"There's just one thing I should report to Elder Qiu first. I'm not from Pingling County. I was separated from my parents when I was young, and followed a refugee caravan all the way here... If I'm to be registered with the County Office, there's the matter of my household registration..."
Jiang Shu lowered his head. This was still a difficult matter for him.
But for Elder Qiu, it was probably no more than a few words.
Household registration was extremely important.
With a household registration, he could study in the Inner City and raise his proficiency in the Great Jing Dynasty's written and spoken language to mastery as soon as possible.
In the future, he could also leave Pingling County.
And head for a larger commandery city.
Or even a provincial capital.
The Great Jing Dynasty kept an extremely strict hold on household registrations.
Even within a single county, anyone who wanted to settle in the county seat needed to have a household registration.
That went without saying for larger commandery cities and provincial capitals.
"A small matter. Don't worry about it."
Not caring about such a trivial matter at all, Qiu Hai waved a hand and rose from the bed. He circled Jiang Shu once, then said slowly, "If I remember right, you've only been training at my Hungry Tiger Martial Arts School for three months, lad."
"Exactly three months."
Jiang Shu lifted his head and met Elder Qiu's gaze without flinching.
With enough resources for training, many of the school's apprentices still needed more than a full year to reach Full Body Vital Energy Circulation.
As for him, it had taken just three months from joining the Hungry Tiger Martial Arts School to reaching mastery.
Mastery in all three methods, at that.
What had he relied on?
His outstanding talent, of course!
He had understood this from the very beginning: the four essentials of cultivation were method, wealth, companions, and place.
Method came first.
In this world, method was the true ladder to advancement.
And if he wanted to obtain a method, he had to fight for it. He had to be a genius.
That was true in Pingling County.
And it was just as true on Mystic Star.
"Mm. Do you know why I only accept someone as a formal disciple once they've mastered the Tiger Form Three Styles as well?"
"I don't."
Jiang Shu stood obediently, ears pricked as he listened to Elder Qiu's instruction.
"Because the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance, the Hungry Tiger Breathing Method, and the Tiger Form Three Styles were all split off from the school's core technique, Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength. Mastery of all three is the bare minimum for cultivating that technique."
"Among beasts, the leopard trains strength, while the tiger trains bone. Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength takes the tiger's form and intent, carries its killing aura, and tempers the sinews and bones."
Outside, a fine rain fell in a steady drift.
Qiu Hai stood hunched before Jiang Shu. Centering himself on the great spine in his back, he stirred his limbs and bones. His movements were slow, and as he spoke, a deep voice rumbled from his bones like thunder in the mountains.
Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound!
"The Great Jing has countless martial arts. Among the Inner Strength techniques, Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength truly ranks among the top hundred. Just reaching minor mastery is enough to step into the Bone Forging Realm and temper the bones and sinews of your whole body. If you ever bring it to perfection, you can become like me: your body taking on the shape of a tiger, your bones and sinews resounding as one."
"Of course, that's still a long way off for you. I'm demonstrating it now so you'll understand that the martial path is as broad as heaven and earth. Mastery of three methods doesn't even count as an entry-level foundation. Don't think that because you have some talent, you can look down on everything and assume martial training is easy. Can you read?"
"I can."
"If you'd come a few months later, I would have told you to first train the three methods to perfection, cultivate Inner Strength, and only then learn Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength. The three methods came from the same source; training them separately lowers the difficulty of getting started. But your talent is decent, so I'll teach you the Skin Tempering chapter first and help you get started sooner."
"Don't copy it down or pass it on. Read it here. You can leave once you've memorized it."
He pulled a blue-covered book of several hundred pages from beneath his pillow and tossed it to Jiang Shu. Pointing to the table and chair nearby, Qiu Hai clasped his hands behind his back and walked out of the room.
Jiang Shu sat up straight and opened the book.
The very first page showed a diagram of the human meridians. Beneath it, tiny writing clearly noted where Inner Strength began to circulate and where it ended.
He cleared his mind and focused, examining every detail in the diagram.
Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye.
The patter of rain rang clear in Jiang Shu's ears. He murmured, "I wonder if the panel isn't smart enough, or if my talent for martial arts just isn't good enough."
The Skin Tempering chapter of Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength wasn't very long. But the meridians were entirely outside his field of knowledge, and it took him quite a while to memorize everything. Even so, the panel still hadn't recorded the technique, leaving him somewhat disappointed.
"So it's not the way I guessed. It's not that I can get a technique recorded on the panel just by obtaining it and memorizing it. The panel seems more like a talent that rewards hard work. Only after I've truly begun can I work at it and reap the rewards."
"I'll give it three to five days. First, I'll see if I can comprehend Inner Strength on my own. If I can't, I'll train the three methods to perfection like a good student, cultivate Inner Strength, and then learn Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength. It'll be a little more trouble either way. But with the panel, this is actually the safest approach."
Jiang Shu closed the blue-covered book and stood up. Stepping away from the table and chair, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The meridian diagram appeared again in his mind.
Not hurrying to leave, he stood like a tiger and breathed like one, trying first to circulate his qi and blood according to the Inner Strength method.
In the courtyard.
The moment Jiang Shu entered Elder Qiu's room had long since caught the eyes of a dozen or so apprentices.
But they only discussed it among themselves in private. None dared ask the maid what was going on.
Once Elder Qiu came out of the room, the apprentices were even more careful not to let their eyes wander. Some traded punches and grapples, while others practiced their stances and breathing, hoping to make a good impression on Elder Qiu.
They hoped to become formal disciples soon.
At the very least, they wanted to be rewarded with a couple of doses of Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine.
Only Luo Yongcheng's heart was in turmoil. He practiced his stance and breathing, but kept glancing toward Elder Qiu's room.
Why hadn't Jiang Shu come out yet?
If he had something to report, shouldn't he have come out with Elder Qiu?
If he was still inside, could it mean he'd already become a formal disciple?
When they had sparred, hadn't he been at the same realm as Luo Yongcheng? How had he broken through to Full Body Vital Energy Circulation after just a few days?
While Luo Yongcheng's mind raced with wild guesses, Jiang Shu walked out of the room and murmured a few words to Elder Qiu. Elder Qiu nodded repeatedly, then said, "Since you've officially become my disciple, you can call me Master Qiu from now on."
Beneath the eaves, Qiu Hai rose from his reclining chair and looked at the apprentices below. "Jiang Shu has been accepted as my formal disciple."
"Three days from now, I'll hold a discipleship ceremony at the Hungry Tiger Martial Arts School. You lot, notify the other apprentices and make sure every one of them attends."
Though he had already suspected as much,
Elder Qiu's solemn announcement struck Luo Yongcheng in the chest like a giant hammer.
A hundred tangled thoughts surged through his mind.
If he hadn't fallen out with Jiang Shu, then now that Jiang Shu was a formal disciple, he might not have been able to bring his family's medicine shop back from the dead, but at the very least, he could have bought them some breathing room.
And given how they'd gotten along back then, now that Jiang Shu was a formal disciple, it shouldn't have been difficult to buy some Hungry Tiger Secret Medicine from him.
How had things turned out like this?
Luo Yongcheng stood frozen in place.
The rain over Pingling County fell harder still.
He watched Jiang Shu respectfully see Elder Qiu back to his room.
He watched as Jiang Shu came out again and quietly practiced his stance and breathing.
They stood no more than ten paces apart.
Yet it was as if a thousand miles lay between them.
The Outer City.
The struggle for territory between the Green Snake Gang and the Black Water Gang had grown ever more severe.
By now, roughly half the refugees and commoners in Coiling Snake Alley had moved away.
Most had fled to alleys controlled by other gangs. Though they had to pay a few more copper coins at first, at least they were safer. They no longer had to fear running into members of the Black Water Gang every time they stepped outside and getting a beating, as they had over the past two months.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Back in Coiling Snake Alley,
Jiang Shu saw a light still shining through the window of Old Man Li's home. He didn't hurry back to his own place, but knocked on the door first.
He had been in Pingling County for six months.
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