"This little one, the fish were wasted on her."
Du Ruo watched Ya Ya run out and finally laughed out loud. He then picked the chili peppers he had just knocked down; the green chilies were quite large, just right for Mom to stir-fry with some cured meat.
Placing the chilies on a stool, Du Ruo continued his martial arts practice. He was still practicing Xing Yi Quan, but the style was completely different from the Five Elements Fist he had practiced before. It lacked the natural feel of the past and had become much more varied.
One moment he was in the Three-Body Eagle Grasping Style, and the next he was in the Tiger Form. Du Ruo began to imagine an enemy in front of him, using various moves to counter them, his techniques becoming erratic and unpredictable.
It wasn't until Du Ruo finished his daily practice and added his points that he finally stopped.
In truth, Du Ruo's body could now withstand longer practice sessions. He was no longer limited to three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. However, Du Ruo did not spend all his time on martial arts; he chose to balance work and rest, as life was more than just martial arts—he needed some time for himself.
After Ya Ya went to tattle, she didn't come back; she had likely been caught by her maternal grandmother to bathe and go to sleep. Du Ruo didn't pay any mind to this, went to the living room to eat some food Mom had prepared, and then went upstairs to wash up.
Du Ruo didn't fall asleep immediately tonight; his mind had received too much knowledge today, and he was still in a state of excitement.
Du Ruo took out a sheet of A4 paper and a pencil, starting to think about how to draw the design for the weapon, Coiling Dragon Silk, from his mind onto the paper.
"Pah, others get the actual item directly, but you only give me something intangible. Why is this thing so difficult? My drawing skills are so good, yet I can only draw it eight-tenths like the original."
Du Ruo lay on the table for over an hour and finally drew the design sketch for the Coiling Dragon Silk. However, the drawing was a bit abstract; it couldn't even be said to be eighty percent restored, and it had nothing to do with the precise Coiling Dragon Silk in his mind.
The ring of the Coiling Dragon Silk was supposed to be drawn like a bracelet, but Du Ruo drew it as an oval. The coiling dragon on it was drawn separately, but the dragon ended up looking like a four-legged snake.
Perhaps the only part that resembled the design was the silk thread itself. Du Ruo just drew a curved line and wrote the material of the thread and the desired effect on the side. It was written in great detail, and apart from his ugly handwriting, there were no other flaws.
Du Ruo looked at the drawing—very little was drawn, but the introduction was quite long. To be honest, he couldn't bear to look at it himself. Several times, Du Ruo wanted to tear up the paper, but thinking that he probably couldn't draw it any better, and if he tore it up, he would have to forge it himself, he finally carefully folded the white paper and went to bed.
"Tomorrow I'll go online to see if there's anyone who can forge the Coiling Dragon Silk, and I also need to ask Xiao Ling if there are any rooms available. I have to go up the mountain to practice; staying at home makes going up the mountain inconvenient."
Du Ruo pondered his upcoming arrangements and slowly drifted into a dream.
The next morning, Du Ruo practiced as usual, and after finishing, he took Ya Ya toward the river.
"Uncle, why didn't you bring the fishing rod?"
Ya Ya walked in front, curiously asking Du Ruo as she went. She had completely forgotten about tattling on him last night. As soon as she saw Du Ruo heading to the river, she subconsciously assumed her uncle was taking her fishing again.
"Not fishing today."
Du Ruo walked slowly along the riverbank, looking down to observe the stones by the river while answering Ya Ya's question.
"Why?"
Ya Ya grabbed Mao Mao by the neck with one hand, not letting him go into the river to play in the water.
"Because Uncle is not happy. Someone went to tell on me to Maternal Grandmother yesterday."
Du Ruo's main purpose for coming to the river today was to find some suitable stones to use as tools for his upcoming practice.
While teasing Ya Ya, Du Ruo looked down to find suitable stones. He really didn't have time to fish today, and there were many things to do later; Du Ruo couldn't sit still and fish anyway.
However, he had already told Dad to ride his bike to town to buy some Sea Fish. Sea Fish had fewer bones, which could prevent Ya Ya from getting a bone stuck in her throat while eating.
"Hmph..."
Ya Ya wrinkled her nose, unwilling to talk to Du Ruo. She looked at the river with a look of unwillingness, then looked at Mao Mao, seemingly wondering if Mao Mao could go into the river and catch a fish for her.
"Ahem, Uncle needs to find two types of stones. One is cylindrical, about as thick as a beer bottle, and the other is round or oval, the size of a soccer ball. If we find them today, we'll have fish for lunch. If we don't... then there won't be any fish to eat."
Du Ruo acted as if he didn't see Ya Ya's expression and continued looking down, muttering to himself in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, just enough for Ya Ya to hear clearly.
"Really~~ Uncle, look, is this one okay?"
Ya Ya's eyes lit up upon hearing this. Her eyes scanned everywhere like a little radar, and whenever she saw something she thought was suitable, she would trot over, pick it up, and loudly ask Du Ruo. In truth, she didn't have much of a concept of how big a soccer ball was.
"This one won't do, it's too small."
Du Ruo took a look and then rejected it.
"Oh, Uncle, is this one okay? Mao Mao, don't run around, help Uncle find stones..."
"No, it needs to be cylindrical..."
"Uncle, is this one okay?"
"No..."
.....
There were indeed stones of all sizes by the small river, worn very smooth by the river water. Du Ruo and Ya Ya searched for nearly an hour and finally found the suitable stones.
One stone looked a bit like a spindle, thin at both ends and thick in the middle. This stone was very suitable for Du Ruo to practice the Natural Gate Cultivation Method, known as the Tiger Mouth Stick.
The other one was larger, and it wasn't the soccer-ball-sized round stone he wanted, but rather a cone shape—thicker at the bottom and thinner at the top—but it was very smooth. This was also suitable for a Natural Gate technique called Yi Zhao Jiao.
The Tiger Mouth Stick and Yi Zhao Jiao were both training methods he gained after upgrading the Natural Gate Cultivation Method yesterday. As the name suggests, the Tiger Mouth Stick involves holding the spindle-shaped stick with both hands held level, then rotating it by gripping it with both hands in turns. This is specifically for training finger strength and wrist strength.
Of course, the Tiger Mouth Stick is mostly for training grip strength. If one wants to train wrist and arm strength, they can switch to a rolling pin, tie a rope to the middle of the rolling pin, and hang a bottle of water from the rope. Grabbing the rolling pin to wind the rope is difficult even for professionals to persist for five minutes; the effect is truly extraordinary.
As for Yi Zhao Jiao, it involves placing a conical or spherical stone on the ground and reaching out to grab the smooth surface. Because the surface is smooth and it is pointed at the top and round at the bottom, there is absolutely no point of leverage. This is also a method for training finger strength and grip strength.
The reason Du Ruo wanted to practice this was to prepare for using Hidden Weapons.
Using Natural Gate training methods to exercise the fingers and wrists and then using them to deploy Hidden Weapons is actually not a strange thing, because the founder of the Natural Gate, Du Xinwu, was very skilled with Hidden Weapons. With a single throw of a locust stone, he would hit whatever he aimed at, with perfect accuracy.
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