"Every time a sealed gate is broken through, the qi and blood within the body will greatly increase, strength will be greatly enhanced, and martial prowess will naturally become stronger."

"In his prime, your father broke through two sealed gates and was known as a two-time limit-breaker."

William Clark explained in great detail, and Henry Clark listened carefully, making sure not to miss a single word.

"Limit-breaker?"

Henry Clark muttered.

"Yes, there's a story behind this. It's said that at first, it wasn't called 'limit-breaking,' but rather 'gate-breaking' martial artists. But later on, people thought that name was inelegant, so it was changed to 'limit-breaking,' meaning to break through one's limits."

"Having talked about martial realms, let's discuss the levels of martial arts. Every martial art, depending on your progress and mastery, is divided into seven levels: Initial Insight (Entry), Slight Achievement, Thorough Understanding, Mastery, Reaching the Peak, Supernatural Skill, and Unity of Man and Martial Art."

William Clark continued.

"Isn't this similar to archery?"

Henry Clark was struck by a thought and said, "I get it—within the same martial art, the higher your level, the more powerful it becomes."

"That's right, but not entirely."

William Clark said, "The level of martial arts not only affects power, but also cultivation speed, and it greatly helps in breaking through sealed gates."

"Any martial art starts with constant practice to sense the qi and blood in the twelve main meridians. Once you can sense and move the qi and blood in all twelve main meridians, you've entered the door—this is called Initial Insight."

"Going a step further, reaching Slight Achievement allows you to open up smaller branch meridians, letting qi and blood flow through both branch and main meridians. Branch meridians are more finely and deeply distributed in the body, allowing qi and blood to reach deeper, refining the body more thoroughly and quickly accumulating qi and blood."

"The higher your martial art level, the more branch meridians you can open. As your power increases, so does the speed of accumulating qi and blood, and the refinement of your body."

"Generally speaking, when a third-rate martial art reaches 'Slight Achievement,' you can open 18 branch meridians. At 'Thorough Understanding,' you can open 36 branch meridians. At Mastery, you can open 72 branch meridians, and so on."

"Third-rate martial art?"

Henry Clark heard a new term.

"Yes, martial arts are also ranked. The Iron Thread Fist I'm going to teach you is third-rate. At Slight Achievement, you can open 18 branch meridians, and at most, break through three sealed gates, becoming a three-time limit-breaker."

"It's said that with second-rate martial arts, at Slight Achievement you can open 36 branch meridians. Both the cultivation speed and the quality of qi and blood produced are above third-rate martial arts. At most, you can break through five sealed gates and become a five-time limit-breaker."

William Clark explained.

"Is there a first-rate martial art above that?" Henry Clark asked.

"There is. It's said that with first-rate martial arts, at Slight Achievement you can open 108 branch meridians, and even infuse qi and blood into the bones, forging bone force. Your whole body becomes like bronze and iron, fierce and domineering, able to take a head among thousands of troops—such a person is called a Martial Marquis. For example, the Liu clan of the noble families surely has Martial Marquises who have mastered bone force."

"But first-rate martial arts are basically all in the hands of the noble families, and ordinary people rarely have access to them. You don't need to think about this for now."

"Is bone force above five-time limit-breaking?"

Henry Clark murmured, forming a preliminary impression of the martial world here.

"Father, what level are the martial soldiers of the Liu clan?"

Henry Clark asked.

He recalled the Liu clan's martial soldiers—over 1.9 meters tall, with an aura more terrifying than a fierce tiger. With a sweep of their long spears, an adult's body would be torn apart. Even now, the memory was chilling.

"The Liu clan is only the lowest Martial Marquis-level noble family, so their martial soldiers are generally between one and five limit-breaks. But as the core elite of the noble family, they should be practicing second-rate martial arts, making them much stronger than those who practice third-rate martial arts."

"Alright, you now have a basic understanding of martial arts. The rest you'll have to experience through cultivation. Now I'll start teaching you Iron Thread Fist. Like archery, martial arts are easy to learn but hard to master. You must practice diligently and never slack off."

With that, William Clark began teaching Iron Thread Fist.

Chapter Five: Growth

Iron Thread Fist consists of eighteen forms. In fact, it's not difficult—Henry Clark basically mastered them in two days.

The hard part is that the eighteen forms must be coordinated with the corresponding breathing techniques, practiced repeatedly until you can sense the qi and blood in the twelve main meridians, and successfully move the qi and blood as you perform the forms.

After teaching for three days, seeing that Henry Clark had basically mastered it and could practice on his own, William Clark went back into the mountains to hunt.

William Clark said that once you enter the door of martial arts, your appetite will greatly increase, so he needed to stock up more food for Henry Clark.

Henry Clark had originally planned to go hunting with William Clark, but now that he was just starting out in martial arts, he could only focus all his energy on cultivation and had to postpone hunting.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

In the bamboo forest, Henry Clark moved nimbly, throwing punches with each form, already quite impressive to watch.

At first, he had to think about each move before making the next, but after several days of hard practice, the forms gradually became more fluid.

With every punch, the Dao book in his mind would flash.

And that archery avatar would still cultivate whenever it had energy, and stop when it didn't, completely unrelated to Iron Thread Fist.