Chapter 4: Where is There No Madness in Martial Arts Training?
“The weather is cold, this concubine invites the two young masters to my humble abode to shelter from the wind!”
Shi Feizhe’s vision blurred, and he saw the woman, like a ghost, arrive in front of the bonfire and repeat the sentence to them.
Even though she was very close, Shi Feizhe couldn’t feel the breath of a living person from her.
The woman’s eyes were fixed on them, especially on Hua Xiaomei, as if staring at a feast, the longing in her eyes almost overflowing.
This made Shi Feizhe’s hair stand on end! Damn it, are there ghosts in this world?
With a “whoosh,” Hua Xiaomei opened his folding fan, revealing a picture of a hundred flowers blooming on its front.
He waved the fan, sending a gust of fragrant wind towards the woman in white, then said seriously, “No!”
The woman remained silent for a moment amidst the fragrant wind. Then, several figures swished backward and disappeared into the black night.
“What was that?” Shi Feizhe saw that when the woman in white retreated, she did so backward, always facing them. He felt a chill. What the hell was that thing?
Human? Or ghost?
“A demoness! A demoness from the Celestial Maiden Sect!” Hua Xiaomei closed his fan with a “snap” and said, “Fortunately, she’s just a demoness who has recently entered the Transcendence Realm. Otherwise, it would have been really troublesome!”
“Celestial Maiden Sect?” Shi Feizhe repeated, “What’s that?”
Hua Xiaomei glanced at Shi Feizhe and said, “Little brother has just started wandering the Jianghu!”
“I’m not even a Jianghu person, how can I be considered wandering the Jianghu?” Shi Feizhe shook his head and said.
“Once you enter the Jianghu, it’s as deep as the sea, and you’re involuntarily a Jianghu person!” Hua Xiaomei sighed and continued, “The Celestial Maiden Sect is a peculiar sect that only accepts female disciples.”
“Oh?” Shi Feizhe looked at Hua Xiaomei curiously. It seemed Hua Xiaomei knew about this Celestial Maiden Sect!
In this world, both men and women could be martial arts experts, so women’s status wasn’t that low.
“The Celestial Maiden Sect’s unique secret manual, 《the Form and Formlessness Seven Treasures Lapis Lazuli Sutra》, was originally passed down from the Cinnabar Monastery. It emphasizes the interplay between form and formlessness, achieving a state of pure lapis lazuli throughout the body. Somehow, it was obtained by a woman.”
“Then, she mastered it, and went mad!”
“Huh? You can go mad from practicing martial arts?” Shi Feizhe found it unbelievable.
“Where is there no madness in martial arts training?” Hua Xiaomei said faintly:
“Martial arts inheritance is not only about secret manuals but also requires personal instruction from a master, explaining the manual. The dialects, terminology, ambiguous words, and metaphors in the manual must be thoroughly explained before one can fully understand it. Only then can it be considered true martial arts inheritance.”
“Every martial arts manual is written by a person. Since it’s written by a person, there will naturally be personal speaking and writing habits. The Nine Provinces are so vast, just the dialects alone are enough of a headache. Not to mention there are some words that sound the same but have different meanings?”
“The 《Form and Formlessness Seven Treasures Lapis Lazuli Sutra》 was written by a monk from the Cinnabar Monastery, using a lot of Buddhist terminology and metaphors. That woman didn’t understand these, she just saw the manual and forcefully cultivated it.”
Shi Feizhe felt a chill down his spine as he listened.
Things like “dialects, terminology, ambiguous words, metaphors,” he didn’t understand any of it when he practiced the 《True Origin Sword Finger Formula》.
It’s like modern people reading the 《Tao Te Ching》, they recognize the characters, but do they understand the meaning?
He won’t go mad too, will he?
He thought about the many dialects on the internet in his previous life, things like “sticky packets,” “solid and reliable,” “trendy,” “doorstop,” “falling down.”
Surely this world must also have many words that are normal to locals but difficult for others to understand.
As for variant characters and simplified characters, there were even more of those.
“Some manuals in the Jianghu are passed down within families, and the rest are from the Great Cai era a thousand years ago, when the imperial court gathered the wisdom of all under heaven to compile them. The wording in many manuals is vastly different from what it is now,” Hua Xiaomei said.
Cai was a dynasty that unified the Nine Provinces a thousand years ago. Later, the dynasty fell, and the Nine Provinces entered an era of martial arts division, which continues to this day.
“No wonder, where is there no madness in martial arts training?” Hearing Hua Xiaomei say this, Shi Feizhe suppressed his own doubts about possibly going mad. After careful consideration, he understood another layer of meaning behind this phrase.
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Martial arts were the most direct way to break through social classes and gain power. When a martial artist gained power through martial arts, they would inevitably encrypt their martial arts techniques to ensure they were passed down to their children and disciples, allowing their power to continue.
In his previous life, ancient officials had undergone years of study, and there were strict writing and formatting requirements for official documents. In this chaotic Jianghu, where were there writing and formatting rules? Martial arts manuals were written however the author felt like writing them!
In ancient times in his previous life, knowledge could be used to monopolize a social class. In this world, weren’t martial arts also a form of knowledge? And it was knowledge with power!
It was like an enhanced version of the imperial examinations in ancient times, how could it not drive people crazy?
In reality, most people in the Jianghu were like Shi Feizhe, working like oxen and horses, yearning to practice martial arts to achieve upward mobility.
Therefore, regardless of whether a martial arts manual was real or fake, there were people who would bet their lives on cultivating it.
Considering the difficulty of inheriting martial arts manuals, the probability of people dying while practicing was very high.
If those people didn’t die, then they probably had problems from their practice.
Either their bodies had issues, or their minds had issues!
This Jianghu was too realistic, too insane!
“It’s too difficult for oxen and horses to stand out, no matter the time!” Shi Feizhe couldn’t help but sigh after thinking about all this.
“Little brother is right, it’s always been difficult to stand out since ancient times! After that woman went mad, she proclaimed herself the Lapis Lazuli Pure Buddha Mother and founded the Celestial Maiden Sect!” Hua Xiaomei brought the conversation back to the Celestial Maiden Sect and continued, “The people of the Celestial Maiden Sect believe that everything is both form and formlessness, that people walk in the world amidst form, living within formlessness. So, they do some crazy, horrifying things.”
“How crazy?” Shi Feizhe asked.
“If they take a fancy to a man, they invite him home. Then, they have intercourse with him day and night,” Hua Xiaomei said, glancing at Shi Feizhe.
“Huh???” Shi Feizhe was shocked, “Are those people sick?”
“They are indeed sick!” Hua Xiaomei nodded, “They say that love means being together, inseparable for a single moment. They want the man to become a part of their power so they can be together forever.”
“…”
This was too crazy!
“Being together can even be explained like this! These crazy women are seriously ill!” Shi Feizhe said with some fear, “Thank you, Brother Hua, for saving my life!”
“Ahem…!” Hua Xiaomei coughed awkwardly, “Actually, it was probably because of me that you, little brother, were implicated.”
“What do you mean?” Shi Feizhe asked.
“Although those Celestial Maiden Sect women are crazy, they don’t take a fancy to just anyone! Men like me have to protect ourselves when we’re out and about!” Hua Xiaomei said, spreading his hands.
“If it weren’t for me, the Celestial Maiden Sect demoness might not have bothered you, little brother.”
“…”
You…
What’s the use of you being more handsome than me?
You’re handsome, but you’re still entangled with those crazy women from the Celestial Maiden Sect!
Shi Feizhe cursed in his heart!
What’s the use of you being more handsome than me!
