."

"Yes."

Beside her, a fair-skinned woman with almond eyes and red lips answered softly.

Evergreen Courtyard's instructions were relayed outside Listening Rain Pavilion. Li Hao looked at the little girl who had come to supervise him and was somewhat surprised, but he did not mind. After all, he was too young; it was only normal that First Madam did not feel at ease letting him enter the pavilion alone.

They were both household servants, but Uncle Zhao's status was clearly lower than this little girl called Xue Jian, and he was stopped by her outside the pavilion.

Inside the ancient pavilion, the light was a little dim, and a layer of dust had gathered on the floor.

Rows upon rows of bookshelves stood inside the pavilion, tall and massive. Li Hao walked as he looked around. There were wooden plaques on the sides of these shelves, dividing them by category.

There were sword arts, saber arts, spear arts, and also categories for weapons, poisons, and so on.

The various books were numerous and tangled, almost everything one could want.

Li Hao could not help sighing in admiration.

This little pavilion had practically stuffed half the jianghu inside it.

Before long, Li Hao found the manuals of the body-refining type. The shelves were densely packed with all kinds of hard body-refining techniques.

"Vajra Art," "Divine Turtle Nine Transformations," "Seven Stars Seal," and so on.

Li Hao casually took down a manual called "Stone Skin Hundred Refinements" and leaned against the bookshelf to read it.

The pavilion was extremely quiet, with only two breaths, one large and one small.

Xue Jian followed silently behind Li Hao like a shadow, her conduct proper, her bearing even more outstanding than that of an ordinary noble family's young lady. She looked at this little young master who had drawn countless gazes since birth, a trace of curiosity showing in her eyes.

He did indeed look very precocious. It seemed he could even read.

And he was looking so seriously. Could he really understand it?

Time flowed by.

Li Hao read the opening section of the manual over and over, comprehending it word by word. After who knew how long, information that delighted him finally appeared before his eyes:

"Learned the surface level. Record it?"

Li Hao directly chose yes.

Very soon, the panel before his eyes leaped out.

Name: Li Hao

Age: 4

Cultivation: Mortal

Sword Dao: Second stage

Skill: Boundless Sea · Tide (Supreme Perfection) [Forbidden]

Path of the Physical Body: Not initiated

Skill: Stone Skin Hundred Refinements (Not initiated) {Forbidden}

Chess Dao: Second stage (18/1000)

Chess manual illustration collection: 0

Art Skill Points: 0

Seeing that the recording had succeeded, Li Hao was pleasantly surprised. His guess had not been wrong. This way, he could officially set foot on cultivation.

But before that, he still needed to accumulate new Art Skill Points.

At this thought, Li Hao immediately grew worried and long-faced again.

Grinding experience alone was fast, but playing against others was much slower.

It had taken three days to accumulate only 18 experience points, and his tool person had already been scared off.

He had to think of a way to find a stable tool person... Li Hao muttered inwardly, stuffed the manual in his hand back onto the shelf, then turned his head and asked the little girl behind him, "Which floor has the best Body Refining Manual?"

Xue Jian was slightly surprised. This child actually understood body refining? Who had taught him?

Could it be that army captain who had done his Foundation Establishment for him?

His meridians were blocked, so he wanted to take the path of pure body refining... A trace of realization flashed through Xue Jian's eyes, and she said softly, "Reporting to little young master, the strongest Body Refining Manuals recorded in Listening Rain Pavilion are on the sixth floor. I will take you there."

"Not on the seventh floor?"

Li Hao felt a little disappointed and said, "The strongest should mean the one and only, right?"

"Because one is complete and can be cultivated, while the other is an incomplete fragment. It can also be practiced, but it cannot be cultivated to the absolute peak," Xue Jian said.

Li Hao was a little surprised. An incomplete fragment could enter the sixth floor? Very soon, under the little girl's guidance, Li Hao was carried by her to the sixth floor.

If he had relied on himself to climb, he would already have begun getting tired by the third floor.

The higher they went, the fewer manuals there were in the pavilion. By the time they reached the sixth floor, only a few short bookshelves were left. At a rough glance, the manuals on them probably added up to only twenty or thirty.

However, Li Hao did not look down on this number. With the Li Family's thousand years of accumulation, if these twenty or thirty books were thrown outside, they would probably all be priceless treasures.

Very soon, Xue Jian brought the two Body Refining Manuals she had mentioned back before Li Hao.

One was "Thousand Dragons Sacred Body."

The other was called "Primordial Beginning."

The covers were somewhat damaged and old. If they were thrown into an ordinary household, they would most likely become junk used to prop up a table leg.

Li Hao took them and began flipping through them one by one.

Just the opening sections of the manuals let him feel an immense gap from what he had read on the first floor earlier.

He... completely could not understand them.

The words written above were incomparably obscure. It was like reading classical Chinese—no, it should be said, oracle-bone script. After finally recognizing a few characters with great difficulty, once they were linked together, he could not understand them at all.

Li Hao's little face scrunched up.

He braced himself and continued reading for a while, but in the end, he still decisively gave up.

It would be very hard for him even to reach the surface level.

"Back then, when I watched that little brat practice the sword, I watched for several days before recording 'Boundless Sea,' and that was while directly watching someone demonstrate it. This is self-study..."

Li Hao shook his head. Better to wait until he had accumulated Art Skill Points, raised his Path of the Physical Body, and then try again.

He had Xue Jian carry him downstairs.

As for the other types of manuals, although Li Hao wanted to learn them, he clearly did not have that much energy for the time being.

Without Art Skill Points, everything was useless. The problem had returned to... his lack of tool people.

After leaving Listening Rain Pavilion, Li Hao said farewell to this little girl who had an excellent grasp of propriety in dealing with people, then returned to Mountains and Rivers Courtyard together with Uncle Zhao.

"Hao Ge."

Seeing Li Hao return, Bian Ruxue immediately ran over. Her little foot tripped, and she nearly fell.

"Don't rush, don't rush," Li Hao hurriedly said.

"Where did Hao Ge go? In the future, take me with you too, okay?" Bian Ruxue's little mouth flattened, and she looked at him pitifully.

Over this past year, the little girl had already become attached to Li Hao. At night, she would even hug her own pillow and burrow into Li Hao's room. Only like this would she obediently go to sleep.

At first, Li Hao had chased her away several times, but several times in the middle of the night, the little girl woke from nightmares and came crying to look for Li Hao. Her tearful, misty-eyed appearance finally made Li Hao unable to harden his heart.

Fortunately, the bed was big, and his own body was also small. One more did not make much difference. The little girl was also fairly well-behaved and not noisy when sleeping, so he let her be.

"You have to be obedient. As long as you stay here, no matter where I go, I'll come back," Li Hao said, patting her little head.

The household servants and maids beside them had long grown used to this scene and were not surprised.

"Pinky promise."

Bian Ruxue stretched out her little hand.

Li Hao was helpless and coaxed her by hooking pinkies with her.

"No changing it. You said it. Whoever changes is a puppy," Bian Ruxue said, pursing her lips slightly.

"Fine, fine, fine." Li Hao was helpless.

In the days that followed, Li Hao resolved to display his talent in chess and began tyrannically demanding that these household servants and maids accompany him in playing chess.

Whoever refused would have Uncle Zhao reward them with three heavy paddles.

After three paddles, although it would not go so far as splitting skin and bursting flesh, it was enough to make their buttocks not dare touch a chair for half a day.

Under the little young master's despotic might, these maids and household servants could only take turns coming to the table to play with him.

As time passed day by day.

Two scenes appeared in the courtyard. On one side were one adult and one child, Lin Haixia teaching Bian Ruxue simple swordsmanship, fists, and kicks.

This did not count as formal cultivation. It was only practicing forms and becoming familiar with martial sensation.

The process would occasionally be somewhat painful, but the little girl's temperament was rather stubborn, and she had never cried over this kind of thing.

On the other side, however, it was bustling like fire and heat.

A group of household servants gathered inside the pavilion. Li Hao played against one of them, while the people beside them were ordered by him to study from the side.

Among these household servants, some knew nothing at all about playing chess, while others had learned a little from who knew where. Li Hao discovered that when he played chess with those who had chess skill, if he won, the experience he gained was not 1 point, but 2 points, and occasionally even 3 points! On the other hand, against those fellows who did not understand, even if he won, it was only 1 experience point.

If the opponent accidentally placed a piece illegally, the entire game would even be invalidated.

Thus, gradually, these household servants no longer needed to rotate shifts. Li Hao found the two with the best chess skills among them, and they accompanied him every day to grind experience.

In the blink of an eye, Li Hao was five years old.