The Path of the Physical Body

In the Evergreen Courtyard.

He Jianlan sat with dignified poise in the smoothly polished golden phoebe armchair. As she listened to the young servant's trembling report, something stirred in her heart.

She had long heard that the child was precocious and remarkably clever. Unfortunately, he had no talent for martial arts, leaving all that cleverness to go to waste.

Thinking of the family letter from the frontier, He Jianlan sighed inwardly and said mildly, "Xue Jian, go keep an eye on that child. Just make sure he doesn't tear up the books."

"Yes, Madam."

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

The instructions from the Evergreen Courtyard reached the Listening Rain Pavilion. Li Hao looked at the young woman sent to supervise him with some surprise, but paid it little mind. After all, he was so young that it was perfectly natural for the First Madam to worry about letting him enter alone.

Though both were servants, Uncle Zhao clearly held a lower position than the young woman named Xue Jian, who stopped him outside.

Inside the old pavilion, the light was somewhat dim, and a layer of dust covered the floor.

Rows of tall, imposing bookshelves stood throughout the pavilion. Li Hao examined them as he walked. Wooden plaques on their sides marked their different categories.

There were sword techniques, saber techniques, spear techniques, Weapon Arts, Poison Arts, and more.

The books covered a vast array of subjects, with practically everything one could ask for.

Li Hao could not help marveling.

This little pavilion practically held half the martial world within it.

Before long, Li Hao found the body-refining manuals. The shelves were densely packed with all sorts of body-refining arts.

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

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

The pavilion was utterly quiet, with only the breathing of one adult and one child.

Xue Jian followed silently behind Li Hao like a shadow. Her bearing was impeccable, her grace surpassing even that of daughters from ordinary noble households. As she watched this young master, who had drawn so much attention since birth, a trace of curiosity showed in her eyes.

He really does seem precocious. He even seems to know how to read.

And he's reading so intently. Can he really understand it?

Time passed.

Li Hao read the manual's opening section over and over, working through it word by word. After an unknown stretch of time, a message that filled him with delight finally appeared before his eyes:

"You have learned the rudiments. Record it?"

Li Hao immediately selected yes.

Soon, the panel popped up before his eyes.

[Name: Li Hao]

[Age: 4]

[Cultivation: Mortal]

[Sword Dao: Stage Two]

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

[Path of the Physical Body: Uninitiated]

[Skill: Stone Skin Hundred Refinements (Uninitiated) [Locked]]

[Chess Dao: Stage Two (18/1000)]

[Chess Manual Collection: 0]

[Art Skill Points: 0]

Seeing that it had been successfully recorded, Li Hao felt a surge of delight. His guess had been right. This meant he could officially set out on the path of cultivation.

But before that, he needed to accumulate another Art Skill Point.

At the thought, Li Hao's face fell again.

He could grind experience quickly on his own, but playing against others was much slower.

He had only accumulated eighteen experience points in three days, and his grinding partner had already been scared off.

I need to find a reliable grinding partner... Li Hao grumbled inwardly as he slid the manual back onto the shelf. Then he turned to the young woman behind him and asked, "Which floor has the best Body Refining Manual?"

Xue Jian was slightly surprised. Did this child really understand body refining?

Who taught him?

Could it have been the army officer who established his foundation?

His meridians are blocked, so he wants to pursue pure body refining... A flicker of understanding passed through Xue Jian's eyes. She said softly, "Young master, the strongest Body Refining Manuals in the Listening Rain Pavilion are on the Sixth Floor. I'll take you there."

"Not on the Seventh Floor?"

Li Hao felt a little disappointed. "Shouldn't 'the strongest' mean there's only one?"

"One is complete and can be cultivated. The other is a fragment. It can also be practiced, but it won't take you to the pinnacle," Xue Jian explained.

Li Hao was surprised. Even a fragment qualified for the Sixth Floor?

Soon, with the young woman leading the way, Li Hao reached the Sixth Floor in her arms.

Climbing on his own, he had already started tiring by the third floor.

The higher they went, the fewer manuals there were. By the Sixth Floor, only a few small bookshelves remained. At a rough glance, they held perhaps twenty or thirty manuals in total.

Still, Li Hao did not underestimate that number. These were the fruits of the Li Family's thousand years of accumulation. Outside, every one of those twenty or thirty manuals was probably worth a king's ransom.

Soon, Xue Jian brought the two Body Refining Manuals she had mentioned to Li Hao.

One was "Thousand Dragons Sacred Body."

The other was called "Primordial Beginning."

Both covers were worn and damaged. In an ordinary household, they would probably have been treated as scraps fit only to prop up a table leg.

Li Hao took them and began looking through them one at a time.

Their opening sections alone made him feel the enormous gulf between them and the manual he had read on the first floor.

I... can't understand any of this.

The wording was incredibly obscure, like reading classical Chinese-no, more like oracle-bone inscriptions. He could barely recognize a few characters, but strung together, they became utterly incomprehensible.

Li Hao's little face scrunched up.

He forced himself to keep reading for a while, then decisively gave up.

Even learning the rudiments would be difficult for him.

Back when I watched that little brat practice his sword, it took several days before I could record Boundless Sea. And that was watching someone demonstrate it. This is self-study...

Li Hao shook his head. He would wait until he had accumulated an Art Skill Point and raised his Path of the Physical Body before trying again.

He had Xue Jian carry him downstairs.

Though Li Hao wanted to learn manuals from the other categories too, he clearly did not have that much energy to spare for now.

Without Art Skill Points, everything was in vain. The problem came back to... his lack of grinding partners.

Leaving the Listening Rain Pavilion, Li Hao said goodbye to the young woman, whose manner struck just the right balance of warmth and propriety, then returned to the Mountains and Rivers Courtyard with Uncle Zhao.

"Brother Hao."

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

"Slow down, slow down," Li Hao said hurriedly.

"Where did you go, Brother Hao? Can you take me with you next time?" Bian Ruxue pouted, gazing at him pleadingly.

Over the past year, the little girl had grown attached to Li Hao. At night, she would even carry her pillow into his room, only willingly settling down to sleep there.

At first, Li Hao had sent her away several times. But on several nights, she had woken with a start and come running to him in tears. The sight of her tear-filled eyes finally softened his heart.

Fortunately, the bed was big and his body was small, so one more hardly made a difference. The little girl also slept quietly without causing trouble, so he let her be.

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

The servants and maids nearby were long accustomed to this scene and showed no surprise.

"Pinky promise."

Bian Ruxue held out her little hand.

Helpless, Li Hao humored her and hooked his pinky around hers.

"No changing your mind. You said it. Whoever breaks the promise is a puppy," Bian Ruxue said with a slight pout.

"All right, all right," Li Hao said helplessly.

In the days that followed, Li Hao resolved to display his talent for the Chess Dao and began imperiously demanding that the servants and maids play chess with him.

Anyone who refused would receive three hard strokes of the paddle from Uncle Zhao.

Three strokes would not quite split their skin and flesh, but were enough to keep their backsides from daring to touch a chair for half a day.

Under the young master's tyranny, the maids and servants could only take turns sitting at the table to play with him.

As the days passed, one after another.

Two contrasting scenes emerged in the courtyard. On one side, an adult and a child stood together as Lin Haixia taught Bian Ruxue simple sword techniques and hand-to-hand moves.

This was not formal cultivation, merely practicing stances and developing a feel for martial arts.

The process could occasionally be painful, but the little girl was quite stubborn and never cried over such things.

On the other side, things were bustling with excitement.

A group of servants crowded into the pavilion. Li Hao played against one of them, while the others had been ordered to watch and learn.

Some of these servants knew nothing about chess, while others had picked up a little somewhere. Li Hao discovered that when he beat someone who had some skill, he gained not one experience point, but two, and occasionally even three!

Conversely, even beating someone who knew nothing only earned him one experience point.

If his opponent accidentally made an illegal move, the entire game would be invalidated.

Thus, the servants gradually stopped taking turns. Li Hao picked out the two best players among them and had them help him grind experience every day.

In the blink of an eye, Li Hao turned five.

(End of chapter)