Martial Arts Even a Fool Can Master

After finishing his inquiries, Xu Xi left with Wu Yingxue, choosing not to kill the tax collector directly.

The tax collector's ultimate fate was to be dragged away by a middle-aged man with a scarred face.

The tax collector looked at the man's face, filled with terror, while others who also held grudges against him silently allowed the man to take him away.

From Xu Xi, Wu Yingxue learned the story of the middle-aged man.

It was a tragic tale that had unfolded long before Xu Xi arrived in Qingniu Town.

The man, surnamed Li, had once been a wealthy merchant in the heart of the Great Qian Empire. However, after offending a county official, his entire family was exiled to the borderlands.

Misfortune seemed to follow them relentlessly.

Not long after arriving in Qingniu Town, the man's younger sister caught the attention of the tax collector. From that day on, the girl vanished from the world forever.

"What can you do to me?"

It was said that the tax collector, just as arrogant as he was today, had stepped on the man's head and slashed his face with a knife.

The man endured it, bearing the pain for a long, long time.

Until today, when he finally had the chance to avenge his sister.

He wept bitterly as he dragged the tax collector back to his home, his hoarse, mournful cries contrasting sharply with the tax collector's desperate pleas for mercy.

"Even killing him a hundred times wouldn't be enough!"

After hearing the story, the young woman fell silent for a long time before finally speaking with venom in her voice.

Her hands clenched and unclenched, her fingers instinctively reaching for her spear, itching to take action. But after staring at the man surnamed Li for a while, she decided to let the person directly involved handle it.

The dead sister could never be brought back to life.

This was the only way the man could comfort her spirit in the afterlife.

Wu Yingxue didn't want to take that away from him.

With the tax collector's matter settled, Qingniu Town returned to its usual rhythm of life.

Xu Xi and Wu Yingxue spent their days either refining their martial techniques at home or venturing into the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains, harvesting demon flesh while honing their combat skills.

The townsfolk prepared for the harsh winter with the scarce resources they had.

On the surface, everything seemed unchanged.

But Niu knew, and so did all the residents of Qingniu Town, that something invisible had quietly taken root in everyone's hearts.

Even the world around them seemed to grow a little brighter.

…

After returning home, Xu Xi quickly entered the inner room, picked up the original copy of the "Yang Yuan Manual," and began meticulously reviewing it page by page.

"Yang Yuan—nurturing vital energy."

"If I want to improve it, making it easier for people to learn while also enhancing their martial cultivation..."

Xu Xi fell into deep thought, one inspiration after another springing to mind.

[There is no such thing as a cultivation technique that ignores aptitude.]

[There is no such thing as a technique that disregards innate talent.]

[Everything in existence produces two outcomes: good and bad.]

[For every martial prodigy who grasps things instantly, there is a corresponding fool who struggles endlessly.]

[Even siblings from the same family can differ greatly, let alone unrelated individuals. To think that a single manual could turn everyone into martial artists is unrealistic.]

[But today,]

[after witnessing the townsfolk of Qingniu Town banding together to beat the tax collector,]

[you realized, belatedly, that even those on the brink of starvation, those with nothing to their name, possess something no weaker—and perhaps even stronger—than ordinary people.]

[It is an unquenchable will to survive.]

[It is the tenacity of weeds.]

[The people of Qingniu Town may not understand martial cultivation or the circulation of vital energy, but they do understand one thing—]

[Eating.]

"Master, what does eating have to do with martial techniques?"

"It does, and yet it doesn't."

"You said that one can grow stronger by eating. Is that true?"

"It's not that eating makes one stronger, but that eating is the only way they can grow stronger."

[You and Wu Yingxue worked together to create something entirely unconventional. It was not a traditional martial technique, lacking a fixed method of energy circulation.]

[Farmers who practiced it would circulate energy while working the fields.]

[Porters who practiced it would circulate energy while carrying loads.]

[The flow of vital energy was so simple that even those who knew nothing of martial principles would unconsciously activate it during their daily activities.]

[And at its core was eating.]

[Not eating in the ordinary sense,]

[but consuming the intangible yet real essence of qi and spirit with a will to survive and an unwillingness to give up, thereby awakening the latent potential within the body.]

[You were somewhat conflicted about the result.]

[On one hand, you were pleased with the successful refinement of the "Yang Yuan Manual," seeing a future where even ordinary people could cultivate.]

[On the other hand, you couldn't help but feel uneasy about the side effects of the refined technique.]

[The improved "Yang Yuan Manual" would reward practitioners with usable vital energy as long as their will was strong enough.]

[But that energy was unstable, as fragile as a house of cards.]

[If the practitioner could replenish their nutrition in time, their body would remain intact. But if they lacked resources, the technique would eventually lead to self-consumption.]

[They would burn their blood, their life, everything.]

"Can such a technique really be used...?"

"No, there's no need to think about it. For those on the brink of death, this is truly useful."

After concluding their martial training, Xu Xi slowly stood up.

He walked out of the room and, in the profound silence, gazed up at the cold sun, exhaling mist and inhaling air.

Winter was approaching, and this year's demon tide would be more dangerous than ever.

Xu Xi had recently been frequently scouting the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains. He was certain that this demon tide would include a great demon at the Innate Realm.

In the face of such a being,

mortals wouldn't even have a chance to escape.

Slow as ants, they would be unable to flee.

Even if practicing the "Yang Yuan Manual" ultimately led to self-consumption, it would still be better than being devoured by demons.

"If we don't dare to take this step, how can we expect everyone to survive?" Xu Xi took a deep breath, feeling the cold air fill his lungs before exhaling it completely.

In truth,

the time left for Xu Xi, for Qingniu Town, was far too short.

So short that even if they started cultivating now, there was no guarantee that Qingniu Town would produce a martial artist in time.

"Master, should we give this technique a new name?"

Wu Yingxue, standing beside him, asked.

Both in content and function, the "Yang Yuan Manual" had diverged so far from its original version that continuing to call it by the same name didn't seem appropriate.

"A technique even a fool can practice."

"What?"

"That's its name."

The young woman was taken aback but found the name oddly fitting.

The creation of this technique was, after all, the work of a fool for the sake of other fools struggling to survive.

"I feel like I've become a fool myself after spending so much time with you."

Wu Yingxue chuckled self-deprecatingly.

[The Fool's Technique was born.]

[Its name was simple, but its content was enough to shake the Great Qian Empire's thirteen provinces. It was a technique that could destabilize the Great Qian and even the blockade of the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains.]

[You made the technique public, and Niu became the first practitioner—a choice he made willingly.]