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

Chapter 108 Third in the World?

"Hiss~ Iron Sand Palm?"

Chen Zhan took a few steps forward and exclaimed in surprise.

This skill is quite rare; it's a pure external hard skill. When practiced to its extreme, the palms become as hard as iron, capable of crushing iron sand like dirt.

Once mastered, it possesses considerable power, easily able to catch blunt weapons with bare hands and disarm opponents with bare hands.

Unless it's a divine weapon, even swords and knives are unlikely to harm Iron Sand Palm.

Because the palm surface after mastery is covered with a layer of fine iron sand, ordinary swords cannot penetrate the iron sand at all.

However, very few people practice this skill. On the one hand, it is difficult to learn; it requires hard work and pain, and it takes at least ten years to master.

On the other hand, this martial art may sound like a farmer's skill, but it is definitely a wealthy and noble martial art.

The initial training involves using mung beans and fine sand to allow the skin and subcutaneous tissue of the palms to adapt to friction and minor impacts, thus preventing direct injury.

The focus at this stage is on "skin smoothing" and "intentional practice." Hard skills are barely visible; you can only feel the skin on your palms gradually thickening and becoming less sensitive.

It takes one or two years of practice to transition to coarse sand and iron sand, and begin to increase the force and frequency of striking and thrusting. At this time, the muscles and fascia of the palm will gradually proliferate, and the bone density may also slowly increase under long-term stimulation.

With three to five more years of practice, those with endurance and patience can reach the point where they can break rocks without getting hurt.

This doesn't even include the various medicines, ingredients, body repair, and nutritional supplements needed.

Among the saying "poor scholars, rich martial artists," even Iron Palm requires exceptional wealth to master.

It has a lot of disadvantages, is difficult to learn, and takes a long time, so why do people still practice it? Why would a rich kid want to learn this kind of martial art? There are plenty of internal martial arts styles; you can just find any master.

Iron Palm has a unique feature that is almost unmatched by any other martial art.

No qualifications required!

Anyone who can endure pain and loneliness and persevere for more than ten years will surely achieve great success!
Chen Zhan frowned.
Sister Hua has a clearly visible blood-red palm print on her back. The palm print is not her own blood and qi, but blood-red poisonous sand!
"This isn't ordinary Iron Palm, is it?" Chen Zhan didn't quite understand, but it didn't seem like it.

"This person's Iron Sand Palm has returned to its original simplicity from the outside in. With the completion of his skill, he has transformed from iron sand into poison sand. With just a few movements of his hands, he can create poison sand hands!" Ye Ningzhen said.

She had heard of this technique, and now that the acupuncture had been completed, Sister Hua had fallen into a deep sleep and was no longer bothered by the poisonous sand.

However, this is not a long-term solution.

"Can it be cured?"

"Yes, I need your help. My understanding of Qi and blood is not precise enough."

"You push the blood through the veins, using your exquisite strength to force the poisonous blood to the palm print. I will then apply the acupuncture, using nine needles to guide the poisonous blood out."

Chen Zhan nodded. Controlling the subtle force was not difficult, and he didn't need to worry about the aftermath.

"Someone come here and help her up!"

Ye Ningzhen called out to the outside, and an old woman came in, supporting Sister Hua from the front and covering her chest with a bed sheet.

The dark red bloodstain on Sister Hua's back was caused by Ye Ningzhen using golden needles to control the poisonous blood within a certain area.

Chen Zhan lightly flicked out a palm, and a surge of hidden energy entered Hua Jie's body, propelling the poisonous blood upwards. Around the poisonous palm, Ye Ningzhen swiftly flicked out three needles, which were then inserted into the path of the poisonous blood.

"呲呲呲~"

As the poisonous blood gushed out, Ye Ningzhen was prepared and caught it in a basin of water.

After draining most of the poison from one patch, they switched to another. The two of them worked on it for half an hour before finally draining it completely.

Sister Hua slowly woke up, and most of the black and purple marks on her lips had disappeared.

"Luckily, we arrived in time, and it didn't spread throughout my body," Ye Ningzhen said, wiping her sweat.

When Sister Hua saw Chen Zhan and the other person, she tried to speak but couldn't utter a sound.
Ye Ningzhen called out to the outside, "Bring her some water." "Coming, coming."

The little one brought in water, and Sister Hua drank some before she felt better.

"Hoo~ho~ho~"

"She actually came back to life! Damn it, I thought she was going to die."

"Those Japanese devils are really ruthless; they even came up with this kind of trick!"

The little one looked completely bewildered. "Sister Hua, wasn't it that demon star who did it?"

Sister Hua glanced at him and said, "Go, go, go out and close the door. I'll explain everything to you later."

The group reluctantly left, leaving only Chen Zhan and two others behind.

Sister Hua slowly began, "This is very troublesome. I didn't expect that old man to still be alive."

Old thing?
Chen and Zhan were puzzled, but they didn't ask, as Sister Hua would explain.

"You know that the Japanese have been developing in Northeast China, right? They have been eyeing this place for a long time, and they once proposed an idea to establish Manchukuo in Northeast China."

"Since it is called 'Manchukuo,' it is a means of ethnic division, a way to change the concept of territory, and to claim that the Northeast is 'the land of the Manchus' in an attempt to sever the connection between the Northeast and other regions."

"If the Japanese want to do this, the normal Manchu people will not agree. The support of the Manchu Eight Banners nobles is very important, so that they can legitimately sever the territory."

"So over the years, the Japanese have won over many of the Eight Banners nobles who were left over from that time and used them for their own purposes."

"The old man who injured me is the old scholar from back then."

“I didn’t recognize him at first, but after this ‘Poisonous Palm’ was used, I instantly understood. Back then, he served as a private army garrison commander in the Northeast for five years. He was unruly, bullied men and women, and killed countless people. When the Qing government suddenly collapsed, he disappeared without a trace.”

"I never expected they'd defect to the Japanese!"

Ye Ningzhen nodded and asked, "Is there really anyone who can master the Poisonous Fiend Palm technique?"

She had heard of this martial art in legends; once the Iron Sand Palm was perfected, it was used to cultivate poisonous sand.

As for how to cultivate the poison sand and what its effects are, that remains unknown.

"Yes, my master fought him back then. He used a secret recipe of poisonous sand in his cultivation, and the Qing court also provided him with medicine to suppress the poison."

"Poisonous Palm is his title, but in reality it is just poisonous sand. However, it is still quite formidable. Touching it will cause injury. Once the poison enters the body, it will cause redness, swelling, bruising, and unbearable pain and itching."

"Therefore, when fighting him, one must not touch his palms, or one must win quickly!"

"If this stalemate continues, the poisonous sand will erode our defenses, and defeat is inevitable."

Sister Hua told Chen Zhan about it, knowing that Chen Zhan would inevitably have to fight that old man.

"You mean the old scholar? The martial arts scholar?" Chen Zhan asked.

"That's right, he was a Juren (successful candidate in the provincial examination) in the last year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign, and he ranked third in the palace examination, becoming the Tanhua (third-ranked scholar)!"

"So that was the former third in the world?" Chen Zhan chuckled, sounding rather excited.

"Logically speaking, yes, but no one knows how much of it is rigged. My master said that there was a lot of favoritism and cheating in that year's martial arts exam. Only Zhang Sanjia was the top scholar. It's true that there is no first place in literature and no second place in martial arts. Even favoritism and cheating couldn't be stopped."

"When Zhang Sanjia brandished his 180-pound broadsword, no one dared to challenge him; they all conceded defeat and went on to compete for second place."

Upon hearing this familiar name, Chen Zhan was utterly astonished.

According to later generations, Zhang Sanjia once fought with Huo Yuanjia. The two agreed to settle the score in three moves. Huo Yuanjia made the first move but failed to injure Zhang Sanjia. When Zhang Sanjia retaliated, Huo Yuanjia conceded defeat.

Therefore, the story of Zhang Sanjia defeating Huo Yuanjia in three moves became widely known.
(End of this chapter)