White-Robed Chief

“Young master, what is the strongest sword scripture here?” Chu Dazhi asked.

“The Heart Slashing Sword Technique,” replied Chu Li.

“The Heart Slashing Sword Technique…” Chu Dazhi thought about it before shaking his head. He had never heard of such a technique before.

He looked at Zhou Hange for reassurance, but Zhou Hange merely awkwardly smiled back.

Chu Li took out a scripture and passed it over. “The Heart Slashing Sword Technique. This one.”

The two youths looked at the cover. ‘Heart Slashing Sword Technique’. Four large words were printed neatly on the cover page. However, the book lacked a sense of bloodlust, it didn’t look like a sword scripture at all.

However, they quickly noticed that this scripture was abnormally thick. It was the thickest book on the shelf, which indicated that the sword technique was complicated.

“This scripture only contains one technique?” Chu Dazhi laughed. “I feel like there should be hundreds of techniques in it.”

Normal sword scriptures were written with one sword form per page. One could predict how many forms of a sword technique was in the book via the thickness of the scripture; it was also a good indication of the difficulty of the technique.

When the students from Crouching Bull Mountain read scriptures from other sects, most would read it light-heartedly. Nobody really tried their hardest to train it because the work-benefit trade-off was not that great. Most of them would rather train the antique study from Crouching Bull Mountain than follow the scripture of another sect as the process would go smoother and they would usually end up being stronger as well.

Even if they trained scriptures from outside, they would only choose those that were simpler. Their aim was to learn something that was easy but still relatively powerful.

However, if anyone saw how thick this scripture was then no one would want to learn it anymore. The effort they had to put into learning it would be enough to train two antique studies.

“Is this just a single technique?” Zhou Hange asked curiously. “Why is it so thick?”

“There are one hundred and eight styles, and at the end, the individual must combine those styles into one to truly master this technique,” Chu Li replied.

“Wow, that is so troublesome.” Chu Dazhi shook his head. “One hundred and eight styles, most people would rather train other techniques.”

“Young master, is this technique really powerful?” Zhou Hange asked.

Chu Li nodded in agreement. “Stronger than other sword techniques from the Crouching Bull Mountain.”

“Then we shall train it,” Zhou Hange said.

Chu Dazhi was still hesitant though, after all, this technique would cost them a lot of time to train. “Is it really that strong?”

Chu Li nodded again. “Trust me, this technique is stronger than any other techniques here.”

“Haha, then let us train,” Chu Dazhi replied enthusiastically.

He imagined that the others would really admire him if he managed to master this technique.

Zhou Hange flipped through the scriptures randomly and raised his eyebrows.

Chu Dazhi snatched the scripture and snapped, “Let me see.”

Zhou Hange stared at him before turning and looked at Chu Li. “Young master, this technique is too complicated!”

Chu Li agreed. “It starts off complicated and slowly becomes easier.”

“Ah.” Zhou Hange sighed. “I might not be able to learn it.”

Chu Dazhi also raised his eyebrows.

Chu Li looked at them and laughed. “This technique is not for everyone. Try reading it twice. If you are able to remember the styles, then we can train. If you can’t then just forget about it.”

One hundred and eight styles might not be that much, but each of those styles were complicated and could be modified to evolve into three hundred and twenty-four separate styles, or even six hundred and forty-eight styles. However, once you mastered them, you would be able to slowly compress them all down to one single style.

This Heart Slashing Technique was a technique in which an individual was to gather all the styles from the world and compress them into one. It was truly ambitious.

Unfortunately, this sword technique was only suitable for those with a photographic memory. If one did not possess this trait, then their efforts would be wasted. It would be difficult to remember the styles in training, and even more impossible to use it in a real fight.

Chu Dazhi read it twice and tried his best to remember them all.

The first time he read it, he vaguely remembered twenty or so styles, but by the time he started reading for the second time, he only remembered about ten styles and was getting confused.

He passed the scripture to Zhou Hange, “Senior Zhou, take a look.”

Then, he lightly massaged his forehead and shook his head; his eyes were reeling in confusion.

Chu Li shook his head, Chu Dazhi wasn’t suitable.

Zhou Hange flipped through and desperately remembered about ten styles before passing the scripture back to Chu Li and helplessly remarking. “No wonder nobody else trains this. It’s impossible!”

Chu Li shook his head. “Come, let us go have our lunch.”

Chu Dazhi asked, “Young master, did you manage to remember them?”

Chu Li nodded and replied, “Yes, about 80 to 90 percent.”

“You can really remember them?” Chu Dazhi asked with eyes widening in disbelief.

His face was small and had tiny eyes, it looked funny with his eyes widened

Chu Li just replied calmly, “What’s the point of lying to you.”

“Wow, this is so amazing,” Chu Dazhi said and shook his head, “I don’t believe it.”

“Do what you like,” Chu Li said.

Zhou Hange smiled. “It really is unbelievable, but if young master says it so casually then it should be true. Junior Chu what nonsense are you saying!”

Chu Dazhi replied, “I don’t believe it. It’s impossible for someone to remember things so quickly!”

Chu Li looked at him and sighed. “Stupid.”

“Young master, if you really managed to remember everything, then, I will listen to all your orders.” Chu Dazhi smirked.

Chu Li replied, “If I can’t remember then will you no longer listen to me?”

Chu Dazhi just laughed.

Zhou Hange said, “Young master let us ignore his babbling.”

Chu Dazhi frowned, “I am not talking gibberish!”

Chu Li nodded, “If so, then I will show you what I remember; but only once.”

“Really?” Chu Dazhi was surprised. He had foolishly expected Chu Li to ignore his smugness.

Chu Li continued. “Let me show you what a true master is capable of, don’t blink!”

“Ok then, show us!” Zhou Hange replied.

They took the scripture and walked through a moon-shaped door to reach a training hall.

This library was half book storage, half training ground for those who wanted to train while reading. This was for the public’s convenience.

The training hall was two hundred square feet. The ground was made of red soil, and the texture was not too hard not too soft, it was just right. It was comfortable to stand on.

The walls of the hall had all kinds of weapons arranged on it. There were also other kinds of special weapons other than swords, spears, and knives.

The hall was empty when they entered. Chu Li immediately started demonstrating the hundred and eight styles.

Zhou Hange and Chu Dazhi just stared at him without blinking.

After finishing his demonstration, he sheathed his swords and looked at them, “How was it?”

“You didn’t make a single mistake!” Zhou Hange was completely overwhelmed.

Chu Dazhi picked up his jaw from the ground and asked, “Young master how did you do that?”

“It is not hard with a photographic memory,” Chu Li replied. “If you have it, then the scripture is do-able. If you don’t then it doesn’t matter how tall you are, or how big your eyes are, you will never be able to do it. It’s all in your genes.”

Zhou Hange almost laughed when he heard Chu Li’s words.

Chu Dazhi never liked others commenting on his eyes.

His face was big, but his eyes were abnormally small. He wasn’t proud of it.

Chu Dazhi knew that the young master said that to take revenge on him, but all he could do was take it. “Young master, I will follow all your orders from now on.”

“No matter what?” Chu Li asked.

“Yes.” Chu Dazhi nodded glumly.

Chu Li nodded. “Good, let us go then.”

It wasn’t all about martial arts, he needed to show them his true abilities and make them feel incomparably weak. With this, they would not feel any jealousy towards him, only admiration. That was the only way to completely win them over, and this was his first step toward achieving that.

Zhou Hange returned the scripture and the three of them exited the library before walking towards the bustling main street. They soon arrived at the tallest building in the valley; Merry Restaurant.