Chapter 53 - 37: Wanton Destruction
After returning to Yangmei Town, Lu Yuan stayed at home, focusing on practicing palm skills and cultivating inner strength.
There are a total of eighty-one Cloud Palm techniques, covering various aspects of defense, strong attacks, and sneak attacks. The previously used Submerging Water Technique is just one of the attack skills.
By now, Lu Yuan had already mastered both the Submerging Water Technique and another defensive technique called Fubo Style after several months of research and practice.
Therefore, he now intended to practice the powerful and decisive Yunwu Style which is quite unexpected and highly concealed.
After researching for about ten days, he was able to start practicing it. “It should take about a month to master this move.” Lu Yuan thought as he performed a set of Yunwu Style, pulling back his palms after a swift strike.
As he continued to study various scriptures of Buddhism, Taoism, and
Confucianism over the days, he gained a superficial understanding of them.
Although it was only a basic understanding and not a great achievement, it was astonishingly helpful in comprehending and learning palm techniques and inner strength as the depth of understanding increased.
Before, it took Lu Yuan half a year to fully understand a single palm technique. Now, he only needs half a month to understand and a month to practice and master it.
Moreover, this time is far from the limit.
“When I have practiced more palm techniques, gained more experience, broadened my horizons, deepened my understanding, and improved my state of mind, I will be able to learn other various palm techniques by analogy and build upon them.
At that time, perhaps it will really be possible to master one technique and understand all others.
Just like in martial arts novels where one can learn various palm techniques at a glance and use them at will.
If it really comes to that step, I wonder what kind of scene it will be?” Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel excited as he thought about that scene in his mind.
For him, who was half a martial arts fan, becoming a peerless martial arts expert who dominates the martial arts world and becoming a modern-day legend would undoubtedly be extremely attractive.
“No, with my lifespan being as long as the heavens, it won’t be a modern-day legend, but a permanent legend.”
With this thought, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but look forward to that day even more.
“So now, to prepare for that day in the future, I must practice martial arts and strive diligently in practicing martial arts.”
Bringing back his focus, his body suddenly moved, his palms shot out swiftly, and the rapid afterimages flew by as he practiced his palm technique again.
Well, it must be said that compared to other immortals in novels, Lu Yuan is more outstanding when it comes to diligence.
After all, he practiced palm techniques for two hours a day, and inner strength for another two hours.
Who can compare to this level of effort?
Time always flies by quickly.
Two months passed in the blink of an eye.
Lu Yuan still stayed in Yangmei Town without going out, tirelessly cultivating his martial arts.
However, as the saying goes, the world will not change just because of one person.
While our Arrow God and aspiring immortal from Dayu Mountain were working hard on their growth, the outside world was gradually becoming more turbulent.
To be precise, it was in Luling Prefecture that things were starting to get chaotic.
The threat of the Black Wind Gang grew larger and larger.
On the eighth day of March, the Black Wind Gang entered Luling Prefecture, breaking into a wealthy household in the countryside and wiping out the entire family.
On the tenth, the Black Wind Gang rampaged through Quannan County, breaking into three wealthy households and killing dozens of people.
On the thirteenth, they entered Dingnan County, destroying two wealthy households. On the fifteenth, they entered Annan County, and three wealthy households were robbed…
In April, the Black Wind Gang plundered the southern five counties ot Luling Prefecture, destroying more than ten households.
In the middle of the month, the government rallied catch officers from various counties, and even mobilized 500 local garrison troops to encircle and suppress the Black Wind Gang.
Unfortunately, the news was leaked, and the Black Wind Gang was informed beforehand. They gathered more than a hundred horse bandits and over three hundred bandits who came from all over the place after hearing the news, ambushed the government troops, and annihilated more than two hundred garrison troops. Countless patrol officers and catchmen were killed or injured.
Afterwards, bandits from all over the place flocked to join the Black Wind Gang, and this group of bandits was on the verge of sweeping across the land.
By the end of the month, thousands of bandits led by the Black Wind Gang began to rampage across various counties of Luling Prefecture, which the government was unable to suppress.
At the beginning of May.
Wang Quan, the commander of Luling Prefecture, Shao Desheng, the chief catch officer of Luling Prefecture, and MO Baichuan, the head of the Iron Sword Sect, gathered together the local garrison forces, patrol officers, and local sects to jointly attack the Black Wind Gang.
Both sides fought three battles, with countless casualties.
Among them, four of the seven leaders of the Black Wind Gang were killed in battle, and more than half of the gathered bandits were defeated, with hundreds killed. On the government side, several generals, officers, and catch officers were killed. Even the Iron Sword Sect had reportedly lost several elders.
It was precisely through this battle that the world came to know that the leader of the Black Wind Gang had become a first-rate master, on the level of a renowned Jianghu expert. Even several of his subordinates had reached the second-rate level of strength.
With such martial arts skills, let alone being a local bandit leader, they could even find a famous mountain treasure, establish their own sect directly, and pass down a lineage of the Dao inheritance.
For a time, the leader of the Black Wind Gang, Fang Tianying, had instant fame in the Jianghu and was respectfully called the [Eagle King].
In the middle of the month, the leader of the Black Wind Gang, Fang Tianying, challenged MO Baichuan, the head of the Iron Sword Sect and holder of the title [Iron Sword], to a duel on Fairy Maiden Ridge scheduled for the end of the month, which immediately attracted the attention of countless people in the Jianghu.
Martial arts experts from the surrounding four prefectures and thirteen counties were immediately alerted and rushed to watch the battle.
They wanted a glimpse of the [Eagle King] and [Iron Sword] in action.
At the same time, the government and the army also began to prepare.
On May 20th, Lu Yuan, carrying his own basket, came back to Dayu County town.
At this moment, seeing many people on the street dressed as Jianghu martial artists, he couldn’t help but sigh, “The Jianghu is restless, and the local areas are in turmoil.”
In truth, he never thought that the chaos caused by the Black Wind Gang would last so long.
From the beginning of March to the end of May, nearly three months had passed, and the government and Iron Sword Sect had not yet quelled this bandit rebellion.
“Moreover, the Black Wind Gang’s Fang Tianying and his subordinate leaders are all first-rate and second-rate masters. Previously, no one knew about their strength.”
Lu Yuan recalled the news he had heard in the past few days, feeling somewhat incredulous.
A first-rate master could be called a renowned Jianghu presence, and their status and strength were naturally beyond question.
The simplest example was MO Baichuan, the current head of the Iron Sword Sect, who held the title of [Iron Sword], and was only a first-rate master.
At most, in the first-class sphere, he was an old-school renowned expert with even deeper strength.
However, Fang Tianying and MO Baichuan actually belonged to the same level of characters.
The Iron Sword Sect had a MO Baichuan, and firmly ranked among the top Jianghu sects in the prefecture.
The Black Wind Gang had a Fang Tianying, who, in theory, could easily find a county without a famous sect and establish his own sect there.
With the support of several leaders with second-rate martial arts, Fang
Tianying would be able to set up a famous Jianghu sect in the blink of an eye. After managing it for two or three years, it would become a renowned martial arts sect.
Wouldn’t it be better to be the head of a famous martial arts sect than to be a notorious bandit leader who was hunted by everyone?
Many people in the Jianghu didn’t understand this and made various speculations.
Lu Yuan wasn’t sure either.
However, he could understand one thing, and that was that there must be some trick behind Fang Tianying’s doing so.
“There’s a problem, there must be a problem in this.”
Behind this, there must be some other factor driving the [Eagle King], making him choose what appeared to be the worst path..