The Great Martial Arts World: Hot Topics and Great Heroes

However, this also eliminates the side effects, and it seems that "washing" can also stimulate Xiaohong's body and cause some positive changes.

The "washing" wasn't very comfortable, but afterward, she felt stronger. So, although Xiaohong was reluctant, she was also reluctant to accept it!

When those around saw that Chu Luren was so careless, directly fighting seven against one with his inner strength, they thought that he would not last long. However, after a long time, Chu Luren did not seem to be affected, but the seven bodyguards all showed pain on their faces - their inner strength was about to be exhausted, and their meridians began to be unable to withstand the "tearing" force.

Suddenly, some people started to get restless...

Chapter 378 Desiring to Practice This Skill

Just as Chu Luren was about to completely cripple several of the Taibao of Songshan, he was suddenly startled by his spiritual sense and instinctively realized that someone was about to launch a sneak attack!

Chu Luren suddenly took half a step back, using his internal force to blast the seven exhausted Songshan Taibao away. At the same time, he raised his hand, and a ball of "flame" shot out...

Indeed, there were more than a dozen people around who couldn't wait any longer and rushed out.

However, the fiery red ball released by Chu Luren flashed by in the blink of an eye. Even though they reacted quickly, all they heard was the sound of clashing swords and spears, followed by some familiar screams!

Upon closer inspection, they were all familiar faces—the same six Sichenkes and seven Heiquanxings they had met in the dilapidated temple near Luoyang.

This time, they were already helpless against the birds of the Chu Lu people. Most of them had no time to react before their eyes were suddenly pierced by a sharp pain, as if they had been burned by heavenly fire, and their vision went completely dark.

Few people reacted in time. One of them, the one with the chicken head, tried to block the attack with his beak, but the steel beak broke off when it met the real bird's beak. After the peck, he grabbed it again, blinding it completely!

However, at this moment, before Xiao Hong had completely dissipated the internal energy she had received from the Taibao of Songshan, the bird's beak was like a sharp sword, with a menacing sword aura on it, like the Longquan sword. If one was not a master of internal martial arts, no ordinary sword or blade could withstand it.

By the time Little Red finished its rounds and landed back on Chu Luren's shoulder, the dozen or so people who had rushed out all had their eyes gouged out!

"Goo-goo-goo!" Little Red barked triumphantly again, taking the opportunity to shake off the remaining "bathwater." The two barks were exceptionally loud.

Moreover, unlike the loud and clear calls of birds and eagles, it was more like the mooing of cows and the roar of elephants, exceptionally deep and resonant...

The martial arts practitioners who had initially wanted to observe the situation felt a tightness in their chests upon hearing this, and those with shallow internal strength foundations even suffered minor internal injuries.

In shock, they all retreated!

"I never imagined that the Songshan Sect would collude with the Twelve Constellations to steal my brother Lin's family sword manual? Was this instigated by Zuo Lengchan or Wei Wuya?" Chu Luren turned around and swung his sword in the air. Several Songshan disciples who had helped up Taibao were also dragged back by them.

"Come to think of it, you two really have a long-standing relationship. Last time in Luoyang, it was you who saved the Twelve Constellations, the Gray Bat, and the Owl, right?" Chu Luren began to associate Songshan and the Twelve Constellations together.

When Zhong Zhen and the others heard that Chu Luren had declared the Twelve Constellations, these low-class bandits, to be "partners" with them, they were all eager to refute him. However, due to their internal injuries, they were struggling to speak and knew they couldn't out-argue Chu Luren's sharp tongue.

Although the attack was interrupted, and despite the depletion of internal energy, there was still some remaining strength, preventing a complete loss of recovery. However, the meridians had been torn apart...

Afterwards, when they adjust their breathing, they will find that not only are their meridians damaged, but their internal energy can only be restored to 80-90%, and the energy they can exert will be reduced to 70-80%. Furthermore, it will be even more difficult for them to make any progress in internal martial arts in the future!

"Today... it's a defeat for our Songshan Sect! Young Master Chu wants the 'Evil-Repelling Sword Technique'... the Five Mountains Sword Sect... has done its best." Zhong Zhen hurriedly said a few words, then gestured for his disciples to help him and the others leave.

They didn't even bother to ask Chu Luren why he knew the Songshan Sword Technique, lest they say something that would leave them with no way to escape!

After the trip, not only did they not gain any benefits, but all seven bodyguards were injured, and most of the Songshan disciples they brought were also crippled.

Songshan is, after all, a prestigious and righteous sect, and the Chu Lu people cannot openly exterminate them. However, since Zuo Lengchan is secretly planning this, there are many members of the Sun Moon Sect in the Fujian area who are unaware of the truth. Whether they will take advantage of the situation is not something the Chu Lu people can control.

As for the Twelve Constellations, they have always been bandits disliked by both the righteous and the wicked. The reason they have survived to this day is because of three things: first, their martial arts skills are not weak; second, their whereabouts are secretive; and third... after a group of them died, Wei Wuyuan would pass on the Twelve Constellations' techniques to train new ones!

The only one who can truly be said to be helpless in the entire martial arts world is Wei Wuyuan.

At this moment, seeing that Chu Luren and his group ignored these blind chickens and dogs, someone immediately jumped out to seek revenge on them.

The rest of the journey was peaceful...

However, Chu Luren never completely relaxed—the person who just triggered his spiritual warning was most likely not Sichenke or Black Dog Star!

Although Chu Luren and the Songshan Sect were locked in a stalemate, making a sneak attack much easier than usual, it was still not something that people like Sichenke and Heiquanxing could break through.

They should at least be close to the first-class level to be qualified to "sneak attack". If Si Chenke and his six men and Hei Quanxing and his seven men rushed up together, they might be able to match the first-class for a while, but if they separated, none of them could break through the defense!

However, in terms of the degree of fear, the attacker was probably not as strong as Chu Luren was normally, making it unlikely to be fatal.

Of course, using one's intuition to judge is not necessarily accurate; it was just a reminder to Chu Luren, who secretly became more cautious.

Upon arriving at a Lin family estate outside the city, and knowing that this was the "Xiangyang Old House" that Lin Zhennan habitually referred to, Chu Luren and Lin Pingzhi released Xiao Hong before going inside, letting it hover in the air and coo whenever it saw outsiders.

At this point, the old house was covered in cobwebs, the furniture was dilapidated, and there was nothing of value left.

Fortunately, those who left empty-handed and divided the family property still had some conscience and did not touch a single room in the ancestral hall.

After his initial sadness, Lin Pingzhi also felt a little worried. Could there still be a sword manual? Had someone else picked it up?

Of course, even if there's only a sliver of hope, Lin Pingzhi will still search for it!

And the first place we went was the ancestral hall—not originally to look for anything, but since we were already at the old house, we decided to pay our respects to our ancestors.

But upon bowing, Lin Pingzhi noticed something amiss…

I hadn't noticed it before, but now that I had something on my mind, I looked at the portrait of my ancestor and it seemed like he was pointing at something!

"Could it be above? Grandfather above, I, the junior, have been impolite!" Lin Pingzhi bowed to the portrait, then jumped onto the roof beam and poked and prodded the roof with his sword.

Suddenly, Lin Pingzhi seemed to discover something. With a burst of force, the roof tiles shattered, and a cassock fell from the crevices!

Lin Pingzhi was overjoyed. After grabbing it, he jumped down and showed it to Chu Luren and Yue Lingshan. Seeing that it was covered in tiny characters, Yue Lingshan exclaimed, "Little Lin, there are characters! There are characters! It must be your family's sword technique!"

Lin Pingzhi was also very happy. He handed the cassock to Chu Luren and then turned around to thank his ancestor for his guidance.

Then he stood up and said, "Brother Chu, Ling Shan, let's take a look at this swordsmanship together."

Upon hearing this, Chu Luren and Lin Pingzhi unfolded the cassock together, revealing eight large characters at the beginning: "To practice this skill, one must first castrate oneself!"

Lin Pingzhi: ...

Upon seeing this, Lin Pingzhi was stunned for a moment, and he didn't even realize that the two horns he was holding had slipped from his grasp and the cassock had drooped to the ground.

Yue Lingshan asked in confusion, "Self-castration? What does self-castration mean? Is it some kind of acupoint? I've never heard of it."

"Have you heard of castration? It means that the pig has been castrated." Chu Luren explained kindly.

Chapter 379 An Attempt

"What kind of evil technique is this? No! Little Lin, let's destroy it right now!" Upon hearing Chu Luren's explanation, Yue Lingshan immediately drew her sword.

Upon seeing this, Chu Luren simply shook his cassock and put it away...

Yue Lingshan looked at him, blinked, and said, "Then... take it far away and practice on it, don't give it back!"

Chu Luren: ...

Don't you feel any heartache?

"Ling Shan! Don't talk nonsense... Brother Chu, don't listen to her, this martial arts, this martial arts..." Upon hearing this, Lin Pingzhi hurriedly tried to stop Chu Luren.

"Pah! I didn't intend to practice it directly. I know at least seven or eight martial arts similar to this 'Evil-Repelling Sword Technique,' so why would I bother..." Chu Luren interrupted Lin Pingzhi.

"One of them is the 'Heavenly Gang Boy Skill'," Yue Lingshan added. She was quite well-informed and knew about Chu Luren's "extortion" of the imperial court's martial arts skills.

So you never needed it in the first place?

Upon hearing this, Chu Luren glared at her repeatedly, and Lin Pingzhi quickly pulled his silent senior sister behind him.

"I'll do some research and see if I can circumvent this limitation. I'll let you know if I find out." Chu Luren said, while also thinking about the various martial arts techniques he had improved...

So he added, "Don't get your hopes up too high. My method usually requires more martial arts techniques to work together. You should practice more... the sword techniques in the cave."

Although Lin Pingzhi was somewhat unwilling that he "couldn't practice" his family's sword technique, he didn't necessarily want to practice the Evil-Repelling Sword Technique because he had a foundation in the Five Mountains Sword Technique and the "True Explanation of the Five Mountains" taught to him by Chu Luren.

Just as Chu Luren put away the "Evil-Repelling Sword Technique," a "cooing" sound suddenly came from outside...

Chu Luren quickly jumped out of the window, and Lin Pingzhi and Yue Lingshan followed immediately. However, they only saw a black-clad figure flash by and disappear in the distance. Because they were too far away, Chu Luren did not chase after him.

"Oh no! Could he have overheard what we were saying?" Lin Pingzhi became somewhat nervous.

He wasn't worried about anyone stealing the sword manual, but rather about the phrase "one must first castrate oneself" on the manual being leaked, which would damage his grandfather Lin Yuantu's reputation.

Lin Pingzhi was now somewhat relieved that his father's martial arts skills were weak; otherwise, he would have been in a terrible predicament...

"Coo coo!" Little Red cooed at Lin Pingzhi twice more, seemingly quite angry.

"No, Xiao Hong noticed and warned him as soon as he got close," Chu Luren explained.

Upon hearing this, Lin Pingzhi breathed a sigh of relief and bowed to Xiao Hong, saying, "Thank you, Mr. Hong."

"Little Red is female," Chu Luren confirmed out of curiosity.

……

Back at the Fuwei Escort Agency's base in the city, Lin Pingzhi had already hired people to prepare several rooms.

When Murong Jiu saw the group return, she asked curiously, "Did you get the sword manual?"

Laudenuo, who was not very noticeable, was also listening from the side, but neither Lin Pingzhi nor Chu Luren looked at him.

Murong Jiu was mainly curious because he couldn't tell from Lin Pingzhi's expression whether he had obtained the sword manual.

Logically, if they returned so quickly, they must have gotten it. Otherwise, they should have been unwilling to give up and continued searching. How could they have given up so soon?

However, Lin Pingzhi showed no joy... nor any regret!

"I got it, but there's a problem with the technique. I'll keep it with me for now." Chu Luren patted his bulging chest.

Firstly, it was the truth, and secondly, it was to use Laudenau's words to spread the news, so that Lin Pingzhi would not have any difficulty moving forward in the future.

After all, without practicing the "Evil-Repelling Sword Technique," it would be difficult for Lin Pingzhi to make rapid progress in martial arts in a short period of time.

Unfortunately, Chu Luren glanced at the opening of the "Evil-Repelling Sword Technique" on the way—men must castrate themselves to practice it, otherwise they cannot master its internal energy. If women practice it, its power is greatly reduced, and they can only exert two or three tenths of its power, making it only a second-rate technique.

If the "Sunflower Manual" from Gu Long's novels truly existed, then perhaps Murong Jiu would be interested in its ability to reverse yin and yang...

Before dinner, Chu Luren went to his room and read the entire Evil-Repelling Sword Manual. It was quite extensive, with 85% of it being internal energy cultivation techniques. Although it was called "swordplay," only 15% of it was swordplay!

After all, the essence of the "Evil-Repelling Sword Technique" lies not in the exquisiteness of its moves, but in the speed of its attacks once the internal energy is fully developed.

Otherwise, why castrate yourself?

Is it to make it easier to draw the sword from between the legs?

As for the so-called "swordsmanship" part, it was just Lin Yuantu's own summary of his experience on how to strike the sword most effectively when the attack was incredibly fast.

Without proper internal energy cultivation, forcibly practicing this sword technique is even less effective than the ordinary sword techniques of the Five Mountains Sword Sects...

However, to practice this internal skill, one must be male, and... one must first "castrate oneself," otherwise, when circulating the meridians, the effect will not be achieved, and there is a risk of going into qi deviation.

On the contrary, those who can make this tough decision will experience a period of extremely rapid improvement in their skills when they first start learning.

Once the emblem of the Evil-Repelling Sword Technique appeared in Chu Luren's mind, he had already thoroughly grasped some of the superficial knowledge of the technique!