"This humble general, Wu Xintai, greets Lord Supervisor."
Before the gates of the Black Armor Battalion camp, Wang Ping sized up the armor-clad, weapon-bearing general before shifting his gaze to the imposing military encampment.
Formidable indeed.
In Wang Ping's eyes, the general before him was not particularly powerful—at best an internal strength martial master—yet he carried an inexplicable aura of momentum.
If one focused intently, one could discern that this momentum emanated from the camp behind him. The breathing of over five hundred men moved in unison, dormant within like wind and thunder. It felt less like a military encampment and more like a primordial behemoth crouching upon the earth, so vivid it nearly manifested as an illusion in his eyes.
*Just like the bailiffs at the county yamen... No, even stronger!*
After all, the yamen had only a hundred or so bailiffs, whereas this camp had at least five times as many. The divine intent and military might they generated naturally far surpassed the former.
With that in mind, Wang Ping swiftly made his assessment.
*This man is stronger than Xu Bingzheng too.*
*Empowered by the five-hundred-man camp, even if his cultivation is merely that of an internal strength martial master, in a real fight, killing Xu Bingzheng wouldn't be much harder than slaughtering a chicken.*
This was a good thing.
After all, he held the bronze military tally bestowed by the emperor as well as the imperial edict. The stronger the Black Armor Battalion, the more advantageous it was for him.
Looking at it this way, serving as an official was not without its perks.
"No need for ceremony."
Wang Ping smiled slightly and reached out to help Wu Xintai up. "Though I bear an important charge, I have only just arrived. I will be relying heavily on you hereafter, General."
"You flatter me, my lord..."
Wu Xintai's eyes brightened slightly. Sensing the goodwill in Wang Ping's words, his tone warmed noticeably, and the atmosphere between them quickly turned harmonious.
Even so, Wu Xintai could not help muttering to himself internally:
*This gold-bearing armed cavalryman... doesn't seem very strong.*
*An internal strength martial master with only a lesser heavenly circulation physique? How is he not even a titled martial master? Could he be some wealthy young master using this opportunity to pad his credentials?*
***
Outside the Black Armor Battalion, atop a small hillside.
As Wang Ping stepped into the camp, his interactions with Wu Xintai were observed clearly by two figures standing on the slope overlooking the tents.
The two differed greatly in appearance and dress. One possessed long, ape-like arms and a wasp-like waist, with a sharp chin and monkey-like features; he held a coiled dragon staff and looked at first glance like an errand boy from a tavern or inn. The other had narrow, slender eyes, baring sharp fangs when he smiled, exuding a ruthless aura without lifting a finger.
"...Well?"
The monkey-faced man spoke first. "A gold-bearing armed cavalryman. Using that identity as a stone to test the waters should be sizable enough, wouldn't you say?"
Having said that, he chuckled softly.
"Gold-bearing armed cavalry, imperial bodyguards of the Son of Heaven."
"Do you think the kid actually believes His Majesty would entrust such a heavy task entirely to an untitled martial master like him?"
"Hard to say. And it's not up to him either."
The ruthless-looking man said indifferently, "Regardless of whether he sees the truth, he must do what he must. Disobeying or deceiving the emperor leads to the same end either way."
"True enough."
The monkey-faced man's expression tightened slightly. "In any case, the waters in Longxing County run deep. Otherwise, neither the Imperial Academy nor His Majesty would have cast their gaze here."
"Deep indeed,"
the ruthless man said in a deep voice. "I investigated beforehand. This was where the previous dynasty's Taizu rose to power, which is why it earned the name Longxing—the Rising Dragon."
"The previous dynasty? The great traitors?"
The monkey-faced man frowned. "No wonder His Majesty is paying such close attention... Could there still be remnants of the previous dynasty's destiny lingering in Longxing County?"
"Quite likely." The ruthless man nodded. "At the very least, the Imperial Academy knows this, and those thaumaturges know it too, which is why they went out of their way to build the Youshen Temple here. The two sides must have reached some agreement to exploit the imperial court's destiny here for some unspeakable purpose."
"And the White Lotus Sect."
The monkey-faced man recalled the dossiers he had examined earlier, his expression solemn. "That sect is no ordinary band of rebels. There appears to be an evil entity backing them."
"The Compassionate Mother?"
The ruthless man shook his head. "I've never heard of such an evil entity before... Though it could also be a wanted evil entity operating under a new name."
"Regardless, we must remain vigilant."
"Which is precisely why we need this gold-bearing cavalryman. Armed with the imperial edict and the military tally, he will serve as our bait cast into Longxing County to fish out whoever is pulling the strings."
"Only then will it be time for our Enshrinement Hall to act."
With that, both men looked up together.
Their eyes settled upon the county seat of Longxing. Cooking smoke drifted constantly from the town amidst the bustling noise of crowds, looking for all the world like a vast, tranquil lake unrippled by the slightest wave.
Yet beneath the lake surged turbulent undercurrents.
Which was why a stone had to be thrown into the water to test its depths!
***
Inside the Black Armor Battalion camp.
Several soldiers skillfully made Wang Ping's bed and thoroughly tidied up the room, readying a reasonably quiet tent for him.
Once everything was arranged, Wu Xintai stepped forward and murmured:
"Lord Wang, do you have any other orders?"
At this, Wang Ping realized there truly was something he needed help with. Leaning close to Wu Xintai, he asked in a low voice, "Does this camp have any martial arts manuals?"
"...Martial arts?"
Wu Xintai was taken aback, then nodded instinctively. "Of course we do, but the arts in our camp are certainly far less refined than Your Lordship's own..."
Wang Ping was well aware of that. Just like the bailiff identity, the gold-bearing armed cavalry came with its own martial arts and even an internal strength physique chart. But he had already examined it; it was inferior to the Heavenly Peng Dragon Seizing Physique Chart. Such rubbish physique charts were completely useless to him now.
After all, he intended to cultivate immortality.
And based on his experience from his previous life, once he began cultivating immortality, any internal strength physique of insufficient quality would be directly converted and subsumed in the process.
In other words, he had to either forgo internal strength and physique cultivation entirely, or cultivate only the absolute best.
The Black Armor Battalion obviously possessed nothing of that caliber, so Wang Ping had no expectations of obtaining any profound internal strength arts from them.
What he wanted was a different kind of martial art.
"Unranked martial arts."
Wang Ping explained, "I want a collection of unranked martial arts—the kind that don't rely on weapons, but use the body itself as a weapon."
Having said that, he demonstrated with the Iron Ox Art.
Wu Xintai listened in complete bewilderment, unable to fathom why Wang Ping would ask for unranked arts. After all, there was a reason they were called unranked.
First was the difficulty of cultivation. Tempered weapons and a tempered physical body were two entirely different concepts. The former was an external object that could be forged and hammered at will; metal only grew stronger with tempering. The latter was flesh and blood with natural limits, requiring delicate care; otherwise, one was merely courting self-destruction.
Under such conditions, the difficulty of training skyrocketed.
Second, cultivation progress was inherently slow. The body required time to recover, and back and forth, vast amounts of time were squandered.
Lastly, their might was underwhelming.
Although unranked arts could also condense into military arts, their power was generally limited, cloaking only parts of the body, with results far inferior to orthodox martial arts.
High difficulty, immense consumption, poor power.
With these three drawbacks compounded, the return was completely disproportionate to the investment. Over time, nobody was willing to practice unranked arts anymore.
Yet that was the logic of ordinary mortals.
*To me, unranked martial arts are a highway to heaven!*
In Wang Ping's view, though the martial dao of the Dashun court fell far short of the immortal path, it possessed at least one unique feature of immense value:
Military arts.
The military arts condensed only after mastering a technique to great perfection to augment one's own body—that was the most valuable treasure of Dashun's martial dao in Wang Ping's eyes.
The reason was simple:
*Its buffs aren't diminished by the baseline strength of the physical body. In that sense, its boost is essentially an independent multiplier.*
And that was critical!
*According to the immortal sect's cultivation system, I am at the first layer of Tribulation Crossing. At this realm, one must face the human tribulation and progressively condense four cultivation traits.*
Spiritual awareness, flawless true body, cosmic circuit breathing, and manifesting dharmas by borrowing qi—these four traits allowed a cultivator to truly transcend the mortal realm. In his previous life, he had merely formed half of a flawless true body, yet his physical strength already matched an internal strength martial master. If he gained the military art buffs from an entire set of unranked martial arts...
How strong could he become?
Even in the worst-case scenario, if he acquired numerous military arts from unranked techniques to reinforce his physique, the difficulty of cultivating the flawless true body should decrease, shouldn't it?
After all, this was an elite independent multiplier.
Of course, so far it was only Wang Ping's conjecture, but he considered it well worth testing. If it worked, he would reap unimaginable gains!
Soon enough, a perplexed Wu Xintai left the tent.
"He wants unranked martial arts?"
Outside the tent, the monkey-faced man and the ruthless man stood shoulder to shoulder. Despite the soldiers patrolling all around them, not a single one noticed their presence.
"Interesting."
The monkey-faced man gave a soft laugh. "Looks like he has already realized he's bait—and even deduced that our Enshrinement Hall is pulling the strings behind the scenes."
"He's asking for his payment."
The ruthless man shook his head. "The ignorant know no fear. There's no need to pay him any heed."
"I rather like that ambition,"
the monkey-faced man said softly, looking down. "Besides, what he requested isn't anything grand, just unranked arts. He merely wants qualifications."
"In that case, why not give him a chance?"
"Don't forget, Hai Pig died in Qingping Town just days ago. The Enshrinement Hall has a vacancy, and it's the right time to recruit new blood and gather talents."
"As a gold-bearing cavalryman, his background is clean enough."
With that, the monkey-faced man strode forward and lifted the tent flap as if nobody else were there, chuckling, "Kid, the unranked martial arts you wanted are here."
"...Who's there?!"
Inside the tent, Wang Ping snapped his head up, his pupils contracting sharply. Until the man spoke, Wang Ping had not sensed his presence at all.
Not even with his spiritual sense!
In an instant, Wang Ping's muscles locked tight as Heavenly Peng strength surged through him. Staring fixedly at the man before him, he rapidly weighed his options through his shock:
*Martial arts... against this man, they're probably negligible. He feels even more terrifying than Xu Bingzheng. But I still have spells. Qi Restriction can recover rapidly, Soul Seizing can shake his spirit, and then there's Life-Stealing Thief—as long as my hand touches him, I can drain his vital essence.*
Wang Ping's thoughts raced as he felt a surge of relief:
*Thank goodness that before coming here, I had already waited out the seven-day cooldown for the Fiend from Beyond. If pushed into a corner, fighting for my life is an option...*
With this thought, Wang Ping lowered his stance slightly.
"Relax, kid."
The monkey-faced man waved his hand casually. "I am Shen Monkey, and this is Xu Dog. Just as you thought, we hail from the Enshrinement Hall."
Hearing this, Wang Ping lowered his eyelids.
*What is he talking about? Enshrinement Hall?*
Wang Ping immediately dredged through his predecessor's memories, soon finding the answer buried among the background lore: directly subordinate to the Son of Heaven—the Royal Enshrinement Hall!
Rumor had it that the Enshrinement Hall was established by the founding emperor Taizu, comprising twelve permanent members ordered by the Twelve Earthly Branches. The first six were grandmasters standing at the pinnacle of martial dao; the remaining six, while not grandmasters, were titled martial masters on par with the highest ranks of the Weapon Register, every one of them possessing unfathomable martial prowess.
Why would experts like this be here?
And from his tone, he assumed Wang Ping already knew of their existence? Yet his predecessor's memories held no such thing. Had the man misunderstood? Why would he misunderstand?
Wang Ping was utterly in the dark, with no idea how to respond. He simply sighed, letting a look of helpless hesitation show on his face.
He understood well that silence was golden.
At times like this, keeping quiet and playing the deep expert was the way to go. Otherwise, if the two saw through him, he might miss crucial clues.
Besides, smart people always filled in the blanks themselves.
Sure enough, seeing Wang Ping remain silent, Shen Monkey did not mind. He continued, "You're clever and well-informed, and your request wasn't excessive."
With that, he drew a booklet from his robes.
Wang Ping looked closely, his gaze swiftly falling upon the forceful, elegant calligraphy on the cover: *Thirteen Taipo Horizontal Training Hard Qi Art*?
"Here is the qualification you seek."
Shen Monkey smiled. "As an esoteric secret of the Royal Enshrinement Hall containing thirteen martial arts, you must master at least seven before you are qualified to join our ranks."
"I've given you the opportunity. Whether you succeed depends on you."
"It also adds some weight to you as a stone, so you can kick up larger waves in the muddy waters of Longxing County instead of sinking too easily."
"Well? Do you want it?"
As he spoke, Shen Monkey's smile grew increasingly intriguing, while Xu Dog behind him raised his eyes toward Wang Ping, a hint of appraisal in his gaze.
The Thirteen Taipo Horizontal Training Hard Qi Art was indeed a boon.
Yet pies did not fall from the sky. Behind this benefit lay enormous risk: once he took it, he would have no way of avoiding the muddy waters of Longxing County.
A mere internal strength martial master could easily end up without even a corpse left intact.
If he refused, there was still hope of extricating himself.
Whether one possessed the courage to press forward against danger, heedless of death—that was the Enshrinement Hall's true screening criterion. The hall never tolerated cowardice.
"Then I thank you, Senior."
The very next second, Wang Ping took the martial arts manual from Shen Monkey's hands without the slightest hesitation, seeming to regard it purely as a tremendous fortune gifted freely to him.
He paid no heed whatsoever to the risks lurking behind it.
Watching Wang Ping, both Shen Monkey and Xu Dog could not help revealing looks of surprise. If such behavior was not sheer stupidity, there was only one other explanation—
*He doesn't fear death?*
Why was he not afraid?
Chapter 43