Chapter 4: The One Above the Sword

  At first, Wang Chen was not very good at riding horses and had to learn while walking. Fortunately, the middle-aged man walked slowly on the road, and Wang Chen could catch up.

  A group of young people suddenly made a fuss, asking the middle-aged man about the situation in the mine. The middle-aged man smiled and kept introducing the benefits of the mine to Wang Chen and others, fearing that they would regret it.

  "Little brother, the mine is very quiet, it's a great place to cultivate and nurture one's nature. There are many wild mountains around, where you can eat a lot of game!" The middle-aged man chattered on and on, saying that life in the mine was like being in a fairyland. Wang Chen listened with a cold smile in his heart, "Cultivate and nurture one's nature? Ha! What use is cultivating and nurturing when people in the jianghu are fighting and killing each other?"

  A few people chatted and laughed, more than an hour later, a small village appeared in front of everyone. It was said to be a village, the houses were neat, and there were guards on guard around it. Two horses galloped over, someone rushed in to report the news. When Wang Chen and others arrived, a big man rode out from inside on horseback, with a package on his back.

  "Haha, Old Li, you've finally brought someone along! Here's the 100 taels of silver for you. Haha, I'm finally leaving this godforsaken place where not even birds want to shit! I'm outta here!" The big man kicked his horse in the belly, and it galloped away in pain. Wang Chen and the others were left staring in shock, especially the dozen or so people who had been swindled into coming along, whose faces turned ugly.

  The middle-aged man didn't feel ashamed in front of the crowd, and with a smile at the corner of his mouth, he put the silver into his pocket and led the way into the mining area.

  About a minute later, Wang Chen and others stood in a room, with an old man in a dark face sitting in the middle of the house, who was the manager here.

  "You've come at the right time, the mine is short of hands, you few will start tomorrow!" The old man's hands were dry and withered, like those that had crawled out of a tomb. After arranging some specific matters and some precautions about the mine, he let everyone withdraw.

  A month later, on a mountain more than ten miles north of the Longhu Gang's base, Wang Chen sat in a chair, and workers were laboriously pushing carts to haul away the mined ore. Next to him, the foreman was fawningly fanning him with a fan. Wang Chen yawned, and had long since lost his initial sense of freshness.

  "Uncle Wang, this life is really dull!" Wang Chen stretched his arm.

  The big man sitting in the chair next to him slightly opened his eyes, "This life is still not satisfying, looking at the current chaotic world, a life with wine and meat like ours is already rare."

  Wang Chen nodded in agreement, and indeed, compared to the chaotic world outside, life in this mine was quite good.

  "Outside, Prince Liang's troops have already clashed with the Emperor's army, this world is going to be in chaos!"

  "The Emperor's army is no match for the Liang King's army. Since the eunuchs' dictatorship over a hundred years ago, the Emperor has long since lost his actual power, resulting in the current situation of factional division and warlordism."

  "In Cangzhou City, the Dragon and Tiger Gang is the big boss, no one dares to provoke them. However, they also need to be careful, some people from the three major gangs have a deep background, can't afford to mess with them... and there are other states that have even bigger gangs than the Dragon and Tiger Gang..."

  Wang Shu bragged about his experiences, and Wang Chen listened humbly. After all, he knew little himself, and it wouldn't hurt to learn more. However, after listening for a while, he bid farewell to Wang Shu.

  "It was uncomfortable at first, but it's fine after a long time! Just like me." Wang Shu patted Wang Chen's shoulder, shook off the excess flesh on his body, and suddenly made a "huff" sound, which made Wang Chen's heart tremble.

  "I'd rather not end up like you"

  After leaving the mine, Wang Chen was like a bird that had struggled out of its cage, and his figure quickly wandered on the mountain road.

  The mine of the Dragon and Tiger Gang is nearly thirty miles in circumference, although it's a large area, most of it are mountains and forests, and the forests are full of thorns and grasses, of course, there must be ferocious beasts among them.

  Under the tens of meters tall big tree, Wang Chen was practicing his kung fu with one punch after another. His muscles were shaking non-stop and sweat kept dripping down, dropping onto the tender green grass leaves, making a "patter" sound.

  "Bang bang bang", the sound of fists colliding with the air, but this boxing technique was just an ordinary fitness exercise, without much power. However, after Wang Chen practiced his inner strength, his power increased by several hundred pounds, and he fought like a dragon and a tiger.

  Slowly, Wang Chen could feel the numbness and weakness of his muscles. Hold on a bit longer, hold on a bit longer, finally, a thread of internal energy seeped into his muscles and bones from the meridians, bringing a comfortable feeling to his muscles, while his bones seemed to become more compact. However, Wang Chen vaguely felt that something inside his internal energy had decreased, which should be the essence of human blood mentioned in the Great Strength Technique.

  After a while, Wang Chen withdrew his fist and let out a long breath, which shot out several feet.

  His stomach growled with hunger, and although his cultivation speed was fast, he got hungry too easily. Every time the internal energy in his body strengthened Wang Chen's physique, a lot of it would be consumed, and only after the food in his stomach had been digested would the strengthening effect of his internal energy reappear.

  After a while, Wang Chen caught a wild chicken, set up a fire rack, and roasted it. When it was about 80% cooked, he didn't care about the heat and started eating. After finishing his meal, Wang Chen assumed a meditation posture, and his internal energy slowly circulated through his meridians.

  As the mighty power circulated in his blood, Wang Chen could feel that a certain essence in the blood was slowly being absorbed by his internal energy. His internal energy seemed to have increased by a fraction, and the mighty power had become different after absorbing the essence of the blood, becoming more vibrant. What's even more incredible is that the mighty power actually increased by a tiny bit, although it seemed like an illusion, but Wang Chen could feel that his blood energy had indeed increased by a tiny bit.

  The food in his stomach was quickly digested and the essence was absorbed into the blood. This was not the first time this had happened, and Wang Chen didn't think it was strange either. After finishing his exercise, seeing that the sky was no longer early, Wang Chen got up and returned to the mine he was in charge of.

  More than half a year's time, Wang Chen did not live an idle life in the mine, and his lazy inner skill had already reached the peak of third-rate, making it difficult to break through again. The mighty power was a secret technique that specialized in attacking the body, and one layer of the mighty power made Wang Chen's strength reach over 500 catties. This kind of strength made ordinary second-rate masters no match for Wang Chen.

  What's even more frightening is that Wang Chen's Great Strength Technique isn't just another technique that only increases strength, the improvement of his physical quality also makes Wang Chen's reaction much quicker, and his body's agility greatly increased.

  Knees slightly bent, front foot sole force kicks the ground, legs alternate in an instant, left and right dodges, Wang Chen's figure begins to blur, with great power to strengthen the body, the practice of vigorous steps has also made great progress, not to mention the agility between close-range dodges, but long-distance endurance will make people envy.

  During his training, Wang Chen discovered that the higher the level of the beast he ate, the more ferocious it was, the better the effect of the flesh and blood, and the faster the internal strength was cultivated. At the same time, when injured, internal strength could also speed up physical recovery. For this reason, Wang Chen was overjoyed, and almost every time he received his allowance, he would spend all the money on buying meat to eat.

  Last time, Wang Chen set a trap to catch the wolf himself in order to eat its meat. In the end, his body was still scratched by the wolf with several blood marks. However, afterwards he also discovered that his internal skills accelerated the recovery of his injuries. With the help of his internal skills, within a minute, he recovered about 60-70% of his wounds. This discovery made Wang Chen even more diligent in his practice.

  He has been in the mine for a year, and his strength is now between that of a third-rate master and a second-rate master. With the help of his powerful legs and physical enhancement, he can probably defeat an ordinary second-rate master. However, Wang Chen is also feeling a bit depressed, as his internal energy has reached a bottleneck, and unless he finds a more ferocious beast like the fierce tiger, he won't be able to break through in the short term. But the fierce tiger is equivalent to a relatively weak first-rate master, and he can't afford to provoke it.

  In addition to enhancing the realm of Dali Gong, it is remembered that Dali Gong is recorded as having three layers according to a strange person's speculation: transforming blood, practicing blood, and combining blood.

  Blood Transmutation is what Wang Lin has been cultivating. It fuses internal energy with blood, making it more pure and enhancing its effects. Blood Fusion is a guess by the eccentric, who himself isn't certain if it exists or not, because once one reaches a certain realm in Blood Transmutation, it's hard to purify further, combining all of the body's blood essence with internal energy, which is even harder to achieve than ascending to heaven.

  Wang Chen silently shook his head, discarding the thoughts in his mind, and let out a sigh. Now there was no other way, he could only work hard to cultivate himself. After all, accumulation would eventually lead to success, and one day it would come naturally. And so Wang Fan began to cultivate once again.

  Whoosh whoosh whoosh

  This is the sound of a wild rabbit running. The rabbit ran very fast, but Wang Chen chased after it at a steady pace.

  "Wearing this training uniform, even a rabbit can't catch up with me, and I've been eating less game. It seems that I need to speed up." Wang Chen thought to himself.

  The training clothes were bought in Cangzhou City, with small iron beads sewn inside the clothes, weighing as much as thirty kilograms. After Wang Chen used it, he felt that the effect was not bad, although he didn't break through to a second-rate master, but all aspects had obvious progress.

  Half a stick of incense time has passed.

  Brush

  The rabbit dodged Wang Chen's pursuit and ran into the gap between the rocks beside him. Wang Chen was naturally furious, having chased for so long only to lose the rabbit. Feeling extremely displeased, he kicked a rock with one foot.

  Gushing sound

  That rock was originally part of a pile of rubble, and after many years it had become unstable. When Wang Chen stepped on it, the rocks suddenly scattered apart.

  The fallen rocks scattered all over the ground, and in front of them appeared a serene cave entrance.

  "This is..." Wang Chen was shocked, the four walls of the cave entrance were not smooth, but rough and uneven stone walls, which could vaguely be seen to have been broken open with a sword or similar weapon.

  Although there are always people in the martial arts world who obtain some kind of mysterious martial arts manual from a predecessor in a cave somewhere, this is too far-fetched for Wang Chen. Could it happen to him today?

  He stepped lightly into the cave. The cave was not large, and its walls were not smooth either. It was quite monotonous, but these were not what Wang Chen focused on.

  In the faint sunlight, Wang Chen saw a skull in front of him. The upper body of the skull was leaning against the wall, and the lower body was on the ground. The pale skull made Wang Chen's hair stand on end. Taking a deep breath, Wang Chen reached out to touch the withered clothes on the skull.

  Like a gust of wind blowing by, the clothes turned into ash. Wang Chen couldn't help but feel his scalp numb, and after being stunned for a moment, he began to check if there was anything else left behind.

  "Huh", soon after, Wang Chen noticed the words on the stone wall: I lost my father at a young age, my mother died when I was seven years old, and I made up my mind to learn martial arts to avenge...

  Originally, this wall recorded the life of a generation of martial arts masters. This person lost his father at a young age and later his mother passed away too. He learned martial arts to avenge his family, practiced swordsmanship for over a decade before avenging his family's death. From then on, he devoted himself solely to the sword, with no other desires. People in the martial world called him "Sword Crazy". It can be seen how obsessed he was with swords.

  A sword enthusiast, who spent his whole life learning countless sword techniques but had no disciples. After his death, he carved his techniques on the wall, hoping that future generations would learn from them.

  The sword technique left by Jianchi has two kinds, divided into upper and lower ones.

  The lower one is to directly learn the profound swordsmanship that he must have learned, such as the Thirteen Swords of Taking Life, the Sword of the Hegemon, and the Seven Mysterious Swords. These profound swordsmanships are enough to make a person become a master of swordsmanship. This is the lower one.

  The upper one is different. The upper one was thought out by the Sword Madman in his later years. The upper one requires the learner not to practice any swordsmanship, nor be bound by any sword moves, but only learn basic sword moves, and reach a state of being carefree and effortless, where one can comprehend the sword of heaven and earth, transform the power of heaven and earth into the sword in hand, and thus be invincible and unbeatable.

  On the left side of the stone wall, the swordsmanship left behind by Sword Crazy was densely recorded. King Chen couldn't help but reveal a look of surprise, but after a moment, he came back to his senses and secretly scolded himself for being too impulsive.

  But Wang Chen didn't know that Jian Chi's swordsmanship would cause such a huge stir in the Jianghu, and how many people would go crazy because of it. Wang Chen's brief cheer was nothing compared to this.

  "Huh?"

  On the left side of the sword method, there were actually words, and on the left side of the sword method, a sentence was still left behind.

  Hatred, hatred, hatred, the opening three words are filled with resentment and discontent. "My accidental immortal fate, why didn't I have a spiritual root? After deep thought and careful consideration, I refined my sword skills and embarked on the ancient path of the sword. However, as soon as I caught a glimpse of the heavenly way, years passed by, what can be done about it, what can be done about it, what can be done about it?"

  Three people were left to sigh in dismay at Wang Chen's sight. Finally, a message was left on the stone wall: "If later generations see this and have the intention of cultivating their immortal fate, they will have great enlightenment and perseverance; those who can practice the sword method will be able to achieve the Way of the Sword within a hundred years."

  Wang Chen finished reading and couldn't help but fall into deep thought. A rare opportunity had presented itself, but the choice was difficult to make. Which one should he learn? The first one was good, but too hard to practice. This sword technique relied heavily on intuition and arduous training, requiring nearly a hundred years of time. Learning the second one would be much easier, with so many sword techniques available for him to study.

  After a moment of contemplation, Wang Chen gritted his teeth and said that if he was going to learn, he would learn from the best. To avoid regretting it later, he smashed all the stone walls that recorded the remaining sword moves.

  Those who were chosen had their reasons. Firstly, they themselves endured hardships and practiced basic sword moves diligently; secondly, Wang Chen had considerable confidence in his own comprehension. It's worth noting that Wang Chen's footwork was relatively poor compared to others, yet he developed many advanced techniques based on his own understanding, clearly demonstrating his exceptionally high comprehension.

  Having made up his mind, Wang Chen began to practice swordsmanship diligently.

  The above swordsmanship is not about not practicing any sword moves, but on the contrary, according to the Sword Madman's idea, the first step is to practice the three basic sword moves, thrusting, lifting, and chopping, to the point where they can be used naturally at will. At any angle, at any time, it can be used as naturally as one's own breathing. The second step is to comprehend the universe. Here, the Sword Madman emphasizes that the universe is not just about understanding a mountain or a river, an object or a shape, but rather about comprehending the entire universe. Wang Chen doesn't understand what this means, how can swordsmanship be related to mountains and rivers? However, this does not hinder him from practicing basic sword moves.

  Stab, provoke, chop

  Stab, provoke, chop

  ………

  On one side and then the other, Wang Chen repeated tirelessly, but each move was made with concentrated effort, and each move had to be faster than the previous one, and each move had a different angle from the previous ones.

  Thus, Wang Chen fell into the joy of practicing swordsmanship, and of course, Wang Chen couldn't help but go to Changzhou City to recruit Zhang Tie for a heavy giant sword.

  Zhang Tie and Wang Chen got along quite well, when they drank together, they chatted freely, obviously Zhang Tie was almost the only friend of Wang Chen, and for the honest and kind-hearted Zhang Tie, Wang Chen was also his only confidant.

  Later, with Zhang Tie's help, Wang Chen obtained a giant sword weighing over 100 kg and an inner armor weighing 80 kg for cultivation, which made Zhang Tie exclaim that he was abnormal. In this quiet and bitter cultivation, Wang Chen's physical quality and swordsmanship became more and more extraordinary, especially his understanding of sword moves advanced rapidly.

  In the blink of an eye, half a year has passed.

  On this day, the midday sun was scorching hot, an old man was hurrying down the mountain.

  An old man wearing a gray coarse linen robe, with a large bundle of firewood on his back, his body bent under the weight of the firewood, was clearly a villager from the foot of the mountain. Just as the old man stopped to wipe the sweat from his forehead, a wild wolf darted out from the nearby thicket, its half-meter-high body exuding a foul odor from its open mouth, its sharp teeth bared, ready to pounce. The old man, advanced in age, seeing that he couldn't escape, shouted for help while falling sideways to the ground.

  The wolf's pounce didn't land on the old man, but its claws did scratch his leg fiercely. The old man's leg was already showing bright red wounds, with blood seeping out continuously.

  The old man thought to himself, "I'm done for." Just then, a figure rushed over and the wolf was knocked flying by the young man's sword. The wolf got up again and pounced at the young man, who smiled without dodging. The old man beside him turned pale with fright, wanting to remind him but was shocked with eyes wide open.

  Just as the wolf was about to pounce on the young man, he saw an incredible sight of him dodging the wolf's attack with a sidestep, while sinking his hand and slamming the giant sword in his hand into the wolf's abdomen.

  With a loud "pa" sound, the wild wolf's abdomen was torn open and it fell to the ground, dead beyond dead. If the elders of the Dragon Tiger Sect were to see this scene, they would definitely be amazed at the extraordinary wisdom of the young man. It is known that although the cultivation of martial arts is closely related to innate talent, it is not entirely so. Some people may have average innate talent but possess extremely high wisdom, allowing them to grasp the essence of their techniques and fully unleash their power. Coincidentally, Wang Chen was exactly this kind of person with extremely high wisdom.

  The old man was delighted to see the wolf dead and, limping with his injured leg, thanked the young man. The young man was modest for a moment, but seeing that the old man's legs were injured and inconvenient to walk, he decided to send the old man home.

  This young man was naturally Wang Chen. Since his martial arts had reached a bottleneck, Wang Chen thought about increasing his combat experience and went to the mountains every day to find wild beasts to practice with. By coincidence, he rescued this old man.

  At half past eight, Wang Chen and the old man sat opposite each other at the table. The old man looked very happy, constantly drinking his homemade rice wine and chatting with Wang Chen.

  "My ancestors were immortals hundreds of years ago, with great spiritual powers"

  "Three generations ago, my ancestors were still officials in the imperial court. Later, during a time of chaos and war, they were killed, and my grandfather moved here to escape."

  "When I was young, I also wanted to learn martial arts, but unfortunately, I didn't have any talent...” The old man was overjoyed to finally meet a young person who was willing to listen to his ramblings. Seeing that Wang Fan was skeptical, he became angry and pulled out some evidence - an ancient artifact passed down from his ancestors.