Starting from a peasant family, he mastered the profound art of martial arts.

Chapter 12 Traditional Martial Arts

After dinner, Du Ren led Meng Chen to weigh the silver and pay two months' tuition, totaling fourteen taels.

After signing the contract, affixing his red seal, and receiving two sets of everyday clothes for training, Meng Chen was considered to have entered the profession.

After finishing their work, it was past midnight. The front yard was bustling with activity. A dozen or so people were shirtless, some doing horse stance, some pushing stone rollers, and others hitting wooden dummy targets.

This Du family martial arts school is a family-run school, and all the students gather in the front yard to practice martial arts.

Their residence was also in the front yard, which was divided into six rooms, each with six small beds, making it very crowded.

Seeing that everything was arranged, but the master was nowhere to be seen, Meng Chen asked curiously, "Where is Master? When will the formal apprenticeship ceremony and tea ceremony take place?"

"He's been invited away by the Yan family and won't be back until tomorrow morning," Du Ren said with a smile, leaning against the door of his dormitory.

"Yan Long is back?" Meng Chen inquired.

Ever since the Yan family's incident, the eldest son of the Yan family, who is also the number one martial artist in Qingshui County, has not returned home, saying that he is away on official business.

"I don't know then." Du Ren chuckled, his expression enigmatic.

Du Ren stopped mentioning the Yan family and instead casually inquired about the Meng family's harvest.

Meng Chen noticed that the son of the martial arts school owner, the senior disciple of the school, was extremely eloquent and handled all kinds of mundane affairs very well, but he had little interest in practicing martial arts and was more like a steward.

It wasn't until the second watch of the night that all the apprentices finished their practice. Du Ren then went up to each of them, patted them on the shoulder, and chatted with them for a few minutes, mostly offering words of encouragement.

The martial arts school had a total of twenty-one students, none of whom were women. A few went home to sleep, while the rest who stayed at the school drew water from the well to wash themselves.

During the hottest days of summer, only a few apprentices slept in the dormitories, while the rest made makeshift beds on the ground in the courtyard to keep cool.

Du Ren ate and lived with the other apprentices, even sleeping on the floor in the courtyard. He also brought Meng Chen with him, showing how much he cared for him.

Unable to sleep, Du Ren introduced the newcomers. It turned out that besides Meng Chen, there was another new student who enrolled today, and the two were from the same hometown.

This person was named Qi Yun. He immediately told Meng Chen their ages. They were the same age, but Qi Yun was older.

The apprentices were exhausted after a long day. Some fell asleep immediately, while others, unable to sleep, chatted idly. Upon hearing that Qi Yun and Meng Chen came from Dazexiang, they naturally inquired about the Yan family.

They chatted about the Yan family for a while, but couldn't get to the bottom of it. Qi Yun, being a lively person, asked Du Ren, "Senior brother, I heard that the people who ambushed Yan Hu are incredibly powerful! Just how powerful are they?"

"You're wrong from the very first sentence!" Du Ren immediately sat up. "What do you mean by an ambush? Yan Hu is utterly incompetent. He hasn't even broken through the first barrier yet. What use is an ambush? Those few yamen runners he brought are just for show. What good are they? Let me tell you, without Yan Long, Yan Hu and Yan Bao are nothing!"

After this was said, there was a moment of silence, and then someone asked, "If you, Senior Brother, were to make the move, would you be this swift?"

Upon hearing this, Du Ren chuckled and said, "Of course I'm quick, just not as quick as him. He took Yan Hu's head with a single sword stroke, and those three constables were knocked down before they even saw his face. I... I'm probably not that good."

The group immediately burst into laughter, but Du Ren was not angry.

"Senior Brother, I heard that Yan Long hasn't come back yet. He's supposed to be on official business. Is that true?" someone else asked.

"The truth is undeniable. I went to the Yan family the day before yesterday, and Yan Long really didn't come back, not even his wife and children," Du Ren said with a smile.

"He wouldn't even return after his own brother was killed. Wouldn't he be gossiped about behind his back by his family?" a young man immediately asked.

"You guys are too young!"

Du Ren sneered, displaying a shrewd and calculating demeanor. Only after all the youths had listened intently did he continue, "This man killed Yan Hu first, then abducted Yan Bao. Doesn't he know the title of the number one martial artist in Qingshui County?"

"Does Senior Brother mean that they came here specifically for Yan Long?" Qi Yun was intelligent and immediately understood.

"You're quite perceptive!" Du Ren praised, concluding, "It's highly likely that Yan Long offended someone in the prefectural city. Because of Yan Long's powerful backing, they couldn't act within the city and instead lured him away. Otherwise, why hasn't Yan Long returned? And why does he keep making excuses about being on official business? It's obvious that Yan Long is wary of them!"

The group of teenagers found this to be quite reasonable.

If Meng Chen hadn't personally suffocated Yan Bao, he would have truly believed it.

"You guys haven't seen enough. I can only tell you, the waters run very deep here," Du Ren said mysteriously, lowering his voice. "Big shots are fighting, you understand?"

Sure enough, these words sparked endless reverie among the youths, and one of them even recited something about the celestial palaces.

The next day, just as dawn broke, the group of teenagers got up and, led by Du Ren, warmed up by practicing boxing.

After practicing for about an hour, it was already broad daylight when the master finally showed up.

Meng Chen had already inquired with Du Ren and found out that the head of the Du Family Martial Arts School was named Du Zhong, who was over fifty years old and had only one daughter who had married far away. As for Du Ren, he was actually an adopted son who had been picked up when he was two or three years old.

Du Zhong was not tall, his beard was half black and half white, and he did not look imposing. Instead, he always had a smile on his face, as if he were a very amiable person.

Du Ren led Meng Chen and Qi Yun forward to pay their respects and explained their backgrounds and origins.

"People say farming is the hardest thing, but I don't agree." Du Zhong sat on the grand chair in the hall, sizing up the two young men, and continued, "Once you enter this sect, you can live a life even harder than farming, or you can live the life of a lazy villager—it's all up to you. However, as someone who's been there, I have one piece of advice: if you want to become like Yan Long, if you want to stand out from the crowd, if you want to accumulate more land, if you want to take more wives and concubines, then the only way is through diligent and arduous training. Martial arts is just like farming; you can neglect the land as much as you want, but if the granary isn't full, you can't blame anyone else."

After hearing the admonition, Qi Yun and Meng Chen served hot tea in turn. Du Zhong accepted it, took a small sip, and the etiquette was considered complete.

Then Du Zhong had Du Ren explain the rules of the Du Family Martial Arts School. These rules were essentially: outside the school, the name of the Du Family Martial Arts School could not be used; inside, theft, fighting, and harassing female students were forbidden. Anyone found engaging in homosexual acts would have their legs broken.

Meng Chen felt a chill run down his spine.

After explaining the rules of the martial arts school, Du Zhong had Qi Yun and Meng Chen jump around a few times, then went over and patted their waists and shoulders.

"Their natural talents aren't bad, and they all seem quite intelligent." The courtyard was filled with the shouts of the disciples, but Du Zhong's words clearly reached Meng Chen's ears. He said, "My cultivation is shallow, so I can only teach you some basic skills. But once you've mastered them, you can make a living."

Du Zhong walked down the steps, bent over, and said, "You two watch carefully!"