Introduction to the Purple Residence

Seeing Deng Qing frown, Tu Wei said coldly, "Internal cultivation methods are not fist forms. If you practice a fist form wrong, at worst you'll end up black and blue.

If you practice an internal cultivation method wrong, what you injure are your viscera and breath.

If you can't even recite it by heart, anything I tell you will be wasted."

Deng Qing nodded and clasped his hands. "Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother Tu."

Tu Wei waved a hand and lowered his head to keep polishing the pot.

Deng Qing followed Fan Sheng out of the quiet room. Fan Sheng then took him to collect his white robes.

Before long, Deng Qing had changed into a white robe. Looking at himself in the bronze mirror, he could not help but feel dazed.

A month ago, he had still been sweeping the front gate, tying horses, and staring at the sheen of grease in the dogs' bowls beneath the corridor.

Now, he was a completely different man from before.

An irrepressible joy rose in his heart. Soon after, he lightly knocked his own head and thought, A ten-thousand-foot tower has only just had its first layer of earth laid. Remember—guard against arrogance and impatience.

At noon, Deng Qing entered the inner courtyard dining hall for the first time.

The dining hall's food was quite good. There was millet rice, three vegetable dishes, and a basin of stir-fried eggs glistening with oil.

Though there was no meat, it was far better than the cabbage soup and coarse grain cakes served to the laborers.

Deng Qing took his food and sat down, lowering his head to eat. It tasted exceptionally delicious to him.

After eating, Deng Qing walked off his meal, found a secluded corner, and began reciting the Violet Palace Method.

After memorizing a section, he would get up and perform a round of Tiger-Subduing Fist, consolidating his recitation as he practiced.

The obscure and tongue-twisting cultivation method was truly grinding. He could only gnaw through it bit by bit.

He kept memorizing and practicing until evening. After dinner, Deng Qing finally left Celebration Hall and headed home.

As he neared his shabby courtyard, Deng Qing suddenly stopped.

The courtyard gate was ajar, and several deep cart tracks marked the muddy ground beside it.

Deng Qing's heart sank sharply as he pushed the gate open and entered.

The offal lumps that had been piled against the wall, frozen hard as stone, were gone.

Deng Qing's expression immediately changed.

Though that offal was fishy, rank, and hard to eat, it was the only thing he currently had that could replenish his body in large quantities.

Fan Sheng had said that one function of cultivation methods was to refine supplements and meat into qi and blood.

Deng Qing had naturally felt this himself.

When there was oil and fat in his stomach, the progress of Tiger-Subduing Fist rose far faster than when he trained on empty.

Now that he could not afford meat, the only things left in his courtyard were those rock-hard frozen offal lumps.

Those treasures had been taken away. He could not endure it.

Deng Qing turned and left the courtyard, knocking on the door of Aunt Zhang next door.

Aunt Zhang poked her head out. The moment she saw him, unease appeared on her face.

Deng Qing clasped his hands and lowered his voice. "Aunt Zhang, did anyone come to my home this afternoon?"

Aunt Zhang glanced outside and hesitated before saying, "A few hands from a pork shop came. They said those things had only been left with you for safekeeping, and that the shop wanted them back now."

Deng Qing understood at once. After thanking Aunt Zhang, he headed straight for Five Blessings Butcher Shop.

Half the time it took to drink a cup of tea later, he arrived at Five Blessings Butcher Shop and smelled a foul stench from far away.

Several oil lamps were lit in the pig-slaughtering yard to the side. A few hands were busily washing intestines and lungs.

Wu Yun stood beside the chopping block, a boning knife in hand.

He was not surprised to see Deng Qing. Instead, he wore a smile.

"Junior Brother Deng is here."

Wu Yun put down the knife and clasped his hands first. "Congratulations. I heard you broke through Skin Tempering First Layer and were entered into Celebration Hall's register of named disciples."

Deng Qing clasped his hands as well. "Senior Brother Wu's news travels quickly."

Wu Yun smiled. "How could news of a joyous occasion for a fellow disciple not travel quickly?"

As he spoke, he pointed at a pork leg on the chopping block. "This is Senior Brother's congratulatory gift to you. Take it home and nourish yourself."

Deng Qing said, "Thank you for your kindness, Senior Brother. I presume you also know why I came."

Wu Yun sighed. "Those offal lumps—what we agreed on back then was that they would only be yours after you worked for me for a full month.

Now that you no longer need to work for me, those things naturally still belong to the butcher shop."

Deng Qing said, "That day, Senior Brother personally told me to haul them away, saying they would offset one month of work.

Yet now, while I was away, Senior Brother sent people to pry open my door and move them back.

If Senior Brother feels that is justifiable, then naturally I have nothing to say.

But Senior Brother is a man of standing. If this matter spread back to Celebration Hall, I wonder what everyone would say."

Wu Yun's expression changed.

He had thought Deng Qing was young and easy to manipulate, but he had not expected this fellow to be so courteous and measured, neither overbearing nor servile.

He was not afraid of Deng Qing resorting to violence, but he was afraid Deng Qing would go shouting about it at Celebration Hall.

After all, he was still a businessman. Ruining his reputation would harm him in the long run.

"Junior Brother Deng, why make your words so heavy?"

He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "I have no choice either. The butcher shop is not mine alone; several families have shares in it.

When those offal lumps were worthless, giving them to you was no great matter.

But who knows what has happened in the market lately? Everyone is scrambling for them like mad, saying they contain Visceral True Force and can help one break through a bottleneck.

Now these things have become treasures. If I still let you take them away as you please, it would be difficult to answer to the other shareholders."

Deng Qing was startled. He had not expected the root of the matter to lie with himself.

Seeing that Deng Qing still said nothing, Wu Yun frowned. "Junior Brother, if I compensated you with three or five taels of silver, that would be looking down on you. How about this? From now on, come here for extra meals."

Deng Qing's thoughts stirred.

Wu Yun said, "Leaving aside anything else, I can spare a bowl of meat and half a jin of pig blood for you every day."

He pointed toward the rear courtyard again. "Whenever there is a big job, there will also be bone broth, scraps of meat, and trimmings. I can feed you until you are stuffed.

Let us set the limit at three months. How about it?"

Deng Qing did not agree immediately.

He quickly calculated in his heart.

Those offal lumps looked as though they filled half the courtyard, but after the filth was removed and they were washed clean, there would only be five or six hundred jin.

After blanching, another thirty percent would be lost.

Besides, offal was ultimately inferior to proper meat—fishy, rank, and unpleasant to eat.

If he could truly eat extra meals at Wu Yun's place for three months, with meat and blood every day, it might not be worse than that pile of offal.

Deng Qing did not wish to make things too ugly with Wu Yun either. "Since Senior Brother has put it this way, I will cooperate."

"Junior Brother is straightforward."

Wu Yun turned and went inside. Before long, he brought out a key and handed it to Deng Qing. "There is a small room beside the butcher shop, usually used by the hands to rest their feet.

From now on, at a quarter past the hour of the monkey each day, I will leave food there. You can unlock the door and eat inside yourself."

Deng Qing accepted the key and thanked Wu Yun.

Wu Yun waved a hand. "Take that pork leg back today too. Consider it Senior Brother's congratulations on your breakthrough."

"Thank you."

Deng Qing did not stand on ceremony. Carrying the pork leg, he left.

In the blink of an eye, five days passed. Deng Qing finally memorized the Violet Palace Method and went to seek Tu Wei's instruction.

After testing him, Tu Wei immediately pointed to the little figure diagrams in the booklet and began explaining. "...The Purple Residence is not an actual residence. It is a place of visualization, meant to gather and restrain your mind so your breath does not run wild...

The Scarlet Palace does not mean you are truly supposed to find a palace in your chest either..."

Deng Qing listened with utmost focus.

Previously, he had forcibly memorized the entire text, and it had been nothing but a tangled mass in his mind. Now, as Tu Wei unpacked it bit by bit, those mysterious and unfathomable terms were like floating ice soaking in water, gradually melting away.

Tu Wei explained for half a shichen before telling Deng Qing to begin practicing.

The Violet Palace Method was indeed difficult to grasp. Deng Qing made mistake after mistake.

Tu Wei was patient and did not rush him.

In this way, Deng Qing spent another three days before he could finally circulate his qi through one full cycle according to the Violet Palace Method on his own.

That evening, just as Deng Qing completed his qi circulation, a thought stirred, and a clear radiance appeared.

[Heaven helps those who help themselves; no effort is wasted]

[Realm: Skin Tempering First Layer]

[Tiger-Subduing Fist: 57% (Minor Accomplishment)]

[Violet Palace Method: 1% (Beginner)]

Looking at the Violet Palace Method displayed before him, Deng Qing thought, At last, I have entered the lane.