A Multitude of Skills Weighs No One Down!

In the days that followed.

Chen Jichuan cultivated on Taiqing Mountain.

Every day, he kept his fists in motion, focusing anew on the Wave-Wrapping Technique, Crouching Tiger Technique, and Eagle Claw Technique, experiencing the changes in force. At the same time, he came forward to instruct the Chen Sect disciples in martial arts.

The Chen Sect had money and connections.

Whether ordinary wealthy households or impoverished families around Taiqing Mountain, all were willing to come and take a master.

The former sought to befriend the Lu family and the Chen Sect, to build good relations and gain another layer of protection, so they could preserve their family estates amid these chaotic times.

The latter simply wanted to learn some skills.

With fist and foot techniques to rely on, and the Chen Sect's recommendation, whether they became guards for wealthy households or entered White Jade Capital, they could secure a steady job and feed their families.

Within the Chen Sect.

Most disciples had come for one of those two reasons.

Children from poor families had no money.

Lu Changshou did not care about that. So long as someone was brought before him, he would test them a little and learn their character before accepting them. Thus, the Chen Sect had quite a few disciples—eighty-two in all.

That did not include those who had already completed their studies and gone down the mountain.

It could be considered a sizable establishment.

Chen Jichuan's arrival had also stirred no small commotion within the Chen Sect.

The disciples only knew that he lived alone in the back mountain and that the sect master treated him with extreme respect. His martial arts were even more outstanding. He had once exchanged blows with the sect master, "Little Southern Chen," within the sect; fists and feet flew, and he held the upper hand throughout.

To receive his guidance.

The Chen Sect disciples were naturally delighted.

As Chen Jichuan interacted with these disciples, he discovered that among the more than eighty of them, only a handful were truly devoted to martial arts.

Even the "Three Heroes and Five Tigers," who had some modest reputation in the Lingnan martial world, were mostly mediocre. Only two possessed decent martial skill, and among them, only the "Mountain-Descending Tiger," Wang Mingzhang, was truly passionate about the martial path.

Chen Jichuan kept him at his side and taught him often.

He also selected three eighteen- or nineteen-year-old disciples from poor families among the Chen Sect's seventy or eighty disciples and instructed them with care.

Time was like water.

Rushing onward without end.

In the blink of an eye, winter had passed and spring had arrived. It was already the third lunar month, the height of spring.

Lu Changshou handled matters without ambiguity.

Through White Jade Capital's channels, he had gathered quite a few martial arts manuals.

In truth, the martial arts of various sects and schools were seldom kept completely secret.

Even the Ten-Route Tan Legs of the Tan Sect, the foremost school in the north, were practiced by many outsiders. Yet without joining the sect, outsiders who learned them would ultimately find it difficult to grasp their true essence.

First, they lacked the corresponding secret medicinal formulas for cultivation and could not sustain their training. Second, martial arts contained countless variations; only through oral transmission and face-to-face instruction could one comprehend the subtle details.

Of every ten martial artists in the north, nine practiced Tan Legs.

Yet those who had truly obtained the essence of Tan Legs and could contend for grandmasterhood were only those of the orthodox Tan Legs lineage—the Tan Sect.

To learn genuine skill, one had to enter the orthodox lineage.

In this way, allowing the superficial aspects of their martial arts to spread would not only establish the sect's standing and prestige in the martial world, but also attract masters from all walks of life to join them or spend their own money buying secret medicinal formulas for cultivation.

It was truly fame and profit harvested together.

Chen Jichuan was not bound by such constraints.

He bought manuals and bought secret medicines. With one glance at the latter, he could see through their formulas. As for the former, given his attainment in martial arts, he could see the whole from the smallest sign. With enough practice, their meaning naturally revealed itself, and he could always comprehend their true essence.

Thus.

He could practice the martial arts of a hundred schools.

Once he mastered them and knew them by heart, he could go a step further, melt the martial arts of a hundred schools into one furnace, even reshape them entirely into supreme arts of the Chen Sect.

Chen Jichuan was accumulating knowledge.

Martial arts from every path gathered within him—

Iron Head Technique, Iron Arm Technique, Iron Knee Technique, Groin-Strengthening Technique, and Overlord Elbow Technique. These were hardening arts for training the head, arms, knees, groin, and elbows.

None of them were particularly profound, yet neither were they commonplace.

Even the weakest stood shoulder to shoulder with the Iron Bull Technique.

The formidable ones, such as the Groin-Strengthening Technique, could even forge the groin into something solid. Struck by fists as swift as a storm, it would feel no pain whatsoever.

Their medicinal formulas were even more tightly guarded secrets.

They were never passed on to outsiders.

For instance, the Overlord Sect's secret Overlord Elbow Technique in Puning Prefecture, Lingnan, had a cultivation formula specifically for disinfecting and reducing swelling. It contained fifty-six medicinal ingredients, including frankincense, musk herb, acanthopanax bark, saffron, chickweed seed, mirabilite, green salt, Bashan tiger herb, achyranthes root, arisaema, sand-plaster bark, uncaria, tiger bone, raw aconite, and ephedra.

Each ingredient had a different proportion.

The Overlord Sect made them into individual medicinal plasters.

During training.

The plaster was boiled down with twenty jin each of aged wine, vinegar, and water, then stored in a porcelain vat. Before training, one first soaked the arms in it for a short while, removed them, shook them dry, and then trained. Afterward, one washed them again in the same manner, removing toxins and reducing swelling.

There could not be the slightest carelessness.

Even if only a few people practiced it year-round and bought the medicinal plaster year-round, the Overlord Sect could still earn no small amount toward its expenses.

Such a secret formula.

Even the most medicine-savvy divine physician in the world would find it difficult to reverse-engineer.

Only Chen Jichuan.

With one glance, he saw through it and needed seek no help from others.

Beyond hardening arts and horizontal training, Chen Jichuan welcomed the martial arts of every sect and path.

Such as lightness techniques—

Flying Technique, Eaves-and-Walls Method, Wall-Running Technique, Lightness Technique, Window-Piercing Technique, Gecko Wall-Crawling Technique, Tumbling Technique, Leaping Method, Thread-the-Needle Technique, and Darting Technique.

They shared the same wondrous essence as the Land-Flying Technique Chen Jichuan had learned in the past, though each had its own specialty.

Take the Wall-Running Technique.

It was a technique for training oneself to climb walls.

Take the Tumbling Technique.

It was a lightness technique. Once mastered, whenever one encountered perilous cliffs or sheer walls, if there was nowhere to place one's hands, that was that. But if there was even the slightest hold, one could clutch vines and cling to kudzu, rising and descending at will. Even tender branches and leaves could be borrowed for force. It was exceedingly suitable for traveling through mountain forests.

Then there was the Leaping Method.

Once mastered, there was no need to gather breath or strike a pose. With one step, one could cross two or three zhang. Combined with the Land-Flying Technique, even with ravines ahead, one could clear them in a single stride without losing the slightest speed.

Then there was Thread-the-Needle Technique.

This art was also called the Water-Flying Technique.

It was the skill of treading duckweed across water and leaving no trace upon snow.

Upon reaching great mastery.

One could toss out a reed and cross a river upon it, the supreme lightness feat known as "crossing the river on a single reed."

The Land-Flying Technique Chen Jichuan had originally learned was most praised for godlike movement over level ground. Even on rugged, uneven paths, he could walk as though on flat earth. He could also come and go alone upon precipitous cliffs.

But in climbing eaves and scaling walls, it fell short of the Wall-Running Technique and Gecko Wall-Crawling Technique.

In borrowing force and making heavy things seem light, it fell short of the Tumbling Technique.

In walking upon water, it fell short of Thread-the-Needle Technique.

Every technique inevitably overlapped with others, and naturally each had its own focus. With the foundation of the Land-Flying Technique, Chen Jichuan found practicing such arts effortless and improved rapidly. His lightness skills became increasingly formidable.

Not only hardening arts and horizontal training.

Not only lightness and movement techniques.

Chen Jichuan accepted martial arts from every path, tempering arm strength, leg strength, and improving the root of his physical power.

The Jar-Lifting Technique, for instance, trained the suspended force of both arms and the grip strength of both hands. Combined with the Water-Splitting Technique, the strength of both arms became even greater, and one's archery naturally rose with the tide.

The Mountain-Pulling Technique was a skill of lifting and pulling, using solely the insubstantial force of the wrist to break an enemy.

Then there was the Foot-Shooting Technique. Once mastered, in battle, one could unexpectedly kick bricks and stones from afar to strike the enemy; at close range, one could kick their lower body with the foot, and none would fail to fall at the sound.

This technique placed extremely high demands on leg strength, foot strength, and toe strength.

Chen Jichuan practiced the Crouching Tiger Technique. The strength in his toes already reached a thousand jin. With such a foundation, the Foot-Shooting Technique lacked only experience and a little refinement.

Then there was the Leg-Kicking Technique, similar to yet different from the Iron Broom Technique. The latter trained the legs' resistance to blows, while the former trained the power of the legs.

"Both legs kick up, swift as wind; above and below they whirl, their power boundless. A lone kick strikes a two-hundred-jin sandbag; kick an enemy, and even his shadow vanishes."

Combined with the pair of iron legs forged by the Iron Broom Technique, its power was truly infinite.

Martial artists said: better to take ten hammer blows than one kick.

They also said: ten hammer blows may not wound you, but one kick leaves your life uncertain.

The reason the Tan Sect shook the northern martial world was precisely because its Ten-Route Tan Legs had honed the ferocity of leg techniques to the utmost extreme.

When its chain kicks were unleashed, enemies scattered like flying ash.

Chen Jichuan practiced both the Iron Broom Technique and the Leg-Kicking Technique. Combined with the hand, eye, body, and step coordination cultivated through the Golden Blade Exchange Palm Technique, if he faced a Tan Legs grandmaster and met leg techniques with leg techniques, victory or defeat would still be hard to tell.

Unfortunately.

Travel was difficult in winter.

Last winter, the Thirteen Guardians of the Tan Sect had crossed the Ji River and reached the central region of Great Yan. But more than four months had passed, and now even the third month was nearly over, yet the Thirteen Guardians had still not entered Lingnan.

They were likely not going to make it in time.

On this day.

The morning sun had just risen.

At the peak of a cliff in the back mountain, Chen Jichuan lay flat on his back atop a smooth blue stone. He bent his forearms, turning his fists upward, planted his feet against the ground, and straightened his legs. Then he exerted force through both elbows, bracing them against the ground and lifting his entire body, so that aside from his elbows touching the earth, all else hung in the air.

The weight of his entire body.

Rested upon his elbows. An ordinary person would soon run out of strength, or else suffer unbearable pain in the elbows.

Chen Jichuan had trained bitterly for several months and felt nothing at all.

He even had strength to spare. First, he released his left hand and placed it on his waist. Supporting himself on the ground with only his right elbow, he slowly turned his body to the right into a side-lying position. Once his right elbow began to ache, he returned to his original posture. Then he focused force into his left elbow and turned his entire body leftward into a side-lying position.

He repeated this dozens of times.

His morning practice was complete.

Only then did Chen Jichuan rise. Both elbows were already red and swollen. He walked slowly back to his residence, soaked and washed his elbows in medicinal liquid, and only after feeling the medicine seep in did he finish his training.

"The second layer of Overlord Elbow Technique is nearly complete."

"In a few more days, I can replace the blue stone with rough hemp stone. Or I can be more aggressive—dig a long groove in the ground, place smooth pebbles of varying sizes mixed with mud and sand inside, fill it with water, and once it solidifies into one mass, practice atop the pebbles."

Progressing step by step.

In the end, he would use jagged gravel of uneven edges mixed with mud and sand, place it into the groove in the same manner, and intensify his training. Once he no longer felt pain, his elbows would be as solid as steel poured over iron. Even sharp blades could not cut them, and heavy hammers could not damage them.

If used to strike people, how could they fail to pierce chests and penetrate bellies?

"The Overlord Elbow Technique trains both elbows."

"The Iron Knee Technique trains both knees."

"For those who learn martial arts, one need not fear having too many skills—the more, the better. The more every part of the body is trained, the fewer places there are to suffer attack. And sometimes, one can use those places ordinarily overlooked to subdue others."

Chen Jichuan estimated.

With his current martial attainment and physical constitution, he needed only three to five years to master these two techniques. If he did not count Origin Force, he could achieve rapid mastery even faster.

What Chen Jichuan had lacked most in the past was time.

But after escaping Black Prison, time had instead become what he lacked least.

"Take it slowly."

"Three to five years in the Great Yan World—even if I am absent for most of that time, counting fifteen years, it would only be twelve or thirteen days in reality. That is enough for me to proceed step by step here and master one martial art after another."

Chen Jichuan was in no hurry.

After practicing the Overlord Elbow Technique, he ordinarily should have moved on to other martial arts. After noon, he would then instruct the disciples.

But today was different.

"It is almost dawn."

"I should set out early and settle down as soon as possible."

Chen Jichuan looked at the sun that had completely risen outside. What occupied his thoughts was the daylight in reality.

Judging the days.

Reality should also be just beginning to brighten.

Chen Jichuan wished to battle a Tan Legs master, but he did not wish to delay matters in reality and remain in dangerous territory for its sake. Sparring with masters could wait; there would be plenty of days ahead. So long as he kept his life, sooner or later would do.

"Great Elder is leaving?"

Lu Changshou stared at the Elder Chen before him, momentarily stunned. For the past few months, Chen Jichuan had devoted himself wholeheartedly to training on Taiqing Mountain and had never gone down the mountain. He had even been eagerly waiting for Tan Sect masters to arrive so he could exchange pointers with them.

Why then—

"I will return in half a year."

Chen Jichuan said with a smile.

If it had been Lu Changshou's great-grandfather, Lu Xiong, or his grandfather, Lu Zijian, neither would have asked further. Chen Jichuan had appeared and vanished like a ghost back then, often disappearing without trace. Lu Xiong and his son had followed him for a long time and were already accustomed to it.

But several decades had passed.

How could Lu Changshou have known that Elder Chen had such a "quirk"? He could not help panicking, thinking he had slighted him somehow. Only when Chen Jichuan said he would return in half a year did he breathe a sigh of relief. Respectfully, he said, "If Great Elder has any matters to attend to, Changshou can handle them on your behalf."

"No need."

Chen Jichuan waved a hand. He could not be bothered to invent an excuse or explain himself, and merely said, "I am leaving today. You need not see me off. Keep this residence for me. I will return in half a year."

"Changshou would not dare!"

Lu Changshou hurriedly replied.

"Fight well."

"Do not put pressure on yourself."

Chen Jichuan patted Lu Changshou on the shoulder and encouraged him.

If he left now and traveled by day, then returned to Great Yan at night to rest, at least seven or eight months—or even longer—would have passed. The Thirteen Guardians of the Tan Sect might already have reached Lingnan. He might not make it in time.

"Rest assured, Grandfather."

"Changshou will never tarnish Grandfather's prestige!"

Lu Changshou's face was resolute, and the invisible pressure on his shoulders seemed to grow even heavier.

Seeing that his words had produced the opposite effect, Chen Jichuan lost interest and turned to leave. With a single step, he was light as a swallow and vanished into the forest behind the mountain.

Please vote and bookmark!

.