Chapter 184: Incorporating a Hundred Schools, Exalting Only My Dao
Chapter 184: Chapter 184: Incorporating a Hundred Schools, Exalting Only My Dao
"What ’pouch’ are we emptying? And what are we ’bestowing’?"
Li Hao’s words were laden with innuendo, her eyes full of flirtatious charm.
Zhu Ge couldn’t stand it. "I misspoke. I should have said, thank you, Shopkeeper, for emptying your purse to help me. One day, I will repay you with a gushing spring."
This Li Hao was just too outrageous.
She twisted everything into an innuendo.
Touch her hand and she’d tell you to get lost.
’She really gets off on just talking trash.’
"Oh! Repay me with a gushing spring, you say?" Li Hao’s eyes grew hazy. "Just how big is this spring? Can you really make it gush for me?"
Zhu Ge: "?"
’Seriously, what is with her today?’
Zhu Ge waved his hand dismissively. "One more word out of you and I’m going to go propose to Brother Langhao."
Li Hao immediately backed down. "You’re no fun at all."
Only then did a broad smile spread across Zhu Ge’s face.
"I’m off!"
"You’d better hope your debtor—me—slaughters his way through the enemy and returns victorious!"
...
「Late at night, in the Six Paths Valley.」
Zhu Ge sat cross-legged on a protruding rock at the top of the valley.
The night wind howled, whipping his robes about.
Below were endless tents and scattered campfires, a camp of two thousand four hundred people stretching as far as the eye could see.
Tomorrow, he would lead these people on an expedition.
But at this moment, Zhu Ge was not thinking about the battle, but about himself.
He closed his eyes and let his Heart Spirit sink into his body.
The Heart of Martial Arts Origin was beating slowly in his chest, Blood Qi gushing from it and flowing through his meridians to his limbs and bones.
Great Python Constriction, Bull Wrestling, Swift Splitting the Sky, Fierce Tiger Descending the Mountain...
Phantom images flickered into existence around his heart before fading away, cycling endlessly like a zoetrope.
Since breaking through to the Mid-Mountain Shattering Realm, his strength had been steadily increasing.
But this improvement was slowing down.
His Martial Arts Heart was named "Origin," for it was meant to encompass all of creation, to be as vast as an ocean that accepts a hundred rivers.
When he first condensed this heart, he had integrated all the Martial Arts from the Raincoat Fisherman, as well as the various techniques he observed from Demon Beasts.
But now, he found that there were fewer and fewer things he could absorb.
It wasn’t that there was nothing worth learning in the world, but that his own horizons were too narrow.
Everything he had learned was from the Martial Dao!
The Wrathful Vajra Palm, the Thirty-Six Paths of the Giant Pendulum, the Waist and Horse Skill...
These Martial Arts were powerful, to be sure, but they all followed the same path.
It was like a person eating the same food every day; no matter how delicious, they would get tired of it, and no matter how nutritious, their diet would become unbalanced.
’My Heart of Origin needs to draw from a hundred different schools of thought.’
This was Zhu Ge’s realization, and also one of the goals of this trip.
’Reclaiming the lost lands of Red River Prefecture is a worthy cause. It will bring stability to the region.’
The life he missed most was the one from his previous life, where after a day of work, he could lie down, play on his phone and scroll through videos, order a cup of milk tea when thirsty, and a portion of fried chicken when hungry.
Only when the Human Race prospered could Zhu Ge prosper as well.
Therefore, reclaiming the lost lands was his primary objective.
But at the same time, there was another goal.
To get stronger!
He had to become stronger!
’In this world, only the absolute strongest can crush everything in their path!’
With a single sword strike, True Monarch Minmian had slaughtered all the experts at the Great Realm and above in Nanyue Mianhuang.
This was equivalent to severing the future of Nanyue Mianhuang!
’If I were that strong, the whole affair with the Raincoat Fisherman would have been nothing.’
And for him to get stronger now, he needed to plan his next breakthrough.
This was something he had planned back when he used the [Spider].
The Military Dao, Thief Dao, Heroic Dao, Confucian Dao, Immortal Dao, and so on—he would dabble in and understand the paths of each school, then integrate their useful aspects to create his own Dao!
’You must understand, there were originally no paths in the world. But when many people walk the same way, a path is formed.’
The ancient philosophers either observed the principles of heaven and earth, or the ways people interacted with one another, and from that, they forged their own paths.
Zhu Ge’s breakthrough to the Second Realm had relied on this very method of exploration and learning. He had integrated the knowledge from his past life to forge his Heart of Origin.
That being the case, before he broke through to the Third Realm, opened his Mud Ball Palace, and condensed his "Intent," he had to experiment with more paths!
’I will draw from a hundred schools, be as vast as the ocean itself, and step into the Third Realm with a path that is truly my own!’
’I’ll start with the Military Dao.’
His meditation ended. Zhu Ge opened his eyes and took out a book.
This wasn’t part of the Raincoat Fisherman’s legacy, but something Mr. Langhao had given him privately last time he was in Jianshui City.
The title on the cover read: *Eight Armored Arrays*.
Opening *Eight Armored Arrays*, the first thing that met his eyes was a line of small characters—
"War is a grave matter of state; it is a place of life and death, a road to survival or ruin, and must be studied with the utmost care."
This was the book’s central tenet.
This book was not a simple text on military strategy, but a secret manual that integrated the Military Dao with the Martial Dao.
The book detailed the methods for arranging eight types of battle formations, the art of connecting soldiers’ Blood Qi, and how a general could use their own Blood Qi as a hub to draw upon the power of the entire army to enhance themselves.
"The core of the Military Dao is not the soldier, but ’momentum.’ The strength of one man is limited; the strength of ten thousand is infinite. A good warrior borrows the momentum of heaven and earth; a good commander borrows the momentum of the masses..."
Zhu Ge read on, sometimes flipping through the pages, sometimes pausing to think.
*Eight Armored Arrays* recorded eight battle formations: the Square Array, the Round Array, the Sparse Array, the Dense Array, the Pyramidal Array, the Wild Goose Array, the Hook Array, and the Xuanxiang Array.
Each type of Array had a different purpose.
As Zhu Ge read, he ran simulations in his mind.
’Interesting...’
The corners of Zhu Ge’s mouth tilted up slightly.
He discovered that the "art of connecting Blood Qi" in the Military Dao shared a similar principle to the "external release of Blood Qi" in his Martial Dao.
It was just that the external release of Blood Qi in the Martial Dao was one-way and offensive, while the connection of Blood Qi in the Military Dao was two-way and resonant.
Before he knew it, he had already finished half the book.
Just then, a voice came from behind him.
"Brother, not asleep yet?"
Zhu Ge turned his head and saw Hua Liusha condensing from a red mist.
She was dressed in red, her face veiled by a head covering, looking like a blooming spider lily under the moonlight.
"Couldn’t sleep." Zhu Ge smiled. "I was reading about the Military Dao."
Hua Liusha sat down beside him and looked at the book in his hands.
"*Eight Armored Arrays*? A gift from Mr. Langhao?"
"Mhm."
"You’re going to learn the Military Dao?"
"Yes." Zhu Ge nodded. "My Heart of Origin needs to absorb more things. The Military Dao, the Thief Dao, the Heroic Dao, even the Confucian Dao and the Immortal Dao—I’m going to dabble in all of them."
Hua Liusha was surprised and asked softly, "Will you have enough time? The expedition starts tomorrow."
"There’s time," Zhu Ge said. "I don’t need to master it, just understand it. The core of the Military Dao is ’momentum.’ As long as I understand ’momentum,’ I can slowly integrate it into my Martial Dao."
"Like when you learned the techniques of those Demon Beasts?"
"Exactly."
Hua Liusha said no more, simply sitting quietly beside him, keeping him company.
Moonlight spilled over the two of them, and the night breeze was gentle.
Zhu Ge continued to read *Eight Armored Arrays*, while Hua Liusha gazed at the distant camp, her thoughts unknown.
After a moment, Hua Liusha suddenly asked, "Is she very beautiful?"
Zhu Ge answered subconsciously, "What? Who is she?"
The next moment, he was suddenly horrified, his hair standing on end.
"Ah? Haha, ha, which ’she’ are you talking about? Hehe, haha." Zhu Ge scratched his head, instantly putting away the book and preparing to go down to see what Liu Jianjian was doing.
"Stop."
Hua Liusha’s tone was light and airy, and she didn’t use any Yin Qi.
But Zhu Ge suddenly felt a chill shoot up from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
"No, listen to me, I can explain..." Zhu Ge opened his mouth.
’Damn it!’
’What am I saying?’
’Why am I explaining?’
’Explaining what?’
’Great True Monarch Minmian above, just kill me now...’ Zhu Ge wailed internally.
"Hm? Explain what?" Hua Liusha chuckled, then dissolved into a red mist. The mist flowed into Zhu Ge’s mind, settling beside his giant, egg-like soul and forming into the character for "double happiness," plastered right onto the egg.
"Brother, don’t forget, our souls are connected."
"Which means, no matter what you’re doing, I can watch you do it from inside your soul!"
"Anything at all!"