Chapter 13 Martial Arts

"Are you scared?"

Zhong Lin touched Shitou's little head and asked with concern.

"No... I'm not afraid."

He resisted the trembling legs and pale cheeks, and was obviously afraid, but his eyes were fixed on the miserable death of Zhenshanhu.

Zhong Lin didn't say anything more. How could he not be afraid? After all, little Shitou was just a five or six-year-old child.

He lowered his head and pulled out the arrow from Zhenshanhu's eye socket, washed it casually with the soil on the ground, and then put it into the quiver. He squatted down and began to search his body.

After a while, he took out a purse and a book wrapped in kraft paper from Zhenshanhu.

The purse was not filled with big money but silver, a lot of it, as much as eight taels. Such unexpected wealth made Zhong Lin very happy, but at this time his attention was focused on this book, and his heart was pounding.

The book that could be carefully kept by a bandit, could it be... a martial arts secret book?

Carefully opening the kraft paper, a yellowed and wrinkled book appeared in front of him.

The wrinkles on it showed that Zhenshanhu must have taken it out and turned the pages frequently, but it was well preserved and not damaged.

"Second brother, is this a book?"

Little Stone was full of curiosity.

"Yeah!"

Zhong Lin gently turned the paper, but then a look of pain appeared on his face.

It was indeed a martial arts secret book, because there were little people doing boxing in the book, but at the same time, he also found something that made him very upset.

Illiterate.

There were some text notes next to the little people, but unfortunately I didn't recognize a single word.

"I thought I was a college student who graduated from a 211 university in my previous life, but now I have become illiterate." Zhong Lin complained helplessly.

In his previous life, he was just a mountain villager. How could he have come into contact with words? Without general education, words were a monopoly and only mastered by people of a special class. It was normal that he couldn't read.

Although there were little people painted beside them, Zhong Lin didn't dare to practice them casually before he understood the meaning of these words. Don't you see that there was once a Taoist martial art that turned into the evil Nine Yin White Bone Claw? He didn't want to become paralyzed while practicing.

Helplessly, he wrapped the book again and stuffed it into his arms, carrying the little stone and walked away quickly.

"If you don't mind, you can let me sit on my ox cart."

Zhong Lin thought for a while and put the little stone on one of the ox carts. Even if the little guy was malnourished, he still weighed forty or fifty kilograms. It was still very tiring to carry him for a long time.

"My last name is Cui Xian. May I ask your name? If it weren't for your help this time, my family would have died in the mountains." Cui Xian asked with a bow.

"Zhong Lin, meet Mr. Cui."

Cui Xian was over fifty years old, so it was not an exaggeration to call him Mr. Cui.

"Zhong? There aren't many people with the surname Zhong in Heishan, and most of them are from Xiaoniu Village, Shanghe Village, and Xiahe Village. I guess Brother Zhong is from one of these places. I didn't expect that such a sharpshooter could be raised in a small mountain village. It's really amazing!" Cui Xian stroked his beard and was full of admiration.

Zhong Lin looked at Cui Xian in surprise: "Mr. Cui is really knowledgeable."

"No, it's just that he has lived longer and knows more than others. There was a severe drought, and he left his hometown. Now he is just a dog without a home."

Cui Xian sighed for his whole life, feeling how difficult the world is.

Zhong Lin didn't want to talk about anything else, so he asked directly: "Mr. Cui, I just heard you talking about warriors, can you help me solve my doubts?"

"Haha, it seems that you are also quite curious about warriors. I don't know much, but I can help you solve my doubts," Cui Xian said seriously, and continued: "The so-called warrior is a person who practices martial arts, but ordinary people who practice farming skills are at most called warriors, and only those who enter the rank can be called warriors."

"What is the rank?"

Zhong Lin looked very interested.

"I don't know this very well either. I only know that when martial artists reach a certain level, they will break through their limits and gain extraordinary powers, commonly known as entering the rank. It is said that martial artists are divided into nine ranks. The ninth-rank martial artist is called the Mopi realm. He has hundreds of pounds of strength. The most important thing is that his body is like cowhide, as if he is wearing armor, just like the mountain tiger. Arrows cannot break his skin, and knives can leave white marks. Arrows shot at his body are like shooting at cowhide. As long as you miss the weak points, you can't break the defense at all." Cui Xian's eyes flashed with fear.

Zhong Lin nodded secretly. This is indeed terrible.

You must know that in the ancient Chinese dynasties of the previous life, it was no problem to have swords and knives in the house, but if you hide armor, it is basically equivalent to treason.

If a person is wearing armor and holding a sword, he can chase dozens of people after a little training, and if he has hundreds of armored troops, he can even influence a battle of tens of thousands of people.

Now if a martial artist enters the rank, it is like wearing armor, which shows that the ninth-rank martial artist is powerful.

"The eighth level is called Yijin Realm. In this level, the fascia is strong and flexible, the body is fierce and agile.

No mistake!

The next level is called Duangu Realm. In this level, the bones are like fine steel and have infinite strength. It is said that they have a thousand pounds of strength and no one can stop them with one blow."

"What else?"

Zhong Lin's eyes were shining, and his eyes were full of excitement.

Cui Xian shook his head and smiled bitterly: "I am just a country bumpkin. These are what my son who works in the county said. How can I know what's behind it? But according to my son, grinding the skin, changing the tendons, and strengthening the bones are the lower three grades of martial arts, which are mainly for training the body. The upper three grades are the middle three grades, and the body begins to have the power of qi and blood. As for what it is specifically, I'm sorry that I don't know."

Zhong Lin couldn't hide his regret, but no matter what, he was sure that this world did have extraordinary power, and it had formed a system.

From Cui Xian's description, the lower three grades have such power, so what about the middle three grades? And the last grade?

Is it stronger?

Is it to break the stone and tear the tiger and leopard alive?

Or to move mountains and seas, catch the stars and the moon?

The vision limits Zhong Lin's logic, but it has not limited his imagination.

...

"We're here."

Zhong Lin looked up and saw a tall city gate in front of him. He could vaguely see the blue brick and white wall behind the city gate, as well as several tall buildings.

"We have finally arrived at Heishan County."

The closer we get, the more we can see houses everywhere in Heishan County, and the roads are paved with bluestone. Those houses are not earthen walls or thatched houses, but buildings made of stone and wood. Although they cannot be said to be carved with beams and painted with rafters, they also reveal the ancient and elegant charm.

The village and the county town form a sharp contrast, like two worlds, with a world of difference.

There are soldiers holding long spears standing guard at the gate of the city, and pedestrians and refugees can be seen coming and going.

There is no obstruction for the refugees pouring in from outside, which shows that there is indeed a way to survive in the city, even selling oneself into slavery is better than starving to death.