Form Change, Nature Change!

The sky was faintly white.

Hong Yuan had already set out.

It was the morning three days later. Thin mist hung in the air, and on the official road leading to Qingxu County, the road was pitted and full of puddles in many places, quite muddy.

The horse's hooves went "clop, clop."

On the back of a horse with a mottled, messy coat, Hong Yuan held a wine jug in his left hand and a book in his right, reclining at ease on horseback.

His legs clamped the horse's belly like iron hoops. As the horse moved forward, his whole body rose and fell unevenly, looking as if he might tumble off and plant his face in the mud at any moment, but in truth he was steady as an old dog.

The reason he had set off in such a hurry was naturally because he was rushing to attend the feast.

As the saying went, if you weren't eager to eat at a banquet, there was something wrong with your head.

Hong Yuan's head was very healthy.

If it had been a wedding, the main banquet would naturally have been set at dusk. But Huang Guiling was taking a concubine, and to avoid clashing with a formal marriage, the banquet would be changed to morning or noon.

Most likely noon.

Hong Yuan had no choice but to leave early. If he missed the chance to send a happy family reunion to his good brother and the man's son, that would be far too rude.

The horse beneath him could not be called a fine horse, but its advantage lay in being steady and knowing the road. Letting the horse run as it pleased, Hong Yuan flipped through the notes in his hand.

Of course, it was the handwritten notes of True Person Li that Yang Erhu had given him.

Over the past three days, Hong Yuan had already read through them many times, until he knew them by heart. Now, with nothing to do on the road, he opened them again to go with his wine.

"The path of a martial artist begins with strengthening the body and nourishing the blood, thereby gaining the forces of hardness and softness."

"Hard force is like metal and stone cracking apart, going straight in and straight out, crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood. Soft force is like flowing water, long and unbroken, either unloading or guiding..."

Hong Yuan took a sip of wine. The notes were not difficult to understand. When a martial artist first entered True Force, their force was violent and explosive, released like thunder and fire, difficult to restrain. This was hard force.

After cultivating for a long time and gradually taming the hard force, the force would turn soft, becoming a strand of lingering force, a deft force. This was soft force.

The second level of force transformation, "sending and withdrawing as one pleased," could also be called "hardness and softness aiding each other"!

"The late master 'Dragon-Tiger' once said: hardness and softness push against each other, and from them change is born..."

What change?

Naturally, it was "subtlety"!

"Sending force into subtlety has many methods: spiraling and drilling through, striking across empty space and treading the void, penetrating bone to injure within, or making drifting catkins like needles... These are the deft applications of force, all resting in a single mind."

Beneath these rows of characters, there was also a large section of small-character annotations. They were what True Person Li had gained from many years of cultivation, explaining techniques and experiences such as tempering strength into force and hardness and softness aiding each other.

There were also various key points and personal experiences concerning entering subtlety. At the end, True Person Li summarized entering subtlety in one sentence:

Send force as if drawing silk!

Hong Yuan nodded. Force was like a cocoon shell. If one's control over one's own force reached the level of drawing silk and peeling apart a cocoon, one would naturally be able to play tricks with force, creating techniques such as flying-catkin force, coiling-silk force, striking through empty space, penetrating bone, and the like.

"These handwritten notes of True Person Li are the Tiger-Subduing Sect's most core secret transmission, and also the thing the Dragon-Subduing Sect and Meng Yue dream of day and night."

"What a pity!"

Hong Yuan sighed, a trace of regret on his face.

The Tiger-Subduing Sect had inherited its teachings from High Person Dragon-Tiger, so it actually did have a method for entering subtlety.

After entering subtlety, Tiger-Subduing Force could be transformed into "Tiger-Baleful Mountain-Splitting Force"!

But what the Dragon-Subduing Sect did not know was that True Person Li had died too suddenly. As a result, he had simply not had time to pass down the core secrets concerning "Tiger-Baleful Mountain-Splitting Force."

And the entire Tiger-Subduing Sect had been founded by True Person Li. He did not record the core secrets in writing, relying purely on oral instruction. With his death, that was equivalent to the Tiger-Subduing Sect's subtlety-level secret method being directly lost.

Hong Yuan only felt a little regret. After pondering these handwritten notes for three days, he had already touched the thin membrane of "sending and withdrawing as one pleased." He was only waiting for an opportunity; with a gentle poke, he would be able to step across.

"Entering subtlety" was indeed far more difficult, but with that comment of "sending force as if drawing silk," Hong Yuan believed that with his own aptitude and comprehension, he could slowly seep through it.

At worst, he could go get the subtlety methods of other schools. The world was vast and methods were many; it was not as if he had to stare dead at the Tiger-Subduing Sect's force method and walk one path until it went black.

Hong Yuan's gaze fell on the end. It was a passage of lament from True Person Li.

"Even entering subtlety is no more than a change in method, a change in momentum, a change in form, of force! The late master once said that above the change of form, there is still another change, called the change of nature!"

"The change of nature is the beginning of divine abilities, not something ordinary streams can compare to! Yet I never once saw it in my life. A truly deep regret!"

Change of form!

Change of nature!

The beginning of divine abilities?

Hong Yuan stroked his chin and pondered, his expression odd. This world couldn't really have sword heroes and sword immortals, demons and ghosts, and that sort of thing, could it?

Yangquan was ultimately only forty or fifty li from Qingxu County town. Even though Hong Yuan had not urged his horse at full speed, he only spent a little under two hours before he saw the outline of Qingxu County town in the distance.

What left him slightly regretful was that along the way, he had not run into any bandits blocking the road, heroes saving beauties, or other such delightful sights. Instead, he encountered several groups of traveling merchants hurrying to Huang Guiling's wedding feast.

The county town's inspection was lax. Hong Yuan paid a little entry fee and smoothly entered.

And just as Hong Yuan arrived at Qingxu County town, in Yangquan County, at the Yang Family Martial Arts Hall, a party of several people swaggered in openly, ignoring the astonished gazes of the apprentices, and headed straight for the main room.

The one leading them was none other than the scrawny little old man from the Dragon King Society. Only this time, that young dandy had not come; the little old man was in charge, and he had changed into a set of high-quality silk clothes as well, as if he had been promoted.

His whole bearing had grown much more ostentatious. Before he had even seen Yang Erhu, he was already calling out loudly, "Is Master Yang here? This little old man has come to pay another visit!"

A moment later, Yang Erhu, his expression icy, waved back the group of apprentices who had been about to gather around, then looked at the withered old man with a dark face. "Old Jia, what are you here for this time?"

The little old man surnamed Jia narrowed his eyes into slits and chuckled. "Master Yang, why be so unreasonable? We can be considered to have cooperated once, after all..."

"If you have business, say it. No need for nonsense."

"Master Yang is certainly direct." The little old man surnamed Jia still said with a beaming smile, "It is still Young Master Hua's proposal from last time. Master Yang, please make a move once, and the favor you owe us will be considered repaid."

"This old man has never owed you anything. Please leave!" Yang Erhu raised a hand to cut him off and pointed outside the door.

"Heh heh! Master Yang, it wouldn't be too late to reply after first taking a look at the gift this little old man brought." Old Jia clapped his hands, and a brawny man immediately leaped out from behind him, holding a wooden box in both hands. With a calm expression, he delivered it to Yang Erhu.

"No need. This old man cannot afford to accept your gifts."

Old Jia shook his head, stroked his beard, and said with a smile, "Master Yang must take a look at this gift. Otherwise, I fear it will be too late for regrets. Open it."

With a wave of his hand, the man moved both hands and opened the box, presenting it front-on before Yang Erhu.

Yang Erhu immediately felt a piercing, fishy stench assail him. In the next instant, his pupils dilated. Inside the box were, shockingly, three bloodied fingers, along with a bloodstained cloth strip.

Yang Erhu went "thud, thud" as he retreated two steps. He could be considered a ruthless figure, with no small number of lives staining his hands, so naturally he would not be afraid of a few severed fingers. But these three fingers, and that strip of cloth, both gave him a familiar feeling.

The next moment, the baleful air on Yang Erhu's face surged violently. He suddenly stepped forward, his cattail-fan-like hand reaching out, and locked around the throat of the man holding the box!

That man could also be considered sturdy, but in Yang Erhu's hands, he was like a little white rabbit, unable to move at all. Yang Erhu lifted him with one hand, lunged and swayed, and in an instant arrived before Old Jia.

Facing Yang Erhu's terrifying gaze, Old Jia showed not the slightest fear. Instead, he straightened his clothes and said calmly, "Master Yang, this little old man is already at this age and does not fear death. But killing an old man is easy for you; once you make a move, however, there will be no taking it back."

Killing intent rose in Yang Erhu's eyes, but in the end, he did not make a move. He said coldly, "Where is he?"

"Master Yang, be at ease. That friend of yours is doing very well. Only, if you want to see him, I must ask Brother Yang to take a trip with this old man."

Yang Erhu took a deep breath, glanced again at the wooden box, and slowly nodded. "Fine!"