You Call That Martial Arts?

When Chu Tianshu and his group arrived, fearing that a large number of people would attract too much attention, they split into ten groups, some traveling by land and some by water, and they would meet up in Pingtan.

When they returned, Chu Tianshu and Miaokong were still leading the way.

However, they only took away fewer than twenty monks who had not performed well in this battle.

Although they are all martial monks, not everyone can adapt to this kind of killing.

The tasks assigned to this group in the future should mostly be of a defensive nature.

However, a few of them were rather special. They wanted to return to secular life, but they felt uncomfortable participating in these wars as monks.

When asked about his plans after leaving the monastic community, he expressed great enthusiasm for continuing to participate in the fight against Japanese pirates.

On the bow of the ship on the return journey, Miaokong thought about this matter and nodded slightly.

"It was our oversight. In the past, martial monks occasionally took on affairs of the martial world without affecting their Buddhist identity. However, from now on, they will resemble more of a dedicated soldier, which deviates too much from the teachings of Buddhism."

"Whenever we have time, we should give Dharma talks to all the monks and nuns, and open the door wide for them to become lay disciples."

Chu Tianshu was also at the bow of the boat. Hearing this, he simply smiled, took out a small dried fish from the oil paper package, and took a bite.

This was also one of the spoils of war.

Small fish, about the length of a finger, are marinated to remove any fishy smell, then baked into dried fish. They are primarily salty and savory, with a hint of sweetness that makes them increasingly fragrant the more you chew them.

When Zhao Yannian led his men to comfort the abducted people, he appeared very experienced. He didn't just give empty speeches; instead, he first looked around for food and clothing and found these supplies.

The fear and sobbing of those who had been abducted upon waking were quickly soothed by the fine food and complete sets of clothing they were provided with.

Seeing how capable Zhao Yannian and the others were, Chu Tianshu finally felt more at ease.

As soon as I felt relieved, I felt hungry, so I grabbed a small bag of dried fish to try.

Anyway, the others on the boat wouldn't fight him for the dried fish, and those who wanted to return to secular life hadn't completed the ceremony yet.

The reeds on both banks are lush and green, and the river water ripples gently.

After eating most of the dried fish, Chu Tianshu folded it up and put it away before returning to his cabin to practice his martial arts.

On the return journey, four small boats carrying dozens of people traveled entirely by water.

Traveling by day and resting by night, whenever they reached a waterway crossing, a ferryman would approach and deliver a message.

With the assistance of senior monks dispatched by the temple, the lay disciples in coastal counties such as Zhao'an, Zhangpu, and Haicheng broke up the local gangs and factions.

The evidence of these gangs' collusion with Japanese pirates has been brought to the forefront and publicized.

More than 180 warrior monks armed with Divine Fire Gun moved from Pingtan to Zhangpu, where they joined forces with local monks and lay followers and successfully annihilated the Japanese pirates operating near Dongshan County.

Chu Tianshu reviewed the battle report and was quite satisfied, feeling that he had achieved his initial goal.

Their first operation was not limited to Pingtan County and Ox Mountain Island.

Spreading the news from just one place is too slow and not sensational enough.

Therefore, the battles in Zhao'an, Zhangpu, Haicheng and other places were also included in this operation.

"And as you said, when the news gets out, the specific date will be deliberately obscured."

Chan Master Miaokong said, "Outsiders would find it difficult to say whether we attacked Niushan first or Dongshan first."

"We can't accurately predict where our main force will be deployed, or the total number of personnel involved."

Chu Tianshu did not turn on any lights in the cabin; the faint morning light was enough to see the dust particles clearly.

"Future operations should maintain this style. Internal battle reports should be clear, but since they are written in code and outsiders can't understand them anyway, external messages should be kept as vague as possible."

He put down the slips of paper in his hand, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Operations are underway in many places outside, and we are on our return journey by boat, also wanting to take this opportunity to test the effectiveness of the message transmission systems you have deployed in various waterways."

"Now it seems the results are truly excellent."

"However, we still don't have enough manpower. Once we leave Eight Min, we'll face a shortage of manpower."

"These skilled ferrymen who are adept at relaying information should be treated better, and they should be encouraged to teach their disciples as much as possible."

Chu Tianshu had an exceptionally fulfilling time at the Southern Shaolin.

Besides practicing martial arts and enjoying the famous vegetarian food of the Southern Shaolin every day, he also instructed the monks in their martial arts training and reviewed the records of the Southern Shaolin's secret development.

I must say, I really learned a lot.

Although it wasn't as fulfilling and exhilarating as progressing in martial arts, learning this knowledge was like having long-dusted blind spots in one's life suddenly noticed and having the dust wiped away.

It was a refreshing feeling, a delightful surprise like solving a mystery.

However, in his own view, this organizational form also has many flaws.

Chan Master Miaokong had heard many of his suggestions recently, all of which he felt were to the point, but today's suggestion was somewhat difficult to grasp.

"There's no problem with increasing the salaries of the ferrymen, but as for teaching disciples... the customs and traditions vary greatly from place to place, and even the commonly used languages are different."

"The existing ferrymen monks can only train disciples in Eight Min province at most. Once they go out, they find it difficult to integrate easily into the local community and gather information."

Chu Tianshu smiled and said, "Then let's convey this suggestion to the abbot; he should be able to handle it."

Upon hearing this, Miaokong immediately understood Chu Tianshu's intention.

The four old monks each had their own focus.

Miaokong is primarily responsible for overseeing the businesses of lay disciples and escort agencies.

Abbot Miaofan was particularly skilled at receiving wealthy merchants and tycoons who came to the mountain to worship Buddha.

Since they weren't affiliated with the family, these wealthy merchants were generally not very trustworthy. However, in today's world, most merchants who have amassed their fortunes are adept at navigating social situations and are shrewd and capable. In places where they frequently conduct business, they naturally know to investigate market conditions.

It's not difficult to use them to gather some superficial information. The Southern Shaolin's own spies only need to liaise with them at first, and in the process, they can learn about the local customs and hone their communication skills.

Once they have mastered their skills, they can then allow their family members to leave their original caravans and act independently.

Beep beep beep beep!!

Seeing the tea boiling on the small stove, Chu Tianshu, unconcerned about getting burned, reached for the pot and poured himself a cup of tea.

On the small table inside the cabin were pastries and cakes that the monks had bought, along with a bag of dried fish—enough for breakfast.

Since she got older, Miaokong has developed the habit of skipping breakfast and dinner. Instead, she follows the sect's custom of drinking some hot water to refresh herself and sitting opposite someone while silently reciting scriptures.

Chu Tianshu chewed slowly, his thoughts wandering freely, enjoying himself immensely.

This meal probably took about 45 minutes; before we knew it, we had finished all the snacks on the table.

After finishing his meal, he even felt so relaxed that he felt a little lazy, and only then did he crawl out of the cabin.

Surrounded by green mountains and clear waters, bathed in a soft, luminous glow, he couldn't help but glance back at the rising sun behind him.

The long river flows far and wide, reaching the ends of mountains and rivers.

The rising sun hangs high in the sky, floating above the mountains and rivers.

As he looked further ahead, the glazed tiles of the grand halls atop the mountain gleamed with golden light.

The verdant mountains and forests are full of life, with birds singing and flowers blooming.

The entire mountain resembles a giant in a green robe and golden crown, leisurely playing with flowers and butterflies, gazing at the East Sea, poised to rise but not yet.

"Haha! I'm going up the mountain first, you guys take your time."

Chu Tianshu smiled casually and leaped off the bow of the boat.

As the small boat lurched and rose, his body had already swung more than three zhang (approximately 10 meters) across the water. He channeled his inner strength and stepped onto the surface of the water.

The green water, like a wide, thin carpet, swayed downwards as he stepped on it.

As he used the momentum to leap over, the surging waves created a column of white spray at the center.

The splash was about three feet high.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

After Chu Tianshu stepped onto the shore several times, he looked back and noticed that the water was not calm at all.

Each time he waded through the water, he could leap two or three zhang (approximately 6-9 meters). Judging from his speed and distance, his lightness skill was already quite good.

But the key to lightness skill lies in the word "lightness".

When Chan Master Miaokong stepped across the water, the surface only rippled slightly.

Although Martial Stove God has a strong physique, if he runs at full speed, he will make a lot of noise. When he encounters large bodies of water or similar situations, his speed will decrease sharply, resulting in unnecessary energy consumption.

If one masters lightness skill, it will be of great benefit even to Chu Tianshu in his current state.

He treated practicing light-body skills like a morning run, running a few steps across the grass before leaping up and climbing the mountain on the treetops.

The pine trees swayed wildly as he trampled them.

Looking up from the foot of the mountain, one sees a figure in a white robe adorned with ink-black plum blossoms, swaying upwards amidst the pine trees, until it flies into the temple.

Hey! Drink! Ha!

In the training ground of the Arhat Hall, the soil was trampled down to the hardness of a mountain rock.

Hundreds of monks practiced their martial arts here, their robes only covering half of their shoulders. Great Qing, they were already sweating profusely and their bodies were steaming hot.

In the corner of the wall were vats of spring water, as well as stone tables and benches for people to rest.

But a closer look at the shape of those stone benches reveals that they were sometimes used as stone weights to train one's strength.

Chu Tianshu swept over the wall and landed right between the stone table and the water vat.

The monks noticed him, stopped their stances, clasped their hands in greeting, and said in unison, "Greetings, Layman!"

Chu Tianshu placed his left palm in front of his chest, gave a slight bow, and said with a smile, "I came to see you as soon as I got back."

I've been away for a few days, I wonder how your progress is going?

These hundreds of monks were all the practitioners of external martial arts within the entire Southern Shaolin.

Leading the group were two monks of the "Miao" generation, with the Dharma names Miaogao and Miaoji.

Although the two were over fifty years old, they were still robust and muscular, with a temperament quite different from Miaofan and the other three, appearing more strong.

Unfortunately, in terms of strength, these two are far inferior to Miaofan and the other three.

When Chu Tianshu first heard of it, he thought that the world regarded the practice of cultivating internal strength as a rudimentary form of external martial arts.

At the time, I didn't find it particularly strange; after all, different worlds have different levels of civilization development.

Perhaps the reason this place has such a highly developed internal martial arts culture is that there aren't many people specifically promoting the development of internal martial arts techniques.

But when he was selecting spearmen for the Shaolin monks at the Southern Shaolin, he realized something was wrong.

Because in the past hundred years, no one in the Southern Shaolin has ever been able to cultivate both internal martial arts techniques and external physical skills.

This is really strange.

Back in my hometown, it's a common understanding that once you reach a bottleneck in practicing martial arts, you should try to learn internal energy cultivation.

Of the ten people who have reached a bottleneck in their internal strength training, at least three or four will be able to develop internal energy.

Ultimately, the path to Aperture Opening internal strength is the same as the path to Aperture Opening internal power.

These two great monks, Miaogao Miaoji, if you calculate it, their mastery of the Qi-training boxing technique is at least at the level of "Dragon Coils Around the Body a high level of skill).

Such a person should have mastered the basics of internal energy cultivation in ten days to half a month.

Chu Tianshu had also fought with Miaofan and felt that the internal energy cultivation techniques of the Southern Shaolin were far inferior in quality and concept to the Heaven-Hating Art, so it shouldn't be too difficult to practice.

To this end, he borrowed the internal energy cultivation methods and hard skill manuals of the Southern Shaolin.

Hard skills are indeed similar to training internal strength; that's correct.

However, his internal strength is seriously flawed!

The Southern Shaolin internal energy cultivation method mentions that when starting internal energy training, one should "meditate and visualize, achieving harmony between the internal and external."

"Forget the five senses, Sixth Consciousness appears," "Control your mind and focus your energy into the dantian."

After analyzing these things, Chu Tianshu realized that this was not the way for Boxer Aperture Opening.

On the contrary, it is 90% similar to Spirit Communication Aperture Opening.

He was still worried that the cultivation manual he had might be an isolated case, so he went to consult Abbot Miaofan and others.

The response received was...

"The internal cultivation methods of all schools and sects under heaven, when first grasping the basics, are all like this."

That's crazy.

So, are all the people practicing internal energy in this world just psychics disguised as martial artists?

(End of this chapter)