[You began practicing martial arts in the courtyard.]
[Though the world was frozen over and snow lay beneath your feet, you took off your outer robe, tied your black hair behind your head, and bared your sturdy upper body.]
[The muscles on your chest and abdomen had long since been trained into sharp definition.]
[This was also thanks to Lu Hua's meticulous guidance.]
[If you had simply buried your head in hard training, a few Tendon-Tempering Stances alone might have enlarged your palms and legs, making your body bloated and ill-suited to your natural frame. You would only have trained yourself into ruin.]
[Over the past two months, you had gained more than ten jin, yet your build had not changed at all.]
[When you wore your robe, no outsider could have imagined that such a lean silhouette concealed such a powerful physique.]
[In nearly two months, it was as though you had shed your mortal shell and exchanged your bones, becoming utterly renewed.]
[You were not worried about anyone seeing your bare upper body. Your hearing now far surpassed what it had been before, and you would have time to put your clothes on.]
[Besides, the small courtyard where you lived was already secluded, accompanied only by a horse stable. With the bitter cold now upon them, even fewer people passed by.]
[The main issue was that while practicing martial arts and working through stances, sweat would soak your clothes after only a few breaths. It was truly troublesome in winter.]
[You began working through the stances one after another. Each stance trained different areas of the body, different tendons and bones.]
[The Founding Emperor's Sacred Ape Stance was divided into upper and lower volumes. The upper volume recorded twelve breathing methods, including Rooted Stances, moving stances, sleeping stances,