Volume 2, Chapter 71 – Challenge

Among all the scriptures Bai Xiang had obtained, The Tiger-Subduing Arhat Scripture had a special place of its own.

Setting aside the unique classic of The Startling-Spirit Cicada Demon Scroll, that “sows in cicada song, awakening through resonance”, only The Tiger-Subduing Arhat Scripture was an original author’s manuscript. Every line and every torn page carried lingering spiritual will, which could still be sensed by one’s spirit-soul even after a hundred years.

Bai Xiang had been studying this scripture for quite some time. She had gained a lot from the attached Spirit Tiger Heart-Vessel Chart, and just this morning she’d gone further, extracting its essence and innovating on it, creating a route for the qi Dao to reach Embracing the Core.

She had originally thought that was the limit. After all, The Tiger-Subduing Arhat Scripture really wasn’t an orthodox classic of Benling Sword Dao, but a method carried off by a portion of the Dao-folk before Benling Sword Dao had evolved into its complete form, when they split from the main line.

So it had to be flawed.

On the one hand, it lacked the most crucial Demon Pool Visualization Chart needed to cultivate and nourish a Demon Pool.

On the other hand, that set of fist techniques, that set of staff techniques, and that set of sword techniques all looked extremely showy and overcomplicated, with many movements that were quite redundant.

This was understandable—many ancient martial arts had similar issues. In ancient times, information didn’t flow easily. Various Dao grounds and martial halls, if they wanted to attract disciples and make a living, had to make their moves look good. Only by first dazzling half-informed commoners and outsiders with fancy forms would those people be willing to pay and bow as disciples, allowing the Dao grounds to keep operating.

But at the end of the day, it was only understandable. Bai Xiang had no interest in these three sets of martial arts. Even just the sword techniques among them, in her eyes, were far inferior to her family’s inherited Shenming Sword.

They were useless.

Maybe in ancient times, in the environment where that branch of Fuhu Temple existed—maybe among the ancient “swamp-slaves”, or some other western kingdom—these flashy martial arts had helped them take root more easily. But today, they were worthless.

She hadn’t expected that she would have misjudged them.

She hadn’t expected the Demon Pool Visualization Chart she’d written off as “not included” to actually be hidden inside those three sets of martial arts.

Opening her eyes, Bai Xiang immediately heard a wave of exclamations rise from the field.

She followed the sound and looked toward the platform, catching sight of the dark-skinned, shaved-headed youth Bolou and Xia Ran, their swords clashed together.

The former had a shallow cut on his cheek, with blood at the wound and at the corner of his mouth. Aside from that, there were no visible injuries on his body. He was almost in peak condition.

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The latter—Xia Ran—looked far more miserable. Just on the visible side of his face there were six cuts. Blood was spraying from his shoulder, left forearm, left waist, and left leg… and that was only because the angle kept her from seeing the other side of his body.

On top of that, he wasn’t using his left hand to help grip the sword. The five fingers of his left hand were twisted into an abnormal shape, likely broken in a clash. He could only support the sword with the base of his palm and his tiger’s mouth, practically making a last-ditch struggle.

Even so, his performance was already pretty good.

Before her enlightenment, Bai Xiang hadn’t really understood how terrifying the combined boost of the Benling Tiger Soul and the Earth-Heart Stance was. But after her sudden enlightenment, after truly accepting the inheritance of The Tiger-Subduing Arhat Scripture, she now had a clear sense of these two supreme martial arts of Fuhu Temple.

From the intent branded by the scripture’s author, and from the temple history it contained, Bai Xiang learned that Fuhu Temple’s founder had been Chan Master Jingling.

That was the Dharma name he’d chosen for himself. “Jing” meant purification, “ling” pointed to Nanling. Upon hearing news that tiger demons were ravaging the southern region, he had deliberately thrown himself into the demon-slaying cause. Relying on his martial arts and blazing hot blood, he’d established the foundations of the temple. The name “Fuhu Temple” had also come from him.

There was no doubt that the martial art Chan Master Jingling was best at was the Earth-Heart Stance.

The Earth-Heart Stance was an extremely special martial art. Its so-called use of “earth heat” actually referred to the metallic toxins buried in ore sands. Its principles were similar to the “iron sand palm”: through cultivation, storing metallic toxins within the body, then erupting them through physical contact when striking.

At first glance, it didn’t sound impressive at all. Anyone with basic scientific common sense knew this absolutely belonged to self-harming martial arts. Practiced long-term, not only would it never lead to enlightenment and ascension, it even carried the risk of overdrawn lifeforce and sudden death.

But this was an ancient method.

In that era, all ancient methods suffered from the same question: how to condense an outer Aspect. Humans had heart-flow power but couldn’t manifest it, leaving them stuck at the bottom of the food chain in the outer landscape, with no choice but to seek help from the Sword Dao.

The Earth-Heart Stance might have been the first martial art to cultivate an outer Aspect by digging into one’s own latent potential. Even if the so-called “earth heat” and the Earth-Heart Stance’s tempering effect on the body were almost negligible, it still proved its power and uniqueness.

At the very least, it had been a great attempt.

To have invented the Earth-Heart Stance, Chan Master Jingling’s cultivation talent was beyond doubt. But he knew full well that just having this method wasn’t enough. The conditions for cultivating the Earth-Heart Stance were extremely harsh; it was a method that picked its people. If he couldn’t capture enough Benling Tigers to study before his body burned out, Fuhu Temple of Nanling would quickly be worn down and destroyed by Aberrations. They couldn’t afford the losses of a war of attrition.

So he chose to use his own life to fix the outcome.

In that battle, the tiger demons of Nanling gathered nearly all their strength. Led by a giant tiger, they attacked Fuhu Temple, wanting to slaughter this troublesome group of monks in one stroke.

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At the critical moment, Chan Master Jingling was blessed with enlightenment. When he threw his life on the line and smashed into the giant tiger’s chest, he accidentally—and yet not by accident—struck another mysterious thing into its body along with the “earth heat”.

At once, the scene before his eyes changed.

It was as if he’d suddenly gained another viewpoint—he had become the giant tiger, looking down on the human world as a tiger king.

From the outside, this reversal made it look as though the giant tiger had converted to Buddhism the instant it met him, turning around to fight side by side with Chan Master Jingling.

One man and one tiger, one human and one demon, yet both steered by the same spirit. By the end, their two bodies were almost indistinguishable. Human blood and qi wrapped around the demon body, while the demon’s demonic aura poured back into the human body. Man and demon merged into a single mass of qi-sha, the human form wielding the tiger soul, the tiger soul empowering the human body. All four divine abilities were centered on the Earth-Heart Stance, moving freely like an arm at one’s command, truly fused into a supreme martial art—Tiger-Subduing Arhat Stance!

The power of a perfected Tiger-Subduing Arhat Stance could only be described as explosive. The flesh was as tough as a towering pagoda of iron, strength inexhaustible, movement agile, and on top of that it wielded all four divine abilities: sword birthing sound and wind, one glance to suppress souls. In gaming terms, it was an all-round monster with no weaknesses in physical defense, magic defense, physical DPS, or magic DPS at all!

Its strength was beyond question.

But it also had one flaw—sudden death.

After winning that decisive, blood-soaked battle, Chan Master Jingling died only a few days later.

He could have lived another month or more, but he chose instead to burn his life to sort out everything he’d learned—Earth-Heart Stance, Benling Tiger Soul, all of it. Only after finishing this would he rest easy.

Before he died, he called for his most trusted disciple, Suizhen, and instructed him that after his death, Suizhen was to travel north to Yujing, learn the Forge the Sword Method from Yuming Dao, and from then on bring tiger demons into the sword. The captured tiger cubs he’d left behind could serve as practice.

Chan Master Jingling passed everything to Suizhen, including the Earth-Heart Stance and the Tiger-Subduing Arhat Stance born from the fusion of Earth-Heart Stance and Benling Tiger Soul.

He warned Suizhen: this method must never be lightly activated! Once it was, the whole body would become a great sun furnace, and all of one’s vital blood and essence would be burned just to sustain the power. When the blood and essence ran dry, one would die on the spot!

Suizhen wasn’t his master’s equal in cultivation, but he was very obedient.

After burying Chan Master Jingling, he did exactly as he’d been told. First, he learned the Forge the Sword Method and shaped the initial form of Benling Sword Dao. Then he led Fuhu Temple to recuperate and grow, like a nail driven firmly into Nanling.

He truly did not use the supreme martial art.

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Not just the Tiger-Subduing Arhat Stance—he even shelved the Earth-Heart Stance itself.

Because Fuhu Temple now had a complete Forge the Sword system, they no longer needed to practice such a self-harming method to subdue demons.

The turning point came fifty-four years later, the eightieth year after Fuhu Temple’s founding.

Fuhu Temple’s demon-slaying was gradually bearing fruit. People began to gather in the south, and word spread through countless mouths until Yujing heard of what had happened in Nanling. The Imperial House was moved, and they wished to open the lands of Nanling as the Ninth Province, bringing Fuhu Temple into the ranks of the Mountains-and-Rivers Dao Grounds as the Ninth Dao.

This was a tremendous bestowal, and the best recognition the temple could receive for all its hardship. When the news arrived, all the monks of the temple fell to their knees in tears—only Suizhen alone fell silent.

“Nanling may be at peace, but the chaos of the world is not limited to Nanling alone.”

He announced to the monks that he did not intend to accept the imperial favor, but would instead gather a group of like-minded people and press further into the southwest, thereby carrying out his master’s will.

But that was only a lie and a façade.

By then, Suizhen was already old. His face was covered in wrinkles, his body exuded an unpleasant old-man stench. He could feel his lifeforce leaking away with every moment, and he couldn’t accept just dying like that.

For years he’d been studying Chan Master Jingling’s martial notes. He believed the Earth-Heart Stance hid a secret that could tear the spirit-soul apart, and that if it were combined with Benling Tiger Soul, using the “Suppress” divine ability within the tiger soul’s inborn talents, he might be able to split off the self and seize another body.

He knew that even in Great Yu back then, such thinking was utterly insane. Never mind that Yujing would never allow it—even the other monks of Fuhu Temple wouldn’t allow it.

So he had to leave.

He had to go to the southwest, to small countries without great powers sitting in town, and secretly turn his idea into reality.

After understanding all this, Bai Xiang felt a touch of emotion.

Suizhen had absolutely been a worthy disciple. In those five-plus decades he’d held the temple, he’d been conscientious and hands-on.

Yet even such a realized high monk would still change his mind at the brink of death, almost throwing himself recklessly into the search for the immortal road of longevity, not caring in the slightest whether it was an evil path.

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Why?

No other reason—just the desire to live.

As for why she knew all this so clearly—

It was because the author of The Tiger-Subduing Arhat Scripture was Suizhen himself.

“Bang!”

Her thoughts were broken off as a figure flew from the platform, barely managing to land on his feet amid a chorus of gasps and groans.

The outcome had been decided.

Bai Xiang let out a long, turbid breath.

She was just about to turn her head to look for Xiang Xian when she realized those gasps hadn’t stopped. Instead, the crowd all around was turning their gazes toward her, one after another looking in her direction.

What do they mean by this…?

She froze for a moment, then quickly looked back at the platform, only to see Bolou holding his greatsword one-handed, the tip of the blade aimed from afar straight at her.

“I’ve heard that, besides Benling Dao and Shangqing Dao, there is another true-lineage disciple of the Nine Daos here.”

Bolou spoke, his voice like muffled thunder.

“I don’t want to take advantage of the people of Yu.”

“You, come up and let me see the true Yuming arts.”