With just one try, Li Su had completely fallen in love with martial arts.
Even the most basic Arhat Fist filled him with an unbelievable passion.
He got up in the morning and went with Xuanci to the main hall for morning prayers.
After lunch, he started his chores.
Unlike lay disciples, monks like them didn't need to haul water or chop wood. Most of their work involved cleaning.
After about two shichen, once the work was done, their duties for the day were over.
After that came their free time.
Before learning Arhat Fist, he would naturally run around or head to Arhat Hall to watch the lay disciples practice their forms.
Once he learned it, his leisure time naturally centered on practicing the fist.
Xuanci really was something. No wonder he would later become abbot of Shaolin Temple. His talent was no exaggeration.
In just three days, Xuanci's Arhat Fist already looked quite polished. His movements flowed seamlessly, and his punches and kicks carried real force.
And that wasn't all. It was no joke that everyone looked up to him.
Just look.
On his left was Xuannan, who would one day become the head of Bodhidharma Institute.
On his right was Xuanji, who would likewise become the head of Discipline Hall.
Behind them came Xuanku, Xuanbei, Xuandu, and Xuancheng.
One was Qiao Feng's master; one had forced Murong Bo to use Star Shift, and even sensed that he harbored rebellious intentions; one had lost in a fight against Jumozhi; and one had the best talent, yet practiced until he suffered a qi deviation and lost all his cultivation.
Basically, all the famous monks of the Xuan generation in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils had gathered here.
So this crowd practicing in front of the great hall that Xuankong was sweeping was, in essence, the early shape of the group that would one day gather at Mahavira Hall.
Among them, Xuanci, Xuannan, Xuanji, and Xuancheng loved martial arts most. Xuancheng especially lived up to his reputation for practicing until he went mad and died. After only a few days, he could already perform Arhat Fist in reverse.
Xuanku and the other two practiced too, but it was clear they took morning prayers and sutra recitation more seriously.
Watching this scene, Li Su couldn't help smiling.
Without a doubt, Shaolin Temple's Scripture Library had opened its doors to him.
Even if he couldn't get in now, in another twenty or thirty years, the techniques inside would basically be his to choose from. He just didn't know how many supreme techniques would still be left by then.
Nine Yang Divine Skill was probably out of reach, but the Muscle Tendon Changing Classic should be all but his. And if the third edition of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils was the one he was in, the Muscle Tendon Changing Classic was actually one book containing two scriptures. Besides the Muscle Tendon Changing Classic, there was also the Divine Foot Classic.
So Li Su wasn't in a hurry. Not at all.
His seniority was already set. All he had to do was wait.
The jianghu, the martial world—he could leave all that to someone else.
Unless he transmigrated at least twice, learned three, five, or six divine arts, and mastered them, he wouldn't go looking for trouble.
Otherwise? Heh. Even if a World Fragment felt completely real, it was still fake. His true foundation was in the real world.
That wasn't cowardice!!!
According to the rules of fiction, as long as you weren't the protagonist, the more powerful you were, the more likely you were to die.
Xiaoyaozi was powerful, right? Yang Dingtian was a badass, right? Was Ren Woxing powerful or not?
Taoist Mu and Ximen Chuixue were supposed to duel, and King of Pleasure sounded powerful just from his name.
Heavenly Blade Song Que was powerful, right? A real powerhouse.
And what happened? He appeared with the full weight of the world behind him, and even Li Shimin was scared off. Then Fan Qinghui called Ning Daoqi over, and Song Que was beaten back into the mountains. Yes, this chapter was infuriating to read, but it also taught us one thing: there's always a higher mountain. Show off, and you'll get struck by lightning.
Besides, the waters of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils ran deeper than most.
Especially that whole bunch from the Xiaoyao Sect. Honestly, Xiaoyaozi at ninety-three was one thing, but Tianshan Tonglao at ninety-six? Damn.
If she weren't Weakness, who in the world could claim to be her match?
By the time Li Qiushui dared to fight her head-on, Tong Lao had already had one leg and one finger broken. She was practically an invalid, and even then they fought to a draw. If she'd been in her prime, there would've been no chance at all.
So Li Su watched the bunch of Xuan-generation monks practicing their fists with a smile while he focused on sweeping.
By the time he finished, most of them had already left.
After all, it was only Arhat Fist. Practicing for one shichen a day already counted as serious effort.
Eighteen Hands sounded like a lot.
In reality, once you knew the routine, it took ten minutes to run through it. In one shichen, even Xuanku and the others, who practiced the least, completed eight rounds. The most ridiculous one, Xuancheng, did twelve without stopping.
Yeah. With that kind of dedication to martial arts, you only lost your cultivation? This humble monk salutes you.
Once they had all left, Li Su put away the cleaning tools and practiced alone in the courtyard.
He had been practicing Arhat Fist for nearly ten days, but he still moved slowly.
Compared with the fist technique itself, Li Su cared more about the stance training. A complete set of the fist took him at least the time it took an incense stick to burn.
His punches weren't fast or slow, but somehow they carried a hint of something deeper.
Compared with the eighteen fighting moves, he performed the stance techniques to their fullest.
As soon as he stopped, a surge of heat shot up and coursed through his body.
After exhaling a long breath, Li Su stood drenched in sweat, his face filled with satisfaction.
He rested for about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, until his body had fully recovered, then started practicing again.
By nightfall, after a full two shichen, Li Su had performed Arhat Fist eight times.
Perfect!
Feeling that the surge of heat seemed just a tiny bit stronger than yesterday, Li Su smiled and ended his practice. He stripped off his clothes, rinsed himself with water, then returned to the monks' quarters.
One day, then two.
Ten days, then half a month.
Even though every day was filled with the same routine, Li Su never found it dull.
He had always been something of a homebody. Outside of work, he spent nearly all his time at home. He was almost thirty, with no children to speak of—and not even a girlfriend.
If all he had to do was recite sutras and sweep, he probably couldn't have stuck with it. But Arhat Fist had pulled him in completely.
Spring passed and autumn came. A year flew by in the blink of an eye.
The period was peaceful enough. There wasn't much news from the jianghu, though Xuanci had heard from somewhere that the Gusu Murong family had produced another genius. At a tender age, his martial arts were already quite impressive, and he had defeated a famous fighter from the jianghu in just two moves.
The Gusu Murong family was renowned throughout the land. Their reputation was well deserved.
Seeing Xuanci looking as if he wanted to meet him and exchange insights, Li Su felt like covering his face.
The Murong of this period was definitely Murong Bo, the man who devoted himself to restoring his kingdom and dragged his son into it.
You'd meet him all right. Thirty years later, for decades on end, you'd think of him and want to slap yourself, wishing you could tear him limb from limb.
Xuanci would get together with Ye Erniang, and the matter of the leading big brother would surely become a ghost in his heart.
Cultivating the Buddhist way was far more brutal than the Daoist way.
One wrong step, and you were doomed for all eternity.
Thinking back to Xuanci's carefree nature now, the way he became cold and heartless as abbot, and finally his resolute act of severing his own heart meridian, it wasn't hard to imagine what kind of evil seed Murong Bo had planted in his heart. Luckily, this wasn't one of Huang Da's novels, or it would absolutely have been treated as a catalyst for the Dao Heart Demon Seed.
Li Su shook his head and continued sweeping in peace.
Compared with the news from the jianghu, he had recently begun to sense that his Arhat Fist was speeding up—nearing the point where his qi would circulate through the Six Meridians.
The Six Meridians weren't anything else.
They were the Twelve Standard Meridians.
Starting with the three yang meridians of the hands and feet, ending with the three yin meridians of the hands and feet.
The yang rose; the yin fell.
After a year of cultivation, Li Su's body had begun to grow rapidly, and his strength had increased as well. Every movement of his hands and feet carried immense power. If he wished, he could crack a foot-wide slab of bluestone with a single palm.
And that wasn't all. As he cultivated, Li Su felt a stream of qi being born within him, surging to life and circulating through his whole body with every stance.
At this point, he was just a tiny bit short. Just a tiny bit more, and his internal qi should break through, begin circulating, and form a Circulation Realm.
Li Su knew that term well.
He'd read about it in the real world. Circulation Realm qi meant that one's internal cultivation had basically reached a level of mastery.
Once it began circulating, even if he didn't practice any other martial arts and simply kept it moving like this, when he reached the sixty-year mark—the art of a full cycle—he would have sixty years of internal energy.
This wasn't just a number. It was a complete transformation.
Sixty years of internal energy could snap sinews and shatter bones.
One hundred and twenty years of internal energy could grind solid rock to powder.
One hundred and eighty years of internal energy could break iron with bare hands.
Two hundred and forty years of internal energy could collapse mountains and shatter stone.
By the time one reached three hundred and sixty years, Murong Tianxiu and Dharma King Tianlun were basically at that level.
The realm of the Grandmasters.
So although Li Su had spent a whole year reaching Circulation Realm, and his progress was only at the very beginning compared with that of top-tier techniques, his Arhat Fist had already reached mastery. Rather than feeling even a little disappointed, he was overjoyed.
He would be staying in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils for at least another forty or fifty years. That meant that once he left, he was bound to possess sixty years of internal energy.
No joke. Someone who entered a World Fragment only once would be lucky to come out with twenty or thirty years of internal energy at most. Reaching sixty years would take at least two trips.
After Xuanci and the others had all left, Li Su put everything away and began practicing his fist in silence.
Still slow. No, it had never been fast. Li Su threw one punch after another, practicing with complete focus.
Although Circulation Realm was the limit of Arhat Fist, he had a feeling that once he reached it, the results might go beyond that.
Even though it was only an entry-level Shaolin Temple technique, and Xuanci and the others had recently started preparing to learn more advanced martial arts, Li Su felt that mastering Arhat Fist would bring unexpected changes.
One punch, another punch, then one more.
He was utterly focused. Following Jin Da's explanation, he silently recited a sutra as he practiced.
It wasn't anything else. It was the Diamond Sutra, which he had been reading for a year!
"Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was in Sravasti, at Jetavana Monastery, together with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty bhikshus. At that time, at mealtime, the World-Honored One put on his robe, took up his bowl, and entered the great city of Sravasti to beg for alms. Within the city, he begged from door to door. Having finished, he returned to his place. After eating, he put away his robe and bowl, washed his feet, arranged his seat, and sat down."
Would you believe it? At first, reciting sutras while practicing his fist felt awkward, but the more he recited, the more they seemed to flow together as one.
Just as Li Su felt the rhythm of the Diamond Sutra merging with Arhat Fist, his body suddenly trembled. The instant he completed the final move, a vast surge of qi—far beyond anything he'd felt before—burst up from the soles of his feet and rushed through his entire body.
Unlike before, this time the force was immense and didn't die down. Like a vast ocean, it surged and surged without end.
Crash!
Like a rising tide, wave after wave roared upward, each stronger than the last.
Boom!
Li Su's whole body shuddered, every pore opening as black sweat gushed from his skin.
Tendon transformation and marrow cleansing!!!
His eyes flew open, and astonishment showed on his face. He'd known something would change, but he hadn't expected it to be so sudden, so powerful, so strange.
It took a good ten seconds for the force to weaken.
But this time it didn't slowly sink back down and disappear into the soles of his feet. Instead, it moved through his whole body on its own, circling again and again.
Circulation Realm!!!