"Old Arts, Secret Martial Arts... So that's how it is."
Time passed.
Ten minutes later.
Hu Long leaned back in his chair.
A hint of understanding appeared in his eyes.
The information recorded here had answered most of his questions.
The deeper contents of the database were unavailable.
To access the other sections, he had to become a true Secret Martial Artist.
In other words, he had to break through to the Body Casting Realm.
Only then could he join the Pivot Court and unlock them.
The Pivot Court was an exchange platform for Secret Martial Artists, jointly established by the major clans of Yu State and the state itself.
Members could post, trade items, or take on missions there.
There were no major restrictions.
Of course, all of that required reaching the Body Casting Realm.
The information about Secret Martial Arts was largely the same as what Hu Zhenkui had told him.
The only difference was that it went into greater detail. It was written specifically for newcomers and was easier to understand.
Secret Martial Artists followed a path of advancement through training in Secret Martial Arts, mastering force, and using that force to strengthen their bodies.
Powerful Secret Martial Artists had inhuman physical abilities. In Hu Long's eyes, it was a supernatural system built around the warrior path.
For example, Body Casting, Skin Grinding, and Bone Tempering were all stages in a process that progressed from the outside in, specializing in the physical body.
The only difference was that practitioners mastered force.
Besides that,
something else caught Hu Long's attention.
It was another supernatural path, separate from Secret Martial Arts.
Practitioners of the Old Arts.
Old Arts was a catchall term for spells, sorcery, and all kinds of strange techniques.
Practitioners of the Old Arts were more like mages. They were especially troublesome opponents, able to hide in the shadows.
They mastered all kinds of bizarre and unpredictable abilities.
The physical enhancement of Secret Martial Artists could still be explained, however tenuously. The Old Arts, on the other hand, were utterly beyond scientific explanation.
Although practitioners of the Old Arts were powerful, apart from a few techniques that could strengthen the body,
most of them were no stronger physically than ordinary people.
If a Secret Martial Artist discovered one and got close, they would be as good as dead.
Moreover, the requirements for practicing the Old Arts were far stricter than those for becoming a Secret Martial Artist.
But thanks to their bizarre techniques, practitioners of the Old Arts were actually more powerful overall.
It was even said that in a much more distant age, the Old Arts had been the mainstream path.
But as time passed, this changed due to certain forces beyond anyone's control.
Unlike Secret Martial Artists, whose cultivation relied on the physical body,
practitioners of the Old Arts needed the blessing of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Essence to begin training and use their techniques.
Heaven and Earth Spiritual Essence was a special force that drifted through the world.
As time passed, this force gradually faded.
It became incredibly scarce.
This inevitably led to the decline of the Old Arts. Powerful techniques could no longer be performed, leaving only sorcery that required self-harm, blood sacrifice, or came with severe consequences.
And so the Secret Martial Artists began to rise.
If the path of the Old Arts had not long since been cut off, would its practitioners really have been reduced to being hunted down and driven away?
The Old Arts were called "old" because they had been completely cast aside by the times.
In this age, only Secret Martial Arts remained mainstream among the supernatural paths.
"The Green Bag Fragment must be a cultivation method for the Old Arts, but it's incomplete..."
With this new information,
some things naturally began to make sense.
For example, Xue's parents had murdered those women and children to use blood sacrifice in their cultivation.
Humans were the essence of all living things.
They could naturally serve as a substitute for Heaven and Earth Spiritual Essence in the practice of the Old Arts.
It was precisely this cruel method of cultivation
that had led the government of Yu State and other countries around the world to resist and hunt down practitioners of the Old Arts.
On the surface, this world was ruled by various nations.
In reality, however, it was controlled by alliances formed by the various clans.
In truth, it could be said that the clans were the ones who held real power.
Even the public officials who appeared to be in charge had deep ties to these clans.
Otherwise, they could never have held on to their positions.
For this reason, the clans were, in a sense, the government itself.
This also explained why the main branch wielded such astonishing power and had such strong cohesion.
Of course, even among the clans, there were different ranks.
Their standing was judged by several factors, such as how long the clan had endured and the strength of its Secret Martial Artists. They were divided into three ranks: upper, middle, and lower.
Upper rank: a history of a thousand years, and at least one Secret Martial Artist in the Blood Exchange Realm.
Middle rank: a history of five hundred years or more, and at least one Secret Martial Artist in the Bone Tempering Realm.
Lower rank: a history of three hundred years or more, and at least one Secret Martial Artist in the Body Casting Realm. The requirements were far less demanding.
Compared to the former,
as a gathering of supernatural forces,
the clans naturally cared more about strength.
The Hu Family had barely made it into the ranks of the middle-tier clans.
Even if it had only just reached the middle rank,
the power it wielded was enormous.
The entire Huanyang City and several nearby cities were under the Hu Clan's control.
They could even remove officials with a single word.
There were also many benefits to becoming a Secret Martial Artist
and joining the Pivot Court, not to mention all the hidden perks and advantages.
Each year, members received a certain quota of secret medicines.
And there was one benefit more important than all the others.
Official Secret Martial Artists registered with the Pivot Court were granted a limited right to kill.
Of course, this did not mean they could slaughter innocent people or wantonly kill ordinary folk.
It applied to people who attacked them or endangered others.
"So they actually have a privilege like that. But it makes sense. Has the interference of supernatural powers warped society in this world into something like this?"
Hu Long's gaze shifted slightly.
He automatically glossed over the restrictions on the right to kill.
As long as they didn't go too far, almost no one would interfere.
He gathered his thoughts.
His gaze moved down to a line of text on the computer screen.
The information he could currently view fell into four categories.
They were the clans, Secret Martial Artists, the Old Arts, and, lastly, Strange Specters.
Unlike the first three categories,
Strange Specter was a catchall term, not a single type of entity.
It included evil objects, spirits, monsters, and anything else that could not be understood.
All of these things shared one trait.
Whatever form they took now, they had not originally been lifeless. They all possessed some kind of unusual vitality.
In other words, they were alive—or at least they had been once.
All of them could be called Strange Specters.
At this point,
Hu Long's thoughts stirred.
He remembered the Blood Soul Guide on his body.
By this definition, it should be a combination of the Old Arts and a Strange Specter.
No wonder it was so troublesome.
The thought flashed through his mind.
Then he thought of something else.
"Wait. If that's the case, could the Human Skin, the roots inside the Wood Lotus, and the Snake Bone Bracelet all be types of Strange Specters?
If so, could the Source Value on the Primordial Plain Panel come from these Strange Specters?"