Tu Wei saw Deng Qing frown and said coldly, "An Internal Cultivation Method isn't a boxing form. If you get a boxing form wrong, at worst you'll fall and end up black and blue.
If you get an Internal Cultivation Method wrong, you'll damage your organs and disrupt your breathing.
If you haven't memorized it, anything I tell you will be wasted."
Deng Qing nodded and cupped his hands. "Thank you for the guidance, Senior Brother Tu."
Tu Wei waved a hand and went back to wiping his teapot.
Deng Qing followed Fan Sheng out of the Quiet Chamber. Afterward, Fan Sheng took him to collect a white robe.
Before long, Deng Qing had changed into it. Looking at himself in the bronze mirror, he felt a moment of disbelief.
A month ago, he had still been sweeping the front entrance and tethering horses, eyeing the sheen of oil in the dog bowl beneath the corridor.
Now he was a different person altogether.
An irrepressible joy rose in his heart. Soon, though, he gave himself a light tap on the head and thought, A ten-thousand-foot tower has only just begun with its first layer of earth. Remember: no pride, no impatience.
At noon, Deng Qing entered the Inner Courtyard Dining Hall for the first time.
The food was good: millet rice, three vegetable dishes, and a basin of fried eggs glistening with oil.
There was no meat, but it was far better than the cabbage soup and coarse-grain cakes the laborers got.
Deng Qing sat down with his food and tucked in. Every bite tasted delicious.
After eating, Deng Qing took a little time to digest, found a secluded corner, and began memorizing the Purple Residence Technique.
He recited a passage, then stood and ran through the Tiger-Subduing Fist, reinforcing what he had memorized as he punched.
The technique's knotty, tongue-twisting text was grinding him down. He could only gnaw through it bit by bit.
He kept reciting and practicing until dusk. After dinner, Deng Qing finally left Celebration Hall and headed home.
As he neared his ramshackle yard, Deng Qing stopped short.
The gate was ajar. Deep cart ruts marked the dirt beside it.
Deng Qing's heart sank. He pushed the gate open and went in.
The frozen lumps of offal that had been piled against the wall were gone.
Deng Qing's expression changed at once.
The offal was rank and unpleasant to eat, but right now it was the only thing he could get in large quantities to nourish his body.
Fan Sheng had said that one purpose of the technique was to refine tonics and meat into vital energy and blood.
Deng Qing had felt the difference himself.
When he had something substantial in his stomach, his Tiger-Subduing Fist progressed much faster than when he practiced on empty.
He could not afford meat now. The only food left in the yard had been those frozen lumps of offal.
Someone had taken those treasures. He could not let it stand.
Deng Qing turned, left the yard, and knocked on Aunt Zhang's door next door.
Aunt Zhang poked her head out. When she saw him, unease crossed her face.
Deng Qing cupped his hands and asked in a low voice, "Aunt Zhang, did anyone come to my house this afternoon?"
Aunt Zhang glanced outside and hesitated. "A few men from the butcher shop came. They said those things had only been left with you for safekeeping, and the shop was taking them back."
Deng Qing understood at once. He thanked Aunt Zhang and went straight to the Five Blessings Butcher Shop.
Half a cup of tea later, he arrived. The rank stench reached him from some distance away.
Several oil lamps burned in the pig-slaughtering yard at the side. A few workers were busy washing intestines and lungs.
Wu Yun stood beside the worktable, boning knife in hand.
He showed no surprise at Deng Qing's arrival. In fact, he smiled.
"Junior Brother Deng. You're here."
Wu Yun set down his knife and cupped his hands first. "Congratulations. I heard you broke through to Skin Tempering First Layer and had your name entered on Celebration Hall's roll of Named Disciples."
Deng Qing returned the gesture. "News travels fast, Senior Brother Wu."
Wu Yun smiled. "How could news this good about a fellow disciple travel slowly?"
As he spoke, he pointed to a pig leg on the table. "A gift to celebrate. Take it home and build up your strength."
Deng Qing said, "I appreciate the thought, Senior Brother, but I'm sure you know why I came."
Wu Yun sighed. "As for that offal, our agreement was that it would become yours once you'd worked for me for a full month.
Now that you no longer have to work, it naturally still belongs to the butcher shop."
Deng Qing said, "That day, you told me yourself to haul it away and said a month's work would cover it.
Now, while I was out, you sent men to pry open my gate and take it back.
If you think that's fair, I have nothing more to say.
But you're a man with a reputation, Senior Brother. I wonder what everyone at Celebration Hall would say if word got back to them."
Wu Yun's expression changed.
He had assumed Deng Qing would be easy to push around because he was young. Instead, the fellow was measured, courteous, and neither servile nor overbearing.
He was not afraid of Deng Qing getting rough. He was afraid of Deng Qing making a fuss at Celebration Hall.
After all, he was a businessman. A damaged reputation would hurt him in the long run.
"Junior Brother Deng, must you put it so harshly?"
He stepped closer and lowered his voice. "I had no choice. I'm not the sole owner of the butcher shop; several families have shares in it.
When that offal was worthless, I could give it to you and be done with it.
But I don't know what's happened in the market. Everyone's scrambling for it, saying it contains Visceral True Force and helps people break through.
Now it's become valuable. If I let you take it, I'd have a hard time answering to the other shareholders."
Deng Qing was startled. He had not expected himself to be the cause of it.
When Deng Qing still said nothing, Wu Yun frowned. "Junior Brother, offering you three or five taels of silver would be an insult. How about this? Come here for an extra meal from now on."
Deng Qing's interest stirred.
Wu Yun said, "At the very least, I can spare a bowl of meat and half a catty of pig's blood every day."
He pointed toward the Back Courtyard. "When we have a big job, there'll be bone broth, scraps of meat, and trimmings too. Enough to stuff you full.
Let's make it three months. What do you say?"
Deng Qing did not agree at once.
He quickly ran the numbers in his head.
The offal had looked as if it filled half the yard, but once the filth was removed and it was washed clean, there would be only five or six hundred catties.
Blanching it would take off another thirty percent.
Besides, offal was no match for proper meat. It stank and tasted awful.
If he could eat extra meals here for three months, with meat and blood every day, that might be no worse than keeping the offal.
Deng Qing did not want to fall out with Wu Yun completely, either. "Since you've put it that way, Senior Brother, I'll go along with it."
"Straight to the point, Junior Brother."
Wu Yun went inside and soon returned with a key, which he handed to Deng Qing. "There's a small room on the side of the butcher shop where the workers usually take their breaks.
From now on, I'll leave food there every day at a quarter past the shen hour. Let yourself in and eat."
Deng Qing took the key and thanked Wu Yun.
Wu Yun waved a hand. "Take that pig leg home too. Consider it my congratulations on your breakthrough."
"Thank you."
Deng Qing did not stand on ceremony. He picked up the pig leg and left.
Five days passed in a flash. Deng Qing finally memorized the Purple Residence Technique and sought out Tu Wei for instruction.
After testing him on a few passages, Tu Wei pointed to the little figure illustrated in the booklet and began explaining. "...The Purple Residence isn't an actual residence. It's a place you visualize to gather your mind and keep your breath from running wild...
The Scarlet Palace doesn't mean you should go looking for a real palace in your chest, either..."
Deng Qing listened intently.
Before, he had memorized the whole text by rote, but it had been a tangled mess in his head. Now, as Tu Wei took it apart and explained it piece by piece, those impossibly obscure terms melted away like floating ice in water.
Tu Wei spoke for half an hour, then told Deng Qing to try it.
The Violet Palace Method was indeed hard to begin. Deng Qing made mistake after mistake.
Tu Wei was patient, though, and did not hurry him.
And so another three days passed before Deng Qing could finally circulate his breath through one full cycle of the Violet Palace Method on his own.
That evening, just as Deng Qing completed a cycle, a thought stirred and Clear Radiance appeared.
[Heaven Helps Those Who Help Themselves, No Effort Is Wasted] [Realm: Skin Tempering First Layer] [Tiger-Subduing Fist: 57% (Minor Mastery)] [Violet Palace Method: 1% (Initiation)]
Looking at the newly displayed Violet Palace Method, Deng Qing thought, At last, I've found my way in.