Chapter 128: Master Yang Transmits the Art

The rock wall was damp and slippery. With a strike of his iron fists, the entire passage was smashed open with a boom. Liang Qu's feet cracked the stone surface beneath him, and he fell into the water along with it.

The sound of water filled his ears, as if the entire world were raining.

Liang Qu smoothed his hair back and floated upward. He reached out and touched the cold, slippery rock, but he could not find the surface.

All around was absolute darkness.

If it were an ordinary person, or even a low-level martial artist, they would be completely bewildered, unable to find their way out, and would drown in the water.

It was only because Liang Qu relied on his ability to breathe and sense underwater that he dared to explore with peace of mind.

The terrain here was very low. The water flow clung perfectly to the rock walls, and water even overflowed from the well. The well, originally over twenty meters deep, had its water level rise to within three or four meters of the surface. If there were a summer rainstorm, it might well become a fountain, gushing up to the surface.

"I could dig a fish pond there."

Liang Qu pondered. He could easily expand the entire well into a small pond and raise plants inside.

The cold pool at the Zhao Prefecture residence was done exactly like that, used to raise horn-caltrop treasure plants. Unfortunately, when everyone searched for it later, that treasure plant had long since been taken away, likely by Zhao Hongyuan.

Liang Qu dived into the underground river. Within his sensory range, there were many small fish, and even large fish over half a meter long.

Ordinary underground water is long-term in a low-oxygen state, and the oxygen content in underground rivers is very limited. Therefore, in most underground water or yin rivers, the ecological environment is quite poor, and it is difficult to see the shadows of fish or other creatures.

A yin river with a source is different.

Its water source flows in from surface rivers, and the water has sufficient oxygen content and abundant substances, providing a suitable environment for biological survival. The ecology is not inferior at all; it is very rich.

His premonition was correct; this underground river should lead directly to the Huaijiang River.

Liang Qu returned to the wellhead, judged the direction of the Huaijiang River, and moved forward along the underground river.

This underground river had no idea how many tributaries it had branched into. He swam out all the way and saw no fewer than four or five forks, like a spider's nest.

During this time, Liang Qu discovered many fish species he had never seen before, and some even emitted a faint glow themselves, gathering together like a swarm of fireflies in the river.

After swimming for about a li, the paths on both sides narrowed, constricting to only half their original width, and light faintly shone through from the very front.

Liang Qu controlled the water flow, swam out a hundred meters in an instant, and his sensory circle suddenly became vast!

Looking back, behind him was a narrow, flat water intake.

He swam all the way up and stepped onto the surface of the water.

The river was calm, and the river water reflected the radiance of the new moon.

The Huaijiang River!

He had actually dug a passage out from his own small courtyard!

In his excitement, Liang Qu headed to the lotus water area, summoned the three beasts, and let them follow him to the underground river to learn the way.

The three beasts entered the cave. Fist-Head grabbed the tail of the immobile one, and the Fatty Catfish curiously looked around.

It was pitch black, and there were fish that glowed; it had never seen such things before.

A two-foot-long glowing fish swam past it. The Fatty Catfish tilted its head to look, and in a moment of carelessness, it bumped into the rock.

"Don't wander around!"

Liang Qu patted A-Fei's head.

The underground water area was intricate and complex. If the Fatty Catfish took a wrong turn, even with his sense of direction, he wouldn't dare say he could easily find it.

Perhaps they were separated by only a wall, yet they would be unable to see each other.

The Fatty Catfish followed honestly by his side.

Liang Qu dived all the way and found the deep well dug out from his small courtyard, but the hole was too small; the Fatty Catfish and the immobile one were fine, but Fist-Head couldn't squeeze in.

The three beasts and Liang Qu began to further expand and renovate the deep well. They dug out the hole, and soon the well hole was expanded to a diameter of two meters.

Liang Qu, with a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder, used the Azure Wolf to shave the uneven rock wall of the hole until it was straight and rounded; it looked much more comfortable.

The three great beasts dug out more than twenty-five meters, and Liang Qu pushed outward in all directions along the well passage.

In this way, he could create a large pond three meters deep in the courtyard. When the time came, he would find a mason to lay a layer of blue bricks to hold back all the soil layer, and in the summer, he would plant duckweed; it would be equivalent to a simple landscape.

Fist-Head crawled out along the hole. It was the first time it had come to such deep inland land, moving its eight legs, running back and forth, in and out.

All around were tall courtyard walls; it was a scene it had never seen in its entire life.

The immobile one also crawled out, bathing in the moonlight, enjoying that novel feeling.

The Fatty Catfish poked out its large head, feeling that the place where the Heavenly God lived was far more exquisite than Toad Brother's, and even the decorative brackets looked incomparably profound.

Is this the Divine Realm?

The difference between humans and animals lies in this.

Here, Liang Qu could live in a comfortable large courtyard, but if he were huddled in the marshes, all that would await him would be mud holes and rock caves, without even a soft quilt.

The root of human effort is to not have to work, to be comfortable.

Practicing martial arts is the same; without illness or disaster, with a long lifespan, and with no one daring to provoke you, you gain the privilege of not working for longer and more time to enjoy comfort.

Fist-Head crawled onto the tree pond, used its pincers to clip off a jujube tree branch, waved it at Liang Qu, and asked what it was.

"It's a tree! A jujube tree! In two years, it will bear fruit, and then you can eat jujubes."

For the first time, the concept of a "tree" appeared in Fist-Head's mind.

So this is a tree, something that doesn't exist in the water.

The immobile one crawled to a huge pillar and clawed at it.

"That is also a tree, but it's made from a dead tree; it's called timber."

The immobile one dragged its claw against its chin, revealing a thoughtful expression.

The Fatty Catfish thought of Toad Brother's boat, and the small boats floating on the river; so boats are also turned from trees.

Liang Qu stood in the courtyard, feeling that it might really be necessary to give the three beasts a lesson to expand their cognition.

Humans cannot imagine things they have never truly seen, and animals even more so. As water beasts, the cognition of the three beasts was even more narrow.

Fortunately, the Huaijiang River could now lead directly to the courtyard.

With a greeting, he could let the three beasts come directly home from the Huaijiang River; feeding and harvesting treasures would be much more convenient.

The night was deep and quiet, and there was no one around.

Now the entire second-entry courtyard was surrounded by walls and was not yet connected to the third-entry courtyard. No one would cast their gaze over, so Liang Qu let the three beasts play in the courtyard for a while before letting them go back.

Actually, being seen wasn't a big deal.

Seeing the finless porpoises raised by the River Patrol Office today gave Liang Qu quite a shock.

He discovered that the few beasts he raised didn't count for much at all, and even the Heavenly Water Centipede was the same; there were witchcraft practitioners in the Ten Thousand Mountains of Miaozhou who could drive poisonous insects. Sometimes he was too cautious.

It is said that the River Patrol Office has other tamed water beasts, but as of now, the finless porpoise is the most excellent category among all tamed water beasts.

Finless porpoises are intelligent by nature, move in groups, and their entire social structure is similar to a wolf pack. A finless porpoise pod can have thirty to forty individuals.

As spirit monsters, they are even smarter. You only need to tame the leader, and the entire pod is under control. They can breed stably and be mass-produced; the cost-performance ratio is very high.

The finless porpoise pods brought by the River Patrol Office this time total four, led by four top-tier great spirit monsters. Leading the pod beasts to fight some demon beasts is not too difficult.

The only drawback is that finless porpoises breed slowly, not much different from horses; it takes a year at a time, and spirit monsters take even longer, and a litter usually only has one.

It just so happened that after Liang Qu broke through the Bone Pass, his spiritual strength had improved, leaving some space.

He could find a time to dominate a finless porpoise, use the Marsh Essence to evolve it into a Finless Porpoise King, and do a little poaching.

After making the plan, Liang Qu returned to the main room to sleep.

Early the next morning, Liang Qu was stopped by Li Libo, who had rushed over before he could report to the River Patrol Office.

Cao Shixiong Hu from the martial arts hall told him to go to the Yang Prefecture residence today, saying Yang Dongxiong had something to teach him.

Liang Qu was full of enthusiasm. Since becoming an apprentice, several senior brothers had been teaching on behalf of the master, which was not inappropriate; what he learned was solid. He didn't expect that today Yang Dongxiong would actually want to teach him something personally.

Riding his horse to the Yang Prefecture residence, Liang Qu let the groom lead away Chishan. After seeing Yang Dongxiong, he went with him to an open space in the garden.

Yang Dongxiong got straight to the point: "Circulate the 'Qi Circulation Inscription' and let me see."

Liang Qu sat cross-legged, his entire body's qi and blood circulating according to the Qi Circulation Inscription, perfectly smooth.

Yang Dongxiong pressed a palm against Liang Qu's back, sensing the circulation of blood and qi within his body, and nodded slightly: "Not bad, it seems you haven't been lazy."

Liang Qu cupped his hands and said: "It is all due to the guidance of several senior brothers."

"I drank too late yesterday and forgot. There is nothing else today; I called you here mainly to transmit a cultivation technique to you, named 'Wan Sheng Holding the Origin'."

"'Wan Sheng Holding the Origin'?"

Liang Qu chewed on the words, only feeling like he had heard them somewhere before. Recalling the books he had read in the past, a flash of inspiration struck, and he blurted out.

"Emperor Huangwu's Wan Sheng Art?"

"Not bad." Yang Dongxiong stroked his beard. "It seems you haven't wasted your efforts at the academy. Wan Sheng Holding the Origin is a technique created precisely on the basis of Emperor Huangwu's 'Wan Sheng Art'."

The Great Huang was an ancient dynasty before the Great Shun and Great Qian.

Its founder, Emperor Huangwu, was even more renowned. Before he rose to power, while serving as a low-to-mid-level official, he once had the fierce battle record of one man chasing down thousands.

The 'Wan Sheng Art' he created himself had been lost, but Emperor Huangwu of the Great Huang once simplified and adapted this method, circulating it in the army, and it became the mainstream cultivation technique of the Great Qian army at the time, the 'Hundred Battles Method'. This method was not lost.

A thousand years have passed, and nowadays, in the mainstream cultivation techniques of the Great Shun army, one can still see its shadow.

'Wan Sheng Holding the Origin', judging by the name, it seems to be another adaptation based on the 'Wan Sheng Art'? ===== CHAPTER 129 =====