Chapter 19 : Xiantian Art and Toad Style
Chapter 19 : Xiantian Art and Toad Style
Xiantian Art and Toad Style
My book? Printed?!
Chu Tianxing's spirits immediately soared.
In this world, while digital reading was developing rapidly with a bright future ahead, smartphones hadn't hit the market yet.
People were still accustomed to reading online using computers; they hadn't reached that convenient era where everyone used a smartphone to read e-books.
So traditional paper books still dominate the market here.
The income from physical publishing was way higher than the electronic subscriptions that were just getting started.
But for Chu Tianxing, how much money he could make was actually secondary.
This would be his first-ever physical publication!
This means would his cheat system give him some massive gift package to celebrate!
After physical publication, the novel's influence would spread from the internet to offline, reaching even more readers. The more fans he had, the more willpower his cheat system could harvest, and the greater benefits Chu Tianxing would receive.
Finally, if the influence of the physical publication continued to expand and it was noticed by a film and television company and adapted into a series…
Chu Tianxing could hardly imagine what kind of amazing stuff the cheat system's gift packages might give him.
But there was one thing he had to clarify.
"Flower of the Eastern Depot, I'm wondering if the physical publication will affect the online releases? While I’m thrilled about getting a print book, I don’t want the online release to take a backseat."
Flower of the Eastern Depot quickly replied, "Rest assured, there won’t be any impact at all. Even after publishing the physical book, you can still serialize online. But since you update so fast, it'd be best to go premium soon to avoid hurting the publisher's interests too much."
It had only been a week since he started the book, and Chu Tianxing had already published 120,000 words of main text and was still serializing the free version at a rate of ten thousand words a day.
The scale at which he published the free version online would definitely impact physical book sales to some degree.
Chu Tianxing understood this. As long as physical publication didn't interfere with online serialization, going premium soon was acceptable.
So he replied to Flower of the Eastern Depot, "How about this, once this Editor-in-Chief’s Recommendation feature is over, and the main text reaches two hundred thousand words, I’ll go premium?”
Flower of the Eastern Depot sent back a big smiley face. "Perfect."
Once business concluded, Chu Tianxing chatted casually with Flower of the Eastern Depot for a bit. When he heard the front door lock clicking, he knew Qin Ling had come to cook dinner. He wrapped up the chat, closed his computer, and walked out with a smile.
Seeing Chu Tianxing grinning from ear to ear and glowing with radiance, Qin Ling couldn’t help but shoot him a puzzled look. "Why are you grinning like that? Did something good happen?"
Chu Tianxing laughed. "Yeah, something good did happen. Remember that miracle I told you about? Well, to be honest, I really did find one of Thunder God Yu Jiang's Creation Pills. ‘A golden pill I swallowed whole, now my fate is mine to control!’”
Qin Ling rolled her eyes at him. "There you go again with your tall fairytales!"
Chu Tianxing just laughed heartily without saying more. He took the large plastic bag from her hands and headed to the kitchen to help out.
During dinner, Qin Ling noticed his right index finger was coated with medicinal wine and couldn't help but ask, "What happened to your finger?"
Chu Tianxing told her the truth. “I overdid it while cultivating a finger technique and strained the muscles a bit. But it’s not a big deal. It should heal up quickly.”
Qin Ling gave him another pretty eye-roll, not even bothering to make a sarcastic retort.
Chu Tianxing knew she wouldn't believe him right now.
But this was all part of him laying the groundwork.
When the tournament came around and he made a stunning debut that shocked everyone, Qin Ling would naturally remember all this setup.
Early morning.
While Chu Tianxing was grinding away at his writing, a light screen dropped down in front of his retina.
"Congratulations! Your novel has topped both the Weekly Click Rankings and Recommendation Rankings. You've received your First Time in Life Topping Click Rankings Gift Package and First Time in Life Topping Recommendation Rankings Gift Package. Would you like to open them?"
Chu Tianxing had expected to top both charts.
The novel’s quality was solid, the update speed was explosive, and he was one of those notorious ‘2k-ers’ who published more chapters for the same word count. Plus he'd gotten the Editor-in-Chief's strong recommendation that afternoon. Topping both charts was only natural.
He'd opened plenty of gift packages before, even getting the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms and Finger Flicking Divine Skill. Getting two more chart-topping packages couldn't excite him as much as before.
But Chu Tianxing knew that days like these would probably only happen once.
Most of the packages he'd been getting were "First Time Whatever" packages.
It felt like the cheat system pitied him and was compensating for his ten years of being a failed author.
Later, when he starts new books and climbs the ladder, there will probably be no more of these "first-time " packages.
But even without these packages for his future books, as long as the books were hits and gained readers' recognition and support, the cheat system could harvest willpower and help Chu Tianxing grow stronger.
Whether there were packages or not didn't really matter.
When Chu Tianxing calmly opened the packages, even he, who was already used to surprise, couldn’t help but feel moved when he saw what came out.
"Obtained Internal Art: Xiantian Art. Obtained Martial Art: Toad Style."
Xiantian Art!
The fundamental internal art of Wang Chongyang, the greatest of the Five Greats, the world's number one, the Central Divine.
(TL Note: In Jin Yong’s series, the Five Greats represent the Five Cardinal Directions. Eastern Heretic Huang Yaoshi. Western Venom Ouyang Feng. Southern Emperor Duan Zhixing. Northern Beggar Hong Qigong. And Central Divine Wang Chongyang)
This Xiantian Art could cultivate Innate True Qi, making internal energy circulate endlessly and regenerate continuously. In other words, it granted super-strong endurance and super-long battery life.
It could also unlock human potential, even developing one's sixth sense to its limits. Mastering this skill might grant mysterious abilities like “Precognition.”
Although Chu Tianxing already had the "Intuition" talent that let him sense and avoid danger, if he practiced Xiantian Art, his Intuition talent would definitely become even stronger.
The External Refinement Section of the Muscle-Transforming & Bone-Tempering Chapter Chu Tianxing had gotten could generate internal energy from external practice, and the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms could also naturally produce internal energy; neither constituted a specialized internal cultivation discipline.
The External Refinement Section of the Muscle-Transforming & Bone-Tempering Chapter was more focused on transforming the muscles and tempering the bones to strengthen one’s physique.
The Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms were essentially combat techniques, the arts of battle and killing.
So while Chu Tianxing had already generated internal energy from external practice, both the quantity and quality of his internal energy weren't great. His internal energy was relatively mediocre compared to his increasingly formidable physique and gradually refined martial techniques.
The Xiantian Art perfectly filled this gap.
Even better, Xiantian Art was an authentic Daoist discipline.
It cultivated Innate True Qi and unlocked the body’s potential through a method that was balanced, harmonious, and not at all extreme. Even if higher realms made Xiantian Art outdated later, he could smoothly transition to practicing more advanced internal arts.
Xiantian Art came from the Central Divine Wang Chongyang.
On the other hand, the famous Toad Style came from the Western Venom Ouyang Feng. It was one of Ouyang Feng’s ultimate trump cards, a technique balanced in both offense and defense with might on par with the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms.
Its only flaw was that the moves were too plain and unrefined, and its stances were extremely inelegant.
"I'd better not use Toad Style in public... I've got the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms and Finger Flicking Divine Skill anyway. I can practice Toad Style as a hidden trump card, but unless absolutely necessary, I won't use it to avoid damaging my image..."
Chu Tianxing muttered to himself, then unhesitatingly learned both Xiantian Art and Toad Style.
With this, he had now collected the ultimate arts of four of the Five Greats. Only the Southern Emperor’s One Yang Finger was still missing.
Any one of these many ultimate techniques would be enough for someone to benefit from for life.
Those without sufficient martial arts talent couldn't even master one ultimate technique properly. Being greedy would definitely lead to biting off more than they could chew.
But Chu Tianxing was different.
He was someone with a golden finger.
As someone with a cheat system, how could there be anything he couldn’t learn or master?
That night, Chu Tianxing didn't sleep.
He replaced his sleep with practicing the Xiantian Art all night.
This night of cultivation didn't make his internal energy surge dramatically.
In fact, the amount of internal energy he had originally cultivated in his Dantian had actually decreased by a great deal.
However, while the quantity of internal energy decreased, its quality improved tremendously, becoming much more refined.
What surprised Chu Tianxing even more was that while practicing the Xiantian Art, he vaguely sensed a mysterious aura around his body. An aura that seemed to contain extremely powerful energy.
This aura was ethereal and mystical. Though he could sense it, it was elusive and impossible to grasp.
This left Chu Tianxing quite puzzled.
"Is this the legendary Spiritual Qi? But Spiritual Qi... should be only available to those who were at the pinnacle of the Inner Force realm, right? According to research, the appearance of supernatural martial arts was related to the Spiritual Qi Revival."
Spiritual Qi was a mysterious energy that no technological instrument could detect.
It did not participate in any physical phenomena or chemical reactions, and it had no effect whatsoever on the development of technology.
But its influence on living beings was undeniably real.
It was precisely because of Spiritual Qi’s revival that supernatural martial arts appeared.
But even those born with special constitutions who could vaguely sense Spiritual Qi couldn't directly touch it.
They had to cultivate to the pinnacle of the Inner Force Realm before they could truly sense Spiritual Qi's presence and attempt to actively contact and guide Spiritual Qi into their bodies, condensing a "True Qi Seed."
Of course, this did not mean that only those at the peak of the Inner Force Realm could utilize Spiritual Qi.
In fact, Spiritual Qi's influence on living beings was everywhere.
Without Spiritual Qi, martial artists couldn't possibly cultivate internal energy.
But before reaching the pinnacle of Inner Force Realm, even those with exceptional talent could only vaguely sense Spiritual Qi's existence and passively accept its influence.
Yet Chu Tianxing, who had only opened two meridians and could already sense the mysterious aura that was suspected to be Spiritual Qi.
“Is this the influence of the Xiantian Art? Does Xiantian Art have the function of sensing Spiritual Qi?"
Chu Tianxing pondered to himself.
"Hmm, Xiantian Art didn't originally exist in this world. It was originally just fictitious martial arts. My cheat system condensed those willpowers and turned the fantasy into reality.”
"That means I shouldn't simply view it as the Xiantian Art from The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Not only does it have all the characteristics of the original Xiantian Art, it might also contain abilities that the original did not!”
“Following that line of thought, does that apply to all my skills too?”
"Can the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms really produce flying dragon special effects? Can the Finger Flicking Divine Skill shoot bullets of light? Toad Style... never mind. Even the Fire Cloud Evil God's Toad Style, it's still ugly as hell..."
(TL Note: He talks about the Toad Style of the villain in Kung Fu Hustle)
Chu Tianxing originally thought that these Five Greats-level martial arts would at most help him build a foundation in the Inner Force Realm.
He thought that if he advanced to the True Qi realm in the future, they might become obsolete and not useful.
But now, it seemed that the Five Greats-level martial arts might have great potential in the future.
"Looks like I can't underestimate any fantasy martial art materialized by my cheat system... Even if the cheat gave me Five Tigers Breaking the Gate Saber someday, I'd have to take it seriously. What if it could upgrade into a divine skill that produces five white tigers with one slash and annihilates an entire clan? Such possibilities cannot be ruled out…”
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