Xingyi Quan

When Su Ye arrived at the farm, he saw Zhang Erhu squatting nearby, playing with a little puppy. Zhang Erhu saw him arrive too and waved in greeting:

"Brother Ye!"

As he greeted Su Ye, Zhang Erhu jogged over. Once he was in front of him, he scratched the back of his head with one hand and grinned foolishly. Su Ye could tell at once that the guy couldn't wait any longer.

Su Ye took a yellowed, thread-bound book out of a small bag. It looked very old.

That's right, it was an internal cultivation manual, one of the gifts Li Guodong had given Su Ye when they met yesterday.

In fact, Su Ye had hesitated for a long time last night between an internal cultivation manual and an immortal cultivation method, ultimately choosing the former. It wasn't that he was being stingy. After all, Su Ye had yet to meet another immortal cultivator. If someone with ulterior motives noticed that Erhu was an immortal cultivator, it might bring endless trouble. Su Ye was not yet strong enough to stand against powerful figures from all sides.

The internal cultivation manual was called Xingyi Quan. Once mastered, it allowed one to imitate the tricky attacks of twelve animals, making them impossible to guard against. Su Ye had read the whole book last night. If one fully grasped its teachings, becoming a grandmaster wouldn't be too difficult.

Su Ye handed the book to Zhang Erhu. "Read it first. If there's anything you don't understand, come and ask me!"

Zhang Erhu carefully took the book and ran off to one side to study it. He had gone to middle school, after all, and could recognize most of the characters. Whenever he came across one he didn't know, he took out his phone and looked it up.

And so a day passed. During that time, Zhang Erhu came to Su Ye for guidance several times, and Su Ye answered each of his questions according to his own understanding.

His character's good, but he's a little slow... Su Ye thought, shaking his head as he watched Zhang Erhu studying nearby.

The next day, when Su Ye arrived at the farm, he saw Zhang Erhu yawning, his eyes red. He asked:

"Didn't sleep last night?"

"Brother Ye! I was so excited last night that I spent most of the night reading." Zhang Erhu scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Martial arts training has to proceed step by step. Never rush for results," Su Ye cautioned him.

"Brother Ye, I'll keep that in mind!" Zhang Erhu nodded and replied.

Zhang Erhu then pulled out the book again and asked Su Ye several more questions. By the time Su Ye had finished answering them, it was almost noon. While Zhang Erhu wasn't paying attention, Su Ye took spirit rice and pots, bowls and other utensils out of his storage bag and began cooking nearby.

Although Su Ye had grown several crops of spirit rice, it still couldn't keep up with how much they consumed. Father Su and Mother Su evidently knew how precious the spirit rice Su Ye kept at home was too. No one else got to eat it; they consumed it all among themselves.

Su Ye first stacked a few bricks into a makeshift stove. Then he gathered some firewood nearby, put it in the stove and lit it with a lighter.

Next, he poured the spirit energy water and spirit rice he had prepared into the pot and put the lid on. All that remained was to wait for the rice to cook.

Before long, even with the lid on, the distinctive fragrance of cooked spirit rice drifted out, reaching Zhang Erhu as he concentrated on his book.

Zhang Erhu's nose twitched as soon as he smelled it. Clearly unable to concentrate anymore, he put down his book, turned to Su Ye and said:

"Brother Ye, are you cooking that kind of rice again?"

Zhang Erhu had obviously eaten spirit rice before. After all, he worked with Su Ye every day and had eaten plenty of spirit energy-infused fruits and vegetables of various kinds. He had even had quite a few helpings of the spirit rice that wasn't sold to outsiders while eating at Su Ye's house.

"That's right. This is good stuff. It'll be a great help to you in becoming a martial artist!"

Su Ye was washing some vegetables nearby. He looked up and explained to Zhang Erhu.

When Zhang Erhu heard that the spirit rice could actually help improve his martial cultivation, he sprang to his feet, set the book aside and went over to help Su Ye.

Su Ye and Zhang Erhu then stir-fried two dishes and called home to tell Mother Su, Ye Xiaoning, that they wouldn't be coming back for breakfast that morning.

Su Ye and Zhang Erhu put the food on a wooden board and eagerly dug in.

Although Zhang Erhu had eaten spirit rice several times before, he still wolfed it down. He didn't know whether it was his imagination, but food always seemed to taste twice as good outdoors.

By contrast, Su Ye ate with great refinement. He delicately picked up some greens, put them in his mouth and chewed them with the spirit rice for quite a while before swallowing.

Before long, the whole pot of spirit rice had been eaten. Naturally, washing the pot and bowls afterward fell to Zhang Erhu.

That afternoon, Zhang Erhu remained engrossed in the book, while Su Ye went to the orange grove and watered all the orange trees with diluted spirit energy water. Whenever Zhang Erhu encountered a difficult question he couldn't understand, he would run over to ask Su Ye, who told him everything he knew.

Three more days passed like that. On this day, Zhang Erhu had stripped naked and was practicing Xingyi Quan beside the shade shelter in the vegetable garden. After several days of careful study, he had committed the entire book to memory. The book was still with him, though. Once he had memorized it, he had tried to return it to Su Ye, but Su Ye told him to keep it for now so he could look through it again if there was anything he had missed.

Over the past few days, Su Ye had picked the spirit tea in his Immortal Spirit Space again. This time, the yield of spirit tea leaves was about fifty percent higher than last time, producing around twenty jin of dried tea in total, enough for Su Ye and Father Su to drink for quite a while.

Su Ye hadn't originally been in the habit of drinking tea, but after tasting spirit tea, he often carried a small tea bottle with him. He would take a sip whenever he felt like it, leaving him refreshed and clearheaded.

Zhang Erhu practiced Xingyi Quan nearby, while Su Ye sat comfortably under a small shade shelter, slowly savoring a cup of spirit tea and occasionally pointing out Zhang Erhu's shortcomings.

"Xingyi Quan's boxing methods are divided into three stages: the Three-Body Stance, the Five Elements Fist and the Twelve Forms. Once you've thoroughly mastered the Three-Body Stance, you can be considered to have grasped the basics of Xingyi Quan!"

Su Ye took a sip of spirit tea under the shelter and spoke to Zhang Erhu, who was practicing nearby.

"Brother Ye, I'll work hard. I won't let your training go to waste," Zhang Erhu replied as he practiced.

Su Ye nodded in satisfaction. He was a little simple, but he certainly had plenty of drive!

Train through the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer!

For a martial artist, natural talent was one factor, but the most important thing was diligence.

Even with extraordinary talent and a sharp mind, without great perseverance, one's achievements would ultimately be limited.