Bone-Unraveling Technique

"Hm?" Lu Ming frowned slightly as he spotted two people surrounding one in the forest from afar.

He thought for a moment, then turned and circled around to leave.

Within the Military Service Bureau, disciples from martial arts families and commoners were both considered disciples, yet their actual status was worlds apart.

For commoners, this experience in the Military Service Bureau was likely the closest they would ever come to the upper class in their lives.

People like Zhu Ming would seize the opportunity to curry favor with the powerful.

Various small cliques emerged endlessly in the Military Service Bureau. Though the two men wore gray training uniforms, who knew which powerful figure stood behind them?

He had no connection to the person being surrounded, so there was no need to invite trouble. Besides, without knowing the full picture, he couldn't judge—who was to say which side was good and which was bad?

In the forest.

Li Hu, with his honest, simple face, looked nervously at the tall and short men surrounding him and said:

"You can't find an ant nest? I can help you find it. Tomorrow, I'll find it for you tomorrow."

The tall man nodded with satisfaction and patted Li Hu on the shoulder.

"No need to be nervous. Young Master Shen is a good man. If you help him find the ant nest, you'll surely be rewarded. Maybe you'll even get a chance to reach Three Breaths Nine Echoes with that reward!"

Li Hu quickly nodded. "Yes, yes."

The tall man gave a slight smile, his triangular eyes glancing at the anxious expression on Li Hu's face and the cold sweat on his forehead, then looking down at Li Hu's feet.

Beneath Li Hu's feet was a small pile of dirt, as if he had been digging something and hastily filled it back in. But the fresh yellow soil was very conspicuous.

The tall man's eyes flickered, and he suddenly said:

"Young Master Shen needs it urgently. Don't wait until tomorrow. Go find it now."

"Huh?" Li Hu froze, instinctively glancing at the pile of dirt under his feet, then hurriedly averted his gaze and said, "The sun's almost down now. It'll be hard to find anything!"

The tall man frowned. "There's still some time. As an expert at finding things in the wild, how could you not find it? Hurry up, Young Master Shen needs it urgently."

The short man pushed Li Hu. "Hurry up. If we wait any longer, the sun will be down."

Li Hu stumbled, nearly falling, and turned back to see the short man pushing him to leave, while the tall man stood on the pile of dirt with no sign of moving.

Li Hu lunged forward and said, "Wait, I dropped something here."

"What are you doing!" The short man suddenly grabbed Li Hu from behind.

The tall man's eyes turned fierce, and he clenched his fist, ready to strike.

Suddenly, a voice came from outside the forest:

"Li Hu, I need to talk to you about something."

The tall man stopped abruptly and turned to see a person walking in from outside the forest. His clean white training uniform gleamed brightly in the setting sun.

The tall man frowned deeply. White training uniform! Lu Ming!

He sighed inwardly, quickly slapped away the short man's hands holding Li Hu, gave him a look, then stepped forward respectfully and said:

"Senior Brother Lu, you know Li Hu? We were just messing around with him. Since Senior Brother Lu has business with Li Hu, we'll be on our way."

He immediately dragged the short man away.

Li Hu stared blankly at the scene, then hurried forward and said:

"Senior... Senior Brother Lu."

"Hm." Lu Ming was also somewhat surprised inwardly. He hadn't expected that his white training uniform alone would scare off those two.

He had only said he needed to talk to Li Hu, and they didn't dare say another word.

Hearing them call him Senior Brother Lu, he felt a secret thrill. Usually, he was the one calling others senior brother or senior sister. Now, he had finally become a senior brother himself.

He said aloud, "If you have nothing to do, just stay in your own courtyard. Then nothing will happen."

"Yes, Senior Brother Lu." Li Hu said, watching as Lu Ming turned and prepared to leave without hesitation, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

Then, after hesitating for a moment, he stepped forward to block him and said:

"Senior Brother Lu, wait. I have something I want to give you."

Lu Ming turned around in confusion. "Give me something?"

Li Hu nodded, then turned and crouched down by the pile of dirt, digging with both hands a few times.

Suddenly, he seemed to grab something, pulled outward with force, and the ground bulged as he dragged out a somewhat deformed box.

Li Hu's eyes lit up. "This is a lead box! Whatever's inside must be valuable."

He waved his hand to brush the dirt off the lead box, revealing its grayish-white surface, and quickly opened it.

Instantly, a mix of old ink and musty air rushed out.

Inside the lead box was a book, with three characters written on it: Bone-Unraveling Technique.

Li Hu took the book out and handed it to Lu Ming, saying:

"I'm good at finding things. I knew something was buried here as soon as I saw it. Didn't expect it to be a book."

"This must have been buried by a former Military Service Bureau disciple. No idea why it's here."

"Senior Brother Lu, this is what I wanted to give you. Take it."

Lu Ming took the book. It felt damp and cool in his hands, but it was well-preserved, the handwriting clear. He flipped through it casually, then suddenly his eyes lit up and his heart pounded.

This Bone-Unraveling Technique was mainly a book about the various bones of the human body. The key point was that it contained techniques for striking the human body through the gaps between bones.

And it included a finger technique cultivation method!

This was extremely useful to him.

Because the Divine Ability Panel had another trait: the more similar-type techniques you learned, the faster you could evolve divine abilities.

And finger techniques had a lot to do with acupoints!

Earlier, he'd felt it would be hard to learn new finger techniques at his current stage, so he hadn't held out much hope. He never expected to obtain one here.

Of course, while learning techniques of the same type could increase experience-gathering efficiency, the prerequisite was that the techniques' core principles had to be different.

After all, if he could pile up acupoint experience just by learning a bunch of low-grade acupoint techniques, that would be far too unreasonable.

He skimmed through it roughly and felt that the finger techniques in this Bone-Unraveling Technique were different from the striking methods of the Nine Palace Living Stakes. There was a good chance it could speed up the evolution of his Acupoint Divine Ability!

He asked Li Hu, "You're really giving me this secret manual?"

Li Hu nodded and said:

"Senior Brother Lu helped me just now, so of course I have to repay kindness. Besides, this book is useless to me.

"Maybe I'm really not cut out to be a martial artist.

"Perhaps I'm just destined to be a herb gatherer."

Lu Ming heard this and felt fortunate that he'd entered the woods earlier.

He'd been about to leave when a sudden gust of wind let him faintly catch the tall man saying "ant nest" and "Young Master Shen."

Since it involved the ant nest matter, it was related to him—after all, he'd brought it up. So he'd turned back to take a look.

He never expected that just by walking over, he'd obtain a finger technique secret manual without any effort.

He put away the manual. Seeing Li Hu's somewhat dejected expression, he thought for a moment and asked:

"How far are you from Three Breaths Nine Echoes now?"

Li Hu scratched his head and said, "I just feel like learning martial arts is so hard. Those nine stakes confuse me. I can only manage Five Breaths Nine Echoes."

Lu Ming's heart stirred. Five Breaths Nine Echoes? Wasn't that the same as before he'd evolved the Heaven Leak Divine Ability? This aptitude wasn't bad!

Although Li Hu might have used some healing medicine, meaning his actual training time was probably a bit longer than Lu Ming's.

But Li Hu himself said he couldn't figure out the nine stakes, which was why he could only do Five Breaths Nine Echoes.

Lu Ming pondered, then suddenly glanced at the pit in the ground and said:

"You're good at finding things, aren't you? You should be good at finding paths too.

"Anyway, don't think of the Nine Palace Living Stakes as martial arts. Think of it as a maze. You need to find the shortest route to hit all nine red dots and get out."

Li Hu's eyes widened slightly. "Can you do it that way?"

Lu Ming didn't know if it would work either, but it was the only method he could think of.

"Better than nothing!"

At that moment, a faint "clack clack" sound came from afar—the public kitchen was serving food!

"Come on, let's eat first."

Lu Ming and Li Hu left the woods, ate at the public kitchen, then returned to their respective small courtyards.

The sky had long since darkened. Night had fallen. Lu Ming lit a lamp in his room and heard someone nearby still practicing with a steady "thump thump thump." He shook his head slightly.

Overdoing training would only harm the body—the gain wouldn't be worth the loss.

But although he couldn't train today, he wasn't in a hurry to sleep. Instead, he eagerly took out the Bone-Unraveling Technique and read it carefully by lamplight.

He skipped over the long passages describing human bones. Because he had the Heaven Leak Divine Ability, he could see anyone's weaknesses at a glance—he didn't need this.

But as he kept flipping pages, nearing the finger technique cultivation method, he suddenly noticed a passage at the end of the bone section:

"Legend has it that the human body has acupoints, involving many mysteries. They appear and disappear according to the hour and the flow of qi and blood, without fixed pattern.

"It is said that in ancient times, there was a lineage that used this as its foundation.

"Unfortunately, that lineage's fortune was exhausted, and it vanished into the long river of history. Since then, no one has been able to restore the glory of this path."

The human body's acupoints in this world moved according to the hour and the flow of qi and blood? Without fixed pattern?

No wonder the Military Service Bureau taught martial arts by focusing on bones and weak points when striking key areas of wooden dummies, never mentioning acupoints.

And there had been an ancient martial lineage involving acupoints, but its fortune was exhausted and it vanished?

Seeing this passage, Lu Ming felt a quiet regret. If it had been passed down, there would probably be many more finger technique martial arts today.

As it was, this Bone-Unraveling Technique wasn't really a finger technique martial art either. Based on its content, he guessed it was written by a physician.

But that was fine too.

Lu Ming suddenly thought that this way, his Heaven Leak Divine Ability would be even more concealed. After all, the acupoint tradition had been extinguished, so others would be less likely to think along those lines when considering problems.

He then suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind and carefully examined the finger techniques section of the Bone-Unraveling Technique.

This passage was only a few hundred words, plus illustrations. After an hour, Lu Ming had memorized it and began practicing the postures against the air.

Once he was familiar with it, he could try using this finger technique to strike the wooden board tomorrow.

However, although he himself believed the finger techniques were closely related to acupoints, whether the Divine Ability Panel would recognize them was another matter.

He could only try it out tomorrow.

Lu Ming practiced the gestures while facing the candle on the table, secretly looking forward to it.

"Fingers like a gale, momentum like lightning!"

Lu Ming's silhouette cast on the window practiced the acupoint-pointing posture. The lamplight flickered slightly, as if brushed by the finger wind, and then a soft laugh came from inside the room.