"The foundation of the martial path is divided into four gates — skin, flesh, bone, and blood. Surely you've heard of them. The way I see it, it's really not that complicated. It all comes down to the most basic word: tempering."
"Tempering?"
"Right, tempering. Temper like your life depends on it. Temper your strength until it grows and grows without end. When an ordinary person is injured just from grazing against you, and dies at a touch — then you can call yourself a grandmaster of your generation."
Following behind Xiang Changsong, Liang Qu couldn't help grimacing at that.
Sanctify the body through training, huh? The real question was, temper it how!
The top Olympic athletes of his past life had taught Liang Qu that the human body has limits. Without special methods, no one could split stone steles and crack rocks through sheer physical power alone.
Xiang Changsong's next words proved the point.
"Of course, however an ordinary person trains, there's a ceiling. Holding off ten men at once is about the best you can hope for. To break through that limit, two things are indispensable: method and medicine!"
"Method and medicine?"
"Exactly. The method is the training method — for instance, the Three Fists Method that will be issued to you for practice upon entering our Yang Family Martial Hall. With a method, a man has a ladder to climb upward."
Liang Qu asked, "And the medicine?"
"The method paves the ladder upward, but that ladder is steep! Perilous! Precipitous! So you need a handrail to climb fast and climb steady, without falling off and shattering to pieces on the ground below. That is what medicine is!"
"Since you came from Yixing, you've surely heard the news that two treasure fish were caught at Yixing's wharf yesterday?"
Liang Qu cupped his fists. "Senior Brother Xiang, to tell the truth, one of those two treasure fish — the ox-horn pomfret — was caught by me. It weighed a bit over three jin and sold for six taels five qian. With some of my savings added on, I finally scraped together the silver to come study martial arts."
Xiang Changsong blinked, then recalled the seven taels handed over just now — most likely the money from selling that treasure fish — and smiled. "Junior Brother Liang certainly has good fortune."
"Treasure fish are precisely the medicine we need. One treasure fish is worth a month or more of hard training. Then there are treasure meats and treasure plants too — anything that helps us hammer our qi and blood and build our strength counts as medicine."
"That's why many methods come with medicinal recipes to match, each strengthening the other for a one-plus-one-greater-than-two effect. Our Three Fists Method has one. If a man practicing some other method takes our recipe, it still works — but the results are simply not as good as with the Three Fists Method."
"And of course, if there's truly no other way, just eating more meat helps — a little, at least."
Liang Qu's mind stirred at all this.
Treasure meat he had no way to get, but treasure fish and treasure plants were his own specialty!
Who knew how many treasure fish there were in the Zeye Marsh of Jianghuai? The Fat Catfish could find him two treasure fish in just a few days. Keep that up, and wouldn't he simply take off?
Li Libo, meanwhile, had gone rather quiet.
Xiang Changsong noticed and wasn't surprised. Many people believe that entering a martial hall means you're bound to achieve something — a huge mistake. Poor families could only afford letters; it took wealth to study martial arts. A child raised on meat was simply sturdier than one raised on chaff and greens.
These two junior brothers came from ordinary households, and he feared their hearts were already sinking.
He offered no discouragement, only consolation: "Junior Brother Li, there's no need to be downhearted. Lacking medicine doesn't mean the martial road is doomed to be hard going. Everything depends on the man — nothing is absolute. The world has never lacked geniuses; without medicine, they too can walk the road fast and steady."
"Thank you, Senior Brother Xiang. I'll remember it."
Xiang Changsong nodded and led the two of them deeper in. "What we call skin, flesh, bone, and blood are the four checkpoints of the early martial path. Breaking each gate brings a different gain, and lifts you one level higher."
As Xiang Changsong went on, Liang Qu gained a much deeper understanding of the four gates.
Simply put: break through the skin gate and the body looks no different, but the skin turns to oxhide — tough, and impossible to tear — and defense rises enormously.
Break through the flesh gate and strength surges; lifting a man with one hand is no trouble at all.
Break through the bone gate and you can unleash your power ever more freely, truly splitting steles and cracking rock.
Break through the blood gate and it is like oil flung on a roaring fire, flowers stitched into brocade — enhancement in every respect.
"If you can break through the skin gate within three months, you may stay on at the hall for two extra months. And if you can break through within seventy days, you may even catch Master Yang's eye, become a true disciple, and learn more profound arts."
These words set Li Libo rallying his spirits, his heart surging with excitement; even Liang Qu couldn't help itching to learn real kung fu as soon as possible.
Xiang Changsong now stopped. "This is the training ground — where we spend most of our days."
There were thirty-odd people in the training ground: some holding stances, some lifting stones, some sparring. The youngest looked even younger than Liang Qu himself, while the oldest was probably past thirty. Most were men, with a few women among them — for all the world like an oversized gym.
Envy showed in Liang Qu's eyes. Thirty-odd students — even if every one paid only the lowest fee of seven taels, that was two hundred-odd taels. Two hundred-odd taels every three months — wouldn't a year come to nearly a thousand? Enough to buy a grand mansion outright.
And that was a conservative estimate. Count new arrivals and anyone not out on the training ground, and it grew more staggering still. When would he get to earn money lying around too?
"For the last five days of each month, Master Yang comes here in person to teach. If you have any questions, you may ask him then."
"We only get to see Master Yang at month's end?" Li Libo stared. He had thought that entering a martial hall meant instruction from a true martial master — and that was it?
"Then what do we do the rest of the time?"
Xiang Changsong didn't answer right away. Instead he called out to a brawny man lifting a stone in the training ground: "Senior Brother Hu!"
Liang Qu looked over curiously — and was startled to find it was none other than the martial master surnamed Hu who had bought his fish yesterday.
Well, coincidence does make the story.
Then again, martial practitioners were few in all of Pingyang Town; running into Martial Master Hu was hardly strange.
While Martial Master Hu was walking over, Xiang Changsong explained, "On ordinary days it will be Senior Brother Hu — Master Yang's personally taught disciple — who instructs you. He is the martial master on duty this month. Senior Brother Hu is deeply learned and superbly skilled; by the rules, from now on you will study under him. Well then — now that you've had your introduction, I'll get back to the gate to keep watch and take registrations."
"Take care, Senior Brother Xiang."
Senior Brother Hu came up now and glanced at their wooden tablets. "Junior brothers, I am Hu Qi. From now on— hm? It's you?"
Liang Qu cupped his fists. "Senior Brother Hu, we meet again."
Hu Qi thought for a moment, and the whole story fell into place. He smiled. "Never thought it would be such a coincidence. From now on, you two will be learning martial arts under me. But first I should check your aptitude."
"Aptitude!?"
Li Libo's face lit up with excitement. Could he himself be one of those legendary martial prodigies?
One look at Li Libo's expression and Hu Qi knew what he was thinking. "It's not that mystical. Good aptitude does mean faster progress, punches that come out heavy and fierce — but it isn't absolute, and it can't stand in for talent entirely.
"Besides, our Three Fists Method is actually three styles of boxing: Tiger, Crane, and Ape. You can pick the one that suits your aptitude to specialize in — something the other two martial halls don't have."
With that, Hu Qi took Li Libo's hand and kneaded his wrist bones, his shoulders, his hips — and finally said, "Bear with this."
Hu Qi drove two fingers in and found his spine.
Hss!
The corner of Liang Qu's eye twitched. From Li Libo's sharp intake of breath, he knew it hurt badly.
He had once watched a film where a beautiful female agent killed people exactly this way.
Hu Qi withdrew his hand. "Above average. I'd suggest you focus on the Ape Fist of the Three Fists."
Li Libo was sorely disappointed.
Then it was Liang Qu's turn — the same again: wrist bones, shoulders, hips, and last the spine.
Hu Qi drove two fingers in. Liang Qu felt half his body go numb — yet in the end, the one who cried out wasn't him, but Hu Qi.
"Eh? Junior Brother Liang's aptitude is actually this good?"
Chapter 15