Chapter 25  : So Many Aces in the Land

“Why did you ask about this person all of a sudden, Mr. Ye?” The smile on Old Master Gu’s face faded away immediately. He looked like he was being asked about a taboo.

Ye Chen smiled and said in a relaxed manner, “It’s not sudden. I killed a useless disciple of his earlier.”

As soon as he was done speaking, the entire room fell into silence. The expression on Gu Shaokun, his wife and Gu Yingying’s faces changed. Everyone else was astonished. Naturally, they knew that although Ye Chen spoke in a relaxed manner, there was evident killing intent and coldness in his words.

Gu Yingying especially could not help but study Ye Chen carefully while being in shock. Never had she thought that this guy would have such a cold appearance, but even his heart was cruel. He spoke about killing someone in such a calm manner. It seemed like the kick that he gave her the other day was an act of mercy.

The old master inhaled sharply with shock written all over his face. “Mr. Ye, a-are you sure that you killed Yuan Bupo’s disciple?”

“That man said Yuan Bupo was his master before he died, so that should be the truth. After all, a person speaks the truth before he dies.” Ye Chen nodded calmly.

The old master suppressed his shock forcefully and turned his head to look at Gu Shaokun and his wife. He said, “Leave us now, Shaokun, Yuanyuan.”

“Grandpa, look at you. I’m your grandson by blood and I have the Gu family’s blood flowing in me. Why do you have to hide from me?” Gu Shaokun was taken aback.

The old master glared fiercely at him. In turn, Gu Shaokun left the room with his wife, Fang Yuan, while looking bitter. He was mumbling to himself as he left.

The old master then spoke while forcing a smile, “Please forgive me, Mr. Ye. That useless grandson of mine knows nothing about martial arts. His father died when he was young, so the less he knows, the better.”

In reality, he did not say something else about what his grandson knew, which was not to offend ancient martial artists. As long as no ancient martial artist was offended, no matter how overbearing and impossible Gu Shaokun was behaving, Old Master Gu could still solve his troubles for him.

Ye Chen nodded to show his acknowledgment.

The old master took a glance at Ye Chen who was next to him and asked with an extremely doubtful expression, “Aren’t you from the ancient martial world? How could you not have heard of Yuan Bupo?”

“The ancient martial world?” Ye Chen was stunned for a little bit and subsequently smiled as he spoke, “To be honest, Old Master Gu, I’m not an ancient martial artist, but an energy refinery cultivator.”

“Energy refinery cultivator? Please forgive me, I’ve never heard of that despite living for so long.” The old master was stunned. Subsequently, he looked at Ah Hu who was behind him at a blur.

Ah Hu shook his head immediately. “Neither have I.”

“Forget it. Since you’re so powerful, it’s natural that you’re out of the ordinary,” the old master waved his hand and said, “Mr. Ye, martial art has been passed down for hundreds and thousands of years in China. There’s been a set of cultivation systems and heritage since then. To differentiate it from modern martial art, we call them ancient martial artists. At the moment, I know that the ancient martial world is divided into two main stages, which are the acquired stage and the innate stage.”

Ye Chen replied in surprise, “What’s the acquired stage and what’s the innate stage?”

Ah Hu and Gu Yingying perked their ears up because they had limited knowledge about this.

“The acquired stage is where the martial artist produces energy in their body by training and ignites the potential in them. Later on, they fight by integrating some skills. It’s generally categorized into four minor stages, which are Movement, Illuminating Energy, Internal Energy, and Illuminating Pulse.

“Under normal circumstances, as soon as one can produce energy in their body, they will consider stepping into the Illuminating Energy stage. After that, one will need to strengthen the energy continuously by enlarging it, refining it and integrating it into their flesh, muscles, and acupoints.

“When the energy is completely refined, it unblocks the clogged meridians in their body, especially the two main meridians which are the governor and the conception vessels. As soon as those two are unblocked, the energy will fill the entire body and work on its own.

“That’s the reason why anyone who has had their governor and conception vessels unblocked are formidable in wuxia novels,” the old master spoke at ease, providing Ye Chen and the other two with some general knowledge on ancient martial art.

Ye Chen asked while frowning, “How about the innate stage?”

“Acquired stage martial artists can turn the energy in their body into true energy. They achieve innate stage once they release true energy. However, it’s rare for anyone to achieve that. As soon as one achieves that though, they will be able to fight a hundred people at once. Therefore, they will be called Martial Dao masters.”

The old master was extremely emotional as he lamented, “However, it’s terribly hard to get to the innate stage. Countless acquired stage martial artists have cultivated their whole life, yet they fail to get to the innate stage. I’ve been cultivating all of my life and I’m only at the Illuminating Energy stage.”

Gu Yingying stuck her tongue out upon hearing that. She had been trained by the old master since she was young and was only at the Movement stage. All she could do was mimic and perform at a mediocre rate.

Ye Chen’s eyes blinked a few times as he absorbed the new information. An ancient martial artist cultivated mainly their body and energy. Furthermore, energy could not be absorbed from external resources. Instead, it had to be refined on his own.

Meanwhile, a cultivator would absorb spiritual energy in heaven and earth and turn it into spiritual power. They cultivated mainly abilities, magic treasures, formations, talismans, and other foreign objects.

He returned to the topic later on, “Since you’re so inferior to him, Old Master, Yuan Bupo must be a legendary Martial Dao master who’s on innate stage then?”

“That’s right.” The old master nodded gravely. “Yuan Bupo isn’t merely a Martial Dao master. He’s also No. 1 in three Tiannan Provinces. He’s dominated No. 1 for decades, and he’s also the most powerful among the other Martial Dao masters. One could say that he’s the uncrowned king of the entire Tiannan. Even my Gu family would have to bow to him.”

The old master took a deep breath in as he spoke to this point. He proceeded, “Not only is he the Tiannan’s No. 1 Martial Dao master, but he’s also ranked one of the five aces that we know as the Eastern Superior, the Western Overlord, the Southern Killer, the Northern Devil and the Unquestionable Jian. He’s the Southern Killer.”

“Grandpa, that Eastern Superior thing that you mentioned, are they part of the five aces?” Gu Yingying, who was sitting aside, could not help but ask. Ye Chen was also extremely curious about that.

The old master agreed, “That’s right. They’re the five famous aces on innate stage. They’re Eastern Superior Ning, Western Overlord Cao, Southern Killer Yuan, Northern Devil Jiang, and Unquestionable Jian. Clearly, those are just nicknames. I don’t know their real names.”

“Grandpa, so who is the most powerful one among the five of them?” Gu Yingying’s pretty face was flushing as excitement filled her beautiful eyes.

The old master took a glance at her helplessly. “The saying goes ‘just as it’s impossible to find the best writer, it’s possible to find the second-best in martial art’. When one gets to such a level, there’s no comparison unless they fight each other. Furthermore, I’ve never heard about them fighting before.”

Ye Chen nodded secretly. In this peaceful world, it would never be as chaotic as the cultivation world. Moreover, he believed that since such people existed, there must be some rules that applied to them. Otherwise, they would have already taken over this world.

Gu Yingying gave a brief response, appearing disappointed. She proceeded to ask, “Grandpa, are there more apart from those five?”

“Yes!” The old master was straightforward this time as he said, “Apart from the East, the West, the South, and the North, there are a few of them in the capital. For instance, there are the Zhan family’s genius, Zhan Kunlun, the son of the Su family, Su Qilin, and the Zhongnan Ocean Madman, Han Xiaotian. However, all of them are very mysterious and low-key.”

“Oh yeah!” the old master seemed to have recalled something. He grinned as he narrated, “Something interesting happened eight days ago. It was said that an expert appeared at the foot of Mount Tai. His nickname is the Unparalleled Sword. He has been challenging experts everywhere as soon as he appeared. Not only that, he’s been winning all the way. The ancient martial world is stirred by the appearance of this person.”

At the foot of Mount Tai? Eight days ago?

Ye Chen jolted upon hearing the couple of words. He asked, “Unparalleled Sword?” He happened to return to Earth eight days ago. Moreover, he had walked out of the foot of Mount Tai too.

“What? Why would anyone have ‘Sword’ as their family name? That’s silly.” Gu Yingying chuckled out loud. She wondered if there would be anyone who would have Saber for their family name.

The old master shook his head. “It should be a nickname. Anyway, I heard that the man is very young. I think he’s not even 18. He wore a white shirt and carried a broken sword. While he was cool and didn’t say much, he would challenge anyone that he encountered who had a sword. He would leave after saying one thing whenever he won.”

“What did he say? Damn, Old Master, stop leaving us hanging!” Even Ah Hu who had been quiet could no longer hold it back.

The old master had a strange look on his face as he spoke, “That man said, ‘You know nothing about swords, and you’re not worthy of using a sword. In this world, only my master knows about swords. If I find out that you ever use a sword again, I’ll chop your head off…’”

“Pfft!” Gu Yingying was giddy from laughter. “Hahaha, that person has grandiose delusions. Could he be a teen with grandiose delusions? Or maybe he’s deranged?”

“I’m not sure about that.” The old master shook his head then looked at Ye Chen. He said after a sigh, “Mr. Ye, now that you’ve learned about Yuan Bupo, you might’ve created vengeance between you two since you killed his disciple. Well…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ye Chen responded calmly with a smile, “That useless disciple of his didn’t die in vain. If he plans to fight me, I don’t mind getting the master and disciple to meet in hell.”

The old master’s face twitched hard when he heard Ye Chen’s response. He was speechless.

Gu Yingying, on the other hand, chuckled out loud. “He’s a Martial Dao master that has been known for years and he’s also the Tiannan’s No. 1. You must be out of your mind to be saying that.”

“Really? The more you say, the more I want to spar with him,” Ye Chen gave a brief response expressionlessly.

Gu Yingying was irritated by him.

The old master glared at her immediately and smiled in embarrassment. “Mr. Ye, I’ve spoilt Yingying. She’s rude with her words. Please don’t take it to heart.”

“No offense taken!” Ye Chen shook his head. He was not angry at all. Instead, there was an intense battle intent radiating from him.

So what if he’s a master? So what if he’s Tiannan’s No. 1? 

Anyone who makes me their enemy will die under my sword!