Chapter 43: Self-reflection

  Under the sparkling gaze of his sister-in-law, Ye Wen finished breakfast and returned to his room with aching feet. He had originally planned to wander around his own mountain gate today, but after Ning Ruxue's soul-stirring kick, he thought it was better for him to stay in his room.

  Sitting cross-legged there, Ye Wen began thinking about what he could do.

  He practices Quanzhen Heart Method every day, especially considering the ceremony in a few days, he doesn't know how many people will come to disrupt the scene, so he dares not slack off for a single day.

  He had practiced once at midnight, and again when he woke up early in the morning. If he practices again now, it will not only be of no benefit but may also damage his meridians.

  So, how about practicing fist and footwork? What I have been carefully studying is only a set of Tai Zu Changquan and a move called Duoming Lianhuan Sanxian Sword. These two skills are already so familiar that they can't be more familiar. Although it's possible to practice occasionally to ensure proficiency, there may also be new insights, but this is not urgent for the time being.

  What's more, if someone comes to make trouble in a few days, relying on these two sets of kung fu, Ye Wen feels a bit uncertain. Although the Shushan territory is indeed not many masters with unique skills, what he can do now is not high-level martial arts either. Originally, he relied on the internal skill heart method that was relatively rare in the Pingzhou territory, but he couldn't be sure that someone who understood advanced internal kung fu wouldn't come that day.

  "I didn't tell anyone else, but half a year ago I defeated the predecessor of this man and understood internal power. The taste of that one palm is still unforgettable to me now!"

  Although Zhang Gui's palm was not an internal family palm method, the inner energy was only released with his palm and hit into Ye Wen's body. However, he could confirm that Zhang Gui understood internal skills. Although the inner energy was not strong, it couldn't be guaranteed that the other party hadn't used their full strength.

  Moreover, that man seemed to be not the highest-ranking person in Zhengquan Gate. If considering this point, the strength of Zhengquan Gate was not as weak as I had expected before!

  Recently, Ye Wen's inner strength has made some progress, and he has come down from the mountain with a flourish. Afterwards, no matter what happened, everything went smoothly, which made him feel a bit complacent and forget that he was in a very dangerous world. Now, calming down and thinking carefully, he can't help but feel a little arrogant.

  "But it's just that I've practiced a set of shallow Quanzhen heart methods to a small extent, and I almost forgot what role I am?" After calming down, Ye Wen immediately reflected on himself in his heart, constantly reminding himself: "You are nothing! Not some great hero or some top-notch master! Although others respectfully call you Ye Zhangmen, you must remember that you are just a small shrimp, thrown into the Jianghu and can't even stir up a single flower!"

  "Moreover, apart from a rough and shallow Tai Zu Long Fist that can't be any more superficial, and a Shu Shan Swordsmanship that doesn't even count as one of the Five Flows, you don't have a single set of genuine skills to show off. Are you going to spend your whole life bullying those ignorant farmers who don't understand high-level martial arts or internal energy?"

  After some self-reflection, Ye Wen readjusted his mindset and felt that the top priority was still to enhance his own strength. Only in this way could he continue to survive.

  "As for enjoying a carefree life, the master's wonderful life and all that, let's talk about it after I've cultivated my unparalleled divine skills!" More importantly, the Shu Shan Sect has now shown good development prospects. Ye Wen is no longer just a lone swordsman who only needs to take care of his own life (and perhaps consider his own junior sister!). Not only has the sect been established, but also disciples have been taken in, and there's even an additional junior brother. The growth of power also brings increased responsibility, and the burden on Ye Wen's shoulders is slowly increasing, giving him more pressure.

  "If you want to sit firmly in this position, you still need strength!"

  Not to mention his junior sister who still has a lingering attachment to this position, he dare not forget that the various factions on Shu Shan are not harmonious with each other. Everyone is harboring the idea of swallowing others to expand their own power, and even unifying Shu Shan to become a force known throughout Pingzhou and the entire Jianghu. Even he himself has such thoughts, so how can he not be on guard against others?

  Among them, Zhengquanmen is the most powerful faction in Shushan, and there has been a long-standing feud between their sects. A fierce battle between the two families was inevitable, and there was no way to avoid it.

  After all, this vendetta can't be settled with just a few words. Maybe while I'm here enjoying life in blissful ignorance, they're secretly plotting to take me down and swallow up the business I've worked so hard to build!

  Taking a deep breath, Ye Wen felt the inner energy in his dantian gradually growing stronger. He now wished that this inner energy could expand to fill all the meridians in his body, and at that time, he could sweep through the entire Shu Mountain and even Pingzhou with just his internal strength alone. What would he have to fear from these guys then?

  It's just that the inner strength of Quanzhen is not something that can be rushed, and the Quanzhen heart method is not a heaven-defying technique that will suddenly increase one's power several times over after being practiced. Gradual progress and steady accumulation are the advantages of Quanzhen internal strength, while slow progress is its disadvantage. However, this martial arts secret book is no exception to all things in the world, and there has never been anything perfect.

  "There is one kind of martial art that can make you a master after practicing it, but...” Ye Wen thought about the huge sacrifice he had to make if he practiced that technique and immediately felt a chill run down his spine: “I'm not desperate enough yet! Besides, there are many other internal martial arts that don't have side effects!"

  Lowering his head to glance at the ring on his right hand, Ye Wen began calculating when he last summoned something: "This thing's gifts are really irregular, no idea what kind of thing I'll summon next time?"

  If it's just a book that I can use, then it's fine. What I'm afraid of is summoning something inexplicable again. Originally, when I was cultivating in the mountains, I didn't think much of it. After all, with so many opportunities in a year, even if I were unlucky, I could still summon a few usable ones.

  It's just that now, he somewhat dislikes this setup: "If only I could decide what I want for myself!"

  Alas, in this world, eight or nine out of ten things do not go as one wishes. If he could get whatever he wanted, then with three to five years of effort, unifying the martial arts world would not be impossible. But now it's no longer that easy.

  After a moment of silence, he realized that from the last summoning before he came down the mountain to today, it had been exactly one month, and he could summon again. Ye Wen's heart was filled with joy, after all, no matter what he summoned, it would be another opportunity for him to become stronger.

  He didn't rush, but instead stood up and looked around the room, then closed the door and window tightly, turned around to make sure there was no one nearby, before returning to bed and slowly starting to cultivate his fully formed True Qi.

  Ye Wen didn't rush to send his internal energy into the ring, but instead warmed up and started circulating his internal energy along that meridian, combing it through. Then he used his heart method to recover the internal energy he had lost earlier. Only then did he start to mobilize his internal energy from his dantian, sending it forward along the meridian he had just combed through towards the tip of his right index finger.

  In fact, this meridian is also quite famous. Ye Wen also knew that among the Six Meridians of the Heavenly Dragon, which had the reputation of being the number one sword technique in the world, one of them was precisely this meridian. After cultivating it, he could shoot out an invisible sword energy from his right hand's index finger, and then use the sword energy to kill enemies with his sword techniques.

  He had thought that if he could practice this meridian, wouldn't it be equivalent to mastering the Six Meridians Divine Sword Technique? But as soon as he turned his mind around, he realized that he was just being foolishly optimistic.

  Not to mention the method of converting internal energy into sword energy, he was completely unaware of the swordsmanship and techniques of each route of the Six Meridians Divine Sword. Moreover, this sword technique had an extremely harsh requirement for internal strength, even in the original work, Duan Yu relied on another set of super-powered Northern Ocean Divine Skill to master it. Later, this skill became a legendary existence along with the loss of the Northern Ocean Divine Skill, and even later, because no one could master it again, there were no more legends about it, showing how harsh its training requirements were.

  With the amount of internal energy Ye Wen has, even if he really understood how to convert his inner strength into sword energy, he would probably only be able to shoot out a bit of sword energy before running out of internal energy and collapsing to the ground. How could he possibly kill an enemy?

  So a few months ago, he gave up on this idea and instead focused on steady and gradual cultivation, hoping that after his strength improved, he would be able to obtain better internal skills, and then make an upgrade.

  It's just that in just over half a year, he really didn't expect his internal skills to make much progress. At this point, even if he got the internal skills manual, it would be similar to the Quanzhen manual, so now he is more looking forward to getting a good external skill technique secret book.

  This time he thought the same way, and what he most hoped for in his heart was to get a sword manual, so that his Three Immortals Sword could truly be used as a killing move.

  Feeling the inner force being slowly absorbed by the ring, and then hearing that familiar voice as his internal energy was depleted, Ye Wen felt a sudden weight on his hand, and when he opened his left palm, which had been deliberately spread open, there was an extra object on it.

  However, Ye Wen did not rush to open his eyes, but instead used the Qigong Zhēn Xīn Fǎ method to recover some of his internal energy before slowly closing his stance. Only then did he focus his gaze on the thin thread-bound book in his hand.

  It's just like the traditional thread-bound books I've seen online and in bookstores, with a blue cover and pages that turn from right to left. The only thing that doesn't quite match is the title of this book, written in simplified characters on the cover of this ancient-looking volume.

  But after seeing the two characters clearly written above, Ye Wen was both surprised and delighted! He was happy that this time he had indeed summoned the external skill technique manual that he currently needed, and it was just suitable for himself, and even could be put to use immediately.

  What made him a bit depressed was that this time it wasn't swordsmanship again. The Three Immortals Sword would probably continue to be left in the corner, gathering dust. However, he wasn't a foolish person either. The Three Immortals Sword was powerful because its moves were linked together, forcing the enemy to reveal their weaknesses and then killing them. It didn't necessarily have to be used with a sword.

  "If that's the case, then with this set of skills, the Three Immortal Swords won't be completely useless..." With a stroke of his left hand, Ye Wen smiled as he looked at the manual for the palm technique in his hand, which clearly had two large characters written on it: Mian Zhang!