Chapter 23 : There Is No Such Thing As Too Many Skills, Imperial Publishing House
Chapter 23 : There Is No Such Thing As Too Many Skills, Imperial Publishing House
There Is No Such Thing As Too Many Skills, Imperial Publishing House
"Opening the First 1200 Subscribers Gift Package. You’ve obtained the Jade Waves Palm Technique..."
"Opening the First 1000 Average Subscriber Gift Package. You’ve obtained the Flying Catkin Force."
***
"Opening the First 1500 Subscribers Gift Package. You’ve obtained the Falling Petals Divine Sword Palm..."
"Opening the First 1200 Average Subscriber Gift Package. You’ve obtained the Tendon-Retracting & Bone-Shrinking Art."
Seven o'clock the next morning.
When Chu Tianxing ended his meditation and opened his eyes, he opened the gift packages that had been delivered one after another to his inventory while cultivating. The items he unboxed had already started to reach the Five Greats-tier and Nine Yin Manual-tier techniques.
The Five Great from The Legend of the Condor Heroes was a master of a great many miscellaneous skills, not just their signature techniques.
Take Hong Qigong, for instance. Besides his famous Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms and Dog-Beating Staff Technique, he also knew the Carefree Fist, the Muddled Heaven Art, Copper Hammer Hands, Lotus Palms, Iron Broom Leg Technique, Rain of Petals, and a whole slew of other random skills.
Another example was Huang Yaoshi. Aside from his signature skills like the Void-Splitting Palm and the Finger Flicking Divine Skill, he also created the entire martial arts lineage of Peach Blossom Island, which included a series of advanced techniques starting with the entry-level Jade Waves Palm, Falling Petals Divine Sword Palm, Jade Flute Swordplay, Whirlwind Leaves Sweeping Leg, Orchid Acupuncture Point Brushing Hand, etc.
The other three were all just as well-rounded. Bare-handed combat, weapons, lightness skills, all sorts of fancy techniques, none of them relied on just their signature moves to get by.
Among them, Eastern Heretic and Western Venom, being the more artistically inclined ones, were both masters of sonic attacks using musical instruments. Northern Beggar came from humble origins so he couldn't play instruments, but he could still roar out sonic attacks with his booming voice.
Besides that, the Five Great-tier martial arts didn't just refer to techniques from those five specific people.
Iron Palm Gang Leader Qiu Qianren also had martial arts at a near-Five Great tier.
Old Urchin Zhou Botong had also created some techniques of his own.
These two guys' martial arts could also count as Five Great-tier techniques.
Which meant that if Chu Tianxing wanted to drain the entire playbook of every single top-tier master, he'd be opening loot boxes for a long, long time.
The Nine Yin Manual was the same deal.
The first volume focused on internal energy cultivation, but also included practical techniques like Flying Catkin Force, Tendon-Retracting and Bone-Shrinking Art, Soul-Shifting Grand Art, and a bunch of other useful skills.
The second volume emphasized combat techniques, all high-class stuff like Nine Yin White Bone Claw, Heart-Shattering Palm, White Boa Whip Technique, Great Demon-Subduing Fist Art, and more.
If he wanted to learn every single martial art recorded in the Nine Yin Manual, he'd need to open god knows how many gift packs for that too.
Anyway, Chu Tianxing figured that he might finally collect all the Five Great and Nine Yin Manual techniques by the time Condor Heroes was finished.
Chu Tianxing opened gift packs and learned martial arts with a completely flat expression.
Without even realizing it, he'd already mastered almost every minor character and second-rate technique from Condor Heroes.
He had basically unlocked and learned the skills of the entire roster of Jin Kingdom masters, such as Lingzhi Shangren, Peng Lianhu, Liang Ziweng, and Sha Tongtian. Meanwhile, the Five Great-tier and Nine Yin Manual-tier skills were now being unlocked one after another.
In terms of sheer breadth of martial knowledge, he was now in no way inferior to any of the Five Great.
It's just that his internal energy was still nowhere near enough to unleash the full potential of those techniques.
Having extensive martial knowledge naturally came with tons of benefits.
As long as you're not spreading yourself too thin, the more moves you know, the better you can adapt to whatever comes your way.
"I've certainly learned a lot of new techniques, but I can't really practice most of them properly. After all, I don't have any weapons at home... Hmm, maybe I could use a mop handle as a substitute for spears and staffs to practice the Yang Family Spear Technique and Demon-Subduing Staff Technique?”
"By that logic, I could also use a kitchen knife to practice saber techniques and a ruler as a sword to practice swordmanship. As for whip techniques... I'll just use a leather belt. The only problem is that there's not enough space at home. A lot of those big, sweeping moves probably can't be performed properly...”
"But then again, using a belt as a whip is barely workable, but a kitchen knife and a ruler are way too short to be a saber and a sword! The length is all wrong to begin with! And there's no way to practice hidden weapon techniques like the Rain of Petals. Maybe I should just make a trip outside and buy some proper gear?"
"In any case, I'll have to buy a musical instrument to practice sonic attacks like the Azure Sea Tidal Melody once I learn them anyway."
After a moment of deliberation, Chu Tianxing decided to risk another trip out to buy some gear.
But he wasn't planning to buy real weapons.
In a world where everyone knows martial arts, there's a world of difference between a fistfight and a knife fight. A guy in the Inner Force Realm can tank a palm strike from an equal because his internal energy acts like body armor. But if that guy took a stab wound or a slash wound from an opponent in a fight, it’s the same as having a gunshot wound in a knife fight.
That’s why, aside from law enforcement agencies like the Embroidered Uniform Guard, owning a cold or hot weapon is a hassle since you must have a certificate. You also had to pass psychological evaluations proving that you had no violent tendencies before you could legally possess cold weapons. And even then, you can only own blunted weapons.
Warriors under seventy years old also couldn't casually carry weapons in public spaces.
Take a look at the old lady that Chu Tianxing saw when he first woke up in this world. The sword she was using was blunted. For her to be able to bring a real sword to the park, she must have had the proper certification and been over seventy.
But here's the thing, for martial artists, blunted or not makes no difference for them.
A master could kill you just as easily with a wooden practice sword as a steel one. Take Tang Bohu as an example; he was able to kill the Evil Scholar with just a wooden pole without a spearhead. An Inner Force Realm martial artist with deep internal energy could do the same more easily.
That's why the Great Ming's cold weapon certification exams were incredibly strict, and the psychological evaluations were so brutally thorough that most people simply couldn't pass.
But ultimately, what really kept civilian martial artists in line and prevented them from abusing their power was the threat of the million-strong Embroidered Uniform Guard and other powerful law enforcement agencies cracking down on lawbreakers.
With laws that strict, you obviously couldn’t just walk into a store and buy a real sword. Not to mention if it's even available.
Even toy swords and knives were mostly made of harmless soft wood or plastic.
This made it tough for Chu Tianxing to buy suitable toy weapons for martial arts practices. Soft wood and plastic weapons were only good for little kids to play with.
A martial artist like him would break them after just a few swings.
Left with no choice, Chu Tianxing ended up buying several wooden mop handles to take home and carve into various weapons himself.
He also bought a box of embroidery needles to practice Rain of Petals.
He also bought an iron flute for when he'd eventually learn Jade Flute Swordplay and the Azure Sea Tidal Melody.
Iron flutes were great stuff - they weren't considered controlled weapons, so you could carry them around without certification.
The metal flute was the perfect loophole weapon. It wasn't illegal to carry, but it was tough enough to use for various weapon techniques, especially the matching Jade Flute Swordplay and the Azure Sea Tidal Melody.
This way, whenever Chu Tianxing went out in the future, he could carry a few coins in his pocket, a box of embroidery needles, wear a leather belt, and bring along an iron flute that made him look cultured and refined.
He'd seem completely harmless at first glance, but he'd actually be fully armed.
Talk about a major boost to personal security!
Once he finished his shopping, Chu Tianxing returned home.
He first dismantled the mops and then used a kitchen knife to carve and shape them, creating a rough saber, sword, and short spear.
During his shopping and weapon-crafting session, notifications kept dropping down on his system.
"Congratulations, you’ve gained 1800 subscriptions for the first time in your life. First Time 1800 Subscribers Gift Package obtained. Open now?”
“Congratulations, your average subscription has exceeded 1400 for the first time in your life. 1400 Average Subscriber Gift Pack obtained. Open now?"
His cheat system was like a relentless reward-dispensing machine. The gift packages never stopped coming, and he didn't even have to pay real money for them.
Apart from its complete lack of consideration for his feelings, Chu Tianxing was pretty satisfied with every other aspect.
He opened gift packages as soon as they arrived, and they all contained Five Great level or Nine Yin Manual tier martial arts.
Under the constant bombardment of refreshing gift packs, Chu Tianxing had been tempered to the point where his heart was as pure as ice, and he would remain unflustered even if the sky itself were to fall. A new Five Great and Nine Yin level technique could only make him smile faintly now.
He casually clicked to learn the newly acquired skill and tried a few moves before sitting at his computer. He then opened the Huan Kong Net and logged into his author dashboard to check his novel’s growth.
A message notification caught his eye the moment he checked his author dashboard. It was from his editor and he opened it.
"Skywalker, your novel passed the publisher's final review and has been approved for physical publication! I gave the publisher your DangDang ID, and they'll contact you soon to discuss the contract. Keep an eye out for friend requests!"
Chu Tianxing perked up immediately after reading it. He quickly logged into the DangDang account; sure enough, a friend request was waiting.
He clicked on the friend request. The accompanying verification message was concise and clear: "From the publishing house, regarding a contract."
His eyes then fell upon the applicant's username: “Editor-in-Chief of the Great Ming Imperial Publishing House.”
The account’s avatar showed a picture of a five-clawed golden dragon.
"Holy shit, Great Ming Imperial Publishing House? This is what she says when she knows a ‘friend’?!"
Chu Tianxing muttered to himself as he approved the friend request.
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