Eastern Chan, Bone-Breaking to Grow Taller

A light drizzle falls during the day, and the clear green water ripples gently.

The small boat floated on the emerald green water.

In this misty rain of Jiangnan, amidst the ripples everywhere, it's impossible to tell whether the boat is going downstream, upstream, or not moving at all.

Fish in the water seem to love this misty rain as well, sometimes rising to the surface, opening their mouths to create ripples, and then swimming back underwater.

But no fish came within three zhang (approximately 10 meters) of the boat.

At the bow and stern of the boat sat two people, one wearing a straw hat and the other a raincoat; they appeared to be an old man and a young man.

Inside the boat awning, Chu Tianshu sat cross-legged, embracing his inner self and forgetting the world around him.

Suddenly, he took his hands off his knees, formed them into sword fingers, and stabbed himself in more than a dozen acupoints from his thighs to his chest and abdomen.

"The Sky-Spanning Divine Art" embodies the artistic conception of "the vast ocean, the circulation of water and air, the Kunpeng Transformation, and the Sky-Spanning wind and rain."

The Kun fish lies hidden in the deep sea, its body enormous. Before it emerges, there are always towering waves and surging tides on the sea surface.

Therefore, before mastering the essence of the Kunpeng Transformation, one must first cultivate one's internal strength to the point where it is as turbulent and surging as a raging torrent.

At this stage, in addition to meditation and breath control, a set of exquisite acupressure techniques must also be used.

When practicing, the order in which one presses and releases acupoints varies, subtly following a certain pattern.

The newly generated internal energy is like being blocked by a dam, suddenly accumulating at a certain point, and then, at the right moment, it suddenly flows freely and rushes down.

However, the path that is washed away may not be the original meridian path; it may be led to another meridian route.

Chu Tianshu's hands moved constantly, and finally, his left hand formed a sword-like gesture, with the fingertips pointing downwards, just touching his left knee.

With the right hand forming a sword-like gesture, stroke horizontally from the left waist down to the dantian (lower abdomen), then rise up from the dantian and stop at the heart.

Then, as if pulling on a thousand-pound weight, his right hand moved extremely slowly, from his heart back to his dantian.

This last movement was so slow that it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, yet he was still moving continuously.

It took a while to realize that his right sword-pointing gesture had indeed changed location.

Xu Zhicheng, sitting on the bow of the boat, breathed a sigh of relief, sensing that the threatening feeling that had been looming over him was slowly fading away.

When Chu Tianshu cultivates internal energy, the circulation of qi and blood is not as intense as when he practices external strength, but it still affects the qi and blood to some extent and emits a slight pressure.

Anyone within three zhang (approximately 10 meters) will still feel a distinct abnormality.

Are we almost at the Southern Shaolin?

Chu Tianshu asked a question.

Xu Ben replied, "We can already see the outline of the temple on the mountain."

The riverbank is lined with rolling green hills, with tender green fields and lush, verdant trees.

Looking into the distance, one can indeed see the bell tower on the mountaintop and the eaves of the main hall on the neighboring peak.

Legend has it that at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Shichong, with his army, declared himself emperor in Luoyang, establishing the state of Zheng. He appointed his nephew Wang Renze general and deployed a large army in Baigu Village to block Li Shimin's eastward advance.

Thirteen Shaolin monks, including Tanzong, infiltrated Zheng's army camp at night, captured Wang Renze alive, and presented him to Li Shimin.

Li Shimin) greatly admired the Shaolin monks and granted them forty hectares of land. He also permitted the Shaolin monks to build ten more temples throughout the country.

However, most of these ten temples were lost to the tides of history.

By the Song and Yuan dynasties, only the Mount Song Shaolin and the "Nation-Protecting Eastern Chan Shaolin Temple" in Quanzhou remained.

Because Quanzhou is in the south, people often do not call it the Eastern Chan Shaolin, but are accustomed to calling it the Southern Shaolin.

This is quite different from the development of the world during the Republic of China era.

The "Storming Shaolin" boxing manual that Chu Tianshu obtained mentioned that Yu Dayou had visited both the Northern and Southern Shaolin. The Northern Shaolin was located in Mount Song, but the Southern Shaolin of the Ming Dynasty in that world was located in Putian.

The Southern Shaolin in this world has also had a very difficult history of being passed down.

By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Dharma Hall was overgrown with weeds, the monks had scattered like rain, and only a dozen or so monks remained in the entire Southern Shaolin.

However, during the founding of the Great Ming Dynasty, the abbot of the Southern Shaolin Temple sensed a wonderful opportunity.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang, following precedent, issued one or two imperial edicts to bestow rewards upon Mount Song Shaolin.

However, compared to the preferential treatment given to Mount Song Shaolin during the Yuan Dynasty, it was a world of difference.

The abbot of the Southern Shaolin realized that the imperial court was not satisfied with the Mount Song Shaolin, so he immediately decided to vigorously promote the concept of "integration of agriculture and Zen" and follow the "Baizhang's Pure Rules" in the Southern Shaolin Temple.

He proclaimed that the Southern Shaolin's motto was "No work, no food," and led the people to reclaim wasteland, sending monks to assist the villagers in farming.

In the tenth year of the Hongwu reign, the prefectural official submitted a memorial to the imperial court.

The emperor was overjoyed and issued an imperial edict to repair the Shaolin in Quanzhou.

As a result, the Southern Shaolin flourished once again.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely ruthless and suspicious. Since the Southern Shaolin had adopted the name "Baizhang's Pure Rules" and claimed that farming and Zen were integrated, he was suspicious.

In the decades that followed, every new disciple accepted into the temple had to be carefully taught and diligently trained.

By persisting in this way, the reputation of the Southern Shaolin was, for a time, even more renowned than that of the Mount Song Shaolin.

However, that is all in the past.

Today, the Southern Shaolin is a prestigious sect, hailed as one of the pillars of the righteous faction in the martial arts world.

But it's not necessarily true that they are very well-behaved.

Since leaving Yongchun, Chu Tianshu has been collecting and analyzing various pieces of information along the way.

One of the reasons I ultimately chose to come to the Southern Shaolin was because I was drawn to their restless nature.

After a while, Xu Ben saw the ferry crossing, picked up the oar, and began paddling.

In addition to fishermen and tourists renting boats, there are also dedicated ferrymen at the ferry crossing to help people cross the river.

The ferryman here, though wearing a straw hat, is dressed in a gray monk's robe, clearly a monk.

The people waiting to cross the river on the bank could board his raft for just a small copper coin.

The monk used his long bamboo pole to push against the shore, and the heavy raft, carrying ten adult men and women, including women holding children, glided steadily on the water.

The small boat and the raft went back and forth, and when they came closest, the monk smiled and nodded to Xu Ben in greeting.

Xu Ben's eyebrows twitched, and he stared intently.

Every time the monk encountered a small boat on the water, he would nod and smile at the person rowing it.

It seems it was just a casual greeting between colleagues, and there was nothing wrong with Xu Ben's newly changed disguise.

He'd been hunted for half a year, so he was starting to overreact.

Decades ago, the Southern Shaolin Temple already had many disciples; in addition to lay disciples, monks also frequently traveled outside the temple.

The abbot who was reviving the Southern Shaolin at that time was old. He once admonished his monks that besides studying Buddhism, farming, and cultivating themselves, they should only do three kinds of work: rowing boats, blacksmithing, and grinding tofu.

People say that the three greatest hardships in the world are these three professions.

Boatmen toil all day but earn little; blacksmiths are tired and hot; and families who grind tofu to sell often have to get up early every day to turn the millstone, and owning a donkey is a large part of their livelihood.

But this applies to ordinary people.

The fact that monks, who are part of the martial arts world, actually carried out these things once again proved the abbot's foresight.

As the political situation in the Great Ming Dynasty became increasingly turbulent, the proportion of blacksmiths from the Southern Shaolin who made agricultural tools decreased. Instead, the snowflake-patterned iron ring knives produced by the monks became a unique skill in the Southern martial arts world.

The art of making tofu has evolved from simply selling tofu to offering a complete vegetarian feast, gaining widespread fame. High-ranking officials and martial arts masters often spare no expense to taste the culinary skills of Shaolin monks.

It seems that rowing the boat hasn't yielded much reward yet.

But in fact, the influence of Southern Shaolin among the people today largely comes from these ferrymen who are scattered along the waterways.

Since they were monks, they were naturally seen by the people as more than just ferrymen.

If someone is holding a funeral, it's more respectable to have a monk make an appearance than to have someone roll up a straw mat, cry for days, and then send the body directly to the cemetery.

If a child is born, it would be good to ask a monk to take a look and recite some prayers for blessings.

The most profound impression that ordinary people have of the Southern Shaolin comes from these ferrymen monks.

They would never know what the other members of the Southern Shaolin were like.

But they knew that these ferrymen didn't charge high fees and were truly capable, so they were good monks.

"This monk is quite kind."

Xu Ben whispered to Chu Tianshu with a sigh, "Back then, there was a group of monks from the Southern Shaolin who went to Fire God Gully to exchange techniques in metallurgy and forging. Most of them were rough and arrogant."

"Because many gangs buy their knives from them, they are afraid that the spearheads and short swords produced in Fire God Gully will steal their business."

Xu Zhicheng said, "I remember that they also brought government officials with them that time. Their intention was to mark off a piece of land, allowing us to sell our goods only within that area and not to cross the boundary."

Chu Tianshu chuckled, "Heh, you Fire God Gully sell guns and swords, and gunpowder too. Your methods are pretty unorthodox. Are you just going to put up with this?"

"The Southern Shaolin is indeed powerful."

Xu Ben said, "This matter dragged on for a long time without any resolution."

"However, later on, the southeast became increasingly chaotic, and powerful Japanese pirate clans began to sell large quantities of Japanese swords to coastal gangs."

"The Flowing Cloud Manor in the Central Plains has also resold its curved swords from beyond the Great Wall to the Southeast, which has significantly impacted the business of the Southern Shaolin, which is now busy resisting those two types of swords."

Xu Ben hesitated for a moment.

"Does our benefactor intend to share this Fire God Secret Formula with the Southern Shaolin?"

"After all, they are a group of monks. Even if they are accustomed to making weapons, they probably wouldn't dare to mass-produce muskets."

"Moreover, although they have many disputes with the Japanese pirates in business, they have not yet shown any determination to resist them."

In the past, Fire God Gully researched firearms, but the production scale was not large, and they were mainly supplied to the local government.

However, to deal with the Japanese pirates in the southeast, the scale of improved firearms would not be large enough to be effective.

Xu Zhicheng said, "Even if the Southern Shaolin had the guts, they only have so many monks in their entire temple, right?"

"You've forgotten their lay disciples."

Chu Tianshu said, "The Southern Shaolin has been revived for a century, but to call it a revival is really just starting from scratch."

"This also has its advantages. Many of the lay disciples who come from their school even studied under the same master, and they often keep in touch when they go out into the martial arts world. They are much more united than the complex lineage of the Mount Song Shaolin."

The Southern Shaolin relies on its reputation for agricultural meditation and monastic rules, and therefore has no choice but to maintain this reputation.

They are from the Chan (Chan Buddhism, so they naturally compete with other sects. They are from the martial arts world, so they are naturally ostracized by local gangs. They are a branch of Shaolin, so they are also being eyed covetously by the Mount Song Shaolin.

It's neither too big nor too small, it doesn't stand too high, and the threats around it are close enough.

The speed at which they corrupted themselves as they grew was already considered slow.

"Choosing the tallest among the short."

Chu Tianshu pondered, "Let's see if I can give them a bone-lengthening surgery using my skills."

Xu Zhicheng was confused. They were just talking about Shaolin, how did they suddenly start talking about increasing height?

He couldn't help but ask, "Breaking bones can make you grow taller? What kind of martial art is that?"

"It's a medical technique, originally developed to treat those wounded by broken bones in war, but it was unexpectedly discovered that after the bones healed, the legs even grew longer."

Chu Tianshu smiled. "This is a very dangerous and challenging medical technique, so naturally it won't be used casually to increase someone's height."

Its true purpose is to treat deformities and disabilities caused by certain reasons.

(End of this chapter)