Days passed, and the manuscript Zhou Yuanjue was writing grew ever longer.
This time, the treatise within his manuscript was exceptionally detailed. He started from the fundamentals of the Martial Dao, drawing conclusions from his own experiences and countless case studies.
He posited that from its very inception, the Martial Dao was a process of battling instinct to ultimately gain control over the body.
The first stage of the Martial Dao is Outer Cultivation, which is the honing of External Skills. The daily practice of standing stances, physical conditioning, and practicing forms and routines certainly has the objective of strengthening the physique. However, its deeper purpose is actually to temper the will, train one's control over the body's muscles, joints, and ligaments, and battle the body's instincts—its preference for comfort and its fear of pain, fatigue, and so on.
