Volume 16: The Sentimental Swordsman and the Ruthless Sword (Part 1) Chapter 374: Peak of Martial Arts (Part 2)
Old Man Tianji slowly drank his tea, stared at Su Weiyun, and expressed his views on martial arts.
Old Man Tianji, who ranks first on the Weapon List, naturally has an extraordinary understanding of martial arts, which is directly at the level of immortals and gods.
Su Weiyun also drank a sip of tea, then slowly put down the teacup before asking, "So in your opinion, what is real martial arts?"
Old Man Tianji tapped his pipe but did not light it. Instead, he said, "There are different levels of martial arts, and to reach the pinnacle is to be a Grandmaster!"
Su Weiyun asked: "Grandmaster level?"
Elder Tianji said: "The spirit is united with the energy of heaven and earth, and all things are one with me. To reach a mysterious and initial state of unity between heaven and man is the state of a great master. I believe you have a deep understanding of this."
What he meant was undoubtedly: According to this classification of martial arts realms, Su Weiyun was also a powerful man at the grandmaster level.
The girl with braids
Old Man Tianji asked, "Have you ever heard of an ancient and rare combined attack method in the martial arts world called 'Heaven and Earth Burn Together'?"
The girl with braids nodded.
Elder Tianji said: "The heaven and earth will burn together, and all life will be annihilated. Whoever can break the trick of burning the heaven and earth will reach the realm of a great master. Because only when you reach the realm of unity between heaven and man can you borrow the power of heaven and earth to extinguish the fire of heaven and earth!"
The principles he talked about had reached a level where they had no concrete images and were entirely based on spiritual understanding.
Su Weiyun agreed seriously, but the girl with braids seemed to not quite understand.
So the girl with braids asked again: "So which masters in the world have reached this level of Grandmaster?"
Elder Tianji said: "There are many talented people in the martial arts world today. It is no longer like the past when only the hero Shen Lang supported the righteous path, so there are already many grandmasters."
"The top ten people in the weapon list are all at the Grandmaster level. In addition, the young swordsman A Fei and Su Weiyun who is sitting in front of us are also the same."
The girl with braids pouted and said, "Isn't it true that a Grandmaster isn't that valuable? Also, how come your realm is the same as theirs?!"
What really made her unhappy was obviously the last sentence.
Elder Tianji laughed and said, "Hahahaha, we are all at the same level, but we still have to distinguish the high and low."
Su Weiyun asked, "I wonder which one is higher and which one is lower?"
He asked the question that the girl with braids also wanted to ask.
Elder Tianji said, "In my opinion, the last seven weapons on the list, the Songyang Iron Sword, the Wenhou Silver Halberd, the Snow God Knife, the Heavenly Spirit Snake Whip, the Diamond Iron Crutch, the Green Demon Blood Hand, and the East Sea Jade Flute, are all just ordinary Grandmaster weapons and are not worth mentioning."
These seven masters are Guo Songyang, Lü Fengxian, Bai Tianyu, Ximen Rou, Zhuge Gang, Yi Ku, and Yuxiao Taoist. Any of them is a powerful and powerful figure in the martial arts world.
However, when it came to Old Man Tianji, he just said simply: "Not worth mentioning."
Su Weiyun asked: "Then who is worth mentioning?"
Elder Tianji said, "The path of martial arts is endless. There must be a more profound realm above the Grandmaster. I am a few years older than you, so I understand a little bit."
Su Weiyun said: "I hope the elder can give me some advice."
Elder Tianji waved his hand and said, "After becoming a Grandmaster, the second realm is to not stick to martial arts and weapons, so in fact the first three places in the Weapon List should not be included in the so-called Weapon List."
"Because these three people have now realized this realm, the reason why their weapons are so powerful is not because of the exquisiteness of the weapons themselves, but because of themselves."
Old Man Tianji said: "Although the crafting of Xiao Li Fei Dao is peculiar, it is far from being a magical weapon. The same is true for my Tianji Stick, which is just ordinary . But I think no one in the martial arts world dares to despise them. Because the secret of Xiao Li Fei Dao is not in the knife, but in the heart!"
Su Weiyun suddenly realized, "People like You Longsheng from Cangjian Villa, or Green Demon Hand Yi Ku, who are obsessed with the sharpness of weapons, are actually inferior."
Elder Tianji said, "That's right. This is the unity of heaven and man, the second level after reaching the Grandmaster level."
Su Weiyun asked: "So there is a third level?"
Old Man Tianji looked reminiscent and said slowly, "I met Shangguan Jinhong, the Dragon and Phoenix Ring, more than ten years ago."
Su Weiyun asked: "How is he?"
Elder Tianji said: "He is a strong, intelligent, cold-blooded, ruthless person, and even a little bit unlike a human! But his martial arts skills have long reached the second level of 'no ring in hand, but a ring in the heart①'."
Su Weiyun said: "After more than ten years, his martial arts skills will naturally not stand still."
Elder Tianji said, "Yes, so I guess he has not made a move in the past ten years, but has been concentrating on cultivation and keeping a low profile. It is very likely that he has made a major breakthrough."
"When he breaks through to the third level, 'The Ring is Me, I am the Ring', he will come out again. By then, the Money Gang will also disrupt the entire martial arts world!"
Su Weiyun ignored his next words and instead kept repeating eight words: "The ring is me, I am the ring... The ring is me, I am the ring..."
When he heard this, he suddenly remembered the profound Buddhist principles that Master Xinhu had told him.
“The Buddha is already in your heart.”
These two sentences don't seem to be closely related, but at this moment they just happened to emerge in Su Weiyun's heart at the same time, lingering for a long time and unable to go away.
Elder Tianji continued to explain: "You must have vaguely touched this realm. Otherwise, you would never be able to completely dissolve the murderous aura of the Thirteen Deadly Swords."
He gently placed the pipe on the table and said, "Think carefully about it. The way you resolved the murderous aura before was probably to use the Buddhist Dharma sword technique to influence and dissipate the murderous aura of the Thirteen Deadly Swords. The two contradicted each other and dissolved each other."
Su Weiyun thought carefully and replied, "Your guess is indeed very accurate."
Old Man Tianji continued, "But I think that before you make a breakthrough in the initial Dharma swordsmanship, you must not dare to kill too much, otherwise you will suffer. Moreover, the two are restrained by each other, which is inconvenient."
In just a few words, he told almost the entire story of Su Weiyun's cultivation journey.
Elder Tianji finally said: "You have now reached the realm of 'the sword is me, I am the sword'. The sword technique is born from the heart, not determined by the sword's will, so you can completely and thoroughly break that extreme murderous aura!"
" That's why I said that the skill of killing is just a minor skill. The real martial arts is not used to kill people, nor is it used to not kill people. It is to do whatever one wants, and it is ever-changing!"
Su Weiyun felt as if he had been enlightened. He suddenly felt that he had clearly grasped many things that had previously existed in his martial arts and were extremely vague and elusive.
Elder Tianji said: "This is what I think is the third level of the Grandmaster realm. Once you reach this level, you will be almost invincible!"
The girl with braids asked anxiously, "Then Grandpa, Grandpa, what realm are you in?"
Old Man Tianji smiled and twirled his beard, deliberately slowing down his tone, and said, "When I met Shangguan Jinhong more than ten years ago, I was still at the third level."
The girl with braids asked, "What now?"
Old Man Tianji smiled and said, "If I don't tell you now, you can't listen either."
The girl with braids blinked her big eyes and asked, "Why?"
Old Man Tianji laughed loudly, stood up immediately, picked up his bag, walked out the door, and said, "Because we have to go."
"Young Master Su, if you really want to know the realm behind, you might as well go to the Wall-Facing Cave in Songshan Shaolin Temple to see it. You will understand it better than words. But you must hurry back to the martial arts world before Shangguan Jinhong leaves the mountain. The martial arts world needs righteous strongmen like you!"
Notes:
① The author said: "There is no ring in the hand, but there is a ring in the heart", "There is no ring in the hand, and there is no ring in the heart, until the ring is me and I am the ring", which is from the sixty-ninth chapter "Between Gods and Demons" of "The Sentimental Swordsman and the Ruthless Sword", said by the old man Tianji. I have expanded it a little bit here.
