.....................
Chapter 43: Dangers lurking everywhere
"I practice martial arts, but I also need to learn mathematics?"
Xi Heng swallowed her saliva. She was really not cut out for this.
When others are learning, numbers can jump around in their minds like musical notes.
When she looked at those densely packed formulas, she just felt her head swell.
"To be precise, it is the study of astronomy and astrology, and the study of numbers and Yijing is just an aid." The old eunuch replied.
Xi Heng found an excuse: "The temperament and sword intention of this technique are too different from my Red Line Sword Technique. If I try to practice it, I may go astray. Are there any other martial arts that can transform energy in the palace?"
"Forgive me for speaking frankly, but Hua Jin martial arts are extremely rare, and each book is a precious gem from Kunshan, which is really hard to come by." The old eunuch said, "These are the only four books of martial arts in the palace that I know of."
"What about other places outside the palace?" Xi Heng asked, "Where else can one find the method to achieve the state of transformation?"
The old eunuch hesitated for a moment and said, "Most of the Huajin martial arts are hidden in the major sects, and only a small part is scattered outside and has no trace."
"The place with the most Huajin martial arts is probably the Huangmei Mountain bandit army that occupies a small part of the Eastern Hailu. They claim that they have won over all the martial artists in the world and will create a flourishing martial arts world. Their internal library has dozens of Huajin secret manuals, but this is probably just an exaggeration. The exact number is still unknown."
"Can we send troops to attack them?" Xi Heng said without hesitation.
The old eunuch glanced at the somewhat unreliable Majesty, suppressed his frustration, and continued to preach:
"Your Majesty, there are powerful enemies in the north and south of Great Zhao now. We don't have enough troops to conquer another powerful enemy. The Yellow Eyebrow Mountain bandits are all arrogant warriors. They are not united now and will not form a formation to attack the city. But if we send troops to attack, the warriors will be united... This is absolutely not allowed."
"Just saying." Xi Heng waved his hand and asked again:
"Since there is no martial art that is particularly suitable for me, if I learn from Zhao Qianqiu like you just mentioned and continue to deduce the Red Line Sword Technique to transform my energy, will it be possible to succeed?"
"Deducing Hua Jin..." The other party shook his head again: "This path is even more difficult. Those who create Hua Jin martial arts are all extremely talented and have a unique fortune. They can only achieve success when the time, place and people are right."
"..."
Xi Heng originally thought that once he became emperor, he would be able to easily obtain useful Hua Jin martial arts.
Now it seems that this is not the case.
If you want to change your major, you need to find one that suits you best.
The four types existing in the palace are very different from her Red Line Sword Technique.
"If I spend my entire life, can I deduce the skills I have learned to the level of transformation?" Xi Heng asked again.
"There is little hope." The old eunuch sighed, "Your Majesty is the current emperor, so you should focus on benefiting the people of the world."
Xi Heng said helplessly: "First, bring these three books on Huajin martial arts, and your Tiangang Tongzi Gong. I will go back to my room and look through them first."
"Yes." After nodding, the old man reminded:
"Your Majesty still has memorials to review."
Black lines appeared on Xi Heng's forehead again.
……
An hour later, Xi Heng quickly dealt with the day's memorials, immediately got on the carriage prepared in front of the Taixiao Palace, and returned to his Fuqing Palace.
When he arrived at the magnificent emperor's bedroom, he sat down at the long desk and began to look through the four secret books of Hua Jin martial arts that the eunuch had sent him.
Time passes slowly with the sound of turning pages.
These four secret books were not thick volumes. The text was concise and the language was exquisite, and they were accompanied by fine illustrations. Xi Heng had finished reading through them in just one hour.
As a result, Xi Heng only understood the "Geng Vajra Axe Method" with the simplest and plainest words.
This book of axe techniques not only contains extensive and bold moves, but the text and techniques are also relatively simple and clear.
However, the method of Yi Jin Hua Jin recorded in it is the most difficult among the four books of Hua Jin martial arts.
To achieve perfection in axe-technique, the process can be summed up in two words: hard work.
Practice hard to the extreme, push your body to its limits and then keep breaking through those limits. Repeat this dozens of times. Then you can use this powerful method to strengthen your muscles and mind and achieve the state of transforming strength.
The last page of this book lists the names of many people who have achieved the highest level of martial arts or the greatest hidden power.
There have been dozens of people recorded who have achieved the state of hidden power through axe techniques, but there is only one person who has mastered the state of transforming power.
Throughout history, there should have been many people who practiced the martial art of Hua Jin, which has such a simple and clear training method, but there is only one person who has truly achieved the state of enlightenment with it... This is already as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Xi Heng put this secret book aside, and silently flipped through the other books, carefully reading the part on how to achieve the power of transformation.
The method of Liuhe Youlong Palm is to train the Qi and blood in the chest into a roll of true Qi, thereby gathering the visible and invisible forces, and making the two forces soft and mixed, thus achieving a state of transformation and protecting the body.
The method of using Tiangang Boy's power is similar, which is to condense Tiangang pure yang energy in the body, nurture Tiangang true qi and gather two forces to practice into Huajin to protect the body, or wrap the true qi in Huajin and release it externally, killing people invisibly, with unparalleled attack and defense.
Xi Heng looked at the last book of Heluo Yulong Sword Technique again.
It is different from the previous three. There is no need to condense a true energy, but it is necessary to calculate the number of days and find a moment of eternity among the infinite changes between the friction of yin and yang and the swing of the eight trigrams. In this way, you can deduce your own destiny, grow as a latent dragon, hide your ability in your body, wait for the right time, and exhaust your nature to the point of destiny.
Xi Heng didn't understand it at first, but after thinking about it carefully, he could only guess:
Use mathematics to explore the principles of all things in the world, and then thoroughly understand your own mind, body, and life. When you divine your own destiny, you should be fully prepared and then make every effort to achieve perfection in what you have learned and practiced.
"It's too difficult." Xi Heng pressed his temple.
Looking up, it was already dark outside the window in front of the desk.
She had been sitting at the desk for a long time. It was time to go to sleep and rest. There was a morning meeting tomorrow...
"Court meeting? I have already fallen out with the civil officials, so it doesn't matter whether I hold it or not..." She gave up the idea of falling asleep the next moment, put away the several manuals on Hua Jin, and took out the Red Line Sword Technique that she had with her.
"After killing Zhao Qianyuan, my sword intent has been refined enough. It's time to achieve dark power."
She then remembered that she had not even reached the level of dark energy, but had been studying methods to advance to the level of transformation energy.
"As for the transformation of strength, it's still too early... Let's take our time with this."
Xi Heng reread the secrets of the dark energy that Senior Sister Hong Miao had written down for her, then returned to the bed and sat cross-legged, silently practicing Qigong to strengthen the blood in his body and open up his muscles and bones...
If the Qi and blood are not enough, then practice the Life-Slaying Technique again.
During the day, the morning light came into the room from the window, shining on Xiheng's hair, which added a bit of gray.
She let out a long sigh and slowly opened her eyes. There was a hint of fatigue in the corners of her eyes, but there was a gleam of light in her eyes.
Because she had practiced the Life-Saving Technique, she now looked as tired as if she had been practicing swordplay all day without stopping, but her spirit was actually full of energy.
After practicing for a long time last night, she has opened up all the muscles, bones and joints in her body. The movements of every part of her body are several times more agile than before the muscles and bones were opened up. Her body has become extremely flexible. All the difficult movements that were difficult to do before have become easy as pie. Simple bending and splits can be done at will, and even folding the waist in half is not too difficult.
The flexibility of the body is a side effect of opening up the muscles and bones. In martial arts, the more obvious improvement is the strength of the muscles and bones.
The human body generates power based on muscle contraction, and tendons and bones are the medium for supporting and transmitting force. Only when the tendons and bones are strong and flexible enough can we support stronger power.
After using Qi and blood to open up the stiff muscles and bones, overall strength will arise naturally, and the strength of muscles and bones will become more obvious when using moves.
Compared to when his Ming Jin was fully developed, Xi Heng, who has now pushed open his muscles and bones and is about to develop An Jin, has doubled his strength.
With her joints wrapped in tough tendons, ordinary grappling techniques had little effect on her.
If the current Xi Heng were to face the old eunuch who wanted to capture her back then, he would not have his hands grabbed within one or two moves like before, and he would be able to hit her a few more times.
"The first stage is accomplished. After that, relieving the flesh and blood, training the tendons and bones, and opening up the belt meridian to unleash the hidden energy are all just a matter of letting things take their course. There won't be any bottlenecks." Xi Heng breathed a sigh of relief.
After practicing internal skills all night, I was about to fall asleep when there was a sudden knock on the door.
dong dong.
"His Majesty……"
Then, another soft calling voice seeped into the room.
It was the beautiful and charming master of ceremonies who urged her to get up, dress properly and go to court.
Xi Heng blinked his sleepy eyes and wanted to shout to the outside world that the king would not hold court early in the morning from now on.
But after hesitating for a while, for some reason, she decided to get up and dress, and asked the master of ceremonies and the maid to come in to fix her appearance.
Afterwards, he left Fuqing Palace, boarded the carriage surrounded by guards, and went to Taixiao Palace.
……
At one morning court session, all I heard was trivial matters, and the meeting was adjourned soon after.
What we still need to be busy with today is to count and confirm the various properties after the house search yesterday.
When Xi Heng looked at the account, the astonishing amount stunned her for a long time.
"Fifty million copper coins, million taels of silver, 100,000 pieces of silk, 500,000 acres of fertile land, and countless other treasures. This is just one of them... Oh my." Xi Heng held his forehead with his hand:
"The Great Zhao deserves to perish because it has such important officials."
She no longer wanted to be emperor.
Because even if he sat on the throne, Xi Heng had no idea how to save the Great Zhao, which was heading towards national destruction and ruin.
"Why not just let it fend for itself..." Her Majesty the Queen thought.
As an emperor in name only, she did not have enough power to replace all of her court officials.
Today's Great Zhao State is like a withered tree that has been riddled with holes by countless termites. Rather than healing this tree, it is more feasible to grow a new one.
"If there is no overwhelming force to rectify all this in the next few lives, then don't be this broken emperor..."
After counting the property seized from the confiscation, Xi Heng sent people to transport it to the Ministry of Revenue to be used to maintain the people's livelihood in Da Zhao.
After finishing all this, he returned to Taixiao Palace to deal with a few memorials. Before he could get into work mode, he heard the shouts of the palace guards outside:
"Report——"
Xi Heng asked the messenger to come in again, only to hear the other party half-kneeling and clasping his hands and shouting anxiously:
"Your Majesty, the Imperial Master suddenly fell to the ground during lunch today, vomiting black blood and convulsing!"
Xi Heng stopped writing with the brush in his hand and said calmly after a few seconds: "Did you call the imperial physician?"
"The imperial physician diagnosed it, but said there was nothing he could do!"
"Prepare the car, I'll go over and take a look later." Xi Heng said.
"Yes!" The guards left immediately.
Xi Heng put the brush aside and looked at the memorial with densely written tiny words in front of him. He was amazed and said:
"Isn't it me who was poisoned first..."
"That's right. After all, it was the Imperial Master who ordered me to do it."
She stood up and left the long desk, went to the gate of Taixiao Palace, boarded the carriage, and then went to the residence of the Ministry of Rites where the national teacher was worshipped.
When he arrived, the white-haired old imperial teacher had been moved to the bed with his eyes closed.
There were faint traces of blood at the corners of his mouth, his face was pale grey, sweat covered his forehead, his chest and abdomen were still rising and falling slightly, and his breath was clearly getting weaker. If you didn't look carefully, you would probably think he was dead.
But it's almost the same.
The delicate little maid beside her had tears in her eyes and her fingers were trembling as she hurriedly wiped the sweat from the imperial teacher's forehead.
Xi Heng approached, and the maid and the courtyard supervisor knelt down to greet him and made way.
Ignoring the maids and guards beside her, she leaned directly to the bed and casually called out, "Master, are you still alive?"
"Who do you think poisoned you?"
Before the other party died, Xi Heng still wanted to ask for some unimportant information.
The imperial teacher, whose breathing was disordered, opened his mouth, but only a very slight hoarse sound came out.
Then, he raised his trembling left hand slightly and pointed precariously towards the end of the bed.
Xi Heng frowned slightly, and when he turned his head, he saw a cold light flashing in the corner of his eyes——
The obedient maid who had been anxious and flustered and constantly applying a wet towel to the old national teacher's forehead, suddenly pulled out a sharp knife from her chest and was rushing towards her.
After drawing the sword, this person's temperament suddenly became fierce, just like the pitiful and panicked maid just now, and instantly became a well-trained and superb assassin.
The man's steps were delicate and skillful, and his backhanded knife-holding posture was coordinated with the direction of the knife tip, pointing directly at Xi Heng's heart.
The sound of the folds of clothes fluttering in the wind quickly pushed forward, and the silver light of the sharp knife suddenly appeared.
Xi Heng fixed his gaze, raised his right arm, and hit the enemy's wrist with his palm with great force, causing the enemy to lift his knife-holding hand.
