Ultimate True Lord

"Slap slap slap..."

Suddenly, Old Man Liu clapped his hands, attracting the attention of the outer disciples.

"Those who have recently come to the martial arts school to become disciples, come over here for a moment. The rest of you, continue practicing, don't slack off."

Suddenly, three or four figures emerged from the crowd. Jiang Ming turned to look; these newcomers were all about the same size as him, basically bean sprouts in stature. Their faces were blank, and their expressions were youthful.

Once all the newly joined disciples had lined up, Old Man Liu stopped putting pastries into his mouth, gently patted his mouth to shake off the crumbs, and coughed before asking slowly.

"Why do you guys want to train at my martial arts school?"

On the far left, a tall, thin man with clear eyes scratched his itchy scalp and replied without hesitation, "I don't know, my parents sent me."

"And you?" Old Man Liu looked at the short man next to him.

"I want to grow taller and stronger."

The little dwarf answered very sincerely and loudly.

"Hmm." Old Man Liu asked them one by one without changing his expression.

Jiang Ming finally replied, "You need to build up your fists. When your fists are bigger, your principles will be stronger. No one can bully you then, and you might even be able to kill the person who tries to bully you."

This was also his true thought: if only he had the strong physique and fists as big as sandbags of his fourth senior brother, Liu Mao, at this moment.

He would immediately turn around and head straight for Zhang Hu, then punch that bastard to death!

"That's right. In this world, might makes right." Old Man Liu nodded and continued, "Learning martial arts and practicing boxing, in essence, only have two purposes: to protect yourself and to kill your enemies."

"In practice, it can be simplified to a single objective."

"That is, to kill the enemy!"

"So, the key to everything is how we should kill the enemy?" Old Man Liu said with his hands behind his back and a smile on his lips.

"In my view, any martial arts combat in the world consists of only four steps. The first step is to ascertain the enemy's situation and be fully prepared."

"Whether it's gathering information about the enemy in advance, observing them when you encounter them head-on, or noticing any clues you suddenly realize while you're already fighting, it all counts."

"With intelligence, we can make contingency plans in advance. With contingency plans, we have a buffer in wartime. With a buffer, you can gain the upper hand."

"The second step is to know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Always be clear about your own strengths and your opponent's weaknesses."

"The third step is to use your strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses. Use your strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses. Ideally, use your strongest point against the enemy's weakest point."

"The fourth step is to strengthen your own side and weaken the enemy. If the opponent has no weaknesses, or cannot be found in a short time, then actively create weaknesses for the opponent."

"Whether it's poisoning, sneak attacks, using hidden weapons, or outnumbering the enemy, all these methods in the martial arts world are essentially about using every possible means to weaken the opponent and strengthen one's own side."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Ming nodded to himself among the disciples. He personally agreed with this concept; it wasn't fancy, but it was the most fundamental, the most ruthless, and the most accurate.

"The most important purpose for you to come to my martial arts school is to enhance your strengths. To make your hands thicker and harder. To make your muscles bigger and stronger."

"The idea of ​​using one's strengths to attack another's weaknesses requires that you yourself have strengths first. Otherwise, attacking another's weaknesses with your own weaknesses is useless."

"You have ten months, partly because your tuition only covers ten months, and partly because of my Red Sand Palm technique. If you haven't broken through to the first level after ten months of practice, then there's absolutely no hope of advancing further. Continuing to practice will just be a waste of time; you might as well go home."

"So practice diligently every day, understand? Don't be lazy!"

Old Man Liu's tone suddenly turned stern, and he spoke seriously.

"Understood!"

Many newcomers responded in unison, but it's unclear how many of them truly understood Old Man Liu's martial arts philosophy.

"Um."

Old Liu nodded in satisfaction, then took out a sweet pastry from his pocket and threw it into his mouth. He then turned to Liu Mao beside him and said...

"Liu Si, you're in charge of training these new recruits."

"Teach them the basics first."

A moment later, in an area on the left side of the outer courtyard, three or four new students stood in a row, listening to their fourth senior brother give a lecture.

"Fourth Senior Brother, when will we start practicing palm techniques?"

Among the crowd, the short boy who wanted to grow taller and stronger spoke up and asked a question.

"Hehe, I knew you would ask that." Liu Si smiled faintly, revealing an expression that he had expected it.

"However, in our Red Sand Palm style, if you want to practice palm techniques, you must first practice the basics. Without the basics, all palm techniques are castles in the air, beautiful to look at but useless."

"Fourth Senior Brother, what exactly are the basic skills?"

Jiang Ming asked a question, wanting his senior to speak faster.

"Just remember one key phrase: 'Stand low, take a steady step, plant your feet firmly on the ground, twist your waist, and the power will rise.' This phrase has a second part, which corresponds to the palm technique: 'Qi flows into the palm with the strength of cinnabar; when the palm strikes, it injures the muscles.'"

After Liu Mao finished speaking, he raised his finger and pointed to the group of disciples practicing in the distance: "What they are practicing is the sitting stance, also called the ground stance. It can stabilize the lower body, loosen the waist and hips, and soften the tendons."

Jiang Ming turned his head and saw that several of his senior brothers were doing a strange posture. They were squatting down straight down, their legs spread apart, almost sitting on the ground.

You could see their legs were trembling, and their ten toes were gripping the ground tightly, trying to maintain their balance.

"This sitting posture has a crude but apt mnemonic."

"Sit on the shit and pee over your head."

The fourth senior brother chimed in from the side.

It must be said that this mnemonic is very vivid; the seated stance really does resemble someone taking a dump. However, with the entire body's center of gravity shifted backward and the back straight, it extremely strengthens the thighs and waist.

"There are two basic skills in total. Sitting stance and lifting stone weights. Sitting stance trains the lower body, so that the power originates from the ground and the strength comes from the waist. If you want your palm techniques to be powerful, you must practice stance training."

"The other exercise, lifting stone weights, is for strength training, as you all know. The so-called palm technique actually trains not only the palm, but also the entire arm and shoulder."

"After mastering the fundamentals comes palm techniques, which are further divided into moves and footwork. And after palm techniques..."

"Alright, the most important thing for you now is to practice the basics. It will take a long time to go from pretending to being decent, and then to being truly skilled. Keep up the good work." Liu Mao repeated what his master had told him several years ago.

"What comes after the palm technique? Could you briefly explain, senior brother?"

Jiang Ming asked again.

"Yeah yeah."

The other newcomers were also curious and chimed in.

"Sigh, I didn't want you to aim too high, but I've already said it," Liu Mao said after a moment of contemplation.

"After I finish learning the basic skills and palm techniques of Red Sand Palm, I will begin to practice the methods, which are to train our hands. We need to hone and refine them like we are forging weapons."

"The Red Sand Palm has three levels: white sand, brown sand, and red sand, which correspond to the hard force, soft force, and coiling force in martial arts."

"What you need to do is break through to the White Sand level within ten months. Only then can you stay at the martial arts school and become Master Liu's official disciples."

"Senior brother, what are the chances of us breaking through to the White Sand level?" the chubby boy suddenly asked.

Liu Mao remained silent, only shaking his head.

Jiang Ming, standing nearby, immediately understood that the probability was probably extremely low.

He had been in and out of the inner and outer courtyards, and so far he had only seen a handful of formal disciples of the Red Sand Palm. Even if there were some outside, there were at most a dozen or so. The Red Sand Martial Arts School had been operating in Fenghepu for several years.

"Master Liu said that I only have average to below-average aptitude, so my practice speed is definitely not as fast as those geniuses. Moreover, every year, so many people come to Red Sand Palm to learn palm techniques, but only a few eventually become formal disciples."

"This probably means that breaking through the barrier of the white sand level is very difficult, and most people are probably blocked by this barrier..." Jiang Ming's heart sank.

He stood silently in place, lost in thought for a long time.

Finally, he subconsciously touched the invisible mark on the back of his left hand.

"It seems I can only rely on my talent, the Primal Furnace."

"Let's learn the basics of Red Sand Palm first, and then see what changes occur."