Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

Chapter 121: Chapter 87: Evil Era_l

Translator: 549690339

Three days later, within a simple thatched cottage, wisps of cooking smoke rose into the air along with the fragrance of rice.

By the stove, Xu Yang, who had cleared himself of suspicions of “corpse transformation,” removed the lid of the pot and scooped out a full bowl of coarse rice, with slices of cured meat buried within. The melting fat infused with the rice, releasing an even more enticing aroma.

Xu Yang picked up his chopsticks and didn’t bother to go elsewhere, simply sitting by the stove to eat.

In no time, a large bowl of rice mixed with cured meat disappeared into his stomach.

After eating, he didn’t wash the dishes, but put down his chopsticks and went into the yard to practice a set of boxing techniques on the spot.

His movements were like a fierce tiger and a swimming Jiao Dragon, with his fists carrying the momentum of wind and thunder, truly grand and powerful.

This was a supreme skill from the Martial Arts Scripture, recorded in the “Power Scroll” called the Thunder-Driving Lightning-Lifting Skill.

The technique originally stemmed from the concept of “Heavenly Thunder Tempering” and was rather rudimentary, not very useful in practice.

Only after Xu Yang, with his Fish-Dragon Form, acquired the divine ability of “Thunder Commanding Power,” and thoroughly understood the nature of thunder and lightning, did this technique evolve and transform, becoming a formidable and risk-free Divine Skill.

It eliminated the dangerous flaws of “Heavenly Thunder overbearing the mind, turning one to ash” and allowed a practitioner to gradually master the power of thunder and lightning with a step-by-step approach. Externally, it could refine the body using the “Body Training” method; internally, it could enhance the Inner Yuan, accomplishing the prowess of the “Martial Path.” It was a supreme skill that integrated two systems, cultivating both internally and externally.

According to Xu Yang’s conception, when practiced to a certain degree, this skill could even seize the creative forces of Heaven and Earth, cultivating the “Thunder Commanding Power” divine ability, and mastering the power of lightning without the need for transfer from Zhuanzhou Mengdie.

But this was not the main reason why he was practicing his boxing at the moment.

The Thunder-Driving Lightning-Lifting Skill was also part of the Martial Arts Scripture system, combining internal and external cultivation, suitable for practice while sitting as well.

The reason Xu Yang chose dynamic “moving pile” cultivation with boxing rather than static “meditative pile” practice was due to inadequate conditions for the latter.

Static pile, that is, meditation, involves sitting still and circulating Internal Breath, which not only requires a significant level of internal cultivation for control but also depends on certain external conditions, such as the power of Heavenly Earth Prime Spirit.

Only by absorbing the Heavenly Earth Prime Spirit or swallowing spirit pills to transform external forces into nourishment can one ensure that the efficiency of static pile cultivation outweighs that of dynamic pile cultivation.

Having just arrived in this world, and only taking over this body for three days, where could Xu Yang have developed such internal cultivation?

Not only could the internal conditions not be met, but the external requirements were also difficult to fulfill.

In Xu Yang’s perception, this world, this realm, can only be described in two words.

Barren!

Utterly barren!

Forget the world of Black Water where gods and Buddhas flooded the skies, this place didn’t even compare with the Great Zhou or Great Tang, nor with the mundane world of his real body.

In Great Zhou and Great Tang, as well as the mundane world where his origin body resided, there might not be nature’s spiritual energy, but there was still ordinary Yuan Qi.

This world was different; not only was there no pure spiritual energy from nature, but even the ordinary Yuan Qi was incredibly scarce.

Yuan Qi is fundamental to everything; the result of its scarcity is a barren world.

This barrenness is reflected in many areas, most notably in the quantity, quality, and lifespan of living beings.

According to the memories of the body’s original owner, which Xu Yang sorted through in the past three days, as well as information gathered from books and subtle inquiries, this world truly was in a state of extreme scarcity.

Not to mention other aspects, just look at life expectancy. People in this world generally lived very short lives, with most only reaching fifty or sixty years at most.

Take the Ma Clan as an example; Xu Yang had covertly looked through the family records. Over a dozen generations spanning several hundred years, there were fewer than five members who lived past sixty years of age.

This was not normal, not normal at all.

While it is true that the average lifespan in ancient times was very low, mostly in the range of thirty to forty years, that was largely due to war and poverty reducing the population, skewing the average downwards, rather than the actual lifespan of ancient people being so short.

In Great Zhou, Great Tang, and in the Origin Body Mortal world, as long as one did not engage in life-draining hard labor such as “smithing, ship propping, or tofu selling,” an ordinary person, absent illness and disaster, could easily live to seventy or eighty, or even over a hundred years old.

But in this world, it wasn’t possible. Even if someone lived a life of luxury, spared from illness and calamity, it was still challenging to live past sixty.

Why?

Simply put, Yuan Spirit was scarce, the land was infertile, and the world was harsh!

Whether considering the innate source or acquired supplies, there was a severe deficiency, naturally limiting lifespan.

The issue of native lifespan aside, the quantity and quality were the same—whether it was humans, animals, spirits, or even plants and all things of nature—they all existed in a severely barren state, with short lifespans, few in number, and low in quality.

This was the impression this world, this realm, had made on Xu Yang.

Barren!

Impoverished!

Arduous!

This reminded him of two major hypotheses from Taoism and Buddhism.

The End Times of Evil Age!

The five turbidities and evil world!

In the End Times, the Yuan Spirit is silent, and all laws are extinguished!

Amidst the five turbidities, human lifespan greatly diminishes, with centenarians being rare!

In this age, in this world, there must surely be a rise in Evil Skills, and the

world must De m great disorder.

Whether the world was in disorder, Xu Yang did not know.

But based on what he had encountered so far, this world indeed existed in such an End Times of Evil Age condition, with sparse Yuan Spirit and a barren land, which was very unfriendly to cultivators like him and to ordinary people alike.

Fortunately, he had mastered a variety of skills, not solely relying on spiritual energy for cultivation. If it had been a cultivator from the real world, transported to this world, they would have been absolutely helpless, becoming unable to cultivate and effectively a cripple.

Without spiritual energy, what could they possibly cultivate?

Even for him, the lack of spiritual energy was a severe handicap and interference.

While the Martial Arts Scripture does not rely on nature’s spiritual energy, it cannot create energy out of nothing and replace it.

All things abide by the law of conservation of energy; the Martial Arts Scripture might not use nature’s spiritual energy for cultivation, but it still must rely on ordinary Yuan Qi as well as food for nourishment, absorbing nutrients to foster oneself, and thus become powerful.

It’s not possible to conjure something from nothing, cultivating supreme Divine Skills by merely breathing in the northwest wind; that would be utterly unreasonable.

Nature’s spiritual energy was scarce, and all creatures were malnourished. Having just arrived, he had no ample resources to sustain himself, so his cultivation was naturally greatly affected.

How much nutrition could that bowl of coarse rice and that piece of cured meat possibly provide?

It was hardly enough to support static pile cultivation; he could only get moving, practice dynamic pile and throw punches, digesting the nutrition from the food and converting it into Qi Blood, distributing it throughout his body to marginally enhance his cultivation.

It was extremely difficult!

As for this, Xu Yang currently had no good solution.

If his Divine Soul were strong enough, transmitting the various skill traits from his Origin Body, he could break through the world’s restrictions, disregard the scarcity of nature, and accelerate the practice of Martial Arts Scripture.

But this ‘if’ was not realistic, as his current Divine Soul cultivation level was nowhere near transmitting those advanced and efficient skill traits.

He could only rely on “himself!”

A clever woman cannot cook without rice; facing the current plight and unknown enemies, he had no good countermeasures either.

He could only explore step by step, attempt little by little.

After completing a set of boxing, his body’s Qi Blood boiled, and it had indeed improved quite a bit.

Since the body’s original owner was murdered, Xu Yang urgently needed the capability to protect himself, and after clearing his suspicion, he withdrew his meager savings to purchase some meat and grains as nourishment for martial training.

Unfortunately, his savings were so meager that the grain and meat he purchased were only enough for three days, and the meal he had just eaten was the last.

Thus, the effect of the martial training wasn’t too strong, just barely managing to reach the level of an average adult.

There was no helping it; the original owner was a weak scholar who couldn’t perform physical labor and had been in a sub-health state for a long time. It was already quite good that three days of training had brought him up to par with an average person.

Xu Yang returned to his room, took out the Four Treasures of the Study, ground the ink, laid out the paper, picked up the brush, and began writing, producing splendid writings In no time.

In this world, there were many odd characters, phenomena, and tales!

For example, the development of the Way of Literature.

In a world where nature was impoverished and all things struggled to grow, resources were limited. People’s clothing barely covered their bodies, their food was insufficient, and hardship was the norm.

Logically, in times of such hardship, the Way of Literature should be even harder to pursue because schooling consumed a lot of resources. The Four Treasures of the Study and books of classics were all valuable items that common families could ill afford.

But this world was different.

The items related to literature were sold at ridiculously low prices!

Whether it was the Four Treasures of the Study or standard printed books, the price was so low that even common folk could easily afford them.

Take the “original owner,” Ma Wencai, for instance—a poor scholar with deceased parents, alone and unsupported, his livelihood entirely dependent on the clan’s charity. Even so, his home had plenty of books, lacking none of the Four Treasures of the Study, and even possessing a few spare sets.

This clearly didn’t make sense!

There must be a cause for any wind that blows—anything unusual must have an underlying reason!

There must be a reason for this.

As for what that reason was…

Xu Yang still wasn’t very sure.

But one can deduce the whole from a part! In such a poor world, the prices of literary items were so cheap that even commoners could practice literature and stand out, with a hint of “the world learns literature, everyone is like a dragon”…

This reminded Xu Yang of his own deeds in Great Zhou and Great Tang.

In Great Zhou and Great Tang, he gathered the wisdom of all beings to deduce Martial Arts Scripture and executed policies such as public land ownership, emancipation of labor, and improved productivity with an iron fist. These policies allowed the common people to live without worry about food and clothing, providing ample resources and time for them to practice martial arts and strengthen themselves.

At that time, the prices of meat, grain, paper, books, medical herbs, and other materials related to the Martial Path were all driven down by his policies of “improving production,” “price monitoring,” “strict prohibition of market manipulation,” and “universal access, ” benefiting everyone.

For this, he killed many people, a great many people, causing countless merchants, nobles, and influential clans who could not bear the changes to attempt his overthrow time and again, only to be slain en masse, leaving fields of corpses in their wake.

One could say that the Martial Path’s golden age in Great Zhou and Great Tang was created on a foundation of the blood and corpses of countless opposing interest groups, forcibly established by his unparalleled martial prowess and iron-fisted governance.

Honestly, such a system wasn’t an appropriate strategy for governing a country because it severely contravened human nature. If anyone else had attempted it, they would have been overthrown by various powers and met with national ruin and personal disaster.

It was only because of him, possessing peerless martial prowess to suppress the world, dominating all under heaven, combined with various skill traits and a group of nearly fanatical disciples and followers, that he was able to suppress dissenting hearts from all sides and push forward the policy of “Spreading

Martial Path throughout the World.”

Even so, there were still those who dared to court death by standing in his way.

This indicated how difficult it was to implement this approach; it touched on too many interests. Unless there was an overwhelmingly powerful force to support it, such a policy would never succeed.

Now comes the question.

Great Zhou and Great Tang, with the Martial Path spread throughout the land, had him as the driving force behind it.

What about this world?

Who was the one promoting the Way of Literature, allowing merchants and nobles, great clans and academies of various doctrines to not monopolize the ladder of ‘literature,’ not reap the considerable profits, and to sell literary items so cheaply that even common folk could pursue education and realize such a prosperous era for literature?

Who was it?

Xu Yang did not know.

But he was certain that behind it, there must be an extremely powerful force, an extraordinary transcendent power.

Only a force beyond the mundane could suppress ‘human nature,’ personal gain, and compel those interest groups to make such a painful concession.

How powerful was this transcendent force?

Xu Yang still did not know.

But, using his own “Spreading Martial Path throughout the World” as a reference, Xu Yang was sure that this power must either be a supremely strong individual who could suppress all and sweep away everything, or an interest group that won the hearts of many and was the trend of the times.

The former could use personal great power to suppress collective dissent and force the world to follow his will.

The latter would be a scenario where all major powers and groups had a common interest, resulting in a cooperative trend.

Is it the former, or the latter?

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