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As a result, Yue Buqun became increasingly strict with Linghu Chong, urging him to practice his internal skills diligently every day. Two days ago, after being caught sneaking down the mountain to buy wine, he was directly punished by being sent to the Cliff of Contemplation to face the wall for a month.

Seeing Yue Buqun's strictness, the disciples of Mount Hua, though nervous, trained even more diligently.

As a result, Li Mu was the one who was most relaxed. Yue Buqun knew that he was very self-disciplined and that he arranged his own training time on weekdays.

After putting reading on his schedule, he would spend a lot of time reading Taoist classics every day in addition to practicing martial arts, and he would also often consult Yue Buqun.

Yue Buqun was also an avid reader, and he had read almost all the books in the Huashan library, which made him understand even more the importance of Taoist classics in order to deepen one's martial arts skills.

He had urged Linghu Chong to study hard before, but Linghu Chong was restless and couldn't sit still. Yue Buqun had no choice but to give up and didn't force him in the end.

He was naturally pleased that Li Mu had this idea, and personally recommended some introductory books on Taoism. He would also explain to Li Mu one by one without hesitation if there was anything he did not understand.

In this way, Li Mu absorbed all kinds of knowledge like a sponge, and he did not neglect his martial arts skills. His internal energy and swordsmanship improved rapidly.

Before he knew it, it was autumn in the second half of the year. Suddenly, Yue Buqun asked him to read the Four Books and Five Classics and explained Confucian ideas to him, especially asking him to study Mencius carefully.

Two or three months later, Yue Buqun taught him a new sword technique called "Yangwu Sword".

The idea of ​​nurturing oneself comes from Mencius!

"I am good at cultivating my vast and righteous spirit, which is extremely powerful and strong. I cultivate it with uprightness and without harm, so that it fills the space between heaven and earth!"

Mencius's Ode to Righteousness once said:

Within the noble spirit of righteousness and morality, the greatest and most upright principles are cultivated and understood;

The Great Primordial Power fills the universe, with nothing large outside and nothing small within.

The Yangwu Sword Technique consists of thirty-six moves. Li Mu practiced one move a day and mastered the entire technique in a little over a month. This Yangwu Sword Technique, like a humble gentleman, emphasizes non-contention and uses it primarily for defense rather than offense. The moves are about accumulating power and momentum, using four-tenths of one's strength and reserving six-tenths, combining defense with offense!

Therefore, Yangwu Sword is also known for its defensive capabilities, and it is said that with its three-foot-long blade in hand, water cannot be splashed and needles cannot be pierced. It is an extremely rare and superior Confucian sword technique.

The Quanzhen School claims to be a synthesis of the three religions, so it's not surprising that the Huashan School, which inherited part of the Quanzhen School's tradition, also has Confucian sword techniques.

This time, Li Mu learned more slowly. The way to cultivate one's sword is not through practice, but through comprehension.

If one cannot comprehend this Confucian spirit of righteousness, no matter how precise one's moves are, it is merely a decent sword technique, unable to fully realize the true meaning of this sword technique: "With a three-foot-long sword in hand, the area within three feet of one's body is a forbidden zone."

Fortunately, Li Mu was no match for him either, and he would eventually master it.

Chapter 525 Behind Zhongnan Mountain, the Tomb of the Living Dead

Another year has passed, and Li Mu is now fourteen years old.

At the end of last year, the second level of the Embracing Origin Technique was nearing completion, and less than a month after the New Year, the opportunity for a breakthrough arrived.

That morning, after he finished practicing a set of Yangwu Sword techniques, he suddenly had a feeling. He immediately sat cross-legged, and the third level of the Baoyuan Gong technique appeared in his mind. He followed the technique and entered the third level smoothly and easily.

Reaching the third level of internal strength makes one a formidable opponent in the martial arts world. For most martial arts practitioners, the third level is their ceiling.

Only disciples of major sects like Li Mu, with profound cultivation techniques, learned teachers, and exceptionally talented fellow disciples, who exchange and discuss with each other, have the possibility of entering the fourth level or even higher.

At the same time, once one reaches the third level of the Baoyuan Gong, one's internal strength has reached a certain level, and one can learn most of the martial arts of Mount Hua.

After Li Mu's breakthrough in the Yuan Gong technique lasted for half a month and was completely consolidated, Yue Buqun taught him another skill, "Ascending the Heavenly Ladder".

As one of the Nine Skills of Mount Hua, and the only one among them that is light-body skill, this Heavenly Ladder is not only exceptionally exquisite and profound, but also has an extraordinary origin.

According to records in Huashan's ancient texts, this ladder to heaven was likely passed down from the Quanzhen School. It is particularly adept at using external force, and is similar in principle to the Wudang Ladder Cloud Leap.

Back then, Ma Yu traveled thousands of miles from Zhongnan Mountain to the desert to teach Guo Jing martial arts. He once used his lightness skill to walk on cliffs as if they were flat ground, rescuing a pair of white eagles, which convinced Guo Jing to sincerely learn martial arts from him. He must have used this "ladder to heaven" technique.

Because this lightness skill is so exquisite and profound, and requires extremely high internal strength, one can only be considered to have reached the threshold of learning it at the third level of the Embracing Yuan Skill.

To truly master it, to be able to leverage external forces like Ma Yu and walk on flat ground even when facing a cliff, he is still far from that level, and neither is Yue Buqun.

However, this did not stop him from practicing.

Li Mu had a foundation in learning the Huashan Body Techniques. Although the Huashan Body Techniques were just the basic lightness techniques of Huashan, like the Huashan introductory sword techniques, they were used to build a foundation.

He practiced well and had a solid foundation, so he progressed quite quickly in learning the Heavenly Ladder technique. However, limited by his skill level, the results weren't great. To advance further, he would need to wait for another breakthrough in his internal energy.

Even so, it was still a rare and superior lightness skill, and Li Mu would practice it for half an hour every morning.

Just now, as dawn was breaking, Li Mu stepped out of the courtyard, stretched his body gently, and his joints cracked all over.

He slowly walked to a deserted mountain path, took a deep breath, leaned forward slightly, touched the ground with his toes, and used his skill to ascend the ladder to heaven, lifting himself up from the ground.

Surprisingly, although its body rose into the air, its speed was extremely slow, drifting forward gently, its momentum clearly waning.

Li Mu slowly took a step in the void, as if there was a ladder under his feet to help him float forward five or six feet before landing silently.

Li Mu took a deep breath, calmed his agitated inner energy, and prepared himself again. He tapped his toes on the ground, used the Heavenly Ladder technique, and his body slowly floated up again.

……

A quarter of an hour later, Li Mu was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and his true energy was almost completely depleted, so he stopped practicing.

This light-body skill is indeed difficult to learn. It not only requires high internal strength but also high aptitude and temperament, making it quite challenging to master.

For example, the ability to make one's body float slowly forward in the air requires one to harmonize one's true energy evenly throughout the body, to blend yin and yang, and to control the strength of the whole body with perfect precision. This is extremely difficult to master, and even among the disciples of major sects, nine out of ten cannot do it.

Even among the Huashan Sect, there are not many who will be qualified and talented enough to learn how to ascend the Heavenly Ladder in the future.

Several months passed in the blink of an eye, and it was May. Li Mu descended Mount Hua once again.

Some time ago, he received a letter from Lin Zhennan, who had given him another younger sister. Thinking that he had been in Huashan for two years, he started planning when to go back.

At noon, I was having lunch at a restaurant in Huayin County when I overheard some people from the martial arts world discussing which major martial arts sects in Shaanxi Province were famous. The Huashan Sect was naturally mentioned, and someone even brought up the Quanzhen Sect, which has since disappeared.

However, as the largest sect in the north back then, even more powerful than the Huashan Sect in its heyday, the Quanzhen Sect, though gone, no one dares to deny its former influence.

The group ate, drank, and boasted, but Li Mu took it to heart.

Thinking of the Quanzhen Sect on Zhongnan Mountain, Li Mu naturally thought of the Ancient Tomb Sect behind the Quanzhen Sect, and then of the Chongyang Inscription in the secret chamber of the Ancient Tomb Sect, which was the Nine Yin Manual... This thing was much more attractive to people in the martial arts world than the Evil-Repelling Sword Manual.

As a member of the martial arts world, Li Mu's heart was also somewhat restless.

There was no rush to return to Fujian. Instead, they went back to the escort agency, gathered their men, and headed straight for Zhongnan Mountain.

Zhongnan Mountain is located southwest of Xi'an. There are two ancient roads. One of them is the "Ziwu Road", which is the main road from Xi'an through Zhongnan Mountain to Hanzhong and Sichuan. During the Tang Dynasty, the lychees sent from Fuzhou, Sichuan to Yang Guifei were transported through this road. This road is also known as the "Lychee Road".

Another road is called "Wuguan Road", which is the main road from Xi'an through Zhongnan Mountain to Chu and Yu. When Qin Shi Huang swept across the six kingdoms, he "returned from Nanjun via Wuguan", referring to this Wuguan Road.

The group took the Wuguan Pass and arrived at an ancient town at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain in less than half a day. It is said that the ruins of the Quanzhen School are nearby.

Li Mu booked an inn in the town and hired some local mountain people. In just two days, he found the ruins of the Quanzhen Sect.

Once the largest sect in the north, with thousands of palaces and halls and nearly ten thousand disciples, it is now just ruins, with many places still bearing the marks of a fire, which makes people sigh.

After reflecting on the situation, he discerned the terrain and direction, and led a few men towards the back mountain of the Quanzhen Sect for the next day.

As he walked, he thought about how Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu lived just ahead. He was filled with emotion again, wondering if the Ancient Tomb Sect had any successors. Although he had never heard of it in the martial arts world, the Ancient Tomb Sect was a reclusive sect, so it was hard to say for sure that it had no successors.

If there are still people in the ancient tomb, then this trip here...

Thinking back on the TV series I've watched, the last time the successor of the Ancient Tomb Sect appeared was at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, which is more than a hundred years ago.

The woman in yellow, a descendant of the Ancient Tomb Sect, first appeared and helped the Beggar Clan reclaim their leadership. She then told the Beggar Clan elders that her ancestors had a deep connection with the previous generation of the Beggar Clan. Later, at the Lion-Slaying Assembly at Shaolin Temple, the woman in yellow exposed Zhou Zhiruo's "Nine Yin White Bone Claw" and fought fiercely with Zhou Zhiruo using the authentic "Nine Yin Divine Claw," ultimately winning a great victory.

When Zhang Wuji asked her name, she replied, "Behind Zhongnan Mountain, the Tomb of the Living Dead, the Condor Heroes, vanished from the martial world," and then disappeared without a trace.

Given that the woman was only in her early twenties at the time, her death must have occurred several decades ago. If she truly had descendants, they should still be alive today.

However, there is no news about the Ancient Tomb Sect in the martial arts world today. Given the Ancient Tomb Sect's martial arts skills, it is impossible for them to be so unknown.

For a moment, it was hard to tell whether we hoped the Ancient Tomb Sect still had successors or whether we hoped the Ancient Tomb Sect was already extinct.

The group quickly arrived at the back mountain of the Quanzhen Sect, but after wandering around, they didn't find anything interesting. The scenery, however, was quite beautiful. Rare flowers and exotic plants, sheer cliffs and strange rocks, streams and pools were everywhere.

The Ancient Tomb of the Ancient Tomb Sect is said to be not a real ancient tomb, but a place built by Wang Chongyang, the founder of the Quanzhen School, when he led an army to resist the Jin Dynasty. It was used to conceal the tomb and store supplies, food, weapons and silver.

The tomb is riddled with traps and mechanisms, and a dragon-slaying stone is placed at the entrance; once lowered, it is impossible to open again. After the rebel army's defeat, Wang Chongyang angrily retreated to the ancient tomb, calling it the "Tomb of the Living Dead," meaning that though he was alive, he was as good as dead, and he was irreconcilably opposed to the Jin people.

Lin Chaoying was deeply in love with him and lamented that his great skills were buried in the tomb. So she used a provocation to trick him out of the stone tomb, and the two of them went out into the world together.

However, Wang Chongyang could not forget the hatred for his country, and often said, "How can I have a home when the Xiongnu have not been destroyed?" He pretended to be foolish and stupid in the face of Lin Chaoying's deep affection. Lin Chaoying thought that Wang Chongyang looked down on her, and finally challenged him to a duel in Zhongnan Mountain, and won the Ancient Tomb with a clever plan.

He lived in the tomb from then on and never came out again. Wang Chongyang, on the other hand, became a Taoist priest nearby and founded the "Quanzhen Sect".

Later, Wang Chongyang became the world's number one swordsman in the Mount Hua Sword Tournament and obtained the unparalleled martial arts manual "Nine Yin Manual". He felt guilty towards Lin Chaoying and never forgot her.

He was arrogant and believed that "Chongyang was never inferior to anyone in his life." He wanted Lin Chaoying to know that he was not inferior in skill. So he entered the ancient tomb through a secret passage and carved some of the martial arts from the "Nine Yin Manual" in the secret chamber of the ancient tomb to counter the skills on the "Jade Maiden Heart Sutra". He also hoped that Lin Chaoying, who did not have much time left, could understand it and improve her martial arts, thereby prolonging her life.

Whether Lin Chaoying failed to discover it or was consumed by resentment, she disdained to comprehend the martial arts left behind by Wang Chongyang. Consequently, she died young, leaving behind only her wedding dress, dowry, phoenix coronet, and embroidered robe in the ancient tomb, which represent Lin Chaoying's lifelong thoughts and regrets.

This couple, with their unparalleled martial arts skills, proud and aloof personalities, and exceptional intelligence, met such an end, which truly makes one sigh with regret.

However, the world changes, and the lovers who couldn't be together back then have long since turned into bones in a tomb. Even the sect they founded has disappeared into the long river of time.

Li Mu led his men to search the vicinity and found a place that appeared to be an ancient tomb, but after hundreds of years of natural changes, it was uncertain whether it was real or not.

The only thing that can prove the exact location of the ancient tomb is probably the Dragon-Slaying Stone.

After searching the vicinity for several days, the location of the Broken Dragon Stone was finally discovered. It is now mostly buried by collapsed soil and no longer resembles its former appearance.

Li Mu estimated the difficulty and commotion of breaking through the Dragon-Slaying Stone and temporarily abandoned the idea. If possible, he did not want to destroy the ancient tomb by violence.

Since that's the case, the only option left is to find the pool of water leading to or from the ancient tomb. Now that the Dragon-Slaying Stone has been found, the approximate location of the ancient tomb has been determined, making the search for the pool of water much easier.

After spending seven or eight days carefully searching more than a dozen pools of water near the ancient tomb, some of which were just simple pools without any passage leading elsewhere, others were indeed hidden, leading to underground currents only after some trial and error.

Finally, perseverance paid off, and they found it in the end.

Li Mu returned to the town to rest and purchase various necessary items, including some ancient primitive airbags, before heading into the mountains alone.