"Starting today, you're an initiate of Hongsheng."
Old Liang's face broke into a gratified smile, as though a long-cherished wish had finally come true and a crushing burden had been lifted from his shoulders.
"By the old rules, we should have served tea and kowtowed, sent out invitations, and held a banquet to mark the founding of the sect.
"Since Eastern Xia has adopted a new calendar, we can skip all those formalities and keep things simple.
"Tonight, I'll take you to offer incense and kowtow before the ancestral tablets. Then it'll be official."
Hongsheng?
That sounded like quite a name!
Qin Shi's eyelid twitched. Was it some old martial arts sect?
He read a lot of books outside class. In his recollection, there was a book of unofficial history called Tales of the Jianghu that mentioned all sorts of strange and fascinating tales from the Martial Arts World.
For example, countless sects stood in opposition between north and south, their branches spreading far and wide and entangling generations in endless feuds and vendettas...
In short, back in the heyday of Old Martial Arts, people placed enormous importance on "status" and "orthodoxy." They would go so far as to draw blades and shed blood, or even become mortal enemies for generations.
That was why, to the major sects, the plaque and the name it bore carried such weight.
They couldn't just claim a prestigious name and take on disciples whenever they pleased.
Without the skills to back it up, they wouldn't last a day before someone came to smash their sign and drive them out of the region.
"You're young, but you've got a lot on your mind. You think too much. If Hongsheng were some great sect, the Martial Arts Association would've absorbed it and offered it an official position long ago. Why would it have ended up in the hands of a cripple like me?"
Watching Qin Shi's imagination run wild, Old Liang sighed helplessly.
"In the early days, the Martial Arts World was a mixed bag, with the good and the bad all jumbled together. To establish themselves and attract disciples, people tried to claim illustrious lineages and adopt impressive names.
"Most of them latched onto ancient 'sacred sites' with long, almost mythical histories, such as Shaoshi and Zhenwu.
"But it's like burning incense and praying to Buddha. The Buddha and the Daoist Patriarch are so exalted that believers feel their prayers might not be answered, so they'd rather visit a small temple.
"Among all those small temples, Hongmen, Qingmen, and Daomen were the most prominent.
"Hongsheng was a branch of Hongmen with the character 'Sheng' in its name. Its seniority wasn't especially high or low, and it didn't produce any particularly outstanding heroes or talents."
Qin Shi scratched his head, still reluctant to give up.
"Master Liang, when the Martial Arts Association absorbed the various sects back then, didn't our Hongsheng ancestors make any progress?
"Couldn't they at least have gotten a branch chairman's post, or become a president or honorary committee member? Then their disciples and grand-disciples could've benefited too!"
Since he was properly apprenticing himself to a master, he naturally hoped to find a powerful backer and save himself twenty years of hard work!
"Hmm, now that you mention it, I do remember something."
Old Liang slapped his forehead, his voice suddenly rising.
Qin Shi was overjoyed at this reaction.
"Master Liang, what did you remember?"
He rubbed his hands together impatiently, ready to latch on to a powerful backer.
"Our Hongsheng does have someone in the Martial Arts Association!"
"Who? Please, Master Liang, tell me more!"
Old Liang deliberately took his time, dawdling for a while before finally answering.
"Your master, me. I'm a member of the Hengzhou Martial Arts Association branch, and I even have an honorary certificate."
Once I earned my rank, I could get one too!
Qin Shi's mouth twitched. Old Liang was messing with him!
"So Hongsheng has nothing left but you, Master Liang, as its mainstay, and me as its lone disciple?"
"Young man, keep your feet on the ground. Don't dream of leaping straight to the top. Hongmen used to be a major sect with tremendous influence, at the height of its power. That much is true.
"But no matter how powerful a Martial Artist is, can he stand up to guns?
"How do you think the Martial Arts Association was established? How do you think it brought all those arrogant, unruly toughs under control—the ones whose Life Force had all broken through the several-hundred-point mark?
"These lawless men would've dared to assassinate emperors and rebel against the throne in the Old Era. They wouldn't have settled down without a beating!"
It felt great to take on a disciple!
Old Liang laughed heartily. He'd been itching to tell these old stories for ages, and now he could finally let them all out at once.
"Ancient sacred sites like Shaoshi and Zhenwu, which had stood for millennia, at least knew how to behave. They voluntarily acknowledged that their farmland, temples, and monasteries belonged to the public, and handed over some of their martial arts techniques. So nothing much came of it.
"As for Hongmen, Qingmen, and Daomen, why didn't they make a fuss? Because their leaders refused to cooperate at first. The next day, they were all branded criminal organizations and placed on wanted lists.
"That very night, warships entered the spaceport, and the third and largest-ever high-intensity counterterrorism exercise began."
Qin Shi's heart trembled.
This wasn't a crackdown on crime turning into counterterrorism. It was more like confiscating their property and exterminating their entire clans!
Had those leaders lost their minds?
Or had they been throwing their weight around for so long that they couldn't tell who was really in charge?
How dare they provoke the will of the state?
Eastern Xia's new calendar covered nine millennia in total, six of which had been spent launching Great Expeditions and Great Reclamations to expand its territory and borders.
A regime this militarily powerful, practically on the verge of unifying half the galaxy—
How could a bunch of gangland bosses possibly afford to provoke it?
"In about fourteen hours, they wiped out every branch with less than a fifth of their forces. A few old-timers who were only half a step away from becoming Martial Gods put up a stubborn resistance, but two hundred Divine Mecha suits trampled them to death.
"Of course, Marshal Yang showed them special mercy. He spared some of the hardened members who abandoned their evil ways and gave them seats as honorary committee members at the Martial Arts Association's central headquarters. They were even allowed to keep their signs and run schools."
Old Liang's few casual words painted a picture of bloodshed and chaos in the Martial Arts World.
From another perspective, it could even be called an "apocalyptic calamity"!
"They managed to hold out for over ten hours, so they must've had some real strength. No wonder they were so arrogant.
"But I still can't help thinking they'd been cursed or something. What made them think their arms could take on a leg?"
Qin Shi muttered to himself. The names and deeds of the Nine Great Marshals were written in history textbooks, and their battle records were illustrious. Every one of them was a Martial God.
Not to mention the elite soldiers stationed on all the ancient planets, each one fierce as could be.
The New Martial Arts were particularly far ahead in human augmentation. It was said that colonels and above could choose to undergo "glorious evolution" once or even several times, such as by transplanting additional heart and lung organs.
A terrifying War Machine like that surpassed so-called Martial Artists in every way, whether in Life Force or combat prowess.
They weren't even in the same league!
"Master Liang, our Hongsheng lineage doesn't have some blood feud that means we have to overthrow Eastern Xia and restore Hongmen, right?
"If that's the case, we can forget about the apprenticeship. I haven't served tea yet, so it doesn't count."
Qin Shi asked cautiously, taking the opportunity to sound him out.
"By the way, is there a reward for reporting them?"
He was a law-abiding citizen of Eastern Xia through and through.
He couldn't let himself get branded as an "Old Martial Arts remnant" or a "Hongmen holdover."
"If I were part of a Hongmen criminal gang, would I have gotten a job at a Cadre School? It's a government position. The Education Committee and the Martial Arts Association both had to approve me."
Old Liang chuckled. This kid changed his tune faster than the pages of a book—and was even thinking of trading him in for a commendation pennant.
Then the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes relaxed.
Well, that's good. At least he's more adaptable and ambitious than I was.
"I told the students at my tutoring class there'd be no lessons today. Now that we've established our master-disciple relationship, it's time I showed you something real and let you see the power of Old Martial Arts."
Old Liang stood and hobbled down the steps.
Qin Shi hurried over to help him, putting on the persona of an attentive, dutiful disciple.
"Master Liang, what peerless techniques does our Hongsheng sect have? Don't keep them hidden.
"Bring them out quickly so your disciple can train hard and make a name for himself!"
Old Liang corrected his disciple's misconception again and took the chance to explain.
"You need to understand one thing: those so-called divine techniques and secret arts are useless to most people. That's one reason Old Martial Arts was replaced by New Martial Arts.
"Old Era martial arts novels often used plots about falling off cliffs and stumbling upon treasures. Most of that was just nonsense for outsiders.
"Any kind of advancement or transformation has to start with Life Force. It's the core of everything.
"Martial God Ning Yuanhai's True Scripture of All Ages is on the fifth basement level of the Imperial Capital National Museum. If you book two months in advance, you might get a chance to see the original, though direct contact is forbidden.
"But think about it. Martial God Ning donated his life's work for free. Why hasn't a single successor appeared in all these years?"
Qin Shi was taken aback. Old Liang seemed to make a good point.
This wasn't the ancient era, when great clans and noble families treated their lineages as their lifeblood and hoarded them jealously.
Top schools like the Four Great National Universities could even use the First Generation Ten Prodigies' manuscripts and secret manuals as textbooks.
"The reason is simple. Life Force is the biggest hurdle."
Old Liang left the school. He didn't have any cigarettes in his pocket, so he had Qin Shi buy him a pack of Limin.
"Take amateur ranks as an example. The entry-level rank is ninth, and the passing mark is around nine to twelve points.
"But the more advanced the martial arts textbooks, and the more exceptional the techniques, the more they demand from the people practicing them.
"In other words, the bar is extremely high."
Qin Shi knew the drill and bought a pack of Huazi as usual. As he lit the cigarette, he asked, "How high?"
Old Liang took a couple of puffs, his eyes filled with the weight of age.
"To enter Ning Yuanhai's True Scripture of All Ages, you need to be twenty years old, hold amateur rank one, and have a Life Force above a hundred points."
Qin Shi's eyes twitched. The passing range for amateur rank one was clearly between fifty-nine and sixty-four points.
But Martial God Ning had nearly doubled that requirement. What kind of monstrous talent would it take to meet it?
Before you continue