Chapter 188 – The Martial Arts Grandmaster and the Evil Emperor of Destiny

Lin Zhiqin was writing with great focus and seriousness.

Each stroke of his pen required him to pause and think deeply, deliberating repeatedly.

He had a habit of never making corrections.

The notes had been started about three months ago, beginning with some basic, superficial content.

They were just for teaching and guiding.

Gradually, they touched on more core and profound parts, his understanding and perception of martial arts, and his speculations and expectations for higher levels.

In his notes, Lin Zhiqin spared no effort in self-analysis, almost revealing his “self” completely and without reservation.

“Beep beep—”

A faint noise reached his ears.

Lin Zhiqin’s ears twitched, and he raised his head alertly, like a cat.

When he saw a robotic nurse pushing a cart down the corridor several dozen meters away, he relaxed slightly.

Habitually, he reached for the pocket over his right chest, but then he remembered that after being warned by the electronic police for smoking in public last time, his credit score had been significantly lowered. Another offense might result in forced deportation.

Lin Zhiqin’s expression became somewhat complex.

He had left Xiabang just fifteen years ago, yet upon his return, it felt so unfamiliar, as if it were another country.

However, it was natural for him to feel somewhat out of place even fifteen years ago.

Now, the sense of exclusion had become even stronger, which was to be expected.

After all, even the ancient martial arts world was on the verge of completely abandoning him.

Lin Zhiqin sighed softly and continued writing in his notebook.

Suddenly, a small shadow blocked the light over the page he was writing on.

Lin Zhiqin’s body instantly tensed, and he sprang up like a coil, his shock and astonishment reaching their peak!

As a martial artist master level in ancient martial arts, his sensitivity was such that he could clearly sense a fly ten meters away.

Now, something had approached him silently to watch him write, and he hadn’t noticed at all?

The intruder’s level of skill was simply terrifying.

“Who?!” Lin Zhiqin jumped up, shouting, only to come face to face with a young man who was looking at him with a half-smile.

When he saw the man’s appearance clearly, Lin Zhiqin was stunned.

The man was tall, wearing a long dark brown trench coat, with all his inner clothing, pants, and shoes in pure black.

He had short, neat hair, and his features were very handsome. When he smiled, there was a shallow dimple on the left side of his mouth.

It naturally gave people an inexplicable sense of goodwill.

The handsome man looked at Lin Zhiqin as if he were an old friend he hadn’t seen for many years, speaking to him in a half-joking manner: “Senior Brother Lin is still the same as ever. But you treat the current one much better than you did me back then. I never received a cultivation notebook personally organized by Senior Brother Lin…”

Lin Zhiqin stared at the handsome man in front of him, his expression gradually becoming complex.

A multitude of emotions surged up from the depths of his heart.

His lips trembled as if he wanted to call out a name.

But in the end, all emotions subsided, and Lin Zhiqin regained his composure completely, coldly saying, “Pei Ye, what are you here for?”

“I thought Senior Brother Lin still recognized me as your junior brother, after all, back then…”

The handsome man’s expression showed regret, but he quickly smiled again.

“But it’s okay, as long as I still recognize you as Senior Brother Lin.”

“This time I came back because I actually wanted to…”

The handsome man’s face suddenly lit up, his eyes sparkling like morning stars.

He spread his arms, and a mysterious energy wave spread out.

A sudden gale arose in the corridor, making the man’s trench coat flap like a flag.

It seemed even the daylight outside dimmed.

Lin Zhiqin’s expression was one of shock and confusion, and just then, he heard the man’s voice, as if it was coming from the misty depths of the ocean.

“Join hands with Senior Brother Lin to achieve great things!”

“Uh…”

“How can this be…”

Lu Yuan sat in the shuttle seat, stunned for a long time before he could barely react.

Although he had already highly estimated Yuwen Tong’s strength, he didn’t expect… that he couldn’t even use the Consciousness Space’s [imaginary enemy] function!

Actually, it wasn’t that he couldn’t use it, but rather that when Lu Yuan tried to enter Yuwen Tong’s consciousness, it felt like he was falling into a brilliant galaxy. The light was so bright that he could hardly look at it directly, and then…

Then he was automatically ejected from the Consciousness Space.

He tried several more times, but the result was the same.

“Has Yuwen Tong become so powerful that my current consciousness can’t handle it? If we were to fight for real, wouldn’t just one look from her make me melt?”

Lu Yuan found it exaggerated but couldn’t help feeling shaken.

He had already experienced one limit break in intelligence, and his overall strength had steadily entered level S.

If Yuwen Tong’s strength was so much higher than his, then what level was she at?

Triple S?

Or five times S?

Having just gone through the new blood assessment, Lu Yuan’s slightly inflated ego quickly grounded itself.

“In the martial artist system, I can now crush those at the True Intent level, but against a Grandmaster…”

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and directly searched the internal network of Yellow Bear for information on “martial arts Grandmasters.”

Instantly, many videos popped up, and he clicked on the most popular one.

-A man in a black short Training Attire was moving swiftly like an ape between abandoned high-rise buildings.

He moved effortlessly along the walls, making gravity seem like a joke.

Lu Yuan estimated that with his martial artist strength, he could barely manage to climb walls.

But to move as nimbly and effortlessly as the person in the video was very difficult.

This was a Yellow Bear operation targeting an evil sect Grandmaster, and soon the Yellow Bear members appeared on screen.

A large number of White Bear and lower-ranked members, armed with various firearms, were wildly shooting at the figure.

But even with intelligent aiming functions, not a single energy beam or bullet could hit that lightning-fast silhouette.

The man in black was cornered with no way out.

Suddenly, he spun around, and a visible distortion field spread out from his body.

All the bullets fired at him froze upon entering the field, while the energy beams dissipated silently.

Lu Yuan even saw several grenade rounds with flaming tails stop in mid-air.

“Is this… the Grandmaster Field?!”

He found it hard to believe and then saw the man in black coldly walking towards the crowd.

He didn’t do anything, but as he passed by, the armed Yellow Bear members started killing each other as if they had gone insane.

Their faces were filled with terror, clearly aware of what they were doing, but unable to control their bodies.

“Even the mental wills of those around him are affected?!”

Lu Yuan thought it was outrageous, but what came next was even more so.

Three Golden Bear level new martial arts experts appeared and attacked the man in black simultaneously. The man in black casually twisted the neck of one of them on their first encounter…

“Damn!”

After watching the entire video, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but curse.

This was called the decline of pure martial arts? About to be overwhelmed by the tide of the times? How do you explain killing ordinary level S like it’s nothing?!

“The last level of the pure martial artist system, the ceiling of pure martial arts. Martial arts Grandmaster… much stronger than I had imagined.”

Lu Yuan’s expression was complicated as he suddenly realized something.

Grandmasters are not weak; they are powerful, as national treasures of the old era.

Grandmasters are very strong.

It’s just that the top figures in the new martial arts and modification routes are even stronger.

Just like the end of the video he had just watched, the invincible man in black was eventually blown to pieces by a super-powerful energy cannon with a diameter of several dozen meters.

How can human strength withstand the ultimate power of modifications and new martial arts?

“That explains Yuwen Tong’s strength. Yuwen Tong is at the top of Yellow Bear, but I still don’t know if she’s following the new martial arts or modification path…”

When Lu Yuan closed his eyes now, he could still clearly recall that brilliant galaxy within Yuwen Tong.

Awe-inspiring.

“The road ahead is long and arduous…” Lu Yuan sighed inwardly, his mind replaying the words Yuwen Tong had said to him.

It seemed there was something about a “natural Evil Martial constitution” that he still didn’t quite understand.

A quick search led him to discover a special style called “Evil Martial.”

The most representative organization of the “Evil Martial” style is the “Evil Martial Alliance.”

The “Evil Martial Alliance” was established at the dawn of new martial arts and modifications, during the years when these systems had the most significant impact on the Ancient Martial Arts world.

A group of martial artists, dissatisfied with the limitations of pure martial arts, began seeking a new source of power to break the limits of the human body.

This brought the Evil Deity Sect into their sights.

By transplanting organs from evil energy creatures, embedding evil energy materials directly into their bodies through modifications, or directly absorbing the Power of the Evil Deity, they aimed to combine martial arts with these powers to counter the might of new martial arts and modifications.

Surprisingly, they did achieve some results.

Initially, the Evil Martial Alliance wasn’t called that; it was known as the Deity Martial Alliance, and its founder proudly called himself the “God Emperor.”

At the start of the transition between the old and new martial arts systems, they restored quite a bit of face for pure martial arts against the new martial arts system.

However, the drawbacks of the Evil Martial system soon became apparent.

First, the mortality rate during the transplant of the Power of the Evil Deity was extremely high.

Second, even if the transplant was successful, the evil energy’s erosion of the mind and body often led to various degrees of mutation in Evil Martial artists.

They would undergo drastic personality changes, mental collapse, and cognitive disarray, almost inevitably leading to self-destruction.

“In that case, the Evil Martial system is quite similar to the path of the Divine Servants. Both are mutated by Evil Power into monsters. The difference is that martial artists who choose the Evil Martial path don’t worship or follow the Evil Deity. In fact, to upgrade their own Evil Power, Evil Martial artists must hunt down corresponding followers of the Evil Deity Sect.”

“They want the benefits without offering faith in return-no wonder most of them meet a bad end. Is this the curse of the Evil Deity?”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel a mix of emotions.

In truth, you can’t really blame those who walk the path of Evil Martial for being selfish. The stronger the martial artist, the more they focus solely on themselves, not on any deity.

This conflict of beliefs has made the clashes between the Evil Martial Alliance and the Evil Deity Sect particularly intense, almost to the point of being mortal enemies.

Looking back, Lu Yuan realized it was no wonder the Powerful Divine Servant from the Crow Deity Sect he had killed had called him a “despicable thief.”

He must have mistaken Lu Yuan for a member of the Evil Martial Alliance.

The “natural Evil Martial constitution” Yuwen Tong had mentioned refers to a unique constitution that can perfectly absorb and harness the Power of the Evil Deity.

Without needing any transplants or modifications, a person with this constitution can directly absorb Evil Power, and their body and mind won’t be mutated or corrupted by it.

This is the ultimate physique that ancient martial artists who follow the Evil Martial path dream of.

“My ability to control the Power of the Evil Deity comes entirely from my professional panel.

There’s no risk of mutation or corruption, so naturally, I would be seen as having a natural Evil Martial constitution.”

As Lu Yuan pondered this, he came across another piece of information about the Evil Martial Alliance:

“Almost every leader of the Evil Martial Alliance has a natural Evil Martial constitution.

Within the Evil Martial Alliance, this is also known as the ‘Heaven’s Mandate Evil Emperor Physique.’

Those with this constitution are almost always considered candidates for the next Evil Emperor of the Evil Martial Alliance…”