Chapter 5 – Choosing Martial Arts Skills (1)
The martial arts library was an important ground in the sect, it had a collections of different martial skills collected over hundreds of years. They were used to help those of the later generation hoping that they could expand the family.
Usually, a sect’s number and quality of martial arts determined how strong the sect would be. Zhao Feng remembered that at the Green Leaf village Zhao family, there wasn’t even a martial arts library.
The martial arts library was divided into 3 floors.
In the first floor there was a large quantity of martial arts, but most of them were low ranked, with a few middle ranked ones there as well.
The second floor apparently had the sects secret and traditional techniques. Most of them were of the high rank, there were even some peak ranked ones there!
However, to enter the second floor one needed one to be at least at the 4th rank of the martial path.
And the 3rd floor was just a rumour, as it had never been opened….
However, for Zhao Feng, the 2nd and 3rd floors were just too far away, even the 1st floor’s martial arts were something that he yearned for.
He had no background in the sect, and a person with no background or exceptional talent could not access higher ranked martial arts. The Flaming Metal Fists he had was only a core rank martial art, and it was even weaker than a low ranked martial art.
However, after breaking through to the 2nd rank of the martial path, he had the right to enter the 1st floor and choose a martial art.
“The Zhao sect, it is no wonder that it is one of the 3 big families of the Sun Feather city, which rides on top of several hundreds of other families.”
Zhao Feng stepped into the first floor, his breathing quickening.
At the first floor, he could see a few other Zhao disciples, but all of them were using their time to choose their own martial art skills.
According to the rules, those that entered the martial arts library only had half an hour to select.
So everyone that entered the martial arts library didn’t waste any time.
“I’ve got half an hour and I need to choose a middle rank martial art, or two low ranked martial arts.”
Zhao Feng took a deep breath, and scanned along the bookshelves.
The 1st floor of the martial arts library had several thousand books, and every book was half an inch thick. To find one or two martial arts from such a high amount was not easy.
“Rock Breaking Palm, Angered Dragon Fist, Leaf Picking Sword, Wind like foot……”
Different kinds of martial art skills made Zhao Feng’s eyes turn colourful.
Shuah! Shuah! …..
Zhao Feng flipped the pages of these martial art skills quickly to the 1st page.
These martial arts usually had their summaries on the first page.
Crazy Wing Blade Blade like the wind, powerful like lightning, uses speed to win. Minimum requirement is 1st rank of the Martial Path, to train this skill is average. Rank: Low.
Angered Dragon Fists Can increase the strength of the cultivator, can put all the power into one attack. Minimum requirement is 2nd rank of the martial path, to train this skill is quite hard. Rank: Peak of the Middle rank.
Wind like foot A close combat skill which uses speed to win. When trained to fullest potential, can fight against many people and not lose. Minimum requirements is 1st rank of the martial path, but needs high level of understanding. Rank: Middle.
Metal Sand: Increases the defence of the body. Under fully activation can go head to head with same rank opponent. Someone who can train it to a high level can use their body and fight against swords and blades. Minimum requirements is 2nd rank of the martial path and needs high will power. Rank: Middle.
………
“The martial arts library’s skills are stronger than the core ranked skills by far, just as expected…..”
Zhang Feng was extremely pleased, and the skills he saw were mainly middle rank ones.
After only looking through tens of books, his heart had already been moved several times.
However, the martial arts library had restrictions. He could only take out 1 middle rank martial art.
If I could only take out a few then that would be great…..
Zhao Feng felt unwilling and thought it was unfair, “Branch disciples can only choose one middle martial art whereas the main disciples can choose two.”
To increase his speed in choosing, Zhao Feng started to use his left eye.
With his left eye, his speed increased more than 10 times….
Shuah shuah shuah …..
Zhao Feng’s left eye used an incredible speed to look through these martial arts.
He only needed one look to understand it all.
Looking at over thirty books, Zhao Feng fully memorised the contents of them and compared them with one another.
When he had scanned over 50, Zhao Feng suddenly realised something…….
Not right!
Zhao Feng suddenly froze.
He went back to his memories of other books.
In his mind the contents of the book’s appeared and not a single word was wrong.
“This…..”
Zhao Feng felt himself tremble with excitement.
After merging with the left eye, Zhao Feng’s memory had increased as well, it could be said that he only needed to look at something once and would never forget it.
Especially when he activated his left eye, the contents of the books were as if they were burned into his mind.
Zhao Feng never thought that he would achieve the power of “never forgetting”.
There were many rumours about geniuses on Azure Flower Continent, and “never forgetting” was one of the attributes they had…..
However, “never forgetting” for most people was that their memory was good, they only needed to read it once and would remember 80-90 percent of the contents.
However, compared with Zhao Feng’s “never forgetting”, his was clearly much stronger; he was literally not able to forget.
With this power, at the martial arts library, it meant that Zhao Feng could take a “few more” books out.
“Fast, fast, fast!”
Zhao Feng had a look of excitement and started to memorise all the books he could.
Shuah shuah shuah ……
His concentration was put to max as he flipped through the pages as soon as he read them.
As long as the contents were looked at by his left eye, it didn’t matter if it was words or drawings, he memorised all of them.
It only took Zhao Feng 20 breaths of time to fully remember a book with 50 pages.
“Hahaha ……. Never forget! Good!”
Zhao Feng felt nice, but he seemed more insane as he ripped through the books.
His actions obviously caused some of the other disciples to look over.
“I think this guy’s gone crazy…”
“Maybe it is his first time going in and he is too excited…”
Some of the disciples looked at Zhao Feng’s actions and shook their heads.
Time passed by in a flash……
¾ of half an hour had already passed.
Hu!
Zhao Feng let out a long breath. He felt tired, but it still couldn’t stop the excitement in him.
At this point, he had “stolen” over 100 books of martial arts.
These martial arts were mainly middle ranked martial arts. It included Fists skills, Palm skills, Sword skills, Breathing skills, Footwork skills, Defence skills and many more.
Because Zhao Feng kept on using his left eye, his mind became tired.
Next, Zhao Feng’s left eye scanned around the area and landed upon an old martial art book.
The reason why he stopped here was because Zhao Feng felt that the materials this book was mode of were different from the rest.
Zhao Feng picked up this book and on the top were 3 words: Lightly Floating Ferry.
He flipped to the first page.
Lightly Floating Ferry High Rank martial art, can make the cultivator move through the snow without leaving marks, can drift across the river and make the person feel like a bird….. When trained high enough, the person can double jump and even fly for short moments! Minimum requirements is 2nd rank of the martial path and to train in this skill is very hard. In addition, inner strength will increase the force. Achieving the highest realm will let a person be the quickest out of everyone under the 7th rank of the martial path.
Zhao Feng fist thought that this was just an ordinary footwork skill, but after he saw “double jump”, and “added with Inner Strength”, his eyes twinkled.
“Double jump” exceeded the limits of Middle rank martial arts, even some High ranked ones cannot do that!
“In addition, inner Strength” meant that this skill was suited for martial artists above or at the 4th rank of the martial path.
And the most incredible part was: Achieving the highest realm will allow the person to have the fastest speed of all under the 7th rank of the martial path.
“What an exaggeration! Even some peak rank martial arts won’t have the courage to say this.”
Zhao Feng’s eyes shone and without hesitation, he started reading the contents of Lightly Floating Ferry.
He had a question in his heart though, why would such a strong skill be put at the bottom floor? And why would no one learn it?
Soon, Zhao Feng found the reason.
After flipping to ¼ of the book, the words started to blur out. The main reason was that the book was too old, and the book started to mould.
That meant that this book only had ¼ of its original contents.
“So unfortunate…..”
Zhao Feng was severely disappointed.
However, he did not give up and continued to use his left eye on the blurred out words.
Using all of his power on his left eye, Zhao Feng could just about see the words under the mould, this already exceeded a normal human’s eyesight by at least 20-30 times.
After reading 1-2 pages, Zhao Feng felt his mind go tired and his left eye felt as if they was no power left in it.
“If I take this back I can slowly read all of it’s later contents.”
Zhao Feng thought up to here, and then took Lightly Floating Ferry out of the 1st floor of the martial arts library.
“Lightly Floating Ferry? You want this book?”
The white-robed elder asked with scrunched eyebrows.
“Yes.”
Zhao Feng politely said.
“This book has been around for a thousand years and there are parts in it which exceed high rank martial arts by far.” After talking up to here, the white-robed elder’s voice turned: “However, only ¼ of this book can be seen. An important note: to fully train this in skill is super hard, even some geniuses cannot do it. Even if they do it….. Under the 4th rank of the martial path, the potential is restricted.
At last, the white-robed elder warned: “I’d advise you to change a book, or else you will never break through to the 4th rank of the martial path and become a true martial artist.”
“Thank you elder for your warning, but my heart is decided.”
Zhao Feng had a calm look on his face.
Looking at the Zhao Feng leave, the white-robed elder shook his head and said, “These youths nowadays all take the highest ranked book possible.”
He believed that Zhao Feng would not be able to fully learn Lightly Floating Ferry, and taking a step back, even if he could, what could a partially martial art book do?
Leaving the martial arts library, Zhao Feng returned home.
Sitting on his bed, he closed his eyes, and on inside of his mind the contents of around 100 martial art books quickly surfaced……