You leafed carefully through the Founding Emperor's Sacred Ape Stance.
Your eyes burned ever brighter.
The Lower Three Realms of martial arts were vividly known as the Lesser Three Passes: Tendon Tempering, Bone Forging, and the Blood Qi Realm.
Training at this stage chiefly tempered the limbs and organs, stretching out the major tendons so they could unleash greater strength.
At its heart, it came down to two words: physical strength. What mattered was how much force each side could muster and how much their Root Bone could withstand.
And yet!
A fighter in the Lesser Three Passes could possess strength far beyond an ordinary person's and still be killed by a child or someone who had never trained.
That was because such fighters still had many vulnerable spots: the eyes, mouth and nose, groin, temples, and the area beside the waist where the heart and liver lay.
If an opponent caught one of those openings while they were off guard, even a Lesser Three Passes fighter could stumble at the last hurdle, have a fatal point pierced by scissors from a woman's sewing room, and die at the hands of a seemingly frail woman.
When Sima Pan had sparred with you just now, he had fought openly and honorably. He had used none of the vicious tricks found in the martial world, such as Black Tiger Rips Out Heart, Groin-Kicking Leg, or Twin Winds Pour Into Ears.
But fights on the streets of the martial world reeked of blood. Once a blade left its sheath, it was meant to draw blood. There was no such thing as a gentleman's duel.
Gang fights and alleyway brawls were commonplace.
Once a fighter passed the Lesser Three Passes, however, matters improved.
Those who entered the Middle Three Realms rarely suffered the embarrassment