I Can See Your Combat Power

The so-called knowledge is the experience passed down. The secrets of the Zhongzhou sect are still top secret today. Although there are no complete volumes of the ‘Three Crystal Soul Casting Picture Record of the Earth Evil’ in the archive of the Minor Spiritual Realm, they are well aware of the origins and development of the Palace of Striking Swan. When Tang Luo saw the three characters of ‘Red Cloud Skill’, he confirmed that this was the Zhongzhou sect that created this Bridal Clothes Technique.

Even though the Red Cloud Skill has been passed down in the Du Family for hundreds of years, everyone still hears for the first time a clear account of its origins, making the Du martial artists take it more seriously.

Tang Luo looked at the four people who were paying close attention and continued: “As a bridal clothes technique created by the grandmaster, the main goal of the Red Cloud Skill is to allow the practitioners to absorb the Red Cloud crystal marrow, and make their bodies possess the characteristics of the Red Cloud crystal. To put it simply, it allows the practitioners of the Red Cloud Skill to store the special spiritual power of the Red Cloud Crystal Marrow in their bodies, not to use it.”

“This practice allows Du martial artists to form crystal armor to defend against enemies. The power is comparable to spiritual armor, which even makes people think this is a complete technique. But the seemingly strong martial artists of the Du Family are indeed already corroded by the toxicity of the crystal, with their bodies long lost vitality, completely cutting off the path to the spirit qualification of the flesh.”

“And as more crystals are absorbed, the toxicity will increase, so the practitioners of Red Cloud Skill do not become stronger and stronger with the deepening of their cultivation, but become weak abruptly after continuous strengthening. Then either their whole body becomes stiff and turns into crystals, or their cultivation body shatters into ash. This is the symptom of the body collapsing when the physical strength of a martial artist reaches the limit of bearing the toxicity of the crystal!”

Listening to the secrets of their family being spoken casually, the three Du family elders could only show a bitter smile. Ordinary martial artists in the Fierce Realm have a lifespan of over 150 years, with some particularly long-lived ones even living to over 200 years. But there are barely any Du martial artists who live to be a hundred years old, and not a single Du martial artist has ever completed the seclusion. Just as Tang Luo said, either they turn into crystals or they disintegrate into ash, completely different from the deaths of ordinary martial artists.

Tang Luo paused, looked at the Du elders, and then continued: “Not only does practicing the Red Cloud Skill shorten the lifespan, the toxicity of the crystals can also be inherited through the bloodlines to offspring, making it harder and harder for descendants to reproduce. However, compatibility with Red Cloud Crystals is increasing. By this generation, all the mortal realm martial artists of the Du family can withstand the violent spiritual power of Red Cloud crystal marrow. But this is not a gift, it’s a trap laid down when the Red Cloud Skill was designed.”

“Practitioners of the Red Cloud technique are just feed for disciples of the Palace of Striking Swan. The grandmaster naturally hopes that you absorb as many crystals as possible, as quickly as possible, and doesn’t consider how much price the practitioner has to pay for this purpose.”

From the perspective of martial arts research, Tang Luo greatly admires the grandmaster’s ingenuity. He not only retains the lower-level techniques from being reverse-engineered to upper-level ones, but also removes all the drawbacks of the Bridal Clothes Technique. After all, practitioners of Red Cloud Skill merely become human-shaped marrows storing a great amount of crystal spiritual power. While this cannot directly enhance the spiritual power cultivation of the disciples of the Palace of Striking Swan, it saves them the difficulty of daily absorption of marrow, demonstrating that the grandmaster has mastered the Red Cloud Skill to perfection.

However, from the perspective of a martial arts researcher, he does not appreciate this kind of clever result. Though the creation of Bridal Clothes technique could drastically reduce the period of arduous cultivation of the Palace of Striking Swan disciples and increase the occurrence rate of the Striking Swan Divine Body, it would make the martial artists of the sect lose more.

Martial arts are like climbing a peak. If shortcuts are often taken, every encounter with mountains thereafter involves seeking shortcuts. If there aren’t any, all that can be done is to spread the hands helplessly, pretending to be discouraged.

Taking a shortcut is just a trick, while walking a rugged road is a kind of accumulation.

If one is accustomed to the rugged road, occasionally taking a shortcut is feasible for ordinary martial artists.

But if one gets used to shortcuts and then expects these martial artists to walk the rugged road, there will be nothing but complaints.

While the Striking Swan Physique is indeed a strong divine body, it’s just one of the numerous peaks in the dazzling martial arts. As long as the disciples of the Palace of Striking Swan climb steadfastly, they could conquer this high peak. However, due to that grandmaster’s influence, they found a shortcut on this very first peak. Having enjoyed the shortcut, forcing them to laboriously practice would be asking for the impossible.

Thus, a thousand years have passed, and while the Palace of Striking Swan has maintained its rightful standard, it has not seen any brilliant martial artists emerge. One cannot help but find this regrettable.

If the grandmaster knew about this in the underworld, he would perhaps regret the decision to create the three Bridal Clothes Techniques.

Putting aside his sigh of regret, Tang Luo continued to speak to Du Sha: “Therefore, by tracing back to the origin, the problem of the Du family disciples not having children can be solved just by thinking about how the martial artists of the Palace of Striking Swan neutralize the poisonous crystal spiritual power. Can my answer satisfy you, Mr. Du Sha?”

At this point, Tang Luo stopped talking, and Du Sha nodded in agreement, no longer speaking.

Watching the strange understanding between the two, Du Ting became anxious. Just when the key point was being discussed, why did it suddenly stop? He hurriedly asked, “Please enlighten us, Tianjiao, how should we solve the problem?”

He wanted the solution without discussing the conditions. His dream was indeed quite beautiful, even though he wasn’t.

Tang Luo glanced at him and casually said, “Elder Du Ting, are you planning to accept my conditions?”

As soon as the words came out, Du Ting, who was just impatient, suddenly choked, and he didn’t know what to say anymore.

If they were clueless about their family problems at first, now they have a clear direction. Now that they know the direction of the Palace of Striking Swan, they know that a trip to Zhongzhou will naturally help them understand the solutions of this sect. Pressing the future of the family and all the strong men is not a good deal for Du Ting.

But the second elder Du Wei, who had been silent all along, suddenly exclaimed excitedly, “I understand! The key to solving the deficiencies of the Red Cloud Skill lies in the innate Earth Evil!”

“Disciples of the Palace of Striking Swan absorb the spiritual power of three types of crystal essence and don’t incorporate the spiritual power into the dantian field. So, the spiritual power in their dantian field must have the characteristic of taming the violent spiritual power of the three crystals. Tianjiao, am I right?” Du Wei said triumphantly, as if he had already figured out Tang Luo’s solution..