Beginning Training

Zou Fang, clad in a blue robe and holding a White Jade Duster, stood motionless at the study door.

Inside the study, Chu Zhiyuan lounged behind a writing desk, looking at Feng Xi, who stood slightly bent at the waist. He saw the wry smile on his face.

Without asking, he knew something had gone wrong.

"Didn't catch them?"

Chu Zhiyuan took a sip of tea and asked unhurriedly.

"Reporting to Young Master, this servant was incompetent and let them escape."

"Those two were that formidable?"

There was a gulf in realm between Xiantian Realm and Grandmasters, enough to crush them outright. Yet they had escaped, which showed just how capable the two were.

"Their Disguise Technique was divine. They slipped into the crowd and changed their appearance at the same time; even their auras changed. In an instant, they vanished without a trace."

Chu Zhiyuan took another sip of tea, deep in thought.

This was one of those special Mysterious Skills and Techniques.

In a world where martial arts flourished so greatly, a secret counter-tracking art specifically designed against pursuit was not impossible, but it was certainly rare.

The identities of those two became all the more unusual.

After some thought, he asked, "Did they discover you?"

"They probably did not discover this servant."

"Were they people from the Imperial Court?"

"..."

"Were both of them from the Imperial Court?"

Chu Zhiyuan knitted his swordlike brows and stared at him.

Feng Xi promptly replied, "The other one was probably not an expert from the Town Martial Division."

The Town Martial Division's experts came from two sources. One branch consisted of military experts, inheriting military lineages; the other consisted of experts from the Four Great Sects.

Feng Xi could determine that one of them was an expert from the Town Martial Division, while the other was not.

"The Town Martial Division..."

Chu Zhiyuan rose and paced before the writing desk with his hands clasped behind his back.

In the present world, the practice of martial arts was immensely popular. Sects stood in great numbers: the Four Great Sects, Eight Great Schools, Thirty-Six Gates, along with countless smaller sects scattered like stars across the sky. It was exceedingly lively.

But in terms of strength, the Imperial Court remained the strongest.

The Imperial Court had established the Town Martial Division specifically to deal with martial artists who committed crimes and wrongdoing.

The Town Martial Division stood apart from the Imperial Court's bureaucratic system, answering directly to the Emperor. Its status was extraordinary.

The Town Martial Division expert monitoring him was likely acting on the Emperor's orders. He did not know the purpose, but there should be no danger.

But the other person was not from the Town Martial Division, so he could not afford to be careless.

"Young Master, Liang Guanjie is the most skilled at tracking and tailing people in our estate. How about having him go with this servant tomorrow?"

Chu Zhiyuan called out, "Zou Fang, bring Liang Guanjie here."

"Yes."

Zou Fang soon led in a burly, stout middle-aged man.

The stout man wore brocade robes and bore a smile as genial as Maitreya's. Rather than a martial arts expert, he looked more like a wealthy country gentleman.

He entered the study, cupped his fists, and bowed with a chuckle.

Chu Zhiyuan returned to his seat behind the writing desk. "Old Liang, tomorrow, follow the heirs of Tenth Uncle and Thirteenth Uncle. See whether anyone is tailing them... Be careful. Don't let yourselves be discovered."

A thought suddenly occurred to him. Were those people only following him, or were they following the other heirs as well? If they were tracking the others too, there was no need to be overly nervous. But if they were only tracking him, then he would have to be exceptionally cautious—perhaps even take the initiative and strike first.

That was what truly mattered.

Compared to Feng Xi's Grandmaster realm, Liang Guanjie was merely in the Xiantian Realm. Naturally, Feng Xi had to remain at his side.

"Rest easy, Young Master. It's a small matter." Liang Guanjie patted his chest and grinned broadly.

Chu Zhiyuan looked at Feng Xi. "Are there any other tracking experts in the estate?"

Feng Xi hesitated.

Chu Zhiyuan knew that meant there were none. He turned to Liang Guanjie.

Liang Guanjie scratched the back of his head and shook it. "Young Master, our estate originally had two more, but five years ago, they left the estate and returned home to live as wealthy country gentlemen."

"Then find a few helpers among your old comrades."

Liang Guanjie had once been an elite of the Eagle Soaring Camp. The friends of an elite were naturally not lacking in skill, and he had no shortage of formidable comrades-in-arms in the capital.

"Well..." Liang Guanjie looked troubled.

Chu Zhiyuan snorted. "Is your friendship insufficient, or is your face not worth enough?"

Liang Guanjie scratched his head and chuckled. "There are three old fellows, but they all serve in the City Guard Department. They have duties to fulfill, so it would not be right to trouble them."

"What are their characters like?"

"They are all straightforward men, clumsy with words and incapable of flattery. Otherwise, they would not have ended up in their current state."

"Ask them to help. Tell them there are vacancies among our estate guards."

He keenly felt the shortage of capable people in the estate.

People skilled in tracking might seem to have little use outside the military, but they could actually produce miraculous results.

At any time, intelligence was of paramount importance.

Though Prince Qing's Estate had declined, that depended on whom it was compared with. An estate guard's salary was at least triple that of a city guard. Moreover, compared with the City Guard Department's busy and tedious work, being an estate guard was far more leisurely. There were fewer worries, more time and energy for cultivation—it was truly an excellent post.

If Prince Qing's Estate had remained under its original restrictions, it would have been no different from imprisonment. Over the past thirty years, one-quarter of the estate guards had already left.

Now that Prince Qing's Estate had been unsealed, even though it had declined, it was still the estate of a Prince. There would absolutely be people scrambling to become estate guards.

Liang Guanjie's eyes immediately lit up. He slapped his chest hard. "Ha! Young Master, leave it to me!"

Chu Zhiyuan looked at Feng Xi. "Steward Feng, have those three assist you. Get to the bottom of that fellow's background!"

"Yes." Feng Xi nodded solemnly.

Chu Zhiyuan said, "Old Liang, explain those three men's circumstances clearly to Steward Feng. Don't let anything go wrong. This matter is important."

"Rest easy, Young Master!" Liang Guanjie patted his chest again.

Chu Zhiyuan lifted his white jade teacup.

Liang Guanjie cupped his fists in farewell and withdrew.

At Chu Zhiyuan's glance, Feng Xi remained behind.

Chu Zhiyuan set down the white jade cup, looked at Feng Xi, and revealed his doubts.

Feng Xi perceptively said, "Old Liang likes to boast, but he is steady in his actions."

Not just anyone could enter the Eagle Soaring Camp. It was the elite among the military's elite; otherwise, even after retiring from service, one could not enter a Prince's estate.

Chu Zhiyuan nodded. "Find out the backgrounds of Old Liang's three friends."

If they were truly to be brought into the Prince's estate, they needed clean records and no hidden risks.

"This servant understands." Feng Xi nodded gravely.

People's hearts were ever-changing. They might be Old Liang's comrades, but that did not mean they harbored no other intentions. They still had to be investigated.

Chu Zhiyuan waved a hand.

Feng Xi bowed and withdrew.

Chu Zhiyuan came out into the courtyard.

Rows of bamboo groves grew along the base of the walls. Whenever a breeze blew, they rustled softly. Listening to Waves Courtyard had received its name from this.

Several strings of lanterns illuminated the courtyard brightly.

The Green Bamboo cast scattered, sparse shadows beneath the lantern light.

Stars dotted the night sky. The bright moon hid behind several dark clouds, lighting their thinner patches until they resembled layers of silver scales.

He stood in a daze and watched for a long while.

Was this bright moon the same one from his previous life?

What connection did this world have to his former world?

As he stood lost in thought and admiration, the dark clouds drifted lightly away, revealing the bright moon like an icy disk.

Soft moonlight spilled down from the heavens and fell amid the courtyard's bright lights.

He flashed away in an instant, vanishing from where he stood. In the next moment, he appeared three meters away; with another flash, he reached nine meters away.

His figure flickered through the courtyard, each appearance carrying him roughly nine meters.

The Inch-to-Horizon Footwork had already reached minor accomplishment.

The circulation route of the Inch-to-Horizon Footwork was complicated. To make internal energy flow along such a complex route, smoothly and without mishap, required two steps.

The first step was opening the path.

He used internal energy to carve out this route.

This route lay neither within the Twelve Meridians nor the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. Instead, it opened new Meridians within the body.

From one acupoint to the next, then to another, it passed through thirty-two acupoints in succession before finally leading to the Yongquan points in the soles of his feet.

Each time the internal energy stored in his dantian passed through an acupoint, it underwent a change. After passing through thirty-two acupoints and changing thirty-two times, it became utterly different from the internal energy cultivated by the Lesser Violet Sun Technique. It could make the body light and swift, unleashing tremendous power in an instant.

The second step was to achieve perfect fluency through familiarity.

After opening the route of the cultivation technique, one had to become thoroughly familiar with it. Even with one's eyes closed and without dividing one's attention, the internal energy had to flow smoothly. It had to operate instinctively, becoming as natural as drinking water and eating meals.

If one could not achieve that, then in the tension of battle, mishaps would easily occur. At best, the flow would stagnate; at worst, one would be injured. For such a thing to happen in a life-and-death fight was no different from suicide.

He discovered that it was not only his five senses that had mutated, but also his brain.

Otherwise, he could not have so easily absorbed the vast, tangled torrent of information brought by the extension of his senses without suffering any dizziness or swelling in his head.

Without realizing it, he had gained a photographic memory.

He memorized the complicated circulation route in a single pass. After three passes, he was already proficient; after twelve, it had become instinct.

He no longer needed to deliberately divide his attention to guide his internal energy. It was as practiced as if he had trained it for decades.

He shook his head and sighed. He truly was a prodigy in martial arts.

A so-called prodigy was someone who could effortlessly accomplish what others needed to spend vast amounts of time doing.

This meant that where others might only master two or three martial arts in their entire lives, he could master countless martial arts.

He then shook his head. The most fundamental thing was still realm. If his realm could not keep up, then even if he possessed a dazzling array of Mysterious Skills and supreme arts, they would be nothing but flowery displays.

Most of his energy still had to be devoted to cultivating internal techniques and raising his realm.

For the time that followed, his figure continued to flicker without pause. The distance he crossed rose from nine meters to twelve, then fifteen, before it stopped increasing.

Limited by the purity of his internal energy, fifteen meters was already the limit.

To increase it further, he would need to raise the level of his internal energy.

He then had Zou Fang bring him a longsword and fastened it at his waist. Again and again, he drew it and thrust, each strike growing faster.

Without realizing it, the bright moon had already shifted westward.

The night grew ever deeper.

A flash of cold light gleamed at his waist, and his sword was already thrust into the air, incomparably swift.

The Great Avalanche Sword Art had already been mastered.

Both the Inch-to-Horizon Footwork and the Great Avalanche Sword Art shared a common trait: they were explosive martial arts.

What they pursued was swiftness and speed.

He had chosen them precisely for his own particular strengths.

With Zou Fang and Guo Chi, two Grandmasters, present, he only needed to use the Inch-to-Horizon Footwork to evade the first strike or the second. Zou Fang and Guo Chi would never allow the opponent to unleash a third move.

The Great Avalanche Sword Art condensed all one's cultivation into a single sword strike, deciding life and death with one sword. Combined with Super Sensation, which allowed him to perceive the opponent's weaknesses and judge the timing of his strike, and then accelerated by the Inch-to-Horizon Footwork, its power could be brought to its fullest.

The instant his mental tension loosened, pain surged through every inch of his body. His Meridians had endured too much impact and felt as though they were about to split apart.

Drawing cold breaths, he lay down on the couch. The pain was so unbearable that he could not sleep. He had to shift his attention to lessen it, so he focused his mind on the Jade Lock Golden Pass Technique.

Then he sighed.

No wonder no one had managed to master this Jade Lock Golden Pass Technique to this day.