All the gods began by cultivating the Iron Shirt technique.

Upon hearing this, Yang Pan frowned slightly and asked in confusion, "What do you mean? Doesn't the sect teach martial arts to its disciples?"

"No, that's not it. Disciples who join my Beggars' Sect will be taught martial arts. In fact, there are even senior brothers in my branch who specialize in teaching martial arts. Disciples can consult these senior brothers if they wish to improve their skills." Ma Wu shook his head slightly, took a sip of wonton soup, and continued:

"But disciples like you and me at the bottom level can't learn any profound martial arts. They mostly learn some rudimentary fist, palm, and knife techniques. To learn profound martial arts, one must at least reach the level of a five-bag disciple."

"Simple martial arts, a five-bag disciple..." Yang Pan pondered to himself.

Seeing that Yang Panxin was puzzled, Ma Wu simply put down his chopsticks and said, "Alright, we're acquaintances, so today I'll explain the ins and outs of this to you."

"Our Beggars' Sect is divided into nine-bag disciples under the sect leader. Nine-bag disciples are the highest-ranking disciples below the sect leader, and they are the sect elders. Eight-bag disciples are the leaders of the various branch sects, seven-bag disciples are the deputy branch leaders, and six-bag disciples are the hall masters of the various branches. Five-bag disciples are the backbone of our Beggars' Sect. As for the one to four-bag disciples below, they are the lowest-ranking disciples, like you and me."

As Ma Wu spoke, he shook out the four differently colored patches sewn onto his clothes.

"Each bag has a rank system, so what about the disciples from bag one to bag four? Are they also divided into ranks?"

"No, there's no distinction between disciples below the five-bag level. One to four bags simply represent the length of time one has been a member of the Beggars' Sect. Joining for the first year makes one a one-bag disciple, and this year marks my fourth year in the Beggars' Sect. But for a four-bag disciple to be promoted to a five-bag disciple, it's not based on the length of time they've been a member; they need to have made contributions."

At this point, Ma Wu's face showed a deep sense of helplessness. A four-bag disciple needs to make outstanding contributions to the gang to become a five-bag disciple, but these contributions are not easy to obtain.

"To put it bluntly, disciples are required to do things that enhance the reputation or strength of the Beggars' Sect. As for enhancing the reputation, our Beggars' Sect is already renowned. If disciples want to further improve the reputation, the only way is to eliminate evil and wickedness. Ordinary people won't do; only villains of the martial world will do. In addition, to enhance the strength of the sect, either you recommend powerful martial artists to join the Beggars' Sect, or you become strong enough to become a five-bag disciple yourself."

At this point, Ma Wu had already explained the situation within the gang to Yang Pan in detail. After listening, Yang Pan suddenly understood. No wonder the other party was so enthusiastic towards him, no wonder the other party felt sorry when he learned that his two senior brothers hadn't come. It turned out that he and his senior brothers were all thanks to the other party.

However, Yang Pan wasn't dissatisfied with this, since he was just an introducer and it didn't harm them.

However, he did figure out one thing: in the Beggars' Sect, you had to be very strong to get promoted quickly.

As long as you are strong enough, you can become anything from a five-bag disciple to a hall master or branch leader, or even a gang leader... Gang leader is not an option, as the current leader of the Beggars' Gang is Huang Rong, whose martial arts talent is already quite high, and she has learned a great deal.

With his own talent, without a great stroke of luck, he probably wouldn't be able to defeat his opponent in his lifetime.

After learning about the specifics of the Beggars' Sect, Yang Pan finished his wontons and followed Ma Wu back to the branch hall. Ma Wu had told him he could now learn the martial arts of the lower-level disciples. Even though it was lower-level disciple martial arts, it was still the Beggars' Sect; how could even the most rudimentary techniques be inferior to basic swordsmanship?

"Holy crap! Taizu Long Fist!"

Inside the branch hall, Yang Pan looked at the several martial arts manuals placed in front of him, the top one of which was prominently labeled with the four characters "Taizu Changquan".

"Hehe, it seems Junior Brother Yang has heard of this style of boxing." Ma Wu said with a smile.

Yang Pan's eyes twitched; he was naturally familiar with this style of boxing. It was said that the style was created by Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin, but what truly impressed Yang Pan was the image of Chief Qiao, whom he had seen on television before his transmigration, whose fighting power would surge with the sound of a stereo.

With his mastery of the Taizu Long Fist, he managed to defeat the four notorious villains of the martial arts world at the time, demonstrating the remarkable power of the Taizu Long Fist in his hands.

But that was the powerful and skilled Chief Qiao! If it were an ordinary martial artist wielding the Taizu Long Fist, would the Four Evils send him to meet the Taizu Emperor?

With this in mind, Yang Pan still opened the boxing manual and began to study it. After a moment, he closed the manual again, but his contempt had vanished.

This boxing style wasn't as profound as he'd imagined, but it was better than the basic sword techniques he'd learned. At least it included variations in boxing moves and even touched on some power generation techniques, making it a decent boxing style for beginners.

Yang Pan then continued to browse through other martial arts manuals. These were all martial arts practiced by lower-level disciples, and almost every sect in the martial arts world had them, so there was no prohibition against learning too many.

Generally speaking, people will only choose one or two subjects, since people have limited energy and cannot take care of too many at the same time.

Besides Taizu Changquan, there were also other martial arts manuals on the table, such as Wuhu Duanmen Dao, Tongbei Quan, Suishi Zhang, Xiao Qinna Shou, and Pigua Zhang. Yang Pan picked them up one by one and examined them. He found that these techniques were indeed not much different from Taizu Changquan in terms of their depth.

After a moment of deliberation, Yang Pan finally chose Taizu Long Fist, Small Capturing Hand, and Five Tigers Breaking the Gate Saber.

For martial artists, knowing fist and palm techniques is fundamental, but as for swordsmanship, Yang Pan doesn't really like weapon-based martial arts.

In his view, weapons are inconvenient to hold and are easily dropped or lost during combat. Even those who specialize in weapon-based martial arts will experience a significant drop in combat effectiveness if they lose their weapons before they have achieved mastery.

Only his fists, feet, and limbs are part of his body and cannot be easily lost. Most importantly, Yang Pan also enjoys hand-to-hand combat.

However, he is still a beginner and has not yet developed his internal strength. The destructive power of his fists and feet is ultimately not as great as that of weapons.

"Alright, Junior Brother Yang, now that you've chosen your cultivation method, practice diligently from now on. You can also come to the branch hall to ask your senior brothers for guidance when you have time." Seeing that Yang Pan had chosen his cultivation method, Ma Wujiang put away the remaining few books. These cultivation methods were all rubbings, so taking them wouldn't be a loss.

"According to the gang rules, Junior Brother Yang, you were supposed to carry out the tasks assigned by the hall master tomorrow. However, the hall master is currently away and has not yet returned. So, Junior Brother Yang, you can make your own arrangements during this time. I will inform you when the hall master returns."

Yang Pan nodded. Although he also wanted to know which tasks he would be assigned now, the other party had said that it was the hall master who would assign them, so it was obviously not something that could be influenced by his status as a four-bag disciple. So Yang Pan took the cultivation manual and temporarily returned to the branch.

......

The guest rooms at the branch headquarters were much quieter than they had been four days ago. Most of the people who had originally stayed in the rooms had left, and the remaining guests were people like Yang Pan who had just joined the Beggars' Sect but had returned before being assigned any tasks.

Although the Beggars' Sect branch did not allow permanent residents, there was one thing that Yang Pan praised highly: food was provided.

These past few days, Yang Pan has been eating and sleeping at this branch headquarters, without spending a single penny of the silver he carried. Although he had seen many beggars buying and selling people in his later life, and even knew that there must be disciples in the Beggar Clan who were involved in human trafficking, he couldn't feel any disgust towards the Beggar Clan members he had come into contact with so far.

After all, there are all kinds of people in a big forest, and the Beggar Clan disciples are all over the world, so it is impossible for them to enforce the law in every aspect.

"Junior Brother Yang is back. Did your trip go smoothly?"

Inside the room, Huang Hui sat on a stool and poured himself a cup of tea. Four days had passed, and his back injury had improved somewhat; he no longer needed to stay in bed all the time. However, it would probably take several more months for him to be completely healed.

"Yes, I've already joined the Beggars' Sect. If you're interested in these martial arts techniques, Senior Brother Huang, you can learn some of them."

Yang Pan spread out the three martial arts manuals he had brought back on the table one by one. The Beggars' Sect did not prohibit its lower-level disciples from teaching martial arts. As the saying goes, these martial arts are too basic and can be learned in some martial arts schools in the city.

Even if the martial arts are passed on by the disciples within the sect, it is impossible to prove whether the other party learned the martial arts from a martial arts school or other sects, so it has never been prohibited.

Seeing this, Huang Hui did not refuse and picked up a book with interest to read it. In fact, although the Iron River Martial Arts School only taught Iron Shirt, Huang Hui had also learned some sword and fist techniques; otherwise, he would not have been able to kill Ma San in Tongjiang County.

However, the sword and fist techniques he had learned were also quite ordinary, not much better than the three techniques in front of him.

The two brothers chatted casually, with Yang Pan mainly asking questions about cultivating the third level of Iron Shirt. After all, Huang Hui had already developed internal energy, making him a ready-made instructor; it would be a waste not to use him.

However, compared to the third level of the technique, Yang Pan was actually more concerned about Senior Brother Huang's injuries. After all, he still needed Huang's help to cultivate the second level of the Body Tempering Technique, and now that Huang's injuries had not healed for a long time, his own progress on the second level of Iron Shirt Technique had also stalled.

"Hehe, you used to call me Huang the Skinflint, but now it seems you're even worse than me," Huang Hui joked with Yang Pan.

Yang Pan didn't speak, picked up his cup and took a sip of water. Since the other party gave him the cultivation technique, the relationship between the group had become closer, and they would joke with each other from time to time.

"Don't worry, I also took a stroll around the city this morning and found a martial arts school that teaches Iron Shirt Kung Fu. You can go there for the second level of training from now on." Huang Hui said, taking out two identity tokens from his hand and placing them on the table.

"Senior brother, what's this?"

"These are the identification tags for that martial arts school. I've already paid the fees for you. You can use these tags to enter and continue your training." Huang Hui spoke casually, as if he were talking about something insignificant.

But to Yang Pan, it sounded like a resounding bell: his senior brother had paid his martial arts school fees! This...

"Alright, don't let your senior brother waste his money. But even though the money has been paid, you and Junior Brother Shi will still need to pay for the external medicines for cultivation later." Huang Hui placed the identity token in Yang Pan's hand.

Feeling the weight of the identity token in his hand, Yang Pan suddenly clenched it tightly, looked at Huang Hui, and said, "I will never forget your kindness, Senior Brother!"

The society he lived in before he transmigrated gradually taught him to be indifferent, and he never had a close friend even after more than twenty years.

Unexpectedly, after transmigrating, I thought that having the Dao Fruit of Immortality would make me even more lonely, but I unexpectedly met friends who would entrust their lives to me in this martial arts school where I pay to learn martial arts.

Yang Pan knew his personality was rather conflicted; receiving favors always made him uncomfortable, so he had always tried to avoid it. But now, feeling the warmth of the token in his hand, Yang Pan suddenly felt that this wasn't so bad after all...