"Master, Master, we've been practicing the Eighteen Hands of Arhat Fist for over a year now. We know it inside out. Can we start learning new martial arts?"
Li Su didn't mind, but that didn't mean the other young monks could stand it.
Xuanci, never one to keep his mouth shut, blurted out the question.
Arhat Fist was undoubtedly the art they had mastered fastest. Every one of them had made progress, even Xuanku and the others, who had grasped its subtleties and built up their qi.
Xuancheng was in a class of his own. Arhat Fist displayed its full, fearsome power in his hands. Once he launched into the routine, even Xuanci, the second-best fighter, had to keep well out of his reach.
Of course, after a year, it wasn't just the young monks in their hall who had basically learned the basics of Arhat Fist.
They had been delighted at first, but after so long, it had grown as dull as chewing wax.
At Xuanci's words, most of the young monks' eyes lit up, and eager expressions appeared on their faces.
Monk Tianming shook his head. They might know the moves inside out, but they still didn't understand what they meant.
Arhat Fist was only an introductory form of Shaolin Temple martial arts, but it was also the foundation of Shaolin Temple's martial arts.
It wasn't difficult, but its potential was astonishing.
Mastered to a high level, it could even reshape the body, cleansing the marrow and transforming one's very being.
These youngsters were all reaching for the stars and couldn't bear to be patient. Xuancheng, the best among them, trained hard, but he was too aggressive in his pursuit of progress and had lost his composure.
As for Li Su, he was still concealing his abilities, so Monk Tianming naturally hadn't taken him into account.
So be it.
He knew it would be difficult to get a group of flighty youngsters to devote themselves wholeheartedly to Arhat Fist. After all, he had been through that phase himself, and he hadn't stuck with it either.
Tianming thought it over. Shaolin Temple had plenty of introductory martial arts.
There were four styles of combat alone: fist, palm, leg, and staff. Each had two or three forms, adding up to nearly ten in all.
Arhat Fist was the most widely taught and practiced.
Its power wasn't the greatest, and it didn't have many moves, but it excelled as a foundation. It was a foundational art that could cultivate qi.
Unfortunately, so far only Xuanci and a few other young monks had managed to cultivate qi. The rest were still turning circles at the threshold.
"All right. You've been practicing fist techniques for a year, so it's time to move on to more advanced arts. I have three techniques and one art here. You may choose, but you can only practice one at a time. You must master it before moving on to the next."
At Monk Tianming's words, Xuanci and the others' eyes immediately lit up. Even Li Su felt a little tempted.
He had already opened his Circulation Realm, so his Arhat Fist training was progressing steadily. A month of practice now nearly matched several months before. He didn't have much desire for a new art, but since he could learn one, he might as well.
As his Arhat Fist grew more profound, his body grew stronger as well. After morning lessons, chores like sweeping didn't take much time. Apart from practicing Arhat Fist eight times a day, he had plenty of time on his hands.
If possible, he wanted a meditative art to focus on whenever he wasn't practicing Arhat Fist.
"Vajra Palm, Chain Kick, Demon Subduing Staff, and Arhat Gong."
Monk Tianming didn't keep them guessing. "Vajra Palm is the introductory art for the Great Strength Vajra Palm. To study the next stage, you'll need to master Vajra Palm and enter Prajna Hall.
"Chain Kick is the introductory art for Shadow-Following Kick. You'll need to enter the Bodhidharma Institute to study the next stage.
"Demon Subduing Staff is the introductory art for the Dragon Subduing Elephant Taming Art. You'll need to enter Prajna Hall to study the next stage.
"All three advanced arts belong to the Shaolin Seventy-Two Arts.
"As for Arhat Gong, you can only study it after you've cultivated qi through Arhat Fist."
"I-I'll learn Vajra Palm!"
Xuanci threw up his hand and shouted at once, without giving Arhat Gong a thought.
Quite a few others immediately followed suit.
Most of them chose one of the three: Vajra Palm, Chain Kick, or Demon Subduing Staff.
Monk Tianming wasn't surprised. In essence, Arhat Fist was no different from those three arts. Arhat Gong was actually one of the Seventy-Two Arts as well. Its full name was the Arhat Divine Art, and it was studied exclusively in Arhat Hall. Unfortunately, its requirements were too demanding, and it was exceedingly difficult to practice. Only three to five people in Shaolin knew it, and none had mastered it.
The high threshold, the great demands on one's state of mind, and the patience it required made it difficult even for him to practice. A group of children without a steady disposition had practically no chance of mastering it.
How could a year of foundational training suffice to practice Shaolin Temple's advanced martial arts? If they mastered all three of the other arts, seven or eight years would have passed.
So Arhat Gong had only been mentioned in passing. Of course, if anyone wanted to practice it, Monk Tianming wouldn't refuse.
Shaolin Temple was never stingy about passing on its arts to its disciples, but there was one requirement: they weren't to reach beyond their grasp or give up lightly. Once they began studying an art, they had to cultivate it to a certain level. They didn't necessarily have to master it, but they had to put in enough time. Even if they failed to master the martial art, they could still train their resolve. After all, the Buddha's teachings were the true foundation.
This time, Monk Tianming didn't teach them the arts right away. Instead, he had them make their choices and stand in separate lines.
He planned to teach them in three sessions.
After a while, everyone had taken their places. Monk Tianming was about to speak when his gaze shifted to the one person who hadn't joined any of the lines.
Li Su.
Li Su took out his charcoal pencil. He hadn't spoken a word, and naturally had another way to make his choice. He began to write.
"Master, is Arhat Gong a meditative art?"
Arhat Fist had already reached the hall. Vajra Palm and the like sounded more like moves than cultivation arts, so he wasn't interested in them.
He had more than one lifetime ahead of him. He would have plenty of time to learn fighting techniques later. Right now, improving his internal cultivation was what mattered most.
Even if he wanted to fight, the story of Heavenly Dragon was still a full fifty years away.
Monk Tianming paused, not having expected one of his disciples to take an interest in Arhat Gong. Still, he nodded. "It is a meditative art."
Li Su's eyes lit up. He wrote at once: "Then I choose Arhat Gong!"
He didn't know how strong it was, but Arhat Gong sounded like it would complement Arhat Fist perfectly. If he mastered both, wouldn't he be able to cultivate thirty or fifty years' worth of inner power in a single year?
Good heavens! If he practiced for fifty years, just how vast would his inner power become?
"But it is a meditative art, Xuankong," Monk Tianming said. "And as an advanced art of Arhat Fist, it's very difficult to practice. It may take three to five years just to get started."
Li Su wrote: "That's fine, Master. Arhat Fist is already something I can practice for the rest of my life. I just don't have anything else to do when I'm not practicing it, so I want something to pass the time."
Monk Tianming froze. Arhat Fist was something he could practice for the rest of his life? He hadn't understood that truth until much, much later. He said, "Xuankong, perform Arhat Fist for me. If you meet my standards, I'll teach you Arhat Gong."
Li Su paused, surprised. Earlier, the master had said anyone who cultivated qi could learn it.
But he had already spoken, and he couldn't refuse now.
After thinking it over, Li Su stepped back a few paces and assumed the stance.
As usual, he moved slowly, focusing on the stances and using the fighting techniques as a supplement.
But at the very first movement, Monk Tianming's eyes lit up, and his fists clenched involuntarily.
He hadn't looked closely before.
This time was different. He watched carefully.
And so he saw the difference.
Li Su's Arhat Fist looked nothing like the standard form. Compared with the other young monks, his moves were incomplete, and some of them were even flat-out wrong.
But in Monk Tianming's eyes, they weren't wrong. They were perfectly suited to him.
Xuankong wasn't practicing a fist technique. He was practicing stances.
And more than that, someone of Monk Tianming's stature understood one thing better than most: martial arts were created by people, and no two people were alike. The creator and the student would always differ in their understanding of the same art, and the higher they advanced, the greater the difference became.
He had thought Xuancheng was the most talented of this group, followed by Xuanci.
Who would have thought Xuankong, who had always kept quiet, was the most talented of all?
The others were merely practicing Arhat Fist, but Xuankong was practicing his own Arhat Fist.
"That's enough, Xuankong."
Li Su stopped. He was a little out of breath. He had undoubtedly held back.
Even so, he noticed the old monk was looking at him strangely, like a big bad wolf eyeing a little white rabbit.
Had the old monk seen through something? No way. He'd always practiced like this...
Monk Tianming smiled. "From today on, those who chose Vajra Palm, stay behind. Tomorrow will be Chain Kick, and the day after that, Demon Subduing Staff. As for Xuankong, come back the day after tomorrow.
"You may all leave."
"Yes, Master!"
Everyone withdrew.
Old Monk Tianming rose at once and headed straight for the Mahavira Hall.
"Senior Brother Abbot!"
"Junior Brother Tianming, what brings you here today?"
"I have a disciple I'm planning to teach Arhat Gong. I came to report it."
"Junior Brother, are you serious? How many years has it been since anyone mastered Arhat Gong?"
"After all, it was his choice."
"He chose it himself?"
"Yes."
"All right. By the way, how are the disciples in your current group? Are any of them especially talented?"
"If I had to say, Xuanci and the others are all good. Xuancheng is clearly the best so far."
"Too bad he's still so young. A few years won't tell us much."
"Senior Brother, are you in such a hurry?"
"Alas, these days, Putian Shaolin, Dali Heavenly Dragon, Tianshan Xiaoyao, Western Xia First Class, and many other sects are full of experts. Only our Songshan Shaolin has been weak for so long. If we stay silent for too long, it's inevitable that others will start eyeing us. You should remember what happened at the Quanzhou Shaolin Zen Temple."
"I understand. If I find a suitable disciple, I'll recommend him."
"Yes. Thanks for all your hard work, Junior Brother."