Chen Jianghe pushed open the peeling wooden door.
The courtyard wasn't very large. Blue bricks paved the ground, and black-green moss had gathered in the cracks. A few pairs of stone-lock weights and wooden training dummies lay scattered in the corners, their paint mottled and peeling, clearly showing their age. Several men dressed in coarse, faded short jackets were practicing their forms in silence.
A young disciple was squatting by the entrance. He glanced up at Chen Jianghe. "Who are you looking for?"
"I'm Chen Jianghe. I've come to become a disciple and learn martial arts." Chen Jianghe clasped his hands in greeting.
The disciple excitedly called into the house, "Senior Brother He! Someone's here to become a disciple!"
Someone answered from inside. Before long, a lean man in his thirties came out. He wore a faded gray cloth jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing two sinewy forearms. His face was square and regular, but utterly expressionless.
He looked Chen Jianghe up and down a few times, his voice flat. "Follow me."
Chen Jianghe followed him through the front courtyard.
The back courtyard looked even more rundown than the front. Broken earthenware jars were piled in a corner, and a bamboo recliner sat beneath an old locust tree.
A gaunt old man in his fifties was reclining in the chair, sipping liquor with a plate of salted edamame beside him. His other hand cracked sunflower seeds now and then.
"Master, someone's here to become a disciple." He Shouzhuo stopped, his voice as flat as ever.
Li Chengyue, the master of the Xingyi Martial Arts Hall, didn't even lift his eyelids. He merely grunted "Mm" from his throat and spat out two sunflower-seed shells. "Where are you from? How old are you?"
"I'm from Loach Bay. I'm seventeen this year," Chen Jianghe replied respectfully.
Li Chengyue finally raised his eyelids and casually swept his gaze over Chen Jianghe's face. "A fisherman?"
"Yes. My father went missing while serving in a corvée labor detail years ago. My mother and I now depend on each other."
Li Chengyue slowly sat up, set his wine bowl on the stool beside him, and beckoned to Chen Jianghe. "Come here."
Chen Jianghe stepped forward twice.
Li Chengyue extended his withered hand and squeezed Chen Jianghe's shoulder blades, arms, waist, and hips.
His fingers were tremendously strong, squeezing until Chen Jianghe's joints crackled. Chen Jianghe gritted his teeth and endured it without a sound.
Li Chengyue withdrew his hand and lay back down. His tone was languid. "Your aptitude is neither good nor bad—somewhere below average. But you're a little old. Starting at your age will be hard!"
Chen Jianghe felt anxious at those words, afraid he would lose this chance to change his fate.
He hurriedly said, "This disciple can endure hardship! I'll study and train diligently, and I won't slack off!"
Li Chengyue raised his eyelids and looked at him again, speaking slowly. "Why the rush? Have I finished talking?"
Li Chengyue slowly lifted his wine bowl and took a sip, smacking his lips. "Aptitude is given by Heaven. It can't be changed. But in this world, those willing to work themselves to the bone go farther than the talented who grow lazy. Since you say you can endure hardship..."
He extended a hand toward Chen Jianghe, palm facing up, and curled his fingers. "Ten taels of silver for one year's tuition. Pay up, and you can train. Whether you turn out to be a dragon or a worm depends on your own fortune."
At those words, the great weight lifted from Chen Jianghe's heart. He hurriedly pulled out the silver ingot he had prepared and presented it to Li Chengyue with both hands, respectfully.
Only then did Li Chengyue give the silver a proper look. He took it, weighed it in his palm, and casually tossed it to He Shouzhuo beside him. "Enter it in the accounts."
Then he lifted his wine bowl again, took a sip, and jerked his chin toward the other side. "Derong! Stop hiding over there and watching the fun. Get out here! Show the new guy around and explain the rules."
"Coming, Master!"
The one who answered was a young man in his early twenties, dressed in a black, narrow-sleeved satin robe. He sauntered in at an easy pace.
He still had a folding fan in his hand. With a snap, he closed it and approached with a beaming smile.
First, he clasped his hands toward Li Chengyue. Then he turned to Chen Jianghe, looked him up and down, and lightly tapped his shoulder with the fan, smiling. "I'm Su Derong, third in line. From now on, just call me Third Senior Brother."
Su Derong led Chen Jianghe around the front courtyard at an unhurried pace, opening his folding fan to wave it a few times, then closing it to point things out.
"See this? This is where we practice our forms. That's the equipment room. There are stone-lock weights, staffs, sabers, and spears inside. They're a little old, but still usable."
He pointed to a low building on the west side. "That's the kitchen. We eat twice a day: breakfast at the start of the Chen hour, and dinner at the start of the You hour. The food's just simple fare like this. There's enough to fill you up, but don't expect anything rich. If you want something good, buy it outside yourself."
He pointed his fan toward a row of large dormitory rooms in the north. "Those are the disciples' quarters. Inside, there are communal sleeping platforms. New arrivals usually sleep near the door or window. In summer, the mosquitoes will eat you alive; in winter, you'll drink the wind. You'll get used to it."
Finally, he turned toward a cluttered shed in the corner. "Come on. Let's get you a set of training clothes."
Su Derong went to the storage room and took out a coarse-cloth jacket, patched together from old fabric like the ones worn by the men Chen Jianghe had seen when he first entered. He casually tossed it to Chen Jianghe.
"Catch. This is your set. It was left behind by some senior brother. If it doesn't fit, make do. If it tears, mend it yourself."
Chen Jianghe caught the clothes and silently nodded.
"All right, follow me. Now I'll teach you the basics of Xingyi Fist!"
Hearing that he was about to be taught martial arts, Chen Jianghe's heart warmed, and he said, "Thank you, Third Senior Brother!"
Chen Jianghe was also full of curiosity about the Xingyi Fist of this world. Was it like the saying from his previous life: "Practice Tai Chi for ten years and you still won't leave home; practice Xingyi for one year and you'll kill a man"?
He hoped he could rely on Xingyi Fist to establish himself in this chaotic world.
Su Derong led Chen Jianghe back into the courtyard and stopped in front of a wooden training dummy. Turning around, he leaned against it and folded his arms. "There aren't many of us here. Including you, we've got only a dozen or so disciples right now. We don't have many rules. Master can't be bothered to set too many restrictions, but before you start learning martial arts, I need to go over a few things with you."
Chen Jianghe respectfully clasped his hands. "Please enlighten me, Senior Brother."
Su Derong nodded and held up four fingers, lowering them one at a time.
"First, Master is the boss. Whether he's right or wrong, don't talk back. Just listen."
"Second, before you graduate, don't go around telling people you practice Xingyi Fist, and don't cause trouble. It's disgraceful."
"Third, disciples from the same school aren't allowed to fight among themselves. If you fight in private, it doesn't matter who's in the right—you'll both be kicked out."
"Fourth, and most important—"
Su Derong leaned closer and lowered his voice. "When Master is drinking, never bother him. If he's in a good mood from drinking, he might teach you a couple of moves. If you annoy him, getting beaten is the least of your worries."
Chen Jianghe's mouth twitched. "Thank you for the advice, Senior Brother."
Su Derong lowered his fan and turned serious. "Now that you've joined us, I'll first explain the foundations of our Xingyi Fist. Xingyi Fist is also called Mind-Intention Six-Harmony Fist. It focuses on hard, direct attacks: better to think of advancing than to pause for a single thought. It's a true killing art, not the flowery routines used by those 'stage-gate' schools outside that only know how to perform."
He patted a wooden dummy and continued, "Since you're new here, your first hurdle isn't learning a fist technique. It's 'changing your strength.'"
"Changing my strength?"
Su Derong held out his hand and slowly curled it into a fist. "That's right! Ordinary people generate power by tensing their muscles. But muscle strength is limited and tires easily. We martial artists train the power of the sinews and bones."
Suddenly, he punched the wooden dummy.
"Thump!"
"See? That wasn't a hard blow from the muscles. It was the sinews and bones opening up, the power rising from the ground, flowing through the whole body, then bursting out through the fist." Su Derong pulled his hand back. "Your first lesson is to change your habit of using your muscles to exert force into using your sinews and bones."
He walked to the open space in the center of the courtyard and stood in a half-squat. He stepped his left foot forward, extended his left hand to chest height, held his right hand against his navel, fixed his gaze on his left fingertips, and shifted his weight onto his right leg. He struck a stance that looked simple, yet was exceedingly awkward.
"This is the Three-Body Stance. It's a way to practice changing your strength, and the source of all Xingyi Fist techniques. If you can hold it properly, you've entered the school. If you can't, you could spend a lifetime without even finding the threshold."
Chen Jianghe imitated his posture, but his whole body felt awkward. His balance was unsteady, and his arm began to ache.
Su Derong circled him once, patting him here and pressing him there. "Suspend the crown of your head, sink your shoulders, let your waist settle, sit your hips... That's right, just like that. Hold it."
Before ten breaths had passed, Chen Jianghe's thighs were trembling, and sweat beaded at his temples.
Su Derong smiled. "Uncomfortable, right? That's how it should be. Once you can stand in this stance calmly, as if on level ground, you'll have taken your first step in changing your strength. As for the martial arts realms after that, there's no point in telling you now. We'll talk about everything after you succeed."
He stepped back twice and folded his arms. "Although Master took a year's tuition from you, I'll be blunt: if you can't master the foundation of this sinew-and-bone power within a hundred days, your hundred-day foundation-building period will be a failure, and the true teachings of Xingyi Fist will be beyond your reach."
He glanced at Chen Jianghe with a knowing smile. "Even though Master took a year's tuition, you'll still have to leave when the time comes."
Chen Jianghe could only smile bitterly to himself. As expected, even this cheap martial arts school had its tricks.
But he remained respectful on the outside and clasped his fists. "This disciple will train diligently and won't let down Master or Senior Brother's guidance."
Su Derong nodded, took the folding fan from his waist, and snapped it open. Then he strolled toward the back courtyard.
Chen Jianghe assumed the Three-Body Stance.
The posture looked simple, but doing it was another matter entirely.
He stood in a half-squat, his left foot stepped forward, its heel aligned with his right foot. He extended his left hand to chest height, held his right hand against his navel, fixed his gaze on his left index finger, shifted his weight onto his right leg, and kept his whole body upright and centered.
After only a few breaths, he felt all the muscles in his body straining against one another. Soreness, swelling, numbness, and pain surged through him, and fine sweat quickly dampened his temples.
He gritted his teeth and endured it, adjusting his breathing as he tried, bit by bit, to feel the process.
He didn't know how long had passed. Just as his legs began to tremble uncontrollably, the familiar panel appeared in his mind:
[Destiny: Heaven Rewards Diligence; Diligence Will Surely Bear Fruit] [Current Skill: Three-Body Stance Training (Not Yet Initiated)] [Progress: 1%] [Effect: None]
Chen Jianghe looked at the "1%" progress, took a deep breath, and slowly relaxed his stance.
Although his whole body ached, his heart had finally settled.