White Ape Mantle Blade

"Master, you're back?"

Wang Zhao, who had been mixing fodder in the stable, watched Li Rui return with the horse. He wiped his hands on his trouser legs and stood up.

There was a trace of fear in the way he looked at Li Rui.

Ever since Ma Yang's death, that thought had lingered in his mind, impossible to shake away. Whenever he fell asleep deep in the night, he could hear Li Rui's voice in his dreams.

"Disciple, disciple~"

Something was wrong with Master!

Yet he could not say exactly what was wrong with his master.

The feeling was nearly driving him mad.

"Xiao Zhao, I'll watch over the stable. Go back and get some rest first."

Seeing the enormous dark circles beneath his disciple's eyes, Li Rui knew that anyone unaware of the truth might think he had been withholding Wang Zhao's meals.

"Thank you, Master."

Wang Zhao answered, then fled back to his room as if escaping for his life.

Although Li Rui had also noticed that something was off with Wang Zhao, he had no mind to care why his disciple had become this way.

Because he had something more important to do.

He shut Zhu Yue's four Blood-Sweating Horses in the stable. Only after shoveling out the fodder did he return to his room, everything appearing no different from usual.

Li Rui had once heard an Old Daoist say:

The greater the thing one intended to do, the more one had to behave as though nothing were different from usual. One could not speak of what one planned to do—not even mutter it to oneself. This was called Inner Radiance Concealed.

Entering his room,

he carefully shut the door, then checked the doors and windows once more.

Only after confirming that no one was spying on him

did he take a packet wrapped in oiled paper from his chest.

Li Rui could practically hear his own heart pounding.

A secret art of the Huaqing Sect was bound to be extraordinary.

He took a deep breath and unwrapped the oiled paper layer by layer. At last, a book with a somewhat yellowed cover appeared before him.

Four large characters were written neatly across the cover—"White Ape Mantle Blade"!

Not only did he no longer need to spend eight taels of silver at a martial hall to buy a Cultivation Method, what he had obtained was even a secret art of the Huaqing Sect!

Li Rui held his breath.

It was not hard to tell from the name of the Cultivation Method that this was a blade technique.

Though he had never practiced blade techniques, he had only ever heard of chopping, sweeping, and lifting. What did "mantle blade" mean?

"The sword travels the green, the blade travels the black. A blade has only one edge, while its back is thicker. When facing an enemy, one may use the blade's back to block forcefully, waiting for an opportunity to break the foe—striking later, yet arriving first. This is mantle blade."

"I observed white apes at a Taoist Temple for ten years, comprehended this blade technique, and set it down in a book to pass on to later generations."

"This blade is secretly transmitted. Its Blade Intent is naturally complete, its Blade Momentum like rivers pouring backward in flood, unceasing and endless. It is a supreme art of killing and conquest, not to be learned by those without steadfast minds."

Li Rui silently recited every word.

"Drawing the blade is easy; sheathing it is hard. Beware! Beware! Beware!"

This sentence was not part of the blade formula. Perhaps it was the personal jianghu insight of the senior who had created White Ape Mantle Blade.

Translated into plain terms:

Even after learning blade techniques, do not be eager to fight and flaunt your courage. If words can settle it, do not resort to violence. But if you truly draw your blade, then you must see things through to the bitter end and leave no future trouble behind.

That was Li Rui's personal interpretation.

Compared to the Eight Section Brocade, which had been eighty percent little stick-figure drawings, White Ape Mantle Blade was vastly more complicated. It ran to tens of thousands of words, and perhaps because this blade technique had been comprehended at a Taoist Temple, it was mixed with a great deal of Taoist scripture, obscure and difficult to understand.

"The Dao has ten thousand methods, all attaining longevity. Water has a thousand sources, all flowing toward the East Sea; all attain longevity."

Li Rui felt as though he were once again a graduate student in his previous life reading academic papers.

Fortunately, his resolve was now as hard as iron. He spent three days and three nights grinding through the entire book, White Ape Mantle Blade.

Now that he had a blade technique, all he lacked was a blade.

That was even easier to handle.

The Zhu Family's guards were generally issued blades, and two at that, one as a spare. Yang Yong's spare blade was nearly rusted through, so it was just right to borrow and play with.

"Borrow a blade?"

When Yang Yong heard that Li Rui wanted to borrow a blade, his eyes widened. "Old Li, have you really become addicted to practicing martial arts? First you practiced fists, and now you're practicing blades."

Though he grumbled, he still took out the blade and handed it to Li Rui.

Li Rui grinned upon receiving it. "Old Yang, I'll treat you to a drink another day."

Yang Yong waved him off. "Forget the drink. You ought to worry first about throwing out that old back of yours."

But then he remembered how Li Rui had been walking with the wind at his heels these days, more lively and energetic than Yang Yong himself, and knew the reminder was unnecessary.

With a blade, practicing blade techniques became only natural.

Worried about damaging the furniture in his room, Li Rui deliberately found a secluded place where no one went.

The Eight Section Brocade he had practiced before was a fist technique, but it shared quite a few similarities with White Ape Mantle Blade. Both followed a broad, open style, and the Eight Section Brocade had strengthened Li Rui's body enormously.

With a good foundation, practicing the blade came easily.

The instant Li Rui's five fingers closed around the hilt, a strange sensation arose.

He was certain this was his first time holding a blade, yet the moment he gripped it, it felt as though he had handled it hundreds, even thousands of times before.

An innate sacred body for blade techniques?

He quickly understood that this had to be the work of his martial bones.

"One who possesses martial bones will surely reach the summit of martial arts."

The power of martial bones far exceeded his expectations.

But the more formidable his martial bones were, the more he needed to keep his head down and grow in secret.

The world you imagined: kill monsters, level up, grow stronger step by step, and finally challenge the BOSS.

The real world: the final BOSS was there from the start, killing you in one move without giving you any chance at all.

If word of his martial bones got out, even the Huaqing Sect's sect master would have to stand aside among the great figures hunting him down.

His end would likely be a hundred times more miserable than that senior surnamed Huang.

Keep his head down and grow in secret.

Li Rui held the blade behind his back like an old ape carrying a blade. Then he drove force through his waist and swung the long blade out, carving a semicircular arc through the air.

His body crouched with the motion, his right leg sweeping out and kicking up a great spray of snow.

Man and blade moved in harmony, seamless as one.

One slash after another.

Even Li Rui himself no longer knew how many times he had struck.

At last, he understood what that final line—"Drawing the blade is easy; sheathing it is hard"—really meant.

White Ape Mantle Blade was far too sinister.

Once the blade technique was unleashed, even he found it difficult to stop. It had to draw blood, or leave him utterly spent.

A full hour later,

Li Rui lay spread-eagled in the snow, gasping for breath.

When practicing White Ape Mantle Blade, even slacking off had become a luxury.

But the might of White Ape Mantle Blade truly was astonishing.

He had only just begun practicing it, yet he was already confident that he could use this blade to fight experts of the same level. Once he mastered it, he would be invincible among those of the same rank!

At that thought, Li Rui's heart even skipped a beat.

In a life where he had never even taken first place in elementary school in his previous life, he had somehow taken first place at seventy years old. It was truly absurd.

Late, but it had arrived.

After resting for quite a while, Li Rui finally pushed himself up with the blade.

Practicing the blade truly was more exhausting than practicing fists.

Martial practice required a balance between tension and relaxation. Li Rui rubbed his aching arms, hid the blade inside the padded coat on his back, and only after confirming that no one could tell did he head toward his quarters.

Li Rui lay weakly on his bed.

Martial bones were powerful, but they could not completely erase the muscle strain left behind by martial practice. He still needed medicine.

But the silver he had saved was already gone.

"Money, money, money."