Only at the Mahayana Stage Does the Reversal System Appear - Chapter 180

Chapter 180: Martial Arts Enlightenment

Undercurrents surged within Buwu City and a dozen nearby cities. Secret martial arts manuals promulgated by the Heavenly Kings were circulating in the city’s shadowy underbelly. In the black market, people eagerly sought out vendors selling aphrodisiacs, hoping to learn about other secrets and their origins.

Someone discovered that practicing the secrets found on the black market could prolong life even more effectively than the current ones.

People were eager to find out whether these were previously unseen secrets or just the ones destroyed by the Heavenly Kings.

However, the vendors seemed to appear and disappear out of thin air, leaving no trace.

“Why don’t you continue selling?” Abu was puzzled.

“If you can’t get what you want, people will become more eager. Let things fester for a few days,” Jiang Li explained. Then, turning to the training grounds, he shouted, “Old Bai, be gentle! You’re so old!”

Inside the Bu family training grounds, two figures flashed so quickly that Abu couldn’t even discern the clash.

“What old man? He is over three hundred years old, and I am over five hundred years old. Who is older?” Bai Hongtu said this, and his attack became more ruthless.

Facing Bai Hongtu, Bu Jing felt like facing a flood and a beast in ancient legends, and felt tremendous pressure.

Bai Hongtu suppressed his realm to the Nascent Soul stage and fought with Bu Jing. Even so, Bu Jing fought and retreated, unable to defeat him.

Both of them controlled their strength to the extreme, only against the enemy, and did not leak it. Otherwise, the battle between the Nascent Soul stage and the top of the world would not be something a small training ground could withstand.

When Bai Hongtu was in the Nascent Soul stage, he faced the seed players put forward by major forces. He won ten battles and never rested or got injured, shocking Jiuzhou.

“Master Bai, are all the Nascent Soul cultivators in Kyushu as powerful as you?”

Bu Jing fought with trepidation. The enemy’s tactics were endless, leaving him with only passive defense, unable to even find a chance to fight back. He hadn’t fought for three hundred years, his body stiff. With today’s battle, he felt his body gradually recovering, growing stronger. Even so, there was a visible, palpable gap between him and Bai Hongtu that he couldn’t overcome.

Isn’t it said that the peak of humanity corresponds to the Nascent Soul stage? How could the gap be so vast?

Bai Hongtu laughed heartily: “Hahaha, strong, right? Strong is right. I, Bai Hongtu, dare to rank second among Nascent Soul cultivators. No one dares to rank second…”

“I’m first.”

“I’m first.”

The inopportune voices echoed simultaneously. Jiang Li and Yu Yin reclined on recliners, sipping Thunder Tribulation Drink, as if on vacation.

They clinked their bowls, signaling their agreement.

Jiang Li and Yu Yin didn’t have the same impressive Nascent Soul record as Bai Hongtu.

Their only claim to fame was that they had both defeated Bai Hongtu, a Nascent Soul cultivator.

“…”

Bai Hongtu pretended he hadn’t said anything.

“Internal and external energy converge at the Dantian, and essence, energy, and spirit become one. It seems this is the philosophy of martial arts in this world,” Bai Hongtu commented pretentiously, as if he hadn’t just been slapped in the face.

“You two brothers are practicing the ‘Four Pillars to Support the Sky’ technique. It’s supposed to mean using your limbs as pillars to support the sky. When you shake them, the heavens and the earth shake. It’s a bit exaggerated, but it’s harmless and not bad at all.”

Bu Jing and Bu Dong felt a little embarrassed. Their family martial arts indeed had that idea.

Most martial arts manuals in the Huanyu world have names that are as imaginative as they can get. As far as Abu knows, there are also martial arts with names like ‘Chaos Creation Technique’ and ‘Reincarnation Destruction Technique’.

In comparison, their family martial arts names are relatively modest.

People name their martial arts for fun, not with the intention of shaking the heavens or destroying the world.

Who could have imagined that they would encounter a power that could truly shake the heavens and the earth? And three of them at once.

“You’re quite impressive! Few Yuanying-stage cultivators can match me for more than a hundred moves…” Bai Hongtu glared at Jiang Li and Yu Yin, who were about to interrupt, threatening them. “Please, give me some face! Don’t make me kneel down and beg you!”

“That’s certainly because I’m giving you a break, but it also demonstrates the immense potential of your world’s martial arts, especially yours as the pinnacle of the old martial arts.”

“But I’ve reached the limit of my martial arts. My internal and external energy flow seamlessly, my spirit, energy, and soul are condensed into a single thread, and my internal organs and meridians are balanced. I can’t take even a single step forward,” Bu Jing said dejectedly. He had been pondering how to break through the peak of the human realm, but he had no idea. In his impatience, he forced his way through, nearly killing himself.

Although three powerful beings came to his aid, helping them defeat the Twelve Heavenly Kings, he still wanted to kill one of them himself to avenge his parents.

But how could he, now, take on the Heavenly Kings?

“The end of the martial arts path?” Yu Yin gave a rare laugh. “Even the founding emperor of the Wu Kingdom, the immortal martial artist known for his martial arts, didn’t dare claim to have reached the end of the martial arts path. Yet, you dare to say there’s no way forward?”

Jiang Li also laughed. “The internal organs are called the inner view. If there’s an inner view, then where is the outer view? Since your body has been developed to its full potential, why not look up at the sky?”

Bu Jing looked up at the sky, struck by lightning, and muttered, “Heaven… the intersection of the inner and outer views… the stars and acupoints…”

Seeing Bu Jing enter a state of enlightenment, Bai Hongtu walked up to Jiang Li and Yu Yin and complained, “I’ve been teaching Bu Jing techniques for a long time. I was just about to give him some inspiration afterward, pretending to be a master, but you two are so quick-witted that you’ve blurted out everything I said.”

“I’m sorry,” Jiang Li apologized hypocritically.

“My brother…”

“He’s had an epiphany, or perhaps, he’s realized the truth.”

“Realized?” Abu wondered.

Jiang Li laughed heartily. “Yes, you’re right. Your brother has realized it.”

Martial arts concepts, ancient thought, countless martial arts manuals flashed through Bu Jing’s mind.

Were those martial arts names really just random creations, without the author’s imagination embedded in them?

And then there was Abu’s description of the might of the Nine Provinces cultivators.

So, humans could become this powerful, the stars weren’t out of reach, reaching for them like flowers was within human reach…

Bu Jing chewed on these thoughts, pondering them over and over again.

After a night, the dawn light shone across the earth, illuminating all of Bu Jing’s thoughts.

He leaped for joy like a child. He had already imagined what the next realm would be. He had figured it out.

He fetched pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and poured out his thoughts from the night before.

“Laojun, inspired by this, composed seven verses, explaining the body and the various gods. Above is Huangting, below Guanyuan; behind is Youque, and in front is Mingmen…”

Each exquisitely rhymed verse emerged on the rice paper. Just a few hundred words, it held the key to connecting the pinnacle of the human world with the subsequent realms.

The sutra was finished, but the title puzzled Bu Jing.

“I was inspired by the great powers and gained enlightenment through observing the starry sky. The kindness of the three great powers is greater than heaven, and the starry sky is my teacher of enlightenment. I should put it first, but ‘heaven’ doesn’t rhyme. Heaven is equivalent to Shangqing. The dantian is the core of the inner realm, which can be called Huangting. Above the pinnacle of the human world is the outer realm. This sutra connects the past and the future, linking the past and the future. Why not call it ‘Shangqing Huangting Waijing Sutra’!”

“Yes, it should be called ‘Shangqing Huangting Waijing Sutra’!”

Bu Jing laughed heartily.

(End of this chapter)