White Crane Skin Refinement Method

The night was deep and still.

Wei Sheng gazed at Wei He, who was already fast asleep.

Silently, he took his earlier spoils from inside his robe-

Two taels and three mace of loose silver!

A thin yellow booklet!

Setting the money aside, Wei Sheng focused on the little booklet.

"White Crane Skin Refinement Method?!"

Five large, crooked characters were scrawled across the yellow booklet's cover, making Wei Sheng's temper flare.

Fuck.

With handwriting this ugly, how am I supposed to read it?

But cursing was cursing, and fooling around was fooling around; cultivation was no laughing matter.

For Wei Sheng as he was now, picking up a martial art for free meant smoke was rising from his ancestors' graves in blessing. What right did he have to be picky?

A long while passed.

Wei Sheng closed the booklet, half shut his eyes, and rubbed their dry, gritty lids as he recalled the information recorded in it.

"White Crane Martial Arts Hall's basic skin refinement method... circulate blood and qi, temper the skin..."

The booklet contained a skin refinement method taught by the White Crane Martial Arts Hall when Niu Er had studied martial arts there.

The Four Gates of Body Tempering: skin, flesh, sinews, and bones!

Skin refinement was the first of the Four Gates of Body Tempering.

"That bastard really was willing to spend. He actually went to the White Crane Martial Arts Hall to train..."

The White Crane Martial Arts Hall was one of Black Mountain City's Four Great Martial Arts Schools, with excellent instructors and steep fees.

To study martial arts there, the tuition alone cost at least a dozen or so taels of silver.

But clearly, Niu Er had achieved little in his training.

Even the booklet he had painstakingly copied had ultimately fallen into Wei Sheng's hands for nothing.

Wei Sheng read through it twice more. Relying on his vastly improved memory after awakening the wisdom of his past life, he committed its contents to memory.

Then,

Wei Sheng burned the booklet outright.

Then he lay down and went straight to sleep!

[Dao Origin Points +1]

Early the next morning, Wei Sheng saw the updated information on the panel as soon as he woke.

"Allocate the point!"

Without hesitation, Wei Sheng put the additional Dao Origin Point into Savage Bull Fist.

As for the White Crane Skin Refinement Method...

Since he had yet to reach Entry, he could not allocate points to it for now.

Humm-

The instant the Dao Origin Point disappeared, Wei Sheng's consciousness entered that dark space once more, beginning day after day of grueling practice.

Only when a full year had passed did his consciousness leave that space, and a year's worth of experience and insights from diligently practicing Savage Bull Fist instantly filled his mind.

[Savage Bull Fist: major accomplishment!]

Wei Sheng remained expressionless.

Major accomplishment and perfection seemed only a step apart, but the actual gap was greater than the distance from Entry to major accomplishment!

Many people practiced hard for more than a decade without necessarily crossing that threshold. A single Dao Origin Point was naturally not enough.

But that year of hard practice had brought him another great step closer to perfection.

Of course, this year of grueling practice had not been entirely without gains.

At a stir of Wei Sheng's will, a warm current seemed to flow through his body, and even his strength seemed to increase considerably along with it.

"...Blood qi!"

A smile appeared on Wei Sheng's face.

Savage Bull Fist was merely a basic fist technique. Reaching major accomplishment offered a certain chance of generating blood qi.

At perfection, it was guaranteed to condense blood qi.

As his fist technique drew ever closer to perfection, he too had condensed a strand of blood qi.

This was the key to "skin refinement"!

The White Crane Skin Refinement Method clearly stated that only the power of blood qi could penetrate the skin and flesh to temper the skin!

"I've condensed a strand of blood qi before my fist technique has even reached perfection. I wonder how many I can condense once it does?"

"Hopefully a few more. The more blood qi I have, the faster I'll be able to refine my skin!"

As he was thinking, his stomach rumbled like a drum, and fierce hunger crawled through his entire body.

The side effect of condensing blood qi had arrived!

Blood qi came from the energy within the body-in other words, food. Thus, when condensing blood qi, one needed to eat heartily to replenish the lost energy.

"Xiao He."

Wei Sheng called outside.

"Coming!"

Wei He ran in from outside, wearing an apron washed so often it had faded white, his face and arms covered in black soot.

"You're awake, Brother. Breakfast's almost ready. Wash up first."

Leaving those words behind, Wei He went back to work, and the sight made Wei Sheng's heart ache a little.

Children of the poor learned to shoulder a household early. In his previous life, someone Wei He's age would still have been studying without a care, yet now he could do everything from washing clothes to cooking.

By the time Wei Sheng finished washing up, breakfast was already laid out on the square table in the courtyard.

Two bowls of corn porridge, five or six round-faced mixed-grain flatbreads, and a plate of pickled vegetables!

That was the brothers' breakfast.

Even this was a specially prepared nutritious meal meant to look after Wei Sheng, the patient.

In the past, they would never have dared eat so lavishly.

"Brother, get some extra nourishment..."

Wei He took a boiled egg from his pocket.

"Where's yours?"

"I don't need one."

Looking at Wei He's sickly face, Wei Sheng fell silent for several seconds before finally taking the egg and quietly peeling it.

He knew it was not that his younger brother did not need one, but that their household's wretched circumstances could not support two sick people.

I need to earn money!

His younger brother's frail body needed medicine to sustain it.

His own fist training and blood qi condensation required nourishing food, as well as medicinal supplements.

Everything cost money!

Fortunately, Niu Er had gifted him more than two taels of spare silver, enough to feed the brothers for a month. If they were frugal, it could even last two or three months, so their finances would not be quite so strained.

Besides that,

There was finding his father and mother.

Their family of five had now been forced to scatter to different places for various reasons.

His eldest sister was doing all right. She had married a merchant, and although she was a concubine, she did not have to worry about food, drink, or safety.

His parents had it far worse.

Digging a canal was already grueling forced labor, with nine chances of death for every chance of survival. This time, they had also gone to distant Sishui Commandery, where both the people and the place were unfamiliar. If something really happened...

Whenever he thought of this, Wei Sheng wished he could go to Sishui Commandery immediately and bring his parents back.

But that was simply impossible.

Never mind the dangerous journey from Black Mountain City to Sishui Commandery, with mountain bandits and outlaws everywhere... an ordinary youth like him could never reach the commandery seat alive.

Even if he reached Sishui Commandery by some stroke of luck, what means would he have to bring his father and mother back?

"I have to grow stronger! Only by becoming an expert of the Twelve Refinements, or even surpassing the Twelve Refinements, can I save Father and Mother!"

The Four Gates of Body Tempering-skin, flesh, sinews, and bones-each consisted of three refinements, collectively known as the Twelve Refinements.

An expert who could complete the Twelve Refinements stood at the very pinnacle of Black Mountain City.

In the past, Wei Sheng would never have dared dream of becoming an expert of the Twelve Refinements.

But now, Wei Sheng possessed the [Nine-Breath Qi Ingestion] talent. As long as he kept lying low and accumulated his cultivation day after day, he would surely break through to the Twelve Refinements!

Of course.

Those were all matters for the future. His most pressing concern now was the Hong Family!

More precisely, it was the Eldest Master of the Hong Family!

The Hong Family was one of Black Mountain City's three great lineages. It controlled the Fish Market business, kept hired thugs, and had businesses throughout the outer city's thirteen wards, wielding formidable power.

The Eldest Master of the Hong Family belonged to a collateral branch.

Even so,

His residence had an expert of the Flesh Third Refinement guarding it.

"A head-on confrontation won't work... To be safe, I should find a backer first."

Out in the world, being able to fight was not enough. One also needed influence and connections.

If nothing else, with connections and a backer, even if the Eldest Master of the Hong Family wanted to act, he would have to weigh his options first.

After all, dealing with Wei Sheng the mud-legged commoner and dealing with a gang member who had a backer were clearly two different things.

As for whom to approach...

Wei Sheng already had someone in mind.

After breakfast, Wei He cleared away the bowls and chopsticks, while Wei Sheng began practicing his fist technique in the courtyard.

He was currently recovering from his injuries on paid leave, so he did not need to go work for the gang for the time being.

"Brother Sheng! Brother Sheng!"

He had only practiced for a little while when a familiar call came from outside the door. Wei Sheng stopped his practice.

"A Chang?"

Opening the door, he saw an honest-looking youth standing there, dressed in a blue short tunic and trousers, with particularly thick lips.

It was none other than his brother in the gang, A Chang!

"Brother Sheng, good news! Absolutely tremendous news!"