Life went on.
His daily routine stayed the same. After finishing the Diamond Sutra, he read through the Lanka Sutra once, then went over the contents of the Nine Yang Manual as well. He couldn't learn it yet, but he was memorizing it.
The Buddhist Sect didn't study Daoist scriptures, but what did that have to do with Li Su? He was a fake monk.
It wouldn't matter if he couldn't learn it in this life. He could learn it in his next.
After all, this was the Nine Yang Divine Skill. How could he not learn it once he'd gotten his hands on it?
Besides, after leaving the World Fragment, he wouldn't have to start cultivating from scratch. He could take the power he'd gained in this world with him. At worst, he could give up the Arhat True Qi and choose the effect of the Arhat's Golden Body instead. And even if that wasn't possible, this was still a top-tier technique. How much could he sell its inheritance for? He'd get rich in an instant, wouldn't he? Besides, he already had a supreme divine skill in hand.
Thinking happily to himself, Li Su began switching to the Shaolin Cotton Palm that afternoon.
Cotton Palm.
Unlike Arhat Fist, Arhat Gong, or techniques like the Formless Calamity Finger,
it was a very unusual palm technique.
It stored rigid force within while appearing soft on the outside. When used, it made no sound of wind. Its strikes landed without a sound or trace, as light as a pat, yet their effect was astonishing.
Cotton Palm had a corresponding set of palm forms, through which one practiced its yielding force.
After reading through the material, Li Su closed his eyes and thought for a moment. He committed the forms to memory, rose, and struck out with his palm.
There weren't many forms, only six.
The six forms flowed one into another. They were simple and easy to understand, and linked together seamlessly. Striking forward, striking backward, splitting to either side, striking in succession—there were no openings at all. They seemed to be six forms, but strung together, they could become twelve, twenty-four, or even thirty-six.
The only thing to keep in mind was to circulate true qi along with the palm forms, generating the Cotton Palm's force.
Once he completed the six forms and generated that force, he would have reached the entry level. When the force came naturally as soon as he raised his hand, without needing to accompany it with the forms, he would have reached mastery.
Planting his feet, Li Su began striking out.
A set of six forms took only five or six minutes to complete.
He finished the set, closed his eyes, and thought for a moment before starting again.
After several repetitions, a yielding force began to gather in front of Li Su's palm. He lightly pressed his palm against a nearby slab of bluestone.
Pfft.
After a soft sound, Li Su lifted his hand. Small fragments of stone lay scattered across the bluestone, which bore a small palm-shaped indentation.
He'd reached the entry level, but his skill was still poor.
The commotion had been slight, but the bluestone had only cracked; it hadn't been pulverized.
Li Su wasn't dissatisfied. He kept striking out with his palm.
Once, again, and again.
After doing the set ten times in all, he lowered his hands and began practicing Arhat Fist.
Two days later, Li Su glanced at Xuandu, who was staring at him eagerly, his eyes full of longing, and reluctantly nodded.
"All right, let's spar."
Since the seven of them often sparred, Xuancheng was at the top, Xuanci was just below him, and then came Xuanbei, Xuanji, Xuanku, Xuannan, and Xuandu.
Without a doubt, Xuandu had it the worst of them all. Whenever they fought, he was the one who got beaten.
It wasn't that the others were too strong. It was just that Xuandu was, how should he put it, honest? Wooden? He always relied on the same old tricks. No wonder he got beaten every time. It was no surprise that he later learned the Flower-Plucking Finger.
"I'm next!"
A delighted look crossed Xuanci's face. He immediately raised his hand and shouted.
Li Su shot him a sideways glance. Where was his face? Had he no shame?
He'd started practicing Vajra Palm, Great Strength Vajra Palm, Vajra Finger, and Dragon-Capturing Skill too, hadn't he? Did he have no shame at all?
Li Su's mouth twitched, and he ignored the man completely.
Who the hell liked getting beaten up?
What's more, Xuanci was a big mouth. If Li Su beat him up today, the whole Shaolin Temple would probably know by tomorrow.
Taking a breath, Li Su cautiously walked to the middle and stood facing Xuandu.
He'd practiced martial arts for quite a while, but when it came to fighting, he was being thrown in at the deep end. This was his first time.
Fortunately, he wasn't very good, and Xuandu wasn't much better.
Sure enough, Xuandu opened with Arhat Fist.
Come on. Li Su had practiced that set countless times himself. He knew all its variations and subtleties by heart, even if his own execution wasn't orthodox.
You're opening with Arhat Fist? What were you thinking?
Li Su thought it, but didn't dodge. He simply assumed a stance and met him with Cotton Palm.
Bang!
As soon as they clashed, Li Su grimaced. That hurt.
This guy—Li Su had thought he was a simpleton, but he'd actually played dirty!
Dragon Subduing Elephant Taming Art!
As he retreated two steps to open some distance, Li Su circulated Arhat True Qi to protect his hands, then raised his palm and fought on.
But then again—
He'd just thought Xuandu was clever, and now the guy was being stupid again.
Was this a fight or a fist practice?
Watching Xuandu execute each move properly, one after another, Li Su sighed. If only Xuandu had tried changing up his moves. For instance, after that Arhat's Offering, he could've jumped straight to Twin Peaks Piercing Ears. That would've thrown Li Su off for a moment.
But—
What was going on?
This was definitely Li Su's first time fighting another person.
Yet, aside from being a little nervous at first, he'd only grown calmer as the fight went on. As Xuandu attacked, Li Su not only found himself thinking of ways to counter him, he even had time to analyze how Xuandu should be responding to Li Su's moves.
No, no.
Right here, Xuandu, you should switch to the sixth form of Arhat Fist.
Wrong again. Here, you should've used the eleventh form...
Was martial talent about more than just cultivation?
Li Su's brows lifted slightly. As he kept meeting Xuandu with Cotton Palm, while Xuandu's Arhat Fist came at him in a roaring flurry, Li Su felt himself becoming more and more adept at fighting, as if he had a kind of super intuition.
After fighting for a while, Li Su began experimenting, combining and even breaking apart the Cotton Palm forms.
Half of one move, a third of another, then putting them together to fight Xuandu.
Xuandu's moves might have been the same old tricks, but with Li Su changing things up, the fight really did start to feel intense.
Watching this, Xuannan and the others couldn't help shouting.
"Come on, Xuandu! You can do it!"
"Xuan Kong, put your back into it!"
Xuanci's expression shifted slightly. He couldn't help turning to look at the Cotton Palm manual Li Su had left on the steps.
Did Shaolin Cotton Palm really have that many forms?
Xuandu had gone through Arhat Fist three times already, yet Xuan Kong hadn't repeated a single move.
Only Xuancheng watched with a grave expression, without blinking.
With his exceptional talent, he immediately saw that Li Su's Cotton Palm forms truly didn't repeat. Instead, Li Su was constantly changing them.
There were only six forms in all, but as Li Su practiced them, he combined them into twelve, twenty-four, or even thirty-six.
Xuandu's moves were rigid. If Xuancheng wanted to beat him, two or three moves would be enough.
But using a martial art the way Li Su did—constantly changing the moves to respond to his opponent—was another matter entirely.
Cotton Palm. Li Su had only gotten his hands on it three days ago, if he remembered right.
After a while, Xuandu stopped, panting, and Li Su also retreated two steps.
Xuandu was, how should he put it? Not bad.
His technique really was lacking. He'd been at it for more than two years, yet his skill was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't just far behind Xuancheng and Xuanci; he was far behind even Xuannan and the others.
But he'd just gone through a set of Arhat Fist five times in a row, and every time he'd gone all out.
Even Li Su couldn't have kept that up.
Probably only a martial arts fanatic like Xuancheng had the stamina and drive for it.
No wonder Xuandu was able to use the Flower-Plucking Finger later. He definitely had enough internal power—more than enough, even.
What he lacked was application, and technique.
Xuandu was upset. He furrowed his brows and bit down hard on his lower lip without saying a word.
He hadn't noticed while they were fighting, but afterward he'd realized the truth: he couldn't even beat Xuan Kong! And Xuan Kong was the only one among them who practiced internal cultivation without learning martial arts.
Xuandu felt inferior. The fight had dealt him a heavy blow. Though wooden, he was still young and had his own thoughts.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have managed to cultivate Dragon Subduing Elephant Taming Art to the minor-completion stage.
But after enduring so much hardship and putting in so much effort, this was all he had to show for it. For a moment, Xuandu couldn't help feeling discouraged.
Sure enough, he was too stupid. He just wasn't cut out to learn martial arts.
Xuanci and the others also noticed something was wrong with Xuandu. Xuannan and the others wanted to say something, but when they opened their mouths, no words came out.
What could they say? That he'd worked hard? That he'd tried his best? That would only hurt him more, wouldn't it?
Li Su smiled and took out a charcoal pencil. "Xuandu, go find Master and ask him to give you some hard-body techniques to practice."
Xuandu froze for a moment.
"You really aren't suited to using moves to attack people. But your body is strong. In terms of stamina and physical strength, I'd guess you're second only to Xuancheng out of the eight of us. Even Xuanci can't match you."
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Xuanci protested from the side.
Li Su smiled. "If you don't believe me, Xuanci, try doing five sets of Arhat Fist at full strength and see if you can handle it."
Xuanci's brows shot up. How could someone with such a restless temperament stand that kind of provocation? He immediately began practicing.
"No, no. I mean at full strength."
Watching Xuanci's form, Li Su shook his head and wrote, "Use every bit of strength you have. Here, Xuancheng, spar with Xuanci. Only defend; don't attack. Xuanci, you can only use Arhat Fist."
Xuancheng froze for a moment, then nodded. Only Arhat Fist, and he could only defend—that was exactly what Li Su had just done. Fine. He wanted to try it too.
Xuanci blinked. Being limited to Arhat Fist was a bit of a drawback, no doubt. But if Xuancheng only defended and didn't attack, there might be a chance—a chance to beat the bastard up. That was rare.
With a loud yelp, Xuanci raised his little fists and charged forward.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
There was no doubt this was far more intense than Li Su's fight with Xuandu.
Xuanci wasn't Xuandu. He had a solid grasp of Arhat Fist, and while their group constantly practiced new techniques, they hadn't neglected what they'd learned before. They practiced each one at least once or twice a day.
Watching Xuanci attack and Xuancheng respond, Li Su blinked.
Good thing he hadn't sparred with those two freaks. He definitely would've been beaten up.
In less than ten minutes, Xuanci couldn't go on. He'd been determined to beat Xuancheng up, so he'd naturally gone all out.
As for Xuancheng, he was trying to recreate Li Su's fighting style. Since he was using Dragon-Capturing Skill to counter Xuanci, he wasn't going to let Xuanci land a clean hit. After a few more exchanges, Xuanci ran out of strength. The Vajra True Qi he'd cultivated with Great Strength Vajra Palm was completely spent. Tongue lolling out, he collapsed onto the ground.
Li Su smiled and wrote, "See? After two and a half years, Xuanci's stamina is far below yours. You and he run out of Dragon-Subduing True Qi at about the same time, but you can keep fighting while he collapses right there. The difference in your physical strength is obvious."
"So you aren't weak. You just haven't found the right path."
Xuandu blinked as he listened to Li Su. He didn't feel quite so upset anymore.
He was still a child. Knowing that there were things he was better at than others meant he wouldn't sink into self-reproach quite so completely.
"Then, Xuan Kong, what should I do?"
"You're not good at using moves, so just stop using them. Go practice hard-body techniques and make yourself tough enough to take a beating. When you fight someone, don't dodge or avoid their attacks unless they're aimed at a vital spot. Just take the hits, then keep your eyes on your opponent and don't go for their vital spots either—hit their body. In a martial arts contest, it isn't about who gets hit more. It's about who falls first. As long as you can take a beating better than your opponent, you'll win."
Xuandu's eyes lit up. He immediately jogged toward Arhat Hall. "I'll go find Master."