Chapter 46: The Unparalleled Martial Arts (Middle)

  Two hours later, Xiao Ziyang closed the book and raised his head to let out a long sigh. His face was filled with a shocked expression.

  This book turned out to be a comprehensive martial arts theory book, which summarized and analyzed various schools of thought such as "striking first", "counterattacking", and "speed is invincible" from a macro perspective at the beginning. Xiao Ziyang was mostly puzzled by these theories, but wherever he could understand, he felt that what was written in the book was truly brilliant.

  After this outline, the book is divided into chapters such as "On Sword", "On Knife", "On Spear", "On Fist", "On Palm" and "On Internal Work", which systematically discuss various martial arts.

  Other chapters of the book were like reading heavenly books to Xiao Ziyang, but as for the chapter on swordsmanship, it was like a bright lamp lit up in front of him. He felt that all the doubts and questions he had encountered while practicing swordsmanship in the past were answered in this article, and as long as he practiced swordsmanship according to the theory in the book, he would never go astray again.

  Xiao Ziyang was deeply shocked.

  In the end of this book, there are records of a set of sword techniques, a set of footwork and a set of body movements. The sword technique is called "Yanbo", the footwork is called "Huajian" and the body movement is called "Qianshi Jian". This must be the author's masterpiece, Xiao Ziyang believes that these three sets of martial arts are extremely exquisite, unfortunately, with Xiao Ziyang's current level, he can't see where the exquisiteness lies.

  However, this book also has its shortcomings. The book does not have a set of internal skills and methods, even in the internal work chapter, it only explains how to use internal strength more reasonably and effectively, and how to deal with opponents who possess strong internal strength, and explains the principles behind these methods, but as for how to cultivate internal strength, there is no mention.

  Xiao Ziyang gently stroked the three characters "Li Shaobai" on the cover with his fingers, and a boundless admiration surged in his heart. He must find out what kind of person Li Shaobai is!

  …………

  Li Shaobai is indeed a legendary figure in the history of Western Liang Wulin, and it's not an exaggeration to say that he was unparalleled in his time, at least until today.

  In the Western Liang martial arts world, there has always been a legend of ten major sects. Although these ten major sects are not fixed, old sects disappear and new ones rise; however, among the ten major sects, six sects have always stood firm, and these six sects have occupied the top six positions in the ten major sects for over a thousand years.

  However, just three hundred years ago, there was a person who broke this situation. The sect he created was publicly recognized as the first of the top ten sects, and even those six thousand-year-old sects were convinced. He himself was also promoted to the number one master in the world, and this title he held for a hundred years.

  This man is Li Shaobai. This sect is the Cuimiao Mountain Villa created by Li Shaobai.

  Li Shaobai's martial arts skills came from unknown sources; all that was known was that when he debuted at the age of twenty, he already possessed an astonishing internal energy and a swordsmanship that was extremely exquisite.

  Li Shaobai's behavior after he became a martial artist was vastly different from that of ordinary Jianghu people; he didn't even seem like someone from the martial arts world. He didn't care about reputation and prestige, which were considered life or death in the martial arts world. When he had no money, he would do anything, such as being a bodyguard or a gatekeeper, as long as it earned him money. Once he had money, he would travel around to learn from various masters.

  Later, he even went around challenging masters. Fortunately, when he challenged others, he always ended up with a draw, and didn't provoke jealousy. He was also very casual about his own martial arts secrets, exchanging them freely with others wherever he went. He could exchange his unparalleled sword skills for someone else's most ordinary knife techniques, as long as it was something he didn't know.

  It seems that Li Shaobai's wandering in Jianghu is just for learning martial arts, without any other purpose.

  Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye, and Li Shaobai has also vaguely become known as the number one master under heaven. He uses his reputation to start challenging the mysterious and unpredictable six great sects that have existed for a thousand years, with each of the six challenges ending in a draw.

  Afterwards, Li Shao Bai proposed using his own martial arts insights in exchange for the six major sects' extraordinary skills.

  To everyone's surprise, the six major sects not only agreed to Li Shaobai's request but also invited him to their respective sects to discuss and exchange martial arts knowledge.

  Time flies, and another decade has passed. In these ten years, Li Shaobai not only thoroughly mastered the various extraordinary skills of the six major sects but also allegedly helped the six sects make drastic improvements to their existing martial arts. However, this news was never confirmed by anyone.

  After leaving the six major factions, Li Shaobai returned to his hometown and built a mountain villa on Cuimiao Mountain, where he lived in seclusion from then on.

  Gradually, the name of Cuimiao Mountain Villa appeared more and more frequently in the martial arts world. Every disciple who came out of Cuimiao Mountain Villa was a top-notch master. It is said that at least five of the ten great masters of Jianghu at that time came from Cuimiao Mountain Villa.

  Cuimiao Villa is renowned throughout Jianghu and has been publicly recognized as the number one sect in the world.

  Many years have passed again, and Li Shaobai, who has never taken a step out of the mountain villa, suddenly walked out of Cuimiao Mountain Villa when everyone thought he would never come out.

  Li Shaobai once again visited the six major sects, presenting a book called "Wujing" that he had written with his lifelong knowledge to the six major sects; it is said that this was fulfilling the promise of that year.

  When Li Shaobai handed over the "Wu Jing" to the six major sects, the people of the six major sects also raised a question that Xiao Ziyang was equally puzzled about tonight. Why is there no chapter on cultivating internal energy in this Wu Jing, and asked if he wanted to eat his words and become fat.

  Li Shaobai replied somewhat shyly that he had never practiced internal energy himself and didn't know much about cultivating it, so he couldn't complete this chapter. All his profound internal energy was obtained from a strange encounter in his youth.

  Li Shaobai lived for over 130 years, and was the number one master of Jianghu for a full hundred years. However, he never killed anyone, not even once. Perhaps he had never been a true Jianghu person to begin with.

  Li Shaobai died, and his great-grandson took over Cuimiao Mountain Villa, which was passed down for three more generations.

  Li Shaobai's descendants were all top-notch masters, and it was said that this was because they had the original "Wu Jing" left behind by Li Shaobai.

  The Cuiwei Mountain Villa was passed down to the fourth generation, but the master at that time had no interest in martial arts since childhood. As the leader of a top Jianghu sect, he surprisingly only liked to recite poetry and paint.

  A martial artist with ordinary skills but possessing a world-class secret manual, while the one in a high position has no ability to be the leader, is like a naked beauty teasing the ambitions of subordinates. Finally, someone can't hold back. Thus, disaster arises from within.

  The master didn't die, he escaped with the protection of his loyal subordinates. However, that miracle-creating former number one sect in Jianghu has vanished into thin air.

  The leader of the sect lived a life of seclusion from then on and no longer wanted any connection with the Jianghu.

  Another hundred years have passed, and Li Shaobai's descendants have long forgotten their ancestors. The vast majority of Jianghu people have also forgotten the once resplendent Cuimiao Villa and the number one master in the world, Li Shaobai.