Spring gave way to autumn, flowers bloomed and faded.
Two years flew by in a flash.
It was still the same place, and the same eight people.
Xuan Cheng had already mastered Dragon-Capturing Skill and begun practicing Daluoye Finger. But though he was a martial arts fanatic, he made little progress this time, devoting most of his effort to Great Strength Vajra Palm—or rather, to training in Vajra True Qi.
Xuan Ci was doing well, too. But instead of choosing the same finger technique as Xuan Cheng, he had requested a palm technique: Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm. Its many variations made it incredibly complex, yet it suited his temperament, and he was making good progress.
Then there were Xuan Ji and the others, who had all begun learning new martial arts as well.
Last came Li Su.
Unlike the others, Li Su had spent these two years learning no new techniques. He had simply continued practicing Arhat Fist and Arhat Divine Art.
He was making good progress. The vision of the Arhat he had once glimpsed had grown ever clearer.
His Arhat True Qi advanced by leaps and bounds.
Even ordinary Arhat Fist could refine Arhat Qi far faster than a superhuman. With Arhat Divine Art to refine it further, one day's practice was nearly as effective as several days—or even a dozen—of someone else's.
Under those circumstances, it was only natural that Li Su would make remarkable progress.
In just a year, his Arhat True Qi had grown tremendously.
And as he practiced Arhat Divine Art, Li Su, who had only just turned fourteen, had grown very tall—nearly 1.8 meters.
At this rate, he might well top two meters by the time he was eighteen.
After a few months, the excitement among the Shaolin Temple disciples had died down, and they stopped gathering to watch him.
Still, Li Su felt inexplicably uneasy.
The atmosphere was too strange.
Things were all right among the younger disciples, but over the past two years, everyone from the Tian generation to the Xuan generation seemed to have taken up cultivation.
That wouldn't have been unusual at another famous sect.
But Shaolin Temple was different.
It was a Buddhist institution. Martial arts were merely supplementary; Buddhist teachings were the true path.
Yet even the elderly monk Tianming, who had previously done nothing all day but chant sutras, had begun practicing martial arts. Whenever Li Su saw him, he was training.
A few months ago, Tianming had even sought him out specifically to see his Formless Calamity Finger.
It was far too strange.
Beneath the seemingly tranquil surface, the Tian-generation monks felt stifled, as though something was building up.
Still, it didn't matter. When the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up. Li Su might have performed well, but that didn't change the fact that he was still a child. By the time his generation had grown up, Xuan Cheng and the others would probably be enough to shake the world.
Besides, acting impressive now and then like the White-Clad Buddhist was fine.
But living and dying by the sword like Xiao Feng and the others? No thanks.
They only survived because they had the luck of protagonists. Otherwise, they'd have died who knew how many times by now. Take Duan Yu, for instance. If the South Sea Crocodile God hadn't lost his mind, Duan Yu would have died over and over again.
And Xuzhu, too. When Ding Chunqiu captured him, a little more poison would have been enough to finish him off.
They'd all survived thanks to protagonist luck, damn it.
Whoosh!
Li Su let out a long breath and stopped practicing Arhat Divine Art.
It was nearly at its limit.
There was still some way to go, but he could already feel it: Arhat Divine Art was nearing its limit.
To be clear, reaching its limit didn't mean he could no longer practice the technique, or that he had maxed it out.
As mentioned before, any technique—even the most basic Arhat Fist—could be practiced for ten or twenty years.
Reaching the limit meant that Arhat Divine Art was nearing the end of what it could do by nature.
The perfected Arhat Golden Body was the art's ultimate limit. His internal power could continue to grow, but that limit itself could not be broken. It made sense. Otherwise, what would happen if he just kept practicing forever?
Arhat Divine Art was an internal cultivation method that strengthened the meridians.
It might not be as comprehensive as Nine Yang Divine Skill, but it was still an absolutely top-tier art. If it weren't for the exceptionally high demands it placed on a practitioner's comprehension—even though Li Su hadn't felt them—every Shaolin Temple disciple would probably practice it at some point.
Of course, even with its potential nearly exhausted, Li Su still had a way to go before reaching perfection.
Arhat True Qi had yet to spread through every meridian in his body. The main channels had reached the level of mastery, and the secondary, smaller pathways had improved as well, but nowhere near as much as the main channels.
Practicing those areas would undoubtedly be difficult.
It was much like Formless Calamity Finger: slow, painstaking work, accumulating over time until it was finally complete.
But once he reached the limit, he would have more free time, since he wouldn't need to practice as relentlessly as he did now.
Li Su wasn't in a hurry. He hadn't forgotten why he'd come to this world. He had already obtained the Nine Yang Manual. He couldn't practice it in this world, but he had a peerless divine art in hand; he could always train in it in the next world.
So he had gradually slowed down, rather than rushing to bring Arhat Divine Art to mastery.
After all, he hadn't forgotten the nature of Shaolin Temple's martial arts. Without the right state of mind, it was all too easy to suffer a dangerous deviation.
He wondered what technique they would teach him next.
Though he had slowed down, Li Su couldn't help imagining what he might learn next.
Muscle Tendon Changing Classic? Indestructible Diamond Divine Art?
Probably not.
Those were techniques reserved for the abbots of the various halls.
Indestructible Diamond Divine Art in particular had even stricter requirements than Muscle Tendon Changing Classic. Only the head of the Bodhidharma Institute could practice it. Anyone who mastered it became a candidate for abbot and was all but guaranteed to become the next abbot of Shaolin Temple—unless he chose to give up the position.
Even with Arhat Divine Art as a foundation, which would make practicing these two techniques much easier, Li Su didn't think he could master either of them with ease.
More likely, they would teach him another palm technique and have him keep honing his skills.
Of course, they might also decide to have him slow down.
Still, he couldn't help looking forward to it.
After all, these were two divine arts whose reputations were every bit as great as that of Nine Yang Divine Skill. There was no need to describe how powerful Indestructible Diamond Divine Art was. Golden-Haired Lion King Xie Xun had mastered Seven-Injury Fist and thrown twelve punches in a row. If Master Kongjian hadn't been kind-hearted, the rebound alone might have killed him.
As for Muscle Tendon Changing Classic, there were far too many examples to count.
Meanwhile, as Shaolin Temple continued training its disciples,
a piece of news suddenly swept across the entire martial world at lightning speed.
Like a thunderclap from a clear sky, it left everyone shaken to the core.
The ruler of Western Xia, Li Yuanhao, had torn up the ceasefire agreement with the Song Dynasty.
He had raised an army of a hundred thousand and marched on the Song!
A hundred thousand troops were attacking the Song. The news sent shockwaves through the court and the country, and even the martial world, far from the seat of government, felt an unprecedented pressure.
The Battle of Haoshui River had taken place only recently, and now a new war was breaking out. People across the land were thrown into panic.
Not long afterward, Beggar Sect leader Guan Tiannan issued a call to the martial world, summoning heroes from across the land to gather in Yanan Prefecture and discuss a matter of great importance.
The martial world was thrown into turmoil, and chivalrous fighters from the Central Plains hurried to the gathering.