Evergreen Immortal-Chapter 2: Learning Martial Arts

"Old Li, don't tell me you want to follow in the footsteps of that eighty-year-old master from the Zhang family in East City, who trained in martial arts and married some eighteen-year-old girl?"

A pockmarked guard let out a strange cry.

The surrounding guards immediately burst into laughter and jeers.

"Even the kids from the southern village bully me for being old and powerless..."

At nearly seventy years old, Li Rui had no potential to speak of. In the eyes of these young, burly guards, he was naturally easy to mock. People often say, "Do not bully the poor young man," but no one ever says, "Do not bully the poor old man."

A man at fifty should understand his fate.

This saying meant that if a person had achieved nothing by the time they were fifty, they should simply keep their head down and accept their place in life.

These guards, all strong and full of youthful energy, wouldn’t show an old man like him even a shred of respect.

Li Rui had long grown used to it. "Old Yang, are you giving it to me or not? Just say it straight."

Yang Yong saw that Li Rui was serious and was even more bewildered. Still, he reached into his robe and pulled out a worn-out book, handing it over.

"Old Li, this Eight Pieces of Brocade is simple enough, but be careful not to throw out your back."

His words were spoken with genuine concern—after all, he didn’t have many true friends in the Zhu household.

In his mind, Li Rui was already seventy. A simple fall could easily take his life.

But to the young guards watching and listening, Yang Yong's concern was an even bigger joke. Some of them laughed so hard they clutched their stomachs, nearly brought to tears.

Li Rui took the manual from Yang Yong’s hands without a word and walked away calmly.

If this had been in the past, he might have felt humiliated.

But ever since he gained Martial Bone, their mockery was nothing more than background noise, it couldn’t stir even the slightest emotion within him.

"Master." "Master."

In the stables, two young apprentices—one tall, one short—greeted him with different expressions.

These were the two disciples that Li Rui had taken under his wing.

The taller one was Ma Yang, and the shorter one was Wang Zhao.

Being a stableman for a wealthy household was a desirable job. When Li Rui had studied under the previous stable master, he had suffered greatly to learn the trade.

There was an old saying, "Teaching a disciple may starve the master."

To truly master a craft, one had to endure hardship.

Li Rui sifted through the hay and then patted the horse’s belly.

"Add three eggs and two pounds of beans."

Wang Zhao immediately responded with respectful eagerness:

"Yes, Master! I’ll get to it right away!"

In contrast, Ma Yang’s attitude was much more indifferent.

Ma Yang had entered the stables seven years before Wang Zhao. By now, he had already learned most of Li Rui’s knowledge. However, Li Rui had noticed that Ma Yang was not a good person at heart, he often tried to bypass him and curry favor with the Zhu family’s master.

This was a major taboo in a master-disciple relationship.

Naturally, Li Rui didn’t allow the old saying "Teaching a disciple may starve the master" to come true. He deliberately withheld the most critical secrets of horse-rearing from Ma Yang.

And because of that, Ma Yang resented him.

In the beginning, Ma Yang had respected him deeply.

He had even knelt before Li Rui, swearing an oath to care for him in his old age.

But, Li Rui had lived too long.

As the years dragged on, Ma Yang’s patience wore thin.

Li Rui saw it all clearly.

"Managing disciples is like managing a household, every family has its own difficult affairs."

In the past, he had often gotten drunk with Yang Yong, venting his frustrations over his poor choice of disciples. He had worried that Ma Yang’s resentment would one day bring trouble.

But now, he had let it go.

"Relying on others is meaningless. Relying on oneself is the only way forward."

Once his two disciples finished mixing the horse feed, Li Rui finally relaxed and returned to his room.

He opened the manual, its cover displaying three bold words:

"Eight Pieces of Brocade"

This technique wasn’t some profound martial art, it was something commonly found on the streets.

But even so, it wasn’t something just anyone could obtain. Most of the Zhu family’s servants didn’t have the chance to learn it.

This was where the advantage of living long became apparent.

Li Rui had lived long enough to have endless time to waste. Drinking with Yang Yong had been one such leisurely pursuit. On one hand, their temperaments were a good match; on the other, the thought of practicing martial arts had never truly left his mind.

"Practice it between midnight and noon, align oneself with Heaven and Earth, move in cycles, and harmonize with the Eight Trigrams."

Eight Pieces of Brocade was widely known throughout Yu Kingdom as a longevity technique. It could strengthen the body, and anyone from eighty-year-old elders to young children could practice it.

This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.

That’s why Yang Yong had handed it over so casually.

If it had been a profound martial technique, things would have been very different.

But for now, this was exactly what Li Rui needed.

With Martial Bone, he felt like he had endless energy coursing through him.

After half an hour of practice, he completed a full set of movements.

He didn't even sweat.

"Truly excellent bones!"

Li Rui felt that if he ran a mile in the snow, he could outrun half of the Zhu family's guards.

"I've only just awakened my Martial Bone, and it's already this powerful. What will it be like once I master Eight Pieces of Brocade?"

He couldn't help but look forward to it.

"Who says the elderly can't fight back?"

Late at night, chou hour (1–3 AM)

Li Rui slowly opened his eyes, gazing at the moonlight outside with a slight frown.

He had overslept by fifteen minutes.

His biological clock, which had remained unchanged for decades, had failed him today.

He quickly realized why - training.

After practicing Eight Pieces of Brocade all night, his body had been drained of energy, causing him to oversleep.

Li Rui became cautious.

Within Qinghe County’s martial circles, there was a common saying:

"The poor study literature, the rich practice martial arts."

Training in martial arts was a huge burden. A family that produced a martial artist didn't just lose a laborer, they had to provide triple the food.

On top of that, martial artists needed to be supplemented with herbs to prevent internal injuries. Without them, they would eventually train themselves into cripples.

Luckily, as a stableman, Li Rui had access to plenty of food.

"Cooks don't starve; farmers don't harvest."

This applied to stablemen as well, horses ate better than people. Their feed included refined rice, beans, and even eggs.

Stealing a little wasn't a big deal, as long as he wasn’t caught.

With his experience, handling these matters was effortless. At this moment, the advantages of age became evident.

Li Rui pulled on his cotton jacket in the darkness, his breath turning white in the cold as he stepped out of his room.

At the stables, Wang Zhao was diligently mixing horse feed. But Ma Yang was nowhere to be seen.

Li Rui frowned.

"Where’s Ma Yang?"

Wang Zhao replied while working: "Brother Ma said he wasn’t feeling well and told me to cover his shift. He’ll return in a few days."

Li Rui immediately saw through the lie.

How could he not recognize that Ma Yang was blatantly taking advantage of Wang Zhao’s lower seniority? If he was already shirking duties now, he’d be even harder to discipline in the future.

"I see."

He didn’t lose his temper. Getting angry now would only make Wang Zhao overthink and undermine his own authority, serving no real purpose.

Instead, he made a round of the stables before heading to the feed storage.

Digging through the hay, he fished out five or six eggs.

He had hidden these here back in autumn, originally planning to fry them up as a snack with wine. He hadn’t expected them to come in handy now.

These eggs should last him for a while.

Once his martial training bore fruit, he’d find a way to procure some herbs to strengthen his body.

No need to rush, he had already waited seventy years. A few more months wouldn’t make a difference.

Grandpa needs to get his revenge :(