Where Can You Practice Martial Arts Without Going Mad?

"The weather is cold. This humble woman invites the two young masters to take shelter from the wind at my humble abode!"

Shi Feizhe's vision blurred, and he saw the woman appear before the campfire like a ghost, repeating herself to them.

Though she was clearly so close, Shi Feizhe could not sense the aura of a living person from her.

The woman stared at them, especially Hua Xiaomei, as though she were gazing at a sumptuous feast. The longing in her eyes was practically spilling over.

It made every hair on Shi Feizhe's body stand on end! Fuck, did this world have ghosts too?

With a whoosh, Hua Xiaomei spread open his fan. On its face was a painting of a hundred flowers competing in splendor.

He waved the fan, sending a fragrant breeze toward the woman in white, then said seriously, "No."

The woman fell silent amid the fragrant breeze. Then, with several swift flashes, she retreated backward and vanished into the black curtain of night.

"What was that?" When Shi Feizhe saw the woman in white retreat, she had walked backward too, always facing them. A chill ran down his spine. What the hell was that thing?

A person? A ghost?

"A demoness! A demoness of the Heavenly Maiden Sect!" Hua Xiaomei snapped his fan shut with a clack and said, "Good thing she's only a demoness who has just entered the Dust Rejection Stage. Otherwise, she really would've been troublesome!"

"The Heavenly Maiden Sect?" Shi Feizhe repeated. "What's that?"

Hua Xiaomei glanced at Shi Feizhe. "Little brother, have you only just begun roaming the martial world?"

"I don't even count as someone of the martial world. How could I be considered to be roaming it?" Shi Feizhe shook his head.

"Once you enter the martial world, it is as deep as the sea; whether you wish it or not, you become one of its people." Hua Xiaomei sighed, then continued, "The Heavenly Maiden Sect is a peculiar sect. It only accepts female disciples."

"Oh?" Shi Feizhe looked at Hua Xiaomei curiously. It seemed Hua Xiaomei knew quite a bit about this Heavenly Maiden Sect!

In this world, both men and women could become martial arts masters, so women's status was not all that low.

"The Heavenly Maiden Sect's unique secret manual, the Seven Treasures Glazed Sutra of Form and Formlessness, was originally passed down from Danse Temple. It teaches that between form and formlessness, the whole body becomes glazed and pure. Somehow, it ended up in the hands of a woman."

"Then she mastered it—and went mad!"

"Huh? You can go mad from practicing martial arts?" Shi Feizhe found it unbelievable.

"Where can you practice martial arts without going mad?" Hua Xiaomei said faintly.

"A martial arts lineage requires not only secret manuals, but also a master to teach in person and explain the manual. The dialects, technical terms, ambiguous words, and metaphors within must all be explained in detail before one can fully understand it. Only then does it count as a martial arts lineage."

"Every martial arts manual was written by a person. Since it was written by a person, it naturally carries that person's habits of speech and writing. The Nine Provinces are so vast that dialects alone are enough to give one a headache. Not to mention characters that sound the same but mean different things."

"The Seven Treasures Glazed Sutra of Form and Formlessness was written by monks of Danse Temple, and it uses a great many Buddhist expressions and metaphors. That woman did not understand any of them. She merely saw the manual and forcibly cultivated it."

Shi Feizhe felt a chill creep down his back as he listened.

Things like "dialects, technical terms, ambiguous words, metaphors"—when he had practiced the True Origin Sword Finger Technique, he had understood none of them.

It was like modern people reading the Tao Te Ching: they recognized every character, but did they understand what it meant?

Would he go mad too?

Thinking of all the dialect expressions from the internet in his previous life—things like "sticky packets," "solid, not bad," "chaoba," "gatepost," and "puk gai"—

This world surely had many words that seemed perfectly normal to locals but were incomprehensible elsewhere.

And as for interchangeable characters and simplified characters, there would be even more of those.

"Some martial arts manuals in the martial world are family heirlooms. The rest were compiled a thousand years ago during the Great Cai Dynasty, when the imperial court gathered the strength of the realm and pooled the wisdom of countless people. The wording in many manuals differs greatly from that of today," Hua Xiaomei said.

Cai had been the dynasty that unified the Nine Provinces a thousand years ago. Later, the dynasty fell, and the Nine Provinces entered an age of martial partition that had continued to this day.

"No wonder—where can you practice martial arts without going mad?" After hearing Hua Xiaomei's explanation, Shi Feizhe suppressed the question of whether he himself might go mad. Thinking it over carefully, he understood the other meaning behind those words.

Martial arts were the most direct path to breaking through one's class and gaining power. Once a martial artist gained power through martial arts, he would inevitably encrypt his own martial arts methods to ensure they were passed down to his children and disciples, allowing that power to endure.

In the ancient times of his previous life, officials studied for many years, and official documents had rules for wording and format. But in this chaotic martial world, where were such rules for writing and format? Martial arts manuals were written however their authors felt like writing them!

In the ancient times of his previous life, knowledge could be used to monopolize class status. Wasn't martial arts in this world also a kind of knowledge? Knowledge with power, at that!

It was practically an enhanced ancient imperial examination system. How could it not drive people mad?

In truth, most people in the martial world were beasts of burden like Shi Feizhe, yearning to practice martial arts and leap across the class divide.

So long as there was a martial arts manual—whether real or fake—someone would stake their life on cultivating it.

Given how difficult martial arts manuals were to inherit, the odds of cultivating oneself to death were extremely high.

And if such people did not die, they had probably cultivated themselves into something wrong.

Either their bodies had gone wrong, or their minds had!

This martial world was far too realistic, far too insane!

"No matter when it is, it's just too hard for beasts of burden to rise above the rest!" Having thought through all that, Shi Feizhe could not help sighing.

"Little brother speaks truly. Since ancient times, it has always been difficult to rise above the rest! After that woman went mad, she called herself the Glazed Pure Buddha Mother and founded the Heavenly Maiden Sect!" Hua Xiaomei returned to the topic of the Heavenly Maiden Sect and continued:

"The people of the Heavenly Maiden Sect believe that everything is outward form, and everything is also formless. To live in this world is to walk amid outward forms while dwelling within formlessness. That is why they do certain mad, hair-raising things."

"How mad?" Shi Feizhe asked.

"If they take a liking to a man, they invite him home. Then they make love with him day after day." Hua Xiaomei shot Shi Feizhe a sidelong glance as he spoke.

"Huh???" Shi Feizhe was shocked. "Are these people sick in the head?"

"They really are sick!" Hua Xiaomei nodded. "They say that if it's love, then you have to be together, never apart for even a second. They turn men into part of their power, so they can stay together for life after life."

"..."

That was way too deranged!

"So being together can be interpreted like that? Those crazy bitches are seriously sick!" Shi Feizhe said with lingering fear. "Brother Hua, thank you for saving my life!"

"Cough, cough..." Hua Xiaomei coughed awkwardly. "Actually, I should be the one who dragged you into this, little brother."

"How so?" Shi Feizhe asked.

"Those Heavenly Maiden Sect women may be crazy, but they don't just fancy anyone! A man like me has to protect himself properly when he's out and about!" Hua Xiaomei spread his hands.

"If it weren't for me, those Heavenly Maiden Sect demonesses might not have come looking for trouble with you, little brother."

"..."

Fuck you...

What good is it that you're more handsome than me?

You're handsome, and you still got tangled up with those crazy bitches from the Heavenly Maiden Sect!

Shi Feizhe cursed furiously in his heart!

What good is it that you're more handsome than me?