Demon Ape Skill

"Young Hero Tian, these are the martial arts manuals of the Desert North Duo. We interrogated them separately and compared their accounts afterward. There were no discrepancies."

A young constable came to the courtyard where Tian Hao was staying and handed him a stack of handwritten pages.

These were the martial arts manuals they had forced out of the Desert North Duo, just as Chief Constable Zhao had promised.

Naturally, they had kept a copy for themselves.

Being a constable was a dangerous line of work these days. A little more strength could save their lives at a critical moment.

"They talked that quickly?"

Tian Hao glanced over the pages handed to him, surprised.

He had expected such vicious men to have wills of iron and choose death over surrender. Who would have thought they would give in so quickly?

"Those two beasts were only vicious toward other people. We were barely halfway through our tortures before they broke, crying and begging for mercy or death."

The young constable curled his lip in disdain. At the time, he too had never expected those two to be silver spears with wax tips-all show and no substance.

"Please thank Chief Constable Zhao for me!"

Tian Hao nodded in understanding and signaled to Lao Denuo.

Lao Denuo took out a banknote, pressed it into the young constable's hand, and saw him out.

"So it was actually an effect of their internal power."

Tian Hao looked through the handwritten manual in his hands, surprised.

He had assumed the Desert North Duo had made their arms unusually thick by practicing some sort of external body-hardening art. Who would have thought it was the effect of internal power?

"This Demon Ape Skill is quite formidable. It isn't much inferior to our Mount Hua Heart Method. No wonder Black Bear managed to reach the Houtian Realm."

Picking up a page Tian Hao had finished reading, Zhao Bulu scanned it and immediately recognized the internal power art's merits. It offered a chance of breaking through to the Houtian Realm.

Of course, it was only a chance. The Mount Hua Heart Method could also allow someone to reach the Houtian Realm, yet all of them, fellow martial brothers, remained stuck at the peak of the Inner Qi Realm, unable to advance an inch.

Some had suffered severe injuries in the Sword-Qi War that damaged their foundations, while others lacked sufficient talent. There were many reasons.

It was also because Yue Buqun had broken through to the Houtian Realm back then and become the strongest among them that they had accepted him as Mount Hua's sect leader. They had hidden themselves in the Qinling Mountains to quietly build their strength, one side in the light and the other in the shadows.

"It mostly follows the meridians and acupoints of the three hand yang channels. No wonder it changes the arms so much."

After giving the Demon Ape Skill a cursory read, Tian Hao understood its underlying principles.

Over the past few months, Old Yue and his wife had put him through some intensive lessons, giving him a substantial understanding of the essence of internal power cultivation.

This Demon Ape Skill chiefly cultivated the three hand yang meridians, affecting both arms and shoulders. No wonder it had made the Desert North Duo's arms so thick.

Of course, the external art the Desert North Duo practiced was powerful too. Called the Demon Ape Through-Arm Fist, it complemented the Demon Ape Skill, producing even better results when the two were practiced together.

However, to cultivate both arts, one had to eat people. Only then could progress be accelerated; otherwise, the cultivation rate would be pitiful.

That was probably the fundamental reason the Desert North Duo ate people. Viewed that way, this martial art could indeed be called an evil, demonic art.

"Hmph. Those wicked deviants think of nothing but shortcuts. Do they think shortcuts on the martial path are so easy to take?"

Having read the accelerated cultivation method at the back as well, Zhao Bulu gave a cold laugh, utterly disdainful.

"Eating people should be a way of obtaining their vital essence. We can replace it with large quantities of medicinal cuisine. It looks like we'll have to ask Mistress and the others to expand the scale of medicinal chicken farming."

After some thought, Tian Hao concluded that medicinal cuisine could replace cannibalism and achieve the same accelerated progress.

The Eight-Treasure Precious Soup was among the finest medicinal cuisine, and its effects would be even better than eating people.

Only penniless wretches like the Desert North Duo, with neither a sect nor wealth backing them, would resort to eating people to accelerate their cultivation.

Now that the Mount Hua Sect had acquired the Guan Family Fort's wealth, money was the last thing they lacked, not to mention the vast quantities of precious medicinal ingredients they had already obtained through trade.

In fact, several months earlier, his mistress Ning Zhongze had already arranged for people to expand the scale of medicinal chicken farming.

"We can discuss this later. First, let's return to Mount Hua and report this to our junior martial brother, the sect leader. That brat Linghu Chong has gone far too far."

At the thought of the trouble Linghu Chong had brought upon them, Zhao Bulu's aged face darkened.

Had Tian Hao not reacted in time, that brat would have dragged their Mount Hua Sect to its death.

"Yes, and we can take Yang Jian and Yang Chan up Mount Hua too. Yang Jian's aptitude is a little lacking, but the girl Yang Chan is quite promising. We can recommend her to Mistress."

Tian Hao nodded, also believing they should return to Mount Hua as soon as possible. Yang Jian and Yang Chan were the brother and sister.

He had previously asked Zhao Bulu to personally examine the siblings' aptitude. Yang Jian was fourteen this year, and the innate qi in his body was almost exhausted, making him unsuitable for cultivating internal power. However, his physique was decent, so he could practice external arts and eventually condense internal force from the outside in.

By comparison, Yang Chan had good aptitude. Combined with her young age and the considerable amount of innate qi within her, she was fine material for martial training.

The three did not linger. They left the city and headed straight up Mount Hua.

Meanwhile, Yue Buqun was watching the sunset with his wife, in exceptionally high spirits.

The Mount Hua Sect's prospects were looking splendid. The medicinal ingredients purchased with nearly ten million taels of silver were piled like mountains. Fortunately, their sect had once been prosperous and excavated many caves; otherwise, they truly would not have had room for so many ingredients.

From now on, they need not concern themselves with Jianghu affairs. They only needed to cultivate behind closed doors and train their disciples.

They would first train hard for ten or twenty years. Once they had raised over ten thousand disciples, they would emerge again and overawe the martial world of the Southern Ming Kingdom.

Of course, before that, they had to complete their schemes concerning the Fuwei Armed Escort Agency and Putian Shaolin Temple, seizing the Bixie Sword Manual and the accumulated legacy of Putian Shaolin Temple.

"Senior Brother, have you cultivated the Embrace Origin Force to major mastery?"

Seeing her husband's unbroken cheer that day, Ning Zhongze asked curiously, already having an inkling of the answer.

While the couple had been perfecting the Self-Hypnosis Method with that disciple, they had practiced it themselves along the way, attaining the mental state of Embrace Origin Guarding the One long ago.

Using that mental state to work backward and cultivate the Embrace Origin Force greatly increased their efficiency.

She was still a little short of major mastery in the Embrace Origin Force, but her husband's cultivation was stronger, so he should progress somewhat faster.

"I gained some insight this morning and successfully broke through to major mastery."

The smile on Yue Buqun's face deepened. He even threw a punch, striking the air with a series of explosive cracks.

The Embrace Origin Force chiefly depended on comprehension. With sufficient insight, cultivation yielded twice the results for half the effort.

Yet they had done things in reverse, first attaining Embrace Origin Guarding the One, the ultimate state of the Embrace Origin Force, then using it as the foundation to cultivate embracing the origin inner force. Twice the results for half the effort fell far short of describing that pace.

It was dozens of times faster than normal cultivation, with no bottlenecks. Most importantly, there were no hidden dangers.

Even setting everything else aside, this Embrace Origin Force alone was enough to bring prosperity to their Mount Hua Sect.

Even if their disciples lacked the powerful mental focus they had accumulated over years of cultivation, their cultivation efficiency would still improve greatly.

At the very least, reaching major mastery in the Embrace Origin Force within ten years would pose no problem. By then, they could stand on equal footing with Inner Qi Realm martial artists.

Moreover, with the help of large quantities of medicinal cuisine, their eldest disciple Linghu Chong had already cultivated the Mount Hua Heart Method to major mastery and successfully broken through to the Houtian Realm.

Once they passed on the Violet Mist Divine Skill to him, their Mount Hua Sect would have three Houtian Realm experts standing guard. They would have no worries about protecting themselves!

"Master, Mistress, your disciple has something to report."

Just then, a voice came from outside the courtyard.

"Come in!"

The familiar voice told Yue Buqun that his eldest disciple had returned without him needing to turn his head.

"Didn't we tell you to enjoy yourselves in the city for a few more days? Why have you come back so soon?"

Ning Zhongze asked in puzzlement. She knew how hard the disciples had trained over the past few months and had deliberately given the youngsters a few days off.

Given Chong'er's love of wine, he should not have returned so soon.