I am Jinshan Youxia

For example, Shaolin Temple is now very powerful and enjoys the deep trust of the Song Dynasty court. Several years ago, the divine monk Xuzhu single-handedly defeated the Jin army and turned the tide of the crisis.

For example, it is said that a peerless martial arts manual has appeared in Suzhou, and it is being fought over by martial arts practitioners there.

For example, the body-strengthening method has now spread throughout the world, and can be learned in martial arts schools on the street. The difference between it and what Zhang Chengyi learned before he fell asleep is not that big. I guess if he wants to go further and break through the limit, there should be other more secretive techniques.

For example, Qingcheng County was no longer the territory of the Qingcheng Sect. Including the nearby Guanzhou, it was all the territory of the Li family. The Qingcheng Sect was just a lackey of the Li family.

[This 'King' is interesting. Is he related to Li Qingluo and Li Qiushui...?]

As he was thinking, he suddenly turned his head to look out the window.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" The man on horseback shouted at the pedestrians on both sides of the road, his neck veins bulging. It wasn't that he was afraid of hitting people, but that he felt people would hinder the horse's movement.

Not far away, a middle-aged woman wearing a light blue dress was gliding across the rooftops. She was clearly quite skilled in light-footed movements. The distance between them was rapidly closing. When they were only a few feet apart, she raised her hand and pointed.

"laugh!"

After the whooshing sound, the man on horseback fell to the ground, crushing nearby vendors and splashing soup and water all over his face, but he didn't make a sound.

The middle-aged woman picked up the man, glanced around, ignored the frightened horse that had run away, and lightly floated away after tapping the ground.

Whether it was the martial arts practitioners watching the spectacle in the inn or the passersby outside, they all seemed completely unfazed.

"Hey, another one of those out-of-towners trying to start a fight in the city..."

As someone mocked, the swordsman who had just been loudly discussing spending a night with the Queen of Dali seemed to sober up a bit. He opened his money pouch, tossed down a few taels of silver, and went upstairs without looking back.

Chapter 108 A World Completely Changed

[One-Finger Divine Skill, all set.]

Zhang Chengyi recognized the martial arts technique used by the middle-aged woman at a glance; it couldn't be more obvious.

The martial art he was most familiar with was the One-Finger Divine Skill. He would even use it to turn off the lights at night. The middle-aged woman's version was slightly different and a bit rougher, but it couldn't escape his eyes.

Even if it wasn't Li Qingluo, it's still inseparable from Leigushan.

Zhang Chengyi wasn't in a hurry to chase after them. Since they were from the Li family and were under the jurisdiction of Guancheng, they couldn't escape their fate. He could find them no matter what.

Having changed his itinerary and discovered a new destination, he can also take a break for now.

"Waiter, a superior room, please." He finished the last bit of meat on his plate, stood up, and raised his voice slightly.

The sound wasn't noticeable in the already noisy hall, but the waiter heard it clearly and called out loudly, "One superior room."

Zhang Chengyi walked over to the man who had just teased the swordsman and sat down next to him, saying, "Brother, I'm new here. I noticed you seem to know quite a bit about the southwest region. Why don't you tell me more about it?"

"What if I don't want to talk, sir?" the man said dismissively, then a gold ingot landed on the table. His words seemed stuck in his throat, his Adam's apple bobbing. His eyes were fixed on the gold, and after a long while, he looked away with a disappointed expression, glanced at the money pouch Zhang Chengyi had pulled out, and said:

“If I were you, I would take the gold to the Li family mansion in the south of the city right now. Although the Li family is managed by women, they still have rules.”

His voice wasn't loud, but it was quite noticeable in the hall.

Because everyone is watching this side.

“If you’re willing, brother, this gold is yours,” Zhang Chengyi said with a smile, seemingly oblivious to the situation.

The man stepped back slightly and said frankly, "Do you think I can leave Qingcheng after taking the gold?"

He was greedy and had a sharp tongue, but he wasn't stupid. There were so many martial arts practitioners coming and going at this inn, and the times had changed. It wasn't like thirty years ago anymore. Whether it was the widespread use of martial arts or the decline in the Song Dynasty's control over local areas, both had brought about many security problems.

Otherwise, why would the Li family send people to arrest troublemakers in the city every day?

Isn't it because if we don't manage it, things will quickly fall into chaos?

Han Yu was right when he said: "Confucians use their writings to disrupt the law, and knights-errant use their martial arts to break the law."

The Li family is the largest, but that doesn't mean there aren't other miscellaneous forces. Martial arts schools, gangs, and the like are inevitable. Such a vast territory can't be managed by the women of the Li family alone.

The man had no interest in arguing with the other party at this point, and simply said, "If you want to ask me anything, just pay for this meal for me."

He didn't have the guts to take the gold, but he certainly had the guts to freeload a meal.

"As you wish." Zhang Chengyi put the gold ingot back into his money bag, snapped his fingers to summon the waiter not far away, and said, "I'll cover this brother's food, drink, and lodging at the shop today and tomorrow."

That's incredibly extravagant!

The man felt his eyes were about to turn red from the glitter of the gold. He swallowed hard to moisten his dry throat and said, "You, um, what do you want to ask? Just say it."

Zhang Chengyi casually said, "Let's talk about the Li family in this city first."

The man organized his thoughts and said, "The Li family moved to Qingcheng twenty years ago. Overnight, the Qingcheng Sect submitted to them. The old lady Li is in charge of the family. There is a master Li, but he doesn't show up often."

"That's all?" Zhang Chengyi felt a little bad about the money he had spent.

The man added, "I heard that at Old Madam Li's birthday banquet last year, someone bumped into Old Master Li. He seemed dazed and foolish, and probably not a normal person. Otherwise, Li wouldn't have had no children for so many years, only adopting many orphaned girls."

Dull and dazed? Why does it feel strangely familiar?

Zhang Chengyi thought for a moment and then asked, "Do you know Old Madam Li's name?"

The man shook his head, with an expression that said, "That's all I know."

"Then let's talk about the Empress of Dali," Zhang Chengyi continued.

There are so many things he wants to know. In a world he has completely changed, there are too many unknowns. As a player, if you can't skip, skip, skip the killing, then you can only honestly watch the story unfold.

The man wasn't angry at all; he had already planned how to eat his fill and quickly gave a reply.

The Empress of Dali Kingdom is said to be the daughter of Prince Duan Zhengchun. More than ten years ago, Emperor Xuanren of Dali abdicated and became a monk for unknown reasons. Now the Empress has ascended the throne, with the reign title of Baotian. As for her surname and given name, he does not know.

I do know that the Empress was skilled in poisons and Gu techniques. She once wiped out the powerful Gao clan of Dali, and several members of the Gao family were thrown into the Ten Thousand Poisons Palace to be fed to insects.

We're more familiar with each other now.

Zhang Chengyi's expression turned slightly strange upon hearing the name Wan Du Palace. Emperor Xuanren was none other than Duan Yu. That kid did eventually ascend the throne and become emperor, but in the novel he reigned for forty years while in reality he only reigned for about twenty years, a reduction of half.

If he wasn't mistaken, Duan Zhengchun's daughter, who was also involved with poison, was most likely Azi.

Duan Yu is so foolish, who knows what kind of mess A Zi will make him abdicate twenty years early...

Being an empress, she really is a troublesome little girl.

-------------------------------------

Evening, Qingcheng County, Li Mansion, study.

"Squeak~"

A beautiful woman in a pale yellow dress swayed her hips as she slipped through the crack in the door. Her charming face held a touch of innocent childlike innocence. Although she looked to be in her thirties or forties, her eyes sparkled with youthful energy, giving off the vibe of an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl.

"Mom~" The beautiful woman called out sweetly to the old woman who was reading a book at the desk with a serious face. Her voice was languid and captivating.

The frail old woman closed the "Martial Arts Manual" in her hand and sighed, "Yu Yan, do you still intend to associate with that Murong Fu?"

The beautiful woman, Wang Yuyan, bit her red lips lightly, revealing a sorrowful expression: "My cousin... he'll get better sooner or later."

Murong Fu was among the first group of people poisoned in Suzhou. It was only after she begged her mother to plead with Su Xinghe, and Murong Bo voluntarily handed over the Murong family's retainers, property, and martial arts treasures, that Murong Fu's life was saved.

She, her mother Li Qingluo, and her maternal grandmother Li Qiushui all look very similar, so there is no need to explain their identities too much.

Later, he went to Leigu Mountain. Murong Fu somehow got involved in the matter. After a fire at Leigu Mountain, he disappeared without a trace. When he reappeared, he had gone mad and was insane. He also possessed a profound martial arts skill that he didn't know where it came from, and he could kill people with a single move.

When she and Abi rushed there after hearing the news, Murong Fu had killed an entire local farming family and was now fast asleep in the farm's livestock pen, his body covered in filth.

The old woman, Li Qingluo, shook her head and sighed, saying, "Since you are unwilling, I will not force you, but at the end of this month, you must take people to the Valley of Immortality..."

Chapter 109 Martial Arts Breakthrough with the Priorities Upside Down

"Stealing half a day of leisure from a busy life."

Standing by the window, Zhang Chengyi gazed at the bustling street scene of Qingcheng County, feeling a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing both admiration and reflection).

What I saw in the Northwest was desolation, and the Central Plains were not much better. Having lost the Jiangnan and Sichuan regions, the Song Dynasty was already doomed and was merely clinging to life. Naturally, the exploitation of the people intensified, so how could things be any better?

On the contrary, the southwestern Sichuan region has preserved as much of the human touch as possible from the peaceful times.

He had been rushing around in the past few days, which was partly due to his dislike of the chaotic world. Even in a game, nobody likes to see ordinary NPCs suffering madly.

What should we do after we find Wu Yazi and Su Xinghe?

Zhang Chengyi pondered. The scene he had imagined after breaking through martial arts, where everyone would become like a dragon, did not appear. Instead, the world had become a different kind of chaotic world because martial arts were so common.

Moreover, his martial arts breakthrough didn't seem to have reached any significant level. The ordinary martial artists on the street were much stronger than those he had encountered before he fell asleep, especially in terms of physique. Because of the body tempering method, they were all strong and powerful, making them much stronger in actual combat.

Body tempering is a method to transform internal energy into physical fitness. Most people have limited aptitude and cultivate internal energy very slowly. Even if they learn body tempering, they still have to decide how much to transform, so the improvement for those at the bottom of the martial arts world is not obvious.

It can only be said that it raised their minimum standard, enabling them to transform their internal energy, which would quickly become ineffective, into real physical strength.

So none of the martial arts practitioners I saw on the first floor of the inn yesterday actually had much internal strength; they all relied on their muscles for a living. Because of this, many internal martial arts techniques that were once highly sought after in the martial arts world have long been forgotten.

But internal strength is the foundation; without internal strength, how can you continue to climb higher?

That's putting the cart before the horse.

However, it's not about being impatient for quick success. People always make choices. No matter how fundamental one's inner strength is, it's still weak in the early stages. It takes at least several years or even more than ten years to be considered to have some skill. Sustain is still a big problem. To engage in actual combat, one must practice with weapons. Many martial arts practitioners have trained hard since childhood and only emerged from seclusion after twenty or thirty years.

The body-strengthening method is much simpler. The amount of internal energy cultivated is converted into physical fitness. After becoming strong and healthy, the speed of cultivating internal energy will also increase. In a cycle, at most one year, with a sword, as long as you are careful not to compete with others in internal energy, you can rush over and kill a master of internal martial arts who has been practicing for twenty or thirty years with a single sword strike.

Internal energy strengthens the body in all aspects, enhancing strength, speed, and reaction. Even without learning weapon techniques, one can still be very powerful by using a sword like a fire poker based solely on reaction.

Just like when Zhang Chengyi killed the Penglai Sect master with a flurry of punches, he didn't bother with any fancy tricks.

No matter what skills you use, they're useless; throwing bricks with all your might is the only truth in the martial arts world right now.

After all, masters with profound internal strength are not common. Most are still at the level of weaklings fighting each other, and their physical fitness is always stronger than their internal strength when it is weak.

The lower limit of the martial arts world has been raised, making it more chaotic, while the upper limit has been lowered.

[Internal energy, internal energy, we need to solve the problem of others having too little internal energy, otherwise the breakthroughs in martial arts will be meaningless. It's pointless for just one or two people to break through the limit with the internal energy I give them. To push martial arts to a higher level, we need advancements at the level of civilization.]

Zhang Chengyi felt this was a bit tricky. If the deficiency in internal energy were so easy to solve, the Northern Darkness Divine Art wouldn't be a divine art.

Moreover, the Northern Darkness Divine Art only absorbs the power of others; it cannot be mastered quickly out of thin air.

Speaking of quick learning, the Sunflower Manual seems like a good option.

Based on the description of the Sunflower Manual in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, it not only improves speed but also internal strength, so theoretically it should be suitable for ordinary people.

The idea of ​​a eunuch's world is too abstract.

Among the internal martial arts techniques in Jin Yong's works, the Sunflower Manual is one of the most powerful in influencing the mind of its practitioners. If this martial art were to spread, it wouldn't just result in a group of eunuchs, but a group of perverted eunuchs.

Wait, it doesn't seem like he was a eunuch. He was originally male, but after being castrated, he considered himself female. Oh no, it's...