Wulin : Martial Heroes

Chapter 41: Mysterious Sect

Li Xin continues reading the introduction page. The introduction page is long and covers a lot. By now he is already at the third page.

[At that time, Li Shimin, the future Taizong had always admired Li Jing and has always been impressed with Li Jing abilities.

He admired Li Jing prowess in martial skill and appreciated Li Jing strategies in war.

At the execution site, as he was about to be executed by Li Yuan, Li Jing yelled to Gaozu

‘You, duke, rose in order to eliminate tyrannical rule for the people. You are not concerned about what is important, but instead are executing a brave man on account of personal enmity!’

Li Yuan hearing this was very impressed by Li Jing words and Li Shimin interceded on Li Jing behalf

Li Yuan under the persuasion of Li Shimin released Li Jing, and Li Shimin soon gained the loyalty of Li Jing.

He serves the Tang dynasty defeating a lot of foreign enemies.

At the same time, with each conquest and each victory, Li Jing grew powerful both in his attainment of internal energy and his martial arts technique.

The name of the technique that he had practiced is lost to history but many of the martial arts world old records do recorded that Li Jing practices a very powerful martial art.

After all, every once in a while, the martial arts world does clash with the imperial government and so it is not long before Wulin knows that in the imperial court of Tang dynasty, there is a great martial artist that could fight evenly with people of Wulin

Li Xin reading this ponder a question

‘It seems that this world is really different from my world. the general direction is the same however it is a bit different in some details’ he thought to himself.

There is many mention in the introduction page of the manual about Li Jing and each introduction shows that Li Jing is not purely a man of the court.

In his youth, he also travelled Jianghu and made a name for himself. Even though, it is not mentioned, Li Xin could read through the lines.

Li Jing prowess in battlefield is also attributed to his prowess in martial arts. And yet, the page did not write about who is Li Jing teacher.

This is very unusual.

It seems during the late years of Sui dynasty and the early years of Tang dynasty, Li Jing had made his name resound in both Wulin and outside of it.

Yet, no one seems to know who his formal teacher and who taught him martial arts. Though Li Xin suspect that the one that teaches Li Jing is precisely that suspected beaded man.

Yan Wudi. Li Xin did not know who this man is.

He knows of Wagang Army and he knows the name of Zhai Rang and Li Mi. This is famous figures that fight for the throne after the death of Emperor Yang of Sui

And of course Li Xin read it from the game encyclopedia. That is why he knows those names.

But Yan Wudi? Is he a figure of the court? Or is he of Wulin? Who is he?

It seems that whoever wrote this introduction pages, have respect for this person called Yan Wudi.

And the way the writer write Qianbei in front of the Yan Wudi names, means he regarded himself as junior generation.

Li Xin felt that all of this information is very helpful to him.

He continues reading

[ Li Jing during the battle against Eastern Tujue won a great victory and was granted the title Duke of Dai.

However, tall trees attract wind even if they do not move.

Li Jing now hold s great power in court and in the military, one of the most celebrated officials in the Tang dynasty.

Wicked people could not stand it.

When he returned to the capital after the great victory, the imperial censor Xiao Yu accused Duke of Dai of allowing his soldiers to plunder the Eastern Tujue treasury.

In thus humble person opinion, this is when the Duke decided to create the manual that is also known as the Scroll of Eternal Life]

Li Xin could see that whoever wrote this introduction page seems to want people who read this manual to know the history of this scroll.

And it is clear that whoever wrote this admired Duke Jingwu of Wei very much.

He likened the imperial censor as wicked man and seems to be on the side of the Duke.

‘This person clearly has a bias’ he thought to himself

Li Xin believe the writer is a man. It is simply because at this ancient era, literacy is still not as good as it is in the modern world.

And there is also the fact that good woman is consider the woman who read the Virtues of Woman and not studying with scholars.

Li Xin continues reading and the first few sentence shows this person inference.

It seems even this person did not quite know the time of creation for this manual so this person wrote a few of his thoughts.

[ The Imperial Censor believed that the Duke had plundered the wealth of the nobles family of Eastern Tujue.

However, many of those who knows the story of the Eternal Life Manual believe that Li Jing, when he plunders Eastern Tujue, what he plundered was not gold or silver. But instead he had plundered the supreme martial arts of Eastern Tujue.

During the era of Gaozhu and Taizong, Eastern Tujue had many great warriors and powerful martial artist

Even in the early years of Tang dynasty, the Tang dynasty had to compromise many times because of Eastern Tujue.

Li Jing as someone that fought in the forefront of the battlefield against these warriors could not help but admire many of them even if he did not show it openly.

Li Jing is said to have been very interested in martial arts of the Eastern Tujue. Eastern Tujue martial arts is a combination of body strengthening martial skill with skills like riding horses and fighting agilely.

The three great mountain do not share their manuals with the common people. Those who wanted to seek powerful martial arts had to bow their heads to the three mountains.

Li Jing had always been vocal about this. He did not like that the three great mountain monopolizes the martial technique of the world

Open minded, the Duke sought to learn other martial skill. It is said that he integrated the martial skill of the Eastern Tujue people with his martial skill

Many believes that it was after the victory Li Jing had against the Eastern Tujue that he began creating the Scroll of Eternal Life.

It is said that at this point of his life, Li Jing is proficient enough to create his own martial arts and one of the most enduring myths about the Scroll was that Li Jing combined his martial arts that he had learned from the bearded man with the Eastern Tujue supreme martial arts to create a new kind of martial arts.

After reading this book, I, truly support this assumption.]

Li Xin was surprised at this. It seems that Li Jing manages to fuse two different kind of martial arts

Li Xin knows that this is not easy.

The reason is because he had experience in doing so. But what he did is not derived from his ability but using the system ability

For example, his lightness skill. The reason why his lightness skill is so powerful is because he learns many lightness skills in the beginning

Most of it is basic lightness skill. He then raised all of it to grandmaster rank. And then modify it. There is a reason why he modified it.

Because some skill could not be fused without raising its ranks. To fuse two different skills, it must be compatible with each other.

And there is many other requirements.

And for Li Jing to be able to do it, the martial skill that he practiced must be something that is different from others

He then keeps reading. He wanted to know more

________________________________________

 [ However, this scroll would not be considered a supreme martial skill if it only included the fusion of the Eastern Tujue martial skill.  Li Jing was a great general that fought against the country that borders the Tang. And all of those countries also have their own martial arts

There is a great Empire Daqin (Rome) with dark haired people and olive skinned. Their martial skill is different and varied. They practiced not their inner energy but their body and their mind, their military method is united and powerful

Ten thousand way of Heavens, ten thousand paths. There are many martial skills in the world and Li Jing knows it, that there is no end to learning

If he only fused the teaching of Eastern Tujue, this scroll would not have been so revered among the people of Wulin.

But when did the Duke created the Scroll? These are the question that myself and my colleague had been thinking.

I believe that it happened after the campaign of Tuyuhun.

During the campaign of Tuyuhun, Li Jing rebuked Gao Zhengsheng for arriving late.

Gao and official Tang Fenyi accused Li Jing plotting treason. The matter was investigated thoroughly and Taizong pay great attention to this matter

The evidence was found lacking and Gao and Tang were exiled.

Taizong wanted to execute Gao because of the false accusation but the other officials pleaded that Gao Zhengsheng had contributed to Emperor Taizong ambush at Xuanwu Gate against Li Jiancheng.

Taizong remember old affection relented and only exiled Gao. This is probably the moment that there is a crack of trust between the Emperor and Li Jing

It is more appropriate to think of it as the Duke felt wary of the Emperor.

From this point, Li Jing refuse to receive guest and he even did not see his relative often, absent in many public meeting

It was at this moment, that many martial artists believed that the Duke was writing the Scroll of Eternal Life

Many people that have studied the history of this manual from our sect, that the creation of the Scroll is not only because Li Jing had gained the suspicion of Taizong but also because the Duke wanted to write and crystallize his own understanding of martial arts derived from all the martials arts technique that he had seen and learned

The Duke refusing to receive guest is probably a way to show the Emperor of his own loyalty, refusing to form a faction of his own in the court.

_____________________

Li Xin put down the book for a second as he is frowning. The reason he si frowning is because he read soemthing on that irndtcution page that made him fel “huh?’

It is not the story of the Duke that made him feel like that. It is one partciualre sentemndce

That sentence was “Many people that have studied the history of this manual from our sect- “

That is what made him feel a bit weird. He already deduced that the introduction page of the secret manual is not written by Li Jing. This is added afterwards. But the introduction page while clean, it shows that it is also has been long since it was added.

‘Aiie. This could not be that right? Right?’ he said to no one in particular. If Li Xin is right, then he is right now in that cliche trope of a protagonist of a wuxia story.

The story would probably goes like this. he found a secret manual. The secret manual recorded some powerful martial art skill.

The protagonist learns the skill and live carefreely in Jianghu.

That is how it should be.

But what usually happens in this kind of story, is that the secret manual itself hides another secret

And if he follows this secret, it would lead him to more and more conflict of the martial art world.

It is a simple word but that word stimulates Li Xin sense of danger.

‘Wherever I turn, there is always some kind of plot. I think I really am the protagonist’ he thought to himself

Of course this is not entirely bad for him. For Li Xin these kind of things is very good for him. After all, he does need quest to raise his points

But he still needs to be alive to claim it.

It is clear whoever wrote this introduction page had read the manual.

Whether this person managed to master it is another question but Li Xin is now sure that there is multiple people that read this manual.

And these people come from the same sect.

But which sect? And why leave an introduction page? What sect is so weird? Is it so noble that it wants people to practice this skill?

Li Xin shakes his head.

‘Whether this secret manual held more secrets or not, this is not the time for me to pursue it. If I am more powerful then I probably would not mind pursuing this matter’ he thought to himself

But right now he just wanted to make sure he could live first.

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Author Note

I usually dont post author note in the Note section because each time I did that, it would take too long to review. Maybe later when I have long things to say or I have time to space out the chapter release, I would use the Note function

Today is a bit long chapter so there is only one chapter for today. So, I could stock up more chapters for the rest of the month