Why do I have so many masters?-Chapter 744 - 48: All Rivers Flow into the Sea, Eventually Returning to Beiming (1/2)

A sentence was uttered, filled with severe and bloody harshness, that shook everyone's minds.

All major sects in Jianghu were extremely wary of disciples who completed their training and then defected with their astonishing skills, or who, having mastered martial arts, no longer obeyed their masters' teachings, and strict rules were in place for such cases.

Even the lofty seven great sects and four noble clans had specific methods and elders to deal with these disciples, known as the law-enforcing elders in the Disciplinary Institute, holding authority second only to the sect leader.

Nestled in the northwest, overlooking Jianghu, the Heavenly Dragon Institute's gate was situated above a river on iron chains, with steles half the height of a person forming one hundred and eight steps. The disciples within the institute held thick golden thread wooden sticks, standing on both sides. Defecting disciples had to walk from the mountaintop to the base, and they would be pardoned.

However, the steps were difficult to navigate, as each step brought the pain of the sticks. The disciples of the Heavenly Dragon were strong and vigorous, and often the defecting disciples had not yet reached the mountain's base before they were beaten until their inner strength was utterly disrupted. The martial arts they'd learned flowed away like the waters of a spring river to the east. Even if they tried to regain their skills, due to injuries in their meridians, their efforts were met with half the results despite double the effort and they seldom managed to return to their original realm for the rest of their lives.

In places like the Heavenly Dragon Institute, merely crippling a person's martial arts without taking their life was already considered harsh. Most sects in Jianghu would dispose of a person's skills using other means and then confine them in the mountains. According to what these people said, they were even forcing blood relatives to kill each other?!

All were shocked.

Sikou Tingfeng furrowed his brows slightly, only then realizing the great price Xue Qinshuang had borne when she casually left her ancestral home with him.

Wang Anfeng knew of Xue Qinshuang's background, coming from an assassin family, which was naturally strict, but had not expected it to be to such an extent.

Earlier, the young man had swiftly killed a warrior who had just reached the Fourth Rank Realm, and although it was because he had caught the unsuspecting warrior off guard, it was not to be underestimated. Now, Wang Anfeng could no longer consider anything else; he took a small step forward, a breath of True Qi filling his stomach, his spine straightening inch by inch like a dragon ascending from the land, his right hand forming a sword with his fingers, pointing obliquely to the ground.

His qi mechanism no longer disguised, thundered like a stampede, inhaling three hundred transformations, exhaling up to Kunlun. Yet it hadn't fully unleashed, like a sword in its sheath, at its sharpest when about to but not yet drawn.

I have a sword that can dispel your soldiers.

This subtle and intricate manipulation of qi mechanism was something ordinary warriors of the Lower Third Rank like Tian Zhide could hardly notice. However, anyone who had stepped into the Sixth Rank realm or those born with extraordinary senses were simultaneously feeling as though their faces had been slashed by a sword edge, causing relentless pain, yet without knowing the reason, filling their hearts with terror.

The young man turned his head, looking at Wang Anfeng. His features bore a slight resemblance to Xue Qinshuang, making him appear too delicate for a man, all but for the stark blackness of his eyes, unlike Xue Qinshuang's clear brown eyes, which seemed dyed in ink.

He faced Wang Anfeng; his lips moved silently, his expression seemingly cheerful, but his eyes tinged faintly with crimson, like a distant desert at sunset, unnerving to behold.

In Xue Qinshuang's hand appeared a short sword, and her eyes seemed a bit more intense.

The young man's neck hairs bristled but he retained his composure. He first flashed a slight smile at Wang Anfeng before hastening his movements without delay. His form swiftly turned and fled, but Xue Qinshuang's flowing light from her short sword slashed past, leaving only a piece of his sleeve behind. When they looked again, the man had already vanished.

Xue Qinshuang stood calmly, her short sword once again retracted to her waist.

A strand of blue hair fell by her temples.

Wang Anfeng's scalp exploded open and his heart nearly instinctively sped up, almost revealing his Vajra Martial Body of the Immovable King, one of the Ten Powers of Tathagata. He had no choice but to react thus, given the young man's instantaneous move which, purely in terms of the burst, had already transcended the Fourth Rank of the floating palaces.

Upon reflection, even the distance from reaching the peerless realm of pushing open the Heavenly Gate was a mere hair's breadth away. Observing that he was only seventeen or eighteen yet capable of stepping into the Grandmaster level, even Wang Anfeng felt a tremor in his heart.

Could there truly be such a talented individual under the heavens?!

But then he immediately thought of what Xue Qinshuang once mentioned about leaving for a secret realm before. His mind inadvertently recalled a secret scroll that he had seen in the Qingfeng Edge Library.

There are wonderful methods of accumulating and nurturing qi in the world, just as the so-called Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands of the Taoist. If someone from a family skilled in geography could act based on the Heavenly configurations and Earth energies of Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, a warrior could Return to Ruin within such secret places, and although the cycle of life and death could not be overturned, their qi mechanism could remain long in the world.

Warriors in the Lower Third Rank, whether practicing Qi Cultivation or Body Tempering, each had their own methods and paths, and their talents varied; one could sit in meditation and achieve a hundred days' worth of progress in one, or one might only obtain slight progress through relentless daily and nightly hardship.

But once one had pushed open the gates to the Heavenly Dragon and stepped into the Middle Third Rank, it was like a traveler reaching a peak. Regardless of whether one had labored arduously, sweating profusely, or had strolled leisurely, taking in the scenery and meandering upwards, from this point on, there was no difference. One could broaden one's horizon and view the vast and expansive rivers and mountains and begin to nurture the Qi mechanism within one's chest and abdomen.

If one cultivated in a secret place that retained the Qi mechanism of predecessors, those with exceptional talents could seize the opportunity to no end. They could step by step ascend the heavenly ladder and outpace others in the keenly insightful Middle Third Rank realm, saving a considerable amount of time.

Even those with ordinary talents could, through the mental methods of Inner Strength passed down through generations, adapt high-level techniques such as transposing flowers and subduing dragons, converging myriad streams into the sea, returning to Beiming, and absorbing their predecessors' Qi mechanisms, rapidly climbing the ranks.

The compiler of that Secret Tome was a preeminent master from three hundred years ago, who at nineteen reached the Fourth Rank and at twenty-three opened the Heavenly Gate while drunk. He then traveled the world with his sword, recorded what he saw and understood, and spent his life composing "Earth Vein," "Human Sentiment," "Jin Yu," and "Martial Record" across thirteen chapters, generously dispersing tens of thousands of words.

The method of this secret transmission was recorded in the chapter "Earth Vein".

In the end, the predecessor sighed that if it weren't for the consumption involved in retaining and absorbing Qi, and if apart from Qi, there weren't so many insights and fortuitous coincidences necessary for a Grandmaster, then truly unbreachable absorption of a Grandmaster's overwhelming Qi could allow families with Grandmasters to pass down their illustrious aura generation after generation.

And if generation after generation labored hard accumulating, until the tenth or hundredth generation, could they then disregard the multiple formidable barriers, solely relying on robust Qi to validate their path and glimpse the obscured Land Immortal Realm?

It's just a pity that such a method is impossible, and the predecessor deeply regretted this. He thought to achieve it unless it was tied to the uncertain doctrine of reincarnation. If reincarnated generation after generation, one could maximally absorb the Qi of the previous life, cumulating over time.

The predecessor was extremely interested in this and once used a chess formation to calculate the Qi realm. Assuming that each inheritance absorbed seventy to eighty percent of the Qi, it would take about ten successive generations, each never falling below the realm of Saints from the three teachings.

Only then could one purely rely on one's vast and boundless Qi, with undisturbed thoughts, leverage the momentum to break through the final barrier, achieving a Land Immortal Realm similar to the Confucian Master who rode a cow west from the Hangu Pass and the founding Taoist ancestor from 1,300 years ago.

Although such a method sounds simple, it is, in practice, exceedingly difficult, even the predecessor found it laughable, possible only if one could find and properly guide each reincarnation of that Grandmaster onto the right path.

With the vastness of the world, even a million martial practitioners are not enough to cover it, and with billions of common people, finding such a thing is as hard as finding a needle in a vast ocean.

In the end, the wandering Grandmaster sighed deeply, Confucianism declares that a Saint appears every five hundred years, yet only the most dazzling talents reach up to the Great Grandmaster realm; those two predecessors' realms seemed only like an illusion.

I do not ascend to Jade Void, Jade Void comes to me.

Where I stand is Kunlun Mountains.

Even the second ancestor of the Taoist Sect, who dreamt he was a butterfly, and the butterfly dreamt it was him, ultimately only achieved the Great Grandmaster realm. But in terms of Martial Arts, one always steps forward on the shoulders of predecessors, accumulating knowledge generation after generation.

Today, with hundreds of schools contending, the philosophies and cultivation techniques of each school are much stronger than those a thousand years ago. If that high-achieving second ancestor lived in this thriving age of Martial Arts, he would undoubtedly advance further and truly achieve freedom and ease.

But regaling in joy, wielding three swords and ruling across the lands, making a monarch bow yet choosing to retreat into seclusion, that individual took little interest in these matters.

Wang Anfeng looked up at Xue Qinshuang, who took a deep breath, opened her eyes which still sparkled as if unaffected, and with a sword in hand, she smiled and said,

"Outside, Elder Wu Qiong is still engaged in a fight. Let us lend a hand first to prevent the elder from falling into the enemy's traps."

Sikou Tingfeng nodded slightly, and the mechanism on his wrist morphed into a longsword, accompanying Xue Qinshuang as they walked out, followed by Tian Zhide and Fei Yonglin, who, coming to their senses, called out softly and hurriedly followed with their weapons.

No wonder their reactions were slow today; what they had seen and heard was indeed too shocking. Usually rarely seen masters appeared in droves, and even someone with a more illustrious aura than Wu Qiong, possibly referred to as a lesser Grandmaster of the Fourth Rank, had their minds muddled without uttering a word.

Everyone swarmed out, and Wang Anfeng turned his palm to reveal a strand of green hair that Xue Qinshuang had lost. He silently held it for a few moments, then carefully pocketed the strand and walked out of the inn, catching up with the rest.

PS: Today's first update is here...