Chapter 75: The Martial Arts Assembly

  Mr. Bai was even more surprised, such a high-quality sword turned out to be just an imitation, so how extraordinary would the original Tiancui Cloud Sword be? They actually gave him such a precious sword as a gift, and the reason that there happened to be a spare sword in the mansion could only deceive children, not Ranfeng. What he found most strange was that he was just a martial artist, and for a large family like Fujiwara, was he really so important, worth their spending such a huge sum of money?

  What he didn't expect was that his second question would soon be answered.

  Mr. Bo angrily said: "I've already said that from today on, we can be considered as one family, how about it, Mr., are you not willing to give me this face?"

  Mr. Takahashi also advised, "The host saw the long sword at your waist is really old, this sword is not a genuine product but it was personally cast by the great master of Zhongtu. Such a treasure is not considered a generous gift, why don't you hurry up and thank him?" Even Jingliu turned his head and looked at him with deep meaning.

  When Gao Qiao mentioned the pure Heng sword hanging from his waist, Rang Feng's face changed slightly, and after a moment of consideration, he still accepted the treasure sword, smiled and bowed: "In that case, I'd rather obey than be polite, thank you for your generosity, sir."

  When he saw Su Feng pick up the long sword, Bo's face was filled with even more joy, and he laughed loudly: "This time Mr. Su has come to my Fujiwara family at a very good time, just in time for the Martial Arts Conference that takes place once every ten years. Mr. Su is a master from the Great Tang Dynasty, his martial arts skills are naturally not comparable to those of ordinary warriors. It would be best if he could represent my Fujiwara family in the competition. Mr. Su, for the next month, you can do as you please and don't need to pay attention to the rules and regulations of the mansion. If Mr. Su can help my Fujiwara family achieve first place, I, Bo, will have a big reward waiting for him."

  A sudden realization dawned on me as I thought about it, indeed there's no such thing as a free lunch. Mr. Ba Yi must have given himself such an expensive gift for a reason, probably to curry favor, and this martial arts conference is the main event. But what exactly does this martial arts conference decide? The Fujiwara family seems to be taking it very seriously. Is it related to the Three Sacred Treasures?

  But anyway, now that things have come to this point, Zhenfeng could only nod in agreement. After all, although the martial arts of Fusang were flourishing, they didn't grasp the key points and didn't understand the methods of internal energy transformation. In the past few months, Zhenfeng had already thoroughly opened up his meridians, and by now he had opened up half of the eight extraordinary meridians. Probably in all of Fusang, there wouldn't be many people who could be his match. Thinking about it, there shouldn't be any problem.

  Mr. Bo laughed and said: "Come on, young hero, eat more of these, they are all seafood that can't be found in the Central Plains."

  What happened next was quite dull and uninteresting, with several people taking turns to chat with Su Feng and try to get close to him. Su Feng gazed at the people in front of him, pushing cups and plates, drinking and making merry, and naturally thought back to when he was at Murong Shi's house, Ling Shui Pavilion, where there was also such a dinner table, and they were also mutually toasting and enjoying themselves.

  It seems that there isn't much difference after all, it's just the difference between the boy who adapted to various social gatherings and the gentle girl.

  History is amazingly repetitive, back then it was for her to live in the Murong family and became a member of the Murong family that many people in the Jianghu admired; now this meal is for herself to become a guest of the Taira family, seemingly without much difference. But who can say clearly about this?

  He drank a lot of wine with the wind, perhaps more than he had ever drunk before. One cup after another, by the end even his extraordinary internal strength couldn't withstand the overwhelming power of the wine.

  Although the wine was intoxicating, he remained sober. The distance between him and the girl in the aqua-colored clothes grew farther and farther apart, perhaps never to intersect again. The more he drank, the more dizzy his head became, and in a daze, something seemed to fall from the corner of his moist eyes, dripping onto his hand. Then, everything went black.

  Early in the morning, a ray of sunlight shot through the carved window and landed on Xiang's eyes. He felt as if there was a glimmer of light before his eyes, and his heart skipped a beat as he woke up with a start.

  On his head was a white silk canopy, and on his body was a satin quilt. In a daze, he sat up from the bed. As soon as he got up, he heard the creaking of the door, and Jing Liu in white clothes walked in from outside. Seeing Sui Feng, she exclaimed with some surprise: "Brother Sui, you're awake! Uncle Gao Qiao and the others are really something, how could they let you drink so much wine."

  As she spoke, Jing Liu handed over a bowl of sobering tea, "Drink a mouthful to sober up, it's very effective."

  A warmth spread through my heart, dispelling the gloom that had been lingering. I took a sip of tea and was greeted by a refreshing aroma and a hint of sweetness that left a pleasant aftertaste. Indeed, just a few sips later, my previously foggy mind cleared up significantly.

  He slowly got out of bed, opened the skylight on the wall, and the room was immediately filled with warm and warm sunlight. "By the way, why didn't I see Ah Niu? Where did he go?" Xiang Feng looked at the beautiful sunshine outside the window, but didn't see Ah Niu, so he casually asked a sentence.

  "You mentioned your companion? He doesn't understand the Japanese language very well, so he was arranged to stay in a room on the east side, it's probably a bit far from here." Jing Liu walked a few steps and arrived beside Su Feng, answering softly.

  East... A thought flashed through his mind, "Isn't the east wing where Mr. Gao's residence is? And isn't there still an empty room on the west wing, why would he be arranged to go to the east wing?"

  "Sasagawa usually takes care of all sorts of things in the family, I wonder what he's thinking. Otherwise, I'll go find him?" Jing Liu replied casually.

  "As the wind shook his head, 'No need, I just asked casually. It's okay, he's in the east wing, it's also good, originally he knew Mr. Takahashi, it's more convenient.' When the wind said this, his eyebrows furrowed unconsciously. Ah Niu's question was probably just a small episode, and who knows what's waiting for him later."

  According to Ba Yi, the so-called Martial Arts Assembly is a martial arts festival where nobles and commoners can participate together. Fusang is now peaceful and stable, but when people are too idle, there will be some unstable factors. It just so happens that the trend of practicing martial arts in Fusang is flourishing, so it's perfect to hold such a special competition, which is an event that everyone from the Emperor to the common people pays attention to.

  It's just that the big families have a lot of wealth and countless warriors. So, the bigger the family is, the stronger the warriors they can recruit are. Therefore, from very early on, the top ten places were monopolized by the warriors under various large families. Few civilian martial artists could enter the top ten, but once they performed exceptionally well in the tournament, it was likely that they would be valued and recruited by various big families, and thus enjoy wealth and glory.

  For the various major families, the Martial Arts Conference has also become a way to showcase their family's strength and compete for rankings. The family that can take first place will be admired by martial artists from all over the world, and countless guests will come to join them, making the family prosper. On the other hand, if a originally powerful family continues to perform poorly in the Martial Arts Conference, it will also lead to a gradual loss of popularity and eventual decline.

  It has become a battleground for people from all walks of life to compete for fame and fortune, rather than a leisurely competition that was originally intended.

  Suī fēng duì cǐ hěn bù xì, zhè suǒ wèi de wǔ dào huì jiù hé zhōng tǔ de kē jǔ kǎo shì gēn běn jiù shì yī gè mó shì. Tā zhī qián shēn chù zhěng gè yáng zhōu de zuì dǐ céng, qīn yǎn jiàn de xǔ duō pín kǔ rén jiā míng míng yǐ shì jiǒng pò bù kān, kě jiā zhōng nán dīng bù chū lì láo dòng què zuò zhe néng gòu zài kē jǔ chǎng shàng yī jǔ duó kuí, gōng míng měi guān gòng xiǎng de měi mèng.

  The imperial examination can select talents, but the cost is really too high. However, this Japanese martial arts conference does not even have the function of selecting talents. Sorrowfully sighing in the wind, in this regard, Japan's learning from China has only obtained its form but not its essence.

  For the next month, Su Feng neither continued to practice his inner strength to open up the remaining meridians nor went into town to idle around. Instead, he spent most of his time staying in his own room or sitting quietly in the courtyard, watching the clouds at the horizon that were sometimes rolled up and sometimes stretched out.

  Sometimes he would use the Tiancui Cloud Sword given by Mr. Bo to practice the mysterious swordsmanship he had learned before, and every time he practiced, it was accompanied by a long or short, sharp or gentle sword hum, which is one of the most difficult passes in that sword incantation, combining swift as wind and gentle as water. If he could master this practice, it would mean that the combination of two systems had been fully achieved, and according to the sword spectrum, there would be three systems, four systems combined later, until the final eight systems merged into one, reaching the highest and deepest realm of a sword evolving into chaos.

  From the day he got the sword manual from him to now, Su Feng finally merged the two systems and brought out a few points of fire, just short of this last small step, and he would be able to make a big breakthrough.

  The Taiji diagram in his dantian was becoming increasingly perfect, and had already reached the highest level of the harmony of yin and yang. However, he was also stuck at this bottleneck, and it seemed that there was no more room for progress except for opening up his meridians. According to the methods described in the Xitian Jue and Huitian Jue, he only needed to open up his meridians and increase his internal energy, and when all of his meridians were open and his internal energy was sufficient, he could try to communicate with heaven and earth and advance to the prenatal stage.

  However, Sui Feng had a faint feeling that with this method, there should still be some shortcomings, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where the deficiency lay. Even if he could eventually enter the Xiantian realm, he would still lack something afterwards.

  But all of this was just his own feeling, and he didn't dare to be certain, besides, with his current situation, it's still quite far from entering the Innate.

  At first, when he practiced sword in the yard with the wind, not many people knew about it, only a few servants were attracted by the sound of his sword humming in the yard. Later on, somehow, one told ten, and ten told hundred, every day as long as he moved his sword, there would be dozens of people watching outside the yard.

  Even the other samurai of the Fujiwara family came to appreciate the subtlety of Mikawa's swordsmanship, but they didn't understand the ease and flexibility of his movements, so they just thought it was an ordinary sword technique. On the other hand, the body movement that accompanied the sword moves with the wind caused more people to discuss it.

  He didn't care about this at all, and just pretended he hadn't seen it. This set of swordsmanship was the most complex and intricate he had ever seen in his life, involving the I Ching, Nine Palaces, and Eight Trigrams, and could be said to cover everything. Even if they were shown the original sword manual, they might not be able to learn even a tenth of it, let alone the Phantom Step, which didn't have corresponding incantations or footwork, and could only be treated as some sort of acrobatic feat.

  However, his life was being treated as a joke for the first time, which made Sui Feng cry and laugh at the same time.

  Before long, a whole month had passed and in just one more day, it would be the day of the highly anticipated Budokai across the land of Fuso.