His rank allowed him to keep such things in the Carefree Marquis Residence, but he had never liked giving anyone leverage over him. He always stored these banned books in his ring.
The Martial Scripture opened with these words: The ultimate aim of martial arts was to strengthen the body and transcend life and death, never to kill or flaunt one's strength. The world was like the Sea of Bitterness, and the body was a raft for crossing it. If the body was strong, it could carry a person safely to the Other Shore.
The Dao Scripture opened this way: The world was like the Sea of Bitterness, and the human body was a raft for crossing it. But the sea was boundless, and every raft would eventually rot. Only by strengthening the Divine Soul could one abandon the raft and swim to the Other Shore by one's own power.
Martial arts focused on cultivating the body. A sturdy body could carry a person safely across the Sea of Bitterness.
Immortal arts held that the Sea of Bitterness was boundless and the vessel of flesh would eventually decay. Better to cultivate the Divine Soul directly, like learning to swim. Then even if the vessel was destroyed, the person would not drown.
Martial cultivation had seven stages: training the flesh, tendons, membranes, bones, organs, and marrow, followed by blood renewal.
The Martial Scripture described each of these seven stages in detail.
Training the flesh was the foundation of martial arts. By exercising the entire body, one made every muscle firm and full and sharpened one's reactions enough to withstand an attack by two or three people. The Martial Instruction Hall of the Great Qian army called someone at this stage a martial novice.
Training the tendons gave them powerful elasticity and