Chapter 12

## Chapter 12: Overdue from the Elixir

The empty training ground.

This place, usually filled with the shouts of young practitioners, was now occupied by me alone.

Father had gone to sell leopard skins and decided to take a few days off from the White Martial Hall.

“Phew...”

I took a deep breath, relaxed, and began to loosen up my body.

I started to move my limbs slowly and gently, following the first six forms of the Green Forest Eighteen Styles (綠林十八式).

- Hahaha! You're asking about my martial arts?

Whenever I asked about his martial arts, Meng Huo'e would puff out his chest proudly and say,

- My martial arts, from start to finish, were created by my own hands!

- You’re shameless, piecing together all sorts of miscellaneous martial arts.

- You brat, Guangma. I’ll kill you first when I get out of here!

- Hmph. Who are you to talk.

“...These guys are still fighting even in their memories.”

Meng Huo'e and Guangma Xianyuanhou were sworn enemies.

Surprisingly, they had never clashed while active in the martial world, but that changed after they were imprisoned in the Brain Prison.

At first, their arguments were minor, stemming from differences in the ultimate goals and characteristics of the martial arts they pursued, but over time, it became a daily routine for them to bicker as soon as they opened their mouths.

- A brute with no depth in martial arts!

- A sword wielder who only spouts nonsense!

Mostly, it was like this, and since they were locked in different rooms (right next to each other), they never actually tested their martial arts against each other.

‘I wonder what would have happened if they had a proper fight...’

...In the end, their confrontation never came to fruition.

After escaping the Brain Prison, we had to immediately move to get away from the Blood Sect, taking down countless Blood Sect martial artists in the process.

I remember how well the two of us, who fought back-to-back, coordinated like sworn brothers who had trained together for decades.

‘After bickering every day, they must have come to know each other's martial arts better than anyone else.’

Well, anyway.

Getting back to the main point, the Green Forest Eighteen Styles, created by Master Meng, was a martial art that synthesized all the various martial arts passed down in the Green Forest into one.

The history of the Green Forest is long.

But no one acknowledges it.

Prestigious sects and families (even the evil sects) treat the Green Forest as bandits who plunder the common people, often sending their young disciples to gain their first, psychologically comfortable, killing experience.

- Those righteous bastards. They treat us like bugs that can be killed at any time. Do they think we chose to become bandits?

- Hmph. If you didn't like it, you should have gone out and farmed. You became a bandit because you didn't want to work hard.

- ...Work hard?

One day.

It was a usual argument, but Meng Huo'e replied to Guangma with a different, colder voice.

I had never seen Master Meng so cold.

- Have you ever tried farming and then said such things? Born into a wealthy family, you received all kinds of privileges, from washing your face with honey water to taking elixirs. Do you know what it's like to be born into a family so poor that your anus is torn? Do you know what it's like to be extorted by corrupt officials, to have your father beaten by bailiffs, your mother and sister raped, and your whole family starve to death in a bad harvest? Do you think living honestly would change that?

Meng Huo'e's passionate words made Guangma's response slower than usual.

- ...Is this your story?

- No. It's all made up. Hahaha!

- Crazy bastard. Well-spun lies.

Whether it was a made-up story or not.

Whether it was a well-spun lie or not.

The Green Forest was a group of bottom-of-the-barrel people who had nowhere else to go and turned to banditry, and the righteous sects and the government treated them as evils that needed to be eradicated from the world.

The martial arts of the Green Forest evolved to be thoroughly practical and quickly learnable to survive.

- When you need to eat, can you sit comfortably and cultivate your inner energy? Where is the time for that? You have to start swinging your fists first!

The bandits didn't have the time to cultivate inner energy over long periods.

That's why their martial arts developed to focus on external techniques that train the body.

Cultivating inner energy can take months just to feel the energy in the dantian, but external techniques show visible results relatively quickly.

Therefore, the external techniques of the Green Forest, which are heavily influenced by physical conditions, have been underestimated for their lack of depth.

But Master Meng said,

- That's just nonsense from those who haven't pushed their bodies to the limit. Even high-level experts become lazy with physical training at some point. They focus on cultivating their inner energy most of the time! I can tell you how bad it is for your waist and knees to sit in meditation for too long.

Meng Huo'e, who had practiced external techniques all his life (though he wasn't without inner energy, just less than the other three), gave a long speech on the human body and concluded:

- The potential of external techniques is by no means inferior to inner energy! Extremes meet! When the body reaches a certain level, energy naturally gathers, and that alone is enough to achieve the ultimate realm!

I couldn't help but break the mood.

- But Master Meng, didn't you say you ate a lot of elixirs before?

In fact, among the four, Master Meng was the one who loved elixirs the most.

He said he regretted not eating enough as a child and, after unifying the Green Forest, ate as many as he could get his hands on.

Snakes, centipedes, tigers, turtles, frogs, and more...

Guangma narrowed his eyes and looked at the giant in the room next to him.

- Energy naturally gathers in the body? How can it not with all that eating?

- Hmph! It's a theory, a theory! Just wait and see. I will create the ultimate external technique that doesn't need a cultivation method!

Thus, Meng Huo'e began to recreate the Green Forest Eighteen Styles he had established in the Brain Prison.

While the other masters also reflected on and redefined their martial arts in the Brain Prison, Master Meng was the most enthusiastic among them.

‘The result was half a success.’

Although he couldn't master it himself, Master Meng completed the new Green Forest Eighteen Styles and earnestly entrusted it to me.

- Kid, you prove it! Choose the weakest person and teach them my martial arts! Hahaha! Prove that anyone can become the best in the world with external techniques, regardless of their physical condition!

...I'm sorry, but I chose the strongest person to teach.

At that time, I couldn't ignore Ma Nao's presence.

Moreover, even if Meng Huo'e created a martial art that anyone could learn, the fact that innate physical conditions were advantageous for learning external techniques remained unchanged.

Anyway...

‘I never thought I would use it here.’

An external technique that even a weak person could learn.

In other words, it meant that I could learn it without much difficulty with this body.

“Phew...”

I paused my practice and regulated my breathing.

Sweat was streaming down my body, but I felt incredibly refreshed.

“Did so much time pass already?”

I had started practicing in the morning, and when I came to my senses, the sky was turning red with the setting sun.

I could almost hear Master Meng's hearty laughter in my ear.

- The Green Forest Eighteen Styles are divided into six forms each for the early, middle, and late stages!

Mastering the early six forms enhances your body's energy and makes you as flexible as a cat.

Mastering the middle six forms makes your body as hard as iron and grants you superhuman strength.

Mastering the final six forms completely turns your body into one that is impervious to water and fire, achieving an indestructible state and eternal life.

‘...I don't really believe in eternal life, though.’

After all, Master Meng only expected it to be possible.

In fact, if I were to objectively evaluate the martial arts of the four masters, the Green Forest King's martial arts were slightly the weakest among the four.

But I could confidently say that,

in terms of fist and foot techniques and external techniques, the Green Forest King's martial arts were the best in the world.

- Go! I'll kill them all!

I recalled Meng Huo'e's formidable presence as he led the group, killing Blood Sect experts one after another after we escaped the Brain Prison.

To stop him, who was causing a disaster like a landslide, the Blood Sect had to shed a lot of blood.

“If Master Meng had been born into a prestigious family or caught the eye of the Nine Great Sects when he was young...”

I shook my head, stopping my hypothetical thoughts.

While the Green Forest King was great, the talents of Guangma, Bingyue Fairy, and Sword Sage were no less impressive.

I knew the martial arts of such great absolute experts.

Not just one, but four.

“Phew... Phew...”

I practiced the early six forms of the Green Forest Eighteen Styles until the sunset and the stars came out.

I didn't stop, except for two meals, and continued without rest.

I calculated the pace to match my stamina, moving very slowly and gently for a long time.

Even so, my arms