Book 4, Chapter 194: Teaching Him A Secret Technique Based On What He Already Knows

Chen Chuan knew clearly that while getting onto the path of the human form was easy, getting far down the path was difficult. Only the elite among the elite could do it.

If the purity faction could claim this path as its area of expertise and was actually on par with the other factions, they had to have a lot of elites whose foundations were far stronger than those of the average person.

“You learned the Furnace Breathing Technique, didn’t you?” Zhuan Liang asked.

“A teacher from the faction taught me. Later on, Mr. Wen also taught me the Cloud Ripping Palm,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

“Strictly speaking, only the Furnace Breathing Technique is a secret technique of ours. The other one is more of a breathing technique for fighting. What’s the breathing technique you use while training now?” Zhuan Liang asked.

Chen Chuan didn’t hide it and answered honestly, “A teacher of mine taught me a secret breathing technique from the Observance of the Gold Planet.”

“Did he now?” Zhuan Liang was quite taken aback. “This breathing technique is pretty good, and there aren’t many who know it nowadays, but it’s more suited for those walking down the path of the mental form. The breathing technique from the former royal family’s Dragon Ride is best suited for training the other form.”

He straightened his back slightly. “The purity faction has a secret technique developed specifically for those practicing the human form. It’s known as the True Mandate of the Arcane Void. It has a breathing technique known as Furnace of Heaven and Earth, which is the advanced version of the Furnace Breathing Technique. This breathing technique can be used while training, so I’ll teach it to you later.

“What martial arts techniques are you using now?”

“They’re basically all the Sanshou techniques and saber techniques I learned from Martial Valor University,” Chen Chuan answered.

Zhuan Liang nodded. “Battle performance is the main deciding factor in a fight. In fights against people, these techniques can still be useful with your current foundation. Aside from fighting, Sanshou can promote the growth of mutated tissue as well as correct it, but only up to the Third Limit. For your current self, it’s far from enough.”

He sighed, “The purity faction has the Fist of the Vast Sky. It’s a martial arts technique that can be used to refine one’s body and mind. I’m sure that you’ve heard about Zhao Zhenye using it.”

Chen Chuan nodded. He had seen it from a distance when he was in the merged space.

“As the branch leader of Jibei Road’s purity faction branch, you’ll have to fight against Zhao Zhenye sooner or later,” Zhuan Liang said. “Because of this, the leaders decided to teach you this secret technique too. Even if you can’t master it, they’d like you to get familiar with it so that you’ll know how to counter it.” Zhuan Liang took a threadbound book from the briefcase next to him and set it on the table. “You can take a look.”

Chen Chuan took the book and flipped through it. It was old and had slightly yellowing pages with hand-drawn diagrams. All the text was also handwritten.

Zhuan Liang said, “The explanations and diagrams might look simple, but a predecessor of ours stored his mental energy in them. Whoever reads it will get guidance from the mental energy, which will make it easier for them to understand the true essence of the technique. The explanations and diagrams alone aren’t enough to learn the technique.

“Fist of the Vast Sky has twelve moves, each of which corresponds with a certain group of mutated tissue in your body. If you need to refine one area, just practice that one move.

“Your mutated tissue is still one unit, at the end of the day. Even if you focus on developing a certain group, you need to make sure that your other mutated tissue keeps up. That’s why you need to be familiar with all twelve moves. When you practice one, make sure to not slack off on the others. But remember, when you’re fighting, don’t reveal which move you’re most familiar with. You don’t want anyone targeting your weaknesses.”

He pointed at the book in Chen Chuan’s hand. “The book mainly describes the stances you need to take while training. Once you’re familiar with them, you can modify them into moves that suit you and come up with something new.

“Later, you’ll see that while many people practise the Fist of the Vast Sky, all of them are different, because each martial arts master adds their own flair to the technique.”

Chen Chuan nodded. He could understand that. Even normal martial artists, who practiced regular martial arts, might use them differently. Besides, martial arts masters had all created their own paths, so they were bound to blend their own understanding into the martial arts they learned.

The description of the Fist of the Vast Sky was more like a framework. Once he picked up the basics, he could create his own version with it as his foundation. This was pretty similar to Sanshou.

“Zhao Zhenye is far ahead of you and is very deep in his study of this technique. It alone won’t be enough to take him out, so I’m going to teach you the Blinding Blaze too.”

Light shone from his eyes, and even the mask started releasing a dim light.

Chen Chuan was familiar with this, so he immediately opened up his mind. Soon, he sensed a wave of complex information being injected into his mind.

“The Blinding Blaze is a secret technique that corresponds to the Fist of the Vast Sky. The faction didn’t teach it to Zhao Zhenye because he had yet to become a martial arts master. They were already making an exception by teaching him the Fist of the Vast Sky when he was only at the Third Limit. This goes to show just how much they valued him.

“One of them trains the physical body, while the other refines the mind. Both can be used in battle to complement each other. If you can fuse them, then even if you only master one or two moves from each, you’ll be able to bring out great power during battle.”

Chen Chuan sorted through the information. Aside from the Blinding Blaze, Zhuan Liang had also passed him the Furnace of Heaven and Earth.

Then, Zhuan Liang spoke in a more stern manner. “I need to give you some warnings, though. When you practice these two secret techniques together, you’ll find yourself progressing quickly, but this will put a huge burden on your body. If you don’t pace yourself properly, you might end up draining all of your energy. You must be careful during training. Don’t be too eager to grow and end up hurting yourself. You’ll just end up losing more than you gained.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Chen Chuan promised.

Zhuan Liang pointed at the book again. “I’ll leave it with you. If you meet anyone suited for this secret technique in the future, you can give it to them. If you find yourself with some sort of epiphany while training, you can also write it down and submit it to the faction. We encourage such actions and will reward you based on how valuable your insights are.”

“Thank you, sirs,” Chen Chuan said gratefully.

Zhuan Liang smiled. “Alright. I’ve pretty much told you everything. Do you have any questions for me?”

Chen Chuan thought about it. “I do. The martial arts masters I saw all had their own weapons. Where did they get them?”

Zhuan Liang took some time considering it before saying, “When it comes to weapons, it’s best for you to just use whatever you’re used to. You don’t need to get a new one. The mutated tissue in mutated weapons is alive. You can use your mutated tissue to replace it or help it grow. You can also make it stronger by providing it with minerals and nutritious food from the merged space. Of course, there are special combinations for it.

“The refinement and advancement of mutated weapons is a discipline in itself, and I’m not an expert at it. The government and factions have their own weapons experts. I can contact someone for you, or you can ask Mr. Yao. He should have quite a lot of information about this.”

Then, he took out another book from his pocket and tore a page out before scribbling down something on it. When he handed the paper to Chen Chuan, he said, “This is his contact method. Just tell him that I sent you his way.”

Chen Chuan took it and thanked Zhuan Liang again.

“Do you have any other questions for me?” Zhuan Liang asked.

“No more. But I do need to send a message to the faction. I might have to go to the island nations in a few days.” Chen Chuan then told Zhuan Liang about his upcoming spar with Fenghe Shou.

“I’ll tell the faction about this. Fierce Wave School is one of the three major martial arts schools of the island nations and has a structured way of passing down its teachings. Fenghe Shou isn’t weak either. You must be careful,” Zhuan Liang cautioned.

“I will.” Chen Chuan nodded.

With everything settled, they spent some time drinking tea and talking about other things before Chen Chuan got up and left.

Once he was gone, the mask said, “Alright, as you requested, I’ve given him all three secret techniques that should have been taught to him over the course of several years.”

“He can handle it,” Zhuan Liang retorted.

“I trust your judgment, but the report is going to be a hard thing. After what happened with Zhao Zhenye, the faction has kept a close eye on its secret techniques. We need a proper reason, you know,” the mask lamented.

“Isn’t he going to fight against Fenghe Shou? That’s a proper reason,” Zhuan Liang said.

“That’s just a spar... Fine.”

The mask didn’t argue any further. As long as they had a reasonable excuse, it would do. In any case, Chen Chuan was a branch leader and needed to face Zhao Zhenye in the future, so teaching him the secret techniques wasn’t much of a problem. He was simply worried that Chen Chuan might be unable to pick any one of them if they taught him all of them in one go.

“I can’t figure out what sort of secret technique Zhao Zhenye is practicing. It seems to have some sort of restriction, but I have a feeling that once he masters it, he’s going to be even stronger than before,” he mused.

“If Branch Leader Chen manages to familiarize himself with all that we taught him, we might be able to kill Zhao Zhenye by working together,” Zhuan Liang said.

***

When Chen Chuan left the factory, he found Chang Dong waiting for him outside. He stepped forward and handed a telegram to him.

“Branch Leader Chen, we just received a telegram. The leaders have approved your request to let Captain Xu join the faction. He’s been accepted into Jibei Road’s branch.”

“That’s good news.” Chen Chuan took the telegram to read it himself.

“I’ve also begun training three normal members. Should we call them over and have a meeting?” Chang Dong asked.

Chen Chuan nodded. Since new members had joined, they should indeed find time for a meeting so that they could get to know each other. “I need to go to the island nations, though. It’s likely that I’ll be leaving today or tomorrow. Why don’t we have that meeting after I come back?”

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