The Great Martial Arts World: Hot Topics and Great Heroes

Zhou Botong was seen occasionally unleashing bursts of energy from certain key acupoints. It didn't seem like a deliberate burst, but rather like the aftershocks of two energies colliding!

Half an hour later, Zhou Botong opened his eyes with a smug look on his face and said, "You can't believe it, can you? I just fought myself for five hundred rounds!"

Chu Luren sensed something, but still didn't quite understand, so he asked, "Senior brother... what you just did wasn't purely imaginary, was it?"

"Of course not! I have internal energy, it's like there are two little people inside my body fighting each other." Zhou Botong was very proud of himself.

Although he hadn't yet discovered any practical value in this divine skill, Zhou Botong believed that creating this move was more worthy of his "pride" than creating the Empty Fist.

"So... Senior Brother was just simultaneously circulating two different meridians?" Chu Luren knew very well that Zhou Botong was not "fusion" two martial arts, but was actually circulating two different meridians at the same time.

"That's right, you want to learn, don't you? Once you've learned it, we brothers can put our palms together and have a four-way war, hahaha." Zhou Botong couldn't help but laugh when he saw that Chu Luren was very interested.

"Does Senior Brother also have two sets of meridians?" Chu Luren asked in confusion.

“No, no one has two sets of meridians. I have simply divided my meridians in two, one on the left and one on the right, so they can move back and forth in opposite directions! Wait… why did you say ‘also’?” Zhou Botong said it as if it were very easy.

The foundation of Chinese martial arts, its meridian system, primarily involves the cultivation of the eight extraordinary meridians and the twelve regular meridians.

These twenty meridians are all paired up—the Ren and Du meridians, the Chong and Dai meridians, the Hand Taiyang Small Intestine Meridian, the Foot Taiyang Bladder Meridian… alternating back and forth.

Although techniques like the "Northern Darkness Divine Art" involve the reverse circulation of internal energy during practice compared to ordinary martial arts, in reality, regardless of whether it's forward or reverse, the meridians are normally a single-lane road, albeit a tidal single-lane road, sometimes forward and sometimes reversed. It's impossible for them to be both forward and reversed at the same time.

When practicing, one circulates true qi along a certain route and, according to the method, "checks in" at corresponding acupoints to form true qi of different natures.

Zhou Botong drew a "lane divider" on this single lane, turning it into a two-lane road!

In the words of the old rascal, it's like splitting into two paths, one to the left and one to the right, so he calls this skill of fighting with himself "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique"!

The left and right lanes can be one-way streets or two-way lanes, one in front and one in the back. Theoretically, they do not interfere with each other, so that two martial arts techniques can be used at the same time.

However, the old rascal hadn't thought of this; he was just using this "two sets of meridians" method to amuse himself.

Following Zhou Botong's slight guidance, Chu Luren pondered for a moment, then frowned and said, "Wait, senior brother, this person only has one dantian. What's the use of simply controlling the meridians to make them intersect?"

"Hehe, have you forgotten our senior brother's 'One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones'?" Zhou Botong said with a sly look.

Chu Luren's eyes lit up upon hearing this—"One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones" was a sword technique in the original work. With a flick of the wrist, it could produce an effect almost like one sword splitting into three. But in the vast martial world...

Simply put, it's a method for explosive growth in an extremely short period of time!

Normally, in the meridian martial arts system, there is only one dantian. However, in Taoism, there is a saying of three dantians. The lower dantian is the meridian dantian in a broad sense. There is also the middle dantian, Tanzhong Jianggong, and the upper dantian, Niwan Tiangong.

From a two-dimensional perspective, this refers to the center of the chest and the area between the eyebrows.

Wang Chongyang's creation, One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones, can project the lower dantian onto the middle and upper dantian in a very short time. With these two "virtual dantians," one can instantly unleash extremely powerful internal energy!

Of course, it usually only takes one or two moves; otherwise, there is a risk of backlash and disruption of one's internal energy.

Zhou Botong's "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique" draws on this principle, using the upper dantian (also known as the Niwan Heavenly Palace) to reflect the lower dantian during its operation...

It is divided into two "paths" on the left and right. One path starts from the normal dantian, and the other starts from the upper dantian, so that they do not interfere with each other!

"Wonderful!" Chu Luren exclaimed, making Zhou Botong blush with embarrassment.

Then, when Zhou Botong taught this skill to Chu Luren, Chu Luren encountered the biggest problem in his cultivation!

The "Ambidextrous Technique" in this vast martial arts world is far more complex than the "Ambidextrous Technique" in the original work, and Zhou Botong was unable to summarize it into a martial art. There is no written technique for it; it is more like a martial arts philosophy...

To explain this martial arts philosophy, Zhou Botong spent two days and one night explaining several martial arts theories to the Chu Lu people, combining them together to finally prove that it was theoretically possible to achieve this!

It took him longer than he could teach any other martial arts combined. After all, with other martial arts, Chu Luren only needed to listen to the demonstration once or at most watch it once to fully grasp the basics.

This wasn't a set of principles specific to any particular martial art, but it had left Chu Luren completely bewildered for a long time...

Chapter 295 Improvement

"Hey! You two, it's time to rest! That pair of stinky toad uncle and nephew are still outside. You're so engrossed in studying martial arts, what if they break in and you collapse from exhaustion? Are we three weak women going to have to deal with them?" The weak woman, Mu Wanqing, slammed her hand on the table between Chu Luren and Zhou Botong.

Upon seeing that it was Mu Wanqing, Zhou Botong quickly shrank back—he now knew that this was Emperor Duan's niece...

"Oh, senior brother, you really should rest! It's my fault, I got so caught up in martial arts that I became obsessed." Chu Luren apologized repeatedly.

"It's alright, it's alright, we're fellow disciples! Back then... my senior brother taught me just as hard." Zhou Botong said with a hint of nostalgia, but he immediately became serious and said, "But I don't have that much patience, I often complained about needing to rest before my senior brother did, hahaha."

"You should go and rest too. Rongrong has made you some ginseng soup," Mu Wanqing reminded Chu Luren.

"Me? Actually, I overslept... I switched to 'Golden Immortal' twice in the middle," Chu Luren said matter-of-factly.

Zhou Botong: ? ? ?

So I'm the only one who didn't get a break?

Now Zhou Botong also knows what Chu Luren's "Golden Immortal" is all about, and Chu Luren has also copied the technique for him. This technique is almost based on the "Arhat Subduing Demon Technique", so you can imagine how difficult it is. It is unknown whether Zhou Botong can master it.

However, one thing is certain: given Zhou Botong's character, he certainly wouldn't become obsessed with it...

Chu Luren had previously reminded Zhou Botong – could the "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique" be used in actual combat? Even Ouyang Feng couldn't defeat the two old rascals!

However, Zhou Botong's current "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique" still faces many technical challenges in actual combat, which is why Zhou Botong had been racking his brains over it.

Even though his martial arts skills had greatly improved and were so close to his own, Zhou Botong still immediately went to rest after Mu Wanqing kindly reminded him. This shows that Zhou Botong was not someone who was obsessed with martial arts!

"How about this, can I have Huang Rong's ginseng soup?" Zhou Botong said, looking aggrieved.

……

Three days and two nights have passed since Chu Luren and Zhou Botong returned to Peach Blossom Residence. Indeed, during these days, Huang Rong, Mu Wanqing, and Yun Luo have been taking turns keeping an eye on the core of the formation of Peach Blossom Residence.

Although given Ouyang Feng's personality, he probably wouldn't sneak in at night if he wanted to, everyone still didn't dare to be careless.

The old rascal has finally fallen asleep, while Chu Luren continues to ponder the "Ambidextrous Technique".

"Theoretically," Chu Luren had already understood and completely deduced the result, but... he still couldn't grasp it!

Even just "drawing dividing lines in the meridians" is difficult for Chu Luren to do. This is not as simple as drawing circles with the left hand and squares with the right hand. It requires constantly examining the meridians from a god-like perspective. Chu Luren can occasionally do this during meditation, but he cannot sustain it. In battle, it is almost impossible to maintain.

Even the old rascal himself had never tried maintaining the "ambidextrous fighting technique" during a fight!

And this is just the foundation; every step after that is fraught with challenges...

At this moment, Chu Luren had already drawn a mind map of the "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique," on which many of his difficulties were marked.

There is another step, which is an insurmountable obstacle for "Golden Immortals"—"Golden Immortals" do not have a Niwan Heavenly Palace, or rather... they share a Niwan Heavenly Palace with their original body.

However, this Niwan Heavenly Palace is ultimately the original body. If it is copied and imitated by the "Golden Immortal" lower dantian, it will conflict with the cultivation method of the original dantian!

Therefore, it is basically impossible for a "Golden Immortal" to master the "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique".

Furthermore, given that the "Golden Immortal" is good at explosive power and is suited to martial arts with great force, he is not suitable for the "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique".

After all, no matter how many lanes are divided, the "road" is still only so wide. It is more suitable for martial arts that can exert most of their strength without having to operate at full power, such as... the Empty Fist!

The essence of the Empty Fist is to "strike the real with the fake." Even with only half of the internal force output, it can still achieve more than 90% of the effect. Therefore, once Zhou Botong can use the "Ambidextrous Technique" in actual combat, his strength will be greatly enhanced.

Conversely, if it's something like the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, then using the "Ambidextrous Technique" would be rather useless. It's like risking internal energy conflict in exchange for making the moves more unpredictable.

After all, even with lanes marked, there are always drivers who occasionally drive in the wrong direction, right?

As for the quality of the driver and the speed limit, it depends on the nature of the martial art itself and the practitioner's mastery. Obviously, the nature of the Empty Fist itself determines that its "driver" cannot be too wild!

……

Half a day later, Chu Luren looked at the mind map of "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique" in front of him and sighed, realizing that he could not master this martial art in a short time... or rather, he could not turn the concept of this martial art into practice.

However, Chu Luren did not give up. Instead, he picked up his pen again and began to revise the mind map!

In the first step, Chu Luren wrote—"Minor Chaos Technique, build an isolation zone..."

Indeed, the Chu Lu people felt that simply drawing lines was no longer enough to meet their needs; they needed to build "isolation zones."

Compared to Zhou Botong's reliance on mental control, Chu Luren is prepared to actually modify his meridians.

Normally, it is impossible to do this, but the "Little Chaos Skill" has the characteristics of the "Innate Skill". It can use the "innate energy" to make many tricks. For example, when Chu Luren imitated various true energies, he changed the position of his meridians, just as if his innate meridians were different from those of ordinary people.

Now Chu Luren is preparing to make his meridians seem as if they have "naturally formed isolation zones in the middle"!

This would consume a lot of innate energy. If Chu Luren hadn't obtained the "Nine Yin Manual," he wouldn't have dared to "play" like this.

This broadened my perspective...

After much revision, by dawn, the mind map was completely different from the original.

Chu Luren plans to consume his innate energy to directly open up a true "dantian" in his Tan Zhong Jiang Gong and Ni Wan Tian Gong, that is, to make the middle dantian and upper dantian have some of the functions of a dantian, instead of just simulating it by mapping the dantian!

Next, in order to increase the connection between the two, Chu Luren prepared to use the "Beiming" internal energy in his dantian, which has the meaning of "the sea accepts all rivers and has great capacity", so that his internal energy is like the real Beiming Sea, full to the point of overflowing.

The other uses the "Star Absorbing" internal energy technique to create a void resembling the void of nothingness, capable of dissolving any amount of true energy into nothingness...

In this way, the two complement each other when they are in operation, making it seem as if bus routes have been opened in the lanes on both sides of the median strip, naturally creating two traffic flows in opposite directions.

As for the changes in the flow of meridians, they can be replaced by changes in the flow of meridians to coordinate with it—it doesn't matter if your driving skills are not high, automated roads can help you... This reminded Chu Luren of the bridge-building game he played before he traveled through time!

Of course, this brand-new mind map is just Chu Luren's idea, and its actual feasibility is still highly questionable. Not to mention that Chu Luren doesn't have any usable "Northern Darkness" internal energy cultivation technique at all. The "Northern Darkness Divine Art" is still "hidden" in the Kunyou Void...

After Zhou Botong woke up, he was immediately pulled over by Chu Luren to study the feasibility of this brand-new mind map.

Unexpectedly, after Zhou Botong had only glanced at it a few times, especially at the primordial energy filling the middle and upper dantian, and after Chu Luren gave a brief explanation, he burst into tears again!

Chapter 296 The Threefold Return to Origin Qi

"Waaaaah... Junior brother, don't worry, I'm crying for our senior brother! Back then, our senior brother wanted to use the 'Innate Skill' to cultivate his middle and upper dantian so that 'One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones' could be maintained for a long time, but... because his innate qi was overdrawn, he... Waaaaah..."

Zhou Botong started crying again as he spoke.

Upon hearing this, Chu Luren realized that part of his idea was something Wang Chongyang had also considered.

Wang Chongyang's martial arts philosophy was more profound than Chu Luren's, but unfortunately, his accumulated martial arts skills were far less extensive than Chu Luren's...

After all, Wang Chongyang only had the "Innate Skill," and he had to give up most of the "Nine Yin Manual" because he couldn't understand its general principles.

Not to mention the martial arts of the Free and Unfettered Sect, the martial arts of the Sun Moon Sect, the supreme internal energy of Shaolin, the incomplete version of the Phantom Shadow Divine Skill... and so on and so forth!

Zhou Botong's emotions came and went quickly; he quickly adjusted his mindset and began to work with Chu Luren on this new version of the "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique"...

No, this can no longer be considered "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique." Zhou Botong asked Chu Luren to come up with another name.

"How about... we call it 'Three Parts Return to Origin Qi'?" Chu Luren said with a hint of schadenfreude.

"Three-part Qi Returning to Origin? Good! This is a good name. You even chose a name just like my senior brother." Zhou Botong agreed with a grin, but then became serious.

Chu Luren's "Three-Part Return to Origin Qi" seems much more ingenious, but by combining various extraordinary skills and secret techniques, the difficulty of achieving it has been reduced. Of course, for others, simply learning these extraordinary skills is already more difficult than "Ambidextrous Fighting Technique"!

Even if all these skills were placed in front of Zhou Botong, he could not possibly learn them all.