No one knew what had happened in the mountains.
Lu Jing'an sat cross-legged in his bedroom,
and by the time he had finished refining the last three souls and a tobacco pipe,
the eastern sky had already begun to turn a faint crab-shell blue.
Three souls, along with that heavy pipe bowl.
In total, they had brought him two Affixes and seven Energy Points.
The two Affixes were [Prairie Fire] (White) and [Foul Miasma] (White).
Both had been refined from the Smoke Cultivator's soul and tobacco pipe.
As for the souls of the other two Martial Cultivators, they had yielded no Affixes, only pure Energy Points.
Lu Jing'an wasn't surprised.
Those two Martial Cultivators were old, yet they hadn't even broken through the Blood Barrier.
Their talent was clearly ordinary.
It was no surprise at all that refining them had produced no Affixes.
After all, Affixes were manifestations of their original owners' talents.
It was perfectly normal for such mediocre people to yield none.
With a thought, Lu Jing'an brought the notes for the two Affixes to mind:
[Prairie Fire] (White)
[Note]: Water and fire are the most merciless forces of all. A spark may be small, but it can set the plains ablaze.
When the flames rise, however, be sure to remain somewhere safe.
[Foul Miasma] (White)
[Note]: Wearing this Affix allows you to conjure a poisonous haze within a radius of twenty zhang.
When the miasma spreads, take care to distinguish friend from foe.
These were typical Smoke Cultivator techniques. Though they were only white Affixes, Lu Jing'an was very pleased with them.
Both Affixes were wide-area offensive techniques.
They might not be powerful enough against cultivators.
But against hordes of cannon fodder, they were divine tools for sweeping the battlefield.
Lu Jing'an looked out the window,
where the sky was gradually brightening.
He might as well not go back to sleep.
He rose and stood in a horse stance,
using cultivation in place of rest.
Since officially stepping onto the path of cultivation,
Lu Jing'an had felt more and more refreshed.
The boredom and fatigue he used to feel while practicing his stance
had now become a soothing way to unwind.
He spent an hour practicing his stance, then another hour throwing punches.
Only when his blood and qi had flowed smoothly throughout his body did he call for water to bathe.
By the time he had changed, breakfast had been laid out in the side hall.
Lu Jing'an sent someone to fetch Chen Xuan.
Chen Xuan had said yesterday that he wanted to discuss Lu Jing'an's path of cultivation from here on.
Lu Jing'an wanted to know what path he should take next, too.
What he was cultivating now
was no longer of much help to him.
At most, it could carry him to the Three Transformations of Blood and Qi.
To advance further, he would need a new cultivation method.
Chen Xuan arrived soon after.
Lu Jing'an noticed that Chen Xuan was carrying a book.
Its pages had yellowed, and its corners were worn.
It was one of the martial arts manuals confiscated from the Qian and Lin families.
The moment he saw it, Lu Jing'an knew that he had made the right choice back then.
If he had tried to choose something valuable from all those martial arts books himself, he probably wouldn't have managed it.
Professional matters were best left to professionals.
"Thank you for your hard work, Master." Lu Jing'an stepped forward, took the book in both hands, and smiled warmly.
Chen Xuan handed it to Lu Jing'an but didn't hurry to explain. "Young Master, take a look first. See if you can figure anything out."
Lu Jing'an took the book, first inviting Chen Xuan to sit and eat.
Chen Xuan didn't bother with formalities.
There was no need for that between master and disciple.
As Chen Xuan ate, Lu Jing'an held the book in both hands and studied it intently.
Chen Xuan had brought him a manual of boxing techniques.
It seemed to be the original, not a copy.
The manual was clearly quite old.
The style was called [Mountain Crushing Fist].
At a glance, it seemed to follow the principle of overcoming finesse with sheer force.
It was suited to strong, powerfully built martial artists.
The power of the style was fairly average.
Its one distinctive feature was the Mountain Crushing Force.
Compared with ordinary force, it was both solid and weighty, while also possessing the explosive momentum of a mountain collapsing.
With the boost from the [Fist Master] Affix,
Lu Jing'an quickly read through it once.
He had also basically learned its six core forms.
When he reached the last page,
Lu Jing'an said nothing.
He didn't think Chen Xuan's test could be that simple.
He turned back to the first page and read the manual again from the beginning.
This time, he read very slowly.
About an hour later,
Lu Jing'an finished the last page.
He closed the book again.
By the time the book was shut, a look of understanding had surfaced in his eyes. When he looked up, his voice carried barely restrained excitement.
"Master, there's more to this manual than meets the eye!"
Chen Xuan set down his chopsticks and looked up at Lu Jing'an. "Tell me what makes it so special."
Having heard Chen Xuan's challenge, Lu Jing'an remained perfectly calm and began to explain in an orderly fashion.
"Master, at first glance, this Mountain Crushing Fist seems to be a style suited to people born with great strength."
"But in truth, it conceals a deeper mystery."
"Every move in this style has five qi openings."
"If I'm not mistaken, this should be one part of a complete set of boxing techniques."
"There are six parts in total."
"The qi openings in the other five parts can correspond to these."
"The openings can be combined in all sorts of ways."
"Even the force flowing between them can be combined at will."
"Once combined, the resulting force will be many times more powerful than it is now."
A gleam flashed in Chen Xuan's eyes as he listened to Lu Jing'an.
Clearly, Lu Jing'an's talent for boxing had far exceeded Chen Xuan's expectations.
At first, Chen Xuan had thought it would be enough if Lu Jing'an could tell that the style was a combination of several sets of techniques.
After all, recognizing it as a combined style was the minimum requirement for practicing it.
But Chen Xuan hadn't expected
that Lu Jing'an would not only recognize it as a combined style,
but also figure out how many manuals made up the set.
Chen Xuan had recognized it too, of course.
But he knew all too well what his own talent for boxing was like.
He had the boost from his boxing talent, as well as his wealth of experience and knowledge.
Yet Lu Jing'an clearly didn't have that same knowledge.
And he had still figured it out.
That showed Lu Jing'an's talent for boxing was even greater than his own.
This wealthy disciple he had taken in during his old age had truly given him one surprise after another.
"Master, was I wrong?" Lu Jing'an tentatively asked when Chen Xuan said nothing.
Although the Affixes on him had been inherited from Chen Xuan,
he was still nowhere near as experienced as Chen Xuan. It was entirely possible he had misread something.
Hearing Lu Jing'an's question, Chen Xuan came back to himself.
"No, Young Master, you were right. Those are precisely the core principles of this style."
"Only if you understand these core principles will you avoid going astray when you practice."
"At first, I thought it would be enough if you recognized this as a combined style."
"Then you could start practicing it."
"I could offer you a few pointers as you trained, enough to keep you from going astray."
"But it seems that you don't need me standing by to guide you through this style at all."
After hearing Chen Xuan's words,
Lu Jing'an couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Master, is there anything special about this style?" Lu Jing'an finally asked the question he was most curious about.
Chen Xuan didn't answer right away. Instead, he said, "Young Master, eat first. I'll tell you about it while we eat.
Once I'm done, I'll demonstrate it for you."
Lu Jing'an had been thinking about the boxing style the whole time.
Now that he had stopped, he felt ravenous.
He didn't need to give any orders.
The servants promptly replaced all the dishes that had gone cold.
The kitchen had prepared fresh portions of everything, so there was no need for Lu Jing'an to wait.
In no time, the table was laden once more with rice porridge, side dishes, steamed buns, and braised meat...
As Lu Jing'an ate, he listened to Chen Xuan explain the style's origins.
"This style's true name should be [Six Harmonies Fist]."
"It was extremely famous during the Great Ming."
"Yue Qingshan, the Great Ming Fist Champion, practiced this very style."
"It was thanks to this style that the Fist Champion ranked among the ten greatest experts of his time."
"Later, the Fist Champion vanished without a trace."
"The style disappeared along with him."
"Some time later, six seemingly ordinary boxing manuals appeared in the martial world."
"At first, no one paid them any mind."
"Then someone happened to collect all six manuals and compare them. Only then did they realize they were the Six Harmonies Fist practiced by the Fist Champion all those years ago."
"After that, the style fell into the hands of the Great Ming imperial family and was hidden deep within the Imperial Martial Hall."
"Then the previous dynasty collapsed, the imperial palace was sacked, and the manual vanished once more."
"The style disappeared again without a trace."
Lu Jing'an listened, completely absorbed, forgetting even to move his chopsticks.
He had read scattered bits of unofficial history from the previous dynasty.
He knew that martial arts had flourished during the Great Ming, and that Martial Cultivators could split mountains and sever rivers, far surpassing anything seen today.
To have ranked among the ten greatest experts of that golden age, the weight of this style was as heavy as a mountain.
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