Narration System for the Journey of Martial Arts

"At that time, Li Qiushui had already given birth to your mother. As a result, Wu Yazi discovered that he loved someone else, so he chose to leave without saying goodbye."

"Li Qiushui spent some time alone here with your mother. She couldn't understand why Wu Yazi left without saying goodbye. She grieved and mourned in front of this jade statue every day. Later, she thought that Wu Yazi had been seduced by her senior sister."

"Alas! Poor Li Qiushui never realized that this jade statue is not her, but her junior sister who died young and looked eight or nine parts like her."

"Later, your mother married into the Wang family of Suzhou, and Li Qiushui left this place to seek revenge on her senior sister, hmm, revenge for stealing a man."

"You mean, Grandmother never knew this wasn't her?" Wang Yuyan asked.

Su Yuchen shrugged and said...

"It's unbelievable, but that's really how it is. Actually, if she looked closely, she could still find differences between them."

"It's a pity that her sister died many years ago. She herself probably can't even remember what her sister looked like, but Wu Yazi remembers it clearly. What's even more absurd is that who could have imagined that her brother-in-law would fall in love with his deceased sister-in-law!"

"This..." Wang Yuyan didn't know what to say for a moment.

Su Yuchen laughed and said, "Your grandfather, Wu Yazi, was quite a handsome man when he was young. He was incredibly handsome, comparable to Pan An. Of the four of his fellow disciples, only the youngest sister, who died young, is uncertain. The other two women fell in love with him."

Wang Yuyan shook her head, then asked, "Where are they now? Are they dead?"

Su Yuchen shook his head and said, "No. Wu Yazi was later ambushed by his disciple and is now half-crippled; Li Qiushui later married into the Western Xia royal family and is now the Empress Dowager of Western Xia."

"The Empress Dowager of Western Xia?" Wang Yuyan asked in surprise.

Su Yuchen hesitated for a moment, then nodded...

"Well... how should I put it? Ever since Wu Yazi left without saying goodbye, Li Qiushui has become a bit... dissolute. Well, it's said, or rather, I've only heard that she keeps many male lovers."

"I don't know how she married into the Western Xia royal family, but she became the Empress Dowager. The current ruler of Western Xia and your mother are half-siblings."

Even though Wang Yuyan didn't care about anything, she couldn't help but break down upon hearing this news and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Su Yuchen didn't mind and continued walking behind the jade statue. He entered through the stone door on the left and saw a stone bed with a cradle next to it. A seven-stringed zither was hanging on the stone wall inside the bed.

Not far to the right of the stone bed is a stone table and several stone benches. The stone table is carved with a crisscrossing chessboard, and is filled with black and white chess pieces.

[You have discovered a complex chess puzzle. This puzzle contains multiple kos within kos, all interconnected. To break the puzzle, you must destroy your own position. The specific method is as follows:...]

Su Yuchen glanced around and saw that the stone chamber was full of dust, indicating that no one had lived there for a long time. He flicked his sleeve, and a gust of wind swept in, swirling the dust in the corner.

"It's neither too hot nor too cold here, so you won't catch a cold. You can rest here for the night. We can look at the rest of the place tomorrow," Su Yuchen said after looking around for a moment.

After settling Wang Yuyan in, Su Yuchen returned to the archway stone chamber, sat on the stone table under the pearl, and opened the scroll to read.

The scroll opens with the four large characters "Bei Ming Divine Skill". The first chapter of the main text quotes a sentence from Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering" to explain the essentials of practicing this internal skill.

It then states: The Northern Sea is not formed by its own existence, but by the convergence of hundreds of rivers and thousands of waters. Therefore, the Northern Sea Divine Skill draws upon the true energy of the world to make it my own, thus achieving the vastness of the Northern Sea. Hence, the internal skill of this sect differs from other sects, going against the grain by absorbing the true energy of others into my body for my own use, hence the name Northern Sea Divine Skill.

The following section introduces the unique features of this internal energy cultivation method, as well as its shortcomings.

Further on was a portrait lying horizontally. Su Yuchen looked at it and saw a green line starting from the Tanzhong acupoint on his chest, passing down the neck, horizontally to his right shoulder, then passing under his armpit, through various acupoints, and finally ending at the Shaoshang acupoint on his thumb.

Below the image are the related mental techniques and incantations, containing the changes in true qi.

Turning the page further, you'll find complex diagrams and formulas illustrating the flow of meridians.

After reading through the scroll one by one, Su Yuchen closed his eyes and pondered for a long time. Then, he suddenly opened his eyes and opened the scroll again to read it from the beginning. After a long time, he raised his eyebrows and his primordial spirit flowed in his mind, merging the Northern Darkness Divine Art and the Lesser Formless Art.

"I see!"

You have discovered the secret of the Northern Darkness Divine Art.

The Northern Darkness is the extreme of Heaven and Earth! It absorbs all things in Heaven and Earth to form itself. Ancient Taoist sages, having perceived this scene, used the meridians and acupoints of the human body to absorb the essence of all things in Heaven and Earth, thus opening the Tanzhong acupoint (Middle Dantian).

[The Tan Zhong is the Qi Sea of ​​the human body! This is where the Qi of the human body interacts with that of heaven and earth and all things, and it is the fundamental point of interaction between the macrocosm and the microcosm of the human body, capable of absorbing the Qi of heaven and earth and all things.]

The original purpose of the Northern Darkness Divine Art was to steal the essence of heaven, earth, sun, moon, and all things, not to absorb the true energy of others.

[You've discovered the secret of the Lesser Formless Skill]

The formless is without form or trace, leaving no mark. Formless and traceless is life force! The original intention of the Lesser Formless Skill is to transform the stolen essence of heaven and earth into formless and traceless life force.

Using the Northern Darkness Divine Art as a guide, it steals the essence of heaven and earth; using the Lesser Formless Art, it transforms the essence into the life force needed for human longevity; using the Eight Desolations and Six Harmonies Supreme Art as the result, it transforms the life force to maintain the human body's need for immortality.

You lack the "Eight Desolations and Six Directions, I Alone Am Supreme" technique.

As soon as Su Yuchen's primordial spirit moved, everything inside his body was clearly visible in his primordial spirit. Countless true qi transformed into threads that attached to his meridians, while the rest of the true qi was compressed back into his dantian.

As he circulated the Northern Darkness Heart Method, true energy surged from the grid of the Shaoshang acupoint, flowing backward along the meridians towards the Tanzhong acupoint; then all thirty-six meridians opened simultaneously, true energy surging endlessly, flowing towards the Tanzhong acupoint, and the Tanzhong Qi Sea opened in response, with a 'boom', Su Yuchen felt himself establish a connection with the world.

The powerful suction force attempted to steal the spiritual energy of all things in the world and transform it into its own. Unfortunately, the spiritual energy in the world was pitifully scarce. With just a thought, the surrounding spiritual energy was completely absorbed, causing gusts of wind to howl in the stone chamber. The intense friction of the spiritual energy caused wisps of lightning to appear.

At this moment, the wind howled in the stone chamber, like the wailing of ghosts and wolves. Su Yuchen immediately stopped circulating the Northern Darkness Heart Technique, and with a slap of his right palm, he dispersed all the energy into nothingness.

"No wonder! No wonder everyone says that the Free and Unfettered Sect is a sect of immortal cultivation. The essence of these three internal skills is to absorb the essence and spiritual energy of heaven and earth, so that people can live forever."

"However, this world currently lacks spiritual energy and cannot absorb enough of it. That's why Xiaoyaozi divided this internal skill into three parts, completely losing its original function."

"My original body-refining method was based on the principle of indestructibility, which is the so-called immortality. But after this internal energy cultivation method is completed, it seeks longevity and immortality. Together, they are immortality."

"To transform the myriad spiritual energies of heaven and earth into life force—this involves the power of life and death! This is absolutely not an internal cultivation method that Xiaoyaozi could create, not even from that stone cave on Misty Peak of Tianshan!!!"

Chapter 306 Teasing Duan Yu

Having figured all this out, Su Yuchen knew he had to go to Lingjiu Palace on Misty Peak to see the stone cave. Perhaps there, he could find the answers he needed.

"Once I obtain the 'Eight Desolations and Six Harmonies, I Alone Am Supreme Technique' and combine this internal skill with the 'Great Dao Azure Lotus Chapter', I can try to develop towards immortality."

He then continued to flip through the next page of "Lingbo Weibu" (a martial arts manual).

You are reading "Lingbo Weibu" (a martial arts manual).

This footwork is based on the Taoist Bagua (Eight Trigrams). When done in accordance with the flow, it allows one to absorb the eight energies of the universe for one's own use; when done in reverse, it transforms all the energy within the body into the eight energies of the universe.

When the human body merges with the universe, this footwork can reach its ultimate state, stepping on the Bagua (Eight Trigrams), occupying the gate between life and death, and transcending the void.

At this moment, Su Yuchen practiced the thirty-six diagrams of the Northern Darkness Divine Art one by one, making all the acupoints in his body reversible and flowing. A large amount of true qi had gathered in the Tanzhong Qi Sea in his body. When flowing, he could absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for his own use; when reversing, he could draw on true qi. According to the method of the Lesser Formless Art, he could perform various martial arts.

With a single step, he instantly conjured sixty-four afterimages, which stood in the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) positions, densely filling the stone chamber.

As he activated this secret technique of lightness skill, the Tanzhong acupoint in his body naturally drew out a suction force, and the faint spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him poured into the acupoint and converged towards the Tanzhong acupoint.

As the suction force grows stronger, the supply of spiritual energy from heaven and earth becomes insufficient, and the suction force begins to transform the body's own essence into true energy for its own use.

"No wonder this lightness skill can increase true qi, and it can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. If the supply from heaven and earth is insufficient, it will automatically refine essence into qi."

After trying it out, Su Yuchen became increasingly convinced that these martial arts techniques couldn't have been created by Xiaoyaozi. Unless he was an ancient monster who had lived for hundreds or thousands of years, and had experienced a period when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was flourishing.

Su Yuchen sat in the stone chamber all night until the next day when the sun shone through the crystal holes into the archway.

"Are you happy?" This was the scene that greeted Wang Yuyan as she walked out with a long sword inlaid with jewels after waking up.

Su Yuchen closed the scroll and said with a smile, "The harvest is great, much greater than I imagined."

Then, his gaze shifted, and he asked, "If there were a martial art that could grant you immortality, would you be willing to learn it?"

Wang Yuyan glanced at him, then turned and said, "If you really have such martial arts skills, the number of people who want to become your disciple would be countless, and even the royal family would have to support you. However, I'm afraid that even more people would want to kill you."

Su Yuchen smiled and said, "I'll teach you once I've learned it."

As they were speaking, a series of rustling footsteps approached from the cave entrance. The next moment, a voice rang out: "Is anyone there? I am Duan Yu. I have come uninvited, please forgive me!"

Su Yuchen said loudly, "Young Master Duan, please come in!"

Immediately afterwards, a series of hurried footsteps approached. Duan Yu cried out in pain, probably having accidentally bumped into something, and appeared in the archway clutching his forehead.

Upon seeing the two figures, one sitting and one standing, beneath the pearl, Duan Yu revealed a look of surprise and delight.

He first looked at Su Yuchen, feeling that he had an extraordinary temperament, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what made him extraordinary. He just felt that he was otherworldly and not like an ordinary person. Then he looked at Wang Yuyan and was amazed. He felt that this was the fairy of Gusha.

"On Mount Miaoguye, there dwells a divine being, whose skin is like ice and snow, and whose grace is like that of a maiden." Duan Yu muttered a string of literary phrases, then realized what he meant and repeatedly cupped his hands in apology, saying, "I am Duan Yu, and I apologize for my rudeness."

Su Yuchen waved his hand and said, "Young Master Duan, you are too kind. We are just staying here temporarily. The owner of this place is someone else."

Duan Yu nodded, unsure whether to believe him or not, and asked, "May I ask how you two intend to leave this place? I have other important matters to attend to, and since lives are at stake, it is not appropriate for me to linger here."

Su Yuchen shook his head and said, "The owner of this place left two tests. You must learn the martial arts she left behind in order to leave. If Young Master Duan is in a hurry, you might as well take a look first."

As he spoke, he placed his finger on the stone table, and a gentle breeze blew, revealing a reclining figure on the table. He pointed and said, "This is a method of internal energy cultivation."

He then pointed to the messy footprints on the ground and said, "These footprints are three inches thick, and they represent a kind of lightness skill. As long as you can learn these two martial arts, you can leave this place."

Duan Yu shook his head and said, "Learning martial arts means fighting and killing, which goes against the teachings of the sages. I have never wanted to learn martial arts."

Su Yuchen stood up and said, "If I can't learn it, I'm afraid I won't be able to leave here."

Duan Yu shook his head, looked around, and saw the stone door behind Su Yuchen on his left. He immediately cupped his hands and said, "Since you two are not the owners of this place, I will explore on my own and may be able to find the exit. I will definitely inform you when I find it."

"Please do as you please, young master." Su Yuchen nodded, gesturing for Wang Yuyan to walk out of the cave together.

Watching the two walk away, Duan Yu shook his head and pushed the stone door hard, but found that he couldn't open it no matter what he did. Then he thought for a moment and looked down at the vicinity of the stone door, trying to find any mechanisms.

………………

"Why did you have to tease that Young Master Duan?" Wang Yuyan asked calmly as they arrived outside the cave.

Su Yuchen smiled and said something that puzzled her: "Those were originally his opportunities. If he doesn't take them, I'll worry that something might come up and cause trouble for us."

Wang Yuyan frowned at him, waiting for his explanation. Su Yuchen smiled, turned around and walked to the lakeside. He pressed down with his right hand, and a muffled sound was heard from the lake. Several fish floated to the surface, belly up.

After processing the fish, Su Yuchen chopped some firewood, built a fire under a tree, and with a wave of his right hand, a flame appeared out of thin air and lit the fire.

"A Tibetan Flame Blade. Hmm? No, that doesn't seem right." Wang Yuyan thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"Fish? Young Master, you can catch fish?" Before Su Yuchen could speak, a voice filled with surprise rang out. It was Duan Yu who came out of the cave.

Su Yuchen waved his hand and asked, "Young Master Duan, would you like some?"

Duan Yu rubbed his stomach sheepishly, but he couldn't refuse, so he cupped his hands and said, "Then I'll trouble you. Thank you, brother. May I ask your names and where you're from? I am Duan Yu from Dali."

Su Yuchen nodded and said, "My name is Su Yuchen, and I am from Suzhou. This young lady's surname is Wang, and she is from Gusu."

Duan Yu nodded: "So it's Young Master Su and Miss Wang."

"Has Young Master Duan found a way out?" Su Yuchen asked.

Duan Yu shook his head: "That stone door can't be pushed open; there must be some kind of mechanism."

Su Yuchen nodded...

"Young Master Duan might as well take a look at those two martial arts, one an internal energy cultivation technique and the other a lightness skill. Even if you want to hurt someone, it might not be easy, but it can be used to escape."

"Moreover, if Young Master Duan is not in a hurry, you might as well wait two days. I will soon be able to decipher those two martial arts techniques, and then I can open the stone door just the same way."

"That's right! If I use it to escape and not fight people, what can't I learn?" Duan Yu's eyes lit up as he muttered to himself.

After eating the fish, Duan Yu rested for a while before returning to the stone chamber to study the martial arts left behind by Su Yuchen. Wang Yuyan watched his retreating figure and shook her head. She stood to the side, pondered for a moment, and then began to practice the footwork, following the sequence of the Lingbo Weibu (Lingbo Steps).

However, as a beginner in martial arts, she inevitably stumbled and fell while learning. If she accidentally stepped out of place, she would tumble down. So she had to get up and continue to think.

Su Yuchen ignored her and let her ponder on her own.

Chapter 307 Burning the Liao Camp

Su Yuchen settled down at the bottom of the valley, and the conflict on the Song-Liao border was coming to an end.

Meanwhile, after the various factions of the Central Plains gathered the Beggars' Sect members and arrived at Yanmen Pass, they assisted the Yanmen Pass garrison commander in defending the pass and resisting the Liao army, while also launching a surprise attack under the cover of darkness.

Qiao Feng and martial arts masters from various Shaolin sects infiltrated the Liao army camp under cover of night. They harassed the Liao soldiers relentlessly, using methods such as setting fires and poisoning, keeping them awake at night. Because they were all highly skilled fighters, the Liao army eventually found themselves helpless against them, and their morale inevitably declined.

On the very night that Su Yuchen and his companion arrived at Wuliang Mountain, various factions gathered at the Beggars' Sect camp. Qiao Feng pointed to the narrow canyon outside the city marked on the map...

"Gentlemen, after this period of harassment, the Liao army's food supplies are running low and they must be replenished. The only way to transport the supplies is through the narrow pass."

"The Liao people also knew this, and they would definitely send heavy troops to guard the valley to prevent their logistics and supplies from being attacked."

"Now that the imperial reinforcements are late in arriving and the garrison inside the pass has suffered heavy losses, I'm afraid they can't hold out for long."

"Therefore, I decided to strike first and attack the Liao army camp tonight, setting fire to the grain and forcing the Liao people to transport grain over as soon as possible."

"At that time, we will secretly attack both sides of the canyon, occupy the high ground, and as soon as the Liao army's grain transport troops arrive, we will immediately cut the canyon with rolling logs and rocks, set fire to the canyon, and force the Liao people to retreat."

"However, the garrison is responsible for defending the city walls and cannot fight alongside us; we must rely on ourselves. I wonder if any of you have joined me in attacking the Liao army's camp tonight and setting fire to their camp?"

The martial arts practitioners present nodded in agreement. Master Xuanbei of Shaolin stepped forward and said, "To attack the Liao army camp, one must first be highly skilled in martial arts and agile, so as not to be surrounded by the Liao army's formation; secondly, the number of people should not be too large, so as to prevent the Liao army's scouts from noticing and causing the attack to fail."

Qiao Feng nodded and said, "Then I will lead five brothers to go together. If the supplies catch fire, we will retreat immediately."

Several members of the Xuan generation from Shaolin Temple nodded, and Xuanbei said, "The three of us will go with Hero Qiao, while Junior Brother Xuankong will lead the Shaolin disciples and the heroes will provide support from behind."

At this moment, a man with a full beard stepped out from the crowd and stood in the center of the tent, saying, "I am confident in my martial arts skills, so I will go with you all."

Qiao Feng's eyes flashed; seeing that the man's lightness skill was not weak, he nodded in agreement, thus making a total of five people. Just then, footsteps were heard outside the tent, and then a Song general in armor walked in; it was the garrison commander of Yanmen Pass.