The heavenly path of martial arts

"Senior Sister, are these new disciples? We have female disciples now? We've got junior sisters?"

When Lin Hao and the others arrived at the Martial Arts Ground, the disciples nearby had noticed them.

They simply hadn't dared let their attention wander or slack off during practice. Now that they had a brief break, several apprentices came over to ask about them.

The Wu Family Martial Arts School averaged only a dozen or so apprentices each month. With four newcomers arriving at once, their numbers had now passed twenty.

And with two female disciples among them, they naturally drew plenty of attention.

Even though the two women had made themselves look a little less attractive, they still stood out to people of this era.

These rough men who practiced martial arts usually only interacted with Wu Xin, who utterly outclassed them in combat, and the middle-aged women who did odd jobs. Some of the longer-serving apprentices had even started thinking those older women still had their charms.

With two young women suddenly appearing, the men practically howled.

"Two junior sisters and two junior brothers. Don't scare them. If anyone harasses them and I hear a complaint, I'll break his legs."

Wu Xin turned and swept her gaze over the apprentices.

Every one of them was more heavily built than Wu Xin, yet that single glance silenced them as though some instinctive fear had taken hold.

Knowing their senior sister, they were certain she wasn't just saying it. She really would break their legs!

"Come on, Senior Sister. We just wanted to get acquainted."

One male disciple who looked comparatively more scholarly laughed awkwardly.

He looked "scrawnier" than quite a few of the disciples beside him, but his muscles were exceptionally well proportioned, with a faint sense of power beneath them.

Liu Tong, the Martial Arts School's eldest senior brother who had previously stood behind Master Wu, also came over. Smiling, he reached out and gave the "scholarly" disciple a smack on the forehead.

"You brat, don't bring your outside antics in here. Now that you've finished mastering Whole-Body Force, settle down and consolidate it. Try to earn Master's favor and become an Inner-Chamber Disciple."

At those words, Lin Hao gave Qian Tao another look. So this was someone who had just successfully mastered Whole-Body Force and attained bright force?

He didn't look bulky at all. Apart from two apprentices whose sallow faces suggested they came from poor families, he was the "scrawniest" one there. His build was about the same as Lin Hao's after a month of training.

"Oh, come on, Senior Brother. I haven't gone to listen to singers in ages, precisely because I'm afraid of upsetting Master. But you can't expect your junior brother to grow old all alone."

Qian Tao wore a cheeky grin.

"They're Junior Brother Lin's family. Remember what I said earlier."

Wu Xin glanced at Qian Tao, seemingly not very fond of this junior brother.

Still, after attaining bright force, he was no longer an ordinary person, and she was somewhat more tolerant of him than of the other disciples.

"Of course, of course. How would I dare ignore your words, Senior Sister? I just wanted to make friends with Junior Brother Lin."

With that, he winked and waggled his eyebrows at Lin Hao, acting as though they were already close.

Lin Hao merely glanced at him without saying much.

Instead, he took the opportunity to ask Wu Xin,

"Senior Sister, has this senior brother already attained bright force? Why doesn't he look very muscular?"

Wu Xin couldn't help smiling at the question.

"I don't look very muscular either. Meat Training, Tendon Training, Organ Tempering, Marrow Training, and Spirit Training—these are the stages of our martial path, a method that leads straight to the heavenly heights. Before mastering bright force, there are two main steps. First, you strengthen your muscles through food and training methods. Then you unite those muscles into a whole, turning dead muscle into living muscle.

"Even without practicing martial arts, dockworkers and farmers can develop solid muscles through their labor, provided they get enough food. But muscles passively developed through repetitive labor are usually only suited to the work they've spent years doing. They may even develop particular ailments that impair certain movements..."

As Lin Hao listened, comparisons and a rough picture began forming in his mind.

People always said gym-goers had dead muscle and couldn't compare to manual laborers, but workers who performed the same strenuous tasks repeatedly were indeed prone to occupational ailments.

With the abundance of nutrition in modern society, people doing physical labor generally wouldn't lack nourishment. Most would fit the type Wu Xin described.

"The first step in martial arts is to activate and transform our muscles. Our muscles contain different types. Increasing the proportion of living muscle and controlling it freely matters more than total muscle mass. Only when you can control your muscles can you control your force."

"I think I understand a little now. Thank you for explaining, Senior Sister. Based on what you said earlier, if we keep practicing Crouching Tiger Fist to its utmost limits, can we reach the realm of seeing the divine, indestructible?"

Lin Hao had also heard Wu Xin say that their training methods led straight to the heavenly heights, and his eyes shone.

The Crouching Tiger Staff could grant a proficiency-level skill. If that could take him all the way to the heavenly heights, wouldn't that be incredible!

But Lin Hao's question brought a trace of helplessness to Wu Xin's pretty face. Before she could speak, Qian Tao burst out laughing.

"Junior Brother Lin, Senior Sister was only describing the direction of the greater path. The methods for reaching that destination still have their hurdles. Things are manageable when training the flesh for bright force. As long as you don't go overboard, you generally won't suffer serious injuries, and unusual pain will usually warn you.

"Once you finish mastering Whole-Body Force and start training your tendons, the difficulty rises. If you snap a tendon while training, you'll be crippled in an instant. Succeed, and your force can travel along your tendons, forming hidden force that lets you strike an ox through a mountain."

"After mastering hidden force, you use it to vibrate your internal organs. That's even more dangerous, because many organs can't feel pain. By the time you discover you've trained incorrectly, it may already be too late to save yourself. Uh, I don't know much beyond that, but Senior Sister probably only understands up to that stage too."

Wu Xin nodded.

"Junior Brother Qian Tao is broadly correct. Every training method and every school has its own strengths and accumulated knowledge, but in the end, all paths lead to the same destination.

"Our Crouching Tiger Fist lineage has perfected its methods for Meat Training and Tendon Training. We've also worked out more than half of the method for Organ Tempering. The remainder requires careful experimentation according to each person's constitution. As for Marrow Training, we've uncovered a little of that too. And martial artists like us don't shy away from practicing other training methods alongside our own. Many can complement one another."

Hearing this, Lin Hao gained a rough understanding. Crouching Tiger Fist could certainly take him reliably to hidden force. Reaching transforming force would require some personal experimentation with methods for Organ Tempering. As for Marrow Training, blood exchange, and pill embracing force beyond transforming force, the fact that Master Wu himself hadn't succeeded said enough.

It was even possible that Master Wu had made a mistake somewhere in his training and sustained a hidden injury.

"Then do we have to follow those steps?"

"Yes and no. Even without practicing martial arts, everyday labor exercises all parts of the body. It's simply far less efficient than martial training. And you don't need to turn every muscle into living muscle. Once you've mastered Whole-Body Force, you can begin trying to train your tendons. The same applies to Organ Tempering."

"That's why realms like bright force and hidden force only have entry, minor attainment, and major attainment stages. Unlike techniques, they don't have a perfection stage, because generally speaking, there's no such thing as 'perfection' in training methods. Even a grandmaster who has reached 'seeing the divine' wouldn't dare claim to have perfected training the flesh..."

By this point, Lin Hao had begun to understand.

Although martial training still required steady, step-by-step accumulation, the [Proficiency]-level Crouching Tiger Staff on his equipment could let him skip the entire process of familiarizing himself with the training method!

As long as he had enough nutrition and his body could withstand it, he would absolutely improve much faster than an ordinary person!

Senior Sister is right. Ordinary daily training can strengthen the fascia too; it's just a matter of degree. And with a proficiency-level skill right from the start, I might also be training my tendons to some extent while training my flesh, saving far more time than an ordinary person...

From their descriptions, the divisions within the major realms of martial cultivation in this world were relatively blurred. No wonder the broadcast had said it wasn't unusual for the weak to defeat the strong...