The Force of Mountains and Rivers

Three Moon Pavilion wasn't quite as altruistic as the legends made it out to be.

At its core, their efforts to right wrongs were mostly about building their reputation, so they could make use of it when the time came.

People often said that you should judge people by their actions, not their motives; as long as they did good deeds, that was all that mattered.

That wasn't wrong, but you couldn't look at things from just one angle, much less generalize from a single example.

One point to consider was their purpose: were they trying to cash in on the reputation they'd built?

To take someone's good deed in the moment and use it to give them a free pass for everything they did afterward—that was foolish.

At least, that was how Lu Bai saw it. In his eyes, there was no such thing as "trust." Any act of trust was foolish.

So Lu Bai abandoned his original plan.

"But we could still keep in touch. It might come in handy," Lu Bai thought.

By the time Lu Bai had sorted everything out and done some research on the module,

Luo Chuan had returned and knocked on the door.

Heat rolled off him, but his expression was somewhat weary.

It hadn't been easy to come back after practicing his punches all the way here.

Internal boxing was like that: it focused on how to mobilize one's vitality to the greatest extent.

If you practiced martial arts without learning how to take care of your body, you were more likely to wear yourself down and deplete your vitality.

He gulped down a bowl of medicine, then gritted his teeth and went to fetch the medicinal liquor. Back in his room, he rubbed it onto himself and started slapping it in.

Before, Luo Chuan had never lacked resources or martial arts. What he'd lacked was sheer grit.

Now Lu Bai had forced that grit out of him.

He knew perfectly well that once he handed over the intelligence, his importance would drop considerably.

Lu Bai had kept his end of the bargain, and had been teaching him in his own way.

But a deal went both ways. If Luo Chuan couldn't take Lu Bai's methods and started slacking off—or even refused to carry out his orders—

then the deal would already be broken, and his value to Lu Bai would instantly drop to zero.

Lu Bai might not do anything to him, but Luo Chuan was certain he'd regret it.

So, under the circumstances, Luo Chuan had thrown himself into it and started following Lu Bai's orders to the letter.

You never knew how much potential you had until someone pushed you.

Of course, it could also be like a math problem: if you couldn't solve it, you just couldn't solve it.

After watching Luo Chuan finish his training as ordered, Lu Bai nodded and continued studying the module and the martial arts.

Lu Bai had had Flowery Fists and Embroidered Legs the longest, and had studied it most thoroughly, but it wasn't suited to him.

The Mountain and River Fist he'd gotten from Luo Chuan was more interesting.

The foundation of fist techniques lay in using body movements to mobilize one's vitality.

In the process, vitality strengthened the body to a certain extent, while also allowing one to sense its presence and gradually bring it under control.

That was where Lu Bai was stuck. He could indeed sense his vitality, but who could tell him what it meant to bring vitality under control?

It was like Lu Bai wanting to go to the moon, and someone experienced telling him, "All you need to do is light the fuse, calculate the trajectory, and enter the coordinates. It's simple."

Those things really were simple. Lu Bai was talented enough to do them even better than the experts. But could someone please give him a rocket or a spaceship first? Thanks.

It seemed that Earthlings and the natives of these dimensions were separated by the lack of that "spaceship."

So there was no way to cross the gap between the mundane and the supernatural through training alone.

When Lu Bai made his vitality give off a fragrant scent, he was merely making use of some of the module's passive effects.

There was no way he could turn that into an active skill of his own.

"The foundations of these fist techniques are very similar, but they diverge later on, and the differences are pretty significant."

Lu Bai analyzed the differences between Flowery Fists and Embroidered Legs and the Mountain and River Fist.

In the orthodox Flower Fist, once you had developed internal force, you had to make it circulate along specific meridians.

Different martial arts used different routes for circulating internal force, and the training methods that followed differed as well.

Take Flower Fist, for example. At first, it was simply a nimble technique. But once your internal force grew strong enough, you had to gather the essence of a hundred flowers to concoct pills, while also nurturing the spirit of flowers and plants within your own body.

At that point, your internal force would become extremely nimble and far more controllable.

In a way, it was like raising your internal force as if it were a baby.

The Mountain and River Fist took a completely different approach at this stage. It kept strengthening the quality of one's internal force.

Then you traveled far and wide, comprehending the force of mountains and rivers and transforming your mind and will, until you were as steady as a mountain.

This step had little to do with internal force.

It centered on the self—the "I"—with internal force serving only as a source of power.

The self was like the spirit of a mountain, while internal force was like the soil and rocks.

These are two different paths of martial arts. There might be more, but I only have two manuals, Lu Bai thought.

Flower Fist and Embroidery Leg could be considered parts of the same martial art. Their later teachings were identical; only their methods of circulating internal force differed, with one favoring the hands and the other the feet.

If you were capable, you could train both at once without any conflict.

But the Mountain and River Fist wasn't like that. There seemed to be an implicit barrier between the two.

"But they aren't entirely incompatible." Lu Bai favored the Mountain and River Fist. In a sense, it was the kind of martial art where overwhelming strength could work wonders, and it suited him better.

The unfortunate part was that Lu Bai was missing more modules for the Mountain and River Fist than for Flower Fist.

"But this mountain-like presence seems oddly familiar." Lu Bai adjusted his stance and thought.

Earth's martial artists had no supernatural powers, so they could only train their techniques. Once their skills reached the peak, they used them to stir their own spirit and will, thereby gaining a measure of the supernatural.

That bit of the supernatural marked the peak of Earth's martial arts.

Lu Bai had fought people who possessed such abilities. The presence they exuded was completely different from that of ordinary people.

In that respect, it seemed remarkably similar to the Mountain and River Fist, except that Earth's martial arts lacked internal force to fill it out.

"The force of mountains and rivers..." Lu Bai's thoughts wandered. "Maybe I can do it this way!"

So early the next morning, Lu Bai set out with Luo Chuan. Before leaving, he went to Lou Jingren and asked him to send a letter.

Lou Jingren was a true scholar. Though he was puzzled about why Lu Bai wanted to send that person a letter, he still nodded in agreement.

Then Lu Bai took Luo Chuan all over the place. If there was a mountain, they climbed it; if there was water, they crossed it.

Luo Chuan felt that his Mountain and River Fist had improved tremendously, but he still couldn't see through Lu Bai's purpose.

Until a month later.

The two of them, having camped out and weathered the elements, hurried back to East Province and headed for the city where the Luo Family lived.

Lu Bai's hair had grown fairly long by then, long enough to tie into a little ponytail.

Before they even entered the city, Luo Chuan spotted many martial artists carrying weapons.

There hadn't been so many before. Something was clearly about to happen here.

A little late today. Here's the first update.