Chapter 41

Cypress Yunxian, West Street.

Shen Yi turned and looked at the few of them: "All of you, disperse now. Go home and rest early."

Tonight had been, for them, a bolt from the blue.

Especially Zhang Dahu — he had been a local bully in the county, always having things his own way. Who would have thought that just as he began to rein himself in, he nearly got chopped down by a colleague's blade.

"Safe travels, my lord Shen."

Chen Ji and the others cupped their fists in assent.

Butcher Zhang opened his mouth, about to press the question from earlier.

"I didn't go easy on you. I just rarely spar with people, so I gained some insight from it." Shen Yi rubbed his brow, feeling a faint headache coming on.

"Well, that's more like it." Butcher Zhang smacked his lips, finally recovering a shred of confidence.

After seeing the others off, Shen Yi at last strolled unhurriedly toward the little cottage that belonged to him.

Now that the dog demon and the old ape had both been slain — don't be fooled by their mediocre cultivation, in truth they were the greatest threat to Cypress Yunxian.

The days ahead would surely be much easier for him.

He walked up to the door, reached out as if to knock, glanced at the thick night, and then drew his hand back.

She should be asleep by now, right?

Lin Baiwei sat at the table, carefully copying out a martial art.

Only her clenched left hand betrayed a trace of worry.

At first she had only meant to fool that rotten constable, to keep herself alive.

Who could have guessed that, as the days went by, he almost never came home with clean clothes — and her opinion of him gradually began to change.

In these chaotic times, anyone who dared to slay demons was, by and large, no bad sort.

But last night's incident had stirred a flicker of quiet anger in her heart.

In all of Cypress Yunxian, was there truly no one but a single person to hold the demons at bay? The slightest slip, and blades would be drawn!

Lin Baiwei washed the demon blood from his clothes with her own hands every single day.

Whether Shen Yi was one of those lazy sorts who knew the truth and stayed silent — could she possibly not know?

Besides, the assignment itself had never been reasonable to begin with.

"You're back?"

Suddenly hearing the door push open, a flash of delight crossed Lin Baiwei's pretty face. She rose and looked over.

Shen Yi paused briefly, gave a nod, took off his outer robe and set it on the cabinet, then reached for the pages on the table and began flipping through them: "This many?"

"Jade Liquid Realm martial arts involve the meridians and acupoints, as well as the mobilization of qi and jade liquid — naturally they can't be compared to ordinary martial arts. Don't be impatient; let me read through it a few more times to make sure there are no mistakes or omissions."

Lin Baiwei gave a brief explanation, then, seeing he was unhurt, let out a small breath of relief: "You go wash up. I'll go reheat the food for you."

"No need. I don't really have an appetite."

Shen Yi flipped through the pages seemingly at random, yet a surge of pleasant surprise rose in his eyes.

A brand-new notification had appeared on the panel.

【Jade Liquid · Four-Fold True Qi (Not Yet Initiated)】

A Jade Liquid martial art that the whole of Cypress Yunxian might not be able to turn up a single copy of — and here it lay quietly in his hands.

"Even among Jade Liquid techniques, this is an exceedingly rare, overbearing method. Anyone without deep foundations must not use it lightly. It's not really suited to your current situation, but for now this is the only thing I can offer."

Lin Baiwei stepped into the kitchen, but still called back a reminder: "Learning martial arts must be taken step by step."

A moment later, she set the reheated stewed meat soup and a big bowl of rice on the table: "My master used to say — no matter how much blood you've seen, no matter what horrors you've witnessed, you still have to eat."

Lin Baiwei, who had never once admitted to having a sect, tonight spoke the words "my master" without the slightest hesitation.

Shen Yi pressed his lips together, did not refuse her kindness, picked up his chopsticks and stirred the tender stewed meat together with the rice, then polished it off in a few quick bites.

The warmth of the food drove the gloom from his heart.

Shen Yi poured the entire bowl of meat soup into his stomach, then contentedly rubbed his belly.

Seeing this, the corners of Lin Baiwei's mouth lifted slightly. She gathered up the bowls and chopsticks and left the room.

Once the room had fallen silent —

Shen Yi flipped over onto the bed and opened the panel once more.

Four-Fold True Qi — it's neither an internal art, nor does it sound like it has anything to do with blades or swords.

Where, then, does its overbearing nature lie?

【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 651 years】

Shen Yi did not rush to begin the deduction. Instead, he took out three beast yuan — one from the tiger demon and two from the ape demon.

He held one in his mouth, and the demon lifespan swiftly poured into the Four-Fold True Qi.

【Year One. You forcibly practiced the Jade Liquid Realm method, painstakingly parsing the obscure text, and along the way absorbed the tiger demon's beast yuan.】

【Year Three. You finally understood this martial art. That beast yuan had long since been fully absorbed, and every wisp of qi within your first acupoint had transformed entirely into jade dew.】

【Year Twenty-Nine. You gained an initial grasp of what "Four-Fold" meant — Heaven, Earth, Man, and Self — and successfully achieved the first step, "Qi Merged with Body." Four-Fold True Qi: Initiated.】

【Year Thirty-Two. Your progress slowed. The main reason was that the qi within your body was insufficient to sustain this martial art; every attempt drained all the reserves from your acupoints.】

……

Shen Yi stopped the infusion and placed the second beast yuan into his mouth.

【Year Forty-Three. With the aid of the ape demon's beast yuan, your qi-recovery speed increased, and from it you comprehended "Mind-Ape." After long practice, you pushed Four-Fold True Qi to Minor Completion.】

【Year Seventy-Two. Once again you perceived the importance of talent and precious medicines — the former caused your progress to crawl, the latter left you unable to make up for lack of aptitude through sheer effort.】

Seeing this, Shen Yi did not hesitate. The third beast yuan entered his belly.

【Year Ninety-Four. Four-Fold True Qi reached Major Completion. By now, a casual wave of your hand unleashed a skyful of qi rain, like an immortal walking the earth — but only you yourself knew that a single such wave cost years of reserves.】

【Year One Hundred and Thirty. After years without the slightest progress, you felt pain. Martial arts was no longer a matter of one part toil, one part reward — if you didn't understand, you simply didn't understand; if you couldn't grasp it, you couldn't grasp it… You began, little by little, to blame Heaven and resent others.】

【In the one hundred and ninetieth year, the erosion of time wore away even your urge to complain; you simply quietly filled your acupoints, condensing jade dew, awaiting the next attempt】

【In the two hundred and sixtieth year, you rose in a daze, with no sudden enlightenment, only ten million identical strikes — this time there was a slight change, and your numb thoughts didn't even know what caused this sliver of variation】

【Four-Fold True Gang, Complete!】

【Remaining demon-monster lifespan: three hundred and ninety-one years】

……

Shen Yi's eyes went blank for a moment.

That immense pressure, and the knowing-the-what-but-not-the-why — having succeeded only to fall into greater confusion — all those tangled emotions swept through his mind in an instant…

And made him inexplicably begin retching, as if wanting to vomit out all his five viscera and six bowels.

Fortunately, in a flash, he returned to normal.

"Hiss."

Shen Yi rubbed his face.

This martial practice seemed no different from studying and working in his past life.

Picking it up and getting the basics, memorizing a few key formulas, wasn't hard — but so-called perfection meant reciting it backward and forward, mastering it completely, even digesting the entire book; anyone who could reach such a level was at least a big shot in the field.

Only someone like himself, with powerful backing, would dare harbor the notion of training every martial art to perfection.

Once the useless emotions dispersed, what remained in his mind was everything about this Jade Liquid Realm martial art.

【Jade Liquid. Four-Fold True Gang (Complete)】

【Beginner Realm. Mind Ape: You know the habits of ape-type demons like the back of your hand, climb mountains as if walking on flat ground, and the progress efficiency of movement-step martial arts is increased】

(End of chapter)