Martial Arts Crossover: My Wife is the Top Scholar

Chapter 42 Old Tales of Hengshan (Third Update, Please Read On)

Esoteric Buddhism is completely different from Buddhism in Central China.

When Li Zhaoting was a child, he vowed to outdo his peers and diligently studied countless books, gaining some understanding of Tantric Buddhism.

It mainly lies in two aspects.

1. The Great Seal is truly amazing!
Second, the Joyful Zen is truly something to aspire to!

Of course, what Li Zhaoting yearns for is cultivation, the cultivation of a prestigious and orthodox sect. Don't get the wrong idea.

Reputable schools and sects do indeed practice the Joyful Meditation method.

In the story of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Qin Mengyao, the most talented disciple of Cihang Jingzhai in three hundred years, is a peerless genius who broke through the Sword Heart Clarity at a young age. In order to seek a breakthrough opportunity, she practiced some Tantric Zen skills.

The disciples of Cihang Jingzhai specialize in the Cihang Sword Manual, but Qin Mengyao alone possesses the lineages of Cihang Jingzhai, Jingnian Chan, and Tantric Buddhism, thus breaking through to the highest realm of the Sword Manual.

Li Zhaoting spoke sincerely about Buddhism.

Kumārajīva wanted to grab the table and smash it hard on Li Zhaoting's face, killing him!

Are you speaking human language?
You said these things in front of a monk?
You dare to say that this humble monk is "attached to appearances"?
"Cough cough!"

Kumārajīva coughed twice, interrupting Li Zhaoting's ramblings, and took the initiative to make a request: "This humble monk is very interested in Young Master Li's swordsmanship and would like to make an exchange."

"What do you want in exchange?"

"Five volumes of Shaolin martial arts techniques".

"According to the rules of the martial arts world, those who steal martial arts skills will die. Even if you put all 72 Shaolin skills in front of me and exchange them for a set of Turtle Fist, I would never agree."

"Young Master Li is not a person who follows the rules."

"Rules are very necessary. Rules mean that there is order in the martial arts world, and order means that the martial arts world is generally peaceful. You should understand that, right?"

"Young Master Li's insight is excellent."

"I don't want to know the origin of the Seventy-Two Arts. I just want to say one thing: if you want to make a deal, make a deal with your own items. That's the only fair way."

"Young Master Li wishes to learn the Flame Blade?"

"I practice swordsmanship, I don't know how to use a knife."

"Young Master Li wants... the Nine Syllable Mantra?"

Kumārajīva was extremely intelligent and quickly guessed the purpose of Li Zhaoting's rambling. He was shocked and thought to himself, "You have a big appetite. Aren't you afraid of stuffing yourself to death?"
"As far as I know, the Nine Syllable Mantra Mudra is a secret technique passed down directly from the Tantric sect. However, the Tantric sect is divided into five schools, four of which have their own lineages. The Red Sect, a super power, has several branches within it, each with its own lineage. If you add them up, there are probably more than a dozen. As long as I don't tell anyone, who would know that it was the Ming King who leaked the secret?"

"Then you can use that to blackmail me!"

"What can I blackmail you for? Blackmail you to hand over the Seventy-Two Ultimate Techniques? What use would I have for those things? A transaction is a two-way street; it can't be one party getting the spoils."

"I need a few days to think about it."

"Let me remind you, Mingwang, that the martial arts foundation of Daxiangguo Temple is even greater than that of Tianlong Temple. The Great Sun Tathagata Mantra is not so easy to obtain. Damo Zhi can only be a hindrance."

"How did you know?"

"Just a wild guess!"

"Young Master Li, why don't you continue to guess what this humble monk wants to do now? And what does he want to do next?"

"You want to leave here, meditate to eliminate the psychological trauma caused by my charlatanry, and then activate the Tibetan intelligence network to investigate my origins."

"Young Master Li is indeed insightful."

"My King, I'll give you one last piece of advice."

"What?"

"goodbye!"

"Young Master Li, may we meet again someday!"

Kumārajīva left through the window.

The Great Wheel King, who holds a high position of power in Tibet, cannot be intimidated by a few words. However, if he fails to steal the mantra of the Great Sun Tathagata, things will be much easier.

Kumārajīva, unwilling to accept defeat, returned to Tibet in disgrace.

He wanted to obtain more and more mysterious secrets.

He wants to gain even greater power.

He wants martial arts skills, fame and fortune, he wants... ugh!

Kumārajīva kept gagging.

Lately, I don't know what's wrong with me. Whenever I get too excited or my vital energy is severely depleted, some of my organs become uncontrollable. Sometimes my eyebrows and eyes twitch continuously, sometimes my hands and feet tremble, sometimes I gag, and the worst time was when I was in a daze and my mind went blank.

Kumārajīva did not know why this was happening.

Is this a case of going mad or being poisoned?

Could it be that he has contracted some kind of disease?

With this in mind, Kumārajīva decided to secretly seek treatment from several renowned physicians. Instead of rushing to the Great Xiangguo Temple, he would first go to see Xue Muhua, nicknamed "Enemy of Yama."

There were two extraordinary doctors in the Central Plains.

One of them was Ping Yizhi, who believed that healing the sick and saving lives was like competing with the King of Hell. He claimed that for every person he cured, he had to kill someone else, earning him the nickname "Murderous Doctor."

One of them was Xue Muhua. Martial arts practitioners who came to him for medical treatment had to pass on their martial arts skills to him. Over the decades, he accumulated a lot of fancy moves.

Kumārajīva possessed dozens of first-rate martial arts skills; any one of them would be enough to delight Xue Muhua.

……

The little incident with Kumārajīva passed quickly. With a fine horse to take them, Hengyang was not far away. They arrived in Hengyang without incident, but the conference had not yet started.

Most renowned martial arts forces have the ability to occupy mountains and rule as kings, especially gangs named after mountains and rivers, such as Hengshan and Huashan!
The Hengshan School was founded not long ago. Its founder was named Mo Taichong, who was impulsive and had superb swordsmanship. He once single-handedly killed a group of fierce bandits.

Legend has it that he annihilated eight thousand bandits.

This is of course false.

Only Mo Taichong knew the exact number.

Mo Taichong found gold and silver in a bandit's den, and with the government's reward, he bought a piece of Hengshan Mountain, founded the Hengshan School, and left behind more than a dozen exquisite sword techniques.

At its peak, the Hengshan Sect had five hundred disciples. The Hengshan sword technique was dreamlike and elusive, and was widely known in the martial arts world. Many sects took the initiative to seek marriage alliances with it.

Several years ago, internal strife broke out in the Hengshan faction.

It is said that the reason for the marriage was that "Peach Blossom Swordsman" Mo Xiaobao married the daughter of the chief镖头 (chief镖头) of Longmen镖局 (Longmen Escort Agency), and took money from the sect's treasury to build their wedding room.

Some argued that the Hengshan Sect was not the Mo Family Manor, nor was it the Mo family's private property. The two sides argued endlessly, and most of the swordsmen were hot-blooded and impulsive, drawing their swords to fight in a fit of rage.

The Mo family lineage was reduced to less than one-tenth of its original size, and the masters of Hengshan were almost entirely wiped out. In addition, Qiu Qianren of the Iron Palm Clan gradually encroached upon Hengshan with his "Iron Palm Annihilation of Hengshan" technique, causing the Hengshan Sect's territory to shrink and inevitably leading to its decline. Today, only three branches remain to carry on the tradition.

One lineage is led by Mo Da, the "Xiaoxiang Night Rain" sect leader, whose hobby is playing the erhu (a two-stringed bowed instrument) while wandering the streets and alleys. He hides a sword within the erhu, and the sword's sound is produced by the erhu's music. He can barely support the Hengshan Sect's business.

One lineage consists of disciples who survived the internal strife. They do not recognize Mo Da and want to find Mo Xiaobei, the only remaining direct descendant of the Mo family, to be the sect leader. They left Hengyang City last month.

One lineage is led by Liu Zhengfeng, who has retired from the criminal world. Master Liu comes from a wealthy family, is shrewd and has excellent interpersonal relationships. He has dozens of disciples and is an important pillar of Hengshan.

Now that Liu Zhengfeng has retired from the underworld, his fellow gangsters believe this must be due to internal discord.

With Liu Zhengfeng retiring from the martial arts world, whoever becomes the leader of the Hengshan Sect will be a member of the Mo family. In that case, the Hengshan Sect will become the Mo Family Manor. Can it still be considered a gang?
Most importantly, the Hengshan School is already in decline. In its struggle for power and profit, it is fighting amongst itself and undermining its own strength. Will there be any promising talents willing to join Hengshan in the future?

These are all problems!

After more than ten days of fermentation, many martial arts practitioners came to Hengyang City. The Hengshan Sect was in a state of panic. No matter how Liu Zhengfeng tried to appease them, the people were still in disarray.

Liu Zhengfeng secretly regretted it.

He only thought about his profound friendship with Qu Yang, neglecting the situation of the Hengshan Sect, and made Mo Da take the blame.

How can this be good?

As Liu Zhengfeng scratched his head, Li Zhaoting and the other two arrived in Hengyang City. Li Zhaoting took a deep sniff, but he didn't smell any blood or any fierce fighting.

With a quick glance, he saw that most of the martial arts practitioners around him were third- or fourth-rate or even the lowest of the low, with very few true masters. They were either there to freeload or to watch the spectacle.

The "Five Mountains Sword Sect" is out of the question.

The Five Sacred Mountains are thousands of miles apart. There are no teleportation arrays in the martial arts world, so is it meaningful to form an alliance?
for example.

If someone launches a war of annihilation against Hengshan, and Hengshan sends a letter requesting assistance, the other four sects, being kind-hearted people, will immediately rush to their aid upon receiving the letter.

The masters from the four major sects of Mount Hua, Mount Song, Mount Tai, and Mount Heng traveled day and night, killing dozens of horses in the process. When they arrived in Hengyang, the Hengshan sect had already disappeared.

Even if we send a message by carrier pigeon, it won't work!
The sect wars are not two armies facing off, but rather the sect leader, elders and disciples fighting one-on-one. Generally speaking, the battle ends when the sect leader determines the winner.

In "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer", the Five Mountains Alliance was formed because the Songshan Sect was the strongest. Zuo Lengchan was ambitious, and now the strongest sect is clearly the Huashan Sect.

Ku Mei did not have Zuo Lengchan's ambition.

Ku Mei knew nothing about running a sect.

Aside from guarding the Huashan Sect's small territory, Ku Mei doesn't care about anything else. If Zuo Lengchan dares to propose merging the sects, Ku Mei either ignores him or draws her sword and kills him.

That being said, they are still the "Five Sacred Mountains".

All four sects sent representatives to attend the ceremony.

The one sent by Mount Tai is the Taoist of Tianmen.

The one sent by Hengshan was Abbess Dingyi.

The people sent by Huashan were Mu Renqing and Yuan Chengzhi.

The people sent by Songshan were Ding Mian and Fei Bin.

Li Zhaoting didn't need to go to great lengths to collect this information.

Tang Zhuquan, who enjoys watching a good show, had already thoroughly investigated all the martial arts masters in Hengyang City. As soon as Li Zhaoting arrived in Hengyang, he received the complete information.

……

Return to Yanlou.

The group found a seat by the window.

Tang Zhuquan picked up the wine jar, gulped down the wine, and drank half of it in one go. He put down the large wine jar, wiped his mouth with satisfaction, and let out a burp.

"That feels so good! That really feels so good! Damn it, I've been feeling so stifled lately, seeing you makes me feel better!"

"You got beaten up?"

"Pah! Pah! Pah! Who dares to hit me?"

Tang Zhuquan shook his thick arms.

Li Zhaoting pointed to himself.

Tang Zhuquan curled his lip and changed the subject: "Every time I see you, I see an absolute beauty. How did you manage to win over such a pretty Miao girl? Did your sister-in-law make you balance a porcelain bowl on your head or kneel on a washboard? Tsk tsk!"

Lan Fenghuang nestled in Li Zhaoting's arms: "I wasn't tricked into coming here. I came with him. The Central Plains is truly prosperous, much richer than Miao territory!"

Feng Suzhen said softly, "Brother Tang is joking. I like such a cute little sister. How could I punish my husband? I'm not a shrew!"

Li Zhaoting's lips twitched slightly.

Feng Suzhen was definitely not a shrew!
How can "shrew" even begin to describe Feng Suzhen's imposing presence?

What's a shrew's roar compared to that?
Feng Suzhen incorporated the Lion's Roar skill into the Demon-Subduing Qin. With a casual pluck of the strings or a sneeze, rolling sound waves would surge out, capable of killing both single targets and groups.

"Old Tang, what good dishes does this restaurant have?"

"Speaking of which, you've come to the right person. Old Tang just arrived in Hengyang and has already checked out every single restaurant and tavern in the city. He's spent a fortune on restaurant visits..."

Tang Zhuquan has a principle when it comes to spending money.

Wearing fine clothes, gambling, whoring—only eating is truly worthwhile; one must never deprive oneself of food.

Over 200 pounds of fat is the best proof!

Beneath the fat lies lean meat and bone!
Tang Zhuquan took out the menu and quickly ordered.

Blue Phoenix was eagerly waiting to eat.

Feng Suzhen looks at the scenery through the window.

Suddenly, Li Zhaoting sensed a fluctuation in the energy flow.

Looking towards the stairwell, I saw a gaunt old man leading a girl of about thirteen or fourteen up the stairs. The old man's face was full of worry, while the girl was quite lively.

There were many martial arts practitioners in Hengyang City, and the tables at Huiyan Tower were already full. Fortunately, Lan Fenghuang and Li Zhaoting were sitting on the same bench, leaving one bench empty.

Li Zhaoting invited the grandfather and grandson to share a table.

"Hey you two, there are no seats left here. Why don't you come and share a table? It'll be more lively with more people!"

The two were Qu Yang and Qu Feiyan.

Qu Yang and Li Zhaoting sized each other up.

Qu Yang was worried that Li Zhaoting was an enemy.

Li Zhaoting wanted to see the secret Qu Yang was hiding!
(End of this chapter)