Chapter 98: The Battle of Qi Sword and the Medicine Jar
Chapter 98: The Battle of Qi Sword and the Medicine Jar
The light in the room was dim, with two candles burning slowly.
"Brother, it's time to take the medicine."
The woman with cloud-like hair walked slowly towards them.
She was holding a wooden tray with a white pill and a bowl of black, sticky medicine soup on it.
"Thank you, Junior Sister."
The man in green put the white pill on the tip of his tongue, then picked up the medicine soup and swallowed it.
There is a secret alchemy room in the basement of Zhengqi Hall, which is unknown to all disciples except the head and his wife.
Someone once said that a sect is divided into the face and the inside.
For the Huashan Sect, Zhengqi Hall is the face, and this secret room may be the inside.
The Songshan Sect is the leader of the Five Mountains on the surface, but secretly relies on money to pave the way and recruit underworld masters.
The Wudang sect claims to be the world's traditional Taoist sect, but it believes in developing its sect through technology, and has opened a gunpowder workshop with a strong "investigation of things" spirit.
However, due to the dispute over Qi and Sword several decades ago, many bottles and jars were broken, and the Huashan Sect's foundation was not that strong.
It is said that the Sword Sect also practices Qi cultivation.
Qi Zong also practices sword.
The disagreement between the two sides lies in who should be the primary and who should be the secondary.
Of course, this is all just surface level stuff.
The seniors of the Qi and Sword Sects were not stupid. If it was just a dispute over martial arts concepts, at most you would practice yours and I would practice mine. Why would there be a bloodbath? It almost caused the Huashan Sect to self-destruct.
The struggle between Qi and sword is actually a struggle for power.
It’s just that people in the righteous path value their reputation and don’t want to be as blatant as the evil cult says.
In order to cover up the actions of the sect's predecessors, who were essentially fighting for power and profit within the Demon Sect and fighting to the death, later generations deliberately described it as a nice-sounding "Qi Sword Battle".
This makes outsiders ignore the hidden "struggle for the leader", "struggle for successor", "struggle for the right to speak", "struggle for weapons and secret manuals", and "struggle for the allocation of other cultivation resources".
After all the fighting, since it is a martial arts sect, it is inevitable that they have to rely on martial arts.
Either you destroy me, or I destroy you.
There was once a senior Qi Sect member in the sect who made a seemingly fair assessment: "If they both practice for ten years, the Sword Sect will definitely win; after twenty years, it will be a tie, after twenty years, the Qi Sect will have the upper hand, and after thirty years, the Qi Sect will definitely win."
What this means is that Qi Zong’s idea is good, but it will take time to produce results.
The Sword Sect's training method could be mastered quickly, and coupled with the fact that the Sword Sect was filled with many masters at the time, talented people emerged in large numbers, and they fought for the Huashan Sect's reputation and the throne of the leader of the Five Mountains with real swords and guns in the martial arts world.
However, he was suppressed by the Qi Sect forces headed by the leader Ning Qingyu, and was often scolded by Qi Sect disciples who were not as good as him in martial arts as "taking the wrong path and not being the orthodox Huashan Sect". No one would be convinced.
The conflicts between the two sides have been accumulating over time, and sooner or later there will be a war.
Qi Zong also knew that if a real fight came, he would be no match for him, so he thought of various tricks.
This alchemy room is one of them.
Two years before the Qi Sword Competition, Sect Leader Ning Qingyu secretly summoned five Qi Sect masters and mobilized a huge amount of sect resources to set it up in secret.
His intention was to improve the internal strength of the Qi Sect disciples in a short period of time by refining elixirs, so that he could gain the upper hand when the conflict broke out completely.
Later, the Qi Sword Competition evolved from a contest between peers to a point-to-point contest, into a mutual slaughter without any bottom line, with both sides going crazy with rage.
A bloody rain fell on Qun Yu Peak.
Most of the Jianqi Chongxiao Hall was burned down.
Fortunately, this alchemy room, as well as the recipes and rare medicinal materials contained in it, have been preserved intact. However, the Qi Sect is known for self-cultivation and martial arts from within, and using elixirs and external objects is consistent with the utilitarian philosophy of the Sword Sect, which is bound to sound a bit unpleasant when told to others.
Therefore, even within the sect, this secret room that contains some memories of the past is only known to the sect leader.
"..."
Yue Buqun sat on the cushion with his five hearts facing the sky, his face was purple, his brows were furrowed, veins were bulging, and his face was full of ferocity. He was completely different from the gentleman who was usually as gentle as jade.
He seemed to be in great pain.
Ning Zhongze hurriedly sat down cross-legged, placed his palms on his back, and continuously transferred his internal energy.
After a long time, Yue Buqun opened his eyes, the purple color on his face faded away, he let out a long sigh, and turned to look at his junior sister.
Her face was slightly flushed, her black hair was disheveled, with beads of sweat sticking to her white forehead, and she looked tired, obviously having expended a lot of energy.
"Thank you for troubling me again, Junior Sister."
"Brother, you are also doing this for Huashan. We are one and the same."
Ning Zhongze gently nestled in his arms, a faint smile on her face. There were many couples in the world, but how many of them could respect each other and live in harmony for twenty years like they did?
"After all, it's my fault that I'm incompetent. Only by taking the 'Hua Zhen Dan' can I break through the innate state, which leaves many hidden dangers."
Ning Zhongze smiled slightly and said, "Brother, you are only forty years old this year. You are in your prime. Even if you don't use the Huazhen Pill, it is only a matter of time before you break through to the Xiantian realm."
"But now the martial arts world is becoming more and more turbulent. The demon sect outside is eyeing us covetously, and the Songshan Sect inside also has the ambition to swallow up the four sects."
"Although our sect is respected in Guanzhong, Huashan urgently needs a great master to take charge. Otherwise, we cannot unite them legitimately and convince the heroes. Others may not know the sacrifices that Senior Brother has made for the sect, but how can I not know it?"
Yue Buqun shook his head gently, patted his junior sister on the shoulder, and sighed: "The Huazhen Pill needs to be taken for three consecutive years, four times a year, in order to completely stabilize the Xiantian realm. It still takes another year and a half. Junior sister will have to work hard in the future. In fact... if it weren't for me, perhaps Junior sister would have been able to generate true energy and break through the Xiantian realm long before me."
Ning Zhongze smiled and said, "Husband and wife are of one mind and one body, so we don't talk about these things."
Yue Buqun sighed softly, moved by Ning Zhongze's understanding of him.
He was appointed at a critical moment in the ruins. For the past twenty years, the leader of Huashan has been sitting on the fire every day.
After the Qi Sword dispute, the Qi Sect finally became the undisputed orthodox sect as it wished, but only two or three big cats and small cats were left in the entire sect.
The underworld forces that used to be affiliated with Huashan Sect have now switched to other major sects.
His status in the martial arts world dropped from the leader of the Five Mountains to a level only slightly higher than that of the Hengshan Sect. This was the result of his painstaking efforts over the next ten years.
Yue Buqun's talent is not mediocre, but it is definitely not brilliant either.
If he were in a third-rate gang like the Dragon Scale Society, he would definitely be able to have a hall all to himself in the ancestral hall. However, this is Huashan, a century-old sect. If the leader's martial arts skills are too low, he would be considered unworthy of the position and would be laughed at by his peers in the martial arts world.
Forty years old is not a young age, but for top martial artists, it is never a matter of waiting for years. For example, the two leaders of the Demon Cult, Ren Woxing and Dongfang Bubai, both achieved great success in martial arts before the age of thirty and were feared throughout the world.
He stayed in the post-natal realm for eight years, and could only rely on painstakingly cultivating the moral reputation of "Gentleman Sword" to make up for the embarrassment of his lack of strength as the head of the Five Mountains Sword Sect. However, in the martial arts world where heroes are judged by their martial arts, when others respectfully call him "Gentleman Sword", no one knows how they will view him behind his back.
If he had not been helpless, how could Sect Leader Yue be willing to become a great master of the Innate Realm fed by a "medicine jar".
Yue Buqun was feeling depressed, so he hugged his wife in his arms. He suddenly felt her warmth and softness, and all his worries were temporarily forgotten.
He looked at the middle-aged beauty in his arms, who was as beautiful as a peach blossom, and was obviously moved.
She raised her head, looked at the still dashing middle-aged man, and said softly, "Senior Brother."
Lady Ning is four years younger than Yue Buqun, and she practices martial arts. Her figure is soft where it should be soft, and tight where it should be tight. She is at the best age for a woman to have good grace.
They looked at each other and smiled. After being married for many years, they had a tacit understanding.
A strong wind blew, the wicks trembled, and the two candlesticks went out at the same time.
(End of this chapter)