Chapter 8: Train the Body Till It Resembles the Ape

How much silver did Second Brother stuff in?

Li Yuan's heart jolted; worry outweighed delight. The Li family had been in decline for years—where would they find the means to grease this Sun Fatty?

It's probably all borrowed…

Drawing a deep breath, Li Yuan gathered his focus, unwilling to waste this hard-won chance to learn martial arts.

In these times, even picking up a smithing trade is this hard, let alone Wu Gong?

"Don't take it so hard. A precious Wu Gong like the Bai Yuan Cloak Hammer—who but me would be willing to teach it to you?"

Sun Fatty snorted and said:

"Lift the hammer and hold the stance!"

As he spoke, he flicked his foot and kicked over an iron hammer he'd prepared.

Li Yuan flinched, lifted the hammer, and instinctively glanced at the grey glow on its head before stepping into the Bai Yuan stance.

"The eighteen hammer forms and stance methods you've learned aren't fake—they're just missing something…"

The moment the words reached him, Sun Fatty was already in front of him, his bulky frame leaning forward, utterly oppressive:

"Bai Yuan Breathing Method!"

A palm like a cattail fan pressed down on his shoulder; Li Yuan felt a sudden heat flood his shoulder and arm:

"Watch clearly and remember well—I'll only demonstrate it once!"

Li Yuan hurriedly focused.

Sun Fatty drew a deep breath; by the time he exhaled, the rhythm of his breathing had already changed.

It was a breathing method utterly at odds with common sense. The moment Li Yuan instinctively tried it, he nearly passed out.

But he didn't dare let his attention wander in the slightest. He focused completely, committing all six breathing patterns Sun Hao shifted through to memory.

"Lift-inhale, fall-exhale, three short and six long, one inhale and nine exhales…"

……

"Only when you can hold the Liu Hu Xi Fa while standing stance and practicing the Cloak Hammer will you have truly entered the door!"

Just as before, once the teaching was done, Sun Fatty kept his word—taught it only once and turned to head back inside. But before long he came out again and tossed over a booklet:

"Besides the breathing method, the origins of the Bai Yuan Cloak Hammer, the stance work, and the hammer forms are all in this booklet. I recall you can read, right? Then read it yourself. Oh, you can only read it here—don't take it out!"

"Thank you, Master Sun!"

Li Yuan hurriedly caught the booklet, then Yu Yu Xuanji reacted:

"What about the striking methods?"

"You still want to learn the striking methods?"

Sun Fatty let out a snort of laughter and turned back inside:

"Bring another ten taels of silver, and I'll teach you the striking methods!"

"Another ten? Second Brother actually gave him ten taels of silver?"

Li Yuan sucked in a sharp breath.

A month as a Central Courtyard apprentice earned thirty copper coins—three months wouldn't even add up to one *qian* of silver. Ten taels just to get in here—unless it was truly for learning Wu Gong, it was a blood-losing deal!

The two-story little building his Second Brother lived in now, renting the whole thing, wouldn't cost more than four taels of silver a year…

"Yuan Liu Breathing Method!"

Li Yuan's heart ached as if bleeding; he dared not let his attention wander for a heartbeat, forcing himself to memorize Sun Fatty's six breathing patterns.

If he forgot even one or half of one, he'd truly want to spit blood.

Under the moonlight, Li Yuan, drenched in sweat, went over it again and again, familiarizing himself and recalling Sun Fatty's breathing method.

A full Shi Shi Zuzu half a *shichen* passed before he finally let out a long breath—and the chill of late autumn rushed in all at once.

"This breathing method is memorized now. I'll try it slowly from here on."

With no thought of going inside, Li Yuan took advantage of the moonlight to find a sheltered corner in the yard. He reinforced the breathing method several more times before squatting down and taking out the booklet Sun Fatty had given him.

"Sure enough, the man who can serve as the Central Courtyard's head cook isn't as simple as those apprentices make him out to be…"

Rubbing his cold palms, Li Yuan felt a chill in his heart.

After tonight's ordeal, he didn't dare look down on this Sun Fatty any longer.

His own Second Brother had stuffed in ten taels of silver, yet over this past month or more, he hadn't felt the slightest preferential treatment.

He even suspected that if he hadn't shown a bit of talent these past days, this fatty wouldn't have even passed on the breathing method to him!

"Bai Yuan Cloak Hammer!"

Letting out a soft breath and pressing down his stray thoughts, Li Yuan carefully opened the slim booklet.

Thanks to Li Lin's insistence, his body's previous owner could read.

"The inside is the stance, the outside is the hammer, and breathing is the core! Threading the Yi Hu Xi Fa through stance and hammer forms—that is the entry point!"

Li Yuan recited it word by word in his heart.

The booklet contained the stance work and hammer forms he'd learned these past days—not a single move missing, only more detailed.

For instance, the inner-and-outer three unions Qin Xiong had mentioned, and the origins of this ape-shaped Cloak Hammer.

The outer three unions stress hand with foot, elbow with knee, shoulder with hip; the inner three unions are mind with intent, intent with Qi, Qi with force.

And the "Qi" in the inner three unions refers precisely to the breathing method. Without it, even with this booklet, it would be very hard to master.

Let alone the Great Completion realm where all six unions flow as one—even the inner three unions would be impossible to achieve.

"Entry, Mastery, Minor Completion, Great Completion! The four realms of the Bai Yuan Cloak Hammer—I wonder what realm Qin Xiong and Sun Fatty are at?"

Li Yuan was somewhat spellbound. Suddenly, he flinched and saw something that caught his keen interest:

"Train the body till it resembles the Bai Yuan, only then can blood nurture inner force!"

Inner force!

Li Yuan flipped again; only one page remained behind, mentioning neither the fighting method nor internal force again, leaving him quite regretful.

"White Ape Cloak Hammer is easy to learn but hard to master. For those with inferior bone structure, stand in the stance for three double-hours daily, practice the hammer techniques twelve times; in two years one might enter the gate, in seven years one might master it..."

"For those with medium bone structure, half a year should suffice to enter the gate; for those with superior bone structure, entering the gate is possible in just over a month!"

Li Yuan closed the small booklet.

Eighteen forms of hammer technique; even practicing twelve times takes more than a double-hour, and standing in the stance requires three double-hours; apprentices in the Middle Courtyard simply do not have that much free time.

"Practicing like this, with the Middle Courtyard's previous rations, the body couldn't endure it; one would be ruined before even mastering it..."

Li Yuan sighed inwardly, his desire to leave the Middle Courtyard growing even more urgent.

Knowing that apprentices in the Front Courtyard practiced four double-hours daily, one day equalling his three, he felt he was wasting time.

Without leaving one's post, one simply cannot practice martial arts.

The three taels of silver given by the Second Brother couldn't withstand the consumption of martial arts practice.

"Practicing martial arts is too difficult; even a White Ape Cloak Hammer without a fighting method requires so many steps to teach,

yet this is merely the foundation.

Medicine supplementation, not to mention medicine supplementation, without sufficient meat, progress will be too slow..."

Li Yuan muttered to himself, yet looked toward the small room where the lights had not yet been extinguished; on the window paper, Sun Fatty's massive silhouette was vaguely visible.

"Shouldn't the entry-level Dao Gong be enough?"

Having slept less than six hours, Li Yuan climbed up from the communal bed; he had slept fully clothed, rising lightly, but as soon as he stood, a voice came from behind.

"Do you get up this early every day?"

Niu Gui's lowered voice came through.

"Occasionally."

Li Yuan did not turn back, pushing the door open and stepping out.

The early mornings of late autumn grew colder day by day; Li Yuan warmed up first, stretching his muscles and bones, then began standing in the stance, consciously adjusting his breathing.

The Ape Six Breathing Technique was not complex, but how could it be simple to adjust, or even reverse, breathing habits formed over years and years?

Li Yuan tried multiple times, feeling only a heaviness in his chest; he couldn't even stand for half a double-hour before finding it hard to persist.

"How can a normal person breathe like this?"

Pressing his chest, Li Yuan rested for quite a while before continuing to try, afraid he might have thrown off his qi.

After several such attempts, the sky had already brightened, and sounds of other apprentices dressing and rising came from inside the room.

"Where are you going?"

Seeing Li Yuan leave the courtyard, Niu Gui, who had not yet concluded his practice, couldn't help but ask.

"Asking for leave!"

Li Yuan replied with a single sentence, then carried the hammer to the front of Sun Fatty's small courtyard.

After the rooster crowed three times, Sun Fatty finally pushed the door open while yawning; catching sight of Li Yuan, he was momentarily stunned:

"What are you doing here? You don't think I passed the Ape on to you?"

"Head Chef Sun, this disciple wishes to learn cooking from you."

Li Yuan lowered his head and bowed deeply.

As an apprentice of the Middle Courtyard, wanting to improve rations and raise one's treatment naturally meant one could not bypass Head Chef Sun Fatty.

He had been preparing for this several days ago; buying the butcher's bone-chopping knife was for this very purpose.

Originally, he had been thinking of first building some rapport, but after last night's events, he felt he could attempt it.

Even if it failed, the worst that could happen was a beating and scolding; if it succeeded, it would solve his pressing emergency.

If the body is not nourished well and nutrition does not keep up, even with a mastered-level hammer within the body, one could not manifest much of it.

"Want to become Laozi's apprentice? You certainly know how to climb up the pole!"

Sun Fatty wanted to scold and wanted to laugh, but thinking of Li Lin's generosity, he still left some room:

"The money your Second Brother gave isn't enough to be my apprentice; that's a different price..."

Li Yuan said nothing, simply reaching his hand toward his lower back.

"Still not leaving?"

Sun Fatty, his face full of impatience, waved his hand to drive the person away, but suddenly froze, anger surging up at once:

"Good kid, daring to take Laozi's kitchen knife? Is your skin too tight?"

Hiss!

Pulling Sun Fatty's large kitchen knife from his lower back, before the latter's anger could fully surge, Li Yuan raised his hand and spun a knife flourish.

On the way here, he had gone to the kitchen to retrieve Sun Fatty's knife; this was a weapon no less than a practice hammer.

"Eh?"

Sun Fatty's foot halted; having been a cook for twenty years, his eye for detail was naturally present:

"How many years have you practiced Dao Gong?"

Sun Fatty was somewhat surprised.

The Middle Courtyard cooks were responsible for the rations of a hundred or eighty people; the knives were naturally nothing small; his meat-chopping knife was half a meter long and as wide as a face, not something an ordinary person could handle.

But that kid named Li Yuan, with a casual knife flourish, moved as skillfully as if wielding his own hand?

"Replying to the Head Chef, I have practiced for a few years."

Li Yuan answered with his head lowered.

In his past life, serving the old man, he naturally knew a bit of Dao Gong and cooking, but being able to handle it so smoothly was naturally because he had mastered that butcher's bone-chopping knife.

This was also the confidence he had in coming here.

"Good lad, this technique of yours must have taken at least three or four years of Ku Gong, eh?"

Looking Li Yuan up and down, Fatty Sun's rising temper gradually cooled, and he squinted his small eyes:

"You actually took yesterday's words to heart? With your knife work, it's not that I can't take you on as a helper, it's just…"

"Many thanks, Head Cook Sun…"

Li Yuan naturally knew what he wanted to say, and at once presented the meat-chopping blade with both hands:

"This disciple only asks to eat his fill; everything else, I'll do as the Head Cook commands!"

(End of this chapter)