Devouring Evil Martial Arts, Eliminating Demons from All Heavens

Chapter 150 Dongchan, Bone-Strengthening Height Increase

A light drizzle falls during the day, and the clear green water ripples gently.

The small boat floated on the emerald green water.

In this misty rain of Jiangnan, amidst the ripples everywhere, it's impossible to tell whether the boat is going downstream, upstream, or not moving at all.

There are fish in the water, which seem to love this misty rain as well. They sometimes float to the surface, open their mouths and create ripples, and then swim back underwater.

But no fish came within three zhang (approximately 10 meters) of the boat.

At the bow and stern of the boat sat two people, one wearing a straw hat and the other a raincoat; they appeared to be an old man and a young man.

Inside the boat awning, Chu Tianshu sat cross-legged, embracing the primordial energy and forgetting himself and the world around him.

Suddenly, he took his hands off his knees, made a sword-like gesture, and stabbed himself in more than a dozen acupoints from his thighs to his chest and abdomen.

"The Divine Skill of Hanging Heaven" embodies the artistic conception of "the vast ocean, the circulation of water and air, the transformation of the Kunpeng, and the hanging of wind and rain."

The Kun fish lies hidden in the deep sea, its body enormous. Before it emerges, there must be raging waves and towering billows on the sea surface.

Therefore, before mastering the essence of the Kunpeng Transformation, one must first cultivate one's internal strength to the point where it is as turbulent and surging as a raging torrent.

At this stage, in addition to meditation and breath control, a set of exquisite acupressure techniques must also be used.

When practicing, the order of pressing and releasing acupoints varies, which subtly follows a certain pattern.

The newly generated internal energy is like being blocked by a dam, suddenly accumulating at a certain point, and then, at the right moment, it suddenly flows freely and is swept away.

However, the path that is washed away may not be the same as the previous meridian path; it may be led to another meridian route.

Chu Tianshu's hands changed constantly, and finally his left hand formed a sword-like finger, like a hanging needle, with the fingertip pointing downwards, just touching his left knee.

With the right hand forming a sword-like gesture, stroke horizontally from the left waist down to the dantian, then surge upwards and stop at the heart.

Then, as if pulling on a heavy object, his right hand moved extremely slowly from his heart back to his dantian.

The last movement was so slow that it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, yet he was still moving continuously.

It took a while to realize that his right hand, pointing like a sword, had indeed moved to a different spot.

Xu Zhicheng, sitting on the bow of the boat, breathed a sigh of relief, noticing that the threatening feeling he had been feeling was slowly fading away.

When Chu Tianshu cultivates internal energy, the circulation of qi and blood is not as intense as when he practices internal strength, but it still affects the qi and blood to some extent and emits a bit of pressure.

Anyone within three zhang (approximately 10 meters) will still feel a distinct abnormality.

Are we almost at the Southern Shaolin Temple?

Chu Tianshu asked a question.

Xu Ben replied, "We can already see the outline of the temple on the mountain."

The riverbank is lined with rolling green hills, with tender green fields and lush, verdant trees.

Looking into the distance, one can indeed see the bell tower on the mountaintop and the eaves of the main hall on the neighboring peak.

Legend has it that at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Shichong, with his army, declared himself emperor in Luoyang, establishing the state of Zheng. He appointed his nephew Wang Renzhe as general and deployed a large army in Baiguzhuang to block Li Shimin's eastward advance.

Thirteen Shaolin monks, including Tanzong, infiltrated Zheng's army camp at night, captured Wang Renzhe alive, and presented him to Li Shimin.

Emperor Taizong of Tang (Li Shimin) greatly admired the Shaolin monks and granted them forty hectares of land. He also permitted the Shaolin monks to build ten more temples throughout the country.

However, most of these ten temples were lost to the tides of history.

By the time of the Song and Yuan dynasties, only the ancestral temple of Shaolin Temple on Mount Song and the "Zhenguo Dongchan Shaolin Temple" in Quanzhou remained.

Because Quanzhou is in the south, people often do not call it the Eastern Shaolin Temple, but rather the Southern Shaolin Temple.

This is quite different from the development of the world during the Republic of China era.

The "Breaking into Shaolin" boxing manual that Chu Tianshu obtained mentioned that Yu Dayou had been to both the Northern and Southern Shaolin Temples. The Northern Shaolin Temple was located in Songshan, but the Southern Shaolin Temple of the Ming Dynasty in that world was located in Putian.

The Southern Shaolin Temple in this world has also had a very difficult history of being passed down.

By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Dharma Hall was overgrown with weeds, the monks had scattered like rain, and only a dozen or so monks remained in the entire Southern Shaolin Temple.

However, during the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the abbot of the Southern Shaolin Temple sensed a wonderful opportunity.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang, following precedent, issued one or two imperial edicts to bestow rewards upon Shaolin Temple on Mount Song.

However, compared to the preferential treatment given to Shaolin Temple on Mount Song during the Yuan Dynasty, it was a world of difference.

The abbot of the Southern Shaolin Temple realized that the imperial court was not satisfied with the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song, so he immediately decided to vigorously promote the idea of ​​"integration of agriculture and Zen" in the Southern Shaolin Temple and follow the "Baizhang Rules of Purity".

He proclaimed that the Southern Shaolin Temple would not eat if it did not work for a day, and led the people to reclaim wasteland and sent monks to assist the villagers in farming.

In the tenth year of the Hongwu reign, the prefectural official submitted a memorial to the imperial court.

The emperor was overjoyed and issued an imperial edict to repair the Shaolin Temple in Quanzhou.

As a result, the Southern Shaolin Temple flourished once again.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely ruthless and suspicious. Since the Southern Shaolin Temple had adopted the name "Baizhang Rules of Purity" and claimed that farming and Zen were integrated, he was suspicious.

In the decades that followed, all the new disciples accepted into the temple had to be carefully taught and diligently trained.

By persisting in this way, the reputation of the Southern Shaolin Temple was, for a time, even more renowned than that of the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song.

However, that is all in the past.

Today, the Southern Shaolin Temple is a prestigious sect, hailed as one of the pillars of the righteous faction in the martial arts world.

But it's not necessarily true that they are very well-behaved.

Since leaving Yongchun, Chu Tianshu has been collecting and analyzing various pieces of information along the way.

One of the reasons I ultimately chose to come to the Southern Shaolin Temple was because I was drawn to their restless nature.

After a while, Xu Ben saw the ferry crossing, picked up the oar, and began paddling.

Besides fishermen and tourists renting boats, there are also ferrymen at the ferry crossing to help people cross the river. The ferryman here, although wearing a straw hat, is dressed in a gray monk's robe, clearly a monk.

The people waiting to cross the river on the bank could board his raft for just a small copper coin.

The monk used his long bamboo pole to push against the shore, and the heavy raft, carrying ten adult men and women, including women holding children, glided steadily on the water.

As the small boat and raft came and went, the monk smiled and nodded to Xu Ben when they came closest to each other.

Xu Ben's eyebrows twitched, and he stared intently.

Every time the monk encountered a small boat on the water, he would nod and smile at the person rowing it.

It seems that it was just a greeting between colleagues, and there was nothing wrong with Xu Ben's new disguise.

He had been hunted for half a year, so he was starting to overreact.

Decades ago, the Southern Shaolin Temple already had many disciples. In addition to lay disciples, monks also frequently traveled outside the temple.

At that time, the abbot who was reviving the Southern Shaolin Temple was old. He once admonished his disciples that, apart from studying Buddhism, farming, and cultivating themselves, they should only do three kinds of work: rowing boats, blacksmithing, and grinding tofu.

People say that the three greatest hardships in the world are these three professions.

Boatmen toil all day but earn little. Blacksmithing is tiring and hot. Families who grind tofu to sell often have to get up early every day to push the stone mill. Owning a donkey is a large part of their livelihood.

But this applies to ordinary people.

The fact that monks, who are part of the martial arts world, actually carried out these things once again proved the abbot's foresight.

As the political situation in the Ming Dynasty became increasingly turbulent, the proportion of blacksmiths from the Southern Shaolin Temple who made agricultural tools decreased. Instead, the snowflake-patterned iron ring knives produced by the monks became a unique skill in the Southern martial arts world.

The art of making tofu has evolved from simply selling tofu to offering a complete vegetarian feast, gaining widespread fame. High-ranking officials and martial arts masters often spare no expense to taste the culinary skills of Shaolin monks.

It seems that rowing the boat hasn't yielded much reward yet.

But in fact, the influence of Southern Shaolin Temple among the people today largely comes from these ferrymen who are scattered along the waterways.

Since they were monks, they were naturally seen by the people as more than just ferrymen.

If someone is holding a funeral, it's more respectable to invite a monk like this to attend the ceremony than to have someone roll up a straw mat, cry for days, and then send him directly to the cemetery.

If a child is born, it would be good to ask a monk to take a look and recite some prayers for blessings.

The deepest impression that ordinary people have of the Southern Shaolin Temple comes from these ferrymen monks.

They would never know what the other members of the Southern Shaolin Temple were like.

But they knew that these ferry monks didn't charge high fees and were truly capable, so they were good monks.

"This monk is quite kind."

Xu Ben whispered to Chu Tianshu with emotion, "Back then, there was a group of monks from the Southern Shaolin Temple who went to Huoshen Valley to exchange metallurgical and forging techniques. Most of them were rough and arrogant."

"Because many gangs buy their knives from them, they are afraid that the spearheads and short swords produced in Huoshengou will steal their business."

Xu Zhicheng said, "I also remember that they brought government officials with them that time. Their intention was to demarcate a piece of land, allowing us to sell our goods there, and not to cross the boundary."

Chu Tianshu chuckled: "Heh, you Vulcan Valley people sell guns and swords, and gunpowder too. You've got some pretty wild ways to operate. Are we just going to put up with this?"

"The Southern Shaolin Temple is indeed powerful."

Xu Ben said, "This matter dragged on for a long time without any resolution."

"However, later on, the southeast became increasingly chaotic, and Japanese pirate clans began to sell large quantities of Japanese swords to coastal gangs."

"The Liuyun Prefecture in the Central Plains has also resold the curved swords from beyond the Great Wall to the Southeast. The business of the Southern Shaolin Temple has been greatly impacted, and they are busy resisting those two types of swords."

Xu Ben hesitated for a moment.

"Does our benefactor intend to share this Fire Secret Technique with the Southern Shaolin Temple?"

"After all, they are a group of monks. Even if they are used to making weapons, they probably don't have the guts to mass-produce firearms."

"Moreover, although they had many disputes with the Japanese pirates in business, they still had no determination to resist the Japanese pirates."

In the past, Huoshengou researched firearms, but the production scale was not large, and they were mainly supplied to the local government.

However, to deal with the Japanese pirates in the southeast, the scale of the improved firearms would not be large enough to be effective.

Xu Zhicheng said, "Even if the Southern Shaolin Temple had the guts, they only have so many monks in their entire temple, right?"

"You've forgotten their lay disciples."

Chu Tianshu said, "The Southern Shaolin Temple has been revived for a century. To call it a revival is an understatement; it's practically starting from scratch and rebuilding the foundation."

"This also has its advantages. Many of the lay disciples who come from them even studied under the same master and often keep in touch when they go out into the martial arts world. They are much more united than the complex lineage of the Shaolin Temple on Mount Song."

The Southern Shaolin Temple relies on its reputation for farming, meditation, and monastic rules, and it has no choice but to maintain this reputation.

They are from the Chan (Zen) school of Buddhism, so they naturally compete with other sects. They are from the martial arts world, so they are naturally ostracized by local gangs. They are a branch of Shaolin, so they are also being eyed covetously by the Shaolin Temple of Mount Song.

It's neither too big nor too small, it doesn't stand too high, and the threats around it are close enough.

The speed at which they corrupted themselves as they grew was already considered slow.

"Choose the tallest among the short ones."

Chu Tianshu pondered, "Let's see if I can give them a bone-breaking height-increasing treatment with my skills."

Xu Zhicheng didn't quite understand. They were just talking about Shaolin, how did they suddenly start talking about increasing height?

He couldn't help but ask, "Breaking bones can make you grow taller, what kind of martial art is that?"

"It's a medical technique that was originally developed to treat those who had broken bones in the war, but it was unexpectedly discovered that after the bones healed, the legs even grew longer."

Chu Tianshu smiled and said, "This is a very dangerous and challenging medical technique, so it won't be used casually to increase someone's height."

"Its real purpose is to treat deformities and disabilities caused by certain reasons."

(End of this chapter)