The Martial Lord of the Troubled World

Chapter 14 Civil Affairs
"The life-saving breakthrough achieved by the Hunyuan Pillar is indeed substantial."

After his vital signs rose to 2, Fu Juemin felt some subtle but noticeable changes. For example, his vision and hearing seemed to have improved slightly, his heartbeat was more steady and powerful, and his breathing seemed to have become longer and more even.
"Is life a health bar? No wonder it's so hard to improve. The Hunyuan Stance, however, requires continuous and diligent practice."

Fu Juemin glanced at the panel. At this moment, the blue energy in the left half of the Tai Chi fish-shaped groove at the bottom of the panel was almost one-third full.

For the past two weeks, he has been taking various tonics, and his blue energy has been accumulating rapidly. After entering the bone forging stage, he has been taking medicinal baths and practicing medicinal exercises every day, which has made the energy accumulate even faster.

"As you keep increasing your basic attributes, it doesn't matter if your combat experience and skills are relatively weaker than other martial artists of the same level."

After entering the Bone Forging stage, Li Tong taught Fu Juemin a new martial art, which is the "Eight Extremes Bone Forging Technique" displayed on the panel.

This is a method of tempering bones to aid in their forging, and it is also a fist technique for fighting enemies.

The practice of "Bajiquan Bone Forging Kung Fu" requires practitioners to repeatedly strike a hard wall with their shoulders, back, and sides; repeatedly hit, bump, roll, and circle a hard wooden stake with their forearms; and strike a sack filled with iron filings with their palms, while washing their hands with medicinal water, in order to strengthen the body's resistance to blows and increase the bone density of the arms and hands.

From this series of training methods, three deadly moves were derived: "Shaking the Mountain," "Entangling the Dragon," and "Smashing the Stele."

Among them, "Shaking the Mountain" is the simplest, which is equivalent to using the strength of one's shoulders and back to smash the opponent hard. The stronger one's physical fitness, the greater the power.

Fu Juemin mastered the technique under Li Tong's personal guidance, and that's the move he used to knock Sun Youzhu flying that night.

"The techniques of 'Entangling Dragon' and 'Smashing Stele' are far more advanced than 'Shaking Mountain.' I wonder if mastering all of them will allow me to advance to 'Mastery' in the 'Eight Extremes Bone Forging Technique'."

While physical training in martial arts can be achieved quickly by investing heavily in resources, there are few shortcuts to mastering martial arts skills.

Fu Juemin has been practicing Mingquan for over a month, but he is still in the beginner stage. He has not felt any signs of breakthrough, but he is just getting more and more proficient.

Unless one is a genius with extraordinary comprehension like those described in novels, it usually takes years or even decades of diligent and arduous practice for an ordinary person to master a particular martial art.

Fu Juemin suddenly understood what Li Tong had said earlier.

Martial arts, to put it bluntly, is not much different from the online games he played in his previous life.

The processes of skin refining and bone forging are similar to grinding monsters and leveling up in a game. Once you've reached a certain level and left the starting village, you can start looking for other players to PK with. At this point, two players of the same level will compete based on their weapons, equipment, and skill.

The purpose of using external aids like medicine and stones is to shorten the "leveling up" process as much as possible, and to spend more time on "crafting equipment, practicing skills, and cultivating awareness".

This is the true path, the kingly path, to becoming a top-tier martial artist!
The bedroom lights were off, but moonlight streamed in through the curtains, spilling onto the floor like mercury, creating an ethereal atmosphere.

Fu Juemin took off his loose-fitting clothes for standing meditation and walked barefoot slowly to the window.

After more than a month of martial arts training, nourishment, and two points added to his attack stat, he has long since shed the thin and weak appearance he had when he first transmigrated. He has grown much taller, now standing at 1.85 meters tall, with streamlined muscles that are well-developed, solid, and evenly proportioned.

When he wears a suit, he is still a young master; when he takes off the suit, he is already a martial arts master with considerable skill.

Because of the various nourishing ointments and essential oils he received, a month of skin-diffusing and whipping did not leave any marks on his body. His skin remained smooth, with only the bullet scar on his left chest still clearly visible.

Fu Juemin gently touched the scar that had once pierced his heart with his right hand, gazing at the moon outside the window, his eyes flickering slightly.

"After more than a month of arduous training, I've managed to protect myself to some extent."

"We should ask my second uncle about the dock matter."

"And those who wanted to kill me back then, we also need to investigate them thoroughly... There's no way you can guard against thieves for a thousand days if you're a thief for a thousand days." September 7th.

A black IWC car was wobbling along the road leading out of Luanhe County.

Although it is the only county road in Luanhe County, the businesses in Luanhe County mainly use waterways to transport goods, so even though the road is in terrible condition, no one repairs it.

Fu Juemin sat in the back seat, rolled down the window, and looked at the scenery outside.

The southern provinces of Yangping had just ended the days of war and constant fighting, and then experienced several famines. Outside the city, the land was basically barren, with grass that looked like grass and mountains that looked like mountains.

On the road, you can still occasionally see the large craters from the war a few years ago. Fortunately, it hasn't rained in the last few days, so the craters haven't been filled with mud.

As we drove out of the city, we saw almost no one on the road, only a few scattered oxcarts and nearby villagers carrying goods to sell in the city.

Ma Daikui and Qian Fei, the two bodyguards, followed beside the car on bicycles, carefully avoiding the cow dung pits on the ground while talking to Fu Juemin. Every now and then, they would fiddle with the brass bell on the front of the bicycle, making a crisp "ding-dong" sound.

"Young Master Fu, once you get past the front, you'll see our Civil Affairs Office!"

Qian Fei pointed to a yellowish-brown earthen slope in front of him and spoke loudly to Fu Juemin.

Meanwhile, Ma Daikui pedaled his bicycle silently, keeping a watchful eye on any potential situations that might arise around him.

The bicycles they rode were all bought for them by Fu Juemin from a foreign firm, so that they could keep up with his pace when they went out.

The two of them loved the rubber wheels, leather seats, and steel frame so much that they would wipe them down several times a day like precious treasures.

Fu Juemin nodded. Today he was going to see his second uncle, Fu Guoping, and also to see what kind of place the Civil Affairs Department under Fu Guoping was.

The car drove forward for a while and then came face to face with two villagers, one older and one younger. The older one looked to be in her seventies or eighties and was carrying a basket on her back; she was an old woman.

As soon as the car approached, the old woman immediately hid by the roadside, tightly holding the baby in her arms.

"Get out of my way!"

Qian Fei pushed off with his feet and sped ahead on his bicycle, loudly shooing away an old man and a young boy on the side of the road.

Seeing that both men were extremely thin, Fu Juemin casually called over Ma Daikui, asked him to leave a few silver dollars, then rolled up the car window and stopped looking at the desolate scene outside.

The drive took a full twenty minutes, covering several kilometers, before we finally arrived at the Civil Affairs Bureau.

"Young Master Fu, we've arrived."

Qian Fei called out respectfully and opened the car door.

Fu Juemin got out of the car and was taken aback when he saw the towering building in front of him. Then he looked at Qian Fei and the other man with a strange expression and said, "You call this an office?"

What appeared before Fu Juemin was a huge earthen fortress built at a mountain pass.

The fortress wall, which is more than ten meters high, is made entirely of polished bluestone blocks, and then coated with a thick layer of yellow clay mixed with rice paste and straw. Clear rammed earth marks are still visible on the wall.

(End of this chapter)