The total amount of copper coins in my hand now is 24,000 coins, or 24 strings of silver. There is a pawnshop in Sanchazi Town that also operates a money exchange business, which can exchange copper coins for silver. The normal price is one string of copper coins for one tael of silver. But the pawnshop owner is unwilling to work in vain, and he also charges a fire consumption fee for each exchange. Er Gouzi exchanged 10 taels of silver and was charged 500 coins. This business is more profitable than farming! Then he bought an old hen, a catty of pork, incense and candles, and two jars of fine wine. Wine is made from grain, so the price is more expensive than rice. This jar of 10 taels of wine sold for 600 coins, and two jars cost another 1,200 coins. The cost of learning from a master is indeed high, and I spent several strings of money in one go. Moreover, in the future, gifts will be given to show filial piety during festivals, which few people can afford. Er Gouzi prepared all the items, and Li Banxian took him to a courtyard in the town.
This courtyard is not big, and there is a jujube tree planted in the courtyard. The tree is full of finger-sized jujubes, which are not yet ripe. "Come in!" In the hall facing the courtyard, there are several tablets and an offering table. Er Gouzi carried pork and other items into the hall and put them all on the offering table. At this time, Li Banxian washed his face in a basin, washed his hands, and then lit the incense and candles, and paid great respects to the tablets and ancestors. Then he said a lot of things to the ancestral tablets, such as he was unfilial and broke the ancestral rules. Er Gouzi listened beside him and was deeply moved. Then, under the guidance of Li Banxian, he performed many complicated etiquettes and finally offered Li Banxian a cup of tea. From then on, Er Gouzi was considered Li Banxian's disciple. "From today on, I will teach you my unique martial arts, but I don't like false reputation, so you must not tell anyone that you are learning martial arts from me!" "Okay, I will definitely listen to Master!" Er Gouzi replied respectfully. "How many words do you know?" Er Gouzi scratched his head and calculated. "Probably a few hundred words." "Knowing how to read and write is the basis for learning everything, and you can learn slowly." Li Banxian tapped the table lightly with his knuckles, pondered for a while, then got up and took out a wrinkled book from the box. The color of this book has turned yellow, and many places are damaged, even the title and cover have fallen off. "This book is the unique martial arts handed down from my old Li family. Use this book as your literacy textbook."
"Today I will teach you 50 words first. After you have mastered it thoroughly, come to me to learn 50 words." "When you learn all the words in this book, you can practice with it, killing two birds with one stone." Li Banxian looked at the nameless book for a while, then he set up the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, picked up the pen and paper, and wrote and read. "A man's body, the internal organs, the limbs, the bones, the spirit, the muscles, bones and flesh..." Wrote a long paragraph, counted it, and there were a few more words, 58 words. Li Banxian asked Er Gouzi to recite the paper until he was familiar with it, and then let him go home to practice on his own. Er Gouzi took the paper, fearing that he would forget it, and kept reciting on the way home. Back to Sheshan, he began to practice writing with branches as pens. It took him two days to completely master the 58 characters, and he could write, recognize and read them, so he went to Li Banxian to learn characters again. This time, Li Banxian saw that he learned quite fast, so he taught him 85 characters. In the following days, Er Gouzi could learn a few new characters every few days. It cost several strings of money to become a disciple in exchange for the opportunity to learn. Every time he was tired, he thought about the 10 kilograms of pork and the white silver, and he was full of motivation. Every time he learned a new character, he felt that he had earned a copper coin. Therefore, he did not dare to be vague when learning, otherwise he would lose the money. After two months, he had finished learning the first chapter of the book. However, although he knew these words, he still did not understand the meaning of the whole article. Li Banxian took his money and was quite responsible. He explained the meaning of the article in detail. In fact, it was a kind of cultivation method. "First, cultivate the body, which is the internal organs, tendons, bones, blood and flesh. With the subtlety of the body, cultivate the invisible vitality..." Li Banxian's mouth was covered with white foam, and finally let Er Gouzi roughly understand this cultivation method. In general, with the body, cultivate the invisible vitality, let the vitality grow, and transform it into a kind of martial arts true qi in the body. Er Gouzi returned to Sheshan and practiced every day according to the method taught by Li Banxian. He made several strange poses in the practice, exerted force awkwardly, and said that he was guiding the vitality in his body. Then he sat and cultivated the vitality. Those strange poses were easier to practice, but sitting was more difficult. There were always a lot of distracting thoughts in his mind. As soon as one thought disappeared, another thought immediately emerged. He wanted to suppress these distracting thoughts, but the idea just came up, but he also had a distracting thought. The more he wanted to suppress distracting thoughts, the more distracting thoughts he had, making him irritable and nauseous.
But thinking that he had spent so much money, he couldn't give up, so he forced himself to practice. However, some things are not done right, and the harder you try, the further you will go in the wrong direction. After a few days, he was already upset and looked haggard. There was no other way, so he could only go to Li Banxian for advice. Li Banxian took out his nameless book, flipped through it for a long time, and then closed the book. "If you want to practice the ultimate martial arts, you must overcome all difficulties and not shrink back or fear anything. If you can't practice it in two or three days, then practice for three to five months..." Li Banxian said a lot. In short, keep working hard and overcome all difficulties and obstacles with diligence. Er Gouzi had never practiced martial arts before and knew nothing about it. He guessed that probably all martial arts practitioners had to go through this kind of pain and go back to work harder. On this day, when he was sitting, he was fighting against all kinds of distracting thoughts with super perseverance. Suddenly, he felt a surge in his chest. "Ugh!" "Puff!" Bright red blood spurted out of his mouth, his head was dizzy, and he fell to the ground. Er Gouzi was lying on the ground, blood was constantly coming out of his mouth, and his consciousness was blurred. But he thought that he had spent so much money, but he still hadn't mastered the skills, and the goal of taking the martial arts exam was even more distant. He still couldn't let go of the skills, so he continued to practice the skills in a daze. At this moment, he didn't even notice it, because his head was dazed and groggy, and all the distracting thoughts in his mind disappeared. Without distracting thoughts, the skills ran smoothly, and a weak airflow gradually formed in his meridians. Lying like this half-dead, motionless, the skills ran smoothly, and the whole body entered a mysterious state. "Gurgle..." This lying lasted for several hours. At this moment, he was so hungry that he was finally pulled back from that mysterious state. Er Gouzi jumped up from the ground and found that his whole body was relaxed, and all the previous boredom and nausea disappeared. He closed his eyes and sensed it. It seemed that a thin stream of hot air was slowly flowing through the meridians in his body. Wherever this hot air went, he felt comfortable. "Haha! Master is right. As expected, if you practice diligently, you will succeed!" He didn't know that when you are just starting to practice, the harder you try to eliminate distracting thoughts in your mind, the more counterproductive it will be. This coincidence made his consciousness enter a mysterious state of existence and death, which secretly matched the truth of martial arts. Otherwise, without the guidance of a master, he would never be able to practice in his life. If he practiced forcefully, he might even kill himself.