Martial Arts Crossover: My master tricked Huang Rong into becoming my wife!

Chen Yanzhou did not return to the shack.

Although the place is now well-maintained, it is still crowded and noisy, making it difficult to settle down and read. He carried the book "The Great Song Dynasty Criminal Code" and turned into a teahouse on the street.

The private seating area on the second floor, by the window.

"Hey buddy, a pot of Yuqian tea, two plates of dried fruit, and a plate of osmanthus cake." Chen Yanzhou casually tossed out a piece of silver, his movements as practiced as a young master out for a stroll.

The waiter took the money, bowing so low he practically pressed his head against his crotch: "Alright! Please wait a moment, sir!"

Before long, the aroma of tea filled the air.

Chen Yanzhou took a sip of hot tea to dispel the chill from his body before slowly opening the yellowed law book.

Dry and obscure.

The book was filled with phrases like "eighty strokes of the cane," "exile for three thousand miles," and "immediate execution," which would give anyone a headache just looking at it. But Chen Yanzhou read it with great interest, and even pulled out a charcoal stick from somewhere and started drawing in the blank spaces of the pages from time to time.

This isn't a book; it's the Beggars' Sect's life-saving charm.

"Any merchant who fails to report to customs or ferries during transshipment shall be punished with sixty strokes of the cane and his goods shall be confiscated by the government..." Chen Yanzhou tapped on this line of text with his finger, a playful smile playing on his lips.

This is a huge vulnerability.

The Beggars' Sect transporting goods is considered "righteous transport." Since it's a righteous act, it's not purely a merchant activity. Once you understand this principle, the toll fees you can save when passing through checkpoints will be astronomical.

As he chewed on the osmanthus cake, he envisioned the future business empire of the Beggars' Sect in his mind.

……

The Beggars' Sect's stronghold, in the backyard.

This is Lu Youjiao's private room, and apart from a few elders, no one dares to trespass on it casually.

At this moment, Lu Youjiao had just finished dealing with a bunch of gang affairs and dragged his tired body through the door.

"These brats, they get cocky now that they have money. Looks like we need to set some rules for them..."

He muttered something, but as soon as he looked up, the rest of his words got stuck in his throat.

The old, worn-out square table that was usually used to pile up odds and ends was now laden with delicacies. Roast chicken, braised duck, and a jar of fine wine, its clay seal broken open, filled the air with an irresistible aroma.

Behind the table, Hong Qigong lay on his side without any regard for his image, one leg propped up on the stool, holding a fat, juicy chicken leg in his hand, gnawing on it with his mouth full of oil.

"Boss?" Lu Youjiao was taken aback for a moment, then gave a wry smile. "Are you treating my house like a restaurant?"

Hong Qigong didn't even lift his eyelids, and said indistinctly, "What? You're feeling bad about the old beggar eating your food?"

"How could that be?" Lu Youjiao leaned his bamboo cane against the corner of the wall, walked over and sat down. "It's just that you've been hiding here with me since you got back, without even going to see Yanzhou. Isn't that a bit...?"

"What's wrong? Afraid that kid will laugh at me?" Hong Qigong threw the chicken bone on the ground, wiped his mouth, and his previously blissful expression instantly fell, his brows furrowing into a knot.

Lu Youjiao poured himself a bowl of wine, and seeing Hong Qigong's worried look, he laughed.

"Master, are you still worried about the cultivation technique?"

Hong Qigong sighed, picked up his wine bowl, and took a big gulp: "I'm worried, how can I not be worried? That kid is so cunning, if I just give him some kind of cultivation technique, he'll talk about it for the rest of his life."

"So, do you have any clues at all?" Lu Youjiao asked tentatively. "If all else fails, why don't you just pass on the secret manual of the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms to him?"

"No way!" Hong Qigong refused decisively. "The Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms are extremely powerful and yang. Although that kid has good aptitude, he's only eight years old after all, and his body hasn't fully developed yet. If he's forced to practice it, he'll become stupid before he even masters it."

He paused, his eyes suddenly becoming deep, and his fingers unconsciously drew circles on the table.

"Actually, I've already figured out the approach."

Lu Youjiao's eyes lit up: "Oh? Tell me about it?"

Hong Qigong sat up straight, the drunkenness in his eyes fading somewhat, and began to preach.

"I'm thinking of combining the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms and the Free and Easy Wandering Technique into one."

"Knead it together?" Lu Youjiao was stunned. "How can you knead something so firm and soft?"

"Idiot!" Hong Qigong rolled his eyes at him. "Don't you understand the balance of strength and gentleness? Internal energy is the foundation, strength is the bone, and agility is the vein. The circulation of internal energy is like the Yangtze River, initially calm and gathering momentum, but once it erupts, it's like a raging torrent crashing against the shore!"

Although Lu Youjiao's martial arts skills were not as good as Hong Qigong's, he was still a seasoned veteran. Upon hearing this, he immediately felt that Lu Youjiao was unfathomable.

"Internal energy can be controlled at will, with endless variations... Chief, if someone were to master this, what would become of them?"

"Of course!" Hong Qigong proudly raised his chin. "This is the essence of my life's martial arts. If that kid can really master it, I'm afraid no one in the martial world will be able to stop him in the future."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lu Youjiao slapped his thigh. "Hurry up and write it down! Yanzhou is going crazy waiting."

Hong Qigong's previously high spirits instantly vanished, and he slumped back into his chair, looking utterly hopeless.

"I want to write too... but..."

"But what?"

"Too lazy to write."

Hong Qigong spread his hands confidently: "So many words, and I have to figure out the meridians and acupoints, and think of mnemonic devices. I get a headache just looking at a pen. Besides, this hand is for grabbing chicken legs, not for holding a pen."

Lu Youjiao's lips twitched slightly.

This reason is very powerful, very much like Hong Qigong.

Hong Qigong's eyes darted around, his gaze landing on Lu Youjiao, a malicious smile spreading across his face.

"It has legs."

"...Boss, please don't look at me like that, it's making me shudder."

"You must read a lot of clerks for the company, right? You should be able to recognize all the characters, right?"

Lu's foot sank in, a bad feeling creeping over him: "I recognize it, it's this..."

"As long as you recognize it!" Hong Qigong slammed his hand on the table. "Bring me pen and ink! I'll tell you what to write!"

Before Lu Youjiao could refuse, Hong Qigong had already pulled out a blank booklet from his pocket. He had bought it on his way back and originally intended to write in it himself, but after struggling for a long time, he hadn't even written his name.

"Hurry up, hurry up, write it down while my inspiration is still fresh," Hong Qigong urged.

Helpless, Lu Youjiao could only get up and search for pen and ink.

After much difficulty, I finally found a half-eaten ink stick and a brush with bald bristles.

Grind the ink and lay out the paper.

Lu Youjiao held the pen, his palms sweaty, feeling more nervous than if he were going to fight someone.

"Are you ready?" Hong Qigong cleared his throat, his expression turning solemn.

"alright."

"Let's write the general outline first." Hong Qigong paced back and forth in the narrow room, his voice deep and powerful.

"His spirit can swallow the clouds of the four seas, and his steps can traverse the dust of the nine provinces."

Lu flicked his wrist, and the tip of his pen landed on the paper, spreading out ink smears.

"A thunderclap falls from the palm, a bright moon shines anew from the empty pot."

As Hong Qigong read on, he became more and more fluent, his eyes shining brightly, as if he could see the figure of that young man who would one day roam the martial arts world.

"His laughter conceals his true intentions; his body has been tempered by wind and frost."

"The most profound thing is to do chivalrous deeds throughout one's life."

After reciting the eight lines of poetry, Hong Qigong let out a long breath, his face full of self-satisfaction.

"How is it? I've been thinking about this all the way here!"

He turned his head and looked at Lu Youjiao expectantly.

However, Lu Youjiao froze there, his pen hanging in mid-air, ink dripping down the tip and staining the paper with a large black spot.

"Why did you stop writing?" Hong Qigong frowned.

Lu Youjiao's face turned bright red, and after stammering for a long time, he awkwardly pointed to the blank space on the paper.

"Boss... that... the 'xi' in 'xi xiao' (joking/laughing)... it has the 'woman' radical, and what's that over there again?"

The smile on Hong Qigong's face froze instantly.

The air in the room seemed to have frozen.

"You..." Hong Qigong pointed at Lu Youjiao, his beard trembling with rage, "You good-for-nothing! I told you to read more books, and all you do is drink and eat meat! You can't even write the character 'xi' (嬉, meaning 'to play')?!"

Lu Youjiao shrank back and muttered in defense, "We're beggars, not scholars. Being able to write our names is enough..."

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

Hong Qigong shoved Lu Youjiao aside, snatched the worn-out pen, and glanced disdainfully at the few lines of crooked, uneven characters on the paper.

"These characters are so ugly... they could ward off evil spirits if hung on the door!"

While cursing, he picked up his pen and scribbled the character "嬉" (xi) onto the paper.

After finishing writing, he shoved the pen into Lu Youjiao's arms.

"Keep writing! The following section is the energy circulation route, listen carefully! If you write down even one wrong acupoint, and that brat Yanzhou suffers a qi deviation, I'll hold you responsible!"

Lu Youjiao wiped the cold sweat from his brow, gripped his pen tightly again, and looked as tragic as if he were about to be executed.

"The Qi travels through the dantian, passes through the perineum, and rushes to the coccyx..."

Hong Qigong spoke at an extremely fast pace, spouting out one obscure and difficult-to-understand acupoint name after another.

Lu was flustered and his pen flew across the paper; it was more like he was drawing talismans than writing characters.

Half an hour later.

The thin booklet was finally filled.

Lu sat slumped in the chair, feeling as if his wrists no longer belonged to him; he was more exhausted than if he had fought a battle with the Jin soldiers.

Hong Qigong picked up the booklet and flipped through a few pages.

The paper was covered in ink blots; some characters were missing parts, some were crammed together, and some areas were smeared with ink and turned completely black.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Hong Qigong shook his head with a look of disgust: "If you take this thing out and say it's a secret manual passed down from the Beggars' Sect leader, I'm afraid the people of the martial arts world will laugh their heads off."

Lu Youjiao, panting heavily, said irritably, "Boss, just make do with it. Anyway, Yanzhou is smart enough to understand it."

Hong Qigong thought about it and agreed.

So what if the handwriting is a little ugly? As long as the content is real money.

Moreover, the characters are so uniquely ugly that they fit the Beggars' Sect's unconventional style.

"Alright then." Hong Qigong closed the booklet, casually tucked it into his robes, and a smile returned to his face. "Anyway, at least this matter is settled. Let's go, let's drink! We're happy today, let's drink until we drop!"

Lu Youjiao looked at the half-empty jar of wine on the table and said with a wry smile, "Chief, are you still drinking? Yanzhou will probably be back soon..."

"What's there to be afraid of!" Hong Qigong waved his hand with an air of magnanimity. "Now that I have this secret manual in hand, I'm as tough as nails! If he dares to come back, I'll throw this manual in his face and see if he still dares to glare at me!"

Lu Youjiao held the newly printed "secret manual" in his hands, looking at it from left to right. The ink was still wet, and the thin booklet gave off a strange smell of stale ink mixed with roast chicken.

It looks like waste paper used to wrap fried dough sticks at a roadside stall.

Not only was the handwriting messy, but there were also a few ink smudges mixed in, which were oil splatters that Hong Qigong had flicked on in his excitement.

"Master," Lu Youjiao carefully blew on the still-wet ink, "Now that this cultivation method is complete, it needs a resounding name, right? Otherwise, when that kid Yanzhou asks, I'm afraid we won't be able to keep up."

Hong Qigong picked his teeth, glanced at the booklet, and then looked down at his patched-up clothes.

"A title..."

He pondered for a moment, a sly glint in his eyes, and then smiled.

"This kung fu combines the strengths of many schools, and it is the essence that I, an old beggar, painstakingly extracted from the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms and the Free and Easy Wanderer. It is all about embracing the essence of the universe."

"Let's call it 'The Hundredfold Return to Origin Technique'."

"Bai Na?" Lu Youjiao was taken aback, then realized what he meant. Looking at Hong Qigong's beggar's clothes, he couldn't help but grin. "Bai Na Yi, Bai Na Gong. This name is down-to-earth; only someone like you, Chief, could come up with it."

It fits the Beggars' Sect's identity, and it even sounds plausible.

"Alright, stop flattering me." Hong Qigong grabbed the booklet and was about to stuff it into his robes when he suddenly stopped.

He frowned and gently stroked the cover with his fingers.

"What's wrong, boss?"

Hong Qigong's playful expression vanished, replaced by a rare seriousness. "Although this technique is based on my life's learning and the theoretical approach is correct, it's the first time I've tried this kind of 'hybrid' approach. Combining strength and gentleness sounds easy, but it's difficult in practice. What if one of the meridians isn't properly aligned, causing the internal energy to go astray..."

He thought of Chen Yanzhou's small frame.

If there is any flaw in this technique, at best the meridians will be damaged, and at worst the person will suffer from qi deviation and become a fool who can only drool.

At that point, not only will the "Beggars' Guild Logistics" business be left unmanaged, but his own closed-door disciple will also be ruined.

"No, I have to try it first."

Hong Qigong slammed the booklet on the table and grabbed the jade dog-beating stick that was leaning against the corner of the wall.

Lu Youjiao was startled: "Chief, you want to test this technique yourself? This...this is a newly created method, what if..."

"What's there to be afraid of!" Hong Qigong waved his hand with great pride. "This old beggar has profound internal strength. Even if something goes wrong, it's just a matter of spitting out blood. He won't die. If that brat becomes our guinea pig, that would be a real tragedy."

"But……"

"There's no 'but' about it," Hong Qigong interrupted him. "This technique is mostly derived from the energy flow of the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, so the foundation is solid. I'll find a quiet place to go through it myself, and if there are no problems, I'll pass it on to that kid."

Having said that, without waiting for Lu Youjiao to persuade him further, he swayed away.

The window creaked softly.

There was no trace of Hong Qigong in the room; only half a roast chicken, still warm, remained on the table.

……

Thirty li slope outside Xiangyang city.

This is a dense wild pine forest, rarely visited by anyone except woodcutters.

The cold wind howled, and the pines rustled in the breeze.

Hong Qigong moved like lightning, leaping among the treetops before landing on a huge blue stone.

This bluestone, about ten feet in circumference, has a smooth surface, making it an ideal place for practicing martial arts.

He sat cross-legged, placed the dog-beating stick across his knees, closed his eyes slightly, and adjusted his breathing.

The sound of the wind around him seemed to gradually fade away, leaving only his long breaths in the world.

"rise."

Silently reciting the incantation, the true energy within the dantian began to slowly surge.

Following the cultivation path of the "Hundredfold Return to Origin Technique," the powerful internal energy first sank into the dantian, and then split into two paths.

One path along the Du Meridian is powerful and domineering, like a raging fire; the other path along the Ren Meridian is gentle and continuous, like a trickle of water.

In the past, cultivation required either extreme hardness or extreme softness. But if water and fire were to coexist like this, the slightest carelessness could result in the rupture of meridians.

Hong Qigong frowned slightly, not daring to be careless.

Two streams of vital energy within the body converge at the Tanzhong acupoint.

There was no violent conflict as expected.

The fierce internal energy, upon encountering the gentle force, transformed like tempered steel into a silken skeletal object. Though still powerful, it lost some of its ferocity and gained a touch of agility. Meanwhile, the gentle force seemed to have acquired a framework, becoming exceptionally resilient.

"what?"

Hong Qigong was amazed.

This feeling was even smoother than simply practicing the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms technique.

If the internal energy of the past was an indestructible hammer, then the internal energy of the present is like a living dragon, capable of destroying cities and fortresses, and capable of turning clouds into rain.

Without further hesitation, he channeled his inner energy and began his assault on the next barrier.

The Qi travels up the twelve-story tower, passes through the Baihui point, and descends to the Yongquan point.

One cycle, two cycles...

As his true energy circulated continuously within his body, Hong Qigong's originally ashen face began to glow with a faint radiance, and wisps of white vapor rose from the top of his head, condensing in the cold wind without dissipating, resembling three flowers gathering at the top of his head.

After an unknown amount of time, Hong Qigong suddenly opened his eyes.

"happy!"

He let out a long roar, a sound like a dragon's cry, which startled the birds in the surrounding pine trees into flight.

At this moment, his internal energy was surging and overflowing. The "Hundred Returns to Origin Technique" not only prevented him from going into qi deviation, but also refreshed his internal energy, making it even purer and more profound than before.

"What a magnificent 'return to the origin'!"

Hong Qigong laughed loudly as he stood up and stomped heavily on the bluestone with his right foot.

He was launched into the air.

While suspended in mid-air, he made a fist with his right hand, and the true energy within his body, which combined strength and gentleness, instantly gathered in his palm.

"The dragon that soars too high will regret it!"

A loud shout.

Hong Qigong unleashed a palm strike.

This palm strike was no longer simply powerful and unparalleled.

The air twisted violently, and vaguely, a golden dragon-shaped energy roared out from his palm. The dragon shadow was more solid than ever before, its scales and claws flying, and it slammed into the huge blue stone on the ground with an unparalleled power.

"boom--!!!"

A deafening roar shook the earth.

Smoke and dust billowed, and gravel flew everywhere.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the large blue stone, about ten feet in diameter, had vanished without a trace, leaving only a deep pit several feet deep, the bottom of which was filled with dust.

Hong Qigong landed lightly at the edge of the pit, and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement at the power of the palm strike.

"Goodness..."

He looked down at his palm.

The power of this palm strike was at least 30% greater than before, and most importantly, the internal energy circulated extremely quickly after the force was exerted.

"It seems the old beggar stumbled upon a treasure this time by sheer luck."

Hong Qigong was in a great mood and reached out to pat the dust off his clothes.

However, just to be on the safe side, he sat down cross-legged again and mentally went through the reverse process of the technique.

From the initial sensation of Qi, to the circulation of Qi in the Small Heavenly Circuit, and then to the transport of Qi in the Great Heavenly Circuit.

He scrutinized every detail and every possible mishap.

Only after confirming that his internal energy would not be out of control and would not cause any fundamental damage did he feel relieved.

"All done!"

Hong Qigong picked up the Dog-Beating Stick and twirled it beautifully.

"Now when we get back, let's see if that brat dares to give me attitude again."

He hummed an unknown tune and strode lightly toward Xiangyang City.