Chapter 8: 8. Chapter 8: The Ingenious Use of Martial Souls

Chapter 8: The Marvelous Use of the Martial Soul

Ling Xiao flipped through the summaries of several books, hoping to find some clues.

"Kaibei Palm": A fierce palm technique with the momentum of a falling mountain. It wins through sheer force; one must possess a strength of at least 300 jin to practice it.

"Blazing Fire Fist": Can condense True Qi to unleash a powerful, fire-like explosive force. The instantaneous burst is terrifying. Upon reaching the Gangqi stage, one can even project Blazing Fire Gangqi. Only male martial artists can practice this; it is prone to causing internal injuries in females.

"Swift Wind Chasing Leaf Steps": Once mastered, it significantly increases movement speed. As the saying goes, "Of all martial arts in the world, only speed is unbreakable," which speaks to its prowess. Generally, this technique is more suitable for those with a lean build, especially slim women, who achieve the best results.

"Iron Garment Technique": A defensive, hard-body technique. Once mastered, it can deflect blades and swords, significantly reducing physical damage. This technique requires a firm and steadfast will to master; otherwise, one is likely to give up halfway.

...

"They all sound so powerful. I want to practice every single one of them, but unfortunately, I can only choose two. What a headache..."

Although he didn't find the rankings of these martial arts in the summaries, the descriptions alone left Ling Xiao incredibly excited.

As someone who struggled to even obtain low-level martial arts, he drooled over almost every single one of these manuals.

Damn that Ling Jiu. Others can take four books out, but I can only take two.

While it’s true that being greedy is bad, one doesn't necessarily need to master every martial art to perfection.

For example, with the "Iron Garment Technique," it is enough for an average person to practice it just until it enhances their physical defense.

By focusing on one or two as a core and using the rest as supplements, one can significantly improve their strength.

It’s a pity, a real pity that I can only choose two. If only I could choose more. Now that I possess the Mountain and River Martial Soul, my cultivation will improve very quickly. Even practicing several martial arts at once shouldn't be a problem.

Hm?

Suddenly, Ling Xiao thought of something.

The Mountain and River Martial Soul can analyze and simulate martial arts, so is it possible for it to simulate the martial arts within these manuals?

When he first entered the library, he was afraid of Ling Jiu noticing something, so he hadn't activated the Mountain and River Martial Soul.

The method to activate and deactivate it was simple; it only required channeling True Qi, much like using a martial skill.

Thinking of this, he hurriedly activated the Mountain and River Martial Soul.

At that very moment, the clouds on the Mountain and River Map parted, and a new building appeared in the village.

The building looked very similar to the Ling family's library, only slightly shorter and consisting of only one floor.

The most miraculous thing was that when Ling Xiao probed it with his consciousness, he discovered that all the martial arts manuals he had previously looked at had appeared inside the library of the Mountain and River Map.

When he opened one to check, a figure would immediately appear on the Mountain and River Map. It was his own figure, and what it was practicing was exactly the martial art he was browsing.

"This... this is too amazing!"

Ling Xiao was shocked, but this was accompanied by intense ecstasy.

Who would have thought the Mountain and River Martial Soul had such an effect? Doesn't this mean that as long as he could browse all the martial arts manuals on this second floor, he could pocket them all?

Even if he didn't practice them, he could give them to others to practice later, or even sell them for money.

He didn't feel that doing this was betraying the Ling family; after all, the Ling family had never treated him, Ling Xiao, as one of their own.

Even that Ling Jiu had openly threatened to kill him, so why should he keep the Ling family's secrets?

Besides, the best things on this second floor were only mid-level martial arts, which could likely be found elsewhere. Only the manuals on the fourth floor of the library were the foundation of the Ling family.

Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and quickened his pace to flip through the martial arts manuals. He only looked at the summaries of each book before tossing them back onto the shelves.

Reading the summaries of nearly ten thousand books in one hour was no easy task; he had to speed up.

Since you, Ling Jiu, restrict me to only taking two books, I’ll steal every manual here and make you die of anger!

Faster!

Faster still!

A look of unprecedented madness appeared on Ling Xiao's face.

At first, every time he flipped through a book, he would confirm whether a copy had appeared in the library within the Mountain and River Map, but later on, he couldn't be bothered to verify.

Because there was no need to verify; every time a book was added to the library, he could feel it in his heart.

"Hahaha... exhilarating! Too exhilarating! Mountain and River Martial Soul, what kind of martial soul are you exactly? You're actually this powerful!"

While flipping through the manuals, Ling Xiao couldn't help but laugh out loud, unable to contain his joy.

This action caused the other disciples reading in the library to focus their attention on him.

"Is this kid sick?"

"Yeah, I've never seen anyone choose books like that!"

"Just a country bumpkin. Let's ignore him and get back to our own business."

One hour is neither long nor short.

By the time Ling Xiao had "photocopied" almost all of the nine thousand-plus manuals on the second floor, only a quarter of an hour remained.

The reason he hadn't left yet was that there were still a few books in the hands of other Ling family disciples that he hadn't had a chance to look at.

It is worth mentioning that while the martial arts manuals were scattered haphazardly in the Ling family library, the situation was different inside the Mountain and River Map.

They were neatly categorized and arranged there, and a person had even appeared out of thin air to take care of the cleaning.

Palm techniques, blade techniques, sword techniques, internal cultivation methods, movement techniques, body-strengthening techniques, and so on.

Everything was placed on different shelves.

Not only that, but mid-level, low-level, and basic martial arts were arranged in order from high to low, with labels attached so one could tell the level of the martial art at a glance.

Seeing this, Ling Xiao was dumbfounded yet incredibly excited.

The library inside his Mountain and River Map was even more impressive than the Ling family's library!

Time was running out, but Ling Xiao couldn't exactly snatch books from the hands of the Ling family disciples; after all, his current strength was no match for theirs.

So he could only continue wandering around the second floor, hoping to find any manuals he might have missed.

He had been too excited earlier; it was very possible he had overlooked something.

Hm? What is that?

Ling Xiao suddenly noticed two paintings hanging at the entrance of the second floor.

One painting depicted a monster with the head of an ox and the body of a man, holding a giant axe. The other painting depicted a monkey-headed creature holding a staff.

The most curious thing was that the painting of the ox-headed man had three characters written on it: "Ox Demon Technique," and the monkey-headed painting also had three characters: "Soaring Cloud Steps."

Could these two paintings also be martial arts manuals?

As Ling Xiao thought this, he reached out toward one of the paintings.

"Stop!"

Before he could touch the painting, he was blocked by a disciple from the main branch of the Ling family.

He was at the third stage of the Martial Pulse, stronger than Ling Xiao.

"Go notify Ninth Uncle and tell him someone is trying to touch the Guardian Paintings!" the disciple said to another.

The disciple ran down quickly, and when he came back up, Ling Jiu was with him.

"Ninth Uncle, this brat is trying to touch the Guardian Paintings!"

"No matter, no matter. The Guardian Paintings are indeed martial arts manuals of the second floor. Let him touch them. These two paintings look ordinary, but they actually have restrictions on them."

Ling Jiu smiled and said, "Ling Xiao, if you have the ability, go ahead and take the martial arts manuals hidden behind them."