Book 12: Chapter 95
Although Huang Yuzao barely missed Jiang Chen’s heart by inches, he almost penetrated an organ. Rather than praise Huang Yuzao, Jiang Chen deserved more credit for being able to slip away from death inside the confines Huang Yuzao established.
Daren Art was the second, if not most, advanced mental cultivation in Confucianism’s repository. As with any other Confucianism discipline, or any other discipline for that matter, patience, time and effort determined one’s progress in the discipline. Most young students failed to master it because the gratification wasn’t instantaneous enough for them. Feng Jie (Feng Xue) was the most special among the young students who learnt it. Howbeit, he was a master of many disciplines from different schools. Therefore, he couldn’t be cla.s.sified as a representation of Confucianism disciplines.
Huang Yuzao smoothly succeeded his mentor as everyone expected. Compared to other sect leaders, though, he wasn’t really anything special as a fighter. As a matter of fact, when he fought Beggars Sect’s Chief Hong Ba, he was utterly demolished. They were never in the same conversation as the likes of Luo Ming and Martial Paragon unless they were talking about fame.
At forty years old, while roving, Huang Yuzao sparred Mount Hua’s patriarch for a night and ended up losing once in a thousand exchanges. If Mount Hua’s patriarch wasn’t getting on with age, he would’ve defeated Huang Yuzao much sooner and easier.
At the time of their duel, Mount Hua’s patriarch said, “This one’s swordplay cannot compare to Principle of Six Swordplay. His internal strength cannot compare to the purity of Daren. He only emerged victorious because he has more experience and could react a little faster. His understanding of martial arts falls far behind yours.”
Several years later, by chance, Huang Yuzao fought Emei’s Daoist Jinguan. At the time Daoist Jinguan had already been an established household name for decades; his granddaughter was learning to talk, and his disciple, Bai Lou, was already widely respected for her skills. Their match lasted for three days straight, with Daoist Jinguan eventually seizing victory through a quick sword technique. Instead of feeling bitter over his losses, Huang Yuzao, once again, smiled and expressed, “That was magnificent. This one respects you from the bottom of his heart.”
Instead of basking in his victory, Daoist Jinguan stared at his sword for a long time, then snapped it in two with two fingers.
“Why did you do that?”
“This can’t be counted as a victory,” Daoist Jinguan replied.
Only a few years later, Bai Clan’s Bai Sanlang won against Huang Yuzao in less than a hundred exchanges, yet, as on previous occasions, Huang Yuzao didn’t express surprise.
Huang Yuzao wasn’t inept at learning martial arts, slow, inexperienced or not adroit. He was cognisant of why he lost and why his opponent won. It was only a matter of lacking the ability to correct – or overcome – the problem. What was so surprising about losing if one was inferior? That was why losing never left a bitter taste, and winning never was a reason for him to celebrate, just as Yu Sihe taught. When the time was right, things would fall into place; rus.h.i.+ng wasn’t going to expedite the process. The principles of Confucianism martial arts were always written on the wall. People just refused to look or acknowledge them. Yu Sihe could wait, and Huang Yuzao could wait. That was the reason there were two heads of Confucianism.
On a summer eight years ago, Huang Yuzao suddenly felt a surge of adrenaline while he was reading at the academy. He peered at the night sky whilst performing a sequence of moves. He could feel his true qi suddenly boost, but it wasn’t the type to pour out or drip drops. It was a vague and abstract feeling. Sometimes he could feel it; sometimes it felt as though he was imagining things. He couldn’t put into words the speed he felt, but he knew that it was time. That night, he experienced a break through to Divine Realm. Eight years ago, he was fifty-five.
If Daoist Jinguan wanted to replicate his win over Huang Yuzao from over a decade ago now, it would only be a dream.
Upon drawing out Punished, blood burst from Huang Yuzao’s body, but the blood remained suspended in the air. Using his Enlightenment, Huang Yuzao ushered the droplets of blood back into his body. Though his wound was still gaping, no blood spilt. His injury would’ve compromised only 20% of his combat abilities, at most.
In comparison, Jiang Chen’s breathing became short and shallow breaths from the golden python coiling around him.
Huang Yuzao gasped a mouthful of blood. “Hmph!”
The golden python hoisted Jiang Chen up and then slammed him back into the ground. Impressively, Jiang Chen didn’t even let out a m.u.f.fled grunt despite all the dirt flying up. In fact, he was still forcing a smirk in spite of the blood around his mouth.
“You spread poison onto the point?” condescendingly questioned Huang Yuzao.
“Heh… Heh… Why… bother asking a question… you already know… the answer to?”
“You have a point!”
The golden python raised its output by several folds, suffocating Jiang Chen even more. He suspected his bones would break if he wasn’t careful.
The golden python was an ent.i.ty that Huang Yuzao manifested upon comprehending Divine Realm. In essence, he manifested his Enlightenment, giving it a solid form without expending internal energy. Thus, it was his spirit and body, and he was its spirit and body. He could have it attack or defend, shape s.h.i.+ft as he needed and crush boulders to smithereens with its strength. Jiang Chen’s internal energy resisted, obviously. Unfortunately, it was far from enough to break free.
“No point worrying about parlour tricks.”
The golden energy enveloping Huang Yuzao seeped into his open wound similarly to water, encapsulating the venom in his body so that it couldn’t course through his blood to do harm. It would then only take him an hour to expel the toxins from his body. Instead of revelling in victory, though, he appeared disappointed and frustrated.
“I am disappointed in myself for falling for your stupidity. You are no match for me. Poison… Heh, I can’t believe you’d even try. Wouldn’t it have been easier to take a page out of Sky Palace or Valley of Villains’ books?!”
“Haha… Haha…” With droplets of Huang Yuzao’s blood on his face, Jiang Chen said, “You’ve mastered Daren Art… No wonder why a Confucian could join the imperial court when Confucianism has fallen out of favour. Very nice, very nice. My heart almost beat faster.”
“How about you?” Huang Yuzao scrutinised Jiang Chen’s forced smile in disappointment. “What was that supposed to be? You have let me down.” Huang Yuzao tightened his python’s hold on Jiang Chen, squeezing another mouthful of blood out from Jiang Chen. “I was wrong about you. How did I let you fool me into competing in swordplay with you? You’re not qualified to challenge me.”
The python squeezed until Jiang Chen coiled up.
“You challenged me when you can’t even utilise Enlightenment? Just how foolish are you? Are you marginalising all the adepts across the land, or do you truly believe your broadsword, mind games and lame broadsword skills are enough to smite Confucianism’s leader?!”
Up until now, Huang Yuzao considered Jiang Chen to be his toughest foe ever. He polished every Confucian skill he possibly could, including ones that would be gambling with his life; however, he was a gentleman. Yu Sihe addressed Jiang Chen as an elder and praised him. Even if Jiang Chen had to seek shelter with someone, they couldn’t have been weak. Given Jiang Chen’s age, his internal energy potency should’ve been far superior to Huang Yuzao’s.
Confucianism only ever saw two individuals who realised the coveted Divine Realm. Therefore, their strength should’ve been razor close if they were both capable of accessing Divine Realm. Hoping to break the stalemate with technical superiority, Huang Yuzao polished Principle of Six Swordplay as much as conceivably possible. But alas, Jiang Chen had accounted for even that.
All of Jiang Chen’s provocations were bluffs to encourage a skill contest rather than an internal energy contest because Jiang Chen couldn’t access Divine Realm. All the layered subterfuge was designed to set up the thrust that finally caught Huang Yuzao. Huang Yuzao expected severe damage from the stab, so, even though he knew he wouldn’t die thanks to Daren Art, he was sure he might have to go down together with Jiang Chen. Instead of suffering a mortal wound, though, it was just an injury. Needless to say, Jiang Chen wasn’t being merciful; he was simply a powerless coward. To think Yu Sihe died to someone who needed trickery to kill him was infuriating.
“What sort of technique is that?! If we are at the same realm, you should’ve killed me, if not come close to killing me, with that stab. Why all the nonsense if you haven’t even reached my realm? Is subterfuge all it takes to satisfy you? You think that harmless thrust is considered a win? How about if I stab you a dozen times?!”
In accordance with Huang Yuzao’s hand raise, the golden python converted its scales into swords, piercing holes in Jiang Chen. Huang Yuzao could’ve taken Jiang Chen’s life then and there, but he chose not to. Nevertheless, Jiang Chen still didn’t groan. Most shocking, nonetheless, was that the swords didn’t draw as much as a droplet of blood from Jiang Chen.
“You…” Grasping how Jiang Chen stopped himself from bleeding, Huang Yuzao shouted, “You embarra.s.sment!” He deplored Jiang Chen even more. “Have you given up on being human?”
“Hehehe… That’s Confucianism’s leader for you…” It took a long second and some serious effort, but Jiang Chen was able to procure oxygen to continue, “Without ‘Drought Demons’, I would’ve died already. Even if I didn’t, at my age… how much longer would I have had?”
When learning “Drought Demons”, learners would refine heat energy, but there were other things about it that enticed Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen once witnessed a disciple of “Drought Demons” journey through a desert without requiring water. Initially, he thought the seventy years old elder maintained the appearance of a thirty year old man through potent internal energy. Upon consulting the man, he learnt that “Drought Demons” was to be credited with those special abilities. Due to the degree of dryness in the pract.i.tioner’s body, they would have extremely minimal blood in them and wouldn’t require water for sustenance. In addition, it would delay aging.
Aging and vitality were correlated; the more active one was, the faster they aged. The best qi cultivators, however, possessed potent vitality, so they delayed their aging. Still, that was only compared to the average man. a.s.suming they could maintain their youth at sixty, what about when they were ninety? What about a hundred? The only end to aging was death, and Jiang Chen didn’t want to die.
According to the elder Jiang Chen learnt about “Drought Demons” from, if one reached the pinnacle of it, one could reduce the aches and niggles of a body two hundred years old to preserve their prime performance. As a bonus, it would be tough to sustain injuries, or feel pain from the aches, for the reason that their body would be so solid. Even if their body was severely damaged, they only needed to sew their wounds and unclog blocked internal energy to be as good as new. It was literally a recipe that took one as close to immortality as possible.
As soon as the elder shared the information, he never breathed another breath again. The culprit, of course, was no other than the man who placed the enquiries.
At the end of the day, theory was theory. Plus, there were serious side effects such as loss of fertility. Just as importantly, the reaped benefits spoken of were exclusive to those who actually reached the highest levels in “Drought Demons”, which would be an ordeal in and of itself.
Jiang Chen was confident he could master it, and his arrogant mannerisms supported this. Nonetheless, he didn’t spare “Drought Demons” a glance long after he obtained it due to the innate weakness of mastering it. The elder he encountered in the desert was an advanced pract.i.tioner for sure given he didn’t need water. Even then, he died, didn’t he? Jiang Chen experimented on the elder with various methods for half a month, and the elder eventually died. So, immortality was only for those who could master the entire system. Else, they were just fodder. If life’s events didn’t force Jiang Chen to make a decisive decision, he still wouldn’t have started on it.
Though Jiang Chen laughed off the eighteen stab wounds, his tone indicated he wasn’t impervious to the pain. “Do you honestly believe every discipline can be mixed? Daren Art’s focus on nature makes it an orthodox discipline. I voluntarily went to the dark side; how much of my orthodox skills do you think I retained?”
As blood was the source of human life, it made absolutely no sense to eliminate it from one’s body. By extension, it made no sense to say that internal energy potency would increase as blood volume reduced. Accordingly, every step towards mastery of “Drought Demons” required Jiang Chen to abandon an equivalent of his original skills. To him, nevertheless, he would rather that than age. One could say, he had discarded his human-ness.
Jiang Chen: “If this match took place twenty years, we could have a t.i.t-for-tat match. Before I trained this discipline, considering our progress in Daren Art, you’d deserve adulation for lasting forty-five minutes. Now,… how could I stop you without using strategy? Then again, if I didn’t pick up this discipline, I’d just be a tombstone in a few years, hahaha. I guess I’m still winning.”
“You discarded your training for immortality?” questioned Huang Yuzao, sounding no different to a teacher lecturing his misbehaving student.
Putting all the pieces and crunching all the numbers, Huang Yuzao estimated Jiang Chen was over ninety already. Hence, Jiang Chen had several decades on him. As Yu Sihe said of Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen truly was a remarkable man.
Huang Yuzao sighed. “Joining the dark side is one mistake. Forgetting your roots is another mistake. Have you any clue how many people wish they could learn the skills you were taught? How can you just discard them?”
“I do.” Jiang Chen hiked up the corners of his lips a little. “That’s exactly why I can’t die, no?” Ignoring Huang Yuzao, who was mulling over what he implied, Jiang Chen continued, “I have quite a number of haters, too, all of whom won’t keep their hands to themselves. I lost my Enlightenment after he deleted my original skills to restart, and I had only about half of my strength left. I, consequently, had to hide on a mountain until I was sure I could defend myself.”
The dense mountain Jiang Chen referred to was none other than the former headquarters of Fiends’ Genesis.
Jiang Chen stole a gander at s.h.i.+tou, who was still snoozing in his chair. “Thanks to the extra years I’ve obtained, I’ve had the fortune of meeting the kid, my younger brother and many other interesting children. Hehe, I may not have my own kids, but I sure have enjoyed the so-called happiness of raising kids.”
Jiang Chen must’ve had a big ambition to make the sacrifices he made. By the sounds of things, he developed Fiends’ Genesis into the force it was reckoned to be. a.s.suming the a.s.sumption was true, what was his true aim as he worked in the shadows?
“Hmm… I think it’s time.”
The casual remark from Jiang Chen yanked Huang Yuzao out of his thoughts. Thus, Huang Yuzao tightened his python’s hold on Jiang Chen. “What are you planning?!”
Jiang Chen spat out some blood. “Hehehe, abusing an elder this way will cost you your lifespan.”
The uneasiness of not knowing what to do frayed Huang Yuzao’s nerves. Suddenly, he felt a stabbing pain from his chest. As soon as his face turned purple, he felt an onset of pain that pulled his torso down to his knees. Every inch of his body hurt to the point that he held his breath.
Glossary
Daren Art – I’m keeping it as “Daren” art since there’s “Daren Academy”. “Daren” simply means “an important and lofty undertaking.”
Qi cultivator – While similar to the version spoken of in new-school xianxia and xuanhuan, we aren’t talking about going through lightning tribulations and the sort. We’re talking specifically about training methods that improve qi quality and utilisation.
Drought Demon VS Drought Demons – They are not the same thing. The former is an individual, while the latter is a discipline.