Zhang Junbao was summarizing the key points of the movement technique, recording its training methods and applications.
They had another martial arts manual. Their assets had grown.
They spent the next ten days or so at the inn.
After breakfast, Zhang Junbao asked in puzzlement, "Brother Yuan, are we really going to do this?"
"Of course. Through these battles, my Supreme Yang Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill successfully broke through to the fifth level, and my Supreme Yang Inner Energy transformed into Supreme Yang True Qi. Even my Supreme Yin Meridian-Concentrating Divine Skill reached the second level.
"Add the Blue Butterfly Cloud-Gliding Wandering Body Steps, and our martial prowess has increased tremendously."
Confidence shone in Zhang Qingyuan's eyes.
Inner energy and True Qi were, in fact, the same kind of energy.
The difference was that inner energy was less pure than True Qi.
Qi could also be written with the ancient character for primordial Qi!
But one should not look down on inner energy, assuming it was less powerful simply because it was less pure than True Qi.
That was not the case.
Both 92-octane and 98-octane gasoline were gasoline. Both could ignite, and both could power a car.
Some people practiced internal arts all their lives and still had only inner energy when they died.
But which was stronger: a hundred years of inner energy or fifty years of True Qi?
They were actually the same.
If both sides really used the same martial art,
then, by the end of the fight, the person with fifty years of True Qi would still lose to the one with a hundred years of inner energy.
Because no matter how pure his True Qi was, his reserves were smaller.
Although 98-octane gasoline lasted longer than 92-octane and could take a car farther, it had not undergone a qualitative transformation.
The key was still who used it, and how.
Even if Zhang Junbao never transformed his inner energy into True Qi, he could still become invincible under heaven by thirty.
It still depended on individual ability.
Qiao Feng's Taizu Long Fist was not the same fist art as an ordinary person's Taizu Long Fist.
So, in someone else's hands, True Qi might be less useful than inner energy.
But Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao could put True Qi to its fullest use.
Still uneasy, Zhang Junbao looked out the window and said worriedly, "But over a hundred martial artists have already gathered in Xia County these past few days.
"Just now, in the main hall, the waiter told me that no fewer than a dozen groups had come asking about us."
"Not enough. We need some more."
"That's still not enough?"
"We're making a name for ourselves. We need a somewhat constructive spectacle."
"This spectacle isn't constructive enough?"
"Ha." Zhang Qingyuan said, "Back then, Zhou Huaiyu stormed the Heavenly Mountain Sect alone with a single sword, slaying all 127 experts in the sect, including its leader.
"After returning to Yun Province, he beat dozens of its top experts, from major and minor factions alike, into submission, founded Heavenly Sword City, and earned the glorious title of Heavenly Sword.
"Even now, Heavenly Sword City remains one of the foremost major sects in the martial world."
Through his travels in the martial world during this time, Zhang Qingyuan had gained some understanding of Great Qian's various martial factions.
"Three temples, six sects, twelve orders; two Dao lineages, four gates, five cities.
"Heaven and Earth, Unrivaled, Yin and Yang Swords; Long Spear, White Snow, Yi Tianxing."
Zhang Qingyuan recited a verse. This bit of doggerel summarized Great Qian's top martial factions and strongest combatants.
"Explain it to me. How did these sects and those experts make their names?"
Zhang Junbao murmured, "Through fighting."
"There you go. Never mind the others-Shaolin is one of the three temples. You even lived there, yet you don't understand their methods at all." Zhang Qingyuan rolled his eyes.
What were Shaolin's methods?
Naturally, they reasoned with the entire martial world from their position as its top dog.
Whether their reasoning was sound or not, you had to listen. If you refused, you had fallen onto the demonic path. Surely it was not excessive for an eminent Shaolin monk to subdue a demon?
Thus, Zhang Qingyuan had chosen precisely the same way of making his name as Shaolin Temple.
Once Xia County grew a little livelier, he would take Zhang Junbao out to reason with people.
He did not think he could persuade the entire martial world alone.
But if reasoning failed, the two Daoist brothers knew a thing or two about fists and feet.
"Brother, Shaolin Temple really has sent people," Zhang Junbao suddenly said.
"Huh?"
"The waiter told me that the people coming to Xia County this time aren't just experts sent by the Wang Family. Quite a few prestigious major sects have also sent disciples to join the excitement."
"What?" Zhang Qingyuan's head seemed to buzz. "Who's come?"
Zhang Junbao counted on his fingers. "Shaolin of the three temples, Mount Hua and the Beggar Clan of the six sects, Heaven Gate of the four gates, and second-tier ones like the Joyous Union Sect and Longevity Mountain Manor. They've all sent people."
"Wait, the Wang Family has that much clout?"
They should have said so sooner! With connections like that, why stay in Central Province? The world was vast-where couldn't they go?
"No, Brother Yuan, you've misunderstood," Zhang Junbao hurriedly explained. "Those major sects didn't come for the Wang Family's five thousand taels of silver."
"Oh-huh? It's already gone up to five thousand taels?"
"Yes."
Zhang Junbao said helplessly, "Honestly, I don't think you need to bother trying to make a name for yourself anymore. The people outside have already spread our fame for us."
It was simple.
It began because Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao had caused such a stir over the past few days, with quite a few experts suffering crushing defeats at their hands.
This gradually set the guards retained by the Wang Family, along with Central Province's martial artists, thinking.
Which sect did these eighteen-year-old Daoists belong to?
Eighteen years old, with martial arts that formidable? They definitely had someone backing them!
So they began investigating the pair.
Three men could conjure a tiger through rumor.
The stories about them grew stranger with every telling.
Since both wore Daoist robes, everyone assumed they belonged to a purely Daoist sect.
The foremost Daoist sects in the martial world were naturally the two Dao lineages in that martial-world verse: the Pure Yang Daoist Sect and the Quanzhen Dao Sect.
Even if they were not disciples of those two great Daoist sects, they had to belong to one a tier below.
Mount Longhu, Three Pure Ones Temple, the Supreme Yin Mysterious Purity Dao, the Taiyi Sword Dao, the Kunlun Limitless Holy Mother Cult, the Kunlun Mysterious Maiden Pavilion, the Kunlun Jade Void Palace, Limitless Temple, and so on...
These might be second-tier Daoist sects in the martial world, but none of their big shots were easy to provoke. Killing them would be all too easy.
Even if they wanted to earn money, they had to live to spend it!
Without backing, even a genius could simply be killed, and that would be that.
The fear was that they had powerful backing and were playing pigs to eat tigers. If killing them brought a big shot seeking vengeance for his disciples, the losses would outweigh the gains.
Yet no matter how they investigated, they could not uncover the pair's origins.
Their martial arts followed none of the styles of any Daoist sect.
Later, someone learned their names in Sanhe Town.
According to the townspeople, the two had settled in Sanhe Town the previous year. Zhang Junbao rarely went out, while Zhang Qingyuan made their living telling fortunes at the crossroads.
Later, when two small gangs in Sanhe Town fought, the pair had been forced to reveal their martial arts to save someone.
Only then did the investigators find a lead.
They learned that the person rescued was an old woman surnamed Li.
After several twists and turns, they found Zhao Pengju, still traveling along the road to Ji Province.
Then Zhao Pengju spoke.
The pair had actually known no martial arts before. Half a year earlier, they had not even known how to cultivate inner energy. He had personally visited and explained how the meridians worked, allowing them to take their first steps.
Then they had stayed home, working out internal arts and sword techniques themselves.
Half a year later, they had successfully worked out a whole repertoire of skills.
Zhao Pengju spoke with dancing eyebrows and a radiant expression, his words seeming to suggest that their martial accomplishments were all thanks to his teaching.
Then the investigators immediately proposed exchanging pointers with Zhao Pengju.
Ten moves.
Zhao Pengju was flat on his back...
The investigators thought he was bullshitting.
Those two youths had killed so many experts in Central Province, and a sorry bastard like him claimed to have taught them?
Zhao Pengju felt deeply wronged. He explained that he had not taught them martial arts. They had worked those out themselves; he had only explained the principles of internal arts.
Unfortunately, the more he explained, the more they thought he was bullshitting, so they beat him up again.
When the news reached Central Province, it immediately stirred towering waves in its martial community.
Seventeen years old?
Working things out at home?
And they had actually developed a whole repertoire of skills?
Was this some storyteller's tale?
Could anyone under heaven really be that incredible?
Only if Great Emperor Zhenwu had reincarnated, or Perfected Lord Erlang had been reborn!
Initially, they did not believe it. But somehow, the news reached Shaolin.
When Shaolin Temple heard, their response was: What? Zhang Junbao was already that powerful?
People asked Shaolin, "Great masters, do you know those two?"
Shaolin stated, "We do not know Zhang Qingyuan, but a year ago, Zhang Junbao was still a furnace-tending boy at our Shaolin Temple."
"Did he know martial arts, then?"
"He secretly learned our Shaolin internal arts and knew a few moves of Arhat Fist. To think a boy expelled from our mountain would dare use Shaolin martial arts in the martial world, and even pass our internal cultivation method on to someone else!"
The twenty-odd people who had escaped the inn that day explained, "The two Daoists use authentic Daoist cultivation methods. Even their projected inner energy is filled with the profound resonance of Daoist arts."
Shaolin: "Impossible. Absolutely impossible!"
The news spread.
Everyone was bewildered once again.
Where exactly had those two learned their martial arts?
With Shaolin stepping forward to refute the rumors, they first established that Zhang Junbao really had not been an expert a year ago. He had only known a few Shaolin fist routines and might have secretly learned Shaolin internal arts.
But to reach such a level in just half a year?
They must have encountered some fortuitous opportunity, just like in a storyteller's tales: falling off a cliff and obtaining an incomparably powerful internal cultivation method, or chancing upon miraculous medicine and consuming some heavenly treasure.
As for Zhao Pengju's claim that they had worked everything out and cultivated on their own?
Fuck that. Anyone who believed that bullshit was an idiot!