Chapter 136: Chapter 115: Supporting Sword Technique
Translator: 549690339
After turning his home into a barracks, Lu Yuan stayed in the camp and became a homebody.
Life returned to what it had been before, consisting of eating, sleeping, practicing martial arts, reading scriptures, and studying medical books.
The earlier practice schedule for Palm skills was gone.
After his previous five years of practice, the original 81 palm techniques of Cloud Palm had already been completed.
Through this, Lu Yuan successfully mastered a second-rate martial art.
However, at this point, he had reached the limit in terms of practicing. Before finding a new technique, there would be no breakthrough in combat skills.
Finding new martial arts techniques was not easy.
During the cleansing of Wugang County this time, Lu Yuan obtained several martial arts secret books, but they were all third-rate, or even lower-ranked techniques.
For him, these were meaningless.
It only served to increase his knowledge and enrich his collection of books on martial arts.
Moreover, even if it were a second-rate technique, its significance to Lu Yuan was minimal.
A complete martial art requires both the internal cultivation method and combat skills. Only by combining the two can a complete technique be formed.
Without the internal cultivation method or combat skills alone, it would not be possible to bring out the full potential of a martial art.
Just like Lu Yuan now.
He had already learned a first-class mental technique, but because he lacked the corresponding combat skills, he could only use Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra’s inner strength to practice the Cloud Palm.
Although both techniques were of the Daoist school, they ultimately belonged to separate martial arts, and there was a considerable difference in their concepts, techniques, and strength coordination.
Therefore, even though Lu Yuan could use his strong inner strength as a first-class martial artist to make the Cloud Palm technique more potent than ordinary second-class martial arts, it was still far from a genuine first-class martial art.
The simplest category.
A complete first-class technique could bring out a power of 10, while Lu Yuan’s configuration of combining a first-class internal strength with second-class combat skills could only bring out a power of 6 or 7 at most.
Although the gap was not too significant, it could still affect the outcome of a showdown between masters.
If six and seven could not beat ten, then they simply could not beat it.
This was the reason why Lu Yuan had always mocked himself as being only half a step into the first-class realm.
Compared to those who had a complete martial art, his first-class technique was truly like a lame man with only one leg – taking only half a step!
“So for now, I either need to find and transition to a first-class martial art or slowly research and create a set of techniques that match the Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra.”
After much consideration, Lu Yuan came up with these two conclusions.
However, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
How could a first-class technique be so easily found?
In the Jianghu, people with first-class techniques were prestigious sects, dominating their respective territories.
Not to mention the fact that first-class masters were incredibly powerful, capable of defeating a thousand opponents on their own. Even the smallest first-class force had thousands of disciples, and their power was immense.
With the little strength Lu Yuan possessed, how could he possibly snatch a technique from them?
“But… there might still be a chance.”
Thinking about stealing a technique, Lu Yuan thought of a target and couldn’t help but ponder, “Moreover, this technique should be very suitable for me. After all, it comes from the same school as Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra, which is a part of the Iron Sword Sect’s legacy.”
That’s right, he was talking about the Iron Sword Sect’s Tiejian Sword Technique.
Ever since he obtained the Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra, Lu Yuan had been paying close attention to the news of the Iron Sword Sect.
He did this both to guard against the Iron Sword Sect seeking revenge and to take advantage of the situation to obtain the technique that matched the Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra.
Having a first-class mental technique, how could any normal person not want to collect the corresponding first-class combat skills?
Thus, Lu Yuan had his eyes on the Iron Sword Sect early on.
Instead of finding any signs of the Iron Sword Sect seeking revenge on him, the Sect itself experienced major internal turmoil.
It turned out that ever since Sect Leader MO Baichuan came to power, there had been tension between him and some of the other sect members.
MO Baichuan was a strong-willed person with great ambitions. He wanted to reform the gradually declining Iron Sword Sect and revitalize it.
However, having been passed down for hundreds of years, the Iron Sword Sect had various factions and branches, each with its own interests.
MO Baichuan’s attempt at reforming the sect threatened these factions’ interests, which naturally caused many people to resent him.
Initially, with MO Baichuan being the only first-class master in the Sect, the various factions had to endure their dissatisfaction.
However, due to a duel with the Eagle King, MO Baichuan returned with severe injuries, and after struggling for two years, he eventually died.
Under such circumstances, the factions naturally celebrated.
The saying goes, “The teacher’s debt is repaid by the student, and fortune turns. ”
During MO Baichuan’s time, his faction had been arrogant and offended many people.
Now that their strongest supporter was gone, the miscellaneous factions naturally wanted to take revenge, settling both old scores and new grudges.
Members of MO Baichuan’s faction were not fools either. Sensing the situation, they began to prepare for a counterattack.
This led to the situation where many people from various forces of Jianghu flocked to Luling Mansion.
This was because MO Baichuan’s faction and others started calling upon friends and allies to help them gain victory in this struggle.
The outcome was clear.
MO Baichuan’s weakened faction was directly purged by other factions. MO Baichuan’s disciples were either killed or forced to flee, and the Iron Sword Sect was taken over by others.
It was said that in this internal conflict, over a hundred members of MO Baichuan’s faction died, as well as nearly a hundred members from other factions. Among them, five second-class masters were killed.
These were the core members of the Iron Sword Sect.
Their deaths directly led to a significant drop in the Sect’s strength, which almost fell from its first-class status.
But that wasn’t all.
During this internal conflict, MO Baichuan’s direct disciple took the Sect’s highest mental technique out of the Sect, causing the Iron Sword Sect to lose its only first-class mental technique.
Now, the Iron Sword Sect only had one first-class technique remaining, the Tiejian Sword Technique.
However, without the matching mental technique, the full potential of the sword technique could not be unleashed.
Although the Iron Sword Sect could still achieve impressive results using other second-class mental techniques, it was just like Lu Yuan- only being half a step into the first-class realm, unable to compare with a genuine first-class master..