Old Martial Arts and New Martial Arts

Only a single street separated the Luo Residence and the Chen Residence. The Luo Residence was situated in the south of Yunyan County. The family ran a silk business that was not confined to Yunyan County alone, but extended across an entire prefecture. Old Master Luo was charitable and benevolent, often paving roads and distributing porridge, enjoying a stellar reputation in Yunyan County. His greatest pride was fathering a son who was a martial arts prodigy. This Luo Bufan possessed extraordinary martial talent, with high hopes of being exceptionally recruited by the Demon Suppression Division to become a regional Guardian. However, half a month ago, Luo Bufan's disappearance caused quite a stir in Yunyan County. Old Master Luo even posted a bounty of seven thousand taels of silver just to bring his son back. Regrettably, before the son could be found, the entire Luo household was slaughtered a week ago, rocking all of Yunyan County. That night, not only was the entire Luo family killed, but the Chen Residence also suffered a tragic extermination, with all seventy-six members butchered. Yunyan County was shaken to its core, and members of the Demon Suppression Division arrived to investigate the massacres. Slurping thin porridge while sitting casually, Qi Yuan let his thoughts wander. *There's no glass or artillery here. If I manufactured those, wouldn't I make a fortune?* This game was indeed well-suited for farming and technological development. On second thought, however, Qi Yuan did not dwell on it. First, he needed to complete the quest. He was still in a hurry to return for the Martial Arts Tournament and waiting to form his Golden Core. "Sigh, what a pity. The young master of the Luo family and the young miss of the Chen family had just gotten engaged, only to meet with such tragedy." Nearby, commoners murmured in hushed tones, their words laden with sorrow. Qi Yuan got up, listening no further to the chatter of these NPCs. He had gathered roughly all the information he could. At that moment, he headed toward the Luo Residence. As he drew near the Luo Residence, the entire street grew desolate, with hardly even a beggar in sight. Even from more than a hundred meters away, Qi Yuan caught the thick stench of blood. In the distance, constables from the yamen had cordoned off the area, forbidding ordinary people from entering. Was Qi Yuan an ordinary person? No. He was a player. Therefore, he swaggered right toward the Luo Residence. Ahead, a few yamen constables were chatting idly. Seeing someone approach, the constables snapped to attention. Once he got a clear look at who it was, Li Shu hoisted his saber and shot a sidelong glare at Qi Yuan. "Qi Er, why aren't you selling pork like you should instead of running over here? I thought you were some expert from the Demon Suppression Division. You gave your Master Li a scare!" Li Shu often bought pork from Qi Er—well, without paying, that is—so he naturally recognized him. "I came here to complete a quest." Sincerity was the ultimate finishing move. Qi Yuan felt that even these NPCs had the right to know this was a game world. "So hurry up and let me in to finish the quest. I'm in a rush to log off." Qi Yuan had always been well-behaved and reasonable. Had he not feared drawing too much attention, he would have even carved the character for "Reason" into his forehead. Sure enough, Qi Yuan's words dumbfounded Li Shu. "Did Fourth Master Huang marrying your child bride drive you out of your mind?" When Fourth Master Huang demanded to marry Qi Er's child bride, Qi Er had gone to Li Shu seeking help. The outcome was predictable: though Li Shu owed Qi Er money, he had no intention of ever repaying it. Right at that moment, a man and a woman in black martial attire walked over. The round-faced woman was tall and slender, holding a leather whip in her left hand and leading a large black hound with her right. "What's going on here?" Seeing them, Li Shu's expression instantly shifted to fawning sycophancy. "My lords, this Qi Er is a butcher in town. Who knows what madness has taken him, but he insists on heading into the Luo Residence. Your humble servant suspects he might be connected to the massacre! Shall I drag him off to prison?" His words were downright vicious. In these times, anyone thrown into prison would lose a layer of skin even if they survived. Li Shu had wicked intentions from the start, hoping to seize this opportunity to do Qi Er in. That way, he would never have to pay back the money he owed, and... no one would ever discover the trap he had laid back then. Qi Er accumulating gambling debts and surrendering his child bride to settle them had been Li Shu's scheme all along. The round-faced woman glanced at Qi Yuan, an amused smile playing on her lips. "He's so handsome, he's clearly a good person. What a shame—someone this good-looking working as a butcher." Her remarks left Li Shu stunned. The man in black martial attire chuckled. "Don't let romance rot your brain while we're on a quest." Evidently, the round-faced woman didn't often act like this. At this moment, Qi Yuan looked at the two of them with an odd expression. "Are you two players as well? Players in the game?" He found it somewhat confusing. This world was a massive game, yet within this in-game world, there were other players? "You're... a newbie?" The round-faced woman gasped, her gaze suddenly heating up. "A newbie, indeed!" The man in black martial attire glanced at Qi Yuan and reached a conclusion. The natives of this world could never utter the word "player." "We're not players; we belong to the Demon Suppression Division!" the round-faced woman said. "Once this quest is completed... if you're still alive, we might become colleagues down the line." In this world, looks were justice. Beauty on its own might be a curse, but paired with anything else in modern society, it was an absolute trump card. Had Qi Yuan been an ugly fellow, she wouldn't have bothered saying half as much. The round-faced woman turned to Li Shu and smiled gently. "He's with us." As she spoke, she patted Li Shu on the shoulder. Cold sweat broke out on Li Shu's forehead as he hurriedly offered an obsequious grin. "Your humble servant was blind!" *How on earth did this Qi Er get mixed up with the Demon Suppression Division? No, I must inform Fourth Master Huang about this immediately.* With the Demon Suppression Division speaking for him, Qi Yuan got his wish and entered the Luo family compound. Looking around as she held the leash of the large black hound, the round-faced woman smiled brightly. "You should thank me. That constable harbored ill intent toward you, so I took care of him for you. You're quite lucky to run into a great beauty like me on your very first quest. Anyone else might have schemed against you." When she patted Li Shu's shoulder earlier, she had quietly struck him with an underhanded lethal technique. Qi Yuan blinked. "He hasn't even paid back the money he owes me, and you went and killed him?" Hearing this, the man in black martial attire quickly cut in, "Cut the pointless chatter for now. Our quest is what matters!" Saying so, he looked toward the round-faced woman and the large black hound she held. "Xiao Bai, go sniff around and see if there are any clues." The round-faced woman tugged the leash, motioning for the black hound to investigate. "This isn't an ordinary dog. It's a trail-tracking hound that An Qiao captured, quite rare and precious," the man in black attire warmly explained to Qi Yuan. "It's somewhat similar to real-world police dogs, capable of scenting things ordinary people can't, making it a huge asset for our quests. Though its personality is a bit... tsk tsk." Qi Yuan also looked at the trail-tracking hound. Like the big black dog in Qi Yuan's Qingshui Village, this dog had black fur. But unlike the vigorous energy of the one in Qingshui Village, this hound seemed utterly lifeless, its eyes carrying the pristine innocence and cluelessness of a college student. "Xiao Bai, go sniff, hurry!" An Qiao urged the large black hound. The hound sprawled lazily on the ground, not bothering to move an inch. The man in black chuckled. "Expecting the dog to work without feeding it well." The trail-tracking hound wagged its tail at just the right moment, as if agreeing with the man's words. An Qiao flashed a foxy smile. "Fortunately, I came prepared. I cooked a meal myself this morning." As she spoke, a basket materialized in her hands at some point, holding piping-hot dishes. "Storage space?" Qi Yuan looked toward the man in black martial attire. In Qi Yuan's eyes, this man served the role of an explanatory NPC, so he asked without the slightest hesitation. Asking for handouts without a hint of shame. The man in black martial attire amiably played his part. "This isn't storage space; it's a martial technique. Once you become a blood martial artist, you can also exchange for cultivation methods and practice martial techniques. The principle behind this technique is using qi and blood to construct a pocket space for storage." "Not bad. All paths lead to the same destination," Qi Yuan remarked with appreciation. A blood martial artist in the Qi-Blood Realm was only comparable to a Qi Refinement cultivator, yet they already had something akin to a cultivator's storage ring. That was pretty impressive. After all, forging a storage pouch or storage ring required at least an Origin Core cultivator. Meanwhile, An Qiao brought out the food and placed it before the trail-tracking hound. Qi Yuan took a look at the bizarrely concocted dish and immediately lost his appetite. The trail-tracking hound sniffed it expectantly, only for its face to instantly drop into a deadpan scowl. The man in black martial attire chuckled as well. Right then, the hound stared at An Qiao and actually spoke in human tongue: "How about... you eat it first and shit it out for me?" This food was simply not meant for human consumption; the stench was overwhelming. Even a dog wouldn't eat it. It had driven the dog so desperate that it spoke human language. An Qiao's face instantly turned the color of bruised eggplant. "Fat dog, take it or leave it! Hurry up and sniff out any clues!" The trail-tracking hound muttered grumpily, "Wanting the dog to work while starving the dog—you're the real bitch here!" Though it grumbled, An Qiao had already called it "fat dog." If it didn't get to work, she would be genuinely enraged. Lowering its head, it sniffed left and right. Qi Yuan and the others followed behind it, scanning the Luo family courtyard. The compound was desolate and empty, with stray bloodstains on the ground. Eerily enough, there were no signs of a struggle. "Strange. There are no signs of fighting, nor any scorch marks. Yet all their corpses were charred to cinders, leaving virtually no clues," the man in black martial attire said suspiciously. Last night, they had examined the bodies, only to find them all reduced to charcoal, reeking with foul stench, yielding almost no useful information. "You really are dense. Obviously, they were burned after they died. As for who burned them, it was clearly that county magistrate," An Qiao said gravely. Hearing this, the man in black martial attire grew wary. "So it's him... It seems the waters run very deep here. Still, there's a newbie on this quest, so by rights the difficulty should be very low. In this Yunyan County, there are not only three demon factions, but the magistrate is also... harboring malicious intent. Something is very off." Generally speaking, even in the hardest newbie quest, the biggest enemy would be at most a demon in the Qi-Blood Realm. This quest was designated as an investigation, and investigation quests weren't supposed to be hard. But whatever wiped out the Luo family was clearly no ordinary demon. After all, both the Luo and Chen families had blood martial artists among them. Investigating such a demon, veterans like them could still protect themselves, but for a newbie like Qi Yuan, it was practically a suicide mission. "Maybe it's because I'm so extraordinary that my quest was dialed up a tiny bit in difficulty," Qi Yuan replied with a grin. "You're very lucky to have run into us," the man in black martial attire remarked. At this point, the trail-tracking hound spoke up: "I smell two different demon scents here. One is weasel, and the other is... Water Clan. In addition, there's another scent that's very familiar, as if I've smelled it somewhere before." "Two demon factions are involved?" The round-faced woman's face darkened. Yesterday, Chen Fan had warned that there were three demon factions in Yunyan County that should not be lightly provoked. Two of them were the weasels and the Water Clan. With this single case entangling both factions, how could they not be alarmed? "The strongest combatant of the weasels is at peak Blood Martial mastery. Out of the four of us, no one except the captain is his match. As for the Water Clan, rumors say there are even demons beyond the Qi-Blood Realm. Troublesome, troublesome, troublesome!" The round-faced woman furrowed her brows. Provoking two major factions at once during an investigation put them in an awkward spot. Qi Yuan, however, looked at the black hound and asked, "What is that familiar scent?" As for the weasels and Water Clan, Qi Yuan had intended to seek them out anyway. They were his mobile blood banks. Right now, his focus was on investigating the true cause of the destruction of the Luo and Chen residences. "Don't know," the hound shook its head. Qi Yuan was somewhat disappointed. His eyes could also see a great deal of information. To him, however, that information was not very important. For instance, he saw that Eldest Master Huang had visited the Luo Residence, and that a demon from the Water Clan had also been here. Right then, the hound twitched its nose. Stepping closer to Qi Yuan, it sniffed vigorously. "Strange... You have a scent similar to that Water Clan demon, yet... it's not quite the same." "Did you encounter a Water Clan demon?" the round-faced woman asked. Qi Yuan narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. "Water Clan... I don't think so?" Ever since arriving in this world, his eyes had constantly been looking around, scouring for useful information. He hadn't encountered anyone from the Water Clan. Could it be his predecessor? Even less likely. He had descended into this world in his true body. As for Qi Er, he had long ceased to exist. "How strange," the man in black attire frowned. At this moment, Qi Yuan asked, "Do you have any martial techniques or cultivation methods? Give me a few, I'd like to learn them—especially that storage technique from earlier, I'm quite interested in that." Qi Yuan was asking for handouts again. After all, they were NPCs. If they wanted to trade, he would trade. "Our martial techniques... cannot be traded," the man in black martial attire shook his head. "You have to join the Demon Suppression Division before you can exchange for them." "Seems I'll have to find some martial arts manuals around here," Qi Yuan said casually. Right now, his strength wasn't sufficient; he needed to learn some martial techniques and master martial cultivation methods to bolster his power. "Whatever you do, don't learn the martial arts here!" the round-faced woman hastily warned. "The martial arts here are... Old Martial Arts. Once you practice Old Martial Arts, it's very difficult to change your path." "Oh? The lore is that complicated, dividing into Old Martial Arts and New Martial Arts? Which one is stronger?" "Everyone in our Demon Suppression Division learns New Martial Arts," An Qiao said. "Don't be fooled by how Old Martial Arts and New Martial Arts seem almost identical in this world, with equal power. There is a glaring difference between them: Old Martial Arts only works in this world. Switch to a new world, and an Old Martial artist... will see their entire strength drop by a grade. New Martial artists, however, don't have this problem; no matter what world they enter, their full strength is preserved. In our Demon Suppression Division, there are many senior veterans who unfortunately didn't know better at the start and chose Old Martial Arts. What a shame." The round-faced woman sighed regretfully. Qi Yuan was slightly taken aback. "Multiple worlds? Multiple games?" "Yeah. Every time we take on a quest, it's actually in a different... parallel world," the round-faced woman replied. "Only New Martial Arts is universally applicable across all worlds." Qi Yuan narrowed his eyes. *This setting... why does it resemble the realm of Great Ultimate Reason of the Yang God stage?* "Yang God? Realm of Great Ultimate Reason? What's that?" An Qiao asked, puzzled.