Body Tempering

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

At 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, but she forced herself not to cry.

Zhou Tiezhu's father, Zhou Laogen, carried his bedding roll. Zhou Tiezhu himself held a battered wicker case whose lid would not close, tied shut with two loops of hemp rope. Zhou Laogen had borrowed money from the neighboring village the night before. Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, yet his back was straighter than usual.

The villagers gathered in a circle.

Zhou Dashan had the loudest voice. He looked over the villagers and said, "Train hard when you get to Heavenly Peak Martial Arts Hall! Don't bring shame to Willow Village!"

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

Zhou Tiezhu patted his father's shoulder without saying a word, then climbed aboard after him.

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

The mule snorted, stamped its hooves twice, and the 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 rounded the earthen slope and vanished behind the poplars lining the road, then slowly crouched down.

The villagers dispersed. Those who needed to work the fields went to the fields, and those who needed water went to fetch it.

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 lifted the water bucket halfway when he watched the mule cart in the distance become a black speck at the end of the road.

The rope remained still on the well's edge for several breaths. Once the bucket had filled, he bent down, lifted it, set it on the shoulder pole, and left.

Another two months passed.

Zhou Yan carried fourteen taels of loose silver in his breast and a string of copper coins jingling in his pocket, pressing a hand over them as he walked.

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

Two catties of coarse salt cost five copper coins. The clerk seemed to recognize him and gave him an extra look as he passed them over.

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

He turned through two alleys and entered the pharmacy. The same clerk stood behind the counter, a tall, thin man with a goatee.

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

"Four packets of Body-Tempering Decoction."

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

The packets were palm-sized and tightly packed. Up close, they gave off a pungent medicinal smell.

Zhou Yan took the silver from his breast and laid out twelve taels of loose silver across the counter.

He promptly tied the four oil-paper packets into a bundle with hemp string and stuffed them beneath the salt in the sack.

By the time 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 sack.

His pocket was empty of silver, but his heart felt steadier instead. There was no turning back now!

All fourteen taels of silver had gone into these four packets of medicine. Together with the previous two, he now had six packets of Body-Tempering Decoction.

Whether he could achieve Body Tempering depended on this attempt!

His days stretched taut as a bowstring.

He farmed during the 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 in it, and wiped it over his body.

The searing pain still surged through him, and 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 cracked, the sound even crisper 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 carelessly 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 shock traveled from his wrist to his shoulder, but it no longer dispersed as it had before.

The force gathered over his knuckles.

Crack.

Another split appeared in the trunk, two inches longer than the last one.

[Mountain-Breaking Fist Beginner: 51/100]

The skin on the back of his hand had split, beading with blood. Zhou Yan ignored it, rubbed it against his trousers, and kept 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 found his progress growing faster and faster.

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

His body was changing. His shoulders had widened by more than a finger's breadth.

The muscles in his arms bulged. Beneath his sun-darkened skin, the contours of his sinews and muscles were faintly visible.

The number for his Stake Stance proficiency continued climbing.

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

When the medicine touched his skin, the searing pain was almost gone.

Only a warm, penetrating 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 entered the depths of his stance practice and closed his eyes, he could sense the changes within his body.

His bones had grown heavier, his sinews tightened, and the flesh beneath his skin was drawing tight layer by layer.

His stance proficiency was nearing ninety.

His fist technique was also being honed.

When he unleashed the second form, Stone-Rending, the force of his twisting wrist became more and more penetrating.

One punch struck the locust tree, bursting the bark apart and splitting the wood three inches deep.

When he drew back his fist, the calluses on the back of his hand turned faintly white.

He began practicing the third form, Mountain-Crushing.

The manual gave only a few brief lines for the third form: "Gather the strength of the entire body at one point and unleash it in an instant. Let the fist strike 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 one point!

How was he supposed to gather it?

He tried to find the feeling while holding his stance.

He pressed his knees down, curled his toes against the ground, and let the force travel upward from the soles of his feet—through his calves, thighs, waist, back, and shoulders, all the way to his fist.

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

He found it!

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

Bang—

The entire tree shook.

Leaves above his head rustled down, carpeting the ground.

The skin over his knuckles split, the back of his hand burning as beads of blood seeped out.

Around the sixtieth day.

The last packet of Body-Tempering Decoction.

Zhou Yan held his stance for two hours. Sweat soaked through his short shirt, making it cling stickily to his body.

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

His eyes were closed, his breathing steady.

Then he felt it.

Something deep within his body loosened.

A hot current surged up from his tailbone.

It traveled straight up his spine. Each place it passed made his bones crackle and pop.

The hot current passed his waist, his back, and his shoulders, surging all the way to the back of his head.

Zhou Yan clenched his teeth, his cheeks bulging.

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

Several breaths later, the hot current dispersed.

Zhou Yan opened his eyes.

Three lines of text naturally appeared in his vision.

[Basic Stance Art: Minor Achievement 1/200]

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

[Realm Breakthrough: Body-Tempering Realm]

He clenched his fist.

His knuckles cracked, the sound deep and solid.

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

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

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

The trunk was covered in fist marks, shattered bark, cracks, and dents.

All his effort had been carved into this tree.

He twisted his waist, turned his hips, and punched.

His fist slammed into it.

Bang!

The bark burst apart. The trunk dented by 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!