“I didn’t hold back.” Li Qingshan casually pushed her aside. Ever since he realised he had misunderstood that day, he no longer thought of Ru Xin in any special way. This woman was just too twisted. She was constantly ready for mischief. He did not want to be toyed around with for nothing.
Ru Xin said, “You clearly could have won, but you lost. Isn’t that holding back?”
Combining the effort of five hundred people was not an easy feat, requiring extremely great discipline. Maintaining the Coiled Snake formation took tremendous energy too.
As long as Li Qingshan dragged it out, the formation would collapse on itself before long, and he would be able to defeat them all in the same way as before. Defeating these military disciples who had lost many people and much might would probably be even easier than last time.
“Don’t you feel that winning like that is very boring?” Li Qingshan laid back down. It was not like it was a battle to the death, so there was no need for him to rack his brain. The outcome was less important. What mattered was learning from it, training his body, and practising skills through it so that he could prepare for a certain day in the future.
“If there are spiritual stones up for grabs, it obviously isn’t boring.”
“Women just love to be petty. Have you ever heard of thinking for the long-term?”
“Wow, looking down on women.” Ru Xin squeezed Li Qingshan’s shoulder. “Your strength seems to have increased again.”
“One spiritual stone, two spiritual stones…”
“You-” Ru Xin was taken aback. Then, Li Qingshan grabbed her slender, white hand. “Now we’re on equal footing, so feel me however you want!” Although she was always so mischievous, he did feel that it was easier to get along with her.
“Keep dreaming!” Ru Xin smiled. Her face sank.
“Hahaha, Li Qingshan, to think that you would have a day like today. What are you doing? Ru Xin, tell me what’s going on?” Chu Tian rushed in like a whirlwind, pointing at Li Qingshan and laughing at him, but when he saw what they were doing, he immediately struggled to accept it.
“Li Qingshan, you- you- you-” Han Qiongzhi wanted to stop Chu Tian, but she just happened to see this too.
Even Ru Xin rolled her eyes. Just what have we done? You’re reacting like you’ve caught a cheating couple in bed.
……
Li Qingshan returned to Great War island and found Han Tieyi.
Han Anjun was currently giving a talk to the military disciples, while Han Tieyi stood to one side. Seeing Li Qingshan, Han Anjun made a gesture towards him with his lips.
Han Tieyi walked over and said to Li Qingshan, “Come with me.”
Li Qingshan followed Han Tieyi and arrived before a metal gate. Han Tieyi took out his waist tablet and opened the gate, entering the darkness. Gates opened and closed one after another as they rapidly travelled deeper underground.
Li Qingshan had never thought that Great War island would be hiding something underground too. He became even more curious about just what battle skill Han Tieyi would teach him.
Finally, he arrived at the very bottom. A formation glowed as a great streak of light shot up. As it turned out, the school of the Military’s formation was located here. All he could say was this truly was the school of the Military. With how strict the security was, the school of Novels could never rival it with how theirs was just located within a bamboo forest. However, he did not imagine that this was a library either, with battle skills everywhere.
Han Tieyi stopped and turned around. He said, “Thank you!”
Ru Xin could tell, so he obviously could tell too. His original reason for calling Li Qingshan over was to give the military disciples a sense of danger and an opportunity for actual battle, but ever since the chaos from the White Lotus cult, they could not afford to lose again.
Losing once or twice could motivate them, but if they kept losing, it would only damage the army’s morale. They were in desperate need of a victory so that they could rise up with force and spirit.
Li Qingshan said, “What’s there to thank me for? I said I already did all that I could.”
Defeating the military disciples did not offer any practical benefit to him. Instead, he would lose a great opportunity for actual battle. This battle had a much greater effect on his cultivation of the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength than training alone in the bamboo forest.
Han Tieyi said, “You can throw your second punch now.”
Li Qingshan said, “If I want to hit you, I’ll do it fairly. I’ll never do it secretly like this. I don’t like to hit a punching bag either, so feel free to fight back in the future.”
“Then don’t even think about touching my face again.” In the darkness, Han Tieyi’s lips seemed to curl up, but the change faded away very quickly.
Li Qingshan said, “Normally, I mean what I say. Let’s cut to the chase. Where’s the battle skill?”
Han Tieyi took out over a dozen jade slips from his hundred treasures pouch. “Here are all the battle skills suited for Gui Water true qi.”
“Don’t tell me you called me to such a secretive place just to say those few words earlier!”
“So what if I did?”
Li Qingshan had no idea on how to respond. He lowered his head and browsed through them.
By battle skills, they were referring to skills in battle that combined both qi and the body. It was similar to techniques, yet different from techniques. From a certain perspective, it was a higher form of martial arts.
Not only did the people of the jianghu cultivate inner force arduously, but they also practised martial arts arduously. Only then could they unleash their battle prowess.
Cultivators were no different, except true qi was profound and flexible, even greater than inner force. This was a critical skill for Li Qingshan, who specialised in close combat. In a battle that could change with every instant, if he could be a moment faster at a crucial moment, it would be the moment of life and death.
And, just like martial arts, battle skills were divided into various levels. The battle skills Han Tieyi had taken out were all rare, high level battle skills. Even the disciples of the school of the Military could not learn them unless they performed outstandingly.
Although it was said that the hundred schools communicated and exchanged ideologies with one another, they would still keep the items that formed the very core to themselves. Not to mention that the collection included battle skills the Han family had gathered itself, which would only be taught to members of the Han family. Without Han Anjun’s permission, even Han Tieyi did not possess the authority to take them out. This was no longer just because Li Qingshan had provided training for the military disciples.
Back then in Ancient Wind city, Li Qingshan had made Han Qiongzhi leave first before personally carving out a path of retreat for her. Han Anjun had seen all of it. Although he never mentioned it, he had his own plans.
Li Qingshan could sense this too. His gaze suddenly locked onto a jade slip, and he let out a soft interjection of surprise.
The battle skill had an extremely grand name—Ocean Wielding. The introduction to the general information detailed. “The power of the converging rivers, with the vastness of the ocean, achieves the arts of the boundless.”
Five words immediately leapt out in Li Qingshan’s head, the Arts of the Boundless Ocean! And, this was not the first time Li Qingshan had heard this saying.
“You have quite the eyes. This is the strongest out of all the battle skills here, but it needs to be powered by a special cultivation method. Your true qi is pure, but it’ll still be rather difficult, so I’d advise you to choose another one!” In order to get Li Qingshan to make a correct decision, Han Tieyi spoke for once.
However, this only verified Li Qingshan’s thoughts. Ocean Wielding must have been a battle skill derived from the Arts of the Boundless Ocean. It was impossible for a sect to be built off a single cultivation method. With the collapse of the Ocean sect, their various cultivation methods and techniques became scattered throughout the world. Ocean Wielding had ended up in the hands of the Han family.
Li Qingshan asked in a hurry, “Do you know where I can find the cultivation method that powers this battle skill?”
