Budo

Practicing martial arts can perhaps make you a little stronger than ordinary mortals, but in the eyes of cultivators, warriors are no different from other mortals - they can be annihilated with a flip of the hand. Yet you want to use a lot of time and sweat to gain a little bit of insignificant power. Therefore, the path of practicing martial arts is destined to be a dead end.

Xiaolu, under this teacher's protection, you can live a rich and honorable life for your whole life. But practicing martial arts is too bitter, tiring, difficult and dangerous - the input and output are completely disproportionate.

Even so, do you still want to learn it?" Li Mingru said profoundly.

Hearing Li Mingru's words, Lin Xiaolu lowered his head in silence, clenched his little fists somewhat unwillingly.

He didn't really like what Li Mingru said.

Diligence and hard work are a joke in the face of real talent - this sentence he hated very much.

He remembered that when his mother was still around, his mother was always busy farming in the fields. Her busy figure occupied almost all of his memories of his mother.

At that time, he was still curious about what his mother was doing. His mother told him that she was farming.

He asked his mother why she farmed.

His mother said farming allowed them to fill their stomachs. The more land they farmed, the more food they could get. The more effort they put in, the more food they could eat.

His mother always urged him to become a hardworking person in the future, because hard work will definitely lead to gains. If the gains were small, it could only mean that his efforts were not enough yet.

He wanted to bully people, to become a boss, collect protection fees. He was willing to work hard. Even though practicing martial arts was difficult, he still wanted to practice it - not for anything else, just to bully people!

The boy raised his head, clenched his fists and said angrily: "Boss, I've made up my mind. I still want to practice martial arts!"

Li Mingru was startled, seemingly surprised by Lin Xiaolu's decision.

Among ordinary people, those who were willing to practice martial arts, if not all then definitely the vast majority, did so because of poverty. They painfully endured the heat and cold to practice martial arts, so they could join the army in the future, or become escorts and bodyguards to make a living.

Yet he had clearly told this kid that he would promise him a rich and honorable life. So why did he still choose such a difficult path?

Li Mingru really did not understand, so he asked: "Why?"

The seven-year-old Lin Xiaolu replied: "I want to bully people and become a boss to make everyone afraid of me."

"Just for this?"

"Yes!" Lin Xiaolu said loudly: "Old Zhang in our Dongguavillage said, bullying people is the foundation of happiness!"

"Pfft." Li Mingru laughed out loud. What kind of rubbish reason was this? Fortunately this kid did not have the talent for cultivation, otherwise he would definitely become a demonic cultivator in the future.

But children always had some unrealistic fantasies after all. He probably just had a fleeting impulse.

Li Mingru nodded his head without taking it to heart. He smiled and said, "Alright, in my early years I traveled many countries and did research some martial arts. I brought back some martial arts manuals. Here, don't rush to practice yet. Focus on going to school and learning to read and write first - that's the foundation. You can look through the manuals and practice yourself after you learn to read."

Lin Xiaolu happily said, "Thank you, Boss," holding a pile of books.

Li Mingru nodded. After thinking for a bit, he spoke again: "If you really want to practice martial arts, then you can do some preparation these days, build a foundation."

Lin Xiaolu eagerly asked: "How do I build a foundation, Boss?"

"Nothing special, just horse stance, standing pole, running - things like that," Li Mingru imparted the practice methods of these things simply, then let Lin Xiaolu first temper his body.

...

...

When the siblings left the cave with Li Miaoxin, the sky outside had already darkened. It was time for the hour of You, so Li Miaoxin brought them to the dining hall for dinner.

The three of them seemed to have put aside what happened earlier. Li Miaoxin did not deliberately say anything more, and ate dinner laughing and chatting with the siblings.

Soon after returning to their yard, little Xiao Yuer followed Li Miaoxin to continue sitting in meditation, while Lin Xiaolu impatiently started training. Li Mingru had taught him several methods to build a foundation through practice, and he planned to do them every night.

It was still early, so he would practice for an hour first!

In the yard, Lin Xiaolu, having just eaten dinner, knew that he should not exercise strenuously at this time. So he chose a relatively tranquil cultivation method - the horse stance!

Li Mingru said the horse stance was a very good way to temper one's foundation, and could train the lower body, legs, and core strength.

The boy raised both hands to shoulder width, straightening them out horizontally, and bent his legs outwards at a ninety degree angle.

His form was very standard, but in less than ten seconds, his whole body started aching badly.

The horizontally raised hands in front of him began to tingle and go numb. The thigh muscles of both legs also started shaking as if they were about to collapse. His legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead, and were painfully unbearable.

The bitterness of practicing martial arts was extremely bitter for a seven-year-old child. After standing in horse stance for a while, Lin Xiaolu was in so much pain that he was soon gritting his teeth and his entire body started shaking uncontrollably.

If an ordinary person started training at his age, it would be easy to injure the body. Fortunately the nutritional value of the food in the dining hall gave Lin Xiaolu the capital to practice martial arts.

In the yard, after persisting painfully for a minute, the boy's robe was completely drenched in sweat. His whole body began twitching and convulsing uncontrollably, and his form also started deforming.

But Lin Xiaolu had a very stubborn personality. Both his caring martial sister and Li Mingru underestimated his stubbornness, and underestimated his obsession with bullying others.

In the village in the past, the orphaned siblings suffered all kinds of bullying. To protect his younger sister, Lin Xiaolu was dark-hearted and ruthless from a young age. When fighting enemies, no matter how young he was, he was never afraid of pain. Once he started fighting, he was like a madman, extremely vicious. The most vicious fight left him nearly crippled from the brutal beating, yet he still clung onto his opponent refusing to let go, eventually defeating the strong as the weak. His extremely fierce and ruthless momentum made him the little overlord of Dongguavillage by the age of six.

Moreover, he was not only vicious to others, but also to himself. It was precisely Lin Xiaolu's extreme personality cultivated after birth that allowed him to protect his younger sister and let her remain as innocent and well-behaved as an ordinary child.

In the yard, the boy felt the soreness all over his body like needle pricks. Finally, with a roar of intense pain, he collapsed to the ground unwillingly.