Unfortunately, Gu Yanying’s plan of invigoration through diet ended in failure. The ape meat did have spiritual qi, and it had been carefully prepared and cooked. However, she was only left with a painful jaw for quite a few days in the end. As a result, most of it went to Li Qingshan to go with his alcohol. The only comment he gave about it was “very chewy”.
All of the spiritual qi in the world rejected them, refusing to be absorbed and digested by them. As a result, they could not recover even a sliver of what they exhausted during their long journey in outer space.
Li Qingshan could draw out wisps of power from the ground beneath him, but that could only restore some simple strength, and it was as difficult as extracting water from a desert.
Fortunately, their plan of writing novels was extremely successful. When it came to this world, the White Ape King’s life could be regarded as absolutely fascinating, composed of a series of highs and lows. Meanwhile, the caretaker of the back courtyard, Yuan Feifei, was extremely good at storytelling. Most of the time, Li Qingshan only needed to record what she said before passing it to Gu Yanying for the final touches… in simpler terms, the novel actually had nothing to do with him at all. His “expertise”, not in novel-writing, but in something else, was what actually mattered.
The Legend of the White Ape King definitely did not draw in its readers through a fascinating story or realistic characters, but the White Ape Sword Classic. He happened to be extremely familiar with this plot device. In the book, the White Ape King would regularly experience “instantaneous comprehensions” and start a great monologue before sighing at the very end. “Now this is the higher realm of comprehension of the sword!”
No matter how much alcohol the White Ape King drank, he would not disclose any secrets of the sword, so this was obviously all made up by Li Qingshan. However, even these lies he made with his eyes closed would be much clearer and deeper than anything the White Ape King could come up with himself. He even took this world’s level of acceptance into account and specially tailored it to these newbies. It was basically equivalent to a detailed, annotated version of the White Ape Sword Classic. All that it lacked was a great red sticker on the cover, “Best text for learning the sword!”
As for the effects, they had already experimented on Yuan Feifei and seen the result. She actually did not have much talent for martial arts at all. She even lacked basic interest. Virtually the only reason why she had managed to make it to the innate realm was because of the Mountain Manor of the Divine Ape’s resources. The White Ape Sword Classic was simply too deep and profound to her, so she did not even have the patience to read the entire page of the sword manual that Gu Yanying released daily. Only when she read Li Qingshan’s novel did she suddenly feel enlightened.
If a secret martial arts manual was a shortcut up the mountain, whether the mountaineer could actually make it up the mountain would still depend on whether they possessed the talent and willpower to scale the cliffs and overcome the hardships. Li Qingshan had basically detailed every single cliff and obstacle in the task, and he explained how they could be dealt with.
No one in this world had ever written a secret manual like that. Even when they taught their disciples, they could not explain it so precisely and with so much detail. It was not because they were intentionally trying to make things difficult, or that the concepts involved really were that profound, but they completely lacked that ability.
However, that would also mean the book would be destined to be extremely long. Gu Yanying had expressed her worries about this as well, to which Li Qingshan responded, “I’m intentionally making it long. Once we have a hundred pages, we’ll release the first book, and then a second and a third. We’ll turn it into a series of books. I think even coming up with a few dozen of them won’t be a problem.”
Gu Yanying could not help but approve of that. Li Qingshan’s content about swordsmanship was extremely trivial, but it was logical with a clear sense of order. It was way better than the stories he came up with.
“The White Ape King thought the White Ape Sword Classic was the vast ocean. I’d say this is the vast ocean instead!”
“Haha, I’m flattered. Just you watch as I use this ocean to flood this land!”
At the same time, the mountain manor became enveloped in an unprecedentedly nervous atmosphere. Everyone gripped a sword in their hand, all possessing a few pages of the sword manual. Even the chef and the maidservants were no exception, let alone the swordsmen in the outer courtyard. They minimised their sleep as much as possible, even studying the sword manual when they ate or when they sat on the toilet. They even forsook their martial arts training.
The release rate of a page a day was far too fast. Apart from a small handful of innate realm masters, none of the others could keep up. All they could do was study it desperately, day in and day out. By the time over a dozen pages had been released, even the protectors of the left and the right became swamped. When they reached the twentieth page, two swordsmen had already passed away from exhaustion, one had suffered from cultivation deviation, and another went insane, jumping off the cliff. It was said that he was even screaming out as he fell, “It’s fake, it’s all fake!”
The other swordsmen only used their spare time to sneer. “Fools like them obviously won’t be able to understand such a profound sword manual!”
Most of the swordsmen even stopped paying attention to the news of the outside world. As they made their way through the manor, they would often come across swordsmen who gripped their swords with vicious expressions as they muttered away under their breaths. They seemed like they were out to kill, but they were probably too distracted to even move out of the way if someone walked into them.
Just like that, a month had passed. The swordsmen gathered in the hall again, waiting for the thirty-second page of the sword manual. All of their gazes were blank with their necks extended, like a group of ducks waiting to be fed. Even though they were so full that they were on the brink of rupturing, no one could stop themselves from continuing. Some of them even suspected this to be a scheme of the two manor lords to torture everyone to death. They swore they would never look at the sword manual again, but they normally always made the oath after they had seen the newest page of the sword manual.
“Greetings, manor lords!”
Amid the feeble voices, Li Qingshan and Gu Yanying arrived on time. Compared to the feebleness of the swordsmen, they seemed very energetic. They smiled at each other.
Gu Yanying said, “You’ve all had it tough lately, which was very painful to watch. For the sake of your health, we’ve decided that… there will be no page today.”
Everyone was taken aback. It took them tremendous effort to return to their senses. A spark flashed through their eyes, and immediately, the entire crowd was set off.
“No page today?” “Why is there no page?” “Didn’t you say you’d release the entire book?”
“Shut up!” Li Qingshan spat out the two words, and everyone reeled back like ducks grabbed by the neck. Even to this day, a clear handprint still remained where the Marquis of the Fierce Fire Sword had been killed. Li Qingshan waved his hand. “Caretaker Yuan, bring the box over and broaden their horizons.”
Yuan Feifei arrived in the centre of the hall with a great box in her hands, placing it down gently. She opened it gracefully. Sure enough, there was a stack of books inside.
“Don’t fight, don’t snatch. There’s a book for everyone!” Li Qingshan said.
The eyes of the swordsmen lit up as they immediately gathered over. The title, Legend of the White Ape King, filled their eyes instantly, as well as the extremely prominent “by Li Qingshan” on the cover, which made them all sigh in disappointment at the same time.
Holding back their disappointment, they took a closer look and noticed a few remarks on the cover. “This is the glorious life of a grandmaster of the sword. This is the great sigh of sudden death!”
The Marquis of the Fierce Fire Sword fiercely recommends. “My greatest regret in life is that I couldn’t live until the birth of this book!”
At the very bottom, there were even four large, bright-red words. “Best text for learning the sword!”
The faces of the swordsmen all twitched as they mulled inside, Weren’t you the ones that killed the White Ape King? Since when did the Marquis of the Fierce Fire Sword say something like that? Even if he regrets something, he’ll probably regret that he “couldn’t live”!
However, in consideration of the White Ape King and the Marquis of the Fierce Fire Sword’s fates, they decided to be patient. Everyone took a book and began flipping through it.
