Chapter 70: Initial Sign of the Fiery Eye
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Personal property!
Bare naked personal property!
After hearing Xu Yong’s words, Junior Leopard’s heart immediately set on fire.
Very obviously, this set of Thirteen Punches of Desolation was the same as the Moon-evil Painted Skin Punching Skill. They were both Xu Yong’s personal property.
It was already mentioned previously that in a well-known family like the Wu Family, other than the family itself gathering all sorts of martial arts, Elders like Xu Yong would have their own personal property. These were all gained based on their own methods and lucky chances, not with the aid of the family’s power. Therefore, those main veins of the family did not have any reason to ask them to hand the personal property over. This was Jianghu’s officially recognized rule. It could be considered a kind of shallow rule.
Who in this world did not have their own little secrets?
These were personal properties.
What the clans and families required was that you serve the family only, they did not want to deprive you of everything. This was just like how a wife could not be shared with other people once they were married in. To most of the practitioners in the martial arts world, these martial skills were much more important than wives were. They depended on themselves and their own chance encounters to obtain martial skills. How could they be willing to give that to someone else?
Various well-known families and sects also silently acknowledged this rule, and even if they had eyes on those personal properties, they would not openly snatch them and intimidate. If they had, the hearts of the people in the families and great sects would have scattered long ago.
Xu Yong, as the Elder of the Wu Family, had inherited several generations of branch veins, so it was impossible for him to not to have personal property.
During this half year, Xu Yong had only taught Junior Leopard a few things. Besides the Moon-evil Painted Skin Punching Skill, he had taught him the 72 movements Wild Hammering Skill.
Putting the 72 movements of Hammer Skill aside, this Moon-evil Painted Skin Punching Skill did not originate from the Wu Family. It was inadvertently obtained by Xu Yong and, although it was his personal property, apart from Junior Leopard, no one knew about it now. Therefore, when Xu Yong imparted it to Junior Leopard, he spoke gravely to him. This set of skin toughening punching skills could never be leaked to outsiders. So when Junior Leopard was cultivating, he was always extremely careful. Just like with Taiji Fist, only when there was no one around could he then practice.
But now, the Thirteen Punches of Desolation that he was going to impart to Junior Leopard was different.
This punching skill set was the personal property of Xu Yong, but this was personal property that was known by everyone.
In the past, Xu Yong’s uncle depended on this punching skill set to create an awe-inspiring name for himself in Jianghu. Therefore, it could not be said that the Wu Family, or even the entire Jianghu, also knew that their branch also possessed such a strong fist punching skill.
This punching skill set was not a punching skill for strengthening the body, but a set of real martial art skills. It was divided into 13 movements. When executed, it was quaint and displayed simple vicissitudes, not angry nor terrified. Yet it possessed hardness and softness and it was fine and packed. It naturally had its own majestic feeling, an indomitable feeling that transcended the six unities.
Of course, when imparting it to him, that was all Xu Yong had told Junior Leopard about the realm that he would reach after perfecting his mastery over this skill.
Although Junior Leopard was young, his experiences were bountiful. From a martial perspective, he naturally was uncommon. The martial skills that he knew all belonged to the world’s top tier martial skills. Looking now at Xu Yong displaying this set of Thirteen Punches of Desolation, who was teaching the essence of the skill as he displayed it, he naturally understood the profoundness of this. It was not beneath the Wild Hammering Skill. It was not even beneath the Wang She’s Asura Destroyer Pole and Lu Shaoyou’s Fallen Heaven Ultimate Sword. It may even be above them.
This led Junior Leopard to involuntarily feel a mix of emotions. Xu Yong was the pride of the Wu Family when it came to smelting, and his smelting standard was ranked number two among the Wu Family’s Elders. Many divine weapons and sharp crafts in Jianghu came out from his hands. However, in martial arts cultivation, he was not outstanding among the Elders. Who would have thought that he could actually get such a precious personal property?
“I am just but a rookie now. My teacher is a Level Five expert. Who cares if he specializes in smelting or in martial arts! He is more than sufficient to teach me. I don’t care where he comes from!” Junior Leopard laughed at himself.
For Junior Leopard, apart from the 72 movements Wild Hammering Skill, he did not have any martial art skills that he could show off. Those few that he knew, basically could not be displayed in the light. Therefore, faced with this kind of extremely powerful yet clean background skill, Junior Leopard naturally put his heart into it. He went into it more during the process of training, when he melded his own Taiji Fist intent into it and then molded the Extraordinary Strength Fist’s method of summoning strength into it. There was a different level of understanding that came out of it.
From then on, Junior Leopard practiced bitterly in the punching skill every day. His speed of progress was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, one month had passed.
On this day, Junior Leopard was practicing his fist in the courtyard, when suddenly, outside of the courtyard some hurried footsteps sounded.
“Young Master, Young Master Shi is back!”
Outside the door was the sound of a green-clothed footboy’s voice.
“Shi Jing? What is he doing here?” Junior Leopard was stunned. He immediately stood up, walked to the door, and opened it. “Senior Shi, you are a rare guest!”
“What a rare guest!!” Shi Jing was not courteous and immediately walked into Junior Leopard’s room. With one butt-cheek, he sat on the chair. “Mainly it is because you train from day to night and don’t see any people. I was scared that you will produce fungus, so I came over to have a look. No matter what, we came into the Wu Family together, so of course, we have to look out for each other, isn’t that right?”
Listening to Shi Jing faking and speaking presumptuously, Junior Leopard smiled weakly. He nodded toward the green-clothed footboy by the door and said, “Go boil some tea.”
The footboy acknowledged and left, after which, he closed the door of the room. “That’s true, of course. We came into the Wu Family together and indeed we should look out for each other. Why, what happened?”
“It is nothing big, just that damned Zhao Fei. Damn, he looks for trouble with me day and night. I want to ask you a favor, to teach him a lesson!”
“Zhao Fei?” Junior Leopard’s eyebrows furrowed. “Forget it, he is your legitimate Senior, and also the First Elder’s disciple. Why did you go and make trouble with him for nothing?”
“I’m not looking for trouble with him, he is looking for trouble with me!” Shi Jing’s face revealed hate. “He just entered a few years earlier than me, that’s all.”
“His strength has already reached the peak of Level Two. In one year at most, he can enter into the realm of Level Three!”
“I’m not asking you to go and fight him. This time I come to look for you to—!”
At that point, a knocking sound occurred, which was the green-clothed footboy carrying the tea and entering.
Upon seeing someone enter, Shi Jing stopped his words. His eyebrows slightly frowned while he looked at the footboy, who was arranging the tea and then walked out, before continuing. “This time I came to look for you to share good stuff with you. You think that I am really so foolish as to take Zhao Fei head-on?!”
Junior Leopard glanced at him, and in his heart, silently cursed, “You certainly are a fool. First, you strained the relationships with all the Seniors, and then offended all of the Inner Core disciples that entered into the Wu Family at the same time. If this is not foolish, then what is?!”
His heart was feeling dissatisfied, yet his mouth said, “There are benefits to share with me? What benefits?”
“Hehe, Junior Leopard, have you heard of Fiery Eyes?”
Shi Jing stealthily sneaked in front of Junior Leopard, and softly spoke.
“Fiery Eyes?!” Junior Leopard violently jerked. “No, I never heard of it before. What is that?”
“I also do not know. But, anyway, it must be definitely very important!”
“Why?” Upon hearing Shi Jing’s words, Junior Leopard had a feeling of neither crying nor laughing
because Shi Jing did not know what Fiery Eye was. He only eavesdropped on something that other people had talked about.
Shi Jing was someone who entered the Inner Core disciples with him. Only the two of them were lucky enough to be accepted as disciples by the Elders. Both of them were also so young. Therefore, between the two of them, there would, more or less, be brotherly feelings, even though Junior Leopard was extremely displeased with him.
In contrast to Xu Yong, Lyu Yiyue did not only have Shi Jing as his one disciple. As the Wu Family First Elder, he had many disciples, six in total. Shi Jing was only the sixth.
Due to First Elder Lyu Yiyue’s age, the ages of his six disciples were very disparate. The first disciple, Wu Yihang, was the Wu Family’s main disciple and was nearly 40. He had long left the Wu Family headquarters, and was in charge of all the business in the Yangzhou Wu Family. He was the Yangzhou Head Supervisor. The second, third, and fourth disciples were the same as him. The youngest was also in his twenties, becoming one of the supervisors in the Wu Family. He only kept the fifth disciple, Zhao Fei, by his side, who had not yet stepped out. Some time later, he accepted a new sixth disciple, Shi Jing.
To be able to enter the First Elder’s favored eyes and be accepted as a disciple meant that, naturally, he was no simple character. Zhao Fei, no matter his aptitude or family background, did not pale in comparison to Shi Jing. He might have even been superior. In the past in the Wu Family, he was the First Elder’s disciple and his position was not necessarily greater than the Wu Family’s two young masters. However, among the core disciples, he was either ranked first or second. Unexpectedly this time, his teacher accepted another, Shi Jing, and he focused heavily on him. Not counting this, the biggest problem was that this fellow called Shi Jing was overly arrogant. Just entering through the door, he wanted to challenge his authority. He really did not know how high heaven or how thick the earth was.
It was because of this very reason that resulted in his and Shi Jing’s relationship becoming very strained. They even had a few conflicts. Obviously in those few conflicts, it was always Shi Jing suffering a disadvantage in the end. If it was other core disciples, he would long have been crippled by him. That was all because Shi Jing was so young. If he really fussed over this little kid, it would make him seem too petty. He would also not be able to raise his head high in front of his teacher. Therfore, even though Shi Jing had suffered a few disadvantages, he did not suffer any harm. However, this kind of disadvantage made Shi Jing unable to accept it. From youth until now, he had never suffered this kind of disadvantage before, so his hatred for Zhao Fei grew.
He always thought of finding a chance to teach that Senior of his a good lesson. As for this battle between the two disciples that was neither obvious nor hidden, the First Elder Lyu Yiyue treated it as if he never saw it. They were still young and this kind of conflict compared to what they were going to experience was a minor case. If, as a teacher, he were to intervene in this kind of matter, he would be too tired.
As for this battle between the two disciples, Junior Leopard naturally knew about it. However, he was standing on the sidelines all along. Ever since he entered the Wu Family, he had kept an extremely low profile. Usually, unless there was something going on, he would never step out of the courtyard. He did not want to fight with other people and, even toward the footboys, he would be extremely courteous and amiable. The difference between him and Shi Jing lay in that his teacher, Xu Yong, only had him as a disciple. Therefore, he did not have Shi Jing’s troubles.
Therefore, compared to Shi Jing, among the Inner Core disciples, his reputation was far better than Shi Jing’s.