Chapter 76: Martial Will Manifests, Enlightenment of the Clear Wind Palm's Essence

The martial arts academy, dormitory.

Lin Chen counted the silver notes and silver taels, a smile he couldn’t suppress spreading across his face.

Two hundred and seventy-two taels!

Since entering the martial arts hall, his total expenditures on cultivation had never exceeded this amount.

“Logically, after Wednesday gave up on his martial path, he wouldn’t keep spending on cultivation—there shouldn’t be this little left.”

A martial artist is poor, yet also rich.

Rich, because martial artists spend silver like water; poor, precisely because they spend silver like water.

The higher one pursues in cultivation, the poorer one becomes, for silver is never enough.

After putting away the silver notes and taels, Lin Chen turned his gaze to the cloth bag, untied the red cord sealing its mouth.

The bag opened, revealing a rolled scroll tied with red string; Lin Chen gently withdrew it, and the moment he touched it, he felt an unusual texture—not the softness of ordinary paper, but a cool, resilient, elastic quality.

Slowly unrolling the scroll, ancient ink characters recorded these words:

【In the 275th year of the Great Liang era, on my fiftieth birthday, my hometown elders came bearing gifts. Recalling my youth, I leave behind one piece of martial will—let my hometown elders carry it home, to pass to the next generation of martial talents. Once this scroll is opened, you must press your palm upon it within ten breaths, or the martial will within will vanish… Left by Dai Jingfeng!】

After reading the text, Lin Chen’s mind flashed with lightning-fast thoughts.

This year is the 299th year of Great Liang—twenty-four years have passed since then.

The meaning of the text was not hard to grasp.

A martial artist named Dai Jingfeng, on his fiftieth birthday, was visited by his hometown elders. Seeing them, he recalled his youth in his homeland and left behind a piece of martial will, asking them to bring it home for the next generation of martial learners.

Who was Dai Jingfeng?

Why did this scroll end up in Wednesday’s hands?

What exactly was martial will?

Lin Chen had many questions, but he had no time to ponder—the scroll had warned that once opened, the palm must be pressed upon it within ten breaths, or the martial will within would be lost.

After five breaths, Lin Chen made his decision.

This martial will was surely something valuable.

Lin Chen activated the Clear Wind Palm technique, aligning his breath with its rhythm, then extended his palm, tense yet hopeful, and pressed it firmly onto the scroll.

One breath… two breaths… three breaths…

After three breaths, the characters on the scroll began to shift, rearranging into strange human-shaped strokes, each line pulsing with mysterious energy.

BOOM!

The next instant, a vast and terrifying energy surged from the scroll, overwhelming Lin Chen’s face; the scroll itself shattered instantly into dust, unable to contain the force.

This terrifying energy, like a slumbering beast awakened after a thousand years, erupted with mountain-collapsing, sea-reversing force—Lin Chen, at the epicenter, felt his body tear apart in searing agony.

But the pain vanished in an instant; Lin Chen quickly regained clarity, and before his eyes, light and shadow shifted as if he had stepped into a strange realm.

Before him stood a martial artist, agile as a soaring eagle, descending from the heavens, performing palm techniques with an ethereal, natural, effortless grace.

Clear Wind Palm!

Lin Chen instantly recognized the technique.

But unlike his own execution, every movement of Clear Wind Palm in this man’s hands appeared perfectly formed, as if born of heaven itself.

By the end, the technique evolved into drizzling rain, summoning a storm.

A flash of insight gleamed in Lin Chen’s eyes.

Spring wind turns to rain—this is life!

Ultimate softness gives birth to vitality.

Violent wind explodes like thunder.

Ultimate hardness gives birth to power.

Ethereal and formless—that is the transition between hardness and softness!

Ultimate softness can become ultimate hardness.

This is the true essence of Clear Wind Palm.

Lin Chen slowly closed his eyes, recalling every movement he had ever performed in Clear Wind Palm—his private practice, his matches on the arena, the clumsiness of his first attempts.

Long after, Lin Chen slowly extended one palm.

Utterly soft. Utterly slow.

Yet strangely, the palm strike emitted a sharp whistle of displaced air; where his hand passed, the air tore with piercing shrieks.

Though the palm was utterly soft, it produced the effect of utter hardness.

“No—merely transitioning between hardness and softness still clings to form. True perfection is returning to simplicity.”

Lin Chen frowned, eyes still closed, replaying the vision of that figure performing Clear Wind Palm.

The sensation was exquisite—he was merely an observer, yet the scene felt as if he had lived it himself.

Hardness and softness in harmony were merely the power of Clear Wind Palm.

Its true essence lay in the words “clear wind”—free, unbound, spontaneous, yet capable of instantly gathering immense power.

Wind and clouds stirred again… wind swept away the clouds…

One after another, lethal techniques of Clear Wind Palm manifested in Lin Chen’s palm—but now, the forms he executed differed from those recorded in the manual.

Not being bound by fixed forms—that was the hallmark of perfected technique.

SNAP!

In an instant, Lin Chen struck the camphor tree before him, his power astonishing.

Yet the tree remained utterly still—not a single leaf fell.

Lin Chen smiled. The strike arose and vanished in the palm, the clear wind ethereal, he himself formless.

Illusory, unreal, leaving no trace.

Tonight, I have truly comprehended the essence of Clear Wind Palm!

【Panel: Clear Wind Palm (Perfected)】

…

…

The next morning, the first rays of dawn fell upon the courtyard.

Lin Chen had already risen and appeared in the back yard.

【Host: Lin Chen】

【Realm: Opened Meridian (6/24): (76/100)】

【Clear Wind Palm: Perfected】

【Water Cloud Palm: Minor Mastery (8/10)】

Looking at his panel data, Lin Chen’s lips curled into a faint smile.

Overnight, Clear Wind Palm had reached perfection—his cultivation progress had increased by thirty points, double what it had been at Major Mastery.

With Clear Wind Palm perfected, it was far more than mere technique mastery; even without active cultivation, the essence within him now flowed freely through his meridians, naturally following the technique’s qi pathway.

The martial will within that scroll was truly miraculous. Perhaps Wednesday’s meager remaining wealth of two hundred-odd taels was precisely because he had spent it all on this scroll carrying the martial will.

Too bad Wednesday and his family were already dead—he could only speculate.

Lin Chen changed into clean academy robes, ate breakfast in the dining hall, then headed straight for the training ground.

When he arrived, the training ground was already crowded with students.

Fu Jingya, Gu Qingqing, and other senior sisters were there, along with the Qi-refining students who had not yet opened their meridians when they enrolled.

As the academy’s only male disciple, Lin Chen’s appearance drew the attention of many students.

“Is this Senior Lin? He looks so handsome.”

“Senior Lin’s aura… he’s like a refined young master.”

“Little flirt, you’re clearly smitten. Senior Lin’s family isn’t wealthy—how can he be called a young master? But he really is good-looking.”

Fu Jingya and the others watched Lin Chen approach, their brows slightly furrowed—Senior Lin’s aura seemed to have changed.

They couldn’t quite say how, but in one sentence: he looked better.

The female students at the academy focused on martial training; asking them to describe such subtle changes with literary terms was truly difficult.

Xiao Ting, standing near the back of the front row, brightened when she saw Lin Chen approaching, but then remembered something, her face clouding with disappointment.

Rumors in the academy said that recently, Senior Lin had been spending more time with Senior Jiang.

Don’t ask who spread it.

The most distinctive feature of Jing Shui Academy was how fast gossip traveled.

If it were Senior Li, I might still have a chance—but if it’s Senior Jiang, I’ve got no chance at all.

After greeting the senior sisters, Lin Chen scanned the crowd—neither Master Kong nor Senior Jiang was present; only Instructor Shen was there.

“Tomorrow is the quarterly competition. The Wuzheng Office has issued an order—today, all academy disciples must report to the Wuzheng Office. You nine, follow me.”

Today’s escort was Instructor Shen.

Instructor Shen offered no further explanation, leading the way, while students without permission to attend the Wuzheng Office cheered and encouraged their friends and senior sisters.

“Where’s Senior Jiang?”

As Lin Chen asked, Xiao Ting, walking behind him, felt her heart ache even more.

Fu Jingya and the others shook their heads—they didn’t know where Senior Jiang had gone.

“Jiang Qing left early this morning with Master Kong to go to the Wuzheng Office.”

Shen Lin turned back and explained upon hearing Lin Chen’s question.

Learning that Senior Jiang and Master Kong had already gone ahead, Lin Chen stopped asking.

"Instructor Shen, how will this year’s martial academy competition be conducted?" Gu Qingqing asked curiously.

Even now, they still did not know the rules for this year’s competition among the Eight Martial Academies.

"This year’s competition differs from previous ones. You’ll understand once you reach the Wuzhengsuo. This contest is crucial for you—give it your all."

Shen Lin wasn’t deliberately withholding information; she herself didn’t yet know how Master Su would arrange this competition. She had only learned from Sister Kong that Master Su clearly placed great importance on it.

By normal standards, the three-month competition for new recruits meant little—after all, even the strongest among them hadn’t broken through the Ten Meridians. To the Wuzhengsuo and academy elites, it was merely a minor affair.

Yet Master Su’s intense focus, and his refusal to reveal the rules even now, suggested his ambitions extended far beyond ensuring Yongfeng County wouldn’t finish last in next year’s Prefectural Exam at Poyang County.

The greater Master Su’s ambitions, the greater the rewards for those who make the top ten and earn his notice—rewards that might go beyond the publicly announced Soul-Opening Pills and silver taels.

Shen Lin knew Sister Kong well—Sister Kong was incapable of such analysis. These words must have come from Senior Sister; Sister Kong was merely repeating them.

(End of Chapter)