Chapter Thirty-Eight: Choosing a Technique

Typically, a dreadnought would have a crew of various kinds numbering around a thousand. Other ironclad ships would have fewer men. But for a fleet of eight ships, there would certainly be over four thousand people aboard. Of these, apart from those brave enough to stand on deck with rifles to repel boarders, most would be hiding behind the thick armor of the ship. When Huo Yuanjia and Geng Liangchen, carrying the magic swords bestowed by Lan Yi, boarded the enemy vessels...

Could they kill all four thousand? Or rather, with the magic swords and the power of their spirits, could two martial artists at the level of "Spirit Refinement" slay four thousand soldiers?

The answer is yes.

“An expert at the Human Aspect level, even in ancient times, would require the lives of two thousand elite soldiers to exhaust their spiritual force, even if surrounded by fire and steel. And as for those at the Dharma Aspect level, they could take the head of a general amidst a thousand troops and come and go as they please. Only an opponent of equal level, or a Human Aspect expert ready to risk everything, could hope to stop them.”

“In other words, to wear down a Human Aspect martial artist, unless you have the means to restrain them effectively, even if two thousand men die, at most the martial artist would feel a little dizzy and mentally fatigued.”

“But Daoist arts are different.”

At this moment, Lan Yi sat alone in his cabin, conserving his strength. Memories flashed through his mind of enlisting in the artificial divine realm, advancing in martial arts, and rising quickly to the rank of centurion thanks to his solid background and spotless reputation. His very first campaign was with an elite army sent to annihilate a martial sect that had defied the king’s orders.

That was Lan Yi’s first time witnessing martial artists standing against an army of tigers and wolves. To the common folk, those experts seemed as invincible as diamond-bodied arhats or celestial soldiers, possessing not only boundless strength, but also the ability to command wind, earth, and fire, to control water and condense ice, to wield thunderbolts, and to display all manner of supernatural abilities.

And yet…

The army rolled over them, and the martial sect, together with its ancestral patriarch, was reduced to ashes.

The state-sanctioned Daoists employed their arts to weaken the besieged martial artists one by one, until they were easily picked off. This was, of course, partly because the sect lacked experts above the Dharma Aspect, but it also revealed the unique advantage of Daoist arts.

Lan Yi never looked down on martial arts.

On the contrary, as a spiritual cultivator who practiced both Daoist and martial paths, he understood all the more keenly the terrifying heights that martial arts could reach.

The journey would take some time.

He made good use of it, listing out all the martial arts methods and resources he would need for his future cultivation by burning blank sheets of paper with the power of "Canghua."

As for Geng Liangchen and Huo Yuanjia, in Lan Yi’s estimation, so long as they didn’t act foolishly, even if they lost, they wouldn’t die. Martial artists at the Spirit Refinement level are not easily killed. Of course, if they were exceedingly unlucky and happened to be hit by a cannon shell, that would simply be the fortunes of war—no battle is without casualties.

Lan Yi’s attainments in martial arts were rather ordinary.

Of course, “ordinary” here was relative to the martial prodigies of his previous life. After all, martial arts relies heavily on innate talent, and many true skills demand extraordinary gifts.

Currently, Lan Yi’s cultivation in martial arts was at the level of Spirit Refinement, Human Aspect.

He had not systematically trained in martial arts. His Human Aspect cultivation was due first to his personal experience, which allowed his will, under the support of spiritual power, to manifest as a mental attack even without formal martial arts techniques. Second, "Canghua" had remade his primordial essence, so once his energy cultivation reached fruition, the Human Aspect was achieved naturally.

In essence, the martial cultivation of the Blue Demon was a byproduct of his Daoist practice; even his mental landscape was a wild, primordial field of thunder.

Three sheets of white paper floated in midair before Lan Yi.

At the top of each page was a bold title:

"Southern Holy Sect," "Divine Firmament Peak," "Northern Demon Sect"

These were the three great powers he had encountered in the artificial divine realm, and his Daoist arts largely originated from them. Unfortunately, though these sects’ names persisted, they had long since been destroyed, with only scattered legacies remaining. Lan Yi had searched for them many times, but always in vain.

Since his Daoist arts came from these three, Lan Yi intended to pick his martial path from their traditions as well.

The martial arts of the Northern Demon Sect were eliminated first.

The reason was simple: their true martial arts were too fragmented, and they relied heavily on the power of "Solar Gold," essentially a form of nuclear energy, to temper the body and unleash deadly attacks.

The power of Solar Gold was too domineering and extreme. If he pursued this path, Lan Yi would have to abandon Daoist arts in the early stages, for his life web and spiritual power would be damaged, and his fixed Daoist arts would be utterly destroyed.

Daoist arts were simply too convenient and useful. Lan Yi was not about to trade the greater for the lesser.

That left the martial legacies of the Southern Holy Sect and Divine Firmament Peak.

Here he encountered further difficulties. Some martial arts he remembered, but others, even if he recalled them, could not be practiced without the corresponding legacy techniques or the will-training rituals of predecessors—he would likely have to make a special trip into the artificial divine realm to obtain them.

“Truly, martial arts are troublesome,” Lan Yi murmured with a faint sigh, though his expression was calm and untroubled.

He had already made his choice.

The page for the Northern Demon Sect was instantly consumed by "Canghua," crumbling into drifting ash. Countless tiny characters on the two remaining pages, for Southern Holy Sect and Divine Firmament Peak, were swiftly blacked out, leaving only two martial arts:

Southern Holy Sect’s true legacy: “Dragon Sparrow Swallows the Whale Diagram”

Divine Firmament Peak’s true legacy: “Primordial Magnetism Star Technique”

Both these arts would not interfere with the operation of his life web or spiritual power, and each harmonized with Daoist arts: one focused on the use of innate vital energy, the other on tempering the mind’s inner landscape.

As for their killing power, both were about the same—useful for amusement before reaching the Void-training stage, more than enough for bullying the weak. If he returned to the main world and wished to act discreetly or avoid drawing attention, martial arts would actually be far more convenient than Daoist arts. Lan Yi himself was indifferent; he would use whichever served him best.

“The dragon sparrow is a divine creature, lost and abandoned in the dusty world. Its heart tranquil, never contending, it achieves nothing for a hundred years. But once stirred by the wind, sun and moon are silenced. Battling dragons and devouring whale bait, the winds and rains respond to its thoughts…”

As Canghua wrote, it suddenly paused.

Lan Yi tilted his head slightly.

At the door, the figure of Zhao Sikong appeared silently, ghostly and elusive; few but Lan Yi could ever notice his presence.

“Immortal Master, there’s been an incident,” he said.

“What is it?” Lan Yi inquired.

“A squadron has approached our vicinity—likely a detachment from the foreigners’ southern fleet, intending to launch a surprise attack on Puhai.”

“Go and deal with it,” Lan Yi ordered, knowing well that the foreigners planned to bombard the harbor, perhaps even the city itself. Since they had crossed his path, there was no harm in striking them down.

“As you command, Immortal Master,” Zhao Sikong bowed.

“Wait,” Lan Yi suddenly changed his mind. “I’ll go myself. This ship is far too stuffy; it’s a good chance to stretch my limbs and distribute some promotional material.”

By “promotional material,” Lan Yi meant those journalists and gentry who, regardless of their wishes, had been invited aboard the ironclads by the martial artists. The martial artists had long since provided enough of their own stories, but there was precious little about Immortal Master Lan Yi.

They couldn't keep filling the papers with trivial gossip about him, could they?

It was also the perfect opportunity for Lan Yi to test the synergy between his two martial arts and his Daoist techniques.