Quickly conquer the martial arts world, and let your fists dominate the heavens!

Chapter 317 Internal Force Martial Arts
Chen Zhan's sincerity was indeed great; he even gave away the "Buddha's Relic," the culprit behind all the turmoil in the capital.

Perhaps he was confident enough, or perhaps he was arrogant, but in any case, Chen Zhan was full of sincerity.

Aside from showing absolutely no respect for imperial authority, Chen Zhan was a decent collaborator.

Xu Long stared at Chen Zhan, remained silent for a moment, and finally nodded slowly to Shen Tong, then raised his hand and tossed over a gilded token.

The token felt heavy in my hand, and the front was engraved with the exclusive emblem of the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. It was a token that allowed him to pass through the Eastern Depot without hindrance.

Shen Tong took the token, gestured to Chen Zhan to "please," and the two turned and left the secret room.

Inside the prison, the imperial guards and sentries were deployed in layers of defense. The moment Shen Tong revealed his token, all the guards bowed and stepped back, and no one dared to ask a question.

Normally, a commander's token wouldn't be so intimidating, but Xu Long had an imperial edict, so the token was an extension of imperial power.

Chen Zhan and Shen Tong walked side by side, their steps unhurried. They were dressed in ordinary Jinyiwei uniforms, which drew sidelong glances from the Jinyiwei and their agents who passed by.

Shen Tong was already a garrison commander, while Chen Zhan, dressed in uniform, wasn't even a junior officer. How could he dare to walk alongside Shen Tong?

However, naturally no one dared to ask.

As he walked through the corridors and cells, countless cries of injustice echoed through the air. Chen Zhan seemed oblivious to his surroundings, as if he were simply strolling through an ordinary courtyard.

After passing through the eighteen checkpoints of the Heavenly Prison, one arrives at the main hall of the Eastern Depot.

Some traces of chaos remained inside the hall, indicating that the takeover had just been completed. Several Imperial Guards were sorting through files when they saw Shen Tong enter with an unfamiliar face. They were all taken aback, but after glancing at the token, they quickly lowered their heads and continued their work.

Shen Tong didn't linger. He led Chen Zhan around to a side courtyard behind the main hall and pushed open a heavy iron door.

Behind the door was a spacious stone room, which was the Eastern Depot's archives.

The stone chamber was lined with bookshelves on all four walls, stacked with yellowed scrolls and thread-bound books. On a table in the corner were food, water, and a wooden chair, the cups still warm, indicating that someone usually came here to consult materials.

On the open ground on the other side of the stone chamber, dozens of wooden boxes were piled up with their lids open. Inside were neatly bound martial arts manuals, with brand-new paper, quite different from the old scrolls on the bookshelf.

"Please check it yourself, senior."

Shen Tong placed the token on the table and pointed to the wooden boxes, explaining, "The bookshelves contain the Eastern Depot's case files and old collections from over the years, and on the other side are the books that were just transported from Wang An's private residence. The Eastern Depot's martial arts, secret manuals, and confidential documents are all gathered here now."

Chen Zhan's gaze swept across the room full of books, landing on the secret manuals that Wang An had privately collected. He nodded slightly and said nothing more.

Seeing this, Shen Tong did not linger any longer. He turned around, stepped out of the door, and slowly closed and locked the heavy iron door.

Only Chen Zhan remained in the stone chamber, along with the soft rustling of pages turning, isolating him from all the noise of the outside world.

The case files on the shelves inside the room were all categorized.

Chen Zhan flipped through the files for a while and found the case files of Qi Family Army from back then, which were not much different from what Ding Baiying had said.

In the 23rd year of the Wanli Emperor's reign, soldiers of Qi Jiguang's army in Jizhou staged a collective protest due to unpaid wages and the imperial court's refusal to honor their "rewards for meritorious service in aiding Korea."

Instead of addressing the demands, the imperial court labeled them a "military mutiny and rebellion," and dispatched General Wang Bao to suppress the uprising, resulting in the massacre of thousands of Qi Jiguang's soldiers on the spot.

To say it was a rebellion is just an excuse.

At that time, Qi Jiguang's army was leaderless, so how could a few thousand soldiers rebel?

Chen Zhan's only question was why Wang An, the emperor, and other high-ranking officials wanted to directly wipe out Qi Jiguang's army.

Even later, when Qi Jiguang retired to his hometown and was bedridden, and the Qi Family Army's fighting strength was slightly reduced, it was still an invincible force.

The sword techniques left behind by Qi Jiguang were unique in tactics and disciplined, and his various battle formations almost swept across all countries.

The Ming Dynasty's actions were tantamount to cutting off its own arm, and were utterly unreasonable.

Chen Zhan couldn't figure it out, and he was too lazy to think about it. He put the Qi Family Army case file back in its original place and turned to walk towards the pile of wooden boxes that had been transported from Wang An's private residence.

Prying open the outermost wooden box, there was no martial arts manual inside, but instead a stack of yellowed handwritten notes, the handwriting vigorous and carrying a hint of killing intent, which was Wang An's own handwriting.

Clearly, the Eastern Depot had more intelligence than the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

They have even figured out the organizational structure of the Southeast Asian and Persian cults.

He casually pulled out a scroll, unfolded it and examined it closely, and found that it recorded his trip to Southeast Asia more than forty years ago.

It should be said that Wang An had only recently obtained the relic from Qi Jiguang.

At that time, Wang An's martial arts skills were not yet fully developed; he had only reached the threshold of the Profound Realm.

He led the elite of the Eastern Depot to the South Pacific islands, intending to wipe out the stronghold of the Southern Demonic Sect in one fell swoop, both to seize the relics and to eliminate the hidden dangers to the imperial court.

However, the trip ended in failure. The leader of the Nanyang Demonic Sect had extremely strange martial arts skills. He could control miasma and command poisonous insects. His style of martial arts was completely different from the martial arts of the Central Plains. Wang An fought with him several times, but not only did he fail to gain the upper hand, he also lost half of his elite troops.

What left him even more helpless was that the Southeast Asian cult had already completely integrated into the local island tribes, with its followers living together with the islanders, their clothing and customs being indistinguishable from each other.

Today they wipe out one village, but tomorrow new followers will emerge in another place. They can't be killed off or eradicated, like a festering sore.

Wang An spent half a year in Southeast Asia, and in the end, he could only return in a sorry state with his remaining troops, without even getting a glimpse of the relic.

Chen Zhan then pulled out a handwritten scroll from twenty years ago. This scroll recorded Wang An's trip to Persia.

Twenty years ago, when he had reached the middle stage of the Profound Realm and his strength was at its peak, he led the most elite agents of the Eastern Depot straight into the headquarters of the Persian Demonic Cult.

That battle was a bloodbath. Wang An, relying on the domineering power of the Flaming True Skill, killed several high-ranking members of the Persian Demonic Sect and even personally beheaded the sect leader, destroying the sect's headquarters.

He also captured two core elders of the Demonic Sect and brought them back to the Eastern Depot prison in the capital. They were subjected to severe torture day and night to extract confessions. Although the two men knew the name of the relic, they knew nothing about the method of opening it or the secrets within.

Wang An spent months trying to resolve the issue, only to end up with nothing to show for it. Enraged, he had the two elders reduced to ashes.

The subsequent handwritten notes are records from the last ten years or so.

Undeterred, Wang An traveled to Persia and Southeast Asia three more times, but each time he arrived, he found only ruins and deserted outposts.

Having learned its lesson from this battle, the Demonic Cult has gone completely underground. Its members hide in the streets and deserts, no longer venturing into worldly conflicts, and even its internal teachings are now passed down in secret.

Wang An searched several times, but even finding traces of the Demonic Sect was difficult, let alone obtaining clues related to the relics. In the end, he could only return empty-handed each time.

"Heh, no wonder the Persian Holy Church is so weak."

Chen Zhan bent down and searched deeper into the wooden box.

His fingertips touched a thinner scroll of paper, yellowed and brittle, clearly an old item from many years ago. He casually pulled it out and unfolded it, his gaze immediately freezing slightly.

This scroll does not record the expedition, but rather the origin of the Buddha's relics.

The secret story of how the first Holy Lord refined a Buddhist monk at the Tongxuan realm into relics.

Chen Zhan had heard about this matter before; it was mentioned sporadically in the scriptures of the Demonic Sect and unofficial histories of the martial arts world, and it was not a huge secret.

The Eastern Depot's intelligence network was vast, so it's not surprising that they were able to find these things. What's strange is...
Wang An even made a special effort to transcribe this matter by hand, and the handwriting was much more messy than the previous expedition records, which clearly showed that he was in a state of unease when he wrote it.

At the end of the letter, Wang An left a line of words filled with confusion and sigh: "The first Holy Lord was able to refine the essence of monks' blood and qi, and cast relics to help people prolong their lives, so why did he himself disappear into thin air?"

The ink had smudged slightly, likely due to a slight tremor in the fingertips when the brush was put down.

Chen Zhan stroked the words, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.

The disappearance of the first Holy Master is one of the greatest mysteries of the Demonic Cult.

Many people have speculated about his fate. Some say he exhausted himself while refining the relics and died when his oil ran out; others say he was besieged by Buddhist masters and died; still others say he transcended the mortal world and went into seclusion.

But these are all just speculations, and no one can confirm them.

This matter was simple for Chen Zhan, but obviously the people of this world could not understand it.

As Chen Zhan closed the last volume, a look of understanding flashed in his eyes.

Chen Zhan now understood why Wang An's obsession with relics ran so deep within him.
Wang An's age and lifespan were his biggest concerns. What he wanted most was not the relic, but the method by which the first Holy Lord would seize the lifespan of others for his own use.

That would allow one to extend their lifespan indefinitely and break through the lifespan limit of the Profound Realm!
His calculations were indeed far-reaching; if he were to obtain that demonic skill, all martial artists in the world would be doomed.

Chen Zhan put all of Wang An's notes back in their places, and his gaze finally fell on the neatly bundled martial arts manuals in the corner.

This was the martial arts technique treasured by the Eastern Depot. He untied the knot and took out dozens of yellowed pages one by one, arranging them neatly on the table.

Instead of rushing to read those advanced martial arts manuals, he first picked out a few basic training manuals to browse through.

The opening chapters are all introductory tips, which are simply to find a quiet room to sit in meditation, eliminate distracting thoughts and calm the mind, then guide the Qi with intention and slowly circulate it in the Dantian. When a faint stream of Qi is generated, you have touched the threshold of Qi sensation.

Afterwards, nurture it day and night, allowing this flow of energy to circulate repeatedly in the meridians, gradually growing stronger, and eventually accumulating in the dantian to form an internal force.

This is considered to have entered the realm of Inner Strength after birth.

To truly become a renowned martial arts master in the martial arts world.

"When the mind focuses on the dantian, the sensation of qi arises naturally."

He cultivates the martial arts of qi and blood, which is completely different from this internal energy method.

Qi and blood, and the sensation of qi, are two distinct paths.

Even the most dull-witted and talentless person, as long as they train their body day after day, hone their muscles and bones, and temper their skin and flesh, will gradually develop stronger qi and blood as their physique grows stronger, and they will become powerful and strong.

With their skills in knife work, swordsmanship, and spear fighting, ordinary bandits couldn't even get close to them.

This method of cultivation also existed in the martial arts world of the Ming Dynasty, but people only dabbled in it and no one continued down this path.

The reason is simple: with the existence of internal energy cultivation methods, once one generates a sense of qi and internal force, the amplification of fist and foot techniques and weapons is so great that one can immediately become a master.

Those who practice physical strength or external martial arts are all peasants, not worthy of respect.

So over time, no one tried it anymore.

Martial artists who focus on strengthening their muscles, bones, and skin consider themselves inferior to those with low internal strength.

(End of this chapter)