Chapter 1 A Cold Night

It was a bitter winter night; the sky was dark purple, the earth silvery white.

Yuan Qi emerged from a tavern, slightly drunk, and entered a quiet alleyway.

Today was his thirtieth birthday.

At thirty, Yuan Qi was still a third-rate figure in the martial world.

In terms of appearance, he was ordinary, not even handsome.

In terms of intelligence, he was sensible, but not particularly clever.

As for martial arts talent… he was indeed a little stronger than the average person. Unfortunately, his master was a third-rate figure like himself, only able to teach him some crude, inferior skills.

In short… he was a man of mediocre looks, mediocre intelligence, and mediocre martial arts.

In the martial world, people like him were mostly destined to never amount to anything.

If someone had told him then, "You will become the leader of the martial arts world," he would have thought it was a joke, or even mockery.

But someone really did say that…

It was a blind fortune teller, hunched over, with a face full of sores.

On this cold winter night, the blind man was sitting at a dilapidated square table by the roadside, holding up a long banner, waiting for customers.

Yuan Qi, passing by, saw the blind man and walked over to the table.

"Sir, it's late," Yuan Qi said.

"So what?" The blind man's voice was strange, very hoarse, as if someone was strangling him.

"There's hardly anyone on the street anymore," Yuan Qi said.

"I know," the blind man replied, "I can hear it."

Yuan Qi smiled and shook his head, "Sir, I have some loose silver here, take it and go…"

"I'm not a beggar," the blind man knew what Yuan Qi meant, he interrupted him directly.

Yuan Qi curled his lip, thinking the blind man was a bit ungrateful, but then he thought again, and felt the blind man had some integrity.

"Then… please, sir, tell me my fortune," Yuan Qi thought for a moment and continued.

"Alright, what do you want to ask?" the blind man asked.

"Heh…" Yuan Qi chuckled.

He hadn't wanted to have his fortune told, he just felt sorry for the blind man… out in the cold on the street, so he wanted to give him some silver to go home.

But now that he was going to have it read, Yuan Qi casually replied, "Then I'll ask about my future."

Yuan Qi knew something about fortune tellers… it was a skill of talking, focusing on observing people and speaking vaguely.

This kind of empty-handed business was not easy to do. Praising, coaxing, provoking, scaring… different approaches were needed for different people. To make a living in this field, at least several dozen sets of prepared lines were needed; not only did one have to memorize them perfectly, but also know how to improvise. If one spoke well, it wasn't difficult to earn some money to live on; but if one said the wrong thing, not getting paid was the least of it, being beaten and scolded was common.

Yuan Qi had been in the martial world for many years, and had dealt with all sorts of people, knowing a little about everything… at this moment, he didn't want to make things difficult for the blind man, so he asked a "beginner" question. He thought… he'd just listen to a few boasts and be done with it.

Unexpectedly…

"Alright," the blind man said, extending his hands, "This guest, let me feel your face."

Yuan Qi looked at the blind man's rough, thin hands, shook his head with a bitter smile, "Okay."

He was a big, burly man, not afraid of being taken advantage of by the blind man, so he let him feel.

So, Yuan Qi guided the blind man's hand and placed it on his temples.

To Yuan Qi's surprise… the blind man's hands were warm, not as cold as he had imagined, and the hands were also very strong, giving a sense of solidity that didn't match his appearance.

Soon, the blind man had felt Yuan Qi's forehead, cheeks, chin, and even the top of his head and behind his ears, and then he withdrew his hand.

"Heh…" Yuan Qi saw the blind man lower his head and remain silent, and guessed that he was about to start acting mysterious, he chuckled and asked, "Well? Sir?"

"You asked about your future, then I will point you to a future…" the blind man replied in a deep voice, "From today onwards, continue to practice your martial arts and travel the martial world; within ten years, there will be no more than three people in the entire martial world who can compare with you. When that time comes, if you have not strayed from the righteous path, then the position of leader of the martial world will be yours for the taking."

Yuan Qi was stunned for a long while before he reacted, and then he burst out laughing, "Ha! Hahahaha…" he laughed so hard that he could barely open his eyes, "This sir, hehe… according to you, as long as I practice diligently and don't do evil… I can achieve great things in ten years at most?"

The blind man didn't answer his question, but instead asked him a question, "Is today your birthday?"

"Huh?" Yuan Qi was startled when he heard this, and a look of suspicion appeared on his face, and he replied, "It is…"

He didn't know how the blind man had guessed that today was his birthday, he only knew… this wasn't a brain-dead question like "Have you been troubled by something in your life lately?", but a fact with less than a one-in-three-hundred chance of being guessed correctly.

"Good!" After receiving the answer, the blind man loudly said "Good!" and then said, "It seems this is fate."

He muttered a couple of inexplicable words, and then… suddenly grabbed Yuan Qi's left arm, which was resting on the table.

At this moment, Yuan Qi's drunkenness had faded by more than half, he took a deep breath of the cold air, making his brain a little clearer, "Sir… what does this mean?"

"You've been practicing martial arts since you were twelve, and only had one master, from whom you learned four and a half techniques, four of which are the lowest of the low…" the blind man suddenly started talking to himself.

Yuan Qi was shocked, because what the other party said was exactly the same as the actual situation…

When Yuan Qi was young, his family was well-off, and he had attended private school for a few years, but unfortunately he was not suited for studying, and he didn't make much progress after a few years. So… when he was twelve years old, his father invited a well-known old boxer from the county town and had Yuan Qi become his disciple, abandoning literature for martial arts.

Of course, this boxer's "name" was only limited to Yuan Qi's county town; in the martial world, he was a third-rate figure. But fortunately… although this old master's martial arts were limited, his ethics were impeccable. He taught Yuan Qi everything he knew and supervised him strictly, and before his death, he also passed on the "half a secret manual" that his master had passed down to him.

"You… who are you?" Yuan Qi asked in shock, "How do you know…"

The blind man ignored Yuan Qi's words, grabbed his arm and continued, "The half technique you couldn't master is called 'Ming Chen Xuan Gong', a long-lost supreme divine skill."

As the blind man spoke, Yuan Qi only felt a stream of heat being poured in from his arm, and running in a specific pattern in his meridians…

"This martial art is very peculiar, no matter how you practice it normally, you won't feel any increase in power…" the blind man narrated calmly while guiding his power, "Each year, Ming Chen Xuan Gong can only advance once, and the timing of the advancement… must be on the cultivator's birthday. Once that day is missed, all the Xuan Gong power that the cultivator has painstakingly cultivated throughout the year will vanish into thin air."

Hearing this, Yuan Qi's mind buzzed, and he almost fainted.

Obviously… Yuan Qi had practiced "Ming Chen Xuan Gong", and had studied it very hard…

Even though he didn't know it was a supreme divine skill, or even know what the technique he was practicing was called, he could still see that the mental cultivation method on the "half a secret manual" was much more profound than the martial arts taught by his master.

Anyone who mingled in the martial world had ambition. Yuan Qi also knew very well that for someone like him, who was still very mediocre at the age of thirty, that half a secret manual was probably his last hope to make a name for himself.

However, in the past few years, no matter how hard he tried to practice that half a mental cultivation method, he had not been able to improve his power. It felt… not as practical as practicing those crude techniques, at least he could feel his strength gradually increasing.

Until today, after hearing the blind man's words, Yuan Qi finally learned the secret hidden in that half a secret manual.

"Senior…" Yuan Qi's address for the blind man had changed, because he already understood that the person in front of him was not a fortune teller, but a master he had never met before in his life.

"Talk less," the blind man interrupted him again, "Focus on remembering the trajectory of my power circulation, this is what your half a secret manual doesn't have…"

Yuan Qi immediately closed his eyes and concentrated on memorizing.

He was an unlucky person, so he knew better how to seize opportunities…

Yuan Qi knew that he was by no means a martial arts genius who could learn everything at once, and the encounter he was having at the moment… he was afraid there wouldn't be a second time in his life, so he had to desperately remember the other party's method of circulating power.

The north wind howled, and the night grew darker…

He didn't know how long it had been, but the blind man restrained his inner force and released Yuan Qi's hand.

"Alright, I have used my inner force to break through this year's bottleneck for your Ming Chen Xuan Gong… all the Xuan Gong power you have accumulated in the past year has been activated, and you should be able to feel it…" the blind man's breathing was still steady when he spoke, showing his unfathomable inner force, "From now on, you should still practice the mental cultivation method on your half a secret manual as usual, and on your birthday, use the method I taught you today to circulate your inner force… this way, you can unleash the true power of Ming Chen Xuan Gong."

Before he could finish speaking, Yuan Qi had already knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times, trembling.

"Thank you, Senior!" Yuan Qi almost choked out these four words.

This was naturally not some kind of performance, but an action from the heart.

Yuan Qi's forehead had been broken on the cold snow, and he was bleeding… his eyes were also full of tears.

These tears carried too many emotions of a mediocre person, bitterness, helplessness, despair, lamentation, joy, anticipation, excitement, and emotion.

Yuan Qi would never forget that moment of realization.

"No need to thank me, I said… this is fate," the blind man said, standing up and groping for the wooden banner next to him, "The fact that you can meet me at this time and place, and let me tell your fortune, is something that only God can foresee."

He paused, and then said, "Actually, before you even sat down, I had already figured out seven or eight tenths of your martial arts style and inner force cultivation. I reached out to feel your bones, and I really wanted to tell you your fortune, but I didn't expect to feel out half a set of Ming Chen Xuan Gong…"

The blind man said this, and then slowly turned around, "In today's martial world, people who can create superior martial arts are almost extinct, and the divine skills left by the predecessors are also gradually being lost in the hands of some fools who can teach but can't learn, and can learn but can't teach." He shook his head and snorted coldly, "Hmph… my meeting you is due to chance. If my help today… can make Ming Chen Xuan Gong reappear in the world, it can be considered as adding some fun to this martial world, which is getting worse and worse."

At that time, Yuan Qi couldn't fully understand the meaning of the blind man's two sentences, but Yuan Mengzhu twenty years later… seemed to understand.

For those ordinary people who struggled in the martial world, "getting" was the most important thing.

Supreme martial arts, vast wealth, illustrious fame… these were all what they wanted to get.

But for a transcendent master like the "blind man", "getting" was not so important.

When martial arts were practiced to the point where defeat was hard to come by, what was obtained was loneliness; when wealth was accumulated to the point where it was countless, what was obtained was numbness; when fame was so great that the whole world knew it, what was obtained was emptiness.

A person who was so strong that he was lonely, numb, and empty would either head towards destruction or transcendence.

The blind man was obviously a transcendent person, a transcendent person would travel across oceans for a temporary scene, would stop for a speck of dust, but they would not work hard for fame and wealth, nor would they be overjoyed or saddened by immediate gains and losses.

Unfortunately… although Yuan Qi understood many things now, he was no longer the Yuan Qi of the past. He knew what a transcendent person was like, so he also knew… he would never become such a person.

…………

Twenty years later, in Burial Heart Valley.

Boom—

Palm wind bloomed, palm shadow like a mountain.

Who in today's martial world could withstand Yuan Qi's seventy percent power?

The answer was… no one could.

Unlike those martial arts celebrities who became famous at a young age and had a smooth life, Yuan Qi's first half of his life was bleak, he deeply understood the pain of a mediocre person, and the fear of this pain… was his endless motivation.

Driven by this motivation, Yuan Qi's cultivation of Xuan Gong was far beyond the blind man's prediction… after twenty years of precipitation, after twenty breakthroughs… Yuan Qi's Ming Chen Xuan Gong had already reached a pure realm.

Since he ascended to the throne of the leader of the martial world ten years ago with the title of "Number One in the World", he had never used his full power again. Because since then, looking at the entire martial world, he couldn't find an opponent who could match him.

As the saying goes, it was too late, then too fast!

It was seen that Yuan Qi's palm force easily broke a big tree with a destructive force, and then cut Song Wuqi, who was hiding behind the trunk, in half at the waist.

The sprayed blood and internal organs were particularly eye-catching in the green forest, and under the light of the mist, it seemed to emit light on its own, which was frightening…

All the martial arts people who witnessed this palm were amazed at Yuan Qi's power… for them, that palm was simply an unattainable realm in their lifetime.

However, some people showed disdain and complained there: "Tch… it's not that strong… if I develop the performance of Lan Jiao a little more, I should be able to kick out a move with similar power."

"I'm very curious…" Hua Jian ignored Jue Ge's words and said, "In martial arts-themed scripts, can this kind of high-intensity humanoid NPC be killed by ordinary bullets…"

"Yes, we've tried it," Ruo Yu directly answered her question, "In fact, bullets have miraculous effects in this type of script… most of the NPCs with not very high strength can be killed by ordinary guns in sneak attacks, and they are almost undefended against this type of attack; although the boss-level guys are not so easily killed, they can also be killed by powerful shooting attacks from a long distance."

"Hmm…" Hua Jian pondered, "Suddenly I feel… the personnel arrangement for this match seems to be a bit of a problem."

"Tch~" Jue Ge knew what Miss An meant, and he immediately shook his head and replied, "So what if Xiao Ling restrains the NPCs in the script? We're in a competition~ okay? The lineup I arranged is for Hong Ying, not for the script. Besides… the script is also random, how did I know it would be a martial arts world?"

"The person who is always obsessed with completing the plot actually used this excuse…" Ruo Yu replied coldly, "Then I have to take a good look today… at how you are focusing on the 'competition'."