The Great Martial Arts World: Hot Topics and Great Heroes

Of course, if he left the territory of the Northeast Dragon Vein, Qiao Feng would just be a Tianmen master with extremely high explosive power...

After confirming that the true essence of the dragon vein was in the main body, eight of the nine ginseng flesh limbs were shared and consumed by the other eight participants, who also found it very beneficial.

As for the vast amount of ginseng rootlets...

They also retrieved them, but found that their medicinal properties were only at the level of ordinary wild ginseng—probably because the ginseng dragon was able to control its life force after waking up.

The Manchus sealed some ginseng roots they had taken from the dragon while it was still asleep in the Forty-Two Chapters Sutra. The life force inside was still solidified, so it contained some of the true essence of the divine beast, and its effects were extraordinary.

However, once the dragon awakens, it can return its life force to itself; the part consisting of its main body and limbs is a concentrated essence...

As for the ninth limb, it was ultimately suggested by Dongfang Bubai that it be divided equally between Murong Jiu and Su Quan.

Su Quan got half because she didn't want her to work for nothing. Murong Jiu got half because she and Chu Luren were the ones who faced Canlong head-on before.

Su Quan originally wanted to count her entire penis, but she knew it was unlikely... At this moment, Dongfang Bubai, who had a grudge against her, took the initiative to offer to split her penis in half, making it even more difficult for Su Quan to push her luck.

Murong Jiu, on the other hand, acted as if it were "perfectly natural"—she was still somewhat resentful about not being able to become the "Northeast Valkyrie"...

As for the Chu Lu people?

Well, as the person who mainly organized the event, I certainly deserve the most credit, but... it's not important.

Chu Luren was already satisfied that the distribution was completed peacefully, and secretly gave Sister Dongfang a thumbs up.

Afterwards, everyone went into seclusion in Fengtian to digest the information for a period of time. However, on the first day of June, they received an urgent report from the Sun Moon Divine Sect, and Tong Baixiong personally rushed over.

"Reporting to the Sect Leader and the Alliance Leader, Hua Wuque and Xiaoyuer, whom we previously ordered to be closely monitored, visited Qunyu Courtyard in Wuxi three days ago," Tong Baixiong said hurriedly upon meeting them.

Chu Luren: !!!

"They... went to borrow horses and have tea?" Chu Luren asked evasively while secretly glancing at Yaoyue.

Could it be that this child has already gone astray after only two months of wandering the world on his own?

"Borrow a horse? Of course not! They came to Qunyu Academy to tell us some important news..." Tong Baixiong looked at Alliance Leader Chu with a puzzled expression.

Dongfang Bubai also became more serious at this moment—if he had only seen Hua Wuque and Xiaoyuer, Tong Baixiong wouldn't have come all this way to inform them personally.

Without Dongfang Bubai asking, Tong Baixiong readily revealed, "The two of them happened to rescue Wan Sanqian, who had been harmed by the Iron-Blooded Marquis of the Song Dynasty, and thus learned a secret... On June 15th, Zhao Wushi will marry a commoner woman, which has caused a great rift with the court officials."

Wan Sanqian, a man Zhao Wushi had previously relied on, knew that Zhao intended to use the wedding procession on June 15th as a cover to transport a large number of firearms into the capital and launch a coup! He wanted to both get married and ascend the throne!

"June 15th..." Chu Luren muttered to himself.

"They also relayed that Wan Sanqian mentioned something else." Tong Baixiong hesitated slightly.

Dongfang Bubai took the initiative and asked, "What is it?"

Seeing that the sect leader asked directly without any intention of avoiding others, Tong Baixiong also said without any reservations: "Wan Sanqian said that Zhao Wushi probably already knew that the Song Dynasty's dragon vein was in West Lake, but he couldn't find it after searching. However, he did find Gu Santong's corpse, and it is very likely that... he has already absorbed it."

Tong Baixiong didn't understand what Hua Wuque and Xiaoyuer meant by relaying the information. The dragon vein was mysterious enough, but at least he knew that the sect leader had been looking for something similar. However, Gu Santong had been dead for several years, and his body had been soaking in West Lake. Shouldn't there be no trace of him left? Why did they say that he "absorbed" it?

Upon hearing this, Chu Luren's expression turned serious!

Firstly, I didn't expect that the Southeast Dragon Vein would be so close to the Central Plains, right in the West Lake. Its location is indeed quite random. Secondly... I didn't expect that the corpse of the senior Gu Santong would suffer such a fate.

When Chu Luren and Cheng Shifei pushed Gu Santong's body into the dungeon crevice, they discovered that Gu Santong's body was harder than steel, indicating that he was already at the half-step Heavenly Gate and would not be decayed by the lake water!

Just then, several people present, including Chu Luren, seemed to sense something and simultaneously looked south...

Chu Luren was even more convinced that Wan Sanqian's intelligence... was probably true!

Chapter 1037 West Lake White Dragon

"The Heavenly Gate of the Body?" Dongfang Bubai looked south and muttered to himself.

Chu Luren then looked at Murong Jiu, and without asking, she said in perfect unison, "Cheng Shifei is still a bit lacking in experience."

After the verification, Chu Luren's face darkened even more - based on the location and his understanding of the masters of the Body Dao, if the Heavenly Gate of the Body was opened, then the person who opened the Heavenly Gate was either Cheng Shifei or Zhao Wushi, who was suspected of obtaining Gu Santong's corpse!

Murong Jiu's judgment of right and wrong was still somewhat lacking, and Chu Luren trusted her judgment, which meant...

"It seems that Senior Gu Santong's long-cherished wish has been fulfilled. Zhao Wushi, that despicable villain, schemed and plotted, but in the end, didn't he only manage to open the Heavenly Gate by relying on Senior Gu's legacy?" Chu Luren said, chuckling dryly a few times.

Although he mocked Zhao Wushi to the extreme, Chu Luren was clearly still somewhat resentful that Gu Santong's corpse had been used.

“Hero Yan, if Zhao Wushi gains power, the court, the people and the martial arts world will not be at peace. Moreover, this villain has already established his power. He has devoted the entire world to the Eight Extremes Demonic Art. Even if we were to face him alone, it would only further embolden him! I want to eliminate him. Would you be willing to come with me, Hero Yan?” Chu Luren looked at Yan Nantian first.

Although there were many experts present, Chu Luren felt that only Yan Nantian, Yaoyue, and Dongfang Bubai could be of help. Qiao Feng could not leave the territory of the Northeast Dragon Vein, and it was uncertain whether Gou Zazhong could be of help. As for the others... they were all in danger of being taken away by Zhao Wushi!

In this way, Yan Nantian would be the easiest to persuade—Zhao Wushi is not a divine beast after all. It has always been the case that experts from the Heavenly Gate besiege divine beasts, especially dragon vein divine beasts. Moreover, the size of divine beasts is large enough to make people overlook the fact that "the enemy outnumbers the weak"...

However, if Zhao ignores them, Yaoyue and Dongfang Bubai's mastery of their craft will make them even harder to persuade than Yan Nantian.

This isn't a matter of familiarity, but rather that Yan Nantian is at least more reasonable and considerate of the bigger picture.

However, Yan Nantian touched his bald, white head and said seriously, "If that is the case, I will naturally not stand idly by. However... this matter is of great importance, and I need to witness it myself. I will be in Lin'an on the fifteenth of June."

Yan Nantian was public-spirited but not impatient. He wouldn't completely believe everything Chu Luren said about Zhao Wushi. When Yan Nantian disappeared, there was no Guardian Dragon Manor yet; the First Manor Under Heaven and the Heroic Ranking had just been established. He didn't know Zhao Wushi very well.

Even with Xiaoyuer and Hua Wuque involved, Yan Nantian still wanted to go and see for himself...

"Then thank you very much, Brother Yan. On the fifteenth of June... Brother Yan, please remember not to go to Zhao Wushi on your own." Chu Luren breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

Zhao Wushi has stopped pretending now, and Yan Nantian can easily win him over if he's willing to go see him.

"Brother Chu, rest assured, I am not the same person I was eighteen years ago." Yan Nantian took the initiative to bring up the incident of being trapped in the Valley of Villains back then, to show that he would not act impulsively.

After persuading Yan Nantian, Chu Luren looked at Yaoyue with a kind smile—Sister Dongfang cared more about him and was easier to persuade, but... if he persuaded Sister Dongfang first, Yaoyue might become difficult.

In order to strike decisively and completely eliminate Zhao Wushi, the Chu Lu people put in a lot of effort!

……

Meanwhile, in the underground chamber of Hulong Mountain Villa in Lin'an, Zhao Wushi was shimmering with golden light all over his body for a long time before it finally went out.

"Hahahaha... Gu Santong, Gu Santong! In the end... it's all mine! Mine!" Zhao Wushi laughed wildly.

What nonsense about practicing from a virgin's body? After absorbing Gu Santong's corpse, Zhao Wushi had completely understood the principle of the "Invincible Vajra Divine Skill"—it had absolutely nothing to do with being a virgin's body.

After that, as long as he could find the White Dragon of West Lake, Zhao Wushi felt that the world was within his grasp...

Zhao Wushi knew the location of the southeastern dragon vein from the very beginning, and this matter was related to a folk tale.

Legend has it that one of Zhao's ancestors was a child who was skilled in swimming and often played with a "water monster" in the river. Later, a fortune teller learned of this and gave him a clay jar and a piece of silver, asking him to throw the jar into the "water monster's" mouth. The silver was his reward...

The child went back and told his mother about it. His mother was very thoughtful. She looked at the contents of the jar and found that it was half a jar of ashes. She guessed what the fortune teller meant. So she dug out her deceased husband's ashes that very night and told the child to throw his father's ashes into the mouth of the water monster!

After that, the water monster disappeared, and a few generations later, the Zhao family came to enjoy the Emperor's favor...

Of course, this is just a folk tale, and there are further extensions, such as "the firewood was used to prop up the mouth of the water monster, so the descendants of the Chai family would sit on the dragon throne for two generations," and "the fortune teller's clay urn was hung on the dragon's horn, and the fortune teller's surname was Yang, so the Yang family would serve as armor for the Zhao family for generations," and so on...

However, Zhao Wushi learned from the palace's secret scrolls that these things were... half true and half false!

After completely abandoning his pretense, Zhao Wushi directly took some ancestral scrolls from the palace, discovered a hidden compartment, and obtained the ancestral last words.

The firewood and the fortune teller from the Yang family don't exist, but the story of the water monster burying his father is true, and it wasn't an ancestor of the Zhao family, but something Zhao Kuangyin did himself when he was young.

Moreover, the monster is not in the river, but in the West Lake outside Lin'an City; it is a white dragon.

There was no story of playing with a water monster. When Zhao Kuangyin was young, he was already skilled in martial arts and saw a petrified "white dragon" in the lake.

Combining the theories of the Heavenly Gate and divine beasts, Zhao Wusheng concluded that this white dragon was very likely the dragon vein divine beast of the southeast.

Although he knew that the dragon vein beast was extremely powerful and that he alone could not defeat it, Zhao Wushi learned from the secret scroll in the palace that his ancestor had left a message that the "White Dragon" was now equivalent to the Zhao family's ancestral tomb. If he wanted to take out the urn of ashes, the "White Dragon" would not stop him. He reminded his descendants that if the White Dragon came back to life, they should take out the ashes.

Zhao Wushi didn't know where Zhao Kuangyin got this knowledge from, but since his founding ancestor was a first-rate martial arts master, he believed in his ancestor's last words.

So he's been looking for this "water monster" lately...

The purpose of Zhao Kuangyin's will was so that if his descendants were unable to defend their empire due to the opening of the Heavenly Gate, they could retrieve his ashes and then peacefully abdicate.

In his judgment, once the Heavenly Gate opens wide and the White Dragon awakens, it will be a time of great change in the world.

Zhao Wushi thought that if he could get into the belly of the water monster, he would have a chance to seize the dragon vein's true essence on his own!

After all, Zhao Kuangyin could never have imagined that one of his descendants would become a top-tier master of the Heavenly Gate Sect...

Zhao Wushi had failed to find the water monster, but he did find something else – the corpse of Gu Santong!

Seeing that Gu Santong's corpse was immortal, Zhao Wushi also had the idea and took it back. Sure enough... he could absorb it.

And now, including the "Number One Water Ghost in the World," there are still quite a few people searching for the White Dragon beneath West Lake for Zhao Wushi...

Chapter 1038 Offering

In the end, Chu Luren used his silver tongue to persuade Yaoyue and Dongfang Bubai to temporarily set aside their status as grandmasters and join him in eliminating Zhao Wushi!

And they also had to painstakingly persuade Lianxing and Murong Jiu to stop...

The latter eventually set off with Chu Luren, because her status as a prince consort was still very useful in Lin'an, and she also promised that if things didn't go well, she wouldn't insist on confronting the old monkey head-on.

As for Yan Nantian, he decided to "observe" on his own and did not travel with Chu Luren.

Yaoyue did not travel with Chu Luren, and she did not give a reason.

However, Chu Luren guessed that most likely it was because he didn't want to see Hua Wuque, especially "Jiang Wuque".

Chu Luren had no good solution for the time being, so he could only go and see the child himself.

Chu Luren, Dongfang Bubai, and Murong Jiu, a group of three, naturally traveled at full speed... no, they were fast people, using their lightness skills to travel, and arrived in Wuxi from outside the pass on the sixth day of the sixth month.

At Qunyu Courtyard in Wuxi, Chu Luren met Hua Wuque.

"Que'er! You child, how come you've become so wild after only a few years of wandering the martial world? How long has it been since you wrote to your master? And you still know to come to Qunyu Courtyard... Well, next time you come to Qunyu Courtyard, remember to mention my name, and the meal will be free!" Chu Luren immediately showed concern for Hua Wuque after seeing him.

Dongfang Bubai, standing to the side, rolled his eyes at Chu Luren's statement—"Do you own Qunyu Academy?"

Upon hearing Chu Luren's words, Hua Wuque's expression became conflicted. He had always deeply admired his first and second masters, but after suddenly learning the secret of his origins, he found it difficult to let go of the resentment.

Chu Luren knew he couldn't rush things, so he changed the subject, asking, "Where are your brother and Wan Sanqian?"

“Boss Wan is also hiding in Qunyu Courtyard. Little Fish… seems to have seen some mark on the street corner this morning and then hurriedly left the city.” Hua Wuque quickly continued Chu Luren’s words.

"Why is he running around like this at this time?" Chu Luren frowned upon hearing this.

But thinking about it carefully, even if I lose myself, I won't lose Little Fish!

"Then I'll go and have a good talk with Wan Sanqian first, and hopefully he'll be more sensible..." Chu Luren looked like he wanted to skin him alive and tear him apart.

Hua Wuque quickly said, "I think Boss Wan is already very regretful. He even said he would give his family property to me and Xiaoyuer, but we didn't accept it."

Upon hearing this, Chu Luren immediately revealed a pained expression: "You...do you still have me as the alliance leader in your eyes? Why don't you want me? Sister Dongfang, then go and discuss with him the matter of taking over his Wanqian Merchants."