Chapter 95: Chapter 91: Opening a Martial Arts School_1
To establish a martial arts school, the first requirement is to acquire a property.
The chosen location should also not be made arbitrarily.
Baicao City nestles on the side of a mountain, with its eastern gate closely adjacent to the Li Family’s second-level Blood Land Vein. Therefore, the eastern district is predominantly occupied by the members of the Li family or those associated with them.
Starting a martial arts school there would clearly be impractical.
As for the other three districts, Bei City is largely inhabited by local gentries, each with their own martial arts lineage, making it unsuitable as well.
In the end, Lu Yan decides upon the South City district.
He tasks Wang Lin and Li Quan with scouting for a suitable property.
In just a few days, they pick out a house.
Lu Yan went to see it personally.
It sits on over ten acres of land, with several buildings that include bedrooms, living rooms, a grand hall, a study, a practice room, and a martial kitchen. It is fully equipped.
Additionally, it comes with an especially spacious courtyard.
It is extremely suitable for establishing a martial arts school.
Upon inquiry, it turns out that this place used to be a martial arts school.
However, the school’s master was killed, and his successors were unable to maintain it and sold it to relocate.
Given the large size of the property, it naturally comes with a high price tag—it is worth some twelve thousand taels of silver.
After bargaining the price, it was finally bought for ten thousand taels.
The next steps involve the purchase of training equipment and other required items.
Following that comes the pricing structure.
To learn martial arts, you naturally have to pay.
But Lu Yan’s main motive in starting a martial arts school is to cultivate his own main force, to train a group of loyal and reliable martial artists. Making money is not the main objective.
Hence, Lu Yan set his prices somewhat lower.
He has already gathered information. In Baicao City, to learn martial arts at a school—even third-rate martial arts—the tuition fee is one hundred taels of silver.
Attempting to practice second-rate martial arts is even more challenging.
Not only does it require a tuition fee of three hundred taels, one must also undergo rigorous examinations and become a disciple of the master of the school before teaching commences.
Additionally, it’s not realistic to expect the entire martial arts system to be taught to you immediately upon payment.
A second-rate martial art’s market price is three thousand taels of silver. Paying them three hundred taels only to want to learn the complete system is unrealistic. Instruction happens in stages.
Lu Yan brought out three types of third-rate martial arts and three second-rate martial arts for teaching.
The third-rate martial arts include: Iron Thread Fist, Antelope Kick, and Iron Sand Palm.
The second-rate martial arts include: Broken Sky Blade, Wind Chasing Step, and Gale Hand.
While other martial arts schools cherish their martial arts disciplines, particularly the second-rate ones, Lu Yan doesn’t share this concept.
He set the price for third-rate martial arts at sixty taels.
For second-rate martial arts, the price is two hundred taels.
His prices are nearly one-third less than those of other martial arts schools.
He will accept anyone who can pay and will provide instructions in martial arts.
As for those with no money, Lu Yan will take them in as well, but they will have to work as servants in the martial arts school for two years. Those found with good conduct through their evaluation will be taught martial arts.
Lu Yan’s intention is to cast a large net and select people with good character for key cultivation.
As for those who don’t meet the character criteria, once they are taught the martial arts, they will be left to their own devices to live or die. How far they can go depends on their own fate, as there’s no chance for resources to be invested into their cultivation.
Half a month later, the martial arts school officially opens.
To build up its reputation, Lu Yan printed a large stack of ’flyers’, which include the tuition fees and names of the martial arts that will be taught.
Before the opening, Li Quan, Cao Hu and around ten others distributed these flyers on the streets until all of them were handed out.
On the opening day, some people came but they were not many. And most of them were from poor families, unable to afford the tuition fee. They came in hopes of working as servants for two years in exchange for free martial arts instruction.
Only three people who could pay the tuition fee to learn the martial arts came.
These three individuals all wished to learn second-rate martial arts, and Lu Yan accepted all of them.
For those who couldn’t afford the tuition fees, Lu Yan personally inspected their roots and age. Those with good roots and suitable age were kept, and those with poor roots or advanced age were sent back.
His goal is to cultivate his own force, not to do charity.
It’s normal to have few people initially, a circumstance that Lu Yan had prepared himself for.
After all, his reputation has not yet been established and nobody can evaluate his skills. Who knows whether he really has the ability, or whether he’s a fraud?
Both sixty and two hundred taels of silver are not minor sums.
For many families, this could be their lifetime savings.
He must not rush things and should take it slow.
That day, Lu Yan summoned the three new martial arts school trainees.
"Master."
The three trainees offered their respectful salutations.
They addressed him as Master, not Sir, because they were not Lu Yan’s disciples, merely trainees at the martial arts school.
Other martial arts halls are similar - unless you pass rigorous tests and are taken on as the personal disciple of the hall master, are you considered the official disciple of the master.
Lu Yan, however, had no intention of taking a personal disciple just yet. He didn’t have the heart or energy for it.
"Hmm!"
Lu Yan nodded, seated at the head of the table, studying the three of them carefully.
He now appeared to be around fifty years old, his looks imposing.
He had no choice; his real age was just over twenty. Too young. It would be strange if someone wanted to learn martial arts from such a young master.
The three apprentices were around fourteen or fifteen years old, one about sixteen.
They all had sturdy bodies, presumably adequately nourished on a regular basis.
Anyone who could afford two hundred taels of silver for martial arts tuition wouldn’t be too shabby.
"What kind of martial arts do you want to learn?" Lu Yan asked.
"Master, I want to learn the Broken Sky Blade," said the sixteen-year-old boy.
"I want to learn the Gale Hand, it seems balanced."
"I’ll take the Wind Chasing Step."
The other two boys made their choices.
"Good."
Lu Yan nodded, then he summoned Li Quan, Zhang Jun, and Cao Hu, and assigned them each a pupil. There was no need for him to personally teach. Others would suffice.
In the next few days, people continued to come for martial arts training.
Seven days later, excluding the servants, he had gathered a total of ten apprentices.
Six of them came to cultivate second-rate martial arts, and four to cultivate third-rate martial arts.
Lu Yan handed over all these people to Wang Lin, Zhang Jun and others to teach, and meanwhile observed their character.
As for him, he continued to practice martial arts leisurely to accumulate Qi-blood, and to research martial cooking.
"It’s been more than a year. In theory, I have basically mastered the basic knowledge of a martial chef and should have made progress. Why can’t I form a Martial Chef Avatar?" Lu Yan frowned in thought.
Could it be that the Dao Book is only useful for martial arts and not for martial cooking?
The Dao Book, martial arts is a way, isn’t cooking a way too?
Lu Yan felt that there must be a problem somewhere.
But where exactly is the problem?
Lu Yan began to analyze from the essence of a martial chef.
In order for a martial chef to improve, he must master various different recipes, understand the characteristics of different ingredients, constantly cook, and gain experience. This is why Shen Yinuo travels all over the world.
But martial arts is different.
Specializing in one type of martial arts is enough; if you practice boxing, then it’s just boxing. You don’t need to understand kick or blade techniques. So long as you practice one type of boxing well and refine it, you will naturally improve.
Can the same be done for martial chefs?
He thought of chefs in his previous life in China.
Some master chefs with exquisite skills may not be able to cook all types of cuisines. They might just specialize in one or two dishes, excel in them and once they reach perfection in these one or two dishes, they could become world-famous.
Could martial chefs do the same?
If he first specializes in one martial dish, can he succeed?
Lu Yan decided to choose a martial food to practice intensely, and ’Yinuo Lizard Meat’ was naturally the most suitable.
He assisted Shen Yinuo and learned a lot by watching. Moreover, he had ready access to Ironclad Lizard meat, so no extra purchase was required.
Lu Yan immediately went out, hunted an Ironclad Lizard in the Blood-Land Vein of Changfeng City overnight, brought the sliced meat back, prepared the supplementary spiritual grasses, and began to cook ’Yinuo Lizard Meat’.
’Yinuo Lizard Meat’ consists of eighteen steps that require twenty-three types of spirit grass and three types of martial food seasonings.
First, he cut a pound of Ironclad Lizard meat, put it in a specially made stew pot, ignited the fire to heat the water. When the water boiled, he added one type of spiritual medicine, then controlled the flame’s intensity to slowly cook.
He stared intently, observing the color changes of the beast meat and water.
The first step in cooking martial food is to remove the blood toxins in the beast meat.
But blood toxins are not easy to remove. It requires nine steps and nine types of spirit grass.
Moreover, the spirit grasses are not added all at once but separately.
For instance, the first one, Diversion Grass, is used to soften the beast meat, so the blood toxins inside are less firmly connected to the meat.
When the cooking is almost ready, the second type of spirit grass must be added immediately to complement the first and intensify the effect.
The timing needs to be perfect, too early or late could ruin the beast meat.
Then the third, fourth and so on...
Each step requires perfect timing and cannot afford any mistakes.
The difficulty of cooking martial food is more than a hundred times greater than cooking ordinary food.
