Chapter 160: Declared Missing

Martial arts have the Six Harmonies.

The Three External Harmonies are: shoulder with hip, elbow with knee, and hand with foot.

The Three Internal Harmonies are: heart with intent, intent with Qi, and Qi with force.

Long-term practice of the Three External Harmonies can correct posture, stabilize the body's center of gravity, and make movements agile.

Long-term practice of the Three Internal Harmonies can focus the spirit, connect intent and Qi, and double work efficiency.

Beginners in boxing, due to unfamiliar movements and nervous spirits, are awkward and stiff, thus losing the "harmony"; for this reason, they must practice standing stakes.

The purpose of practicing stake arts is to achieve the Three Internal and External Harmonies, to attain the Six Harmonies, so that one's fighting style can be natural.

Yet, there is an order to the cultivation of fighting styles.

Grappling is dead, seizing is alive; first fists, then legs, then grappling. Only after mastering grappling does one advance to weapons.

Weapons are extensions of the hands and feet. This is the so-called unity of person and weapon: internal yin, external yang, with internal and external fused into one Qi. If one form is not smooth, it is difficult to practice other forms!

"For an ordinary person to master fists and kicks, it takes no less than three to five years. Li Libo and Chen Jiechang broke through the skin barrier, far surpassing ordinary people, yet they only know the framework of the arts. If they encounter a martial arts master, they could be defeated by the strength of an ordinary person."

This is why cultivation realm does not necessarily represent combat power.

Without martial arts, one unit of force can only produce one unit of effect; but having learned martial arts, one unit of force can produce ten units of effect.

Some people have such high talent that breaking through cultivation barriers is like eating and drinking, with one year of work equaling five or six years for others.

But for those others, after five or six years, their fists and kicks are already mastered. Unless the gap is extreme, they are not without a chance of winning.

Take Liang Qu himself, a talent of heaven-sent aptitude; he broke through all four barriers in half a year. For anyone else, half a year's effort would only be enough for the framework of the arts.

Fortunately, Liang Qu is favored by the River Lord Emperor, so his cultivation is fast, and his martial arts practice is also fast—especially with long weapons, where he is as if aided by a god, progressing faster than with any other weapon.

In half a year, he wields a long spear as if he had practiced for five or six years.

If long weapons are like this, logically, the bow should also be...

Liang Qu lowers his gaze, looking at the profound iron great bow in his hand.

"Waist slung with a crescent-like slingshot, hands wielding a three-pointed, double-edged spear."

This sentence describes the River Lord Emperor, who is Erlang Shen.

Erlang Shen's slingshot is not a common slingshot with a tree-fork frame, but an ancient bow-shaped slingshot.

Aside from a leather pouch at the center of the string for launching pellets, the ancient slingshot's shape is identical to an arrow bow!

Everything visible in portraits of the River Lord Emperor is a great bow identical to a common arrow bow.

The only difference is that one shoots arrows, and the other shoots pellets.

"Try again!"

Under the rough pull just now, Liang Qu failed to pull it completely open. This time, he adjusts his posture, spreads his legs, straightens his waist, and draws the bow again.

Crack!

Bursts of teeth-aching grinding sounds come from the bow limbs.

Liang Qu's blood and Qi circulate, his strength erupts, and amidst the shocked gazes of others, he pulls open this massive profound iron bow.

Everyone is dumbfounded; this bow was used by the gang leader Liu Jie, and it is made entirely of profound iron!

Does this not mean that the young man before them is also at the Galloping Horse Realm?

Whoosh!

Within half a breath, Liang Qu can no longer hold on and slowly retracts the bow.

Too strenuous.

A suitable bow must at least be able to be drawn and held for three breaths to be considered suitable for use.

The Great Shun measurement system is mainly based on shi, jun, and jin. One shi is five jun, one jun is thirty jin, so one shi is one hundred and fifty jin.

This profound iron great bow is likely over a hundred shi...

A trained soldier usually uses a bow of about thirty-five jin; that is, the bow's draw weight is actually smaller than a person's actual strength.

A hundred-shi powerful bow is already an extremely exaggerated level.

Liang Qu sighs.

Purely in terms of strength, he is still inferior to Liu Jie, and even differs by quite a lot.

"Still relied on the underwater conditions."

Being able to breathe underwater and ignore water resistance is entirely a matter of give and take.

On land, he still needs to keep a low profile.

But the good news is that although it is a bit strenuous to use for now, the feeling of satisfaction while drawing the bow is identical to when practicing the spear!

The River Lord Emperor's favor really does have a bonus for learning archery!

Liang Qu's eyes are bright, quite excited.

"Greed leads to indigestion"—that applies to people with average talent; they spend a lifetime learning one thing and still might not master it.

But for Liang Qu, that is called "having many skills is no burden"!

He turns his head to look at the gang members.

"Does this bow have arrows?"

"Yes, yes, yes, they are all here!"

A gang member brings over a quiver. Liang Qu reaches out and takes it; the arrows inside are all over three feet long, pitch black, with arrowheads gleaming with cold light.

Liang Qu nods, takes the string off the profound iron bow, and puts it inside the quiver.

"Pack them carefully for me, not a single one can be missing. If one is missing, use your heads to make up for it!

The rest of you, take everything, and now, all of you go to the county town!"

On the Pingyang County pier, the tall ship rises and falls slightly with the river breeze.

In the archives room, martial artists weave between long tables, receiving suitable tasks or finding the Registrar with colleagues to register military merits.

As the days since the arrival of the River Patrol Office grow longer, more martial artists have come to join, adding a bit of vitality.

Yet Li Shoufu is frowning, holding a wolf-hair brush, wondering what he is thinking about.

"Registrar Li?"

"Registrar Li!"

The martial artist's voice is a bit louder, startling Li Shoufu out of his daze.

Li Shoufu looks around, realizes his abnormality, and apologizes repeatedly: "Sorry, sorry, didn't sleep well last night. Is the lord here to receive a task?"

The martial artist doesn't mind much, nods, and slaps down a dossier and his own file booklet.

After Li Shoufu registers the information and hands over the booklet, a colleague, Registrar Huang Pingchang, asks curiously.

"What happened? You've been restless all day today. And I think you started yesterday."

He jokes, "What, did your superior give you a hard time? Or did you take a fancy to some woman, but she's already betrothed?"

Li Shoufu's expression stiffens, and seeing no one around, he sighs heavily.

"Alas, don't mention it, it's neither. I might really be in trouble."

Huang Pingchang is puzzled: "What do you mean?"

"A few days ago, there was a task to deal with a harmful spirit monster in the neighboring Fengbu County. At that time, there weren't two River Lords, and there was no one around, so I gave it to a River Lord surnamed Liang to handle."

Huang Pingchang becomes serious: "A River Lord surnamed Liang? Could it be the one related to Commander Xu? Nothing happened, right?"

"I don't know, he hasn't sent back any news yet, but he took the task on Friday, and today is also Friday. By tonight, it will be a full seven days, and he will be declared missing..."

Huang Pingchang is horrified: "What were you thinking, giving a task to such a well-connected person?"

"I had no choice, there was no one else at the time, plus his strength is good, he's a strong man, bringing back four or five small merits every night—even Galloping Horse martial artists aren't that capable. I thought nothing would happen, he'd go for a few days and come back, who would have thought..."

Li Shoufu has a mournful face.

If something really happened to Liang Qu, how could Commander Xu let him off? His official hat would likely be lost.

"What should be done? Have you told Commander Xu?"

"Not yet..."

"I already know."

Li Shoufu trembles all over and turns stiffly.

"Xu... Commander Xu, you... you didn't go fishing?"

Xu Yuelong's face darkens.

He did go fishing, but halfway through, he discovered the bait in the bucket was gone.

He remembered hearing rumors a few days ago that a small fish gang relied on a magical bait to catch several times more fish than other fishermen, so he thought about coming back to get some silver to find someone to buy some.

He never expected to hear Li Shoufu's discussion from across the deck.

"Tell me in detail, what exactly is going on." ===== CHAPTER 161 =====