Chapter 56: The Ancient Martial Arts System

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After reaching an agreement with Zhou Chen, Xiao Yunmei did not produce any written contract or paperwork.

Because such things were useless to a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator and would only make Zhou Chen uncomfortable.

In the following days, Zhou Chen hand-drew various schematics of celestial herbs and rare spiritual materials, adding color and detail.

There were blueprints for spirit medicines, rare spiritual materials, and formation components, among others.

He produced over two thousand pages in total.

Xiao Yunmei arranged for these to be printed into volumes and distributed to all the appraisers at Yunmei Auction House.

Thus, their partnership was established.

However, since Zhou Chen was not well-known, Xiao Yunmei suggested that he participate in an upcoming cultivation competition held by the Yanhuang Guardian Bureau at the end of the year.

The competition’s rewards included various cultivation resources and rare celestial materials.

The purpose of the competition was to expend the excess energy of cultivators.

Otherwise, cultivators who transcend ordinary humans often sought to show off before common folk, causing unnecessary trouble.

Zhou Chen agreed, seeing it as a chance to gauge the current level of cultivators on Earth.

“By the way, how many realms are there in the Yanhuang cultivation system?” Zhou Chen inquired.

Xiao Yunmei was somewhat taken aback by the question.

He was already Foundation Establishment stage and at least a hundred years old—how could he not know this?

Despite her doubts, she patiently explained:

“The mainstream cultivation system in Yanhuang is Ancient Martial Arts, divided into six major realms: Ming Jin, An Jin, Hua Jin, Gang Jin, Kai Yang, and Hua Xu.”

“The bodyguards at Yunmei Auction House mostly reach Ming Jin, with only a few at An Jin. It’s not that I cannot recruit masters at the Hua Jin level to serve as attendants, but the Xiao family does not want me to have cultivators who are too powerful.”

“As for Gang Jin experts, they are typically top attendants from great families; as far as I know, our Xiao family has only two.”

“Kai Yang masters are the pinnacle of Ancient Martial Arts; one can single-handedly annihilate a fully armed army. To my knowledge, such formidable figures are so rare that even all the families in the capital could count them on one hand.”

“The sixth realm, Hua Xu, represents the giants of the Ancient Martial Arts world. They can even briefly fly through the air using their physical body. I’ve only heard that the Yanhuang Guardian Bureau has someone who reached this realm, capable of suppressing cultivators from other nations and preventing them from acting rashly within Yanhuang territory.”

Listening to terms like master, expert, mighty, and giant, Zhou Chen almost smiled.

He reckoned that any Golden Core stage cultivator could likely suppress the entire Ancient Martial Arts system in Yanhuang.

But the Hua Xu realm was intriguing—being able to briefly fly with the physical body meant incredible bodily strength.

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After all, within the cultivation system, only those who reached the Golden Core stage could achieve physical flight.

Of course, Golden Core stage physical flight has no time limit.

Even though Zhou Chen was currently only at the Qi Refining stage, he had secret methods to briefly fly using his body—but it was unnecessary.

After so many days of contact with Ancient Martial artists, Zhou Chen had gained a general understanding of their system.

Ancient Martial artists were similar to the physical cultivation branch of the cultivation system.

But their ranks did not match up to physical cultivators.

After all, a Qi Refining stage physical cultivator could withstand bullets with their body, and even missiles might fail to injure them.

Zhou Chen chuckled quietly, “Hmm, quite interesting.”

“I usually don’t have time to come to Yunmei Auction House, so I will enhance the strength of your bodyguards. Surely they won’t be threatened by the Xiao family, right?”

Xiao Yunmei was delighted and quickly replied, “No, no, they would sacrifice their lives for Yunmei Auction House. They are absolutely loyal!”

Zhou Chen nodded. Previously, through Soul Devouring Worms, he had seen those bodyguards protecting Cai Yaming and Cai Shasha fearlessly face powerful enemies, truly worthy of nurturing.

“Is there nothing pressing now? Have your bodyguards assemble; I will give them a blessing.” Zhou Chen rose.

Hearing this, Xiao Yunmei’s beautiful eyes curved into crescent moons.

“Thank you, Senior!”

Before long, inside the bodyguard training room of Yunmei Auction House’s estate, a group of men in suits wearing high-tech sunglasses stood in neat rows.

Xiao Yunmei introduced, “These bodyguards have absolutely clean backgrounds. Many are retired elite soldiers with excellent physical fitness.”

Zhou Chen scanned the bodyguards—forty-three in total. Most cultivated at the Ming Jin realm, with only five standing at the front reaching An Jin.

He ordered them to line up and face him one by one.

The first bodyguard stepped forward.

Zhou Chen struck his abdomen with a palm, instantly destroying his dantian.

“Pfft!”

The bodyguard spat out a mouthful of fresh blood and staggered back several steps, face pale as death.

“Ah!”

Xiao Yunmei was shocked. This bodyguard was the strongest among them, his cultivation having reached the peak of the An Jin realm.

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She had hoped to have the first bodyguard with Hua Jin master-level cultivation, but with Zhou Chen’s palm, that hope shattered instantly.

Yet she did not question Zhou Chen’s actions; as a smart woman, she knew when to keep silent.

“Stand up and come before me,” Zhou Chen said calmly.

The bodyguard’s sunglasses had been knocked off, revealing pain in his eyes.

Such hard-earned cultivation destroyed in an instant—he could not help but feel stifled and frustrated.

But seeing Xiao Yunmei nod, he gritted his teeth, straightened his back, and endured the intense abdominal pain to stand before Zhou Chen again.

This time, Zhou Chen placed his palm on the man’s brow.

He transmitted a body cultivation technique called the “Dragon Elephant Sky-Shaking Art.”

Zhou Chen only transmitted the first level, which allowed cultivation up to the Qi Refining Great Perfection stage.

But for cultivators in the end-of-law era, this was more than sufficient.

Without other opportunities, these bodyguards might spend their entire lives unable to perfect even the first level.

While transmitting the “Dragon Elephant Sky-Shaking Art,” Zhou Chen also planted a restriction within their minds.

If any of the bodyguards leaked the technique, the restriction would trigger, shattering their souls instantly.

In the future, if any bodyguard betrayed him, Zhou Chen could also eliminate them using this restriction.

“The technique I’ve given you is a truly top-tier body cultivation method, thousands, even tens of thousands of times better than the trash you currently practice!”

“This is not an Ancient Martial technique but a supreme cultivation art passed down from the ancient times. If you have the talent, you could one day shatter the void with your body or even ascend to immortality physically.”

“Changing your cultivation system requires you to destroy your current cultivation and start anew.”

“Next.”

One by one, Zhou Chen destroyed the cultivation of all the bodyguards and unified their training under the “Dragon Elephant Sky-Shaking Art.”

Body cultivation requires very little spiritual energy; it mainly cultivates with the power of qi and blood.

The primary function of spiritual energy is to temper the body.

Zhou Chen arranged the thirty spirit stones previously gifted by Xiao Yunmei into a formation within the training room to aid the bodyguards’ initial cultivation.

Though body cultivation does not demand much spiritual energy, it still requires some assistance from it.