Body Tempering

A few days after the bone assessment, the mule cart arrived.

Just after dawn, a flatbed cart stood beneath the old locust tree at the village entrance, pulled by a gray mule.

The driver was a graying old man in a short gray cloth jacket, with a dry tobacco pipe tucked into his belt. He leaned against the cart shaft and yawned.

Zhou Dashan carried Zhou Hong's bedding roll, while Hu followed behind, clutching a blue cloth bundle containing a change of clothes and dry rations.

Hu's eyes were red-rimmed, but she forced herself not to cry.

Zhou Tiezhu's father, Zhou Laogen, carried his bedding roll, while Zhou Tiezhu himself held a battered wicker trunk. Its lid would not close, so it had been bound twice with hemp rope. Zhou Laogen had borrowed money from the neighboring village the night before. There were dark circles beneath his eyes, yet his back stood straighter than usual.

The villagers formed a circle around them.

Zhou Dashan's voice was the loudest. He swept a glance over the villagers. "Train hard when you get to Heavenly Peak Martial Arts Hall! Don't bring shame upon Willow Village!"

Zhou Hong nodded and boarded the cart with his head lowered.

Zhou Tiezhu patted his father on the shoulder without saying a word, then followed him onto the cart.

The old driver put the tobacco pipe in his mouth and flicked the reins.

The mule snorted, stamped its hooves twice, and the flatbed cart creaked onto the official road.

Hu finally could not hold it in any longer and covered her mouth with her sleeve.

Zhou Laogen stood there, his lips moving, but no sound came out.

He watched until the mule cart turned past the earthen slope and vanished behind the roadside poplars before slowly squatting down.

The villagers dispersed. Those who needed to work the fields went to the fields; those who needed to carry water carried water.

That day, Zhou Yan was by the well. It stood at the eastern end of the village, not far from the official road.

He had raised his water bucket halfway when he watched from afar as the mule cart became a black speck at the end of the road.

The rope rested against the well's rim for several breaths. Once the bucket had filled, he bent down, hauled it up, set the carrying pole across his shoulders, and left.

Another two months passed.

Zhou Yan carried fourteen taels of broken silver in his bosom, while a string of copper coins jingled in his pocket. As he walked, he kept a hand pressed over them.

After entering the city, he went to the salt shop first.

Two taels of coarse salt cost five copper coins. The clerk seemed to recognize him and gave him an extra look as he handed it over.

Zhou Yan put away the salt and, after leaving the shop, did not head back.

He turned through two alleys and entered the medicine shop. The clerk behind the counter was still the same tall, thin man with a goatee.

Zhou Yan had remembered him from the last time he bought two packets. The man did not talk much, but he wrapped goods briskly.

"Four packets of Body-Tempering Decoction."

The clerk raised his brows, turned around, and took four oil-paper packets from the medicine cabinet, stacking them on the counter with four quick slaps.

Each oil-paper packet was palm-sized and tightly packed. Up close, they carried a sharp, spicy medicinal scent.

Zhou Yan took out his silver. He lined twelve taels of broken silver across the counter.

Then he tied the four oil-paper packets into a stack with hemp string and tucked them beneath the salt in the salt bag.

When he left the city gate, the sun was high overhead.

There were few people on the official road.

As Zhou Yan walked, he touched the four hard oil-paper packets beneath the salt in his bag.

His pockets were empty now, but his heart felt steadier instead. There was no turning back!

Fourteen taels of silver, all thrown into these four packets of medicine. Together with the previous two packets, he now had six packets of Body-Tempering Decoction.

Whether he could temper his body depended on this attempt!

His days were drawn taut like a bowstring.

He farmed by day and entered the woods at night, never missing a single day.

He used the third packet of Body-Tempering Decoction on the tenth night. He poured it into a wooden bucket, stirred it evenly, soaked a cloth towel through, and rubbed it over his body.

The searing pain still surged up fiercely. Zhou Yan gritted his teeth, but this time it faded more quickly.

After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the medicine seeped deep into his flesh. He hurriedly stood and rolled his shoulders.

His joints crackled, sharper than before.

Stake stance!

[Basic Stance Art: Beginner 68/100]

By the time he stopped, the moon had already crossed half the sky.

Zhou Yan casually wiped his face with his sleeve and opened Mountain-Breaking Fist.

The second form, Stone-Rending, was becoming increasingly familiar. When his fist struck the locust tree, the tremor traveled from his wrist to his shoulder, but it no longer scattered as it had before.

The force gathered upon his knuckles.

Crack.

Another fissure split open in the trunk, two inches longer than the last.

[Mountain-Breaking Fist Beginner: 51/100]

The skin on the back of his hand had split, and a few beads of blood seeped out. Zhou Yan ignored them, rubbed his hand against his trousers, and continued punching, sweat pouring down like rain.

By the time he finished the fourth packet of Body-Tempering Decoction, another twenty days had passed.

Ever since using the Body-Tempering Decoction, Zhou Yan had discovered that his progress was accelerating.

After applying the medicine, it felt as though his body had been wrapped in a layer of warm mud—heavy, yet comfortable.

His body was changing. His shoulders had broadened by more than a finger's width.

The muscles in his arms bulged, and beneath his sun-darkened skin, the lines of his sinews and muscles could faintly be seen.

The number representing his stake stance proficiency kept climbing.

When he used the fifth packet of Body-Tempering Decoction, the changes became even more obvious.

Once the medicinal liquid was rubbed on, the searing pain was nearly gone.

Only a warm, permeating sensation remained, like hot water flowing over his skin and seeping into the gaps between flesh and bone.

His body had already adapted to the tempering.

When he sank deep into the stake stance and closed his eyes, he could sense the changes within his body.

His bones were growing heavier, his tendons tightening, and the flesh beneath his skin cinching tighter layer by layer.

His stake stance was closing in on ninety.

His fist technique was being honed as well.

When he threw the second form, Stone-Rending, the twisting force of his wrist became increasingly penetrating.

One punch smashed into the locust tree. Its bark exploded apart, and cracks sank three inches into the wood.

When he withdrew his fist, the calluses on the back of his hand faintly whitened.

He began practicing the third form, Mountain-Crushing.

The booklet contained only a few sparse lines about the third form: "Gather the strength of the entire body at a single point and erupt in an instant. When the fist strikes, it is like a mountain collapsing."

Strangely, there was no illustration!

Zhou Yan pondered those few lines for several nights.

Gather the strength of the entire body at a single point!

How was he supposed to gather it?

He tried to find the feeling while holding the stake stance.

He pressed his knees down, gripped the earth with his toes, and guided the force upward from the soles of his feet—through his calves, thighs, waist, back, shoulders, and into his fist.

This was not force exerted in separate stages. It was a single current of power running from the soles of his feet straight to his fist.

He had found it!

At once, he threw a punch at the locust tree.

Bang—

The entire tree shook.

The leaves above his head rustled down, carpeting the ground.

The skin over his knuckles split, the back of his hand burned fiercely, and beads of blood seeped out.

Around the sixtieth day.

The final packet of Body-Tempering Decoction.

Zhou Yan held the stake stance for an hour. Sweat soaked through his short shirt, making it cling damply to his body.

His legs felt as heavy as if filled with lead. His knees were pressed down until they were nearly parallel to the ground, and the muscles at the roots of his thighs were taut as fully drawn bowstrings.

With his eyes closed, he breathed steadily.

Then he felt it.

Something deep within his body loosened.

A stream of heat shot up from his tailbone.

It traveled all the way up his spine. Every place it passed, his bones crackled and popped.

The heat passed his waist, his back, and his shoulders, rushing all the way to the back of his head.

Zhou Yan clenched his teeth, his cheeks bulging.

His body was tightening, the sinews and bones beneath his skin seeming to be gripped by an invisible hand.

Several breaths later, the heat dispersed.

Zhou Yan opened his eyes.

Three lines of text naturally appeared in his vision.

[Basic Stance Art: Minor Mastery 1/200]

[Mountain-Breaking Fist: Minor Mastery 1/200]

[Realm Breakthrough: Body-Tempering Realm]

He clenched his fist.

His knuckles crackled, the sound deep and solid.

He lowered his head and looked at his hand. The calluses remained, as did the scars from torn skin, but the sinews and bones beneath that skin were no longer the same as before.

When he made a fist, he could feel a solid force running from his palm straight through to his shoulder.

He stood there for a moment, then walked over to the locust tree beside him.

The trunk was covered in fist marks, shattered bark, splitting cracks, and sunken pits.

All his effort had been carved into this tree.

He twisted his waist, turned his hips, and threw a punch.

His fist crashed into it.

Bang!

The bark burst apart. The trunk caved in half an inch, and a crack shot two inches upward from the fist mark.

Zhou Yan withdrew his fist and looked at the new mark.

After several breaths, he let out a breath.

After Body Tempering came Qi Gathering.

Only after Qi Gathering could one be considered a true Martial Adept.

The road ahead was still long!