Chapter 38

**Cycle World Activation: Master Legend;**

**Mission Start Time: After Yip Man moved his family to Hong Kong;**

**Mission Start Location: On Lai Da Street, Hong Kong;**

**Mission Difficulty Assessment: Martial arts plot, difficulty: easy;**

**Main Mission: Within a decade (a cycle of the Earthly Branches), achieve the status of a grandmaster by mastering both internal and external martial arts, promote Chinese martial arts, and make their reputation awe-inspiring across the seas. Mission success: Obtain a wish-granting dragon pearl and the qualification to enter the next cycle. Mission failure: Erasure;**

**Secondary Mission: Within three months, learn a Chinese martial art and reach at least the initial level of proficiency. Mission success: Gain a doubled expansion of the wristwatch space. Mission failure: Suffer a severe illness for a month.**

**Special Note: As a participant in the cycle, you have privileges granted by the cycle. In each cycle, you have three opportunities. When you kill a character from the plot, you can choose to extract their abilities and double upgrade one of their skills...**

On a bustling street, in a corner unnoticed by others, a faint, invisible light barrier silently appeared. No one noticed the sudden appearance of a person, someone who did not belong to this world, on the crowded street.

After accepting the general plot and mission of this cycle world, Jiang Chen was now quietly observing the world. The street was filled with pedestrians, and on both sides, numerous vendors and shops lined up, creating a different kind of liveliness compared to the ancient streets of the Southern Song Dynasty.

With each breath, Jiang Chen felt that something was missing from the air, making his fourth-stage complete internal martial arts less smooth to practice. However, he also clearly felt that his blood was surging more powerfully.

Compared to the previous cycle world in the Southern Song Dynasty, the spiritual energy in this world seemed to have weakened over time, and so did the ancient martial arts cultivation methods. Instead, various combat techniques, represented by internal and external martial arts, known as Chinese martial arts, had emerged.

What is Chinese martial arts? Any martial art that can be used to kill enemies and serve the country is considered Chinese martial arts.

Internal and external martial arts are types of Chinese martial arts, but strictly speaking, Chinese martial arts are not limited to just these two. Chinese martial arts are a cultivation system that arose after the decline of ancient martial arts. Unlike ancient martial arts, which focus on cultivating qi, internal martial arts focus on cultivating strength. Although they are similar, there is a significant difference between strength and qi.

Ancient martial arts cultivation emphasizes refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, refining spirit into emptiness, and refining emptiness into the Dao, ultimately achieving the legendary path of immortals and deities.

According to the energy hierarchy of the cycle world, first, second, and third-stage martial artists are in the stage of refining essence into qi, while the fourth stage is the stage of refining qi into spirit, also known as the innate stage.

In contrast, Chinese martial arts cultivation focuses on strength, which can be divided into four realms: manifest strength, hidden strength, transforming strength, and dan strength. Among these, dan strength corresponds to the innate realm of ancient martial arts. The so-called manifest strength, hidden strength, and transforming strength are merely different levels of training and using one's own strength. Therefore, even a transforming strength expert might not be able to defeat a naturally gifted manifest strength practitioner, though this is a rare exception.

Only when one reaches the dan strength realm in Chinese martial arts can they truly transform the mundane into the extraordinary, begin to cleanse the blood and marrow, strengthen the body, and condense strength into a protective force, thus entering the highest realm and breaking through the void to see the divine.

The main mission of this cycle is to master both internal and external martial arts and become a grandmaster. Jiang Chen, who had never truly encountered Chinese martial arts, had to start from scratch despite his fourth-stage complete ancient martial arts cultivation. To learn, he clearly needed a qualified guide, a master.

Although he had the cycle talent and three opportunities to obtain a character's abilities, he had to kill the character himself.

Killing was not a big deal for Jiang Chen. After all, in the previous cycle world, at least tens of thousands of people had died at his hands.

If it were the ancient martial world, Jiang Chen would have started killing, choosing a few grandmasters skilled in internal and external martial arts to kill and obtain what he wanted. However, the world and era were different now. Even if those Chinese martial arts grandmasters might bully the weak, they would never easily kill, and if they did, it would mostly be against external enemies or personal foes. Therefore, although Jiang Chen desired power, he did not plan to kill indiscriminately.

Thus, to obtain the true teachings of Chinese martial arts, Jiang Chen had no choice but to find a master. Fortunately, there was an opportunity right in front of him to become a disciple of a Chinese martial arts grandmaster, specifically a master of Wing Chun.

Yip Man, the main character of this cycle world, was a master of Wing Chun from Foshan, a disciple of Chen Huashun, and one of the top Chinese martial arts experts of his time. His martial arts skills were extraordinary, and he was a transforming strength expert. The entire legend of the grandmaster tells the story of how he promoted Chinese martial arts.

Moreover, due to the domestic turmoil, Yip Man had moved his family to Hong Kong and was currently in financial distress, which is why he had opened a martial arts school to take on disciples. As long as he had the money, it would be easy to become his disciple and, with some effort, obtain the true teachings.

Thinking about this, his gaze swept across the area and soon landed on a wall where some simple and crude advertisements were posted:

"Promote Chinese martial arts, strengthen the body, Yip Man personally teaches, authentic Wing Chun, welcome to enroll."

The text was arranged at the corners, with a simple brush painting in the middle. Below it was the address for learning Wing Chun: the rooftop of the Kowloon Hotel staff building.

To be honest, Jiang Chen had a deep respect for Yip Man, the legendary grandmaster. This respect was not due to his martial prowess, as with his fourth-stage complete ancient martial arts, even ten Yip Mans together might not be his match. What he admired was Yip Man's character and martial virtue, which were the key factors in determining whether someone was worthy of respect.

To learn true Chinese martial arts without killing the grandmasters, becoming a disciple was his only choice. However, before that, he needed to prepare something, such as the disciple fee. After all, Yip Man had only recently moved to Hong Kong with his family, was unfamiliar with the place, had no job, and no stable income, making life very difficult.

Money is not everything, but without money, nothing is possible. Even a legendary grandmaster like Yip Man could not escape this reality. How much more so for Jiang Chen, who came from a future world that highly valued material enjoyment? In the past, he lacked the means, but now that he had the means, why should he deprive himself?

Although Jiang Chen had no money on hand, he had done well in the previous cycle world. Although he had distributed most of his wealth to the poor, he had not reached the level of complete selflessness. Therefore, he had kept some of the wealth in his wristwatch space, and what he had kept were all precious treasures.

Jade and jewels were secondary; the truly valuable items were the precious books and herbs. Some of these herbs were so rare that they could be called heavenly treasures. For example, he had over a dozen ginseng roots that were hundreds or even thousands of years old, which he had taken from the homes of corrupt officials and the imperial palace in Lin'an.

Rather than let these treasures be wasted by the emperor and corrupt officials, it was better to use them himself, and they might even come in handy.

However, in this era, which had just experienced a world war and was in economic depression, even if he sold these precious treasures, he might not get a satisfactory price. Therefore, after searching through his wristwatch space, he chose to take out some gold. He sold it at a relatively reasonable price at a few gold shops and obtained 100,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Don't underestimate this 100,000 Hong Kong dollars. At that time in Hong Kong, a common worker's monthly wage might be less than 10 dollars, so the purchasing power of 100,000 dollars was equivalent to over 10 million dollars in the future.

With the money, Jiang Chen changed into appropriate clothing and called a rickshaw, offering three times the usual fare to head straight to the rooftop of the Kowloon Hotel staff building...

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