Chapter 34: Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans
Jiang Chen still felt some loyalty and friendship towards the two best friends that his prior self had left behind. Besides, these two had something in common in that their hearts were trustworthy and that they were staunch people.
This point suited Jiang Chen’s taste quite well. This was also a marked, foundational difference between fatty Xuan and Hubing Yue versus Yang Zong.
Jiang Chen could see that fatty Xuan’s potential was average, and that there wasn’t the requisite tenacity and fierceness to be found on him that practitioners needed.
It was perhaps possible in the short term, but it was impossible for fatty Xuan to maintain a mindset of ‘till death will I cease’ on the path of martial dao.
Hubing Yue, on the other hand, concealed a heart of martial dao with strong fortitude beneath his honest exterior.
Jiang Chen knew what to expect with this round of judgments.
He raised his glass, “Both of you have long since treated me, Jiang Chen, as your big brother. Therefore, as your big brother I will say these words today, if you will believe me. Well, no matter if your life’s goal is to seek wealth and riches, or to pursue martial dao — I can help you achieve them.
However, the caveat is is that you remain my brothers – unchanging brothers for a lifetime.”
Jiang Chen was extremely serious when he spoke these words. These two were absolutely his brothers right now, but, time could change much. What he needed was eternal and unchanging loyalty.
“Brother Chen, I, fatty Xuan, have only one thing to say. The fat on my body is all yours. Whenever you tire of tasting the delicacies from land and sea and want to try human meat, then come carve it from my body. If I can’t trust you, then I can trust no one!” Fatty Xuan’s brow didn’t even crease.
“Brother Chen, I’m not the best with words but I’ve always felt that you’re a good big brother, a big brother worthy of me to follow.” Hubing Yue also expressed himself.
“Alright. We’re brothers. For life.” Jiang Chen nodded. “Let’s stop here today. Remember, come here again after the Hidden Dragon Trials. I’ll give you a little surprise.”
Jiang Chen also needed to consider what to do with these two people, and how to help them in a way that wasn’t over the top but in a way that was curiously effective for them.
Being too over the top would inevitably catch others’ eyes and incite unnecessary trouble.
Being too stingy might lead to less than ideal effectiveness. Then the help he rendered was the same as not giving any at all.
This needed to be personally tailored and some time was needed to muse over it.
It is said that it’s hard to clap with one hand. In any world, one is always powerless towards some things when relying only on the power of one. Sooner or later, it would be imperative to cultivate some others.
Jiang Chen did not remain idle after sending off his two best friends. He went directly into the secret training room and shut his doors for training.
The six hours that he’d spent in the sword aura room during the day had helped him comprehend and gain much. When he had been confronting the 32 fold sword aura in the room, the five meridians true qi and five meridians in his body had been repeatedly forged, impacted, bathed, and attacked until they metamorphosed…
Jiang Chen had unwittingly ascended to six meridians true qi during that battle.
This was also his biggest gain in that battle.
“I can feel that my battle strength has risen at least two or three times after entering six meridians true qi.” Jiang Chen sensed the changes in his body. He could feel that his life signs had been strengthened by a level, and had changed a lot from how he had been when he first entered – it was as if he had been reborn.
“The battle with Yan Yiming today also obliquely illustrated a few of my current problems. Although I won, it was a victory gained through trickery.” Jiang Chen analyzed that battle and had some reflections on the gains and losses of it.
Firstly, Jiang Chen had been disadvantaged in terms of martial arts techniques. The previous Jiang Chen had been exceedingly slipshod when practicing the family’s martial dao techniques. The only one that he’d truly put some effort into practicing was the jack of all trades “Eastern Amethyst Qi”, and this was because the Hidden Dragon Trials would test it. If this wasn’t the case, he probably wouldn’t have practiced it either.
To think that he would still be using the accompany martial arts techniques of “Eastern Amethyst Qi” to combat foes since coming to this world, one had to admit that Jiang Chen would have to herald in a new generation in the field of martial arts techniques.
Jiang Chen familiarized himself with the Jiang family’s hereditary martial dao methods. Its name was the “Vast Waves Method” and it was a method that combined training qi and martial arts techniques.
“Vast Waves Method” was a middle-grade martial dao method and it could be practiced to nine meridians true qi. This was also its upper limit.
The accompany martial arts techniques were “Wave Breaker” and “Sea God Fist”.
This “Vast Waves Method” counted as one of the aces of the Jiang family martial dao methods.
“Indeed a poorer family.” Jiang Chen smiled wryly. “This world’s wudao ranking seems to be divided into five great degrees of ‘common’, ‘spirit’, ‘saint’, ‘earth’ and ‘heaven’. These five great degrees are then divided into minor ranks of ‘inferior’, ‘middle’, ‘upper’, and ‘supreme’ rank. To sum it up, a martial dao method that is common degree, middle rank is a second grade from the bottom. And this kind of grade is an ace method of the family clan.”
Jiang Chen had to lament that the starting point of his reincarnation was indeed a bit low.
Of course, out of all methods under heaven, as long as a method was able to be ranked, that was still something.
A great many practitioners practiced ordinary methods that couldn’t even be ranked.
The so called common degree method was actually an exceedingly precious martial dao classic in a nation such as the Eastern Kingdom.
What caused Jiang Chen to not know whether he should laugh or cry was that his previous self had practiced this “Vast Waves Method” since he was small, but had only just achieved the minor achievement realm.
“How lazy could this fellow have been to practice the family clan’s prized method to this level of accomplishment? Were his thoughts really not on training at all?”
In terms of technique training, minor achievement was but the first step. Skillful, perfection, flawless and great perfection followed thereafter, and there was even a legendary realm.
Minor achievement meant one was just getting started.
“The upper limit of “Vast Waves Method” was training only to nine meridians true qi. No wonder father’s training has halted at nine meridians true qi. It looks like restrictions in methods were indeed sufficient for a genius to become a mediocre talent within this world.”
A duke’s prized clan method only went up to nine meridians true qi at the highest. Any further meant reaching the limits. One had to say, this was a practitioner’s sorrow.
“Ask not how high the heavens are, I ride the waves myself? Wait a moment…” Jiang Chen suddenly had a sense of deja vu when he read the first line in “Vast Waves Method”. “Could it be that I’ve seen this “Vast Waves Method” before somewhere?”
But that couldn’t be the case. Logically speaking, it would be impossible for an inferior method like the “Vast Waves Method” to enter the Tianlang Library. That was the library of the Celestial Emperor, how could it record such a low level method?
But, Jiang Chen truly did have an impression of those two lines.
He exerted great effort in searching through his memories and suddenly, a method of “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans” surfaced in his mind.
I made one dream through nine lifetimes and dried the vast oceans with one laugh. Ask not how high the heavens are, I ride the waves myself.
Suddenly, many recollections regarding the “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans” poured out from Jiang Chen’s memories in the span of a moment.
Although this “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans” was also not enough to even garner a glance from those on high, Jiang Chen remembered this method because he had been moved by the story behind the practitioner who had created this method when he perused it.
This person had reincarnated nine times for just one glimpse of the girl in his dreams. But he had waited until the seas had dried up and the rocks had rotted away, and this finally proved to be unattainable. He had quickly awakened to the truth, but realized that he had already missed the law of heaven. He therefore lamented that “ask not how high the heavens are, I ride the waves myself”.
Although “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans” was also not enough to be called a method of the law of heaven, but it was a great many times stronger than the “Vast Waves Method”.
The mysteries ensconced inside were at least a hundred times more than the “Vast Waves Method”.
And, this “Vast Waves Method” was obviously an offshoot of the “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans”. But it had reduced to an exceedingly mediocre method by the time it had been passed onto the Jiang family clan.
Of a common origin!
“Indeed, destiny naturally plays a hand somewhere. Since this “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans” is destined for me, then I shall practice it.”
Jiang Chen had previously searched for a method with great effort, but had never found one suitable for this body.
And now, the Jiang family’s prized method had lead to the “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans”, what was this if not fate?
Jiang Chen’s heart was much more at ease after he had decided on a method.
There were many accompanying martial arts techniques within the “Secret of the Nine Laughing Oceans”, but Jiang Chen still decided to focus on the two techniques “Wave Breaker” and “Sea God Fist” that were of the same origin for the time being.
But these two wudao techniques naturally had different names, respectively “Vast Ocean Current Splitter” and “Divine Aeons Fist”.
Martial dao method, martial arts technique, all were selected.
Jiang Chen was in an excellent mood. After all, the “Amethyst Eastern Qi” was someone else’s method. There always lacked a sense of belonging when he practiced it.
Jiang Chen knew that he had made the right choice when he started familiarizing himself with this method. The moment that this method starting circulating in his body, the acupoints and meridians within his body almost started resonating together.
Every acupoint emitted a light and rich rhythmic pulse, and his meridians thrummed slightly when they opened and closed.
“Meridian resonance? Acupoint resonance? This is the highest degree of endorsement that a body will show towards a method!” Jiang Chen was delighted.
“Indeed, a family’s own method is the best.” Jiang Chen thought carefully and understood. Many families valued bloodline heritage when it came to training in martial dao, and many clans emphasized not sharing methods with outsiders. In reality, this was a type of tradition, and a type of agreement between bloodline and method.
Only the suitable is the best.
Jiang Chen thought through this point and thereby understood this principle.
“Perhaps my mind is filled with all the methods under the heavens, but those are not suitable for the current stage me. Ultimately, right now I am but a common practitioner with six meridians true qi. My mindset should stress this life’s training and not the prior life’s experiences.”
The experiences of the prior life could bring all sorts of good fortune and pave the road for him, and even let him take shortcuts.
But training would still have to rely on this life’s body to step over obstacles and embark on the challenge to reach the peak, one step at a time. This was irreplaceable by any experience.
He started to circulate his true qi, circulating the true qi of vast waves within his body. Jiang Chen’s meridians became like the lesser dragons frolicking in the waves of the vast sea, at their hearts’ content.
“Vast waves true qi still lacks a bit of fierceness. It looks like the true qi within my body requires further forging in order to truly train some actual results out of the true qi of vast waves.”
After a night of starvation training, it was readily apparent Jiang Chen’s grasp over vast waves true qi was quite adept. However, it was uncertain how much stronger it was than when he’d practiced Amethyst Eastern Qi.
However, due to the short training period, fierceness was obviously lacking within the vast waves true qi. If dominance was lacking, then this method would be taken down a few notches.
“Fierceness is not something to be gained from closed door training.” Jiang Chen thought carefully and sighed in dissatisfaction. “Looks like, it’s almost time to experience the outside world, once the time is right.”