Martial Form

The little incident at the Martial Pavilion did not affect Chen Xu's mood at all.

He hailed a car and headed straight for Iron Stele Martial Hall.

Not because it was the weakest, but purely because it was the closest martial hall to the Martial Pavilion.

Aside from Zhicheng Martial Arts Academy, the masters of the other three martial halls were all strong contenders for the top ten in Jinning Commandery, ranking among the best of the hundreds of martial halls large and small throughout the commandery.

"Not enough force!"

After saying that, the white-haired man in a fitted training outfit viciously lashed down with the ruler in his hand.

The trainee before the sandbag let out a muffled groan, then answered loudly, "Yes, Master!"

"Remember this: without bitter cultivation, it is impossible to reach the summit in any path. The martial path is so, and every other path is the same!"

The Iron Stele master's voice rang with vigor, spreading through the entire martial hall.

"Yes!" A perfectly synchronized roar surged into the sky, drawing sidelong glances from passersby.

"Got it~~" Only after everyone's shout died down did a listless voice drift over from the corner of the courtyard.

Hearing that, the Iron Stele master immediately strode to the corner and called out the young man chewing on a foxtail grass stalk, enunciating every word of his name.

"Wen Fan! You've only scratched the surface of Great Stone-Stele Smash, and you're already slacking off every day. You're wasting your own talent!" The Iron Stele master looked as though he hated iron for failing to become steel. He truly did not want to watch his chief disciple sink into ruin like this.

"Isn't it just a woman? So what if she dumped you? Back in my day—" The Iron Stele master slammed on the brakes, nearly spilling his own dark history.

"Cough, cough. In short, you can't keep wasting away like this. It's time to pull yourself together!"

Wen Fan turned over on the bluestone slab, refusing to let his master see his tears fall.

With his back to the Iron Stele master, he said, "Master, I'm already useless. Just leave me alone."

"You!"

The Iron Stele master caught sight of several wet spots on the bluestone. He let out a heavy sigh, shook his head, and walked away.

The painted wooden gates outside the courtyard exploded, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

The two disciples guarding the entrance tumbled into the courtyard, fury and fear intertwined in their eyes.

"Master, someone's here to challenge the hall!" The gatekeeping disciple, helped up by the others, pointed at Chen Xu with an agitated voice.

"Challenge the hall?"

The disciples looked at one another in disbelief. This was no longer the time when Iron Stele Martial Hall had only just found its footing. How long had it been since anyone had dared do such a thing?

Even Wen Fan shifted onto his side, curiosity showing in his eyes. As the martial hall's chief disciple, he clearly remembered that the last challenge had been nearly two years ago.

Some outsider had wanted to establish himself in Jinning by challenging a martial hall to make an example of it. In the end, Wen Fan's master subdued him with a single strike of Great Stone-Stele Smash, and he fled Jinning Commandery with his tail between his legs.

"A teenager?" The Iron Stele master stepped to the front. He truly could not recall when he had ever offended this utterly unfamiliar youth.

"Iron Stele Martial Hall, after all these years, has the Refining Liquid from my Chen Martial Arts Academy been useful?" Chen Xu spoke first, placing himself on the moral high ground.

He was not yet powerful enough to run amok through Jinning Commandery. At a time like this, finding an excuse to strike was never a bad thing.

Quite a few new disciples looked baffled. What was "Refining Liquid"? They had never even heard of it.

The Iron Stele master's expression changed slightly at Chen Xu's words. He instinctively turned his gaze away, not daring to meet his eyes.

All his life, he had sought only a clear conscience. Yet for the sake of that exceptionally gifted child, he had broken his rule once in the end.

A child like Wen Fan should not spend his entire life in a martial hall in a small commandery like this. His talent deserved better martial arts and better resources.

His lips moved slightly, but he stopped himself from speaking.

Forcing a smile and suppressing the turmoil in his heart, he said, "So it is Master Chen of Chen Martial Arts Academy. Please come inside so we may talk."

"Master, he came here to challenge the hall!" The gatekeeping disciple looked confused. The visitor was acting so arrogantly—shouldn't they beat him senseless first and talk later?

The Iron Stele master pretended not to hear his disciple. The corner of his eye swept over Wen Fan on the bluestone, and when he saw that Wen Fan was expressionless, as though he were merely watching the excitement, he secretly sighed in relief.

He truly did not want to leave Wen Fan with the impression that he was some thief or bandit.

Chen Xu had originally been ready to start fighting the moment he entered, but the hall master was being rather polite. From the look of it, had he long since prepared to compensate him?

Or were several hundred axemen lying in ambush inside, waiting to smash a cup as their signal?

After confirming that no one was deliberately hiding inside, Chen Xu followed the Iron Stele master. He wanted to see what kind of play this was.

Once inside, the Iron Stele master sent away the cleaners. Only after confirming that there was not a single disciple left nearby did he close the door.

"My name is Cheng Bin. I am unworthily the master of Iron Arm Martial Hall. May I ask how Master Chen is addressed?"

"Chen Xu." Chen Xu replied flatly. He truly could not figure out what Master Cheng was thinking now.

"Master Chen, regarding the Refining Liquid, I did not openly address the matter outside. It was not because I did not wish to repay it, only..."

Cheng Bin glanced at the door again, then gritted his teeth. "I hope you can grant me a little more time. Once this year's Martial Hall Exchange Tournament is over, I will return every bit of the Refining Liquid borrowed over the past few years."

"When you took the Refining Liquid from my martial academy, Master Cheng, you never obtained our permission. What exactly do you mean by this now?"

After exchanging a few words, Chen Xu realized that Master Cheng was like an honest man who knew he had done something wrong. He knew it was wrong, but for certain reasons, he still did it, and thus spent every day suffering condemnation from his own conscience.

Some villains did not have such troubles. As long as I have no morals, no one can condemn me on moral grounds.

After briefly explaining Wen Fan's situation, Cheng Bin changed the subject. "Master Chen, have you ever heard the term [Martial Form]?"

"Martial Form?" Chen Xu carefully searched through the memories of the original owner of this body, then lightly shook his head.

"Once a ranked martial art reaches a certain level, a Martial Artist's spirit and body will [fuse] with it—or perhaps [interact] with it?"

Even Cheng Bin found it difficult to describe that state, because he too had only heard the term from elsewhere. When he first heard it, he had not believed that anyone could reach such a level.

"Through this [fusion], a Martial Artist's physical qualities and spiritual presence undergo a tremendous leap. After that leap comes the so-called [Martial Form] level. In martial circles, they have a special honorific title: [Martial Artist].

"It is said that experts at the Martial Artist level possess the strength of a thousand jin. Some among them can even measure their power in tons. Their exhalations roar like thunder, and a single step carries them dozens of meters. Their strength is beyond our imagination."

"So you had no choice but to borrow the Refining Liquid from Chen Martial Arts Academy in order to nurture Wen Fan to that level?"

Chen Xu did not buy it at all. No matter how nicely Cheng Bin put it, what did it have to do with him whether Wen Fan could enter [Martial Form]? Not to mention that Cheng Bin was being generous with someone else's property, and without the owner's permission at that.

Cheng Bin seemed to have expected this long ago. He rose and took several brocade boxes from a drawer at the side.