Harvest

Xiang Yang knew nothing of the wildly differing thoughts among the constables at the County Yamen. Right now, he was racing home at full speed, feeling rather impatient.

Whether it was the Divine Steps Shifting Form he had gained by completing the task issued by the Wordless Book, or the Basic Breathing Technique and Tiger Subduing Fist manual he had gotten from Jia Kui, all of them left his heart itching with anticipation.

After shutting the redwood gate of his little courtyard, Xiang Yang did not even bother eating. He plunged straight into the house, took the treasured fist manual and Breathing Technique mental method from his robes, and laid them on the table, his face alight with delight and his eyes shining.

This day had left Xiang Yang with the feeling that a lifetime had passed.

He had thought that his first day on duty would pass without a ripple—patrolling the streets peacefully, collecting money, eating, and going home. Yet an accident had dragged him into a major case that Wang Ying and the veteran constables were doggedly pursuing.

That alone would have been one thing, but he had also received a task from the heavenly book and obtained clues about Qian Fu from Jia Kui, preliminarily locking down his next target.

Every single event had been more exciting than what an ordinary person might experience in a whole year. Xiang Yang had to admit that he was beginning to like this thrilling life.

Sitting beside the wooden table, Xiang Yang closed his eyes and focused all his mind and energy on the Divine Steps Shifting Form issued by the Wordless Book. He pondered every word and sentence, studying the characteristics, essentials, and explanations of the art. His heart grew ever more tranquil and joyful.

Lightness skill was a major branch of martial arts, with its emphasis on lower-body training. If mastered, it greatly improved one's safety and ability to preserve one's life.

Generally speaking, lightness skills included leaping techniques for long-distance travel, movement techniques for dodging and shifting during battle, footwork that complemented upper-body martial arts, and more. Each had its own focus, though some martial arts possessed several such qualities at once.

The Divine Steps Shifting Form, for instance, was a superior lightness skill. It had three realms. The first, Feet Oiled Like Grease, was a leaping technique for long-distance travel. The second, Gecko Climbing Walls, and the third, Loach Burrowing Technique, combined movement techniques and footwork rather than separating them. They were far more profound than leaping techniques like Skimming Over Grass that were common in the martial world.

Of course, martial arts classifications were more complicated than that. The Hu Family Saber Technique Xiang Yang currently excelled in was a saber art, yet it also contained matching movement techniques and footwork. Taken separately, they were nothing special, but when used alongside the saber technique, their effectiveness rose sharply.

All in all, the Divine Steps Shifting Form was the deepest and most mysterious martial art Xiang Yang had encountered so far. Even the Hu Family Saber Technique was slightly inferior to it.

Xiang Yang reckoned that if he mastered all three levels of the Divine Steps Shifting Form and faced Qian Fu head-on, he might not be able to defeat him, but he would certainly be able to escape—unless Qian Fu possessed a lightness skill even stronger than the Divine Steps Shifting Form.

The only regret was that this lightness skill belonged to the internal school of martial arts. The deeper one's internal force, the greater its power. In other words, apart from brute strength, Xiang Yang currently had nothing. Training in the Divine Steps Shifting Form would not be completely useless, but its effects would not be as great as he had imagined.

"This third level, the Loach Burrowing Technique, is rather interesting. If one's internal force is deep, one can remain invincible, rotating and vibrating away the force of incoming attacks. Without internal force, one must learn to control one's clothing and muscles, which can still produce a weakened version of the effect."

This was neither recorded in the technique itself nor something Xiang Yang had comprehended. It was a trick and training method mentioned in the explanatory notes.

His eyes burning with eagerness, Xiang Yang rose from his chair and stepped aside. After thinking it over, he began crossing his feet within an area of one square meter, as though dancing the waltz. Meanwhile, his upper body trembled, his arms, shoulders, chest, and abdomen all quivering as he used inhalation and exhalation to shake his flesh.

Only after quite some time, when sweat had formed on his face, did Xiang Yang stop his devilish dance steps. He returned to his chair, half sprawled across the table, poured himself a large cup of water, and gulped it down. Only then did he have the leisure to review the method he had just practiced.

"It looks like I practiced it correctly. Without an opponent, I can't yet see the exact results, but it should basically offset forty percent of the force in Jia Kui's Tiger Subduing Fist. It can't be too far off."

Only a person could truly understand himself. Although it was Xiang Yang's first time practicing the Divine Steps Shifting Form, he had achieved quite a bit. He could be said to understand it as soon as he learned it, and become skilled as soon as he understood it.

Xiang Yang's natural comprehension was good, but more importantly, the Wordless Book had thoroughly analyzed the martial art before passing it on to him. It was as though it had ground it to powder, chewed it to pieces, and only then fed it to him. It was even more effective than being taught by a master. So long as he was neither reckless nor stupid, he would be able to make something of it.

After resting for a while, Xiang Yang turned his gaze to the two martial arts manuals on the table. Both would be of great use to him.

First was the Tiger Subduing Fist. It was the secret art of the Fierce Tiger Martial Arts Hall and also the foundational entry-level fist art of White Jade Temple. In all of Anyuan County, including the dead Jia Kui, fewer than five people could use it. Among them, aside from Old Hero Qian, the one who had trained it best was Qian Fu, Xiang Yang's number-one enemy.

There was a saying: know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. It applied to warfare and demonstrated the importance of intelligence and information.

Now that Xiang Yang had obtained the Tiger Subduing Fist, he wanted to find weaknesses in Qian Fu's martial arts through it. At the very least, he wanted to seize the initiative in battle.

For example, if an enemy used Hungry Tiger Pouncing on Prey, Xiang Yang would know full well where the technique generated and exerted force. Dealing with it—or even counterattacking—would become much calmer and easier.

Taking a step back, even if the Tiger Subduing Fist could not help Xiang Yang deal with Qian Fu, learning it would bring only benefits and no harm.

Xiang Yang currently possessed four martial arts: the Iron Crotch Technique, Iron Finger Technique, Hu Family Saber Technique, and Divine Steps Shifting Form. Yet without the Wild Goose Feather Saber, most of his combat strength would be cut away. He would be no different from the rough men in the gangs, leaving him with a glaring weakness.

The Iron Finger Technique merely focused on tempering the index and middle fingers until one cultivated the technique's internal breath. It had no accompanying finger techniques at all. He knew nothing about striking acupoints or severing meridians, and it could only display tremendous power when paired with other exquisite finger arts. It was little more than a chicken rib—tasteless to eat, a pity to discard.

Therefore, learning the Tiger Subduing Fist, even without an internal cultivation method to increase strength and nourish the body, would be enough to make up for Xiang Yang's weakness in unarmed combat. He would not turn into a worthless weakling the moment he set aside the Wild Goose Feather Saber.

After studying the fist manual closely for quite a while, Xiang Yang sat on the wooden stool, clenched his fists, and repeatedly demonstrated several moves. Though his strikes whistled with the force of a tiger and carried astonishing might, he still felt unable to grasp the true key to the Tiger Subduing Fist. His expression dimmed slightly, and he felt somewhat disappointed.

"It seems my astonishing progress in martial arts before this—understanding them as soon as I learned them—was not because I was a heaven-sent genius with extraordinary comprehension. It was because of the heavenly book's help.

"Now that the Tiger Subduing Fist has no help from the heavenly book, it has immediately knocked me back to my original form. Looking over it once, I can only comprehend twenty percent of its essence."

From what he could tell, the Tiger Subduing Fist was not especially profound. Its every move followed a fierce and forceful path, its punches ancient and unadorned, without excessive flashy tricks. Under normal circumstances, a genius should be able to learn seventy or eighty percent of it after seeing it once.

He was overthinking it. Every martial art was the crystallization of the wisdom of those who came before. To comprehend twenty percent of its mysteries merely by reading the fist manual once, without the Wordless Book's help, already counted as exceptional comprehension.

Letting out a long breath, Xiang Yang set down the fist manual and unfolded the Basic Breathing Technique, which consisted of only two sheets of paper. His eyes gleamed. The most precious thing naturally had to be saved for last. In his eyes, the Basic Breathing Technique was even more valuable than the Divine Steps Shifting Form and Tiger Subduing Fist, because it was a martial art capable of cultivating internal force.