“Body forging arts have been lost?”
Li Feng was momentarily stunned by Ge Feng’s reaction, but when he heard those words, shock flashed across his eyes. “Ge Feng, are you saying the body forging techniques are actually lost?”
“Yes. You didn’t know?” Ge Feng stared at Li Feng in astonishment. Every ancient martial artist knew this. How could Li Feng be unaware?
Li Feng nodded. He genuinely had no idea. Both the Nine Heavens Heart Scripture and the Profound Heaven Body Forging Art had come to him by chance. In his previous life, because of genetic injections and superior gene combinations, there had been no need for body forging techniques, so he never realised they had vanished from the world.
“The body forging arts were already lost before the Qin dynasty,” Ge Feng explained. “Legend says Qin Shi Huang burned them all in one great fire.”
“You mean the burning of books and burying of scholars? But I thought he burned Confucian texts.” Li Feng blinked. What did the loss of body forging have to do with Qin Shi Huang? His first instinct was that Ge Feng was talking nonsense.
Yet, thinking about it, from everything he had seen of Ge Feng recently, this man was not the sort to make things up.
“The burning of books and burying of scholars?” Ge Feng gave a disdainful snort.
“Li Feng, you really don’t know.” Ge Feng hesitated, wondering whether he should tell Li Feng what he knew.
Li Feng’s gaze sharpened as he fixed his eyes on Ge Feng.
“Li Feng, you’re aware that the period before Qin Shi Huang unified the land is called the Middle Antiquity, and the era after unification is called Recent Antiquity, right?” Ge Feng decided he might as well tell him. Even if he stayed silent now, Li Feng would learn the truth sooner or later.
Li Feng nodded. He knew that much about the division of eras.
“Do you know why those two eras are separated?” Ge Feng asked.
Li Feng shook his head. “No idea.”
“In the time before Recent Antiquity, martial practitioners were simply called martial artists. The martial path originated in the Primordial Era, when chaos had only just separated, the wilderness was newly formed, the three realms were not yet divided, spiritual energy filled the air, demons roamed freely, and mighty experts were countless. It is said that in that era, even children of a few years old could be Innate realm experts. By the High Antiquity, martial arts reached their absolute peak, with powerful experts emerging one after another. But the Battle of the Investiture of the Gods shattered heaven and earth, throwing spiritual energy into chaos. Several supreme beings then acted together and split the entire world into three. From that moment, the three realms were established.” At this point, Ge Feng’s face was full of admiration. To divide an entire world into three required unimaginable power.
“Three realms? Do you mean the Heavenly Realm, the Nether Realm, and the Human Realm?” Li Feng asked. By Heavenly Realm he meant the immortal realm, Nether Realm meant the underworld, and Human Realm was the current Earth.
Ge Feng shook his head. “No. These three realms are divided according to the density of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy. The Earth we live on now is the one with the thinnest spiritual energy among the three. It is said to be the world abandoned by the great powers of High Antiquity.”
“Abandoned?” Li Feng was taken aback.
“Exactly. Otherwise, in less than ten thousand years since High Antiquity, how could Earth have entered the Dharma-Ending Age?” Ge Feng sighed. No one felt good knowing their world had been discarded.
“What about the other two realms?” Li Feng asked.
“Compared to Earth, the spiritual energy in those two realms is many times denser. From what I know, one is now called the Ancient Martial Realm. The name of the other is unknown.” Ge Feng replied.
“The Ancient Martial Realm? Isn’t that just the hidden world of ancient martial artists on Earth?” Li Feng was puzzled. He had assumed the Ancient Martial Realm referred to the society formed by Earth’s current ancient martial practitioners.
“No. On present-day Earth, the cultivation realms for ancient martial artists are only Postnatal, Innate, Earth Martial, and Heavenly Martial. And with spiritual energy growing ever thinner, Earth Martial and Heavenly Martial realms have become legends. When the three realms were first divided, many Earth Martial and Heavenly Martial experts remained on Earth. But the Ancient Martial Realm is different. There, realms exist beyond Heavenly Martial. Of course, people there may not call their world the Ancient Martial Realm. That name is simply what modern ancient martial artists on Earth use for it.” Ge Feng explained.
“Realms higher than Heavenly Martial?” Shock flashed through Li Feng’s eyes. He wasn’t even Innate yet. Earth Martial was far off, let alone anything beyond Heavenly Martial.
Ge Feng nodded. When he had first read this information in his family’s records, his expression had been much the same as Li Feng’s now. If it weren’t passed down through generations in his clan, he would have thought it was pure fiction. After all, with modern science they knew Earth sat in the Milky Way and the sky was filled with endless stars. He found it hard to believe ancient martial artists could traverse the starry void. Yet the family’s secret chronicles recorded it exactly this way.
“Still, Li Feng, these things are far too distant for us. The most important thing right now is to break through to the Innate realm and become a true Innate expert.” Ge Feng said.
Li Feng nodded, but in his heart he yearned for that dazzling era when the martial path had flourished. He had never imagined that a world straight out of fantasy novels actually existed.
“During Middle Antiquity, martial civilisation gradually declined. Especially towards the later part, when the land was split among seven states and warlords fought for supremacy. Over centuries of war, many rulers recruited martial artists into their armies. Countless martial artists died on the battlefield. Then, a peerless genius, Qin Shi Huang, rose and led the ever-strengthening Great Qin Empire to unify the land. Qin Shi Huang himself was an unparalleled expert. Unwilling to remain on Earth and suffer birth, ageing, sickness, and death, after unification he gathered every cultivation method and secret manual in the land, hoping to find a way to the Ancient Martial Realm. But martial artists back then were nothing like today. Innate experts were countless, and even Earth Martial and Heavenly Martial experts existed. How could they willingly hand over their techniques? Thus, war erupted between the martial artists and the imperial court.”
Ge Feng’s expression turned grave. This was a shameful piece of hidden history. “To fight the martial artists, Qin Shi Huang trained his armies with body forging techniques and battle formations. A single army, using formations, could slay Earth Martial experts. The imperial family also teemed with masters. The war darkened the skies and stained the rivers with blood. Vast numbers of martial artists were slaughtered. In the end, Great Qin emerged victorious. This is also why the government still keeps such strict control over martial artists today. It all stems from that war.”
That reason?
Li Feng was stunned. Was the government’s tight control over martial artists really because of that ancient war?
“After the war, Qin Shi Huang successfully collected every cultivation method under heaven. But to prevent anyone else from using body forging techniques and formations to train armies, he ordered all copies of body forging arts and battle formations to be burned. This completely severed the already nearly lost transmission of those arts. Combined with the deaths of so many martial artists in the war, the martial world withered and the path declined. That is why the period before Qin Shi Huang’s unification is called Middle Antiquity.” Ge Feng continued.
Suddenly everything clicked for Li Feng. The division between Middle Antiquity and Recent Antiquity was because of that great war, just as the division between High Antiquity and Middle Antiquity was because of the Battle of the Investiture of the Gods.
“For the two thousand years of Recent Antiquity, every time a dynasty achieved great unification, the court would alternately entice and slaughter martial artists. For martial practitioners, those were dark days with no light. Later, as technology developed and Western powers invaded, martial artists stood by and watched. The court’s own martial artists were tied up monitoring the others and could not fight. Ordinary soldiers of flesh and blood could not withstand bullets. Thus began a century of humiliation at the end of Recent Antiquity. After New China was founded, martial artists remained under strict control. At the same time, with the advance of technology, people began to call the previous era Recent Antiquity and referred to martial practitioners as ancient martial artists, because everyone believed the martial path was destined to be eliminated by history.” Ge Feng said heavily.
Li Feng’s eyes gleamed as he listened. This was a history unknown to ordinary people. To them it was myth, but to martial artists it was undeniable truth.
So the so-called burning of books and burying of scholars was actually the burning of martial techniques and the slaughter of martial artists. The truth had been concealed from common folk, so the official story became “burning Confucian books and burying Confucian scholars”.
When you thought about it, if Confucian texts had really been destroyed, how could Confucianism have flourished for two thousand years afterwards?
At this moment, Li Feng finally understood why today’s martial practitioners were called ancient martial artists.
“Li Feng, do you know the origin of your eight great top families?” Ge Feng suddenly asked.
Li Feng shook his head. “I only know our eight great families have existed for over a thousand years. Nothing more.”
Ge Feng glanced at him and said, “Under Qin Shi Huang there were eight Heavenly Martial realm experts. Their surnames were Li, Song, Ma, Fu, Qin, Ying, Jin, and Zhu.”
Li Feng’s expression changed. “You’re saying the eight great families today are descendants of those eight Heavenly Martial experts who served Qin Shi Huang?”
“Exactly.” Ge Feng nodded. To families like the Ge clan, the eight great families were enemies with hatred as deep as the sea. But to Ge Feng, after more than two thousand years, that hatred had long dissipated.
Li Feng was stunned. He had never imagined the eight great families had such an origin.
“After that war, although huge numbers of martial artists were wiped out, many still slipped through the net. So Qin Shi Huang dispatched his eight Heavenly Martial experts to guard the four corners of the realm and hunt down the remaining martial artists. Through changing dynasties and the passage of time, these eight clans steadfastly carried out their mission. Over two thousand years, who knows how many martial artists died at their hands.”
Ge Feng looked at Li Feng and continued, “At the same time, through two thousand years of growth and decline, the eight clans became ever more powerful, eventually forming today’s eight great top families of China.”
A glint flashed in Li Feng’s eyes. He had never considered that the ancestors of the eight great families were Heavenly Martial experts, and that the eight families were descendants of Qin Shi Huang’s subordinates. Then what about the descendants of the martial artists slaughtered by Qin Shi Huang?
After two thousand years of mutual slaughter, the hatred ran oceans deep. Didn’t that mean behind the eight great families lurked a terrifying enemy?
And right now, were the eight great families still hunting ancient martial artists?
