After buying some casual clothes from the Song family's textile shop, I stepped outside. In my mind, I had already formulated a plan to stop the excessive bullying of the Yellow Mountain Sect. This was more of an action based on experience rather than a special strategy. First, I headed to the city and bought a set of nightclothes.
'Well, it’s time to get moving.'
I decided to go to a dilapidated building first to test my inner strength. After all, if my inner strength wasn’t sufficient, there would be nothing I could do. Fortunately, there were many abandoned places around the city, and I stood in one of them, smelling the odor of food waste, and slowly raised my hand.
Crack
"Wow... it works."
My fingers were completely embedded in the stone wall, and three of them had penetrated the stone as if they were piercing tofu. This was something a normal human couldn’t do, but I had merely channeled my true energy (真气) through my blood vessels to my fingers, hardening them. This alone turned my hand into a formidable weapon.
And I wondered if perhaps the inner strength I had obtained was far superior to that of the thousand-year-old snow ginseng. This was because the fusion of the thousand-year-old snow ginseng and the inner strength of the black and white lotus had created a balance of Taiji (太极), making it highly likely that the energy I could obtain from the thousand-year-old snow ginseng alone would be far surpassed.
I slowly moved my fingers to start writing on the stone wall. Despite being only about three inches deep, I could write smoothly.
Unfortunately, my knowledge was limited to reading basic characters and documents necessary for daily life. I wasn’t ignorant, but I was at a level where even a common scholar might call me uneducated. Still, I could write simple sentences, so I confidently wrote them down.
[The Yellow Mountain Sect is bullying the common people.]
It was a straightforward statement, not a metaphor or an allegory. It was an honest sentence, almost embarrassing to call a strategy, but I felt satisfied when I saw it written properly. After finishing the practice, I decided to erase the traces using palm force (掌力).
The martial arts I learned at the Green Dragon Martial Hall, with the Thunder Spirit Eight Styles (雷灵八式) as the pinnacle, included the Thunder Shadow Sword Technique (雷影剑法) and the Thunder Shadow Step (雷影步). However, in the heat of intense battles, weapons could inevitably be lost, so Master Jin So-chung also taught me the fist technique.
Its name was Thunder Cloud Palm (雷云掌).
According to Master Jin So-chung, it was a martial art that supported the reputation of his master, the head of the Green Dragon Martial Hall, Samjeol Lee Gwang. While the Thunder Spirit Eight Styles were undoubtedly the most powerful, Samjeol Lee Gwang had mastered the spear (枪), sword (剑), and fist (拳) to the level of a master, making him one of the top martial artists in Guanzhong.
My achievement in the Thunder Cloud Palm was only about three out of ten. As someone who specialized in the Thunder Spirit Eight Styles and the Thunder Shadow Sword Technique, it was difficult for me to deeply practice the palm technique, and I lacked the talent for it. I could only memorize the forms and apply them appropriately, so I rarely used it.
Swoosh
"Ugh...!!"
I gathered my true energy in the palm of my hand according to the techniques of the Thunder Cloud Palm, and was surprised to see a bluish light emanate from my hand, with lightning crackling around my arm. I was greatly surprised because I had never seen such a phenomenon even when I concentrated hard.
'Is it because of the energy from the thousand-year-old snow ginseng?'
Boom!
Crack...
"......"
After a moment, I struck the stone wall with the Thunder Cloud Palm, and a hole large enough for a child to pass through appeared in the stone wall. My palm technique was originally only capable of delivering effective blows or causing internal injuries, but this was a different level of power. If used on a person, it would shatter all the bones in the upper body, turning them into a bloody mess.
I stared at the dust flying from the stone wall and quickly regained my composure.
'Oh no! I need to leave quickly.'
People would gather due to the noise. I quickly slipped away into the darkness between the alleys. Fortunately, there were no witnesses, or I might have had a confrontation with the guards.
'Anyway, the plan is definitely feasible. I’ll start at dawn tomorrow.'
That night, I went to bed early and slept soundly. I took the opportunity to rest from the fatigue of searching for the thousand-year-old snow ginseng in the mountains and rivers, and I paid a lot of money to the innkeeper for a hot bath. It was a luxury, as I had almost no money left.
In my dream, I saw my deceased mother.
She was smiling, which made me feel good.
The next morning, I woke up an hour before dawn, put on my nightclothes, and secretly went out into the city. I started moving cautiously towards the high-end residences and buildings I had scouted during the day.
There was only one thing to do.
Just carve the words into the stone walls with my fingers.
[The Yellow Mountain Sect is bullying the common people.]
Crack
The smell of stone dust and asbestos rose from the tips of my fingers. No matter how strong my inner strength had become, my fingers were still a bit numb. By the time I had written the words on about 20 places, the pain in my fingers was so intense that I had to take a break.
However, my goal for today was to write these words on at least 50 stone walls. I wrote them at intervals of about ten feet on each building, and the area I was moving through was usually crowded with people and frequently patrolled by officials. Once the words were carved into 50 places, it would be impossible for people not to notice.
'Oh, it’s the guards.'
I saw three guards patrolling together and quickly hid in an alley. Fortunately, they were just a dawn patrol and didn’t seem very skilled, so they didn’t detect my presence.
'Hmm... I want to write about ten more times, but what should I do?'
I could ambush the guards, use pressure points (点穴) to incapacitate them, and buy more time.
'No, that’s enough for today.'
However, I decided to stop here for today and hid back into the darkness. It was better to end at an appropriate point rather than leave too many traces.
"Ugh!"
"What is this?!"
"Wang Yilah! Go and report to the guard captain quickly!"
"Yes, sir..."
A moment later, I heard the guards making a fuss after discovering the words on the stone wall.
When it was light, I lay on the bed in the inn, pretending to know nothing. Since I had rented the room for four days, the innkeeper had no reason to cause trouble. I spent the morning practicing my martial arts skills.
Whoosh
After just a couple of rounds of the Grand Circulation, I felt a powerful surge of inner strength flowing through my body like a volcanic eruption. The energy was so intense that it pierced through my blood vessels and fine meridians, making me feel as if my inner strength was growing with each Grand Circulation.
'After breaking through the life and death gate, my fine meridians are all being penetrated...'
This was truly remarkable. Penetrating the fine meridians with inner strength was a necessary process to become stronger, but creating a path by moving qi and blood was extremely difficult. Most martial artists could only penetrate the major meridians in their lifetime, unless they had exceptional potential.
When the fine meridians are penetrated, the speed of qi transmission increases, and the body’s defensive power is significantly enhanced when hardened by inner strength.
To achieve even more, one must break through the life and death gate like me, making the inner strength flow like a gushing spring. However, this level was something I had only heard about; I never thought I would actually reach it. If I continued to practice my inner strength, my martial arts skills would undoubtedly reach the peak.
After finishing my morning practice and stepping outside the room, the innkeeper was in a panic.
"Oh dear... There’s trouble, sir. Don’t go outside today."
"What happened?"
"Some madman caused a commotion in the market, and the guards are patrolling aggressively... If you get into a fight, you might end up in jail, so lock the door and don’t go out. I’ll bring your meals."
"A commotion?"
I pretended to know nothing. The innkeeper, confirming that no one was around, spoke cautiously.
"Someone wrote a criticism of the Yellow Mountain Sect on the stone walls... I heard it was written on the stone walls!"
"Wow... That must be a martial arts expert, right?"
Ah, I felt embarrassed, but I acted as if nothing was wrong, and the innkeeper didn’t suspect me at all.
"Such martial arts experts are rare... But people secretly like it."
"Why do they like it?"
"Well, it’s all true..."
The innkeeper, trying to cover up, said.
"Anyway, stay inside!"
"Understood."
The innkeeper personally prepared the meal and brought it to my room. I ate the raw eggs, steamed rice, and chicken dishes while thinking.
' The innkeeper doesn’t seem to want to report and claim a reward. He probably wants to avoid getting involved in a troublesome situation.'
It seemed illogical, but considering the size of the inn, it was a plausible mindset. The innkeeper might suspect me, but he disliked getting involved in the incident. This was because there was no guarantee of a reward, and if the guards conducted an investigation, it would affect his business.
In a broader sense, it also indicated that the local officials were not well-respected. They were being shunned because they didn’t consider the needs of the common people and merchants.
I felt that my luck was good. If the innkeeper had been suspicious and wanted a reward, I would have been in quite a bit of trouble. My guess was correct, as I heard the innkeeper and the guards talking outside, and the guards left. The innkeeper probably said he hadn’t seen any suspicious person.
I didn’t feel the need to move anymore. Instead, I sat in the inn and thought about what to do next.
'This will definitely work. The Yellow Mountain Sect will have to back down.'
The method of anonymously posting messages on the stone walls of the market.
This wasn’t my original idea.
It was taken directly from the Dianqiang Zhiluan (点枪之乱) incident, which left a strong impression in my memory.
In the past, the lay disciples of the Jinchang Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects, extorted a lot of money from the local residents and committed excessive acts of bullying. The bullying was so severe that they even raped women and killed civilians, but the incidents were buried.
Then one day, notices were posted simultaneously in the villages around the Jinchang Sect. Specifically, an anonymous person wrote a large number of notices and posted them on the streets. The content was similar to what I had done: [The Jinchang Sect is a heretical sect that steals people’s property.]
The content reached the ears of the Prince of Yunnan, the younger brother of the emperor, who was furious and called in the Imperial Guards to investigate. The Jinchang Sect denied the allegations, but the bullying was eventually exposed, and the sect was immediately disbanded.
The leader of the Jinchang Sect committed suicide, and the elders fled in shame. This was a major incident where one of the Nine Great Sects disintegrated overnight, and it remained a topic of discussion for years, even in the southernmost part of the Central Plains.
This incident also redefined the relationship between the government (官) and the martial arts world (武林). While there had been an unwritten rule that the government and the martial arts world were inviolable, it was revealed that the government could suppress the martial arts world at any time.
Of course, my method is quite different from the Dianqiang Zhiluan.
During the Dianqiang Zhiluan, notices were posted simultaneously in dozens of villages, but I only acted in the most bustling market of Huangshan. Also, instead of writing and posting notices, I carved the words directly into the stone walls with my fingers.
Even so, the exposure to the eyes of the officials and the common people has its own significance. It becomes a fact that the officials cannot ignore, and the officials who accepted bribes from the Yellow Mountain Sect will have to speak up.