Chapter 5: Cloak Hammer, Mastery Achieved!

A Mastery-level Cloak Hammer?!

The hand gripping the hammer trembled, Li Yuan's heart pounding. He took several deep breaths before suppressing the urge to take control of this iron hammer right now.

In fact, just clutching the hammer's handle, he felt his whole body refreshed, as if the fatigue from earlier stance training had vanished without a trace.

"No wonder the old man was so obsessed with the Weapon Register. I haven't even taken control of the weapon yet, and already I'm completely different!"

The feeling was very strange, like an arm lost for many years had suddenly been found again.

"Calm down, calm down, with so many people watching, if the hammer disappeared it would be too conspicuous…"

Though he said to stay calm, Li Yuan's heart, still clutching the hammer's handle, burned with agitation.

This was a Mastery-level Cloak Hammer technique!

"Watch me!"

After giving pointers one by one, arranging all the apprentices into the postures he wanted, Qin Xiong returned to his original position and let out a great shout, drawing every apprentice's attention.

*Crack! Crack! *

Qin Xiong stepped into the White Ape stance, his arms lashing out like whips and hammers with crisp, explosive sounds:

"Force issues from the ground, its root in the feet, governed by the waist and hips, passing through the shoulders and arms, taking form at the wrists and fingers!"

"White Ape Swings Arm!"

Qin Xiong's body didn't move, yet the whistling sound of his two arms cutting the air was clearly heard even by Li Yuan standing in the very last row, pulling his attention back from the Weapon Register.

Practicing the same stance together, Qin Xiong was far stronger than Lu Zhong. His form truly resembled an ape—agile and fierce.

Arm-swinging magic power, fists like hammer blows—this was the true White Ape Cloak Hammer?

"White Ape…"

Li Yuan stared intently at Qin Xiong, comparing his form to adjust his own movements while recalling the apes he had seen in his previous life.

Somehow, he thought of *Journey to the West* he had watched in his previous life. Wasn't that Handsome Monkey King also a vividly lifelike white ape?

Ape, monkey…

"Similar to the pictographic boxing from my previous life…"

Li Yuan seemed lost in thought, as if he had grasped how this Wu Gong should be practiced.

"Stance training looks simple, but entering the door is hard! Remember what you learned today—it'll be enough for you to benefit from!"

Qin Xiong had long since sat down on the large chair the front-courtyard apprentices had brought over, with Fatty Sun standing beside him with a smiling face.

"This trip wasn't for nothing."

Qin Xiong took the tea an apprentice offered, gulped a mouthful, and swept a cold glance over the apprentices in the yard:

"There are a few with decent bone structure, but unfortunately their foundations are too thin—they may not be able to cultivate it!"

"Which ones have decent bone structure, Brother Qin?"

Fatty Sun swept a glance. Apart from the front-courtyard apprentices, the movements of the rest were quite poor, almost unbearable to watch—and this was after Qin Xiong had personally given them pointers.

"Those few little paupers."

Qin Xiong said casually. After his gaze swept over the apprentices, he grew somewhat impatient:

"Lu Zhong! Watch them stand for half a shichen!"

"Yes!"

Lu Zhong walked to the front, rolled up his sleeves, and stood in stance with meticulous care.

"Mm."

Qin Xiong didn't linger, turning and leaving at once.

Fatty Sun followed with a smile. As he left, his gaze swept over the apprentices, and Li Yuan's heart stirred slightly—did that fatty's eyes seem to linger on him?

*'That fatty's gaze seems a bit off…'*

Li Yuan, his nerves taut, was very sensitive, but he didn't dwell on it, gritting his teeth and enduring.

But his stamina was too weak. Before long, he felt aches all over. A sidelong glance showed the front-courtyard apprentices still standing, while those from the other courtyards were already swaying, many having collapsed onto the ground.

"Can't hold on anymore."

After a while, Li Yuan could barely hold on either, stumbling and breaking his stance.

The seemingly simple stance work drained stamina to an unbelievable degree.

As Li Yuan stretched and eased his muscles and bones, most of the apprentices were still gritting their teeth and holding on, but among the middle courtyard, only Niu Gui remained.

Niu Gui was also gritting his teeth and persisting. He only stopped after seeing Li Yuan break his stance, stood a while longer,

then dropped his bottom onto the ground, drenched in sweat, though his heart eased.

"Among the middle-courtyard apprentices, I'm still first!"

Li Yuan didn't know the middle-courtyard apprentices were secretly competing. After releasing his stance, he began doing stretching exercises, his mind clearly elsewhere.

……

Another half a shichen passed. The front-courtyard apprentices dispersed with Lu Zhong, and those from the other courtyards also scattered.

Li Yuan left with them, gave himself a hasty wash, and lay down early. It wasn't until midnight, hearing the snores of Niu Gui—the last to return—rise up, that he finally yawned and pretended to go to the latrine.

Stepping outside, the night was thick, the moonlight faint. The Weapon Forging Shop at night was terrifyingly still, not a human sound to be heard.

"There are several dozen hammers—one missing shouldn't be noticed, right?"

Walking out of the middle courtyard, under the moonlight, Li Yuan looked at the several dozen hammers at the edge of the martial arts ground and somewhat admired himself for enduring this long.

"Hoo!"

His gaze swept the surroundings. Seeing no one, Li Yuan directly picked up a hammer, and grey light immediately flickered before his eyes.

"They're all unranked. This grey color—does it mean unranked?"

Li Yuan was very careful, quickly touching every single hammer.

Forty-three training hammers, all unranked weapons, but there were differences among them.

Most of the training hammers, once mastered and controlled, only received beginner-level hammer techniques; merely a dozen or so were of the 'Proficient Level'.

However...

"This one has the deepest color. Although they are all Proficient Level, this should be the best?"

Li Yuan lifted a hammer, and while making his choice, he was also probing the application of the Palm Command Talisman.

However, his movements were swift; after selecting the hammer, he decisively withdrew, darting like smoke to a corner.

"Palm Command!"

Almost the instant the thought arose, under Li Yuan's gaze, the wooden-handled great hammer vanished in an instant; only a hammer shadow seemed to flash across the talisman in his palm.

Damn it!

Even though he had expected it, Li Yuan still shuddered all over upon seeing this scene, and his blood surged to his face.

Such a huge hammer, just vanished into thin air!

Daoist Li shivered, closed his eyes, and on the small gray platform, a hammer had suddenly appeared.

And the Palm Command Talisman above his head, like a sea of stars, rippled in response.

"This platform is too small; it can hold at most only a few hammers..."

Li Yuan observed with meticulous care, missing nothing in his study of the Palm Command Talisman; in the turn of a thought, he raised that hammer.

The next moment, that great hammer had appeared upon the Palm Command Talisman, in the single star that had lit up!

Buzz!

Li Yuan felt a 'Boom' explode in his mind.

"Again?"

In the corner, Li Yuan stumbled and couldn't stop, falling directly to the ground, his vision going dark in waves.

After a good while, he finally recovered, struggling back to the large dormitory, only then closing his eyes to feel the gains from mastering the weapon.

White Ape Stance, Cloak Hammer!

Deep in his mind, it was as if over a hundred different people were standing in stance, practicing the Cloak Hammer, over and over again...

At first, Li Yuan still felt excited, but by the second half of the night, with people in his mind still practicing the hammer technique over and over, he truly could not stand it anymore.

"Practice, practice!"

In the second half of the night, Li Yuan gritted his teeth and climbed out of bed; when the night was at its deepest, he had already reached the courtyard to stand in stance.

His movements were very stiff, very unskilled, no different from before, yet he clearly knew where he had erred and where adjustments were needed.

It was as if a veteran who had practiced for years was relearning this stance art; the secrets and details were all perfectly clear to him, lacking only an overly frail body.

"Lower body, tailbone, both arms, ears and eyes... this stance method actually has so many details?"

Li Yuan constantly adjusted his movements; the more he practiced, the less he felt tired, and even the drowsiness of the second half of the night was swept away.

When Niu Gui, who rose upon hearing the rooster crow, pushed open the door, Li Yuan was just finishing his stance; yet he had stood there for nearly half the night.

"When did you get up?"

Niu Gui leaned against the wall, his complexion not good; from the continuous heavy exercise, his whole body ached.

"Just got up."

Just got up?

Seeing that Li Yuan did not look particularly tired, Niu Gui felt slightly relieved.

The two exchanged only these few words; Niu Gui eagerly stood in stance, while Li Yuan yawned and returned to the room to catch a short nap.

He opened his eyes again amidst the cries of pain from the other apprentices.

Several apprentices, stimulated by Niu Gui's extra training, now ached all over but had to force themselves to get up.

The day's labor for the middle courtyard apprentices was about to begin.