Practice starts with skill points.

Chapter 13 Martial Arts
"Are you scared?"

Zhong Lin touched Shitou's little head and asked with concern.

"No...not afraid."

He suppressed his shaking legs and pale cheeks, and was clearly terrified, but his eyes were fixed on the miserable death of the mountain tiger.

Zhong Lin didn't say anything else. How could he not be afraid? After all, Xiao Shitou was only a five or six-year-old child.

He lowered his head and pulled the arrow out of the mountain tiger's eye socket, washed it casually with the dirt on the ground and put it into the quiver, then squatted down and began to search his body.

A moment later, a purse and a book wrapped in brown paper were taken out from Zhenshanhu.

The purse contained not large coins but silver, quite a bit, as much as eight taels. Zhong Lin was very happy with such unexpected wealth, but at this moment his attention was focused on the book, and his heart was pounding.

Could the books that could be carefully kept by a bandit be... martial arts secrets?
Carefully opening the brown paper wrapping, a yellowed and wrinkled book appeared before my eyes.

The wrinkles on it show that Zhenshanhu must have taken it out and flipped through the pages frequently, but it is well preserved and has not been damaged.

"Brother, is this a book?"

Little Stone's face was full of curiosity.

"Ok!"

Zhong Lin gently turned the paper, but then a look of pain appeared on his face.

It was indeed a martial arts secret book, because the book had pictures of little people boxing, but at the same time he also discovered something that made him extremely upset.

Illiterate.

There are some text notes next to this little figure, but unfortunately I don’t recognize a single word.

"I was a graduate of a 211 university in my previous life, but now I'm illiterate." Zhong Lin complained helplessly.

My ancestors were just peasants from a small mountain village. They had no access to written language and no general education. Writing was a monopoly and was only mastered by people of a special class. It was normal for them not to know how to read.

Although there were little people drawn next to it, Zhong Lin didn't dare to practice it before he understood the meaning of these words. Haven't you seen that there was once a person who practiced the dignified Taoist martial art Nine Yin Divine Claws and turned it into the evil Nine Yin White Bone Claws? He didn't want to become paralyzed on one side of his body while practicing.

Helplessly, he wrapped the books up again and stuffed them into his arms, then picked up the small stone and left quickly.

"If you don't mind, little brother, you can let me ride on my old ox cart."

Zhong Lin thought for a moment and then placed the small stone on one of the ox carts. Even if the little guy was malnourished, he still weighed forty or fifty kilograms, and it would still be very tiring to carry him for a long time.

"My surname is Cui Xian. May I ask your name, little brother? If it weren't for your help this time, my family would have been killed in the mountains." Cui Xian asked with a bow.

"Zhong Lin, nice to meet Mr. Cui."

Cui Xian is in his fifties, so it is not an exaggeration to call him Old Cui.

"The surname Zhong? There are not many people with the surname Zhong in Heishan, and most of them are from Xiaoniu Village, Shanghe Village, and Xiahe Village. I guess Brother Zhong is from one of these places. I didn't expect that a small mountain village could produce such a sharpshooter. It's really amazing!" Cui Xian stroked his beard with admiration.

Zhong Lin glanced at Cui Xian in surprise: "Mr. Cui is truly knowledgeable."

"No, I just lived longer and knew more than others. But the drought hit, and I was forced to leave my homeland. Now I'm just a stray dog."

Cui Xian sighed for his life, lamenting how difficult the world was. Zhong Lin didn't want to talk about anything else, so he asked directly: "Master Cui, I just heard you talking about warriors. Can you help me solve this problem?"

"Haha, it seems you're quite curious about warriors too. I don't know much, but I can help you clear up some confusion," Cui Xian said seriously, continuing, "A warrior is someone who practices martial arts. While ordinary people who practice farming techniques are at best called warriors, only those who reach the highest level can be called warriors."

"What does it mean to enter the rank?"

Zhong Lin looked very interested.

"I don't know much about this either. I only know that people who practice martial arts will break through their limits when they reach a certain level and gain extraordinary powers, commonly known as entering the grade. It is said that martial artists are divided into nine grades. The ninth grade martial artist is called the skin-grinding realm. They have a strength of hundreds of pounds. The most important thing is that their body is like cowhide, as if they are wearing armor. Just like the mountain-guarding tiger, arrows cannot penetrate its skin, and knives can leave marks on its skin. Arrows hitting its body are like shooting at cowhide. As long as they miss the weak points, they cannot break its defense at all." A trace of fear flashed in Cui Xian's eyes.

Zhong Lin nodded secretly. This was indeed terrifying.

You have to know that in the ancient Chinese dynasties of the past, there was no problem in keeping swords at home, but if you kept armor, it was basically equivalent to treason.

If a person is wearing armor and holding a sword, he can chase dozens of people with a little training. If he has hundreds of armored soldiers, he can even influence the outcome of a battle involving tens of thousands of people.

Now, if a warrior enters the rank, it is like he is wearing armor, which shows how powerful a ninth-rank warrior is.

"The eighth level is called Yijin Realm. In this realm, the fascia can be stretched and contracted strongly, the explosive power is fierce, and the body is agile.

The next seven levels up is called the Bone Tempering Realm. At this level, the bones are as strong as steel and the strength is immense. It is said that one possesses a force of a thousand pounds, and no one can withstand a single blow.

"anything else?"

Zhong Lin's eyes lit up with excitement.

Cui Xian shook his head and smiled bitterly, "I'm just a country bumpkin. Even these are what my son, who works in the county, said. How could I know what's behind it? But according to my son, grinding the skin, changing the tendons, and forging the bones are the three lowest levels of martial arts, focusing on training the body. Going up to the middle level is the third level, and the body begins to possess the power of qi and blood. As for what exactly it is, I don't know."

Zhong Lin couldn't hide his regret, but no matter what, he was certain that this world did have extraordinary power and had formed a system.

Cui Xian's description shows that the lower three grades have such power. What about the middle three grades? And what about the last grade?

Is it stronger?
Is it to break monuments and split rocks, and tear tigers and leopards apart alive?

Or move mountains and seas, catch stars and the moon?
His vision limited Zhong Lin's logic, but it did not limit his imagination.

……

"arrive."

Zhong Lin looked up and saw a tall city gate in front of him. Behind the gate, he could vaguely see blue brick and white walls, as well as several tall buildings.

"We've finally arrived at Heishan County."

The closer you get, the more you can see houses everywhere in Heishan County, with roads paved with bluestone. Those houses are not earthen walls or thatched houses, but buildings made of a combination of stone and wood. Although they cannot be said to have carved beams and painted rafters, they also reveal an ancient and elegant charm.

The village and the county town form a sharp contrast, like two different worlds, completely different.

Soldiers holding spears stood guard at the city gate, and pedestrians and refugees could be seen coming and going.

There was no obstruction for the refugees pouring in from outside, which shows that there is indeed a way to survive in the city. Even selling oneself into slavery is better than starving to death.

(End of this chapter)