The Martial Lord of the Troubled World

Chapter 37 Pharmacist Liuli, Four Great Skills

"Does Uncle Tong want to see?"

Fu Juemin was slightly surprised, but he still readily handed the scriptures to Li Tong.

Li Tong took the Buddhist scripture, lightly touched it with his fingertips, and slowly examined and turned the pages.
After a moment, he looked up and asked Fu Juemin, "What is the background of the person who gave this Buddhist scripture to you, young master? Could you please tell me in detail?"

Fu Juemin realized that Li Tong seemed to have discovered something, so he didn't hide anything and told Li Tong about Su Hui in detail.

After listening, Li Tong's eyes immediately showed a complex expression that Fu Juemin could not understand.

He looked at the Buddhist scripture in his hand and sighed softly, "So it's the Su family of Shenghai. They held positions in the Grand Council during the previous dynasty, so it must be true."

"What Uncle Tong said is correct?"

Fu Juemin blinked and couldn't help but ask.

Li Tong didn't answer, but instead told the butler, Uncle Chen, and several servants to leave.

Once only Fu Juemin and Li Tong remained in the practice room, Li Tong walked to a rosewood box, placed the Buddhist scripture in his hand on the lid, casually picked up a page, pinched the bottom of the page with two fingers, and somehow, with a gentle rub, the originally one-piece Buddhist scripture instantly became two pages.

"This"

Fu Juemin looked on in disbelief.

He had personally turned the pages of that Buddhist scripture. Each page was as thin as a cicada's wing, and he was afraid of crushing it if he used the slightest force. Who would have thought that there were hidden pages underneath?

He hurriedly went up to look at the page that Li Tong had rubbed out. There were words on it, and they weren't from the Medicine Buddha Sutra.

—Four taels of unmarked jade, five mace of silver sail flower jade, and seven-star sesame seeds.
At first glance, it looked like a prescription.

At this moment, Li Tong kept rubbing the pages one by one, and gradually he rubbed the Buddhist scripture into two.

Fu Juemin looked through the pages one by one and found that the content of each page was different. Instead of prescriptions, they were mostly pictures with text and exercise formulas.

Hidden beneath this Buddhist scripture is a martial arts manual!
Fu Juemin was stunned and couldn't recover for a long time.

This kind of plot, which I had only ever seen in martial arts novels and movies, is now actually happening to me. It feels like a dream.

"Uncle Tong."

Fu Juemin subconsciously looked at Li Tong, who had brought all this to fruition with his "divine skill," and before he could say anything, he heard Li Tong let out a heartfelt sigh.

"Young Master, your martial arts are flourishing, and you have been blessed with a miraculous manual."

"From now on, with this 'Medicine Master's Glazed Body' technique, I probably won't need to practice any more Iron Armor Kung Fu."

"The Medicine Master's Crystal Body?"

Fu Juemin was still a little dizzy and subconsciously asked, "What is this?"

Li Tong lowered his hand and said slowly with a complicated expression, "In the previous dynasty, there was a saying that there were four extraordinary external martial arts techniques."

They are respectively "The Medicine Buddha's Lapis Lazuli Body", "The Shackles of the Bright King", "The Dragon Elephant Prajna Seal" and "The Bodhi Vajra Mantra".

Each one is a top-tier external martial art in the world; mastering any one of them would make one a legend in the martial arts world.

Legend has it that if one masters all four gates, one can directly break through the Heavenly Realm and reach a supreme realm rarely attained throughout history.

"Medicine Buddha Lapis Lazuli, Wisdom King's Shackles, Dragon Elephant Prajna, Bodhi Vajra"

As Fu Juemin read the names of the four martial arts techniques Li Tong had mentioned, he couldn't help but remark, "Why do they all sound like they're related to Buddhism?"

Li Tong nodded, "These four extraordinary skills were all created by the Mahayana patriarch of Buddhism, so they are naturally all related to Buddhism."

A hundred years ago, the former general Ma Ta attacked Tianfu Temple. Unable to capture it after a long siege, he simply set fire to the entire Tianfu Mountain.

These four extraordinary skills were subsequently spread among the people.

Over the decades, countless rumors, both true and false, have circulated in the martial arts world.

However, the book in the young master's hand now... should be genuine.

"Mahaparinirvana... Tenpuji Temple... Bhaisajyaguru Vaidurya"

Fu Juemin was still reeling from the shock of the barrage of news. He took a deep breath and couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Tong, how can you be so sure that the one I have is genuine?"

Li Tong thought for a moment and said, "The general who rammed Tianfu Temple back then was named Jia Muhe. He was promoted to that position by the Su family, who were then officials of the first rank."

Fu Juemin immediately understood.

Looking at the manual in his hand again, he carefully read through it. It was indeed complete, from specific training methods to key points of qi circulation, and even medicinal bath prescriptions to assist in cultivation. It was extremely difficult to fake. However, looking at the tiny characters and the many technical terms and diagrams, Fu Juemin felt dizzy and couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Even if it's real, I can't understand it. I'll have to ask Uncle Tong for help."

"That's natural."

Li Tong nodded and said, "I will teach you how to get started, young master, step by step."

But as the saying goes, any external martial art is easy to learn but difficult to master, especially top-level external martial arts like this, which require far more effort and time than ordinary martial arts.

Young master, do not think that obtaining the technique will make you an expert overnight. The path you must take will be far more arduous and lengthy than you imagine.

You won't say that after I've mastered the basics and added all the skill points.
Fu Juemin thought to himself, but nodded solemnly on the surface: "I know."

Then, pointing to the Buddhist scriptures in his hand, he said, "Uncle Tong and I practice together?"

Although he had already forged his bones, he was still a complete novice in martial arts. He couldn't understand the secret manuals even when they were right in front of him, and he couldn't avoid Li Tong, his "translator." Rather than hiding it, he might as well openly share it.

Anyway, no matter who trains with him, they will never be able to surpass his progress.

Unexpectedly, Li Tong shook his head: "If it had been twenty years earlier, I might have started practicing."

"Now, my skills are already set in stone. I can still practice hand-to-hand combat and weaponry, but I have neither the will nor the ability to practice these kinds of external martial arts."

Fu Juemin looked into Li Tong's eyes and saw only calmness.

He had a gut feeling that Li Tong had no ulterior motives, but the reason didn't seem to be that Li Tong's kung fu was fixed, as he himself claimed, but rather that Li Tong was still hiding something from him.

Of course, he didn't ask too many questions.

"...With the fall of the previous dynasty and the arrival of Western ironclad warships, the martial arts world is no longer the same as it was in the previous dynasty. Martial arts skills are no longer as important to many people."

Li Tong solemnly instructed again, "But young master, please remember to be careful and do not spread the news that you have the 'Medicine Master's Glazed Body', otherwise you will definitely be in trouble."

"I see."

Fu Juemin nodded.

"Also, young master, you should prepare the ingredients for this medicinal bath recipe as soon as possible."

Li Tongdao: "Top-tier external martial arts techniques often mean top-tier resource consumption."

Fu Juemin thought for a moment and said, "Uncle Tong, please copy the prescription for me. I'll go find someone to arrange it now."

Fu Juemin immediately left the training room, called for paper and pen, and sent someone out to fetch others.

Half an hour later, the heads of pharmacies and shops in Luanhe County gathered at the Fu family's house.

Several old men, whose combined age was nearly several hundred years, gathered together and studied a prescription for a long time before finally sending one of them to report to Fu Juemin.

"Young Master Fu, the prescription you gave me contains only rare and precious medicinal herbs."

The speaker was the head manager of Xing'an Hall, who had a long-standing relationship with Fu Juemin. He was dressed in a mandarin jacket from the previous dynasty, wearing a melon-shaped hat, and had a queue (braid) at the back of his head.

"And the required years are not short."

Fu Juemin sat in a chair, eating the sliced ​​fruit that Xiao Huaihua kept serving him, while waving his hand dismissively.

"money is not a problem."

"It's not all about money."

The old man gave a wry smile and said, "The rest are easy to find. Although they are rare, if our families pool our resources and look elsewhere, we can probably find them all."

The old man took out a prescription, pointed to a medicine name on it, and said helplessly, "It's this century-old swamp lotus seed. There's really no other way."

Young Master Fu probably doesn't know what these swamp lotus seeds are.

The old man was talking, intending to give Fu Juemin a proper explanation.

Fu Juemin seemed to be deep in thought. Suddenly, he picked up a small box and took out three dark, bead-like objects, which he then tossed to him.

"Look, is this it?"

The old man hurriedly caught the beads, picked up the three prayer beads, and examined them closely.

After half a breath, he let out a long "Hey—" sound.

"Yes, yes! This is it!!"

(End of this chapter)