Jade Jujube's Virtue

The searing pain jolted the youth awake.

"Boy, did you win, or did I?"

Liu Yunshen's tendons in both hands and feet had all been severed, and he was bound inside a water prison!

Zhu Xun clutched his throat with both hands and snarled, "If I were you, I'd kill myself right now! Better than living in this world neither human nor ghost! Why won't you die?!"

Tears brimmed in the youth's eyes as he cried out, "I still have unfinished business! Even if my body is broken and I dwell in filth, what is there to regret?!"

Shock and delight appeared in Zhu Xun's eyes, gradually turning into a sheet of white light.

"Th-This..." the youth cried out. He abruptly sat up, his eyes narrowing in fear as he panted and scanned his surroundings.

The black-robed Daoist was building a fire and cooking porridge, the fragrance of millet drifting through the air. The youth's stomach rumbled, and he could not help smiling. "Thank you, Senior, for saving my life!"

The Daoist was startled, then burst into laughter. "I thought you were mute!"

The youth tried to rise and thank him, only to discover that his wrists and ankles were in unbearable pain. For a moment, his heart turned to ashes.

"What is your name?" The Daoist took a small jade-green box from his robes, twisted off the lid, and carefully scooped out a pinch of milky-white ointment to apply where the tendons in his hand had been severed.

"My name is Liu Yunshen. I have not yet come of age. Before my mother died, she gave me the courtesy name Xi Bai." Liu Yunshen only felt an intense itch in his wrist. In an instant, he could move it freely again, his injury restored as if it had never happened!

"Don't move!" The Daoist lightly held down Liu Yunshen, who was wild with joy yet somewhat uneasy, and healed both his feet and his right hand. Then he suddenly caught a whiff of something burnt and smiled bitterly. "My porridge!"

"Senior, the porridge floating on top isn't burnt! I'll get the bowls!" Liu Yunshen walked over from the little temple's statue and bowed to it several times. "So this is Patriarch Lü Temple!"

"You'd rather worship that clay Buddha than worship me?" The Daoist impatiently hugged the iron pot and drank the porridge from the edge, scalding himself until he bared his teeth in pain.

"I wouldn't dare!" Liu Yunshen immediately dropped to his knees.

"What a nuisance! By the time you finish bowing, the porridge will be cold!" The Daoist fetched two broken bowls from before Patriarch Lü's statue, then brought over a plate of dates and a plate of pastries that had been left as offerings!

Liu Yunshen's face reddened. "Senior, isn't this rather improper?"

"What's improper about it? Eat!"

The Daoist and the youth devoured the food like wolves, sweeping it all away like a gale scattering clouds.

"I couldn't tell, but you're quite loyal! That little girl was neither kin nor friend to you. Why bother with her?" The Daoist eyed him sidelong.

Liu Yunshen shook his head. "That little girl suffered an undeserved calamity because of me. How can it be said to have nothing to do with me?"

"You do have a point!" The Daoist grinned and licked the pot clean again. Liu Yunshen pushed all the pastries and dates toward him.

"You have a good heart! Spirits of heaven, spirits of earth, Patriarch Lü, show your power! Rise!" The Daoist swallowed all the large ones, only pretending to leave him the smallest black date. He blew on it through his mouthful of yellow teeth, then handed it over with a large dirt-stained hand. "Here! Eat!"

The youth accepted it with a smile, not minding the dirt, and swallowed it at once.

"Haha! You truly are a strange youth! Would you be willing to leave the world with me and cultivate?" The Daoist blinked at him.

Liu Yunshen struggled for a moment before finally shaking his head. "I have already received a great kindness from Senior. How could I dare press my luck? Besides, my companions in the village—Big Dog Brother and Hu Two—they are all waiting for me to return."

The Daoist was exceedingly astonished. "Boy, immortal fate can be encountered but not sought. In mortal eyes, I am an immortal. Today, seeing your extraordinary bones and sensing that we share a strong affinity, I made an exception to take you as my disciple. How can you be so unable to tell good from bad?"

Liu Yunshen stepped back half a pace and repeatedly kowtowed. Thinking he had changed his mind, the Daoist was about to smile and help his disciple up when he heard him sigh.

"Senior, each person has his own destiny. Perhaps this boy's ties to the mortal world remain unfinished. Besides, immortals are meant to aid the endangered and relieve the afflicted, to save others as their duty. War rages endlessly across the land. Even if I alone attain the Dao while my fellow villagers and dear friends remain trapped in fire and flood, how could my heart be at peace?"

The youth's expression was sincere, but his face reddened as he secretly thought, I already took a master in my 'dreams' when I was eight. But if I say it aloud, would that not wound this Senior's feelings?

The Daoist was deeply moved. "So be it. The affinity between us is no slight one; there will be chances for us to meet again. Today, I will teach you a set of boxing techniques that you can turn from fists into a sword. I will also teach you a sleeping art. Practice diligently at noon, dawn, and dusk. Before midnight, follow the mnemonic to absorb qi and guide it through your body, then sleep. Though it cannot make you immortal, it can still prolong your years and preserve your health."

"Senior, the spiritual qi of heaven and earth is exhausted now. Haven't many martial masters said that cultivation can no longer be..."

"Ah, why do you have so many questions? Practice, quickly!" The Daoist's beard stood on end as he lowered himself into a horse stance. Liu Yunshen smiled shyly and watched closely at his side!

"Left palm, right fist, then switch to left palm! Do it once for me!" The boxing technique seemed extremely simple. After demonstrating it once, the Daoist tossed him a pair of water-buffalo-hide gloves. "That fire poker of yours may be formidable, but you can't always rely on brute force in a crisis! You must build from the foundation!"

"Yes!" Liu Yunshen took a deep breath. His palms opened and closed like yin and yang revolving, faint black-and-white aspects emerging!

The Daoist stared with wide eyes, startled and delighted. "This child's innate foundation and talent are without equal! I only taught him once, yet he has already vaguely grasped the transformations of the five elements' generation and restraint hidden within this boxing art!"

Liu Yunshen practiced for half a shichen. His breath was initially like a stream, then gradually gathered into a small river. When his dantian exploded with a BOOM, one foot had already stepped from the realm of ordinary mortals into the acquired realm of qi refinement!

"A prodigy!" The Daoist chuckled.

"Senior..."

"You're still calling me Senior?" The black-robed Daoist deliberately scowled. Liu Yunshen bowed. "Master!"

"Looking at you, this boxing art may not be able to stump you. Then your master will teach you another peerless skill. Do you wish to learn the sword or the spear?" The Daoist smiled slyly.

Liu Yunshen frowned. "Master, this boxing technique contains spear arts within it. Turning fists into a spear is enough for small uses. This disciple wishes to learn swordsmanship, preferably dual-sword techniques!"

"Good, then I'll teach you a set. Watch carefully!" The Daoist laughed loudly, picked up that fire poker of his, and darted into the middle of the courtyard, deliberately using his cloth robe to cover his feet!

"Your turn!!!!"

Liu Yunshen stared intently at his master's movement technique, only to be interrupted by that thunderous shout. His head buzzed. After a long while, he picked up the iron rod and tried his hardest to recall the footprints on the ground as he moved with the sword!

"This child is truly remarkable! His footwork is already seventy percent aligned with what I just performed! But that means the sword art will be incomplete... That is fine too. A common man commits no crime, yet he is guilty for possessing jade!" The Daoist repeatedly nodded as he watched him practice swordsmanship.

As Liu Yunshen performed the sword art, his entire body brimmed with energy. A restless surge entered his dantian, and his cheeks flushed red despite himself.

"Now your master will teach you the sleeping art! Come quickly! Sleep with me!" The Daoist wore a lecherous expression, and Liu Yunshen felt a little frightened. "Master, this..."

"You dare disobey your master's orders! What's with this and that? Come here! It's not as though your master wants to sleep with you!"

The Daoist barked, and the soundwaves made Liu Yunshen's head buzz. More than half the youth's restlessness vanished at once. He immediately walked over to his teacher, imitated his posture by lying on his side, grasped his ankle with his left hand, silently recited the mnemonic, inhaled more and exhaled less, and unknowingly fell asleep.

"Disciple, are you asleep?" The Daoist grinned and leaned closer. Liu Yunshen was still young at heart; he sprang up in a roll, looking somewhat embarrassed as he smiled. "Teacher..."

"Are you asking about that little girl who has met you in your dreams every night since you were eight?" The Daoist smiled as he stared at the disciple before him.

Liu Yunshen's cheeks turned crimson. "Teacher..."

"What teacher? Old, young—your master told you to sleep, and you refused to obey. Your punishment is to practice boxing. Go throw a thousand punches, then come back! Remember to close the temple door when you leave!"

"Yes!"

The old Daoist scolded him with a stern face.

Liu Yunshen hurried outside the temple and shut the front door, only to discover that his steps felt so light he seemed ready to take flight. He immediately calmed his mind and focused his qi. Left palm, right fist—the two qi of generation and restraint circulated in endless cycles. Before he knew it, he had completed a thousand punches, and the birds in the trees were chirping.

"Master! Your disciple has finished! Master... Master must be sleeping soundly! I'd better not disturb him!"

Liu Yunshen called out several times without receiving a response. As he tiptoed back, a ray of dawn shone upon the temple wall!

Liu Yunshen sprang up in a roll and exclaimed in shock, "I... I was in a dream?"

"Disciple! Your master will take his leave first. Until we meet again!"

The voice still lingered, but the man was already gone!

Liu Yunshen chased out of the little temple, touched the reconnected tendons in his hands and feet, and, tears in his eyes, solemnly bowed toward the direction in which the Daoist had departed.

"Big Dog Brother and Hu Two are still waiting for me in the village." Liu Yunshen wiped away the tears at the corners of his eyes, warmth filling his heart as he picked up the iron rod and hurried away.

But when he returned joyfully to Hu Family Village north of Yucheng County, all he saw was a blaze of fire and charred white bones strewn across the ground!

Several large characters had been written on a tree trunk in human blood.

"Heaven and earth have form; Houde bears all things!"

"Li Houde!" Liu Yunshen gripped the tree trunk with both hands, his eyes splitting with rage!