The Divine Art of Cowardice

The reality was laid out before him: on one side, those who made a name for themselves in their twenties or thirties; on the other, those who only achieved late success in their fifties or sixties. This was an easy choice to make.

Who in the martial arts world didn't want to become famous and be admired by thousands? If one could also attract the favor of heroines, that would be even more perfect.

According to the cultivation speed of the Mount Hua Mental Method, by the time one achieved great success, they would already be old and frail. No matter how one played the hero saving the beauty, all they would get was a line: "Thank you, Senior, for your great kindness. This little girl has nothing to repay you with, only in the next life..."

Clearly, Li Mu was never the type to be stubborn. After figuring out the special attributes of the Mount Hua Mental Method, he obediently took the first three levels of the Hunyuan Skill.

As a major power with a heritage spanning hundreds of years, the Mount Hua Sect naturally did not lack martial arts manuals, but truly top-tier techniques were few and far between. The most famous Purple Mist Divine Skill was exclusive to the sect leader's lineage, so naturally, it was not for Li Mu.

The reason for choosing the Hunyuan Skill was very simple: it was one of the most widely circulated internal mental methods of the Mount Hua Sect, and most Mount Hua disciples switched to it after breaking through to the second-rate realm.

Of course, he also made sure to copy the subsequent levels of the Mount Hua Mental Method.

People always have a kind of "mysterious confidence," and Li Mu also hoped that he would be the one favored most by the heavens.

Returning to his quarters, Li Mu immediately hung up a "Closed-door cultivation, do not disturb" sign and entered a mode of bitter training.

"Mysterious confidence" also requires a foundation. Li Mu's foundation was the Mysterious Jade Disc that had accompanied him through his transmigration.

The origin of the "Jade Disc" could not be verified for the time being. Regardless, when he transmigrated, the disc appeared in his mind.

Operating it was very simple; he could retract or manifest it with a single thought. So far, he had discovered two functions: deducing techniques and assisting in cultivation.

Many problems in cultivation were clearly laid out before his eyes under the assisted deduction of the Mysterious Jade Disc.

The bottlenecks in cultivation that gave countless martial artists headaches were easily solved in front of the Jade Disc. This was the reason Li Mu could quickly break through realms and catch up to the first tier of his fellow disciples.

Although the deduction ability of the Jade Disc was heaven-defying, it was not infinite. After many attempts, Li Mu discovered that the Jade Disc's deduction ability had to be based on a fixed blueprint.

Taking the Mount Hua Mental Method as an example, Li Mu had previously used the help of the Jade Disc to optimize the first four levels based on his own situation. If not for his lack of knowledge, he might have even been able to deduce the subsequent levels.

Li Mu had conducted an experiment: without using the Jade Disc's assistance, the cultivation speed of the modified technique increased by nearly fifty percent, and the purity of his internal energy also slightly improved.

If the Jade Disc's assistance was added, the effect was even more terrifying; the internal energy cultivation speed increased threefold.

However, this kind of deduced technique was more like a private customization. For Li Mu, this was the perfect technique that fit him best, but if given to others to practice, it would yield half the result with twice the effort, or even be worse than the original.

This was also the reason why many people held divine manuals but ended up practicing them into garbage. It wasn't that the divine techniques were bad; it was mainly that the person and the technique were not a match.

To solve this problem, the major sects in the martial arts world unanimously chose techniques with high universality as their mainstream heritage.

As for the divine manuals with high cultivation requirements, they were left to fate. If they encountered a suitable successor, it was good luck; if not, it didn't matter.

Under the assistance of the Jade Disc, after carefully studying the subsequent levels, Li Mu finally understood why the Mount Hua Mental Method had such a slow cultivation speed.

Essentially, this was a "survivalist technique." The first few levels were for building a foundation, so it wasn't obvious, but the later levels were truly a divine skill for the path of survival.

Perhaps because the founder was worried that disciples would cause trouble after learning martial arts, the later levels of the Mount Hua Mental Method were filled with the thick, Taoist philosophy of non-action.

Simply put, the fewer distracting thoughts one had, and the less one liked to compete, the more suitable one was for practicing this technique.

Theoretically, if one could maintain a heart of innocence forever, this technique could even operate automatically around the clock, perfectly integrating cultivation into daily life.

When one practiced continuously for twenty-four hours a day, the originally slow Mount Hua Mental Method was no longer slow, and it was even faster than the vast majority of internal mental methods.

Undoubtedly, theory was just theory. In reality, everyone has desires; it is merely a matter of degree.

If one were truly without desire, one would become a "sage."

Now Li Mu truly believed that Mount Hua's martial arts originated from Quanzhen, rather than them just finding a prominent ancestor to gild their own faces.

The Mount Hua Mental Method and the Quanzhen Mental Method were simply too similar. Not only were they upright and peaceful with high universality, but even their ultimate pursuits were the same.

Just look at the representatives of those who mastered the Quanzhen Mental Method. Zhou Botong was a man of pure innocence with almost no distracting thoughts; Guo Jing was simply a simpleton who didn't have any extra thoughts at all.

Perhaps the content of the techniques was not identical, but the underlying philosophy was inherited from the same source. As long as one let go of messy distractions, one could mass-produce experts.

The only pity was that most of these experts were late bloomers; after all, not everyone had the opportunities of a protagonist.

In Li Mu's view, with such a "survivalist divine skill," the Mount Hua Sect's evolution into a pure martial arts sect was truly narrowing its own path.

If they had followed the Quanzhen tradition and become a religious sect like Shaolin or Wudang, perhaps they really could have produced a few "sweeping monk" level experts.

Even if these people did not participate in martial arts disputes, they would still be the sect's foundation. At the very least, when enemies came knocking, these guys would not sit idly by.

In a sense, the strength of Shaolin and Wudang lay in their deep, latent foundation; no one knew how many experts they were hiding, and even the leaders of the two sects themselves might not be clear.

Putting aside these messy thoughts, Li Mu continued to study the Hunyuan Skill. Compared to the inconspicuous Mount Hua Mental Method, the Hunyuan Skill, as one of the Nine Skills, had a much louder reputation in the martial arts world.

Sure enough, the style of the Hunyuan Skill was completely different from the Mount Hua Mental Method. Not only did the cultivation speed increase greatly, but the attributes of the technique also changed from upright and peaceful to aggressive.

Li Mu was not surprised by this change. After all, the Mount Hua Sect was a martial arts sect, and its disciples were on the front lines fighting the Demonic Cult every day. How could they manage if their internal energy lacked attack power?

Different attributes meant different cultivation requirements. Li Mu now understood why Mount Hua disciples had to wait until they broke through to the second-rate realm before switching to the Hunyuan Skill.

As an internal mental method that balanced offense, defense, and even had certain healing effects, the cultivation requirements for the Hunyuan Skill were not low at all.

Unless one was gifted, an ordinary person without a certain foundation in internal energy would find their meridians unable to withstand it.