Tiger Subduing

"Gentlemen, I'm with Celebration Hall!"

Deng Qing shouted urgently.

The two constables paused.

At that moment, a man turned in from the mouth of the alley. He was around twenty, dressed in a worn black uniform with a saber at his waist. Judging by his bearing, he was the head constable.

The head constable swept Deng Qing with a glance. "Where's your wooden badge?"

"It's at my waist."

"Untie him. Let him take it out."

"Boss, this... we haven't gathered enough heads yet..."

The head constable frowned and glared. The speaker immediately shut up and untied the hemp rope.

Deng Qing hurriedly pulled the wooden badge from his waist and offered it over with both hands.

The head constable took it, looked it over, and sneered. "You dare use Celebration Hall's name to muddle through things with nothing but an apprentice badge?"

"My master taught me well. I wouldn't dare use Celebration Hall's name to strut around and swindle people. Might I ask if you, sir, also came from Celebration Hall?"

Deng Qing's mind spun quickly as he continued, "I have duties at Celebration Hall, personally assigned by my master.

"If Senior Brother doesn't believe me, you can ask at Celebration Hall tomorrow morning."

The head constable paused, thinking, That should be true. After all, it would be far too easy to expose.

He said in a deep voice, "Even so, the corvée decreed by the county magistrate must be apportioned to every household and every able-bodied man. Either pay one tael and two mace as exemption money, or report for labor."

Deng Qing cupped his hands. "Please show some leniency, Senior Brother. Within one month at the latest, I will certainly deliver the labor fee."

"Boss, this—"

The head constable raised his eyes and swept them over the man. He immediately fell silent.

"Fine. One month."

The head constable tossed the wooden badge back into his arms. "Short even one copper coin, and we'll still take you."

Before Deng Qing could thank him again, he had already left with his men.

Only then did Deng Qing's soul settle back into his body. He clenched the badge and rubbed it again and again, feeling that the money he had risked his life to save over the past year or more had finally not gone down the drain.

After steadying himself somewhat, he hurried home.

He pushed open a broken wooden door to reveal a dilapidated courtyard. Deng Qing shut the door and, without resting, spread his stance in the yard.

After all, he had only just obtained the panel. Whether he could activate it a second time still hung over his heart.

He assumed the Crouching Body, extended the Reaching Claw, sank the Sinking Shoulder...

Once, twice, three times...

An hour later, snowflakes began drifting down from the sky, yet he did not stop.

As he continued, Deng Qing vaguely felt that the posture of his punches was gradually becoming more uniform, and his force flowed noticeably more smoothly.

He did not know which repetition it was when heat flashed before his eyes and the clear radiance appeared again.

[Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves; No Effort Is Wasted]

[Realm: Mortal]

[Tiger-Subduing Fist: 1% (Beginner)]

Deng Qing stared blankly at the light screen, savoring the words, "Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves; No Effort Is Wasted."

Taken literally, it meant that as long as one worked hard, one would be rewarded.

And from the look of it, the panel's scope of application should only be related to martial arts.

He stared at the words "Beginner" after "1%," thinking, As long as there's progress, it counts as beginner? That's way too simple and crude!

Then he carefully recalled his fist techniques. After this bout of bitter training, both his force and his stance seemed to have improved considerably.

Deng Qing thought, Could it be that with this panel's support, practicing martial arts requires neither talent nor innate constitution?

At that thought, Deng Qing's blood boiled. He resumed training and did not stop until he was utterly exhausted.

After finishing, he tried gathering it with his mind. This time, the clear radiance flashed again.

[Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves; No Effort Is Wasted]

[Realm: Mortal]

[Tiger-Subduing Fist: 1% (Beginner)]

Deng Qing stared at that 1%, somewhat puzzled. He had expected it to keep rising.

He secretly speculated, This probably isn't just a simple proficiency-grinding panel. Could it be that my qi and blood are insufficient, so they can't support the progress?

With that thought, he stopped training. He went into the room, plugged the drafts with two lumps of wet mud, then slept for two hours wrapped in a tattered quilt and a pile of straw.

Before dawn had fully broken, he crawled out of the straw, went outside, wiped his face with accumulated snow, and hurried to Celebration Hall.

By the time he arrived, Celebration Hall's gates were already open. Night dew had condensed on the stone steps, and dead leaves lay piled beside the hitching post on the left.

He found a broom and rag. Without waiting for anyone to order him, he first carried water out and sprinkled it over the ground to settle the loose dust, then began sweeping bit by bit from the threshold outward.

After sweeping the ground, he wiped the doorposts and polished the stone lions. He even used a bamboo sliver to pick out the mud and ash lodged between the bricks.

When Fan Sheng came out, he saw Deng Qing squatting beside a stone lion, sleeves rolled up. He was so thin that a section of wrist bone protruded, yet he worked with utmost seriousness.

Fan Sheng laughed. "You're much better than Old Chen. Whenever Old Chen sweeps, half the street ends up eating dust."

"Good morning, Senior Brother!"

Deng Qing hurriedly greeted him.

Fan Sheng waved a hand. "Get on with your work."

Half an hour later, Deng Qing ate breakfast in the kitchen with a group of laborers.

Breakfast consisted of baskets of coarse-grain flatbreads and a pot of cabbage soup.

Tiny flecks of oil floated on the soup's surface, while the cabbage leaves had been boiled soft and mushy. Those with good luck could even fish out a thin slice of fatty meat.

Deng Qing filled a bowl with soup and soaked a flatbread in it. After it absorbed the vegetable broth and turned into a mushy lump, he swallowed it down. It no longer scraped his throat so badly.

After three big bowls of steaming mush went into his stomach, his whole body felt at ease.

Once he finished eating, the others dispersed, but he voluntarily stayed behind to help in the kitchen.

After helping out, Deng Qing was preparing to leave when he ran straight into the head constable who had arrested him the night before.

The head constable saw him and paused, then nodded at him before heading toward the main hall. Along the way, people called him "Senior Brother Li."

Deng Qing asked around and learned that the head constable was named Li Liang. He served as a squad leader at the county yamen and was a registered disciple of Celebration Hall.

After that encounter, Li Liang indeed never came looking for him again.

Deng Qing's life also settled into a steady rhythm: eating, working, and practicing fist techniques.

In the blink of an eye, the day for fist instruction, held every fifth day, arrived.

Before the hour of the dragon had come, quite a few people were already standing in the front courtyard.

Some chatted and laughed in low voices, while others stretched their limbs. Deng Qing stood at the back. He was still terribly thin, but with proper meals in his belly, he had shed his sickly appearance.

Fan Sheng came out from beneath the corridor and had everyone first perform the first three forms of the Tiger-Subduing Fist once.

After watching, he called several outstanding students forward and had them demonstrate on the spot.

Among them, Li Cheng, Zhou Tie, and Wang Wei were the most outstanding.

After they finished demonstrating, Fan Sheng clicked his tongue and nodded. "Your skin membranes have already begun to swell. Endure a few more days, and Skin Tempering First Layer won't be far off."

Li Cheng immediately revealed a delighted expression.

Someone beside him could not help whispering, "So fast? It's only been ten days, hasn't it?"

Fan Sheng said, "Skin Tempering First Layer was never much of a hurdle."

"If you practice the Tiger-Subduing Fist correctly, keep up with tonics, and add medicinal baths and massage, it's nothing unusual to reach the threshold in ten days or half a month."

"Back then, Eldest Senior Brother Guo Songyang broke through Skin Tempering First Layer in just seven days."

A low murmur instantly rippled through the courtyard.

"Seven days?"

"That's far too fast."

Someone muttered, "How could that be the same? Senior Brother Guo's family is immensely wealthy. His home never lacked medicinal wine, ginseng soup, or potent medicines to replenish qi and blood. Naturally, he advanced quickly when pushed forward by medicine."

Fan Sheng glanced at him. "Having medicinal wine and supplements is also part of someone else's ability. Martial arts train the body. If the body is depleted, then no matter how diligently you practice your stances, it is only an empty millstone grinding."

Everyone fell silent.

Fan Sheng said no more. He turned and walked into the courtyard. "Today, I'll continue teaching the Tiger-Subduing Fist."

"Last time was Crouching Body, Reaching Claw, and Sinking Shoulder. Today, I'll teach three forms: Leaping Body, Scissoring Wrist, and Twisting Spine."

With that, Fan Sheng assumed his stance. He stamped down, and his body suddenly lunged forward.

In that lunge, his shoulders, back, waist, hips, and footwork all pressed outward as one. His entire body was like a fierce tiger that had crouched low before suddenly pouncing on prey.

"Leaping Body means seizing the centerline."

"Scissoring Wrist is not twisting the hand; it is cutting off the opponent's ability to exert force."

"Twisting Spine is sending out the force from the waist and back."

The three moves flowed together—lunge, shear, twist—clean, decisive, and ruthless.

After Fan Sheng demonstrated them three times in a row, everyone in the courtyard began practicing on their own.

Deng Qing closed his eyes and first ran the three moves through his mind several times before he started moving.

After practicing for a while, with Fan Sheng taking particular care of him and coming over from time to time to offer pointers, Deng Qing quickly smoothed out the forms.

Two hours later, everyone dispersed.

Deng Qing found a corner and practiced the three newly taught moves together with the previous three forms.

Half an hour later, the clear radiance appeared.

[Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves, No Effort Is Wasted]

[Realm: Mortal]

[Tiger-Subduing Fist: 13% (Beginner)]