Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

13 Chapter 10: Results_2
Translator: 549690339
Xu Yang picked up a “Dream Talks” and flipped through it skillfully, as if it was not his first time doing such a thing.

Indeed, it was not the first time.

Since over a year ago, by playing games like hide and seek, he obtained skills such as hiding and thievery, Xu Yang began to frequent the Lu Family’s study.

Books are the ladder of human progress and also an important way for Xu Yang to understand this world.

But there was a problem with reading, and that was the necessity of recognizing characters.

Xu Yang was illiterate, or to be precise, he did not recognize the characters of this world. Whether it was he, who arrived through the Zhuanzhou Mengdie, or Li Qing Shan, the village youth, both were illiterate.

Fortunately, Xu Yang had an attribute panel and a transmigrator’s base of information. He could make educated guesses as he decoded the text, eventually mastering the skill of “reading” and developing the special traits of Night Reading, Decoding, and Never Forget After Reading. He could easily understand even the most challenging texts and hidden meanings.

Thus, Xu Yang visited the Lu Family’s study more than a dozen times, stealing the books in batches to read, absorbing the knowledge and information within like a sponge.

Although the Lu Family was merely rural gentry, their ancestors had passed the imperial examinations and had produced a scholar, so their collection of books was passably extensive. Apart from The Four Books and The Five Classics, which were basic texts, there were also various miscellaneous and strange tales, and even martial arts manuals that Xu Yang so eagerly sought.

With these, Xu Yang finally had a rough understanding of this world.

First and foremost, it could be confirmed that this was a “normal” world.

Why normal?

Because the world in which Xu Yang’s original self resided was a bit abnormal.

Let’s just speak of governance.

Under normal circumstances, in ancient feudal rule, a dynasty would last at most two or three hundred years before it would succumb to historical cycles of events such as land annexation and corruption in governance, leading to its downfall and destruction.

Thus, a dynasty rises and falls, and upon creating a new Qiankun, there would be a brief period of clarity. However, after two or three hundred years, it would fall into such a cycle again. This was the normal historical cycle that had been unwavering from ancient times until the present.

However, the reality in which Xu Yang’s original self resided was the exception. The dynasty known as Great Liang had sustained its rule for over a thousand years, withstanding all adversities and yet to fall.

This was not normal, absolutely not normal. Historical cycles are an inevitability of human nature; a dynasty ruling for two to three hundred years would inevitably succumb as various interest groups become too bloated, acting as parasites for their own benefit and eating away at the nation until it crumbles—an almost unalterable course of development.

There were only two possibilities for a dynasty to endure a thousand years of tribulations and still maintain its governing framework.

The first was the advancement of the era and technological progression that could, while maintaining the interests of the upper class, ensure the livelihood of the lower class. Perhaps such a dynasty could last for a millennium without external enemies, wars, or natural disasters.

The second was simple: pure suppression by absolute power. Possessing absolute power, regardless of the instability of the lower class or the sly intentions of various parties, no force could oppose such might. Only then could a dynasty be sustained for a thousand years without falling.

Which one is the Great Liang dynasty, one or two?

Naturally, it is the second. Xu Yang had been fishing at Dongting Lake for decades and did not believe that the technological level under Great Liang had improved at all. On the contrary, symptoms of land annexation and regional strongholds that typically marked the end of a dynasty had already been present for many years. If Great Liang could still maintain its rule in such a situation, no one would believe there were no issues.

Therefore, Xu Yang always kept a low profile in the real world, preferring to be a fisherman on Dongting Lake who could be bullied by anyone, rather than using his attribute panel, skill traits, and the transmigrator’s advantages to struggle and strive to dominate a territory.

“`

He had a premonition, an intuition that there was more than meets the eye behind Great Liang, and if he revealed his peculiar abilities, it would inevitably attract endless troubles. It was best to remain hidden, accumulate power, and bide his time until he could reverse the situation.

This was the reality Xu Yang found himself in, a world where extraordinary powers existed, and one could not act rashly.

By contrast, this world of Zhuanzhou Mengdie’s dream was much more normal, with a historical process that followed a cyclical pattern. Since ancient times, the lifespan of each dynasty did not exceed two or three hundred years. There was no trans-era technological development, nor were there any powers beyond the ordinary.

This is a normal world, or, in other words, a world with lower levels of power.

There was also martial arts in this world, but according to the secret martial arts manuscripts in the Lu Family’s collection, and from what Xu Yang had seen and heard in recent years, the level of martial arts was quite low in this world.

The practice of martial arts was basically about conditioning the body and cultivating one’s Qi Blood—although there were concepts of Inner Strength and even True Qi, their effects were ordinary at best. It was impossible for one person to be an army, charge through enemy lines seven times, and come back unscathed. Even for grandmasters who had refined True Qi, they wouldn’t be able to withstand strong bows and crossbows—a battalion of soldiers could easily surround and kill them.

And such grandmasters who had refined True Qi were rare in the world, usually the towering figures or venerable heads of major sects in the Martial World.

The top-notch experts in the Martial World could only cultivate Inner Strength, and even that had very limited effects, mainly fortifying the body. The notion of Internal Force Emission or Plucking Leaves and Flying Flowers was nothing but a fool’s dream.

This was also the reason why Xu Yang had become increasingly bold in his actions in recent years.

With his exceptional archery skills, capable of hitting a willow branch at 100 yards and the Three Stars Connected Beads technique, his martial prowress was already not low in this world. With a bow in hand, the house guards and protectors of the Li and Lu families were nothing but live targets to him, one shot, one kill.

The only threats were a few Martial Instructors, but even these threats were not significant, as they only knew some boxing and kicking techniques and hadn’t even cultivated any Inner Strength—they were all easy targets for his arrows.

With such archery skills, not to mention Xu Yang simply taking a few more bones while slaughtering pigs, even if he openly took some of the meat to sell for money, the Lu Family would not say a thing. They wouldn’t just keep silent, but they’d also offer him benefits to win him over.

Recently, Zhang Fu, the chief steward of the Lu Family, had intentionally mentioned a marriage proposal to him, offering a female member of the Lu clan to marry him, aiming to tie him firmly to the Lu Family’s battleship. However, Xu Yang had declined.

If things kept progressing this way, becoming more prominent, or even ruling like a king, would not be a problem in the future.

But that was not Xu Yang’s pursuit. Zhuanzhou Mengdie was still Zhuanzhou Mengdie after all; where his main body resided was his true base. He had to use the resources of this world to enhance the strength of his main body and resolve his increasingly dire predicament.

How to use it, though?

Xu Yang set aside the volumes of strange tales and turned his attention to the few martial arts manuals he had pilfered this time.

Although these were referred to as secret martial arts texts, they were actually just a few superficial skills in boxing, kicking, and weaponry techniques such as Black Tiger Fist, Ground Knife, and Eight Trigrams Stick—none of which were anything to show off. There was not a single internal cultivation technique that could lead to the cultivation of Inner Strength or True Qi.

Understandable, as after all, the Lu Family was just a rural wealthy clan, not a major sect of the Martial World that would possess such profound martial arts secrets.

Of course, a low level was not a problem for Xu Yang, who had an Attribute Panel and the ability to develop skills. Even shooting, a basic skill, could produce powerful Skill Traits like “hit a willow branch at 100 yards” and “Three Stars Connected Beads”, so these crude martial arts could naturally be transformed from decayed to magical.

In fact, Xu Yang had already started practicing, but since the time was short and the skill was not yet fully refined, no Skill Traits had been formed. Once the skill was perfected and the traits emerged, his strength would grow once more.

At that time, he could plan to pursue more profound martial arts.

Even though the profound martial arts of this world might only be commonplace in his extraordinary reality, having them was better than not. Xu Yang, who severely lacked a sense of security, did not reject any means to enhance his strength.

Of course, that was a plan for the future. His main task at the moment was to first cultivate martial arts skills and the corresponding Skill Traits to further strengthen his abilities.

“`