Chapter 46

If one has never met Chen Jinan in his life, it is in vain to call oneself a hero!

After the morning exercise training, a group of low-ranking soldiers gathered to chat and joke around. Out of curiosity, Lin Sha joined them and listened to a soldier who had worked for a horse caravan, speaking with great enthusiasm and animation, telling legendary stories.

Damn, he knew it! This world wouldn't be as simple as the historical world!

*The Deer and the Cauldron*!

Three golden, shining characters kept flashing in his mind, as if tempting him to do something.

Calculating the time, the young emperor had been on the throne for more than seven years. It was estimated that Ao Bai, the 'First Warrior of the Manchu Qing,' was about to meet his end. But he didn't know if Duke Wei had already arrived in the capital, or was still hanging around in Yangzhou as a pimp?

Had the name of Chief Commander Chen Jinan become so renowned that even a lowly supply soldier in a military camp on the outskirts of Kunming had heard of him?

His heart suddenly became excited. He never expected to find himself in a martial arts world. Although the level of martial arts here was pitifully low compared to many other martial arts worlds, there were still internal martial arts manuals that would make martial artists from the future green with envy!

He listened to the soldier's stories without showing any emotion, occasionally interjecting a few comments as if he were just a bystander, subtly trying to get more information from the soldier.

Unfortunately, he was disappointed. Although the soldier had worked for a horse caravan, it was in the remote areas between Yunnan and Xikang. The reason he knew the name of Chen Jinan, the chief commander of the Heaven and Earth Society, was because he had heard it from passing martial artists while resting at teahouses and taverns.

Even when asked about the great Chen Jinan's skills and achievements, the soldier who had worked for the horse caravan knew nothing, clearly an unqualified informant.

Still, Lin Sha perked up and asked the other soldiers in a joking manner about their views on the martial world.

Naturally, the soldiers' perception of the martial world was vastly different from his own. With limited experiences and narrow horizons, and different sources of information, they gave all sorts of strange answers.

Some said that a certain person in Kunming City was a local bully and must be a significant figure in the martial world. Others believed that the leader of a bandit gang on a certain mountain was very famous and should be a martial arts expert on par with Chen Jinan. Still, others excitedly claimed that a certain escort from a certain security company had extraordinary martial arts skills, and he had personally seen him kick a small tree in half, surely a renowned martial arts expert.

Martial arts experts aren't that cheap, are they?

Lin Sha was truly at a loss, knowing that trying to get any martial world information from these low-ranking soldiers was a futile dream. He gave up on this idea and focused on chatting and bonding with them.

Back at his quarters, he couldn't stop thinking about the martial arts movies and TV shows he had seen in the modern world, which were now hazy in his memory. The itch was unbearable, and he couldn't calm down. So, he decided to take the two guards who had been tamed and, taking advantage of the good morning light, rode the small Yunnan horses with great enthusiasm to Kunming City to gather information about the martial world.

Halfway there, he turned back, returned to the camp, and found an excuse to pull in two local Kunming-born soldiers to ask about the various martial forces in the city.

He couldn't just wander around blindly, could he? Kunming was a large city, and it would take a long time to gather the information he needed.

He asked, "What are the well-known martial arts sects in Kunming City?"

The soldier replied, "Donglin Horse Caravan, Xilin Horse Caravan, Nanlin Horse Caravan..."

Lin Sha was exasperated, "Stop, stop, stop! Why so many 'Lin's?"

The soldier looked aggrieved, "Yunnan Province has high mountains and dense forests, and many horse caravans use 'Lin' in their names!"

Lin Sha rubbed his forehead, "I asked about well-known martial arts sects, not horse caravans!"

The soldier looked even more aggrieved, "Horse caravans have great power in Kunming, even the government sometimes has to give them face!"

Lin Sha waved his hands, "Alright, horse caravans count as one. Are there any other sects?"

The soldier replied, "Changhe Sect, Heihu Sect, Elang Sect..."

Lin Sha became excited, "What kind of experts do they have? Do they practice internal martial arts?"

The soldier looked blank, "There are quite a few experts. The top figures in the major sects are all tough characters, each with several lives on their hands. As for internal martial arts, I've never heard of it!"

Lin Sha was taken aback, "How do they resolve conflicts in the martial world?"

The soldier looked matter-of-fact, "Of course, they take out machetes and call their brothers to fight!"

Lin Sha was speechless, "What about famous martial arts schools in the city?"

The soldier replied, "Weiyuan Martial Arts School, Zhenshan Martial Arts School..."

Lin Sha asked hopefully, "How strong are the masters of these schools?"

The soldier gave a thumbs-up and looked admiring, "They are all great experts!"

Lin Sha's eyes sparkled, "How great?"

The soldier looked wistful, "In the army, they can take on ten men at once without breaking a sweat!"

"..."

After a deep conversation with the soldiers, he gained almost nothing.

Lin Sha wasn't too discouraged; he had been prepared for this.

The martial world is a circle, and it's hard for outsiders to understand its inner workings, let alone know all the martial forces in a region. That's impossible.

Because the martial world is too exciting and too stimulating, young, hot-blooded guys can't resist the temptation. They either join the martial world and become part of it, no matter how miserable their lives, or they wouldn't come to a secondary supply camp in the Yunnan army to just eat and wait to die.

However, he did learn the specific addresses of various martial arts schools and sects in Kunming from his soldiers, so he wouldn't have to wander around aimlessly like a headless fly.

As for whether there were any martial arts experts in Kunming, he believed there must be!

As the capital of a province, if Kunming didn't have any martial arts experts, then the entire Yunnan Province would be a martial arts wasteland, which clearly doesn't make sense!

After all, as the largest feudal lord of the early Qing Dynasty, if Prince Pingxi didn't have a sufficient number and quality of martial arts people under his command, the underground order in Yunnan would have been controlled by the court long ago, and Old Wu wouldn't have been able to live in peace.

Even Zheng Keshuang had a bodyguard named Feng Xifan, known as 'One Sword to the Throat,' and the Yanping Prince's residence had the famous Chen Jinan, Chen Tianhua. To say that the Pingxi Prince's residence, which was no less powerful, didn't have top-notch martial arts experts, no one would believe it.

Of course, knowing they exist is one thing, and whether he could encounter them was another. The probability of a non-martial person meeting a martial arts expert was extremely low.

Regardless, he was now filled with curiosity about those high-flying martial artists. He wondered if they really had the internal martial arts techniques from novels and TV shows. If they did...

He wiped the greedy saliva from the corner of his mouth, made up his mind, and, after asking about the territories of the martial arts schools and sects in Kunming, set off for the city in his sixth-rank military attire, accompanied by two obedient guards...