The Immortal Seeker: Legend of Bronze Mirror
Chapter 91 - 71 Body Tempering (Please Subscribe)

Chapter 91: Chapter 71 Body Tempering (Please Subscribe)

Thus, Xu Qing stayed for three days in the official residence of Academic Supervisor Zhou at Yingtian Prefecture. During this period, Fayue came to visit but was told that Wu Xun’an’s Embroidered Guard were already protecting the place and they were no longer needed, so he prepared to return home.

Fayue could not forget the matter of making a fortune that Xu Qing had mentioned last time and was eagerly waiting for Xu Qing to return, ready to make a big move.

Xu Qing definitely planned to meet with Academic Supervisor Zhou before leaving, so he asked Fayue to return home at ease and wait for his news.

On this trip with Xu Qing, Fayue had also made a considerable fortune and had established a degree of trust. Thus, he didn’t rush Xu Qing, only hoping that Xu Sanyuan could return soon, as it was almost the end of the year and even Monks had to celebrate the New Year.

During these three days, Xu Qing received hospitality of fine wines and meat at Academic Supervisor Zhou’s mansion.

Presumably, Academic Supervisor Zhou was also aware of Xu Qing’s martial arts training, or perhaps he felt that Xu Qing was young and growing, thus needing sufficient nutrition.

Although Xu Qing had meat to supplement his diet, he didn’t spend much time practicing the Bull Demon Strong Fist, but rather focused on archery.

To make further progress in his Bull Demon Strong Fist, he actually needed to leverage the full-body strength used in drawing a bow to further temper his physique, a little trick revealed to Xu Qing by King Lin.

But Old Lin had held back, not giving Xu Qing the medicinal recipe.

After all, each sect could accept the spread of a training method, but would never allow their medicinal recipes to be stolen.

The bond formed by his lady master’s gift of the medicinal recipe for the Silver Ring Firming Pill, associated with the Eight Diagram Wandering Palm Method, was indeed significant.

Xu Qing was now using a cow tendon hard bow given to him by King Lin, a finely crafted bow that was a rare find in the barracks and actually seized from the Salt Gang’s stronghold.

The Bright Strength of the Bull Demon Strong Fist was in truth also a technique for drawing a bow.

When Xu Qing practiced archery, he did not attach arrows but drew the bowstring empty. This was dangerous, but it was the only way to exercise the body.

Had Xu Qing not already attained a certain level of proficiency in the Bull Demon Strong Fist, rashly attempting this could easily have led to injury.

Even so, when Xu Qing drew the bow, he was fully concentrated, not the least bit careless.

Martial arts training is not the same as studying.

If you don’t study hard, at worst you fail the Imperial Examination; if you don’t take martial arts training seriously, you could ruin your body.

People, only when they grow older, will realize that having a good body is more precious than anything.

Xu Qing slowly drew the bowstring to full circle, like a full moon, and then slowly released the string back to its place, a process that seemed simple but was extremely exhausting.

With each draw and release, Xu Qing’s whole body exuded an aura of heat.

Drawing the bow was no simple task, and returning the string even more so tested the body.

Why could one not just release the bowstring after pulling it? There is skill in it, because releasing suddenly could easily damage one’s own arm. Additionally, after several such instances, the bow would be rendered useless.

Of course, his goal in practicing archery was not to shoot arrows, but to use the cow tendon hard bow to exercise the body.

After repeating the process several times, Xu Qing felt a twist-and-tear sensation in all his muscles; his waist, legs, abdomen, arms, back, and neck all ached faintly.

This was not a bad thing.

It meant that his muscles were being worked.

"I had made negligible progress with Muscle Training recently, but now, through archery, my body has further developed. This is not an effect that can be achieved through medication. Indeed, as stated in the books, a gentleman’s nature is not different; he is good at making use of things. To a certain extent, one’s self-improvement still relies on making good use of external objects. This is not dependence on external objects, but a method."

If Xu Qing didn’t have the internal strength training method of the Bull Demon Strong Fist, even if he knew that archery could temper the body, he would still have to fumble for a long time to see slight results.

Because the internal strength training method of the Bull Demon Strong Fist is the experience summarized by predecessors after thousands of refinements, even with the bronze mirror, Xu Qing could not have realized such a method in a short time.

It was like his Beng Fist, though it combined the strengths of the Bull Demon Strong Fist and the Eight Diagram Wandering Body Palm Technique, it was built on the shoulders of predecessors; without their foundation, how could he have integrated the "Beng Fist."

After a brief rest, Xu Qing stepped half-forward and punched out.

This was the Beng Fist.

After practicing with the cow tendon hard bow, Xu Qing’s understanding of the "Beng Fist" deepened.

He alternated between practicing archery and practicing the Beng Fist, over and over again.

The half-step Beng Fist contained the Eight Diagrams Body Technique and the philosophy of "The Book of Changes," and Xu Qing thought of "remorse at the high point."

Regret at the high point; a surplus cannot last long.

He realized that his Beng Fist had a flaw, which was that the force exerted was too solid.

In a real fight, if the Beng Fist did not injure the opponent, wouldn’t it expose a weakness?

In the martial arts novels of his previous life, the principle of "holding back" in the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms refers to this—when punching, keep back some strength.

It’s not about always keeping back a third, but there must be room to maneuver.

This margin must be mastered by oneself.

The principle of the Beng Fist and the Dragon Subduing Palm shares similarities; that is, they are both fierce and powerful.

But relentless fierceness is not the way to go.

For instance, colored glaze can be very hard but shatters upon impact simply because it lacks resilience.

Steel that has been tempered a hundred times has resilience, and the weapons made from it do not easily break.

"Everything under heaven has its own reason, human wisdom can penetrate these reasons and thus transform them for our use. This is ’knowledge of things.’"

Xu Qing was not unaware of these principles, but knowing and understanding are two different levels. It’s like studying mathematics, where understanding is most important, not deriving results through formulas.

That is incidental, not the fundamental purpose of studying mathematics.

Mathematics is used to analyze the logic behind the existence of everything in the world.

Now, in practice, he understood ’knowledge of things’ was far more important than just knowing the principle of ’knowledge of things.’