Chapter 41 No Way, Surely Not

With a blink of his eyes, Xiong Yan returned from the small town to the conference room. Looking at the people gathered around, Xiong Yan knocked on the bell and said, "Meeting in session!"

"Tonight, we'll most likely be pulling an all-nighter," Chu Feng suddenly remarked.

"Therefore, we should eat while we chat. How about grabbing some buffet or barbecue?" Ye Fan suggested.

"Yay!" cheered Jiang Ju.

A moment later, the grill was set up, and the bonfire party officially began!

"This time, I went to a national martial arts world. The place was called Chen Village, and the system there revolves around External Force, Internal Force, Transforming Force, and Elixir Force."

"However, it's not as formidable as described in novels, nor is it as mystical—neither chasing the emotional resonance of life nor any of that nonsense. It's simply not that complicated."

To put it bluntly, even in a world of national martial arts, those who practiced it were by no means the smartest people of their respective eras.

In ancient times, the smartest people were metropolitan graduates and scholars, but metropolitan graduates would never practice national martial arts.

In modern times, the smartest people are either scientists or officials; who would painstakingly practice national martial arts?

A group of people with limited cultural education, encountering phenomena they could not accurately describe for the time being, loved to stretch things in a mystical direction.

In the past, Peng Bing deeply detested this kind of behavior.

Back then, whenever he encountered such people, he would beat up every single one he saw. Consequently, Peng Bing's reputation in the country wasn't very good, which was one of the reasons he later went abroad for advanced studies.

"Chen Village? Isn't that the ancestral home of Chen-style Tai Chi? Did you meet Yang Luchan? Did you have an epic battle with him? Who won between you two? How many moves did it take you to defeat him?" asked Jiang Ju.

"What is the essence of national martial arts? Is there really a state where one 'sees the spirit and remains undamaged'? Is there really a 'path of ultimate sincerity'?" asked Ji Zhen.

"Can national martial arts... enhance male vitality?" Thinking of something unknown, a certain anonymous individual suddenly asked.

Listening to these increasingly absurd questions, Peng Bing didn't keep them in suspense any longer. "The so-called External Force and Internal Force are actually just hardness and softness."

"As a result, that group of people in Chen Village insisted on dragging yin and yang into it, even though they are neither the Heavenly Dao nor supreme deities."

"In the beginning, the founder might have said that simply to fool outsiders, but as it was passed down from generation to generation, those people actually ended up believing it."

"What is Internal Force? Striking across mountains to hit a cow is Internal Force. To put it bluntly, have you ever watched billiards? Every billiard player can use tools to strike across balls—that is essentially releasing Internal Force."

However, billiard players rely on tools to strike another ball across an intervening one, but when all is said and done, it is merely the transmission of force.

"Essentially, whether it is External Force, Internal Force, Transforming Force, or even the subsequent Elixir Force, they are all nothing more than the transmission of force."

"And the transmission of force strictly adheres to Newton's three laws of motion. Once you understand this, learning so-called national martial arts is as clear as viewing patterns on the palm of your hand—exceedingly simple."

"After I went to Chen Village, I fought through the entire village. Neither my generation nor the previous generation had a single match for me. In the end, Yang Luchan stepped forward. Possessing extraordinary talent and the ability to draw inferences from other cases, he actually managed to secretly learn the essence of various mimicry boxing styles just from watching our previous bouts. Even so, he was no match for me."

"In the end, the entire Chen Village acknowledged that they were no match for me, and then I miraculously became the Lord of the Void Realm. Perhaps this has something to do with Chen Village itself," Peng Bing said somewhat uncertainly.

"The sample size is too small to determine conclusively," Lu Zhou said instinctively.

"The mysteries of the Void Realm are infinite. Don't look at me; it's impossible for me to know everything," Xiong Yan said, waving his hand.

"I went to the world of *Dream of Archery* (Go Boy). The game of Go in that realm possesses a special mental technique—a method of spiritual cultivation that can enlighten the mind and strengthen the will during the process of playing chess."

"Later, I used the methods of mental settling, routine settling, and constant settling to exchange with Jiang Liuer, acquiring the most valuable and foundational Go-based mind-cultivation technique of that world."

By entrusting one's mind and will to the process of playing Go, the higher one's chess skill, the stronger and more resilient the mind becomes.

Although he didn't acquire Lin Xincheng's 'Great Harmony of Heaven and Earth' style, this most basic Go mind-cultivation technique was precisely what Great Xia needed the most.

"Although the Great Harmony of Heaven and Earth style is the most precious, its requirements must be extremely high. On the contrary, this basic mind-cultivation technique has the characteristic of being easily disseminable, making it far more significant."

"Later on, when you have time, write down this mental technique and try to disseminate it on a small scale. As for compensation, there will definitely be rewards." At this point, Xiong Yan looked at Chu Xuan.

Chu Xuan nodded seriously. "Six days from now, the Void Realm will be under our control for the first time and materialized into reality. By then, everything will be different."

"At the same time, seven days from now at the latest, we will move to the new base. By then, everyone's papers and research achievements will receive the compensation they deserve."

"Whatever you are owed, not a single bit will be missing!"

As soon as Chu Xuan said these words, the atmosphere at the scene instantly became much more cheerful.

Although everyone present was patriotic and had been through tests (in their past lives), patriotism did not mean a lack of personal desires.

It was already the year 1202; surely nobody still thought that scientists ought to be devoid of desires and completely selfless, harboring zero personal ambitions, right?

Surely not! Surely not!

"I went to a martial arts world this time—not a realistic place like Chen Village, nor a Void Realm evolved from a cartoon like *Dream of Archery*, but a genuine wuxia world," Changkong Daoren suddenly said.

"Yeah, yeah! We ran into a bunch of filthy scoundrels this time, and it was so satisfying slaughtering them!"

"The place we went to had only one sect, called the Tianlong Sect, and the sect leader was called Tian Guinong."

"Oh, you mean that 'Cao of Other Men's Wives'—no wait, the guy who steals other people's wives?"

"It wasn't really stealing; more like adulterers and fornicators, I suppose."

"What are you talking about? Wasn't that for the sake of love?"

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Be serious, be serious!

"Anyway, everyone in the Tianlong Sect wore Manchu-style queues, looked extremely hideous, and constantly squeezed the nearby commoners. So, we swung our blades swiftly and slaughtered to our heart's content!" Changkong Daoren explained.

"As I kept killing, I somehow became the Realm Master. It might affect the number of people who can enter the Void Realm subsequently, but some people are simply too wicked. The extent of their malice is even more hateful than the puppet collaborators of the past."

Changkong Daoren considered herself someone who had witnessed the darkness of the world. Having grown up during the Republic of China era, she had seen all sorts of puppet collaborators with extremely ugly postures.

Throughout her long life, the only people whose disgusting deeds could rival those collaborators were the enslaved servants under the Qing Dynasty rule.

What? You say some places abroad are also very wicked?

However, Changkong Daoren was a staunch Great Xia nationalist. She never cared about foreign lands being plunged into deep waters and suffering, and even if she encountered such things, she wouldn't take them to heart.

(End of this chapter)