Taking a Master

Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall stood at the end of South Street in Anping County. Its two faded wooden doors stood open, and a plaque hung above them.

The four characters for "Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall" were written across it in bold, vigorous strokes, said to be the work of someone important.

The sky had barely begun to lighten when Ye An arrived.

People were already practicing martial arts inside.

A burly young man stood in the middle of the courtyard practicing Azure Cloud Finger. Each thrust brought a low rush of air, and the blue bricks beneath his feet creaked under his weight.

His name was Zhao Tieshan. He looked to be in his early twenties, with thick brows, large eyes, and an honest face, yet every thrust of his finger was fierce.

Beside Zhao Tieshan stood a younger boy of seventeen or eighteen, arms folded across his chest, looking rather pleased with himself.

His black hair was tied behind his head, and his features were handsome. His clothes were not silk, but the fabric was plainly finer than anything an ordinary person wore.

In a corner, a girl in blue-green clothes was wrapping strips of cloth around a Wooden Dummy, her movements practiced and sure.

"New here?"

Ye An turned and saw a round-faced boy smiling at him.

The boy wore a brocade robe and a fine jade pendant at his waist. One glance told Ye An he had money to spare.

He held a folding fan, though the weather gave him no reason to use one. It simply made him look grand.

"Ye An," Ye An said.

"Qian Duoduo." The round-faced boy grinned and looked Ye An up and down. His gaze paused on Ye An's bandaged fingers. "Your hand... have you practiced before?"

"I heard Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall taught Azure Cloud Finger, so I tried working it out at home."

"That's the spirit." Qian Duoduo raised a thumb and lowered his voice. "Let me tell you, our hall might not have much else going for it, but the master is the real deal. Know where he came from?"

Ye An shook his head.

"The Four Symbols Sect." Qian Duoduo spoke the name with the particular awe a small-town resident reserved for a high official from the capital.

"The Sect with the four inheritances: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise!"

Ye An's heart stirred.

In the ten years since he had crossed over, he had never trained in martial arts, but he had heard the things everyone knew.

"The hall master came from the Four Symbols Sect?" Ye An asked.

"Shh." Qian Duoduo pressed a finger to his lips. "Don't go telling everyone. The hall master used to be a disciple of the Four Symbols Sect. They say his Azure Cloud Finger is an introductory body-tempering art from its Vermilion Bird Branch. Master all four layers, and you can advance straight to the Meridian Opening Realm."

"Don't listen to his nonsense."

A booming voice came from behind them.

The burly young man who had been practicing Azure Cloud Finger had finished at some point and was walking toward them.

Zhao Tieshan wore a short gray jacket that exposed his thick forearms. Veins stood out along them, the unmistakable result of years of training.

"Senior Brother." Qian Duoduo cupped his hands with a grin.

Zhao Tieshan ignored him and looked at Ye An. "You're the newcomer?"

"Yes. I'm Ye An."

"Zhao Tieshan." The senior disciple of Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall gave his name briefly. "Have you had your aptitude tested?"

"Upper-grade C."

Zhao Tieshan's expression did not change, but the handsome boy beside him let out a soft scoff.

"Upper-grade C?" The boy walked over and circled Ye An as though inspecting some curiosity. "You came to learn martial arts with aptitude that lousy?"

"Lin Shaoyun, that's enough." Zhao Tieshan frowned and cut him off.

Lin Shaoyun shrugged and said nothing more, though he made no effort to hide his disdain.

The girl in blue-green clothes had finished wrapping the cloth. She raised her head and, hearing the commotion, said calmly, "Ignore them. Poor aptitude doesn't matter. Comprehension and strength of character also determine whether someone can learn martial arts."

She did not speak loudly, but everyone in the courtyard heard her clearly.

Lin Shaoyun pursed his lips. He agreed with that.

But aptitude determined how low a person's limits lay.

Upper-grade C? It's passable. First Body Tempering might just be within reach.

Zhao Tieshan turned to Ye An. "Come on. I'll take you to meet the master."

Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall was not large. The training ground lay at the front, with a small courtyard behind it.

An old locust tree grew in the courtyard, and a bamboo chair stood beneath it.

A middle-aged man in his forties sat in the chair, holding a cup of tea and drinking at an unhurried pace.

His face was lean, his cheekbones slightly high, and his eyes as still as a pool of dead water, betraying neither joy nor anger.

He wore a somewhat faded blue-green robe with the sleeves rolled up. A deep scar marked one exposed wrist, as though a sharp blade had cut across it.

This was Su Yuanshan, the master of Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall.

"Hall Master." Zhao Tieshan stood at the courtyard entrance and cupped his fists. "The new student is Ye An. He'd like to study under you."

Su Yuanshan raised his eyes and glanced at Ye An.

"Upper-grade C?"

Ye An froze for a moment, then understood.

"Yes." Ye An cupped his fists. "Please accept me, Hall Master."

Su Yuanshan did not answer at once. He lifted his teacup and took another sip. "Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall doesn't choose students by aptitude, but fate matters. Can you endure hardship?"

There was only one thing that mattered when the hall took in students—whether they could pay the tuition.

"I can."

"Have you trained in martial arts before?"

"No."

"Then do you have the resolve?"

Ye An was silent for a moment. "My aptitude is poor, my family doesn't have much money, and I have neither connections nor resources. But I have time!"

"If someone else trains for one hour a day, I'll train for two. If they train for two, I'll train for four!"

"I have no other advantage, but I can... persevere."

The courtyard fell quiet for a moment.

Qian Duoduo stood in the distance. Hearing those words, he snapped his folding fan shut.

Some of the disdain faded from Lin Shaoyun's face. His impression of Ye An had improved considerably, though his opinion remained unchanged.

Easy to say.

Zhao Tieshan said nothing. He merely gave Ye An, the hall's newest junior disciple, a long look.

Su Yuanshan set down his teacup and stood.

"Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall's introductory technique is called Azure Cloud Finger. It is a foundational finger technique of the Four Symbols Sect's Vermilion Bird lineage."

"The First Layer trains finger strength. You strike stone with a finger and drive your force three-tenths of the way through. Mastering it brings you to First Body Tempering."

"The second layer trains you to break defenses. You pierce wood with a finger and drive your force seven-tenths of the way through. It corresponds to Second Body Tempering."

"The third layer is Piercing Gold. You pierce metal with a finger and drive your force nine-tenths of the way through. It corresponds to Third Body Tempering."

"The fourth layer is called Mystic Penetration. Through the finger, you enter the Dao and can reach the Meridian Opening Realm."

Su Yuanshan spoke slowly, enunciating every word.

Ye An listened intently, missing nothing.

Su Yuanshan took a thin booklet from his sleeve and handed it over.

"These are the chants and training methods for the First Layer. Practice for one hour every morning and evening. If you manage to get started, that will be good enough."

Ye An took it with both hands and opened it to the first page.

A few lines were written there.

"Strike stone with a finger; drive your force three-tenths through. A thousand strikes a day; success in a hundred days."

Su Yuanshan pointed to the blue stone slabs in the corner of the courtyard. "Those are for training. Start with the smallest one. Once a single thrust can leave a finger hole an inch deep, you'll have achieved a measure of mastery."

But even the smallest blue stone slab was as thick as a palm.

"Tuition is three taels a month. Buy your own medicinal materials; the hall doesn't provide them. Pay the next month's tuition at the end of each month. If you can't pay, don't come back."

With that, Su Yuanshan sat down in his bamboo chair again, picked up his teacup, and stopped looking at Ye An.

That was the entire ceremony of becoming a disciple.

No serving tea, no kowtowing, no formal master-disciple bond.

Pay the money, receive the body-tempering art, and you were a student of Green Bamboo Martial Arts Hall.

Ye An put away the booklet, took six taels of silver from his robe, and paid for the following month in advance.

"This is for next month."

Su Yuanshan glanced at the silver but did not touch it.

Zhao Tieshan came over and patted Ye An on the shoulder. "Come on. I'll take you to the training ground and show you where to practice."

Ye An followed Zhao Tieshan back to the front courtyard.

Zhao Tieshan pointed to a spot in the corner. "The stone slab there was just replaced. Use that one."

"Thank you, Senior Brother."

Zhao Tieshan smiled. "We're not too formal here. Su Qing is your senior sister, Lin Shaoyun is your second senior brother, and I'm your eldest senior brother. You can call everyone else by name."

"Su Qing?"

"She's the one who spoke up earlier." Zhao Tieshan nodded toward the corner. "The hall master's daughter."

Ye An glanced at the girl in blue-green clothes.

Qian Duoduo sidled over and lowered his voice. "Senior Sister Su is kind, but she has a bit of a temper. Whatever you do, don't provoke her."

Su Qing heard him and turned to look. Qian Duoduo hurried away at a trot.

Ye An paid it no mind. He walked to the corner and studied the blue stone slab before him.

It was as thick as a palm, its rough surface covered in fine grain.

Ye An drew a deep breath, extended his right index finger, aimed at the slab, and thrust hard.

The slab did not budge. He had not even left a pale mark.

Pain shot through the bones of his finger.

The next instant, a small pop-up appeared before Ye An's eyes.

[Azure Cloud Finger: 1/100]

Ye An froze, then thrust at the slab dozens more times.

[Azure Cloud Finger: 1/100]

No change.

Still one.

"That hard to train?" Ye An muttered.

A derisive laugh sounded behind him.

"Upper-grade C, and you're learning martial arts? Got money to burn?"

The speaker was a boy in a brocade robe. Two or three others stood beside him, laughing along.

"Zhou Yuanlong, he just got here. That's enough." Su Qing put down the strips of cloth and stopped him.

Zhou Yuanlong snorted but mocked Ye An no further. He turned back to chatting with the others.

Ye An committed Zhou Yuanlong's name to memory.

He ignored him and kept practicing.

Thirty strikes.

Fifty strikes.

A hundred strikes!

[Azure Cloud Finger: 1/100]

His finger had swollen a little.

Three hundred strikes.

[Azure Cloud Finger: 2/100]

Five hundred strikes.

[Azure Cloud Finger: 3/100]

Ye An shook out his numb finger and began to understand why people with poor aptitude struggled to master the art.

In the same amount of time, someone else might gain two or three points from a hundred strikes. He had to strike more than a hundred times for one point.

Upper-grade C aptitude was simply less efficient.

That was the difference aptitude made.

But Ye An did not stop.

When others reached [Azure Cloud Finger: 99/100], they might be stuck for half a month, even a whole month!

If they failed to break through, their blood and qi might decline, dropping them back to [Azure Cloud Finger: 77/100].

But Ye An had [Sage of Martial Dao]!

He would not fail. He would only break through!

As long as he was willing to put in more time, he would be among those leading the way!

By evening, everyone else had left. He was alone on the training ground.

When Su Yuanshan came out of the back courtyard to bring in the clothes, he saw a boy in the corner still pitting himself against the blue stone slab.

The boy's index and middle fingers were wrapped in cloth, dark-red blood seeping through the strips.

Su Yuanshan said nothing and went back inside.

But as he passed the stone table, he glanced at the six taels Ye An had left there and paused.

"Two months, then? Very well." Su Yuanshan had seen plenty of students arrive full of enthusiasm, only to leave after their first month when they felt no change.

Quite a few, like Ye An, paid for two months up front.

But they could regret it too.

Would he regret it?

By the time Ye An returned home, night had fallen completely.

His father was still not back from the general store, and his eldest brother was studying in his room.

A bowl of congee and half a steamed bun were left on the table.

Ye An heated the congee, finished off the steamed bun, washed the bowl, and returned to his small room.

The feeling of poking the stone slab today repeated continuously in his mind, over and over again.

Angle, force, breathing.

All of it was replaying in his memory.

At this moment, Ye An's fingers were badly swollen, and touching anything hurt immensely.

Fortunately, there was medicinal ointment.

Ye An fished the newly bought ointment from his tunic and applied it to his fingers.

A cool, icy chill traveled straight from his fingertips to his forehead; although it hurt, it would make his recovery faster.

Otherwise, while today he had managed to gain four points of proficiency thanks to minor injuries, tomorrow he would likely struggle to get even a single one.

Presently, Ye An was still an ordinary person. He would get injured, and his rate of improvement in the early and middle stages certainly would not match the first day.

Therefore, the ointment appeared extremely important, as it could accelerate the healing rate of his injuries.

[Azure Cloud Finger: 4/100]

At this rate, three months should still be enough to reach First Body Tempering.

There's no use thinking too much. The urgent task at hand is to break the Azure Cloud Finger through to the First Layer and become a First Body Tempering martial artist; otherwise, everything is just an illusion.

First Body Tempering was only the first step.