Killing Monks

"Huh?!" Lu Fei was stunned, thinking he had misheard. "What did you say? Teach... teach someone else?!"

"Yes." Guangyuan nodded. "Once we reach the territory of Northern Zhou and settle down, I plan to 'invite' some people to help me verify and improve this cultivation technique."

Lu Fei's mouth gaped open, and he couldn't close it for a long time before finally asking:

"Bald monk... is your 'please'... properly done?"

He knew that given Guangyuan's ruthless methods, this "invitation" must be rather improper.

"The Buddha said: Everything is predestined." Guangyuan put his hands together, making a compassionate expression: "And predestined relationships are the most wonderful and ineffable."

"..." Lu Fei was completely speechless.

That bald thief always has a whole set of twisted and heretical theories!

Silent all night.

The two ate some dry rations and rested to recover. As dawn broke, they continued their journey north.

Two days later, they finally entered the territory of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Once past the boundary marker, it was immediately apparent that the atmosphere was quite different from that of the Buddhist kingdom of Southern Tang.

Along the way, the temples were noticeably less crowded with incense offerings, monks were rarely seen, and there were very few people discussing Buddhism in the streets.

Instead, a more aggressive and direct folk culture emerged, and martial arts practitioners became even more active.

What is particularly striking is that many of the martial artists encountered on the road, regardless of age, all seemed to be exceptionally robust and muscular.

They walked with a steady stance, their muscles were bulging, and many of them had obvious signs of hard training on their bare arms and necks, their skin faintly showing a bronze or iron-blue color.

"Among the Northern Zhou army, the most highly regarded hard qigong techniques are 'Iron Shirt' and 'Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training'," Lu Fei explained when he saw Guangyuan paying attention.

"Those skilled soldiers who had mastered their training, clad in heavy armor and wielding spears and halberds, formed battle formations and charged forward, making them virtually impenetrable to swords and spears."

"Ordinary martial arts masters, even those with considerable internal strength, are often slaughtered and left in a sorry state when surrounded by a dozen or so armored soldiers with bows and arrows at both close and far distances."

Upon hearing this, Guangyuan nodded in understanding.

In the world of martial arts, the focus is on individual skill, exquisite moves, and profound inner strength. However, few people wear heavy armor and practice physical training like soldiers do, let alone coordinate their battle formations.

Against a well-organized army with formidable defenses, individual bravery can indeed easily lead to a disadvantage.

"So it's true that swords and knives are not banned among the common people, only armor is prohibited!" Guangyuan said thoughtfully.

He was referring to the ancient times of the past, which are similar to the present time.

The most powerful offensive strategy is to stack armor!

Especially in the martial arts world, few people have external martial arts training. No matter how high your skill level is, if you don't have a very high level of internal energy protection, a single spear thrust will leave a huge hole!

"Exactly!" Lu Fei added, "Moreover, I heard that the complete 'Thirteen Bodyguards' manual and the accompanying secret medicinal bath recipes are firmly in the hands of the Northern Zhou royal family, and can only be passed on to those who have made sufficient military achievements."

"This is how martial arts techniques and resources are used as bait to incentivize martial artists to serve the imperial court."

Guangyuan nodded.

It is precisely because the imperial court possesses the most powerful violence and the most advanced martial arts resources that it is able to suppress the forces of the martial arts world and form a stable rule, rather than the fragmentation of the martial arts world and the dominance of sects as seen in some chaotic times.

"What about the Southern Tang?" Guangyuan asked again. "The Southern Tang doesn't seem to place such emphasis on brute force and military formations?"

Lu Fei glanced at him, somewhat annoyed: "And you call yourself a monk from the Golden Shackles Temple of the Southern Tang Dynasty!"

"What is the most famous and most secret martial art of the Vajra Temple, the largest temple in the Southern Tang Dynasty?"

Guangyuan blurted out, "The Indestructible Body?!"

"That's right!" Lu Fei said, "That's also a top-tier physical training technique. It's even said that once mastered, the body becomes like an indestructible golden body, impervious to water and fire, and difficult to be harmed by swords and blades."

"But this kind of cultivation method requires a huge amount of resources, including precious medicinal herbs, special environment, and even guidance from a master protector."

"Aside from Buddhist giants like the Vajra Temple, which have accumulated power over hundreds of years, or the Southern Tang imperial family and top aristocratic clans, where could ordinary wandering martial artists afford to support them?"

Guangyuan paused slightly, then sighed.

Whether it was the formidable military formations of the Northern Zhou Dynasty or the golden statues of Buddhist monks in the Southern Tang Dynasty, behind their powerful military strength lay astonishing accumulations of resources.

Without sufficient financial and political resources, it is extremely difficult for an individual to reach the pinnacle of martial arts.

Therefore, the martial arts world belongs to powerful factions and cliques, not to ordinary people.

As the two were talking, they could already see the outline of a city on the horizon in the distance.

Even before you get close, a strong, nauseating stench drifts on the wind.

That was the extremely pungent smell emanating from rotting meat, accelerated by high temperatures, mixed with blood and some other indescribable filth.

As you get closer, you can see the three large characters "Sanye" carved on the mottled city wall above the city gate.

Not far from the city gate, on a towering flagpole, hung two... things that could hardly be called "corpses" by rough iron chains.

The two bodies were already badly damaged, with a terrifying dark purple color, and in some places even the white bones were exposed.

Flies swarmed around, and crows circled and cawed nearby.

The pungent stench of corpses emanated from there, permeating the area around the city gate.

The ground beneath the flagpole was filthy, clearly caused by the long-term dripping of bodily fluids.

Passersby entering and leaving the city gates covered their noses and hurried away, keeping a safe distance from the flagpole. They didn't even dare to look up at it for long, their faces filled with fear and numbness.

"What... is going on?" Guangyuan frowned and reached out to stop a passerby who was hurrying by to ask.

The pedestrian shrank back like a startled rabbit, shaking his head violently as he glanced fearfully in the direction of the flagpole.

He glanced warily at Guangyuan's monk attire and Lu Fei's江湖客 (jianghu kè kè, a term referring to people from the martial arts world), said nothing, and quickened his pace to walk away from them.

When asked, the responses from several people were all similar, clearly indicating that none of them wanted or dared to cause trouble.

Once the two entered the city, they found a simple food stall on a relatively quiet street corner, sat down, and ordered some rough food.

While the owner was serving the dishes, Lu Fei lowered his voice and asked the seemingly honest stall owner.

The stall owner first looked around warily, and seeing that no one was paying attention, he moved closer, his voice extremely low, filled with barely concealed fear:

"You two gentlemen are from out of town, aren't you? Please don't ask too many questions, and please don't look at that flagpole too much... That's a 'role model' that Shuangying Fort put up."

"Twin Eagle Fortress?" Lu Fei pressed.

"Shh—!" the stall owner quickly gestured for him to whisper, "Twin Eagle Fortress is the 'sky' of this entire area within a hundred miles of Sanye County!"

"The two brothers who own the fortress are highly skilled in martial arts and have several hundred fierce fortress guards under their command. Their word is law."

"Gambling dens, brothels, carriage shops, and even some land transactions in the city all had to pay them 'peace money'."

"Even the government... hey, the government has to look after them."