The next day,
at the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall,
Huang Sihai gathered everyone together and asked, "Besides Liu Chun, has anyone else broken through to purple membrane?"
Liu Chun stood proudly among the crowd, basking in everyone's envious gazes.
"Me!" Big Silly Qiang bared his arm. His thick, sturdy skin membrane shone purplish blue, looking tough and powerful. That purplish-blue color marked the early purple membrane stage.
"Purple membrane? Big Silly Qiang is that good?" the students exclaimed enviously.
"Master, leave this hall challenge to me!" Big Silly Qiang declared smugly.
Huang Sihai looked somewhat pleased. "Not bad. Purple membrane after two months of training. You may not have a superior physique, but you're still outstanding among those with average physiques."
Liu Chun smiled. "Big Silly Qiang is pretty good. With his innate strength, I might not have been a match for him if I hadn't reached black membrane recently."
She seemed to be praising Big Silly Qiang, but she was really praising herself, casually letting everyone know that she had already reached black membrane.
"What? Black membrane? In three months?" Sure enough, everyone else was stunned.
"Senior Sister Liu Chun is definitely making it to the Second Floor this year." A Zhen gave her a thumbs-up.
"What about you? Reached purple membrane yet?" Huang Sihai asked A Zhen.
"Soon, Master." A Zhen lowered her head.
"You're no less talented than Big Silly Qiang. You just don't work hard. If you were even half as diligent as A Wen, you would have reached purple membrane long ago." Huang Sihai shook his head.
"A Wen works way too hard. It's like he thinks martial arts training is fun." A Zhen shrugged.
Liu Chun sighed. "Unfortunately, diligence can't beat martial constitution. In the end, the Martial Way comes down to talent. Without talent, all that hard work amounts to nothing."
Big Silly Qiang looked at A Wen, who stood silently in the corner. "Senior Sister A Chun, you're hurting A Wen's feelings... With hard work and diligence, he could be a late bloomer."
Huang Sihai frowned as well. "Talented people are always the minority. For ordinary people, diligence is the only way forward."
He knew that someone with Li Xiuwen's talent was unlikely to achieve much, but Liu Chun, as a senior disciple, shouldn't say things like that.
What if her words discouraged Li Xiuwen and the ordinary disciples enough to make them quit?
Wouldn't that hurt his earnings?
So, while Liu Chun was good in most respects, her temperament and social skills left something to be desired.
After all, she was only sixteen, and her family was wealthy. She hadn't needed to shoulder responsibilities early, so she lacked experience.
"Sorry, I was a little too blunt." Liu Chun bowed, realizing that her words had been hurtful.
Huang Sihai asked, "A Wen, are you confident you can reach purple membrane this month? With two fish balls helping you along, it shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Li Xiuwen smiled. "I am."
Liu Chun raised her eyes to Li Xiuwen and thought, He's actually eating fish balls to build up his qi and blood? What's that supposed to mean? Is he trying to compete with me for the Second Floor?
Everyone knew fish balls were poisonous. Unless someone was attempting a breakthrough, they generally didn't use them.
For building up qi and blood in everyday training, hard practice was still best. It laid a solid foundation.
What A Wen was doing was no different from forcing growth before its time.
Like the fitness world, the martial arts world had an unspoken hierarchy of contempt: those who trained hard looked down on those who relied on drugs.
Then Liu Chun reconsidered. He's eaten two fish balls and still hasn't reached purple membrane. It's bound to be a wasted effort. Nothing to worry about.
Huang Sihai nodded. "Today, I'll give you a proper introduction to the Night Heron Style, along with what I've learned about Pine Hall's Four Talents.
"Longlegs Seven, Wen Wu, Black Dog, Tian Er... Those four are the Night Heron Martial Arts Hall's most outstanding prospects this year."
That evening,
Li Xiuwen went to the Hall Pharmacy and spent twenty dollars on one batch of ingredients for Blood-Transforming Paste.
Used sparingly, they would be enough for a day's training.
He had only four hundred dollars left, and he intended to spend just one hundred on this experiment.
The remaining three hundred had to stay untouched, or he would go hungry that month.
In truth, achieving noticeable results in the Binding Armor Skill's first layer required spending over a hundred dollars a day.
Although Blood-Transforming Paste was a secret medicine, it wasn't difficult to prepare.
Li Xiuwen used his aunt-in-law's soup pot and simmered it over low heat for an hour.
Once cooled, it congealed into a pot of reddish-brown gelatin, rather like pork aspic.
"What are you doing?" his aunt-in-law asked curiously.
"Making medicine. It helps with training." Li Xiuwen smiled.
"How much did this pot cost?"
"Twenty."
"Learning martial arts really is hard..." His aunt-in-law walked away with a sigh.
After preparing the Blood-Transforming Paste, Li Xiuwen took a small hammer weighing four ounces and went up to the rooftop.
"Forty for the small hammer, eighty for the big one..."
He began circulating his energy according to the Binding Armor Skill's instructions, striking himself while sensing the so-called "qi and blood" inside his body.
The principle behind the Binding Armor Skill was to "transport" the body's "qi and blood" along the meridians to temper the skin membrane on its surface,
bringing the skin membrane's resistance to blows to the absolute limit of his current stage.
In this world, that was what "hard-body training" meant: training the body to raise its physical resilience to the utmost!
After practicing for a while, Li Xiuwen realized something was wrong.
"If I circulate my energy, I can't strike myself. If I strike myself, I can't circulate my energy..."
"For this kind of hard-body qigong training, it's best to have an assistant dedicated to striking me."
A little while later,
Li Xiuwen brought his aunt-in-law up to the rooftop, handed her the hammer, and took off his outer shirt.
"I've never heard a request like this in my life," his aunt-in-law said, unable to help laughing.
A Wen actually wanted her to hit him with a hammer.
"Auntie, don't tell anyone about this except Uncle," Li Xiuwen said.
"Got it. Shall I start?" His aunt-in-law raised the little hammer.
"The hammer's light, and you're not very strong, so just hit me as hard as you can. Hit wherever I tell you. Start with both arms," Li Xiuwen said.
Clang!
The hammer came down.
Light as it was, it was still an iron hammer. Being struck with it hurt quite a bit.
Even with his blue membrane protecting him, it still left a purple mark.
"Does it hurt?"
"If it didn't hurt, what would be the point of training? Keep going. Harder!"
"Then I'll put more strength into it."
On the rooftop, Li Xiuwen silently recited the energy-circulation formula for the first layer.
Close the Earth Gate, seal the mysterious pass, guide the energy to the Bubbling Spring until it takes root...
Meanwhile, his aunt-in-law struck him with a steady rhythm, just as he instructed.
That night,
his uncle-in-law returned after finishing his work at the factory and came up to the rooftop. "Why are you hitting A Wen? What did he do?"
"You might not believe this, but A Wen asked me to... Here, I'm tired. You take over."
After an explanation, his uncle-in-law became Li Xiuwen's assistant too.
Now he was getting a mixed-doubles beating.
After two hours, the major muscle groups all over Li Xiuwen's body had turned purplish blue and were somewhat swollen.
"Is this really martial arts training? It's not some demonic art, is it?" His uncle-in-law had read plenty of adventure novels.
"This is how it's practiced. Don't worry. With my constitution, I'll be fine tomorrow after applying the paste and sleeping for a night," Li Xiuwen said.
"All right, A Wen, take it easy. I'm really worried about you," his aunt-in-law said.
Li Xiuwen asked, "Did Brother Ji come today?"
"No. Could someone really have killed him?" His aunt-in-law sounded puzzled too.
"That would be for the best." His uncle-in-law sighed, turned, and left.
That night,
Li Xiuwen applied the paste and lay in bed, tossing and turning for a long time before finally falling asleep.
For one thing, it hurt, though that was manageable.
The worst part was the itching!
His muscles felt as though they were sprouting, pushing relentlessly outward.
He wasn't moving, yet a faint rustling seemed to come from his skin membrane.
Li Xiuwen was delighted. According to the skill's description, this meant he had trained properly.
With hard-body qigong, one trained by taking blows during the day. While asleep at night, the meridians would automatically transport the energy from the medicinal paste to repair injuries and strengthen qi and blood.
Sure enough, when he got up the next day,
Li Xiuwen moved his somewhat sore body, ate breakfast to replenish his energy, and looked toward the [Incense Burner].
A new stick of incense stood upright, wisps of blue smoke curling from it.
[Li Xiuwen] [Martial arts] [Binding Armor Skill: entry (1%)]
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