Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand

Chen Yuan watched Lin Jingqi with great interest.

He had not expected there to be such hidden details behind what happened back then.

He had felt from the beginning that something was off. Lin Jingqi was far too cowardly and indecisive, not even as resolute as his wife.

Could someone with that sort of personality really have seized a martial arts academy?

Now that it turned out Zhang Qiuhe had been the one calling the shots, it made much more sense.

Zhang Qiuhe spat blood as she glared viciously at Lin Jingqi. "Useless trash! You're just like Duan Mubai—both of you are useless trash!"

Lin Jingqi looked at Chen Yuan hopefully, wishing Chen Yuan would spare his life.

But the next instant, a flash of saber light swept past, and Lin Jingqi's head fell from his shoulders.

Chen Yuan flicked the droplets of blood from his blade and sheathed it. He said to Zhang Xiaoyi, "Take the head and bring that woman along too."

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded. He immediately found a scrap of cloth to wrap Lin Jingqi's head in, then escorted Zhang Qiuhe out of the academy.

The academy disciples were silent as cicadas, all of them voluntarily stepping aside.

In truth, Chen Yuan had not even needed to bring those Merit Transmission Hall disciples to put on a show of force.

The academy's disciples had paid to learn martial arts; they did not share a true master-disciple relationship with Lin Jingqi.

Once they learned that Lin Jingqi had offended the Heavenly Wolf Gang, they had even considered simply leaving the academy. No one would have made a move.

After taking a carriage to Black-Clothes Alley, Chen Yuan took the head and tossed it before Duan Mubai.

Duan Mubai seemingly had not expected Chen Yuan to act so quickly.

He froze for a moment before lifting the rag with trembling hands.

At the sight of that familiar head within, Duan Mubai let out choked sobs that sounded both like laughter and weeping. His entire body trembled.

"Oh, right. There's one more thing I need to tell you.

Before Lin Jingqi died, he said that he had not been the mastermind behind plotting against you back then. Your fiancée, Zhang Qiuhe, was the true mastermind. He had merely been seduced into it by her.

I brought that woman here too. Kill her or torture her—it's up to you."

With a wave of Chen Yuan's hand, Zhang Qiuhe was thrown directly before Duan Mubai.

Duan Mubai looked at Zhang Qiuhe, trembling. "It was really you?"

"Of course it was me. Did you think that useless Lin Jingqi could have done such things? Even if he had the desire, he wouldn't have had the guts!"

Facing Duan Mubai, Zhang Qiuhe showed not the slightest guilt. Instead, her face was full of hatred.

"Why!? My father took you in, taught you martial arts, and treated you like his own daughter. I treated you like my own little sister too!"

"But I'm not your little sister! I'm your fiancée! I'm the academy master's wife!"

Zhang Qiuhe glared at Duan Mubai. "I didn't care if you went out looking for women or fooled around, but you should never have said that you saw me as a little sister and had no intention of marrying me!

I spent more than ten years preparing to become the academy master's wife. Zhenshan Martial Arts Academy was my home. I had already lost one home, and I didn't want to lose a second!

You saw me as your little sister, but if you married another woman, would she see me as her little sister? Would Zhenshan Martial Arts Academy still be my home?

I don't care who becomes the master of Zhenshan Martial Arts Academy, but I must be the academy master's wife!"

Duan Mubai looked at Zhang Qiuhe and suddenly burst into laughter. But as he laughed, he began to cry again.

He had never imagined that he would end up like this over such an absurd reason!

Having watched enough of the spectacle, Chen Yuan waved a hand and had someone drag Zhang Qiuhe away.

"All right. I found both the one who acted and the mastermind for you. I've done more than enough. It's time to hand over the Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand, isn't it?"

Duan Mubai said hoarsely, "Bring me paper and a brush."

Chen Yuan had paper and a brush brought over. Duan Mubai trembled as he wrote out the technique for the Shattered-Jade Silk-Winding Hand.

Satisfied, Chen Yuan put away the manual and left behind fifty taels of silver. "Take the money and live out the rest of your life properly."

Duan Mubai waved his hand. "Don't waste the silver. I've been lying here for years. I'm used to it by now."

"What about Zhang Qiuhe? Do you want her dealt with?"

"Let her go. In the end, I was the one who wronged her."

Chen Yuan glanced at Duan Mubai and lightly shook his head.

What a hopelessly softhearted fool.

Chen Yuan boarded the carriage, summoned Zhang Xiaoyi, and said flatly, "Later, take that woman somewhere remote and deal with her."

Zhang Xiaoyi asked in surprise, "Young Master, didn't you promise Duan Mubai that you would spare her?"

"I only asked whether he wanted her dealt with. I never promised I would do as he said."

Chen Yuan said calmly, "That woman is no harmless lamb. There's something wrong with her head.

I killed her husband and destroyed Zhenshan Martial Arts Academy. Who knows what other trouble she might stir up?

As they say, when will vengeance ever end? Kill them all cleanly, and there won't be so many messy revenge stories afterward."

Zhang Xiaoyi scratched his head in confusion.

Was that what "when will vengeance ever end" meant?

But since the young master had said it, there probably could not be anything wrong with it.

After returning to the Heavenly Wolf Gang, Chen Yuan immediately went into seclusion to cultivate the Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand.

Destroying Zhenshan Martial Arts Academy was only a trivial matter. There was not even any need to specifically report it to Jiang Kaitai.

They could simply announce to the outside world that Zhenshan Martial Arts Academy had colluded with the Blackwater Gang and shown contempt for the Heavenly Wolf Gang.

Though Lin Jingqi, the academy master, could barely be considered someone of note, in the eyes of the Heavenly Wolf Gang, he was no different from Hu Laosan, whom Chen Yuan had slain at Worry-Free Tower. Both were insignificant nobodies.

Chen Yuan had often done such things lately to earn favor with Jiang Kaitai, and Jiang Kaitai had long since grown accustomed to it.

Back in his room, Chen Yuan took out the manual and carefully studied its contents.

After transmigrating, Chen Yuan had inherited the memories of the "Chen Yuan" from the game, as well as this body's astonishing talent for martial arts.

Chen Yuan had cultivated martial arts for only two years before taking charge of the Merit Transmission Hall. Even the old instructors there held him in deep respect, all because of his nearly monstrous talent for martial arts.

Any technique could be roughly learned after Chen Yuan read it once, and after cultivating it for a short time, he could understand it thoroughly.

The proprietress of Worry-Free Tower had said that Chen Yuan's Heavenly Wolf Saber Art possessed seventy percent of Jiang Kaitai's essence. In truth, she had underestimated Chen Yuan.

When Jiang Kaitai had been at Chen Yuan's current cultivation level, his attainments in the Heavenly Wolf Saber Art had been far inferior to Chen Yuan's.

When he had first transmigrated, Chen Yuan had felt that he did not even have a cheat, and that his life as a transmigrator was rather shabby.

But now it seemed that this body he had transmigrated into was his greatest cheat.

As long as he could survive this calamity in Linked Mountains City and rise through the martial world, his future accomplishments would be limitless.

A genius who failed to grow was merely a dead man. One who grew into his potential became a legend.

Duan Mubai had not held anything back. He had indeed written out the entire Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand technique in full.

After reading it through in one sitting, Chen Yuan let out a long breath.

He could now say for certain that the Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand was absolutely not a hereditary technique of the Duan Clan. Their family did not possess that kind of foundation.

The core of the Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand was exceptionally exquisite. It was not merely a grappling martial skill, but also a method that could mobilize internal breath and temper the meridians.

Externally, one cultivated grappling techniques; internally, one cultivated Silk-Winding Force and Shattered-Jade Force. One force was hard, the other soft. They transformed into internal force and traveled through the body, conforming to the principles of yin and yang as they continuously tempered the meridians.

Even someone who had never cultivated internal arts could enter the Meridian-Unblocking Realm after years of tempering under the impact of those hard and soft internal forces.

No wonder Duan Zhenshan had reached the Meridian-Unblocking Realm without cultivating internal arts. It was because he had cultivated the Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand to an extraordinarily profound level.

Logically speaking, a technique of this level ought to have a matching internal cultivation method to support it.

Silk-Winding Force and Shattered-Jade Force merely played auxiliary roles.

Yet no internal cultivation method had been passed down through the Duan Clan's ancestors. This was enough to show that the technique had likely been acquired by an ancestor of the Duan Clan by chance.

Chen Yuan sat cross-legged on his bed, continuously circulating Silk-Winding Force and Shattered-Jade Force.

He felt the hard and soft forces continuously clash within his body, bringing waves of needle-like agony.

Yet Chen Yuan's expression did not change. He still forcibly controlled the two forces as they carried the weak internal energy cultivated through the Azure Wood Method and struck at his meridians.

If Duan Mubai had seen this, he would certainly have suffered a severe blow.

His talent in martial arts was fairly good as well, yet when Duan Zhenshan taught him the Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand, it had taken him a full month just to grasp Silk-Winding Force and Shattered-Jade Force.

As for controlling those hard and soft forces to temper his meridians, that had been utterly impossible.

He simply could not control the two forces. The moment they appeared together, they began to conflict. Forcibly tempering his meridians like that would have been no different from destroying them himself.

Thus, although Duan Mubai had cultivated this technique for over a year, he could not even be considered to have entered the basics.

Yet now, Chen Yuan had spent only one day, and his mastery of Silk-Winding Force and Shattered-Jade Force was almost no different from that of Duan Zhenshan.

Chen Yuan endured the intense pain and gradually forced open his blocked meridians one by one.

This was not a game, where pain perception could be blocked. Chen Yuan had to endure every bit of pain himself.

Under the assault of the hard and soft forces, the Governing Vessel, Conception Vessel, Penetrating Vessel... opened one after another.

He had already cultivated to the peak of the Body-Tempering Realm. He had only been unable to break through because the Azure Wood Method progressed too slowly.

Now, with the aid of Silk-Winding Force and Shattered-Jade Force, his eight extraordinary meridians were fully opened. Internal energy flowed through his body like running water, circulating through the heavenly cycle without end.

The Meridian-Unblocking Realm had been achieved!

Chen Yuan let out a long breath. His entire body was drenched in sweat, as though he had been pulled from the water.

Compared to the Body-Tempering Realm, the greatest difference in the Meridian-Unblocking Realm was the increase in power.

One relied solely on the strength of muscles, sinews, and bones.

The other could use internal energy to stimulate the eight extraordinary meridians and mobilize the strength of the entire body. Their explosive power was on completely different levels.

Furthermore, after Meridian Opening, the body's full circulation was completely connected. Even while Chen Yuan slept, his internal energy would unconsciously circulate, further increasing the speed of its growth.

But at this stage, a good internal cultivation method was even more necessary.

When Chen Yuan concentrated fully on cultivation, it took an entire shichen for the Azure Wood Method's internal energy to complete one heavenly cycle.

High-grade techniques required only a quarter of an hour, or even less. The gap was enormous.