Chapter 76: Heavenly One True Water Skill, Mysteries Of True Skill!
“What an ugly sight!”
Hong Yuan stood with his hands behind his back, watching Lei Meng’s impotent rage with a calm expression. After the other had ranted for a while, he finally spoke indifferently:
“That’s enough, Your Excellency is at least a grandmaster of martial arts. If you lose, you have to admit it. Don’t you understand such a simple principle?”
“Don’t put on this barking dog act. You’re not some eighteen- or nineteen-year-old flower-like young lady. Would I pity you upon seeing it? I’d only find it laughable!”
Lei Meng’s roar faltered, his voice hoarse:
“Right, right! I, Lei Meng, have ended up like this because my skill is inferior to yours. Consider yourself the winner. Go ahead and kill me.”
Hong Yuan shook his head:
“Killing you would be too wasteful. I don’t want to torture you, so will you cooperate obediently and tell me everything you know about ‘true skill’?”
Lei Meng struggled to sit up again, astonishment on his pale face as he glared with his bloodied eye sockets: “You really don’t know about ‘true skill’?”
“That’s not for you to worry about!”
Hong Yuan’s tone was flat: “Tell me, and I’ll spare your life.”
Lei Meng made ‘heh heh’ sounds from his throat, as if chuckling strangely: “I’ve already become like this, with broken limbs and unable to use my force anymore. Living is worse than death. Do you think I’ll fear death?”
“Better to live poorly than die well, not to mention with secret medicine and special force, you might recover your limbs seventy to eighty percent.”
Hong Yuan said: “Though you’re quite old, with a microscopic level master’s physique and mastery over qi and blood, you might live another twenty or thirty years. One death ends all; are you really willing to give up this splendid world?”
Lei Meng’s face showed hesitation, his voice low: “Can you tolerate me?”
“You’re underestimating me too much. Enemies defeated by my hand are never a concern to me.” Hong Yuan let out a sneer: “Am I afraid you’ll achieve greatness late in life?”
Hearing this, Lei Meng felt an indescribable sarcasm in the words; he felt both humiliated and involuntarily relieved.
He heard Hong Yuan continue, his tone somewhat impatient: “Alright, I’ve said all there is to say! I, Hong Yuan, keep my word. If I say I won’t kill you, I won’t!”
Hong Yuan waved his hand at Qian Shan Zhi, who had been bowing: “I’ll give you the time it takes to burn one incense stick to consider. When I return, if you’re still unwilling to speak, then we’ll go into the coffin together. With my abilities, I don’t believe I can’t find someone else besides you who knows about that so-called ‘true skill’!”
“Steward Qian, let’s go!”
Qian Shan Zhi respectfully agreed, turning to lead the way. Before he had stepped out of the stone chamber door, he heard Lei Meng’s low voice: “No need to consider. I’ll speak.”
A moment later.
Within the Grain Transport Gang Stockade, in the room where Lei Meng originally lived, under Lei Meng’s command, Qian Shan Zhi opened a hidden cabinet and took out a wooden box about a foot long, carefully placing it on the table.
The box was quickly opened, revealing several booklets. Qian Shan Zhi took them out one by one, saying: “These three are ‘Capturing Dragon Fist’, ‘No Return Hook’, and ‘Tidal Wave Force’. They are the gang’s secret transmission of martial arts and force methods, only taught to incense masters, flag masters, and heads.”
“However, aside from the head, even flag masters can’t receive all of them; one must render great service to the gang.”
“Among the gang’s ten flag masters, only Chen Jiulang has truly mastered the force method and martial arts completely.”
Hong Yuan glanced at him: “So you’re saying you know all these martial arts?”
Qian Shan Zhi said: “This lowly one has mediocre martial talent and only excels at management, which allowed me to become head. But I’ve memorized these three martial arts booklets, understand their cryptic phrases, and can explain them for the lord.”
Hong Yuan nodded, somewhat satisfied with Qian Shan Zhi’s attitude.
He picked up the three booklets and flipped through them, focusing on the illustrations. As for the key points, without understanding the cryptic language, they were like heavenly script.
But for Hong Yuan, martial arts and force at this level didn’t require secret manuals; at worst, he could practice a few times with Grain Transport Gang masters to learn them.
Of course, with Qian Shan Zhi explaining directly, there was no need to waste that time.
Hong Yuan’s goal wasn’t this anyway, and Qian Shan Zhi knew it well. He directly took out the last booklet, looking at the worn lettering from years of flipping, and read: “Heavenly One… Heavenly One True Water Skill?!”
“Lord, I’ve not only never seen this kung fu, I’ve never even heard of it.” As he spoke, his eyes turned to Lei Meng, slumped in a chair nearby.
“Heh! You, Qian Lao Si, are just a mediocre fellow. What qualification do you have to see such divine skill?” Lei Meng sneered, followed by a long sigh.
“A long time ago, our Grain Transport Gang ancestors accidentally obtained the remnant of this ‘Heavenly One True Water Skill’. Two generations pondered and exhausted their efforts to decipher most of its cryptic phrases. Then, over three generations’ work, they extracted the essence from the remnant to create a ‘true skill’ unique to our Grain Transport Gang!”
“Until my generation, one or two hundred years later, we barely formed the prototype of ‘Tidal Wave Skill’. What a pity, what a shame! Generations of effort ended up making wedding clothes for others, and even the Grain Transport Gang’s foundation is lost.”
Lei Meng’s tone was filled with sorrow.
Qian Shan Zhi mocked: “You make it sound so noble, but it’s just hogging it all. If such good martial arts had been shared earlier, with the gang’s many talents, why would it take so long?”
“Enough talk!” Hong Yuan waved his hand and took the secret manual to flip through it.
After his comprehension had continuously increased, Hong Yuan had reached the level of never forgetting what he saw. After quickly flipping through, he soon finished.
The secret manual was divided into upper and lower parts. The front recorded the remnant of ‘Heavenly One True Water Skill’, with small annotations in many places, likely the Grain Transport Gang ancestors’ deciphering notes.
The latter half was ‘Tidal Wave Skill’.
Compared to the front ‘Heavenly One True Water Skill’ remnant, ‘Tidal Wave Skill’ was even more obscure and difficult to understand—not because it surpassed the original, but because it was full of cryptic phrases again.
Hong Yuan was speechless. He truly envied the villains and protagonists in wuxia films and dramas, who could pick up a secret manual and practice it directly without hindrance.
He simply flipped back to the beginning and read carefully, his brows raising: “True skill… No wonder it’s called ‘nature transformation’. So that’s how it is!”
Lei Meng’s voice was hoarse: “Surprised? Heh! When I first learned about true skill, I was equally astonished. Ordinary martial artists, even at microscopic level grandmaster, merely play with force transformation. But true skill penetrates force into the internal organs.”
“Like this ‘Tidal Wave Skill’, it refines force into the kidneys. Most wondrously, after force penetrates the kidneys and undergoes this transformation, not only does its power and quality rise to a higher level, it also gains water’s flexibility, versatility, and icy chill!”
“This power, after transformation, transcends ordinary force. Ordinary people don’t understand its mysteries and see it as ‘immortal method’ or ‘supernatural power’, but true masters call it ‘true force’ or ‘strange force’!”
Hong Yuan tapped the table with his fingers, making ‘thud thud’ sounds, his mind turning as he fully understood.
Under true skill, it’s nothing more than tempering muscles and bones, honing strength, enhancing one’s qi and blood, then controlling qi and blood to condense real force.
The three layers of entering force transformation, even microscopic level, are just embellishing the force.
True skill, however, digs deeper into the body’s potential, infiltrating force into one’s internal organs…
Not necessarily internal organs; it could be eyes, nose, brain, ears—any of the body’s organs.
After force infiltrates the body’s organs and undergoes transformation, it gains various attributes—that is, the so-called ‘nature transformation’.
Nature transformation.
It’s like when entering force martial artists are still practicing shadowless kicks and diamond legs, true skill has already reached the level of flame blade, profound ice divine palm, icy true qi.
In the eyes of ordinary folk, isn’t it no different from immortal methods?
“The wonder of true force or strange force is more than this. Why is force no match for true skill? Because when true force is unleashed, at close range, it can even affect an entering force martial artist’s qi and blood, making it hard for them to control.”
