Fists, palms, swords, and sabers!
It took Fang Qiu more than three hours to learn all four sets of the ancient techniques.
Of course, it was just a matter of studying them, but he didn’t intend to master these techniques thoroughly right now. Each move of these mighty techniques was rather ingenious, but these similar moves were no longer of much use with his abilities. After all, these martial arts movements couldn’t possibly match a guru’s fast reactions.
Therefore, he only needed to remember the sequences. When necessary, he could directly apply them to defend or attack. There was no need to be well-versed in every gesture and motion!
“For gurus, these techniques are useless, but they will benefit He Gaoming and others greatly.”
Fang Qiu opened his eyes and nodded.
Undoubtedly, these subtle moves would teach He Gaoming and others many things.
After all, even Fang Qiu himself had learned a lot and made considerable progress in his moves when confronting enemies.
He rose to his feet.
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Fang Qiu looked at the fist-sized piece of jade in his hand and the little wooden puppet still squatting next to him, and pondered for a moment.
Then he shook his head.
Honestly, this little puppet was quite good-looking.
It was made of wood but looked very much like a real person at first glance, more like a human being than those puppets Fang Qiu saw in the ancient ruin.
However, it was a pity that this small puppet was only about 1.5 meters tall and looked like a ten-year-old adorable kid.
It crouched on the ground, in a classic Asian squat.
Fang Qiu wanted to take this little puppet away.
As a valuable item from ancient times, it could be regarded as a superb fighting force if he took it out. This puppet was almost on par with a guru and might even be stronger than Sword Fanatic!
Even in the entire Wulin, it would be a top-notch master with its current strength.
However…
Even when Fang Qiu put the jade piece back, he couldn’t control this puppet that wouldn’t obey his orders.
In this case, even if he forcibly brought it out, things wouldn’t go as smoothly as he had anticipated.
As a result, Fang Qiu had no choice but to shake his head and sigh.
He put the jade piece away.
Fang Qiu looked up and glanced around the interior of the cave.
It turned out that there was more space inside.
When Fang Qiu came to this place from the ancient relic, he saw a jade mine that had been excavated to a depth of two or three meters. But now, what appeared in front of him was a cave dwelling!
He took a closer look.
In the depths of the cave was a modest-scale cave residence.
“Is this the real ancient relic?”
Fang Qiu’s heart skipped a beat.
He immediately thought of the caves of immortals in the legends!
Generally, only a mighty expert would move to such an untraversed place beyond the reach of others and build a dry dwelling.
The puppet outside must be the guard of this cave residence.
The expert who could create such a powerful puppet as a guard couldn’t just be any ordinary person, could he?
A glimmer came into his eyes.
Fang Qiu entered the cave at once.
Inside the cave, Fang Qiu found that the expert designed this cave with the intent of practicing cultivation techniques. It was wide and spacious inside. In the middle was a meditation place with a rush cushion that was covered with dust.
There was nothing on the rock wall.
Next to the left rocky wall was something that looked like a wooden puppet. However, this puppet was made of stone and had many deep palm prints on it. It must have been there for a long time already and could be considered an antique.
There was something more.
Fang Qiu also found an old-fashioned stone bookshelf on the right side of the cave.
It had no compartments.
This bookshelf was like a modern low coffee table, and bamboo slips that were used in ancient times were piled on this kind of bookshelf.
Fang Qiu approached it.
He was amazed to find out that the bookshelf was also made of stone.
Including the stone puppet there, the cave master must have built them on the spot. When excavating this immortal cave, the expert directly carved them out of stone, so these items were linked to the cave as a unified whole.
“What a talent!”
Fang Qiu exclaimed with emotion.
A great master, indeed! He hollowed out a mountain, sourced the local materials, and made the tools he needed.
In the bygone era, it would have been a great challenge to dig out such a deep tunnel under the water, empty the space inside the mountain, and build this cave dwelling.
Even in this contemporary age, it was difficult to accomplish that!
“Eh?”
While gasping in admiration, Fang Qiu glanced at the stone bookshelf and immediately spotted a protrusion.
Too much time had passed.
There was a thick layer of dust on the bookshelf.
Since the talent carved this bookshelf when building this cave, it should have been very exquisitely made and have a flat surface. But how could there be a protrusion?
Fang Qiu blew away some dust, reaching out to wipe it.
As expected, the jutting-out piece was not connected to the bookshelf but was made up of a few things!
Fang Qiu was thrilled.
He didn’t expect to find some items in this cave.
It seemed he was right: this cave residence was the real ancient relic!
He waved his right hand.
His internal Qi brushed past, instantly sweeping away all the dust on the bookshelf.
The things on the bookshelf were now visible.
The first thing he saw was a palm-sized token of authority!
Fang Qiu picked it up and scrutinized it very closely.
“Meteoric iron!”
As soon as Fang Qiu took the token in his hand, he couldn’t help exclaiming.
It was because the weight and temperature of this token were utterly different from that of an iron type. Compared with the same-size iron token, this token was much heavier. After remaining here for so many years, an iron token would have rusted because of the underground river outside and the high humidity in the cave.
However, there was no trace of rust on this token.
An iron token placed in such an environment for so many years would be icy cold to the touch. However, when Fang Qiu grabbed it, he felt it was warm, not cold at all.
Therefore, Fang Qiu concluded that this token was made of meteorite iron.
He had known what it was made of.
Fang Qiu found that this token looked familiar as if he had seen it somewhere.
“This is… the calligraphy painting?”
He thought about it for a while.
Fang Qiu was astonished to see the token’s front was the same as the painting hanging in the hall of the building outside. Both had a large character Mo, and even the lines on their four sides were the same.
“Mo Group!
“Could it be…”
Suddenly, a picture of this token arose in his mind. He had once seen a remarkably similar pattern to this in a book.
“Giant Order!”
A thought came to Fang Qiu’s mind, and he was suddenly shocked.
The Giant Order was said to be a token of the ancient Mo Group, symbolizing the supreme leader. At that time, anyone holding it could give orders to all the Mo Group’s disciples throughout the country. It was a priceless treasure of the Mo Group!
In modern times, Fang Qiu had begun to learn history at the start of junior high school. Over the years, he acquired a lot of historical knowledge. Notably, in his junior high school, for some reason, he worshipped these amazing historical figures so much that he read a great many historical books.
Although he couldn’t recall it now, Fang Qiu was sure that he must have seen the pattern in his mind in one of the books!
So, he guessed this token was the Mo Group’s Giant Order!
Fang Qiu, feeling an upsurge of emotion, scrupulously checked the token but found nothing unusual. Then he put it into his pocket and looked toward the bookshelf.
He had taken away the token.
There was only one thing left on the bookshelf.
He took a closer look.
Shockingly, a roll of jade slips was on the bookshelf!
They were like bamboo slips in ancient times, but each piece of jade that was linked to the other was very thin. Therefore, even when these slips were piled up together, the roll did not look excessively big.
He opened the jade roll.
On these slips of jade were a lot of densely packed characters.
Fang Qiu examined them in detail.
He understood every word on the jade slips but couldn’t figure out the meaning because of the various ancient terms, measurement units, and all kinds of computing methods.
Fang Qiu had never learned these things, so he couldn’t understand them at all.
Nevertheless, he could figure out one thing.
These jade slips were instructions on how to create wooden puppets!
“This is priceless.”
Fang Qiu was overjoyed.
With this, he could produce more wooden puppets. Though the wooden puppets he built might not be immensely powerful, he could make as many wooden puppets as he wanted if he had enough raw materials!
If he had abundant raw materials to work with, he could produce an army of wooden puppets. Then how formidable would it be?
“I’ll take it back and find some people to decipher it.”
With this, Fang Qiu quickly put away the slips of jade.
After that, he continued searching through the abode.
He had gone through this place but found nothing else in the cave. Therefore, Fang Qiu immediately bowed to the rush cushion in the middle of this cave dwelling and turned to leave.
He walked out of the cave dwelling.
Then he returned to the place where he had encountered the little puppet.
Because he had the instruction slip on how to make the puppets, Fang Qiu stopped beside the little puppet, looked at it, and took out the fist-sized piece of jade.
He thought about it for a while.
In the end, he placed the jade piece back into the little puppet’s chest.
Fang Qiu wanted to try to communicate with it again to see if it would listen to him and take commands from him!
After all, it was rare to see a wooden puppet which was almost at the same level as a guru!
“Crack.”
As soon as Fang Qiu put the jade piece back, the little puppet immediately raised its head and glanced at Fang Qiu. However, it then lowered its head again and sat quietly.
Fang Qiu gave a wry smile.
He suddenly stopped when he was about to take out the jade piece.
“That’s right, I have the Giant Order!”
He struck upon a bright idea.
Thinking of this, Fang Qiu reached into his trouser pocket and brought out the Giant Order.
After all, this was a priceless treasure of the Mo Group that represented supreme authority. Since this small puppet belonged to the Mo Group, would it be amenable to the Giant Order?