Chapter 3: Chapter 3 : When History Split, the Martial Path Began

When History Split, the Martial Path Began

Inside the cramped bedroom, Chu Tianxing sat before his computer desk. Amid the sound of the old desktop PC's case running like a chronic asthmatic, he frowned at the historical information his search had yielded.

The historical trajectory of this world was no different from his original world’s history up until the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign in the Great Ming Dynasty.

That year was when everything changed.

In Chu Tianxing’s original world, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen’s reign marked the start of a bloody and dark period of national decline. Li Zicheng’s forces breached Yanjing and the Chongzeng Emperor hanged himself on Meishan.

The seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign in this world was the same as Li Zicheng still breached Yanjing.

However, the Chongzhen Emperor did not hang himself on that old, crooked-necked tree.

Instead, he suddenly went into Musou mode and unleashed a peerless palm strike the moment Li Zicheng entered the capital through the Desheng Gate and decapitated him on the spot.

No, you did not misread that.

The Chongzhen Emperor of this world was precisely the first martial arts Grandmaster in the Central Plains to have cultivated True Qi.

In Chu Tianxing’s original world, the Chongzhen Emperor was exceptionally diligent in his governance. Although his diligence was basically counterproductive, making an already unbearable situation even worse, he at least never slacked off.

But this world’s Chongzhen Emperor was a different breed. He put on a good show of being a diligent ruler for his first year, then promptly lost all interest. By his fourth year on the throne, he barely showed up to court once a month.

Everyone assumed that the Chongzhen Emperor was just another Jiajing Emperor, but no one knew at the time that his neglect of state affairs was not due to laziness. Rather, he was devoting all his time and energy to secretly cultivating the martial path.

He didn't just train himself, but he also diligently trained his sons and daughters. At the same time, he kept a tight grip on the military authority over the capital's last elite unit, the Yongwei Battalion. Instead of sending them out on campaigns, he taught martial arts to the soldiers, forging a powerful army where every man could fight ten.

In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor’s reign, after personally decapitating Li Zicheng, the emperor took advantage of the rebel army's being a dragon without a head and led the Yongwei Battalion to a great victory. He retook the capital and turned the tide against all odds.

He then waged campaigns across the land, defeating the rebel armies, annihilating the Later Jin, and restoring order to the realm. Throughout his military career, his sons and daughters also made immense contributions on the battlefield.

So, it was still the Great Ming Dynasty.

That was why the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot still existed.

And not just the Eastern Depot, but the Western Depot and the Inner Depot as well…

When he saw this, Chu Tianxing thought it was absurd and searched for True Qi and what he found made his jaw drop.

“The martial arts of this world are divided into four great realms: External Refinement, Inner Force, True Qi, and Astral Qi. The True Qi Realm is the third great realm.”

“One must first cultivate internal energy, then use that force to open the Twelve Principal Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians one by one, allowing the internal energy to circulate without obstruction. Then you must refine the energy's quality and temper the body with it until the body is strong enough to handle the power of True Qi. Only then can one attempt to form a seed of True Qi…”

“So-called True Qi refers to a type of energy capable of ‘turning the illusory into the real.’ Internal energy is formless and intangible. Although it can enhance one’s physical might, even when cultivated to the point where it can be projected externally, it remains an invisible force, imperceptible to the naked eye.”

“But True Qi has different attributes and can show different effects. Fire-attribute True Qi can produce flame-like light and shadows that possess a very real heat. Ice-attribute True Qi can project a bone-chilling frost. Metal-attribute True Qi can create sharp sword-auras that can cut through anything…”

“A True Qi Realm martial artist uses True Qi to refine their acupoints. Once all the acupoints in their body have been refined, they can attempt to break through to the Astral Qi Realm. If they succeed, they become an Earth Immortal… able to fly in their physical body, dive into the deep sea without drowning, swim through molten lava without being burned, summon wind and rain, unleash lightning from their palms, shake mountains with their bare hands, and cleave skyscrapers with a single chop…”

Reading this, Chu Tianxing was at once shocked, excited, and a little worried.

Are you kidding me? The Astral Qi Realm is that powerful?! What’s the difference between that and the gods and immortals of legend? Is a small planet like Earth durable enough to withstand the antics of these great ancestors?

Driven by this concern, he quickly looked up the number of Astral Qi Realm martial artists and breathed a small sigh of relief after seeing the results.

“Thank goodness, Astral Qi martial artists are one in a hundred million. With the Great Ming’s population of 1.6 billion, there are only a mere nine Astral Qi Realm martial artists… well, at least publicly, there are only nine.”

After finishing his research on the history and martial arts, Chu Tianxing closed his eyes and pondered for a moment before murmuring to himself.

“From the look of the historical records, the Chongzhen Emperor wasn’t a transmigrator. After he made his first move and retook the capital, many Inner energy Realm martial artists and even True Qi Realm grandmasters also began to appear throughout the Central Plains. And those people had no connection to the Chongzhen Emperor or the Yongwei Battalion. Some were even on the other side, fighting for the rebels and the Latter Jin.”

Later generations researched this strange phenomenon. The conclusion was, unsurprisingly, “Spiritual Qi Revival.”

Some researchers believed that the gods and immortals of ancient myths had likely existed. They weren’t born as divine beings but were probably ancient humans who had successfully cultivated True Qi or even Astral Qi and were thus regarded as deities and worshipped by ordinary people.

But because of the Severing of the Heaven-Earth Connection, the world's Spiritual Qi gradually dried up, and supernatural powers slowly vanished, consigning gods and immortals to the realm of legend.

It wasn't until the Chongzhen Emperor’s era that the Spiritual Qi recovered once more. Those martial arts pioneers with naturally unique constitutions and an abnormal sensitivity to Spiritual Qi sensed its existence and, through cultivation, allowed supernatural power to reappear in the world.

But this presented another problem.

The martial path is an extremely rigorous discipline. Even external training of the body can cause problems or injury if done wrong. But the cultivation of internal energy and True Qi, which involves meridians and acupoints, allows for absolutely no error.

Before the Spiritual Qi Revival, there were no traditions of Inner Force or True Qi Realm martial arts in the world. So how did the True Qi grandmasters and Inner Force experts, including the Chongzhen Emperor himself, succeed in their cultivation?

The answer to this question can only be found in fragments from historical documents.

In the Daily Life Records of the Chongzhen Emperor, there is an entry that reads, “We received a Heavenly Revelation in a dream and thus achieved the martial path.”

In the private notes of other martial artists from the same era, there are also extremely sporadic, similar records, such as “received instruction from a divine being in a dream,” or “while observing the stars at night, my mind entered a trance, and I suddenly attained enlightenment.”

From these historical records, the initial origin of martial arts seems to point toward that mysterious Heavenly Revelation.

But as for what this Heavenly Revelation actually was, there was no publicly available information online. In any case, Chu Tianxing searched for a long time but found nothing.

However, the lack of information online didn’t prove that the modern world was ignorant of the truth behind the Heavenly Revelation.

In Chu Tianxing’s opinion, the truth of the Heavenly Revelation had probably been discovered long ago; it just hadn’t been made public.

The revival of Spiritual Qi and the subsequent rise of supernaturally powerful individuals had created a unique society in this world. On one hand, the technological advancement of the civilian side of this world isn’t that far behind compared to his original world. But on the other hand, the military technological advancement was exceptionally stagnant.

The reason behind that was that martial artists, befitting their strength, possessed statuses that matched their personal strength.

Yet, martial artists were not immortal. Even the god-like Astral Qi Realm masters had weaknesses and could be killed.

Therefore, the powerful martial artists who held power and authority all over the globe tacitly agreed to suppress the development of military technology to prevent ordinary people from mastering the power to kill them.

As a result, nuclear weapons did not exist in this world. The Astral Qi Realm martial artists themselves are the “nuclear weapons.”

Conventional weaponry was also extremely primitive, roughly equivalent to the period before World War I in Chu Tianxing’s original world.

Weapons of this level could kill weaker True Qi Realm martial artists, but they posed little threat to powerful ones. As for Astral Qi Realm martial artists, they posed no threat whatsoever.

With military technology being what it was, a nation’s military might was determined solely by how many powerful martial artists it possessed.

Therefore, the powerful martial artists did not place a strict lockdown on the martial arts. At the very least, basic martial arts, common martial arts, and even a few advanced disciplines were allowed to be disseminated.

All countries now teach martial arts from elementary school. In the Great Ming alone, there were at least fourteen physical education classes per week, along with five or more theory classes related to martial arts.

But even so, not everyone could master the profound martial arts.

Practicing martial arts is more about talent than studying.

When it came to academics, even someone with average physical gifts could achieve success as long as their mind was sharp enough and they were focused and resolute.

But for martial arts, especially the profound disciplines, having a sharp mind was not enough. Having a personality that was unafraid of hardship, focused, and resolute was also not enough. One also needed a naturally gifted body.

In Chu Tianxing’s original world, there were many top athletes with superb physical gifts, but they didn’t necessarily have the brains. There were also many academic prodigies with brilliant minds, but they didn’t necessarily have good bodies. And there were plenty of people with both good bodies and good minds, but they didn't necessarily have an indomitable personality.

But high-level martial arts need body, brain, and character talent; none can be absent.

That was why Astral Qi Realm martial artists were one in a hundred million. There were a decent number of True Qi Realm masters, but they were still a tiny fraction of the whole.

As for Inner Force Realm martial artists, the Great Ming alone possessed ten million people who had reached that stage, but the vast majority of them would remain at this stage for their entire lives. The realm beyond that was unreachable for them.

As for those who couldn’t even cultivate internal energy, they comprised the absolute majority.

Take this world’s Chu Tianxing, for example. Forget internal energy, his naturally poor constitution means that he couldn’t perform particularly strenuous exercise. He couldn’t even pass the most basic stage of the martial path.

So, in this life, I’m accomplished in neither literature nor martial arts, I’ve lost my family’s billion-dollar fortune, and aside from being handsome, I'm really a good for nothing.

Chu Tianxing felt a deep sense of indignation in his heart.

This world is so exciting. How could he be willing to be a useless pretty boy?

Just as that guy Xiao Hu said, I can't hide behind Qin Ling for the rest of my life, can I? But… they start teaching martial arts in elementary school. By middle school and high school, it’s a core subject on par with language arts and mathematics… If this body of mine had any real talent for martial arts, it would have been developed long ago…

Then again, there’s always a reason for transmigration. There’s no way I would cross over for no reason at all. Whatever cosmic force or bored god sent me here owes me a starter pack. A golden finger or something! Otherwise, wouldn't this entire trip have been for nothing?

At that very moment, his mind suddenly jolted.

A strange, translucent and sparkling crystal, like a diamond yet shaped like a lotus, inexplicably appeared in his mind.

As the strange crystal appeared, a stream of profound information surged into his mind.

After deciphering the information, a strange expression appeared on Chu Tianxing’s face.

“Write novels… The more famous it is and the more fans pay, the more willpower I can gather to refine my body? If it's adapted into shows, movies, or comics and reaches thousands of households, the benefits will be even greater?”

“What the hell is this golden finger? I decided to quit! Why do I still have to write novels after I transmigrated? I’ve already spent ten years of my life proving that I’m just not cut out for this line of work!”