infodatos Chapter 2 Eight Extremes
Chapter 2 Eight Extremes
The weather was nice, and Liu Sheng walked along, basking in the warm winter sun.
Before long, we arrived at a sign with black background and gold lettering that read "Bajiguan" and pushed open the door to enter.
The characters used in this life are different from the Chinese characters I was familiar with in my previous life.
Everyone called it "demonic script".
In Liu Sheng's view, these characters were similar to the Khitan script he had seen in his previous life, and since they had a foundation in Chinese, they were not difficult to learn.
I just didn't go to school to study properly, so I don't know many characters.
Bajiguan is a four-courtyard complex.
Upon entering, the first spacious courtyard is where some early-arriving registered disciples are practicing basic boxing techniques.
Their tuition was low, one tael of silver per month.
Therefore, they were not taught Bajiquan, such a core martial art, and were not provided with lunch.
Upon seeing Liu Sheng arrive, the disciples all stopped what they were doing:
Good morning, Senior Brother Liu!
To them, both novice disciples and formal disciples are senior brothers.
Liu Sheng smiled and nodded in response.
Further in, there is a spacious rammed earth courtyard, which is the martial arts school's training ground.
In the southeast corner of the training ground, there are more than a dozen wooden stakes arranged in a row. Some are leaning against stakes, some are driven into stakes, and some are kicked into stakes. Each stake has smooth marks and marks from being struck.
On the weapon rack on the west side, only one type of weapon is neatly arranged—the Six Harmonies Long Staff.
The staff is over ten feet long and weighs about six pounds. However, because commoners in the Great Fan Dynasty were not allowed to use copper or iron weapons, the martial arts school could only cut off more than a foot from the head of the staff to make it look like a spear.
As expected, Liu Sheng was the first to arrive today, a new disciple of the martial arts school.
He began to stretch his muscles and bones, slowly turning his head and neck.
Then stretch your shoulders and back, bend your waist and hips, and twist your ankles.
After one round of stretching.
Liu Sheng skillfully took off his shirt, bent his knees and straightened his back, focused his energy in his dantian, and began to lift the stone lock in front of him to build up his strength.
This is a laborious process and won't directly add experience points.
However, based on his careful observation over the past few days, he discovered that proper warm-up preparation leads to faster accumulation of martial arts experience points later on.
When the steam rises and the face glows red.
Clearly, his body is in optimal condition.
Liu Sheng then went to the wooden stake and officially began practicing his boxing.
"Only 10 days left! Keep it up, reach a certain level of proficiency soon, and get on the gym owner's good side!"
Earlier, Liu Sheng thought that his father sent him to the martial arts school so that one day he could pass the martial arts examination.
Having the title of a martial arts scholar allows one to reduce or exempt taxes for their family's shops.
After all, the imperial court is currently at war, and no matter how well a business is doing, it can't keep up with the drastic tax increases.
He could pass the military examination and become a military scholar, or even a military graduate.
Needless to say, there's no need to mention the Beggars' Sect.
Even if it's the county government, they still have to give his family some face. Thinking of this, he, who had awakened his innate wisdom, could naturally understand his father's thoughts.
Until last night.
His father predicted that chaos would ensue, and the purpose of sending him to learn martial arts was simply to ensure that he would have the ability to protect himself in the future.
This pure fatherly love strengthened Liu Sheng's resolve to diligently practice martial arts!
Liu Sheng then struck the wooden stake and practiced for an hour.
As the martial arts school disciples arrived one after another, some of whom he knew greeted him, and Senior Brother Lu also arrived.
He took a breath, drank some water, and brought up the control panel to check:
【Bajiquan (255/1000 Beginner Level)】
"It's too slow. Is there any way to speed it up?"
Liu Sheng has discovered that practicing martial arts without thinking can indeed increase proficiency.
But what if you bring your brain along?
Add it even faster!
So naturally, he got used to considering all the possibilities: Was the movement more standardized? Was the way of exerting force more reasonable?
Perhaps they are all true, but...
"Oh, right, right, you can't rely on yourself for everything." Liu Sheng put his mind to work and came up with an idea!
Just do it.
He immediately went to Senior Brother Lu, paid next month's tuition, and made a request.
"Oh? You want me to explain these basic movements to you again?"
As the senior disciple of Bajiquan, Lu You's task is to teach these novice disciples.
From the very first day of learning.
Lu You had to explain some specially broken-down moves to the new disciples, moves that were specifically designed for beginners to practice.
There was no standing meditation, no breathing exercises, and no spear techniques.
These are the most iconic dozen or so moves.
Once you've mastered the skills and gained some strength, and achieved a basic level of proficiency, then you can move on to the next stage.
Lu You was gentle in nature, and he was always happy to meet disciples who were willing to learn, without showing any impatience.
Not to mention, he had seen all of Liu Sheng's recent efforts.
"Pick a few moves and demonstrate them to me."
Without hesitation, Liu Sheng pushed his palm, struck with his elbow in a horse stance, and leaned against the mountain, three times in a row.
"Junior brother, look, when we do the palm push, our five fingers are naturally spread apart, not closed."
"Furthermore, regarding this horse stance elbow strike, when you step out of the horse stance, it's just a simple step, but that won't hit anyone. Normally, it should be a sliding step."
Senior Brother Lu took two steps back and also assumed a horse stance to thrust his elbow.
Liu Sheng saw that his senior brother Lu was just two steps away, but he pushed off with his feet and lifted his leg as if he had teleported.
With a crisp "snap," the wooden stake took a solid elbow strike.
"And then let's talk about this mountain-mountain leaning stance..."
Lu explained and demonstrated at the same time, speaking in a detailed and engaging manner.
Liu Sheng then understood and was overjoyed.
What does it mean to have a small error that leads to a huge mistake?
I was far too careless in my observations before.
After watching, Liu Sheng immediately followed suit and learned by imitation.
The movements have become much more standardized.
He even gradually learned to apply what he learned to other situations!
Lu You nodded repeatedly, full of praise.
What surprised Liu Sheng even more was the constant stream of text popping up in front of him—
[Bajiquan Proficiency +3]
[Bajiquan Proficiency +3]
[Bajiquan Proficiency +3]
[Bajiquan Proficiency +3]
[Bajiquan Proficiency +3]
……
Wow, you can play like this?
He finally confirmed that his guess was correct.
A few days ago.
When Liu Sheng first awakened his innate wisdom, he thought it was just a normal level of proficiency.
It's similar to rote memorization to ensure a minimum standard.
As long as you stay diligent every day, even if you practice randomly without knowing the key points, you can still increase your experience points.
Liu Sheng gradually grew stronger through diligent and methodical practice, making slow but steady progress.
But now, the Beggars' Sect is not giving him time to take his time!
He had no choice but to figure out a solution himself.
He had previously thought that since the panel was useful, his memories and experiences from his previous life must also be useful.
Otherwise, compared to the panel.
Wouldn't all your innate wisdom have been wasted in the process of awakening?
When Liu Sheng first awakened his innate wisdom, he was probably overwhelmed by the amount of information, and his reaction to many things was rather slow.
He now realized that he needed to get his mind working.
In this life, one's experience in dealing with people and understanding human relationships is very valuable, because human nature is universal. Therefore, learning methods can certainly be carried over into this life.
Watch more, learn more, and practice more.
According to his guess, it was just like learning calligraphy in his previous life.
First, you need to understand it before you can copy it through semi-transparent paper.
Then, I put the sample aside and practiced copying it on a piece of white paper.
Only when you have a clear plan in mind can you start writing without looking at anything, and even gradually develop your own unique style.
The first step has just been verified.
So he opened the panel again to check—
【Bajiquan (402/1000 Beginner Level)】
After a short demonstration and explanation, and only 15 minutes of practice, I gained a full 147 experience points!
It was equivalent to the hard training of the previous two days.
Looking at the experience bar after the surge in experience ended, Liu Sheng was full of confidence.
Although Liu Sheng knew that such a rapid rate of enhancement could not continue indefinitely.
But he was still pleasantly surprised.
Because he has successfully validated some of his learning methods.
Lu You also praised Liu Sheng highly.
They said he was particularly insightful today, as if he had suddenly become enlightened, and his learning was exceptionally thorough.
"Now that I've found the method, with my talent and hard work, it won't even take me 10 days to reach a minor mastery of this martial art!"
Encouraged, Liu Sheng was in high spirits.
He continued practicing diligently against the wooden stake.
The disciples around him were also practicing martial arts in silence, occasionally letting out a "humph" or "ha" sound as they exerted their strength.
They practiced like that until half past noon.
Finally, everyone could smell the aroma of stewed beef. The fragrance grew stronger as it approached, and a restless energy began to fill the air.
When you hear "Dinner's ready!"
Then everyone laughed and started lining up to get their bowls and food.
The person who supervises the cooking and serving of meals every day is my second senior sister, Yang Hongliu.
She stood under the eaves, dressed in a black, red, and gold robe, adorned with cloud patterns. On the back was a special nine-colored deer motif, a feature reserved for direct disciples.
This disciple's robe, worn by a woman, makes her look exceptionally heroic.
The Hongliu Restaurant in the west of the county is her family's property.
I heard it wasn't called that before.
It was because Manager Yang had a daughter late in life that he doted on her.
First, we named our precious daughter, and then we changed the restaurant's signboard.
Every day, the restaurant's head chef personally prepares the meat and vegetables, which are then transported over by donkey cart.
The lunch was pretty much the same.
Each person gets a large bowl of beef or mutton stewed with onions.
The freshly baked flatbreads are made in the martial arts school's kitchen, and they are dry and fragrant. Each person can have a maximum of 5 flatbreads.
Of course, the flatbreads were enormous, even bigger than the ones the boss had painted in his previous life. Liu Sheng had never seen any of his disciples actually manage to finish five of them.
In the past, the tuition fee for a martial arts school's introductory disciple was 5 taels of silver, and they had to take care of their own lunch.
As a result, the tuition fees were already high enough.
Many disciples from ordinary families are reluctant to eat more meat, which leads to physical depletion, illnesses, and even death.
Upon seeing this, the curator immediately changed the rules without saying a word, mandating payment for lunch.
As a result, the tuition fee doubled from 5 taels of silver to 10 taels of silver.
It was only thanks to the Red Willow Restaurant owned by my second senior sister that we were able to reduce costs.
Originally, the normal price for lunch, which should have been 8 liang per person for a month's worth of meals, was reduced to 5 liang for cost and labor fee.
Of course, the donkey cart used for transportation belonged to the eldest brother's family business, [Lu Family Carpentry], and no fee was charged for it.
Second Senior Sister Yang Hongliu skillfully divided the meat with a spoon, turning it over and over without spilling a drop of broth. She efficiently divided the stewed beef for all the disciples.
After queuing up and receiving their share of meat, everyone then took their own flatbread.
The flow of people then split into three waves in Liu Sheng's field of vision.
The first group, the direct disciples, such as the eldest brother and second sister, will sit in the inner hall, which is a separate circle.
There were tables and chairs, so they sat down to eat, and the meat they ate was different from what they ate.
It is a more nourishing rye beef, and it is said that sometimes it even contains monster meat.
The second group, the formal disciples, mostly at the junior and senior levels of Bajiquan, would gather for a meal under a carpeted corridor and chat about lighthearted topics.
For example, a young master from a wealthy family might boast about the fashionable robe he bought from the capital city of Lhasa; or someone might mention that the current emperor, known for his demonic influence, has begun to persecute Buddhism again. Few people would talk about martial arts.
When they talked about it, they lamented that accumulating qi and blood is extremely expensive, and that there are bottlenecks in breaking through internal training methods, so it might be better to just learn boxing.
The third wave consisted of novice disciples, those at the Bajiquan level who had not yet achieved minor mastery of the basics, including Liu Sheng and his group. These novice disciples could only sit on the rammed earth of the training ground.
They might remain silent, or gather in small groups to talk about who failed to complete their training and went back to their hometown, and how much time they themselves had left.
Liu Sheng took a look.
The wealthy young men who used to sneak out with him were indeed not among them.
"They're still too rich. They can't even appreciate such good beef and bread, and insist on eating out at noodle restaurants."
A few days ago, the rich kids came as usual, inviting Liu Sheng to go out and have fun together.
But Liu Sheng, for the first time ever, refused them all and even began to focus on practicing martial arts.
The wealthy young men, though somewhat disappointed, did not press the matter.
After a few times, he stopped calling Liu Sheng.
Liu Sheng really wanted to slap his past self.
Despite their family's circumstances, they've insisted on associating with the wealthy young men from the south of the city for the past few months, putting on a show of wealth even when they're not.
In the end, if someone doesn't master the skill, they simply go back to inherit the family business and gain a martial arts experience they can boast about.
He emptied his own savings.
"I'm so hungry!"
Liu Sheng felt unusually hungry today.
The kind of hunger that could fill three people to eat a whole pig.
After thinking it over, he figured it might be because his martial arts progress in the morning had suddenly increased dramatically, which had also led to a surge in his physical exertion.
After all, there have been precedents for this.
"Since things have come to this, let's eat first!"
Liu Sheng lifted the bowl, and in the amber-colored broth, large chunks of beef brisket and tendons, simmered for a long time with spices, trembled slightly, with purple onions mixed in, bringing sweetness and a hint of spiciness.
Take a bite of beef, and you'll experience its rich and full-bodied flavor. Then take another bite, and the onion, soaked in beef fat, will send a warm current rushing through your body.
After finishing with a hearty bite of baked flatbread, Liu Sheng could even feel that the energy and blood he had lost that morning were beginning to be replenished.
As he ate one bite after another, Liu Sheng felt warm and comfortable all over.
Because he was so hungry, Liu Sheng took two pancakes today.
Finally, I used the pancake to wipe the broth clean from the bottom of the bowl containing the meat, then ate it in one bite, finally feeling satisfied.
Even after finishing the meal, the warmth lingered in my body, like a gentle fire warming my skin.
This is the effect of good meat on replenishing the body's Qi and blood, which is visible to the naked eye.
Liu Sheng also discovered that in this world, food is generally more effective at keeping one full than in his previous life.
The effects of meat consumption are even more exaggerated, with a direct and noticeable benefit to martial arts training.
Although I don't understand the specific principle, I just want to eat more meat.
Take a short break.
Liu Sheng stood up and continued practicing his boxing.
Seeing that Liu Sheng had taken the lead, the other diligent disciples also stood up.
Some disciples, seeing that Liu Sheng had changed his ways these past few days, were discussing and speculating about how long he could last in this round.
Liu Sheng didn't care about any of that; all he cared about was the wooden stake in front of him.
And the experience boost that only he can see—
[Bajiquan Proficiency +2]
[Bajiquan Proficiency +2]
……
【Bajiquan (436/1000 Beginner Level)】
After immersing himself in martial arts practice for more than an hour, Liu Sheng noticed that the rate at which his experience points were increasing had slowed down again.
So his brain started working at lightning speed again:
"I carefully observed my senior brother's demonstration of the push palm, horse stance elbow strike, and mountain lean, which is why I was able to learn them so quickly this morning."
"But now my practice has hit a bottleneck again, not because I've mastered it, but because the gap between me and my senior brother is too big."
"How can I improve?"
Liu Sheng's thoughts shifted, and following his train of thought, he came to the following:
"Real combat, it must be real combat and sparring!"
Of course, he couldn't spar with his senior brother.
Being too strong or too weak doesn't mean much to him.
A true exchange of blows is what makes a real sparring match. Being instantly defeated clearly won't lead to much improvement.
So he quickly came up with a suitable candidate.
Liu Sheng frowned and looked at another boy who was also in the southeast corner.
The boy appeared to be about fifteen years old, with a decent appearance, but his skin was slightly dark.
His hair was shaved extremely short, like that of many poor people.
Inside the training clothes, you could see a worn-out inner shirt, and the palms of his hands were covered with thick calluses from frequent hard labor.
At this moment, the boy who was focused on hitting the wooden stake seemed to sense Liu Sheng's gaze.
He turned his head.
His resolute brows furrowed, with a hint of embarrassment and guilt in his expression.
Perhaps he felt guilty for being too harsh in the past, or perhaps he had too many things going on at home recently and didn't want to cause any more trouble.
But that didn't stop him from being defiant: "What are you looking at?!"
Liu Sheng did not answer, but walked straight towards him.
Seeing this, the surrounding disciples called out to their unsuspecting companions to come and watch the excitement.
"Look, Liu Sheng has approached Ye Qi!"
"Wow, is he trying to get revenge?"
It turns out that a few days ago, Liu Sheng was knocked unconscious by a single punch from this young man named Ye Qi during a sparring match.
That led to all the subsequent experiences.
Liu Sheng certainly wouldn't have any objections to Ye Qi.
If it's a fair competition and I'm not as skilled as the other player, what's there to say?
Moreover, Ye Qi, as an entry-level disciple, has made such progress in martial arts in just one month since entering the martial arts school; it would not be an exaggeration to call him a genius.
The last time I injured myself, it was also an accident.
I heard that after I fainted, I was sent to Qianjin Medical Clinic, and Ye Qi and several other disciples carried me there.
This means that the other person is also a good person.
At this point, anyone with a modicum of common sense should seriously consider making new acquaintances.
Liu Sheng was no exception.
He walked up to Ye Qi and put his arm around Ye Qi's shoulder.
But his arm was slapped off by the latter.
Liu Sheng wasn't annoyed, and said something Ye Qi could never have imagined in his life:
"Are you hungry? Come on, I'll take you to get some meat!"