Chapter 686: The Oldest Martial Art in the World
Chapter 686: The Oldest Martial Art in the World
"Huff... huff..."
Inside the dormitory at White Deer Academy.
Xun Heihu woke up, realizing he was still in bed.
Not far away, Zhao Daniu was still snoring and grinding his teeth.
Outside, the moonlight was like a sheet of silver, spilling over the ground.
"A dream?"
Xun Heihu gripped the True Martial Talisman around his neck, then quietly got out of bed and walked out the door.
"According to what the Spirit of the Artifact said, my spirit enters the True Martial Talisman, while my body remains in a deep sleep. But everything I gain inside the talisman is real and tangible..."
Xun Heihu stepped into the courtyard and assumed the White Deer Stance.
He had practiced this stance many times and was extremely familiar with it.
But this time, it felt different.
Under the moonlight, with each breath, he could feel warm currents flowing from his limbs and throughout his body, following his thoughts.
"Controlling the flow of qi and blood... I did it!"
Xun Heihu was overjoyed. "I simply practiced a bit inside the True Martial Talisman, and I broke through... It seems the external world also follows. As the Spirit of the Artifact said... as long as I push my martial arts to their limits, the True Martial Talisman will naturally accumulate experience, leading to breakthroughs?"
"Moreover, ten days inside the True Martial Space equal just one night in the outside world..."
He was incredibly excited and couldn't sleep for a long time after lying back down. It wasn't until the first light of dawn that he finally fell into a deep sleep.
...
Inside the True Martial Space.
"Sure enough... I'm back."
Xun Heihu saw the figure on the steps and bowed respectfully. "Elder Spirit of the Artifact..."
"Hmm, it seems you've verified it."
Fang Xing nodded. "Remember, don't tell anyone about the existence of the True Martial Talisman, not even your parents... Otherwise, it will bring catastrophic disaster."
"Yes."
Xun Heihu, though young, had heard stories from storytellers about ordinary people who found treasure maps and ended up with their entire families killed.
His father, with whom he had little interaction, had taught him many principles of life and conduct, so he quickly nodded. "I won't tell anyone..."
"Very well. Since that's the case, you can temporarily become the host of the True Martial Talisman. The talisman chose you because it hopes you will become one of the greatest martial artists in the world, perhaps even advancing the path of martial arts further..."
Fang Xing smiled. "With ten times the time others have, and the assistance of the talisman to break through when you reach the peak, you will surely stand at the pinnacle of martial arts. However, to become the host of the True Martial Talisman, you must take a solemn vow."
"What vow?" Xun Heihu felt a sense of relief, as if a weight had been lifted from his heart.
After all, finding such a divine artifact definitely came with a price!
Now, he just needed to see what that price was.
"The True Martial Vow: I will forever be an enemy of Panwu."
Fang Xing said solemnly. "Just remember this. In the current world, it would be very difficult for you to sense Panwu..."
Xun Heihu, still a bit confused, took the vow and then asked eagerly, "Elder Spirit of the Artifact... since you said the True Martial Talisman has had many hosts, are there any secret martial arts manuals left behind?"
"Martial arts manuals? Yes, of course."
Fang Xing's expression was a bit strange. "But I can only teach you 'Original Martial Arts,' which you call 'Ancient Martial Arts.'"
"Ancient Martial Arts? Coach Xiong said Ancient Martial Arts are outdated, and the highest they can reach is equivalent to a Middle Third Rank martial artist, requiring a lot of potent elixirs... Since the founding of the Great Kang Dynasty and the suppression of fierce beasts, the number of such beasts has drastically decreased, making them very rare now, almost like exotic creatures."
Xun Heihu couldn't help but speak up, thinking about Ancient Martial Arts.
After joining White Deer Academy, in addition to martial arts practice, there were scholars who taught the young students reading, writing, and various common knowledge and lore of the martial world... to avoid raising a group of dullards.
Thus, Xun Heihu had some understanding of Ancient Martial Arts.
"That's correct. Ancient Martial Arts are outdated, but if you want to learn, I have a manual called 'The Oldest Martial Art in the World,' created by the first Human Emperor of Great Xia—Mang."
Fang Xing said calmly.
"Xia... Mang? Is he a Martial Emperor?" Xun Heihu's eyes widened in surprise. "That's the ancestor revered by all sects in the Nine Provinces, the progenitor of martial arts..."
"Exactly, a Martial Emperor! And your coach's description of Ancient Martial Arts is incorrect. While Ancient Martial Arts at their peak are still inferior to New Martial Arts, they can barely reach the Upper Third Rank in vitality... After all, Xia Mang lived for over three hundred years. If not for his damaged foundation, he could have lived to the five-hundred-year limit, equivalent to the Upper Third Rank of New Martial Arts..."
Fang Xing sighed a bit.
The first generation had to blaze the trail, inevitably making some mistakes and omissions.
Even if he saw these issues, to maintain the purity of martial arts, he couldn't point them out.
Xia Mang was thus cheated, otherwise, living to the five-hundred-year limit should have been feasible.
Although... it was still a short life by those standards.
As for the subsequent Xia Emperors, they merely followed the manuals and experiences of their predecessors, making their lives unnecessarily difficult, like trying to carve a block of rotten wood!
"Upper Third Rank techniques?"
Xun Heihu's eyes lit up. "I want to learn! I want to learn!"
He thought it through. His family had spent five hundred silver taels to get him into White Deer Academy, giving him the bare minimum qualifications to practice Lower Third Rank martial arts.
Once he breaks through to the internal energy stage and joins the Five Animals Sect, he will be able to study Third Rank martial arts.
As for the divine techniques and secret manuals that can be cultivated to the High Third Rank?
Which one, if revealed, wouldn't cause bloodshed in the martial world?
Even if it's an ancient martial art, he's willing to accept it.
"Alright, since that's the case, I'll teach you the original martial art created by Xia Mang."
Fang Xing nodded indifferently: "I see that the new martial arts today take the path from external to internal. The lower Third Rank stages like Bronze Gate, Silver Web, and Golden Thread are all hard techniques. By the peak of the Seventh Rank, one reaches the limit of hard techniques and can then transition to internal energy, moving towards the path of internal cultivation..."
"The 'original martial art' you're going to learn—I'll just call it 'ancient martial art'—follows a different path. It starts with improving the body's constitution. Although it has some flaws, it also has complementary benefits... Learn as much as you can, and take what you can get."
Xun Heihu was just getting excited when he saw the shadowy figure in the gray mist suddenly step forward and point a finger at his forehead.
"Ah!"
He screamed, clutching his head and falling to the ground, feeling an intense pain.
Suddenly, many memories appeared in his mind.
It was a scene of a person in animal skins practicing martial arts!
At times, his spirit even merged with that person's body, feeling the circulation of blood and qi, and the various changes in power...
This was why Fang Xing, knowing that the ancient martial arts used a different script from the present, didn't need to make Xun Heihu learn ancient script. Instead, he directly let Xia Mang impart the knowledge through direct experience.
"Phew..."
After a long while, Xun Heihu finally got up, panting heavily, and looked at his hands: "I... seem different."
Although he had learned to control his blood and qi, he hadn't yet reached the ranked stage, and being young, his body was still growing, so his combat ability was still weak.
But at that moment, he felt he had instinctively learned many killing techniques. When he saw a living thing, he couldn't help but aim for the vital points, and his intuition had become much sharper.
Of course, no matter how much he improved, his respect for Fang Xing, the shadowy figure in the gray mist, only grew.
His sharp intuition made him sense that the figure in front of him was as majestic as a deity.
If a celestial being were to descend, it would probably have the same aura as the spirit of the artifact.
"Ancient martial arts are outdated. You should focus on new martial arts and use ancient martial arts as a supplement."
Fang Xing said, "However, since ancient martial arts are called 'the oldest martial arts in the world,' they still have their advantages, helping you build a solid foundation. If you can cultivate one or several of the Twelve Bodily Oddities, it will greatly aid your new martial arts training."
"Twelve Bodily Oddities?"
Xun Heihu asked in confusion, "What are those?"
"You know that the new martial arts today also emphasize bone and constitution. When you joined the White Deer Academy, didn't you have your martial bone tested?"
Fang Xing explained, "The 'Twelve Bodily Oddities' can be seen as twelve supreme martial arts talents. They are manifested through the blood of your ancestors, who once lived in primitive conditions and consumed the blood of fierce beasts, and have been passed down through generations... Today, they have all become recessive, but they still provide significant benefits for martial arts practice."
By recessive, it means that while it's unlikely to grow scales or wings, the benefits remain.
Unless someone has a particularly ancestral bloodline, it's possible for a few scales to appear...
"I understand."
Xun Heihu's eyes lit up: "Is it the 'Ape Arm, Bee Waist, Mantis Legs'?"
When he joined the White Deer Academy, he was found to have ordinary bone, but he had heard that in another exam, a young boy was found to have the 'Ape Arm, Bee Waist, Mantis Legs' bone, and was directly admitted to the Five Animals Sect.
This was a privilege they would only receive after breaking through to the Sixth Rank!
"Ape Arm, Bee Waist, Mantis Legs? It's barely the lowest martial bone..." Fang Xing scoffed.
Xun Heihu clearly detected a hint of disdain.
He tried to practice the ancient martial arts breathing technique. With his experience in controlling blood and qi, he quickly got the hang of it: "But... to practice ancient martial arts, one needs to consume the flesh or blood of fierce beasts or powerful medicines made from their blood. I don't have any..."
This is also a drawback of ancient martial arts. Nowadays, fierce beasts have become rare and exotic animals, and killing them for meat is far more expensive than taking copper or lead pills or gold and mercury pills.
When the martial arts instructor told the story of the decline of ancient martial arts, he mentioned an example: the She family of White Cloud Mountain, who had a hereditary ancient martial art called 'Twin Snake Palm,' which required consuming the flesh of a fierce beast called the 'Two-Headed Horned Python.' After the Da Kang Dynasty, the Two-Headed Horned Python gradually became extinct, and the descendants could only eat the 'Black Horned Python,' which had some of the Two-Headed Horned Python's blood, making the hereditary martial art much weaker.
By the time of the Nine Provinces era, the She family could hardly find any Black Horned Pythons, almost leading to their extermination.
In the end, the family head made the decision to fully switch to the Five Animals Sect. A grandmaster from the Five Animals Sect transformed their ancient martial art into a new one, changing the hereditary 'Twin Snake Palm' into a 'Spirit Snake Roaming Body Palm.' This allowed the family to produce many internal energy experts and barely maintain their status as a prominent family...
This was the fate of ancient martial arts families. If it were Xun Heihu, he would have cried...
"Fierce beast flesh, I have it."
Fang Xing chuckled, "I had Xia Mang collect various exotic blood and flesh, not just for research, but also for storage: 'It's not possible to let you eat your fill, but as a catalyst to guide you into cultivation, it's not difficult...'"
(End of Chapter)
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