Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 5 Star Constellation Techniques
Since Jiang Mingzhe entered the world of fame and fortune, the women around him have either been Lian or Cha, or ambitious and strong women.

Seeing Ah Zi's childlike innocence at this moment is quite refreshing.

She smiled to herself, feigned shyness, and whispered, "...Good sister, please give me some guidance."

Ah Zi was now smug and raised her head: "You poor thing, well then, I'll do you a good deed today and broaden your horizons."

After saying that, she put her hands behind her back, striking the pose of the senior sister, and proudly explained as she walked: "Our sect's martial arts are profound and extensive. Roughly speaking, they can be divided into internal strength, lightness skills, weapon skills, fist and foot techniques, hidden weapons, and poison techniques. Among them, poison techniques are the most important and crucial."

Jiang Mingzhe followed closely, memorizing intently.

"Let's talk about internal energy first. The most powerful internal energy in our sect is called the Dissolving Power Technique. It has earth-shattering power, but even our senior brother doesn't know this skill, so you and I don't even need to think about it."

She seemed to sigh softly and continued, "The internal energy we disciples practice is called the 'Zhou Tian Xing Su Du Jie Jing'. When it is mastered, all 365 acupoints in the body are connected, reflecting the 365 stars in the heavens. It is incredibly powerful. However, the connection of acupoints is extremely difficult. If you want to speed it up, you must capture a powerful poison, absorb its power, and incorporate it into your internal energy to break through the barrier. The more powerful the poison, the faster you can break through the barrier. But it is easy to poison yourself to death, hahahaha."

Azi laughed maniacally for a while, then suddenly looked at Jiang Mingzhe: "Do you think I'm joking? Hmph, actually, disciples die because of this every year..."

Jiang Mingzhe keenly noticed a barely perceptible fear hidden in A Zi's eyes.

Thinking of how she was so young and yet had to struggle in the ruthless Xingxiu Sect, a pang of pity suddenly arose in her heart. She said softly, "It's so dangerous, so why do you still have to practice? Wouldn't it be better to go slower and be safer?"

"What do you know!" Azi glared at her, the fear gone. "Although it's somewhat dangerous, firstly, it greatly increases your training speed, so others won't dare to bully you. Secondly, it adds extra poison to your internal energy, giving you a significant advantage when competing with others in internal energy. Therefore, this technique is also known as the 'Starry Night Poison Scripture'."

Jiang Mingzhe thought to himself that the disciples of the Xingxiu Sect in the original work were mostly clownish characters, appearing ridiculous and easily defeated. But upon closer examination, that was because they were facing ruthless figures like Xiao Feng and You Tanzhi. If they were to deal with ordinary martial artists, the Xingxiu Sect's poisonous skills would probably be invincible.

Hearing Azi continue, “Our sect has two kinds of lightness skills. One is the Moon Chasing Skill, which makes one swift and agile as lightning. The other is the Star Chasing Skill, which allows one to leap high and low with ease. When both are mastered, it becomes the Moon Chasing and Star Chasing Technique that Master used before.”

Jiang Mingzhe thought this was easy to understand. One is running, the other is high jumping, so naturally they can run and jump in the end.

"Most disciples practice the Tianshan Staff Technique, which emphasizes effortless mastery and is probably no weaker than the Shaolin Temple's Subduing Demon Staff Technique. In addition, there are the Big Dipper Saber Technique, the Ice Soul Saber Technique, the Spirit Serpent Sword Technique, the Meteor Sword Technique, the Heartless Flute, and the Carefree Fan. Among them, the Carefree Fan Technique is the most powerful, but my master has never taught this fan technique to anyone, so you probably don't have much hope. If you don't like carrying such a thick steel staff, it would be best to learn the Spirit Serpent Sword Technique like me."

The Carefree Fan! Jiang Mingzhe's heart stirred slightly. He thought that Old Monster Ding's background was that of a disciple of the Carefree Sect. Since this fan technique was named after the Carefree Sect, it must have amazing features.

"As for martial arts, there are many!" Azi spread her hands apart, indicating there were indeed many: "Let me tell you about a few of the most powerful ones—the Three Yin Centipede Claw, the Thousand Spider Venomous Hand, the Toad Swallowing the Sky Fist, the Crimson Silent Palm, and the Spirit Scorpion Soul-Destroying Finger! Each of these five skills requires the refinement of different poisons. The power depends first on the amount of poison absorbed, and only secondly on how well the techniques are practiced."

He curled his lip and said, "As for techniques like Corrupting Heart Palm, Marrow Extraction Palm, and Seven Poison Soul-Severing Hand, they can't be said to be weak, but they are not as good as the five martial arts that specialize in a single poison. They inevitably lack purity, and their moves are not as sharp as the five martial arts. Hmm, only idiots would learn these techniques."

Jiang Mingzhe was somewhat taken aback when he heard this. He thought to himself, "Isn't the Thousand Spider Poison Hand the ultimate skill of Yin Li in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber? It turns out it originated from the Xingxiu Sect!"
And what about the Crimson Flame Silent Palm? I wonder if it shares the same origin as Li Mochou's Crimson Flame Divine Palm in The Return of the Condor Heroes.

"Speaking of hidden weapons, our sect has a wide variety of hidden weapons, such as the Blissful Dagger, the Azure Phosphorus Needle, the Heart-Piercing Nail, the Soul-Chasing Whistle... There are at least thirty or forty kinds. However, in terms of techniques, they are nothing more than Yin Hand, Yang Hand, Finger Flick, Mouth Blow, and so on. Once you understand one, you understand all the others. It is not as clearly distinguishable as internal energy, fist and foot, or weapon skills. Your fingers are very nimble, so it should not be difficult for you to get started."

"Last and most important is the art of poison!"

Speaking of poisons, Azi's expression became even more solemn: "Big Ginger, remember this: even if you don't know anything else, just mastering poisons will be enough to make you famous in the martial arts world!"

Jiang Mingzhe nodded.

In his view, although poison techniques may not seem honorable, their limits are extremely high. Even the most powerful martial artists can easily be defeated by an opponent skilled in poison techniques, making it the best choice for killing monsters of higher levels.

If martial arts masters are considered powerful human weapons, then poison masters are weapons of mass destruction; with sufficient preparation, they might even be able to wipe out an entire city single-handedly. However, he also knew that such a scenario would be difficult for contemporary poison masters to achieve.

After all, they probably have no knowledge of concepts such as bacteria, viruses, and genes, and their knowledge of collecting, refining, and using poisons is likely still limited to pure empiricism.

Ah Zi said in a clear voice, "To learn the art of poisons, the first step is to recognize and find poisons. This requires being familiar with the toxicity and interactions of various poisonous flowers and herbs, as well as knowing where they grow and how to collect or capture them."

"Secondly, it involves refining and combining poisons. Extracting the poison from a substance is merely the foundation; true mastery lies in understanding how to combine different poisons into an even more potent and intractable toxicity."

"Finally, there is the use of poison and detoxification. Whether it is to absorb it into the body to refine poison skills, to feed it to weapons or hidden weapons, or to directly use poison to hurt people, the same poison can have many different uses. The principles involved are profound. As for the importance of detoxification, there is no need to say more."

Jiang Mingzhe listened with great interest, thinking to himself that as expected of the Xingxiu Sect, they had clearly developed a fairly complete system for the art of poison.

Azi suddenly clapped her hands: "That's right! There's also the cultivation of poisons. This is something Master only started researching in recent years. He wanted to cultivate countless poisonous insects for his own use, and also wanted to make different poisonous insects devour or reproduce each other to give birth to strange poisons."

Jiang Mingzhe was startled again, and couldn't help but think of the snake-raising and snake-controlling techniques of the Western Poison Sect in The Legend of the Condor Heroes, the bee-raising and bee-controlling techniques of the Ancient Tomb Sect in The Return of the Condor Heroes, and the Gu-raising methods of the Five Poisons Sect...

If these methods were all passed down from the Xingxiu Sect, then Ding Chunqiu would undoubtedly be worthy of being called a grandmaster.

He didn't call her "good sister" for nothing. Along the way, A Zi told him everything she knew, revealing all the secrets of the Xingxiu Sect.

As Jiang Mingzhe memorized and pondered, he analyzed the situation according to his work habits and objectives, and soon came up with a preliminary plan.

Of course, one must learn internal skills, since in Jin Yong's world, internal skills are fundamental. However, the cultivation of internal skills requires a gradual approach. According to the four-quadrant rule in management, it falls under the category of "important but not urgent" projects.

Lightness skill has many uses, but my primary goal right now is to establish myself in the Xingxiu Sect. I don't have any need for traveling, chasing, or escaping, so it's "neither important nor urgent." I'll deal with it later.

Both hand-to-hand combat and weaponry should be learned. Comparatively, weaponry should have a more immediate impact on combat effectiveness, making it "important but not urgent," while hand-to-hand combat can be put on hold for now, as it is "neither important nor urgent."

As for concealed weapons, they are an important vehicle for poison techniques and are relatively easy to learn, thus falling into the category of "urgent but not important".

The reason why hidden weapons are classified into this quadrant is because Jiang Mingzhe judged that if he wanted to gain a foothold in the shortest time, poison skills were the best choice, "important and urgent".

On the one hand, for most of the Starry Constellation Sect's unique skills, poison techniques are fundamental; on the other hand, poison techniques can be mastered quickly, after all—

A hint of confidence shone in Jiang Mingzhe's eyes: "I've studied biology and chemistry, after all!"

Even if one is far from being an expert, one at least has some basic knowledge of the periodic table, the principles of chemical reactions, and the concept of microorganisms. With this seemingly insignificant foundation, there are broader possibilities for the purification, synthesis, and even targeted cultivation of toxins.

For example, regarding snake venom, the Xingxiu Sect members only know that some snake venoms are potent, while others are even more potent. However, Jiang Mingzhe might be able to try analyzing its main toxic components, whether they are neurotoxins or hemotoxins. In this way, the possibility of a successful combination would greatly increase, and the application would be more targeted...

He was deep in thought when he suddenly heard Azi exclaim in surprise, followed by a forced exclamation of joy.

"Wow! Senior Brother! You've become even more wise and powerful in just a few days!"

(End of this chapter)