A General in the Field, a Minister at Court; Three United in One Body

Chu Tianshu said that when he had learned fist fighting, he had never heard anyone explain these things in detail.

So Shopkeeper Ma explained them to him.

When a fist fighter opened his acupoints, he directed his attention deep into his body to explore it, producing results from training and growth beyond the ordinary.

Which aspect showed the effects first depended on the direction of a person's intent and painstaking efforts.

First was the principle of "gathering": water gathered into a deep pool, sand gathered into a mountain, and their momentum grew into a magnificent spectacle.

The movement most easily felt in the human body came not from blood, but from fascia and muscle. One gathered the strength of an arm's muscles, then the strength of the muscles in the waist and back, until the strength of all the body's muscles could be gathered at a single point. Throughout this process, one constantly tempered the body so it could bear that force without injuring itself.

Legend had it that the divine true dragon was also formed by gathering the features of a hundred beasts. At the pinnacle of this path, it was as if a living dragon coiled around one's entire body: stronger than tigers and oxen, swifter than apes and monkeys.

Thus, it was called Dragon Coils Around the Body!

Second was the principle of "dispersing." Human strength had its limits; to pit a body of flesh and blood against the hardness of metal and stone was exceedingly unwise.

This path focused on dispersing an external force throughout the body so that every part shared the burden, and the best means of directing that force was the bones.

Of a person's natural endowments, the bones were the most precious. Once one had trained until even the slightest vibration of sound could pass through the whole body and be dissipated, one could split the force and escape with one's life even after being struck by a warhorse or crushed beneath an ox cart, greatly increasing one's ability to continue fighting.

Upon completion, this path had originally been called the Sound-Penetrating Bone, but fist fighters in ancient times had changed one character for good luck.

They called it the Guanyin Bone!

Third was the principle of "truth." Though muscles were tough and bones hard, their growth still depended on the internal organs' work of transformation, so the strength of the organs was the true strength.

One worked inward from the body's exterior, opening and closing the seven orifices, pricking and pressing acupoints, tormenting the meridians, and impeding the flow of blood, even trading temporary injuries to muscle and bone for the tempering of the internal organs.

Once this path was mastered, injuries and exhaustion healed without medicine. One could eat half an ox in a day or go half a month without food, stop one's heart and breathe like a turtle underwater, or go three days and four nights without closing one's eyes, all while remaining at ease and as spirited as ever.

Even when encountering unfamiliar plants and animals, one could tell whether they were poisonous as soon as they entered the mouth. Living on dew, one seemed just like an immortal.

Thus, it was called Eating Makes an Immortal!

If someone mastered all three paths, uniting them in one body, he could touch upon a faintly discernible barrier, break through it, and advance another step.

Qi and blood became like a stove, harmonizing a hundred flavors and transforming decay into wonder.

A person became like the Stove Lord, commanding every part of the body and riding hot smoke to reach the heavens.

The ancients who reached this realm seemed no longer human. Revered by the masses, they dared to call themselves gods.

They were known as Martial Stove Gods!

"Three united in one body; martial prowess can create a god."

At this point, Shopkeeper Ma's eyes lit up. "Leaving aside those times before the Eastern Han, with their strange tales of gods and monsters, ever since the end of the Han, mastering all three paths and attaining martial skills worthy of being called divine has always been the highest pursuit of everyone under heaven who practices martial arts."

Chu Tianshu pondered this to himself.

Dragon Coils Around the Body, Guanyin Bone, Eating Makes an Immortal, Martial Stove God!

What he had heard about fist fighters opening their acupoints was much the same as back home, but the later development of martial arts was somewhat different.

Those four names alone carried profound meaning. Every word in them had likely been considered again and again, pointing to the key aspects of the corresponding paths.

He asked, "Then what does 'a general in the field, a minister at court' mean?"

Shopkeeper Ma said, "That's just a common saying. Maybe it was added to make eight characters and give the phrase a better ring."

"Some say it means that anyone who masters one path has a chance of being made a marquis or a general. Fighting on the battlefield and the luxuries of high office also happen to help with martial training, so it's the best of both worlds."

"Another explanation is that all three paths of martial training are like being painstakingly simmered over a blazing fire, tossed and turned again and again. They require fierce, domineering strength and courageous determination, like the way of a military general."

"But to break through that final barrier, one must go from being a general in the field to a minister at court, changing from a general to a chancellor: unmoved by the eight winds, preserving the body and nurturing life, watching the fire with a cool eye, and exercising the utmost caution."

Chu Tianshu nodded.

Back home, there were too many schools, and no one shared much agreement on how to divide the realms.

He had heard that in the old days, people had used vague terms like first-rate and second-rate, much like the letter grades foreigners used. They had nothing to do with stages of cultivation and depended solely on actual performance.

Yet in this world, there was actually a universally recognized realm like Three United in One Body.

It had probably taken a glorious age dominated by the martial path for such a system to be established and passed down.

Although strengthening one part of the body would benefit the others to some degree, fist manuals in this world had developed to the point where styles focused on different paths now had clearly distinct characteristics.

A style of fist fighting would focus on just one path, pursuing it single-mindedly to the utmost.

If someone truly mastered one path, he could simply find another fist art to practice.

Chu Tianshu's Gluttonous Tongbei Fist did not fit neatly into the categories here.

It trained the internal organs, but only the stomach and intestines; it trained the muscles, but focused only on the limbs.

"If I had to classify it, my fist art does lean more toward... the path of Dragon Coils Around the Body."

Chu Tianshu drew the sword all the way out and flicked it through a small flourish in the air.

"And my fist art already contains sword routines. It seems this sword and I really do have some affinity."

Shopkeeper Ma began shooing him away. "All right, all right, don't swing a sword around in my room. I've got plenty to do. Go get some rest."

Chu Tianshu really was exhausted after everything that day. He took the sword and returned to his room.

Shopkeeper Ma sorted through the talisman paper, cinnabar, and brushes on the table, then went into the main hall at the front. Holding an inkstone in his left hand, he licked a brush with his right and painted talismans on the black-clad man's corpse.

First the forehead, a dot between the brows; divide to the left and right hills of the cheeks; skip the neck and paint the chest; the evil path lies benighted, knowing no cold...

The brush handle pushed open the front of the black-clad man's clothes, leaving streaks of vermilion on his dark, lean skin.

Unfortunately, an art could cloud another art, but it could not cloud someone else's mind from afar.

Even if the roving bandits did not know the leopard-cat warrior was dead, they should realize something had gone wrong once he failed to return for two or three days.

Given the habits of those roving bandits who practiced Jiaozhi's evil arts, they would most likely choose to make a direct assault.

That would be when the town was put to the test.

"Too bad Old Zhong isn't here."

After finishing the talismans on the corpse, Shopkeeper Ma sat down at a table and looked toward the rear courtyard, recalling how he and his good brother had roamed the world in their youth and fought roving bandits like these.

Ma Zhengwu and Zhong Jinqiu, talismans and spells, charging into battle with a spear-how full of spirit they had been.

It seemed that in the blink of an eye, both men had grown old.

Neither had become the high official or martial arts hall master he had wished to be. One watched over a restaurant and read newspapers, going years without using talisman ink; the other's wife and children had returned to the yellow earth, and he taught the militia a little in his idle days.

"I expected no peace in my later years, but I never expected to meet such an interesting young fellow."

Shopkeeper Ma mused, "If someone accomplished in the arts successfully takes up martial training as well, can his fist art really improve so quickly at the start?"

"That shouldn't be the whole reason... In that case, he's naturally better suited to fist fighting."

"Tsk, why couldn't I cross that threshold back then?"

With a hint of complaint, Shopkeeper Ma set to folding a paper crane with vigor.

His fingers flipped and smoothed the paper, then flipped and smoothed it again. In the space of barely two or three blinks, a paper crane was complete.

Shopkeeper Ma picked up a brush and dotted in the crane's eyes, then took out a thumb-sized bottle made of pagoda-tree wood and pulled out the stopper.

A small wisp of light brown smoke, as though it had some weight to it, flowed from the bottle and merged into the paper crane.

Shopkeeper Ma quickly covered the crane with both hands, murmured an incantation, and carefully blew a breath inside.

When he parted his hands, a fluffy little sparrow with brown feathers stood on the table.

The lively sparrow looked left and right, hopped onto Shopkeeper Ma's palm, and pecked at his thumb.

"Sorry to trouble you all again. I'll let your friends out in a little while too. For the next two days, you'll be in charge of watching the west."

Shopkeeper Ma smiled and stroked the little sparrow, then turned and sent it on its way. The sparrow flew out of the restaurant.

He had learned the Firebird Daoist Official lineage of the Mount Mao Arts, which was divided into the fire and bird branches. Though he had never been to Mount Mao in his life, he had mastered the many subtle techniques of casting spells with fire and the methods of raising bird spirits.

These sparrows were all ones he had raised himself.

After they died of old age, he had used pagoda-tree wood to house their souls and often nourished them with his own mental power. The sparrow spirits thus obtained were full of Spiritual Qi and mild in nature. When attached to forms folded from talisman paper, they did not give off the slightest trace of yin Qi.

Though they had no offensive abilities, these sparrows could fly and scout even during the day, so long as it was not the noon hour.

Even if spellcasters from other schools caught a glimpse of them, they would find it difficult to see through them.

Shopkeeper Ma began folding a second sheet of paper.

Outside the door, the moonlight shifted little by little.

When Chu Tianshu got up the next day, he went to the kitchen and saw no one there. He gulped down two large ladlefuls of water and crossed the courtyard, only to find Shopkeeper Ma still in the main hall.

The old man was sleeping on his side, his elbow propped on the table and his fist supporting his head.

The leopard-cat warrior's corpse had been put away somewhere. On the table were only ten thumb-sized pagoda-wood bottles, a dried brush, and an inkstone.

Chu Tianshu did not disturb him. He went around to the front and found a wooden board with a white towel nailed to it set up by the entrance, meaning the restaurant was temporarily closed.

No wonder none of the workers had come today.

Where am I supposed to get breakfast, then?

Chu Tianshu looked down the main street. At this hour, some of the early vendors would usually have set up their stalls, but today he could not see a single one.

Several familiar figures did come out of a lane diagonally across the street.

Meng Shuangjiang was leading four guards, each with a hand on his saber, and one of them had a spear on his back. They were on high alert, while Young Master Meng alone carried a medium-sized sack on his back.

"Ha, Brother Chu, I knew you-"

"Shh!"

Chu Tianshu motioned for him to keep his voice down.

Meng Shuangjiang understood, glanced into the restaurant, and set the sack down on the steps in front.

"The guards assigned by the various households, together with the existing militia, make up more than seventy people. The townsfolk were notified last night, and I doubt many shops will be willing to open these next few days."

Meng Shuangjiang lowered his voice. "But the food at my home is good too. Look what I brought you."

The sack was full of oiled-paper parcels tied with thin hemp string, and the aroma of animal fat wafted up at him.

Chu Tianshu picked up a parcel, but it did not feel like meat. He opened it and found green broad beans.

He ate them anyway.

"I heard the bandits this time are no ordinary lot. I'm a little scared to go out myself."

Meng Shuangjiang went on, "Brother Chu, you shouldn't go so far outside town to train on your own either. From now on, come to my home for all three meals. I'll make sure you eat until your belly's round..."

Though the words showed familiarity, they were also somewhat nagging, unlike the sense of proportion Meng Shuangjiang usually maintained.

Chu Tianshu noticed that the fair, plump fellow's brows were furrowed slightly without his realizing it, and there was some tension on his face.

A glimpse of the pressure exerted by the Jiaozhi bandits was already showing in him.

"Don't worry. I won't leave town these next couple of days. I'll just walk around here."

As Chu Tianshu spoke, he saw another group emerge from a different lane.

He did not know them as well as Meng Shuangjiang, but he had just seen them last night.

Wang Fu had brought people looking for him.