Chapter 69: The Incorrect Way to Pass the Test

The Jin army had faced too many defeats, causing even someone like Meng Jingzhou to lose hope, feeling that victory was impossible.

“Can I really win?” Meng Jingzhou asked himself in the cave, finding the answer bitterly hard to articulate.

“Hmm, a spider?” Meng Jingzhou noticed a spider weaving its web.

The spider’s repeated failures and attempts greatly shocked him.

“The spider keeps trying despite its failures. Am I not even as good as a spider?”

Meng Jingzhou was greatly inspired, readying himself to battle the Liang army once more. “The Liang army is stronger than ours, but the gap is not insurmountable. And how could we give up after just a few failures? If I give up, what will become of Jin behind me?”

“Believe that as long as the strategy is right, victory is possible!” Meng Jingzhou clenched his fist, a plan already forming in his mind.

After several failures, he had become familiar with the tactics of Liang’s generals. Their repeated victories would have surely made them overconfident. He planned to feign defeat and flee in disarray, luring the Liang army into a gorge before surrounding and attacking them.

“This time, we will catch them by surprise and not let down the people of Jin!”

“Thank you for the lesson.” Meng Jingzhou bowed his fist in thanks to the spider. Without its inspiration, he would have been disheartened, truly losing all hope of victory.

There were many mosquitoes in the cave. To show his gratitude, Meng Jingzhou caught a bug and placed it near the spider.

The spider, failing to understand Meng Jingzhou’s intention, mistook him for an enemy and bit him.

“It’s a venomous spider...”

Meng Jingzhou felt dizzy and passed out.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, maybe a few minutes or perhaps slightly longer, but when Meng Jingzhou woke up, he felt invigorated.

“What’s happened to me?”

Meng Jingzhou felt his body had undergone a transformation; his vision, hearing, and perception had all improved, and his agility was unprecedented, as if reborn.

His right hand moved instinctively, his middle and ring fingers bending, and white silk shot out from his wrist.

“!!!”

“What is this?”

The white silk stuck to the wall, and Meng Jingzhou, pulling on it, found it exceptionally tough.

“It’s like spider silk?”

Meng Jingzhou placed his hands on the wall and was astonished to find he could cling to it effortlessly, making wall-walking a breeze.

Lu Yang, observing the spider continuously failing and retrying its web, fell into contemplation.

“If a spider can catch prey by weaving a web, why does waiting for a rabbit to come by fail? Isn’t it the same principle of staying put and waiting for prey? What’s the difference?”

“Is it because insects lack brains and blunder into the web, while rabbits are smarter and avoid trees?”

“If it’s said that insects lack brains, suggesting that spiders also lack brains, then is the spider’s persistent attempt to weave its web despite failures a display of willpower or just foolish persistence?”

“Even rabbits know to avoid trees, so why do some people not turn back even when they hit a wall?”

Lu Yang’s thoughts wandered far.

After experiencing failure, he didn’t get discouraged but took shelter in a cave to avoid the rain, all the while thinking of ways to defeat the enemy.

Now, seeing the spider weave its web, he thought of many seemingly profound but ultimately pointless questions.

Suddenly, a mantis appeared, attacking the unsuspecting spider. The spider fought back fiercely with its web’s advantage, but the mantis, agile and fierce, killed the spider after a few rounds.

Lu Yang witnessed the entire process, thoughtful. He stood up, mimicking the mantis’s movements.

He learned to use his arms flexibly like the mantis and adopted its nimble, leaping movements in his footwork.

“Imagine myself as a mantis...”

Lu Yang muttered to himself, feeling as though he had learned something similar before and had a natural talent for it.

Lu Yang, like a humanoid mantis, combined hardness with softness, fierce and fast, overpowering any opponent with his martial arts.

The historical general of Jin was at the mid-stage of Qi cultivation, and Lu Yang, inheriting the general’s cultivation, was also at the mid-stage.

Eventually, he transformed his body into a giant mantis, striking with rapid forelimbs, shattering the cave with a punch.

Lu Yang exclaimed, “So this is the Mantis Fist talked about in martial arts, so powerful, but ordinary people can’t learn it.”

Lu Yang simplified the Mantis Fist, making it easy to learn, and widely spread it among the military. The combat power of Jin’s army exceeded that of Liang’s. Without needing any strategy, they steamrolled through.

Lu Yang passed the test.

...

“Who passes a test like this!” the vice sect leader exclaimed angrily.

(End of the chapter)