The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#358 - That's right

“White shells, what are those?” Lu Jing asked, momentarily stunned.

Although he had frequented Mirror Lake Valley before, he had mostly avoided interacting with others besides the green-robed girl, to avoid contact with anything related to secret forces.

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And the green-robed girl herself was also a newcomer, and rather solitary, not socializing much with others, so Lu Jing was naturally unaware of the most popular entertainment activities within Mirror Lake Valley.

“Oh, those are a kind of small, white shells, found only within Mirror Lake Valley. Take these to Little Marquis; ten of them can be exchanged for a unique skill left behind by predecessors,” the old blind man explained, “But what exactly you’ll get in return, you only know when you have it in your hands.”

As a video game enthusiast, Lu Jing felt this sounded familiar, and he quickly realized, wasn’t this just like tokens and gacha pulls? He hadn't expected the people in Mirror Lake Valley to be so trendy, playing this so early on.

The old blind man shook his head, “The young people in the valley all love this kind of game, but after they obtain the unique skill, they don’t practice it, only show it off everywhere, which is a bit of a waste. It’s better for those unique skills to fall into your hands than theirs.”

“If that’s the case, then I thank you, senior,” Lu Jing nodded.

The old blind man was overjoyed upon hearing this, “So, you’re willing to cultivate my Steadfast and Stable Style?”

“I’m honored by your favor, senior, to bestow upon me such a divine skill. How could this junior dare refuse?”

Despite his excitement, the old blind man was still a little uneasy, asking, “Are you really going to practice it, and not just learn it and then leave it aside?”

“Truly,” Lu Jing said decisively.

The Steadfast and Stable Style, with its many restrictions and specialized use for bullying the weak, was more of a useless skill than anything else for most martial artists.

After all, no one wants to painstakingly practice a skill for many years only to be able to bully those weaker than themselves, inevitably kneeling when encountering someone with stronger inner force.

But Lu Jing didn’t have such worries. Although he wasn’t sure if his own inner force cultivation had already reached the pinnacle, he could make his inner force the strongest in the world whenever he wanted.

So, no matter who Lu Jing fought, he was essentially bullying the weak.

However, compared to inner force, his weakness lay in techniques. Take his most proficient Mad Demon One Hundred and Eight Staffs, for example. He had already mastered this skill to a high degree, its power astonishing, but it was, after all, only a fifth-grade skill.

It was enough to deal with ordinary martial artists, but against experts like Yan Yun, it was a bit lacking. If he were to encounter Han Shi, Lu Jing wouldn’t be confident in taking his Single-Minded Sword.

Perhaps he could consider enduring it head-on after the Fire Scale Armor was perfected, but Lu Jing valued the Steadfast and Stable Style for another important reason: it was also a control technique.

Once someone was stuck, they couldn’t escape without external help. In this way, Lu Jing would also have a skill to keep people in place. Although the effective range was only three feet, it could greatly reduce the chance of the awkward situation where opponents couldn’t be hurt, and he couldn't catch up to them.

As for the issue of cultivation time… Lu Jing’s aptitude and comprehension were actually quite average, but he hadn’t forgotten that he had Ah Mu as a cheat. According to his past cultivation experience, if he really put his mind to it, it would probably take about a year or two.

It was just that Lu Jing was currently busy dealing with matters related to secret forces and couldn’t spare the time for now.

He was just about to accept the apprenticeship when he saw the old blind man wave his hand, “I’ve already abandoned my name and past, entering Mirror Lake Valley to become a paper man. There’s no need to be attached to such worldly rituals.

“If you truly appreciate my kindness, then practice my Steadfast and Stable Style well.”

After saying this, the old blind man finally regained some of the demeanor of a senior expert, exhaling a breath and raising the bamboo staff in his hand again, “Watch carefully.”

Then he demonstrated the eighty-one stances of the Steadfast and Stable Style one by one.

After finishing, he asked Lu Jing, “How much did you understand?”

“I didn’t understand at all,” Lu Jing said truthfully.

He was indeed completely lost, because the old blind man’s eighty-one stances were too ordinary. If the two hadn’t just exchanged blows, and Lu Jing hadn’t personally experienced the power of the Steadfast and Stable Style, he would have definitely thought that this skill was completely fraudulent.

“That’s right, because the Steadfast and Stable Style emphasizes momentum over techniques. Without the incantations, these stances are actually meaningless,” the old blind man paused, then changed the subject.

“But you must first learn these stances, practice them until they are deeply ingrained in your mind, so that they can be freely combined, and you can easily execute them without thinking, until they become your instinct, like eating and drinking. Only then can you begin to integrate them with the incantations, and then this skill can be considered complete.”

As the old blind man spoke, he took out two secret manuals from his person, “Here, one is for the stances, and one is for the incantations. Don’t mix up the order. You can come and ask anytime if you have any questions… No, after I return, I should write you a cultivation心得.”

Lu Jing noticed something and couldn’t help but ask, “Senior, you…”

The old blind man was very frank, “That battle twelve years ago injured me too severely. It couldn’t be cured long ago. Thanks to Divine Doctor Ding’s miraculous medicine, I’ve been able to hold on until now, but I think it’s only a matter of these two or three months. In any case, before I die, I can fulfill my greatest wish, to find a suitable successor for the Steadfast and Stable Style. I have no regrets even in death.

“If you really want to do something more for this old man, there’s wine over there. Go have a few drinks with me.”

“Alright,” Lu Jing nodded, helping the old blind man to the wooden table, letting him sit down, and then taking the wine and pouring a bowl for each of them.

Lu Jing was surprised, seemingly understanding something.

The old blind man didn’t actually hate Han Shi for stabbing him with a sword, because in his eyes, it was just a matter of martial arts grievances. What he cared about was that the thing he had struggled for so many years was being looked down upon so lightly. It was precisely because of this that he wanted to find a suitable successor before he died, to pass on the Steadfast and Stable Style.

Because, as he had said before, he only wanted to live his life according to his heart’s wishes.