Chapter 94

The next morning, Wu Chengyu rose early to train. He no longer practiced the Ox and Horse Stance, nor the various secret arts he had collected, but rather a basic Taoist guiding technique, somewhat similar to the Golden Body Longevity Skill.

It had no power at all, only slowly loosening the tendons and bones after a night's sleep, and serving to calm the mind and settle the breath. Half a year ago, his martial arts had already reached a stagnation stage, and taking another step forward was extremely difficult.

Coupled with his failure to grasp the method despite reading the Daoist classics thoroughly, Wu Chengyu was thoroughly vexed. With no other choice, he began wandering among the various Taoist temples in Gusu City, asking old Taoist priests to answer his doubts and resolve his difficulties, even donating a considerable amount of merit money to the temples for this purpose.

Unfortunately, it was no different from before. Every Taoist priest spoke of the classics in vague and obscure terms, each insisting on their own view, leaving Wu Chengyu even more confused.

Only one old Taoist, so aged he no longer looked human, said nothing, merely teaching him a set of guiding techniques and telling him to practice them at home, saying that by calming his mind and settling his breath, he would naturally understand the true meaning.

Several months passed. He still had not understood the true meaning, but Wu Chengyu had grown accustomed to starting his morning practice with this set of guiding techniques. There were no immediate, tangible results, but after practicing, he indeed felt his state of mind become peaceful.

By the time he finished the set of guiding techniques, A Ku had finally finished her chores. Every morning, her training method was various housework—sweeping, mopping, washing clothes, and so on—done with great enthusiasm and vigor. She would not go anywhere until these things were done.

A Ku persistently demonstrated her presence in this household, or rather, her necessity. No one was allowed to stop her from doing these things, and hiring outsiders to manage the household was absolutely forbidden.

Whenever this matter was mentioned, A Ku's smiling eyes would immediately well up with tears, so much so that whenever Wu Chengyu saw her busy figure, he felt a pang of sympathy.

"Brother, I'm done here. Let's go to the Martial Arts Field."

A Ku wore an apricot-yellow short outfit. She walked to Wu Chengyu's side, naturally took his hand, and smiled brightly, giving off a feeling like a little bear acting coquettishly.

In recent years, Wu Chengyu had been busy practicing martial arts and reading books, so he rarely went out with A Ku.

The Martial Arts Field of Wu Family Slope was generally located west of the valley, a plaza of over a thousand square meters. Normally, every morning more than two hundred teenagers practiced martial arts there, along with some adult disciples responsible for teaching, covering the Wu family's direct line, collateral branch, and some outer surname disciples with close enough relationships to be cultivated.

But the place Wu Chengyu and A Ku went to was next to the Wu Family Main Council Hall in the middle-rear of Wu Family Slope, a training field newly opened up specifically for cultivating martial arts, its area not inferior to the previous one.

On one side of the training field were traditional stone locks, plum blossom piles, sandbags, as well as single and double bars crafted by Wu Chengyu, a fake wall for climbing, and an obstacle course for practicing lightness skill footwork.

At this time, nearly twenty boys had arrived early at the training field, already drenched in sweat. Except for two slightly older than Wu Chengyu, the rest were around eight to twelve years old. These were all selected from the Wu family's direct line after much screening.

With the Wu family's capabilities, they could not afford to provide resources for more disciples to practice martial arts, but this was a matter of great importance. Before these children grew up, the news that the Wu family possessed true martial arts must be kept as secret as possible.

The selection range was small, the ages were suitable, and they were willing to endure hardship. The key was that they were trustworthy. Being able to pick out these twenty-plus people was already no easy task.

The only person in the Wu family who could teach these twenty-plus people was Wu Chengyu.

Since ancient times, when martial artists took disciples, they often had only seven or eight direct disciples, and some even passed down their art to a single line. Taking disciples was far from simple.

When martial artists took disciples, they mostly taught one-on-one. With slightly more people, insufficient energy would lead to neglecting one for the other, instead delaying the disciples.

Or like Huang Yaoshi, who personally taught only Qu Lingfeng, Chen Xuanfeng, Mei Chaofeng, and Lu Chengfeng, after which he had no more patience. Afterwards, Feng Mofeng and Wu Mianfeng were mostly taught by Qu Lingfeng, and these two rarely had the chance to see Huang Yaoshi.

Teaching martial arts was not as simple as explaining heart techniques and demonstrating moves.

When cultivating internal force, one must first make the disciple familiar with the meridians, understand the true meaning of the heart technique, and accurately master the circulation path of the energy, without a single error. Before the disciple grasped Qi Sensation, one must guide them in various ways; after they grasped Qi Sensation, one must monitor the disciple's dynamics during energy circulation at all times.

This was only internal force. For external techniques, whether fist, foot, or weapon, one must make the disciple memorize the training while constantly correcting their movements, tirelessly explaining the essentials. Most importantly, one must feed moves to the disciple until the disciple truly practiced the moves into muscle memory. This is what is commonly called kung fu practiced into the body.

Wu Chengyu had transmigrated only five years ago. Counting the five years the previous owner spent on Peach Blossom Island, his actual time practicing martial arts was only ten years.

Wanting to teach over twenty people at once—where was it that simple?

Fortunately, Wu Chengyu had a cheat. Under the guidance of the bamboo slips, along with the internal vision map formed by his own keen five senses, and having obtained so many secret manuals, excluding the duplicates, Wu Chengyu now knew nearly thirty hidden meridians.

As for who understood the human body's meridians best in the world, Wu Chengyu did not dare say he was first, but he could at least rank in the top three. After all, he was equivalent to looking directly with 'eyes'.

One year ago, when he accepted this position as chief instructor, he set his teaching goal for the next year on cultivating internal force and building the foundation.

At the same time, Wu Chengyu also brought out the examination education model from his previous life: cramming-style teaching. In the first month of teaching, he did nothing but make them familiar with the human body's meridians.

Wu Chengyu himself drew route maps of the Twelve Regular Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, as well as the energy circulation path map of the Guiyuan Heart Sutra.

Facing these twenty-plus people, including A Ku, he directly bombarded them with information. Not only did they have to memorize it, but they also had to be able to draw a map accurately themselves. Exams were held at any time, questions were asked randomly. Those who could not answer were given the family law provided by the Family Head—a cane.

The cane in Wu Chengyu's hand was not used to hit hands or spank buttocks. Each time it struck, it hit the most painful acupoints on the body that caused no harm, or the numb tendons on the joints. Even without using much force, Wu Chengyu was extremely accurate in locating acupoints. One strike was sure to refresh and awaken the erring disciple.

It must be said, this method was simple and crude, but its efficiency was also the highest and most direct.

In addition, he explained in detail the different functions of each meridian on the human body, and the reactions that should occur when internal force circulated through different meridians. These all came from his real experience in constantly fusing internal energy heart techniques. It could be called true knowledge gained from personal experience. Those masters outside probably could not explain it themselves.

Among these selected disciples, their aptitude and comprehension varied, but most had firm personalities, could endure hardship, and knew the opportunity was rare. Even though family law was constantly applied, none dared to resent it. Even so, Wu Chengyu spent over a month before they firmly memorized the knowledge they needed to grasp.

Of course, during this process, A Ku probably mastered it proficiently in less than half a month. Every day she either squatted to the side eating, or silently cultivated on her own. Having such a benchmark made these disciples who were learning desperately and growing more slowly never dare to be complacent.

Of course, rote memorization was not enough. Next, Wu Chengyu still needed to use his cheat.

(Chapter End)