Volume 1: Martial World Chapter 15: Down the Mountain

  Ye Wen wanted to go down the mountain, aside from conveniently trying to get some money, he also wanted to take a look at the situation around Book Mountain. At the same time, he wanted to know just how far his martial arts skills had progressed.

  Especially in this book mountain boundary, what is considered a master?

  Although he felt that he had made great progress compared to more than half a year ago, and could even describe his current state as "reborn". However, martial arts cannot be practiced in isolation, and staying hidden in the mountains every day, even with extremely high cultivation, would likely still lose to an older and weaker opponent. Of course, if one's cultivation was strong enough to defy the heavens, then it would be a different story altogether.

  Even if occasionally engaging in a bout of sparring with his junior sister, that was after all just a friendly match between fellow disciples, and didn't do much to improve his actual combat experience.

  So, Ye Wen prepared to go down the mountain and take a walk, which was also a test of his own practice results for the past six months. If the results were satisfactory, it would prove that his choice was correct, and in the future, as long as he continued to stick to this path, he could achieve his goals.

  If the effect is not good, then you need to rethink a more effective way of improvement. In short, you absolutely cannot be bullied again because your strength is too weak.

  As for going down the mountain to find some wealth, in Ye Wen's view, it was actually a relatively easy thing to do. At worst, he could go find that Li Captor who had met him once before and ask if there were any recent bounties on outlaws. If the reward wasn't too low, he wouldn't mind temporarily becoming a bounty hunter. Besides, it would also give himself some fame, and incidentally spread his sect's name.

  In this chaotic world, bandits and outlaws are everywhere. As a result, some extremely evil guys will be targeted by the authorities, who, due to their considerable strength, don't take official posts seriously. This forces the authorities to offer bounties to attract some martial artists to apprehend them. Anyway, with so many people practicing martial arts now, there must be some masters among them.

  Moreover, there are too many martial artists nowadays, which is also a headache for the imperial court. By letting bandits and Jianghu people kill each other, it can also alleviate the growth of martial artists to some extent (every year, there are not a few unskilled guys who claim to be invincible and then come out to want to cut down bandits, only to be cut down by bandits).

  Therefore, the bounties and officials often invited martial artists to help capture bandits, which was actually a small strategy for the imperial court to control the world.

  This trick can't be said to have gone unnoticed, but the people in the jianghu world can also get what they need from it - money and fame. So they don't care about it at all. As for the dead? Once you enter the jianghu world, your life is no longer your own, every day here is a bloody struggle to survive. If you lose your life, it's only because your skills are not good enough, and you can't blame anyone else.

  It is precisely based on this situation that Ye Wen is not afraid of not finding a suitable target, let alone there are still many other ways to make money in the rivers and lakes.

  Of course, the specific situation still needs to be determined after going down the mountain according to the actual situation. After Ye Wen told Ning Xue about his decision to go down the mountain, they each returned to their rooms to rest.

  The two people didn't specifically discuss this matter because it was getting a bit late, so they just briefly mentioned it and then dispersed.

  The next morning, after Ye Wen finished his internal training, he and Ning Ruxue carefully discussed the details of going down the mountain.

  "This time I can go down the mountain alone, and my junior sister will stay here to prevent any accidents!" After all, this mountain gate was rebuilt at a great cost, if both of us run out and come back to find that the mountain gate has been robbed, it would be a tragedy.

  Moreover, Ning Ruxue's Xianyao Heart Method has just begun and still needs time to cultivate properly, so it's not suitable for running around at this time either.

  Ye Wen was different, although he had only practiced the Quanzhen Heart Method for half a year, but due to his many advantages, his progress was quite rapid, and this half-year of cultivation was even better than an ordinary person's one-year cultivation. The steady and stable Quanzhen Heart Method was practiced by him in conjunction with the Cold Jade Bed, resulting in generally rapid progress.

  If Ma Yun and other Quanzhen masters were here, their first reaction would probably not be to think that they had encountered a rare martial arts genius in a hundred years, but rather to think that Ye Wen's internal strength had gone wrong, and he must give him a detailed full-body examination.

  In addition, Ye Wen also wanted to go down the mountain alone and take a walk, so that he could have a more detailed understanding of this world. If Ning Ruxue was by his side, there were many things that he couldn't ask about conveniently - although he could use his amnesia as an excuse to forget many things, someone who had amnesia wouldn't suddenly change into a completely different person, so he needed to go out for a while and separate from Ning Ruxue. After he came back, even if there were huge changes, he wasn't afraid that he wouldn't have a suitable reason to explain them.

  No matter what happened to change one's personality, or whether it was a growth in experience that made the personality more mature, it can all be explained away. It is better than staying hidden in the mountains every day and having one's personality change into another kind, which is harder for people to accept.

  So, no matter what, he must go down the mountain this time, and he can only go down alone by himself.

  As for Ye Wen's decision, Ning Ruxue didn't agree with it at first. Although Ye Wen had done a lot of things in the past six months that changed her impression of this senior brother of hers, the deep-seated impression still made her somewhat distrustful of her own senior brother.

  Besides, she also has a good reason: "How can the master be outside running around, and the disciples stay on the mountain to watch the house? Why not let Master Brother stay on the mountain, and I, Master Sister, go down the mountain for a trip. It's likely that there are many evil thieves in this area, and I'll also take the opportunity to help the people get rid of them, and at the same time, help our Shu Mountain Sect gain some prestige!"

  It seems that Ning Ruxue and Ye Wen had the same idea, but Ye Wen had other plans and couldn't let go of this opportunity, so he insisted on not giving in. In the end, he even used the excuse that Ning Ruxue's internal skill cultivation was at a critical moment and she couldn't stop to ask her to stay behind and continue practicing.

  This stirred up a hornet's nest, Ning Ruxue heard Ye Wen's words, and her eyebrows immediately stood up, and her pretty face was covered with frost. Even a blind person could feel the dissatisfaction emanating from her body.

  "Does this mean my internal skill is inferior to my senior brother's?"

  In Ning Ruxue's eyes, Ye Wenyong used his internal skill cultivation to bully her, openly saying that his own internal skill had already made some progress and temporarily didn't need to be cultivated diligently again.

  Or is it that one's own inner strength and cultivation are inferior to his, fearing that they will not be able to accomplish things when they go down the mountain?

  Ning Ruxue thought that Ye Wen was underestimating her, and even more so in terms of her originally very proud martial arts skills.

  "In that case, why don't you and I have a contest to see who has the deeper internal strength? Whoever wins can leave the mountain!"

  He finished speaking and didn't wait for Ye Wen's response, directly standing in the middle of the courtyard, casually assuming a stance to quietly await Ye Wen.

  Seeing Ning Ruxue like this, Ye Wen couldn't help but smile bitterly. Although he didn't explicitly say that Ning Ruxue's internal strength was inferior to his own earlier, the words before and after indeed revealed such a meaning.

  Ning Ruxue used to be very strong and her kung fu had surpassed Ye Zhangmen's by a great margin. Now, hearing that Ye Shixiong claimed to have already exceeded herself, she was naturally extremely dissatisfied. Moreover, this girl's temper was absolutely not good, so she immediately wanted to compete with Ye Wen to decide who was superior.

  Ye Wenko didn't expect that what was originally a good discussion about the sect's survival would turn into this. However, he didn't mind competing with Ning Ruxue at all, and even had a faint thought in his heart: "Let this girl know that I'm not the same useless person as before!"

  After all, Ning Ruxue had been fairly respectful to him on the surface in recent days, but the disdain that showed through her eyes made the proud and arrogant him very displeased.

  He also wanted to take this opportunity to teach this girl a lesson and let her know who was in charge of the sect now.

  He walked into the courtyard, Ye Wen casually lifted the hem of his clothes with one hand, then put his left hand behind him and stretched out his right hand at an angle, opening his palm to say: "Junior sister, please!"

  Huang Feihong's classic pose is still very cool and elegant, but to Ning Ruxue, who is currently on a high horse, it seems a bit too showy, full of disdain for oneself.

  This posture seems to be the starting move of some sort of kung fu, but in reality it's extremely similar to the casual gesture of inviting a guest into one's home. Even if used in a martial arts competition, it would only be a move akin to bowing.

  Now Ye Wen uses it as a starting point, and there is no change in meaning at all. How can Ning Ruxue not be annoyed? At this time, she doesn't say much anymore, and her heart wants to teach this master brother who can't tell the situation a lesson.

  "Today I must make him understand, I am the only hope of Shu Shan Sect!"

  A few steps forward, her right fist clenched and swiftly struck out, and she also employed the Xianyao inner power that she had practiced for several months. A thread of internal energy flowed through her meridians to her fist, making Ning Ruxue's punch even faster and more powerful.

  Ning Ruxue's punch wasn't some profound boxing technique, but rather an ordinary fist and palm move used to lay the foundation when she first started training. The move itself didn't have anything special about it, not even a name.

  Even if there is, it's probably just some ordinary name like Black Tiger Heart or Monkey Steals Peach. But for Ning Ruxue's punch, the word "Directly Penetrating the Yellow Dragon" would be extremely fitting.

  This punch was nothing fancy, just a simple step forward and a straight punch to Ye Wen's chest, but because he had used his inner power, the momentum was not ordinary, if it were an average martial artist, they would probably find it very hard to block this punch.

  If it were six months ago, the original Ye Wen would have probably been killed by Ning Ruxue's punch, but now Ye Wen is no longer that waste.

  Not to mention the wealth of combat experience that Ye Wen has over his predecessor, but also in terms of internal skill cultivation, he is a world apart. As for Ning Ruxue's punch, he has countless ways to neutralize it.

  He chose the most direct approach, channeling his inner energy into his right arm and forcefully blocking Ning Rutu's punch. At the same time, he activated all of his fully cultivated True Essence internal energy to deflect Ning Rutu's punch aside, even wanting to make her understand just how much stronger his current internal energy cultivation was compared to hers.

  Ye Wen's response method made Ning Ruxue slightly surprised, she thought her senior brother would choose to avoid or simply counterattack, forcing her to change moves, but Ye Wen actually chose to fight hard against herself.

  If it were in the past, Ning Ruxue would have thought that Ye Wen was intentionally bullying her because she was a woman, weak and frail. Plus, being younger, he used his strength to overpower people.

  After mastering the Xian Yao Xin Fa, the various wonders of internal power made her realize that her strength had increased significantly, and she no longer needed to be afraid of those big men who liked to rely on brute force. As long as her internal power was deep enough, she could even engage in a fierce battle with those people (of course, female masters, no matter how high their skills are, probably wouldn't like this kind of fighting style...)

  So now he's afraid of others colliding with her head-on, and she even hopes to take the opportunity to make Ye Wen suffer a bit, so that he can't tell what's going on and inexplicably underestimates himself.

  But what really surprised her was yet to come.

  The moment the two arms intersected, Ning Ruxue only felt a surge of unbearable force transmitted to her forearm, and part of the force even rushed into her arm, almost injuring her arm meridian. If it weren't for her internal strength playing a protective role, she would have been injured by this move and hurt one of her arms.

  Ning Yuxue's inner strength was only enough to protect her meridians from injury, and she had no way of rebounding that powerful force. As a result, after the two arms clashed, Ning Yuxue's straight fist was immediately knocked askew, and even her body was brought stumbling to one side.

  Just as she barely stood firm, a pair of palms stopped right in front of her face. The slender fingers and the not-so-obvious calluses on them might even make people mistake it for a girl's palm, but Ning Ruxue knew that this was the left palm of that senior brother she had always looked down upon - Ye Wen used his right hand to wield a sword, so there were fewer calluses on his left hand.

  At this moment, Ning Ruxue realized what had happened. If this was a life-and-death battle just now, she would have been defeated by the opponent in one move, and even lost control of her body, only to be pressed against her head with a palm, probably losing several lives.

  "I lost!"

  Dazedly watching Ye Wen withdraw his left palm, Ning Ruxue still couldn't believe everything that had just happened.

  However, after a slight pause, she finally sorted out everything that had just happened.

  "Senior brother's inner strength is profound, I was wrong to underestimate the master of the sect, this time I lost and I'm convinced!"

  Just now, Ye Wen first used his own inner strength to shock open the straight fist that was rushing towards Ning Xue's heart, and then swung out his left palm in a straightforward manner, directly swinging at Ning Xue who had already lost her center of gravity due to being shocked by his inner strength. In fact, the two people only really exchanged blows for the first time.

  And it was this one move that most intuitively revealed the gap in their internal strength cultivation.

  "If the internal force is similar, even if it's slightly higher than mine, I won't be knocked off balance by his punch. At most, it will just affect my fist posture and won't impact the center of gravity of my body!"

  She was caught off guard by Ye Wen's sudden movement, which proved that Ye Wen's strength far exceeded hers. Although the difference in strength does not entirely represent the level of internal power, it can still objectively reflect many things.

  When Ning Ruxue finally admitted defeat, Ye Wenwei smiled slightly: "Don't mind, Junior Sister. I've been practicing my inner power diligently for more than half a year, so it's not strange that I made some progress!"

  Just by looking at Ning Ruxue's slightly dejected expression and bewildered gaze, it can be known that the other party didn't care about what she was saying. It seems that she found it hard to accept the fact that she lost to Ye Wen, whom she had always looked down on.

  Especially since she was defeated with just one move, this is simply a nightmare for her!

  Ye Wen saw her like this, and didn't waste any more words. He let Ning Ruxue think about it herself over there, believing that his cheap disciple sister shouldn't be so thoroughly disheartened by just a little setback. If she really was, then that would only prove that he had overestimated this little girl.

  "I'm going back to pack up and get ready to head down the mountain!"

  He went back straight away to pack up his belongings and change his clothes, apart from that he only brought a little loose silver and copper money, as well as a long sword.

  The two were competing in martial arts, and Zhao Shu had been watching from the side. When Ye Wen turned around and went back to the house, she walked up and said to Ye Wen: "Master..."

  This title made Ye Wen very uncomfortable, but Aunt Zhao insisted on calling him that. No matter how much Ye Wen protested, it was useless in the end, and he finally accepted this title.

  "What's wrong with Aunt Zhao?"

  This Aunt Zhao rarely talks to him, and even if he doesn't take the initiative to call her or ask her something, the two people might not talk at all. So unless there's something going on, she absolutely won't come over on her own initiative.

  "This morning, I heard Ning'niang say that the master of the house might go down the mountain to take care of some business. I wonder if we can ask Master Zhang for a favor?" Zhao Shu treated Ye Wen as a member of the landlord class, so when she spoke, she was not only soft-spoken and cautious, but also unconsciously hunched over quite a bit.

  While speaking, Aunt Zhao also took out a letter and said to Ye Wen: "This morning I asked Ning Niang to help me write a letter to my sister in Linshan County. If Master Zhang doesn't mind, when you go down the mountain, please give it to Zhang Er Niu, the rickshaw puller in the county seat, and next time he goes to Linshan, have him bring this letter to my sister."

  At that time, most letters had to be delivered by others. If no suitable and trustworthy friend could be found, they would have to go through the official postal station, but some copper coins were needed for this. Zhao Shu naturally didn't have that spare money, and in previous years she had relied on a neighbor who transported goods with a cart, Zhang Er Niu, to send letters or messages to her sister.

  "My sister, since she married and moved to Linshan County, would always send some news through someone every year. But this year, with the New Year approaching, there's been no word from her at all, which makes me quite worried. And now that I've moved to live on Shushan Mountain, I'm also afraid she won't be able to find me, so I thought of writing a letter to her!"

  "It's just a small matter, give me the letter!" Ye Wen thought that this was a trivial matter and it wasn't difficult to handle, so he naturally didn't have any reason to decline. Moreover, Zhao Shu had been doing laundry and cooking for him and Ning Ruxue for half a year, not only did she do it well but also without any complaints - the key point being that she didn't even ask for payment, so Ye Wen thought that this small matter was something he naturally shouldn't refuse to help with.

  "Thank you, Master!" Zhao Auntie saw Ye Wen nodding and looked very happy. After thanking him repeatedly, she asked: "Why don't Master have a meal before going down the mountain?"

  At this moment, Ning Ruxue had basically recovered from the shock, and her big eyes were full of spirit again. It seemed that she had already come back to herself. In fact, she had thought it through, wasn't it just being defeated by Ye Wen once? Being defeated proved that her progress was too slow, and her cultivation was not enough. So she had made up her mind to work hard at cultivating during this period of time, determined to catch up with Ye Wen's internal skill.

  She came in just as Zhao Shu was thanking Ye Wen repeatedly, and immediately said: "Such a small matter, if he has to push three and block four, what kind of sect leader is that?"

  Because of this, Ning Ruxue has already regarded Zhao Shu as a member of the Shushan Sect. She is very dissatisfied with Zhao Shu always treating herself as a servant and putting Ye Wen in a high position.

  No matter what she said, Aunt Zhao insisted: "Identity and hierarchy must not be confused, otherwise what is it?" Moreover, in Aunt Zhao's eyes, those sword-wielding martial artists were all powerful people, and the leader of a sect was even more so; how could she dare to serve such people carelessly?

  As for being so close to Ning Ruxue, it's because Ning Ruxue is a girl and not very old, when she talks to herself, she doesn't seem like the mistress of this place, but rather her own junior. Over time, she naturally got used to being with Ning Ruxue. And Ye Wen has been cooped up in his room all day, occasionally seeing him once or twice, but he doesn't say much. Zhao Shu and Ye Wen can be said to be very unfamiliar, plus the title of "Zongmen" hanging on Ye Wen's head, so it became this situation.

  These things, Ye Wen, who was focused on cultivating his inner strength, naturally wouldn't know. He also found it strange that Zhao Shu treated him and Ning Xue differently with two distinct attitudes. However, he didn't bother to think deeply about these matters, so it didn't matter to him.

  Apart from that, he also thinks that as the head of the family, it's a good thing to maintain some dignity at times, so he didn't think of changing either.

  After saying a few more words, Ning Ruxue added: "There's only one month left before the New Year, remember to come back before then!"

  Upon hearing this, Ye Wen felt a faint sense of concern, it seemed that no matter how much his junior sister looked down on him, she still had some affection for her senior brother who grew up with her since childhood.

  "She just didn't know that her senior fellow disciple had long since left her, and the person standing here was just an outsider wearing an old skin."

  "Throw these things out of your mind," Ye Wen nodded and responded: "I will definitely come back before the New Year! Is there anything I need to bring?"

  Ning Ruxue thought for a moment, then pouted: "Forget it, I don't even know when you'll be back. If we wait for you to buy the New Year's goods, we might miss out on many things. In a few days, I'll go down the mountain with Aunt Zhao to buy the New Year's goods! But after this purchase is complete, we really won't have any money left!"

  Ye Wen nodded: "I know it, this time down the mountain I'll think of a way to get some money first!"

  After saying that, Ye Wen shouldered a small bundle and held the long sword in his left hand as he rushed down the mountain. Ning Ruxue didn't see him off, but she kept looking at his back until it was out of sight before withdrawing her gaze.

  Chapter 2 in one go, which makes up for the chapter owed from two days ago and today's first update.

  In addition, regarding the Lion's Roar Bomb, my original intention was to make Ye Wen understand that the ring summoned not necessarily useful things, it would only absorb energy and then give a standard martial art according to the standard. As for whether it can be used or not, it doesn't care.