Choosing Martial Arts Skills (1)

The Martial Arts Library was an important ground in the sect, it had collections of different martial skills gathered over hundreds of years. They were used to help those of later generations, hoping that they could expand the family.

Usually, a sect’s number and quality of martial arts determined how strong the sect would be. Zhao Feng remembered that at the Green Leaf village Zhao family, there was no Martial Art Library.

The library was divided into three floors.

In the first floor there was a large quantity of martial arts, but most of them were low ranked, with a few middle ranked ones there as well.

The second floor apparently had the sect’s secret and traditional techniques. Most of them were of high rank, there were even some peak ranked ones there! However, to enter the second floor one needed one to be at least at the fourth rank of the Martial Path.

And the third floor was just a rumor, as it had never been publicly opened…

For Zhao Feng, the second and third floors were just too far away, even the first floor’s martial arts were something that he yearned for.

He had no background in the sect, and a person with no background or exceptional talent could not access higher ranked martial arts. The Flaming Metal Fists he had was only a core rank martial art, and so was even weaker than a low ranked martial art.

However, after breaking through to the second rank of the Martial path, he had the right to enter the first floor and choose a martial art.

“The Zhao sect, it is no wonder that it is one of the three big families of Sun Feather city, riding on top of several hundred other families.”

Zhao Feng stepped into the first floor, his breathing quickening. He could see a few other Zhao disciples, but all of them were using their time to choose their own martial art skills.

According to the rules, those that entered the library only had half an hour to select skills. So everyone that entered here didn’t waste any time.

“I’ve got half an hour and I need to choose a middle rank martial art, or two low ranked martial arts.” Zhao Feng took a deep breath, and scanned the bookshelves.

The first floor of the library had several thousand books, and every book was two cm thick. To find one or two martial arts among such a high number was not easy.

“Rock Breaking Palm, Angered Dragon Fist, Leaf Picking Sword, Wind-like Foot…” Different kinds of martial art skills made Zhao Feng’s eyes turn colorful.

_Shuah! Shuah!_ Zhao Feng flipped the pages of these martial art skills quickly to the first page. These martial arts usually had their summaries on the first page.

Crazy Wing Blade Blade, like the wind, powerful like lightning, uses speed to win. Minimum requirement first rank of the Martial Path, to train this skill is average difficulty. Rank: Low.

Angered Dragon Fists, can increase the strength of the cultivator, can put all power into one attack. Minimum requirement is second rank of the Martial Path, to train this skill is quite hard. Rank: Peak of the middle rank.

Wind-like Foot. A close combat skill which uses speed to win. When trained to fullest potential, can fight against many people and not lose. Minimum requirements first rank of the Martial Path, but high difficulty. Rank: Middle.

Metal Sand. Increases the defense of the body. Under full activation can go head to head with same rank opponent. Someone who can train it to a high level can use their body to defend against swords and blades. Minimum requirements second rank of the Martial Path and needs high willpower. Rank: Middle.

*****

_The martial arts library’s skills are stronger than the core ranked skills by far, just as expected…_

Zhang Feng was extremely pleased, and the skills he saw were mainly middle rank ones. After only looking through tens of books, his heart had already been moved several times.

However, the library had restrictions. He could only take out one middle rank martial art.

_If I could only take out a few then that would be great…_

Zhao Feng felt unwilling and thought it was unfair. Branch disciples can only choose one middle martial art whereas the main disciples can choose two.

To increase his selection speed, Zhao Feng started to use his left eye.

With his left eye, his assessment speed increased more than tenfold…

_Shuah shuah shuah…_

Zhao Feng’s left eye used an incredible speed to look through these martial arts. He only needed one look to understand them all. Looking at over thirty books, Zhao Feng fully memorized the contents of them and compared them with one another.

When he had scanned over fifty, Zhao Feng suddenly realized something was not right, and froze.

He went back to his memories of the other books. In his mind the contents of the books appeared and not a single word was wrong or missing.

“This…” Zhao Feng felt himself trembling with excitement.

After merging with the left eye, Zhao Feng’s memory had improved as well. He only needed to look at something once and would never forget it. Especially when he activated his left eye, the contents of the books were burned into his mind.

Zhao Feng never thought that he would achieve the power of ‘Never Forgetting’. There were many rumours about geniuses on Azure Flower Continent, and ‘Never Forgetting’ was one of the attributes they had.

However, ‘Never Forgetting’ worked for most people in that their memory was good, they only needed to read something once and they would remember eighty to ninety percent of the contents.

However, compared to Zhao Feng’s ‘Never Forgetting’, his version was clearly much stronger. He was literally not able to forget!

With this power in the Martial Arts Library, it meant that Zhao Feng could ‘take’ more books out!

“Fast, fast, fast!” Zhao Feng mumbled to himself excitedly, and started to memorize all the books he could.

_Shuah shuah shuah..._

His concentration was pushed to the limit as he flipped through the pages of the manuals as soon as he grasped them. As long as the contents were looked at by his left eye, it didn’t matter if it was words or drawings, he memorized everything. It only took Zhao Feng twenty breaths of time to fully remember a book with fifty pages.

“Hahaha…Never Forget! Good!” Zhao Feng felt great, but he seemed more and more insane as he ripped through the books. His actions caused some of the other disciples to look over.

“I think this guy’s gone crazy…”

“Maybe it is his first time here and he is too excited…”

Some of the disciples looked at Zhao Feng’s actions and shook their heads.

*******************

Time flashed by. Twenty minutes had already passed.

Hu!

Zhao Feng let out a long breath. He felt tired, but it still couldn’t stop his excitement.

At this point, he had ‘stolen’ over a hundred martial arts books!

These martial arts were mainly middle ranked martial arts. It included Fist skills, Palm skills, Sword skills, Breathing skills, Footwork skills, Defense skills and many others.

Because Zhao Feng kept on using his left eye, his mind became tired.

Next, Zhao Feng’s left eye scanned around the area and landed upon an old martial arts book. The reason why he stopped on it was because Zhao Feng felt that the materials this book was made of were different from the rest.

Zhao Feng picked up this book and on the top were three words: Lightly Floating Ferry.

He flipped to the first page.

Lightly Floating Ferry, high rank martial art, can make the cultivator move through the snow without leaving marks, can drift across the river and make the person feel like a bird. When trained high enough, the person can Double Jump and even fly for short moments! Minimum requirement is second rank of the Martial Path and to train in this skill was very hard. In addition, higher chi will increase the force of the skill. Achieving the highest realm will make a person quicker than anyone else under the seventh rank of the Martial Path.

Zhao Feng first thought that this was just an ordinary footwork skill, but after he saw Double Jump, and ‘higher chi’, his eyes twinkled.

‘Double Jump’ exceeded the limits of middle rank martial arts, even some high ranked ones couldn’t do that! Higher chi’ meant that this skill was suited for martial artists at or above the fourth rank of the Martial Path.

And the most incredible part was: Achieving the highest realm would allow the person to have the fastest speed of everyone under the seventh rank of the Martial Path.

“What an exaggeration! Even some peak rank martial arts won’t have the courage to say this.” Zhao Feng’s eyes shone and without hesitation, he started reading the contents of Lightly Floating Ferry.

He had a question in his heart. Why would such a strong skill be put at the bottom floor? And why would no one learn it?

Soon, Zhao Feng found the reason.

After flipping through a quarter of the book, the words started to blur out. The book was too old, and had started to mold.

That meant that this book only had a quarter of its original contents.

“So unfortunate…” Zhao Feng was severely disappointed. However, he did not give up and continued to use his left eye on the blurred-out words. Using all of his power on his left eye, Zhao Feng could just about see the words under the mold, exceeding a normal human’s eyesight by at least twentyfold.

After reading two pages, Zhao Feng felt his mind grow tired and his left eye felt as if there was no power left in it.

If I take this back I can slowly read all of its later contents, Zhao Feng thought, and then took Lightly Floating Ferry out of the first floor of the martial arts library.

“Lightly Floating Ferry? You want this book?” the white-robed elder asked with scrunched eyebrows.

“Yes,” Zhao Feng politely replied.

“This book has been around for a thousand years, and there are parts in it which exceed high rank martial arts by far.” After telling him this, the white-robed elder’s voice turned. “However, only a quarter of this book can be seen. An important note: To fully train this in skill is extremely hard, even some geniuses cannot do it. Even if they do it, under the fourth rank of the Martial Path, its potential is restricted.”

At last, the white-robed elder warned, “I’d advise you to change your pick, or else you will never break through to the fourth rank of the Martial Path and become a true Martial Artist.”

“Thank you for your warning, elder , but my heart is decided.” Zhao Feng had a calm look on his face.

Looking at the Zhao Feng leave, the white-robed elder shook his head and said, “These youths nowadays all take the highest ranked book possible.”

He believed that Zhao Feng would not be able to fully learn Lightly Floating Ferry, and taking a step back, even if he could, what could a partial martial art book do?

Leaving the Martial Arts Library, Zhao Feng returned home.

Sitting on his bed, he closed his eyes, and on the inside of his mind the contents of around a hundred martial art books quickly surfaced…