Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

Not only that, Zhu Houyu also tried to practice internal martial arts!

According to the intelligence that the eunuch obtained from the Southern Palace, more than a year ago, Zhu Houyu had selected one hundred people from the Imperial Guard to practice internal martial arts.

They even offered a reward: whoever could be the first to develop internal strength would be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver and granted a hereditary title of centurion.

Obtaining the secret manuals of internal martial arts is, of course, very difficult for ordinary people.

But for the Prince Regent, it was no problem at all; all it took was a word, and someone would offer it up with open arms.

It wasn't until more than half a year later that someone finally received this generous reward.

Not long ago, His Highness Prince Ying did something else: he ordered the Prince's Palace Service Department to make numerous copies of several different internal martial arts manuals.

Anyone who has served in the Prince of Ying's Palace for more than a year, whether they are from the Ceremonial Guard, eunuchs, or palace maids, can obtain a manual from the Service Department and practice on their own, as long as they are willing to try cultivation.

Regardless of their original position, anyone who can develop internal strength will receive a reward of a thousand taels of silver and will be promoted to a personal guard of the Prince of Ying.

With such a generous reward, over 80% of the people in the Prince of Ying's mansion received the secret manual from the Chengfeng Division.

That eunuch even overheard a junior eunuch and a palace maid discussing cultivation techniques in private within the Southern Palace.

Of course, to this day, no one else has received that thousand taels of silver reward.

"Father, could it be that Zhu Houyu has already mastered internal martial arts techniques, cultivating both internal and external skills?"

Seeing Zhang Yin put down the secret letter, Li Dali asked,

"If that's the case, the difficulty of an assassination would be unimaginably high!"

"No, he failed to master it."

Zhang Yin shook his head.

"The eunuch learned that before Zhu Houyu selected a hundred people from the Imperial Guard to practice internal martial arts, he often spent more than a month alone in a quiet room."

During that period, he rarely even practiced martial arts at the training ground.

Having roamed the world for decades, I have encountered many masters of external martial arts and have some understanding of their techniques.

External martial arts and internal martial arts are completely different. Although they do not need to meditate and cultivate qi, they must practice martial arts every day, training in the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter to keep their qi and blood vigorous.

It's okay to stop training for a day or two occasionally, but if you don't train for three to five consecutive days, you'll clearly feel the decline.

If you neglect training for a long time, the external martial arts internal strength you have worked so hard to develop will decline, and it will take a longer time to regain it.

Therefore, masters of external martial arts are often very self-disciplined, spending a lot of time practicing their skills every day without fail.

It was highly unusual that Zhu Houyu suddenly reduced the time he spent practicing martial arts over that period of more than a month.

He was already a master of external martial arts several years ago, and he may have already encountered a bottleneck, with his cultivation progressing extremely slowly.

Therefore, he thought of practicing internal martial arts in order to seek a breakthrough.

At that time, he had likely just acquired the internal martial arts techniques and began to devote a lot of time to practicing them, even at the cost of taking up his daily martial arts practice time.

After practicing for more than a month, he found that not only could he not develop internal strength, but his original external strength had also deteriorated due to neglecting his training!

"Great gift, if you were in this situation, what would you decide?"

"If I were Zhu Houyu, I would choose to give up decisively!"

Li Dali thought for a moment.

Since he planned to cultivate internal martial arts, Zhu Houyu would naturally learn from internal martial arts masters that the requirements for aptitude for cultivating internal martial arts are extremely demanding, and only one in a hundred can find the feeling of qi and cultivate internal strength.

As a prince regent, he could command countless people willing to risk their lives for him with just a word, so his pursuit of personal martial prowess wasn't particularly strong.

It's already quite remarkable that you've been able to persist in practicing for over a month without any results.

I think this is why he later had his subordinates practice internal martial arts.

Although he himself was unwilling to continue spending time and energy practicing internal martial arts, he was still unwilling to give up and wanted his subordinates to try it for him.

The son believed that as long as someone found the Qi sensation, Zhu Houyu would inquire in detail about the process of finding it, hoping to find the pattern within it.

"That's right, I'm certain that he failed to master the internal martial arts."

If Zhu Houyu were to develop internal strength, he would surely strike while the iron is hot and spend a great deal of time each day consolidating his cultivation.

More than a month later, he resumed his daily martial arts practice at the training ground, which was evidence that he hadn't mastered the skills.

Zhang Yin laughed.

"Zhu Houyu is, after all, just a young man in his twenties, and his understanding of martial arts is still too lacking."

External martial arts techniques are widely spread and practiced by many, with many people believing that they are only practicing ordinary martial arts.

Whether one can develop external internal strength depends entirely on aptitude; there is no lineage to inherit.

It's even quite possible that he didn't know about the existence of internal martial arts techniques until long after he had developed external internal strength.

In fact, I have never seen a master who possesses both internal and external strength!

Such masters exist only in ancient legends passed down through generations in the martial arts world; whether they even exist in this world today is uncertain.

"Even if Zhu Houyu had not mastered the internal martial arts, it would still have been extremely difficult for him to assassinate a master of external martial arts."

Li Dali looked worried.

"He is a prince, and if he is assassinated, various forces will arrive quickly to protect him, leaving us very little time to act."

External martial arts masters possess powerful and heavy hands, excel in close combat, and have great stamina. If they can delay us for even a moment, our operation will fail.

The assassination attempt on the Prince of Ying was carried out simultaneously with the assassination attempt on the emperor; if the operation failed, the situation would completely spiral out of control.

"Wu Nian's request to send several top experts to the capital to participate in the operation was correct."

Zhang Yin stood up.

"Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit, let alone a tiger, which is a ferocious beast we are dealing with."

Logically, it would be safest for me to personally take several elders from the sect to the capital.

Unfortunately, the war in Shanxi is still ongoing, and I am leading troops in the field and have no time to leave. You will have to go to the capital to take charge.

The Black Cliff headquarters had seven elders, but Wu Nian led a team to the capital, leaving only six.

As a father, I must stay in Taiyuan Left Guard; the main altar cannot be without an elder in charge.

If all these top experts leave the main altar, there will be no one on Blackwood Cliff to restrain Zhao Xixian.

Take five more elders to the capital, and leave one person behind to oversee the main altar!

These masters are independent of each other and none of them submit to the others. Apart from you and me, father and son, no one can command them.

Hmph! Even those with superb martial arts skills have a fatal weakness.

That's because high skill breeds daring!

Confident in his own military strength, Zhu Houyu would not pay much attention to his personal security. You might even be able to set a trap to keep him away from his guards.

"At that time, I will have six top masters attack simultaneously, and we will surely kill him with a single blow!"