Chapter 555: Esoteric Nine, Revised

Jiang He, however, paused the moment he lifted his pen.

“Why don’t I have any memory of the mnemonic chant for the Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation?” He frowned in thought—with his current cultivation, he could project a complete set of memories even if all he had was blurred scenes of his last life.

But for that fist technique…

All he knew was its name.

“Perhaps the author had only given the technique a name and no mnemonic chant?” Jiang He complained inwardly.

How lazy could that author be?

On the other hand, Old Jin(1) would have diagrams to his techniques, let alone mnemonic chants…

“That said, there are less limitations since the author of the novel didn’t write the mnemonic chant for that fist style. Heck, I could write anything I like now.”

“Since the simplest can be most profound, I could keep the mnemonic chant simple.”

“As for styles, just three would work… learning more would be a bother and a waste of Farm Points. Most importantly, one more style means more mnemonic chants, and I can’t be bothered to write so much.”

Jiang He considered it for a while before writing the fist technique.

After a while of making stuff up, Jiang He paused when he was about to name the three styles…

“Naming is so difficult…”

“Whatever…”

“Since its named the Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, I’ll name the first style ‘Six Paths’—subjugating all six paths with a single punch!”

There was actually no such thing as ‘Six Paths’. However, since it was just a name and there was no need to fuss on it, all Jiang He needed was for the technique to be powerful.

“Since the first style will be named ‘Six Paths’, the second shall be ‘Reincarnation’.”

“Sending you to the reincarnation cycle with a single punch: simple, violent, and obvious!”

“As for the third style…”

Taking a sip of Old Tea of Enlightenment, Jiang He mused, “The main idea in developing this fist technique is for payback on Lord Swelling Sky, the insectoids, the machine race, as well as the Saints of the Gods and Demons… so, I’ll name it Saint-Slayer…”

While Lord Swelling Sky was the only one who had personally fought Jiang He, those other races such as the Gods, Demons, machines and insectoids had all hunted Jiang he before. Given his temper, he would have turned the tables on him— if he was not worried about Lord Swelling Sky’s meddling.

Their Saints would most certainly interfere, which was why he must kill those Saints for payback.

As such, naming the third style of this fist technique ‘Saint-Slayer’ was extremely fitting.

Still, Jiang He became hesitant after writing those two words.

“Saint-Slayer?”

“Isn’t that a little too much? What if the Grandmaster of Heaven and the Primeval Lord of Heaven thinks that I have it out for them?”

“What about God-Killing? God and Saints are more or less the same in meaning… no, God-Killing sounds bad. Why not ‘Twilight of the Gods’?”

Twilight of the Gods… Twilight of the Gods?

“The gods shall fall, and the Saints retreat in the face of my fist!” Jiang He muttered, feeling that the name was really cool.

The fist-technique was completed. After that came the editing, correcting typos and awkwardly phased sentences, generally improving on every imperfect aspect of the text.

And last but not least… adding special effects.

However, Jiang He wrote, “There are no special effects for this fist technique. The styles are plain and ordinary, lacking any flamboyance.”

He then threw the manual he wrote aside, only to pull it back to read again since he could not help it, sighing. “Back then, I created cultivation methods in pursuit of shock and awe, and would always add some elaborate special effects… how young I was then!”

Those special effects were basically different phenomena.

If your technique caused an obvious phenomenon, your opponent would be ready when you attack…

Naturally, a grand phenomenon could be used for intimidation, but at their level of cultivation, phenomena alone would not frighten others of the same level.

On the other hand, sticking to one’s guns would develop miraculous effect, even if it was with plain and ordinary cultivation methods.

If we fought to a stalemate in a melee, I would catch you of guard with a Twilight of the Gods—would you be able to withstand it?

Digging a hole, planting the manual for the Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation and sprinkling a large bag of Living Soil of the Nine Skies, Jiang He buried it before returning to the stone table beside the Old Tea Tree of Enlightenment, and then wrote the words ‘Esoteric Nine’ on another stack of papers.

It was a cultivation technique in one of his favorite novels…

The Esoteric Nine represented nine esoteric arts: Power, Direction, Harmony, Healing, Premonition, Understanding, Dimension, Creation, Enlightenment.

Each of those words contained a mystic, and one would gain tenfold combat strength after using it!

‘Power’ strengthened attacks, turning every attack immeasurably ferocious after casting.

‘Direction’ denoted manipulation over weapons. With sufficient cultivation, one could even turn an opponent’s weapon to one’s own use.

‘Healing’ represented the esoteric arts in healing. Once mastered, one could instantly recover from critical injuries while retaining peak combat ability.

‘Dimensions’ referred to movement, permitting one to vault over the nine skies and the nether realm.

‘Premonition’, when cultivated to its very limits, naturally allows a profound grasp of time and a vision of the future.

As for the other four…

The novel never explained their purpose, and Jiang He simply considered them meaningless.

Holding up his pen, he wrote down the six esoteric arts he knew and started to revamp them.

Though the Esoteric Nine was incredible, it was still lacking for people of Jiang He and the Saints’ caliber—the original version might not even before useful for Jiang He.

That is why he would strengthen and improve the technique while using the original as a foundation, adding a note behind each art ‘Useable for all Saints’.

“Tenfold increase in combat ability is too low… let’s go for a hundredfold!”

“Moreover, this line is quite restrictive… the extremeness of speed would be to transcend time, so mastery of it would be the ability to travel through pass and future!”

Jiang He scrawled away fervently, and soon finished the Esoteric Nine.

He masterfully planted the cultivation manual, and there was soon the soft sound of something breaching the ground—the Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation had grown quickly, with a young shoot crawling out of the ground.

In that instant, the single phenomenon extended across the Farm, and what appeared to be six curious realms interweaved, the indescribable Dao of the fist technique swirling.

Esoteric Nine breached out of the ground as well just then.

Another phenomenon appeared just then, forcing back the six realms that covered the Farm so that it occupied only have half of it.

Both phenomena in the Farm combined, and Jiang He could not hide his smile at the sight.

“If the phenomenon is already that awesome, wouldn’t the cultivation manual itself be even more impressive?”

“Right after they have grown, I’m immediately taking out the Nether River Patriarch and force him to tell me where the three remaining fragments of the God-Killing Spear are… I wouldn’t mind wrestling around with Lord Swelling Sky a little if he dares to show up either!”

That was when Boa Hancock entered and cutely said, “Master, the Daoist of Many Treasures has come to visit.”

“Oh?”

Jiang He was taken aback.

Wasn’t that fatso in hiding?

He left the farm to find the Daoist of Many Treasures standing outside. Clearing his throat and puffing his chest, he deliberately teased him, “Martial Nephew, why have you come to me?”

The Daoist of Many Treasures was speechless, but did not dare to say anything since the Grandmaster of Heaven had spoken. Still, he did not address Jiang He as martial uncle, and directly said, “Three Demi-Saints have arrived, saying that they’ve slain a Demi-Saint and several Grand Luo of the machine race, and are asking for your bounty.”

“Eh?”

Jiang He’s eyes lit up as he laughed out loud. “Someone has actually answered my bounty? Come, come, Martial Nephew—let’s meet the three brave warriors!”

***

Translator’s Note:

(1) A reference to the author Jin Yong.