Gatherings and partings both have their times.

Weapons are an extension of fist techniques; just as Bajiquan and Xingyiquan incorporate spear techniques, Taijiquan conceals hammer techniques, whip techniques, and so on.

The Xingyiquan grandmaster Wang Xiangzhai once mentioned in his book, On the Relationship Between Fists and Weapons: "Once the fist technique is mastered, weapon techniques come naturally; do not exclusively practice the saber and spear."

This means that once fist techniques are thoroughly learned and mastered, weapon techniques can be grasped instinctively with minimal effort. To focus solely on sabers and spears would be putting the cart before the horse, making it impossible to truly attain superior martial arts.

Given that Chen Jue's martial arts were already at an extremely profound level, and he was exceptionally adept at the hammer techniques of Taijiquan, these Eight-Style Cape-Flapping Hammers came to him as if through innate understanding. Coupled with the guidance of Li Xiang, a former chief instructor, he automatically upgraded the technique to Lv1 after just a brief moment of practice.

The breakthrough in the Eight-Style Cape-Flapping Hammers felt smoother than when he first tried it, and the siphon effect triggered by the breakthrough was very weak, merely stimulating the digestion of the food in his stomach without bringing any increase in attributes. This came as somewhat of a surprise to Chen Jue.

He deduced that skills related to weapon types should generally work this way, unlike fist techniques and stance training which specifically target the physique and grant attribute increases upon any breakthrough.

……

After practicing the hammer techniques for a short while, Chen Jue saw Li Wei carrying tea and pastries out from the villa, so he put down the pair of drum-shaped golden urn hammers to take a break. He sat with the two Hua-tier grandmasters at a stone table in the courtyard, sipping tea, tasting pastries, and discussing martial arts over tea.

In the distance, the sound of the waterfall rushed incessantly, the breeze blowing through the mountains carried an autumnal coolness, bird calls echoed lingeringly in the forest, and the tea and pastries left a lasting fragrance on the lips and teeth. Such a self-contented and comfortable environment was indeed vastly superior to Chen Jue's hometown of Chen Village, prompting him to inwardly marvel at how well these two Hua-tier grandmasters knew how to enjoy life.

Perhaps suffering from the aftereffects of handling weapons, and recalling how Li Xiang seemed like a completely different person with a skyrocketing combat capability once he picked up the large iron spear, Chen Jue looked at Li Wei beside him and asked, "By the way, Master Li Wei, since you also originated from Bajiquan, are you as skilled as Master Li Xiang at vibrating the great spear in Bajiquan?"

"Not quite. My Bajiquan skill only reached my hands and didn't extend to the spear. On the contrary, my saber technique surpasses my spear technique." Hearing Chen Jue's question, Li Wei revealed a playful smile.

"Saber technique? Is it Taiji saber technique?" Chen Jue pursued.

"Taiji saber technique? Master Chen Jue, I'm afraid you've forgotten my senior brother's other specialty? Didn't you taste it yourself at noon? His culinary skills are even higher than his martial arts," Li Xiang chimed in with a wink.

"Culinary skills? I understand!"

"So the saber Master Li Wei was talking about is a chef's kitchen knife! Haha!" Upon hearing this, Chen Jue couldn't hold back anymore, and the two middle-aged men in their forties burst into hearty laughter together.

This scene was just like the online saying, "Men remain boys until the day they die." Encountering interesting anecdotes during martial arts practice was just like encountering something they were passionately fond of, and the three of them acted as naive as infants.

Of course, this was also because the three of them were the elite among martial artists, with pure minds and a unique dedication to martial arts and fist techniques. It was a manifestation of the saying mentioned in the Book of Rites: The Great Learning—"What is true within will be manifested without"—which made them laugh so easily at such simple things.

……

Over the next three days, the three of them mutually verified what they had learned in martial arts within this forest villa.

From fist techniques and weapon training, to the theory and practice of Daoist inner alchemy, they discussed everything eloquently, guided and learned from one another, and corrected minute errors in their practice along the way.

In these short three days, Chen Jue's martial arts advanced by leaps and bounds.

First, the easy-to-learn [Eight-Style Cape-Flapping Hammers] was practiced by Chen Jue to level 3 perfection, awakening a killer move enhancement called [Cape-Flapping Chaotic Hammers].

[Cape-Flapping Chaotic Hammers]: Water cannot penetrate, gods and ghosts tremble in fear.

Status Description: A hammer-type killer move capable of instantly erupting to unleash eight extremely fierce hammer strikes, combining offense and defense with invincible might.

Looking at the description of this new status, the first person that came to Chen Jue's mind was Li Yuanba, known as the number one hero in the Tales of Heroes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

He just wondered if he ever got the chance to pick up a 400-jin pair of drum-shaped golden urn hammers and use this killer move of [Cape-Flapping Chaotic Hammers], whether he would be even more fierce than Li Yuanba on an ancient battlefield of cold weapons.

……

Aside from this newly learned hammer technique breaking through to perfection, the next was the breakthrough of the Taijiquan stance.

Under the stimulation and propulsion of Li Wei's Taiji pushing hands, on a quiet night, Chen Jue relied on holding the large lead-mercury ball to practice inside the pool beneath the waterfall, successfully breaking through from Lv4 to Lv5, and awakening two brand-new statuses along the way.

One was the Lv5 Taijiquan status [Blending Hardness and Softness], and the other was [Foundation Building and Nourishing Vitality] brought by the Lv5 Taiji Thirteen Stances.

[Blending Hardness and Softness]: Hardness cannot be sustained, softness cannot defend alone. Yin and Yang intersect, all things attain their due.

Status Description: This status can enhance the player's mastery over their own internal force.

[Foundation Building and Nourishing Vitality]: Superlative and miraculous, nourishment and practice integrated into one.

Status Description: This status can subtly and imperceptibly improve the player's physical constitution.

The awakening of these two brand-new statuses allowed Chen Jue to comprehend the principle of the integration of nourishment and practice in Taijiquan. In addition, the Taijiquan stance upgraded to Lv5 also enabled Chen Jue to smoothly master hidden-force soft attacks.

At this point, Chen Jue had truly mastered the four types of internal force training mentioned in martial arts classics: overt hard, overt soft, hidden hard, and hidden soft.

Along the way, under the enhancement of [Blending Hardness and Softness], he successfully kneaded these four types of internal force into a single stream, reaching the Hua-tier grandmaster realm on par with Li Wei and Li Xiang.

Of course, the siphon effect triggered when breaking through this Taijiquan stance to Lv5 was also extremely formidable.

Chen Jue left the pool, returned to his room, and consecutively swallowed three tubes of the human nutritional supplements he brought to stop the feeling of depletion and weakness.

"I didn't expect the upper limit of Taijiquan and the Thirteen-Style Stances to be this high!"

"Even at Lv5, it hasn't reached perfection yet."

"As expected of being hailed as the mother of all fist techniques; its profound heritage is incomparable to other martial arts techniques," Chen Jue thought, looking at the skill changes on his panel, unable to keep from marveling inwardly.

The breakthrough of the Taijiquan stance also drove a small-scale increase in attribute points: strength and physique each increased by 0.05, while agility improved by 0.03, leaving only intelligence completely unchanged.

……

During the three days of closed-door communication, besides Chen Jue benefiting immensely, Li Wei and Li Xiang also gained their own harvests.

First was Li Xiang, the Hua-tier grandmaster who concurrently practiced Baguazhang. From Chen Jue's Eight Immortals Stances, he captured a few drops of the quintessential spirit of the Drunken Eight Immortals, and through analogical reasoning, practiced the Baguazhang stances even more smoothly.

Coupled with his own mastery of the humming-ha marrow-washing internal organ training secret method, and having learned a great deal of Daoist inner alchemy cultivation techniques from Chen Jue, he would likely touch the martial artist's dream realm of "embracing the pill and sitting at the crotch" before long.

As for Li Wei, the culinary grandmaster, through verifying Daoist inner alchemy with Chen Jue, he gained a deeper understanding of his own Daoist internal Qi technique of "planting golden lotus in fire."

Presumably, the next time they met, this bald grandmaster would not only be hairless on his head, but even his eyebrows would turn white and naturally fall out from cultivation.

Of course, three days of companionship also made Chen Jue increasingly familiar with these two civilian Hua-tier grandmasters, imbued with the sense of being martial arts soulmates.

Were it not for worldly obstructions, the three of them would have loved to continue their closed-door discussions on martial arts for some time.

However, all good things must come to an end. If they continued their seclusion, not only would Li Xiang's fierce wife throw a tantrum, wondering where he had gone to mess around without coming home for three days and two nights, as her phone calls had become a relentless barrage ringing almost every half hour, but even Li Wei could no longer withstand the desperate urging of the food connoisseurs at the agritainment resort.

Without Li Wei doing the cooking, the complaint rate at the Green Bamboo Wine House halfway up the mountain skyrocketed. If they remained in seclusion any longer, the signboard of the agritainment resort would likely be smashed by the food lovers who came with high expectations.

Having no other choice, the three of them had to abandon the idea of continuing their martial arts discussions, came out of seclusion, and returned to face their respective lives.

As for Chen Jue, he packed his luggage, put his backpack back on, and amidst the waving farewells of the two Hua-tier grandmasters, hummed the old song "The mortal world rolls on, infatuation runs deep, gatherings and partings ultimately have their time" all the way down the mountain, once again setting foot upon the vast earth on his quest for the Dao through tempering his heart in the mortal world.

Third update! This is the third extra update for breaking one hundred thousand followers.

My condition is still good, let's see if I can manage a fourth update later~