Longevity starts with inheriting a friend's legacy

Chapter 139 The old ape’s wish, preparing for retreat!

"The Yun family did not participate in the previous hunt for me. Did other families and forces make things difficult for the Yun family?"

After glancing at Yun Wan's profile, Fang Xu spoke casually.

Judging from the information he has now, the Yun family’s situation is not good.

Originally, their strength was at the bottom among the first-rate forces in Dayu. Later, Yun Tianhe, the second master of the Yun family, died in Fenglin Town. Now the entire Yun family is supported by Yun Wan's father, Yun Tianming alone.

Because of the "Yan Shen Zang" incident, he and the Yun family had a tense moment, but later both Yun Wan and her brother Yun Qing helped him a lot.

Fang Xu naturally didn't want to see the Yun family get into trouble because of this.

"This matter..." Yun Wan hesitated for a moment, forced a smile on her face, looked at Fang Xu and said, "It's okay. The Yun family has been operating in Huangzhou for many years, and can still withstand a little trouble."

Fang Xu turned his head and looked at her without asking any more questions.

Although Yun Wan's talent in martial arts is pretty good, she has too little experience in the world and is not even very good at lying.

From her expression, Fang Xu could clearly see that the Yun family was certainly facing a lot of pressure right now. The reason why Yun Wan said this was simply because she didn't want to show her embarrassing side in front of him.

"I heard from Long Long that you are going to retreat these few days to achieve a breakthrough to become a martial artist?"

Fang Xu nodded.

It has been a while since he joined the Ascension Society. Now that things have stabilized, he must improve his cultivation as soon as possible. Right now, his enemies are too strong, whether it is the Yanshen Sect hiding in the dark corners or the major families and forces in the Yu Kingdom. If they make a move again, there will definitely be no small fry who are inferior to martial artists.

If you are not a martial artist, you will always be at a disadvantage when facing these people.

The old ape's blood was exhausted, and there was no restriction on the outside world. After all, he could not dream of fighting against the martial artist Wu Zun with just brute force.

“Perhaps by the time you come out of seclusion, I will have already left the Ascension Society.” Yun Wan said with a complicated expression.

If an outer disciple wants to be promoted to an inner disciple, he must complete the three extreme tasks assigned by the elder who teaches him skills.

The reason why this kind of mission is called an extreme mission is because the mission itself is assigned by the elders who transmit skills based on the strength of each outer disciple. Disciples from the Law Enforcement Hall will accompany them along the way. Disciples participating in the mission are forbidden to use the power of their own family and can only complete it alone.

"See you later." Fang Xu said with a faint smile.

The two walked along the way without saying anything more.

It's time.

After parting with Yun Wan, Fang Xu went directly to the Divine Weapon Hall.

He needs to practice in seclusion in a few days, so he plans to use this time to complete his daily tasks. Otherwise, his contribution points will be deducted if he is absent.

For outer disciples, few are willing to do the miscellaneous work in the Divine Weapon Hall.

"Deacon Tieshan." When Fang Xu arrived at the entrance of the Divine Weapon Hall, he immediately saw the one-legged old man sitting in front of the door drinking tea comfortably.

"You're here?" Tieshan laughed, looked at Fang Xu and said, "Most of the guys from the outer sect don't want to come to my Divine Weapon Hall, but you come here every day."

"Like forging weapons?"

Fang Xu smiled and said nothing.

He liked coming to the Divine Weapon Hall not because he liked forging weapons, but because he had brute strength. Compared to searching for herbs, taking care of the medicine garden and other complicated tasks, it was easier and less troublesome to help forge iron embryos in the Divine Weapon Hall.

"These past few days, I've noticed that you have amazing natural strength. You're a good candidate to become a blacksmith..." Looking at Fang Xu with admiration, Tieshan said with a smile, "How about you become my disciple when the time comes?"

Join the Divine Weapon Hall?
Fang Xu frowned slightly. He had come to the Divine Weapon Hall to help out in the past few days, and he had gained some general understanding of the Divine Weapon Hall and Tieshan.

There are only four people in the entire Divine Weapon Hall, including Tieshan.

Two inner disciples and an old servant who is responsible for taking care of the daily lives of the three.

From other disciples, Fang Xu also roughly understood that Tieshan almost didn't care about his disciples and completely let them go.

In the past, many outer disciples would become his disciples because of his forging skills.

But in the end, they were either scared off by Tieshan's abnormal assessment tasks, or they could not stand this kind of almost abandoned training life and turned to other deacons.

"It's okay. I won't force you to agree now. Just think about it yourself." Seeing Fang Xu seemed a little hesitant, Tieshan waved his hand, then pointed to a basket of black iron ore beside him and said, "This is your task today. Forge all these Muyun iron ores into rough pieces."

Fang Xu glanced at the Muyun iron mines and bowed, saying, "Deacon Tieshan, I will be practicing in seclusion in a few days. I would like to finish all the tasks ahead in the next few days. What do you think..."

Upon hearing this, Tieshan slowly sat up straight, looked at Fang Xu and said, "Are you ready to break through to the Martial Master level?"

Fang Xu nodded.

"That will take some time..."

"Come with me." Picking up the crutch beside him, Tieshan led Fang Xu to the interior of the Divine Weapon Hall.

After passing two inner disciples who were working hard to forge the weapon, they arrived at the door of a stone chamber.

Tieshan pointed to the forging furnace in the stone chamber and said, "There are three pieces of red sun ore in here. If you can forge any one of them to the hundredth level of forging, I can exempt you from the menial work for this month."

Free from chores for a month! ?

Fang Xu couldn't help but feel overjoyed when he heard this.

"Don't be so happy too soon." Seeing the unconcealed joy on his face, Tieshan said calmly: "Chiyang ore is a fourth-grade material and is extremely unstable."

"If the force is too strong during the hammering, it will break. If the force is too weak, the impurities cannot be completely removed and it cannot reach the Hundred Forging State."

"Three pieces of Red Sun Ore are worth three hundred contribution points. All three pieces are scrapped. You have to compensate me with three hundred contribution points."

"But if you can hammer out a piece of Hundred-Refined Red Yang Iron, I can reward you with 500 contribution points and exempt you from menial duties for one month."

This……

Fang Xu looked at Tieshan with some embarrassment and said, "Deacon Tieshan, you are making things difficult for me."

He had never learned forging techniques in a systematic way, and was simply unable to control the force required to hammer the Red Sun Ore.

If the three pieces of Red Sun Ore were to be destroyed by the hammer, not only would I lose three hundred contribution points, but my subsequent retreat would also be ruined.

"Are you willing to accept it?" Tieshan looked at him with a smile.

Fang Xu thought for a moment and gritted his teeth and said, "Take it!"

There are a total of more than 700 outer disciples joining the Ascension Society this time. Apart from the Divine Weapon Hall, the menial tasks in other places have almost all been taken away.

In order to accumulate enough time for retreat as quickly as possible, he had no choice but to take on this task.

"Take a look at this thing, it may help you complete the task." Tieshan said, taking out a piece of tattered animal skin from somewhere and throwing it to Fang Xu.

Taking the animal skin, Fang Xu took a look at it.

The above content has no beginning or end. It simply records some force-generating techniques and is accompanied by several images of people.

"Tie..." After watching for a while, Fang Xu was about to ask, but found that Tieshan had turned and walked away.

Helplessly, he could only sit in the stone chamber and begin to study the things on the animal skin.

This research took two days.

The things on the animal skin seemed very brief, but as Fang Xu studied it, he found that the force-generating techniques recorded on it were very mysterious.

When it comes to strength, there is a world of difference between having the correct technique to exert force and relying solely on brute force.

Fang Xu had experienced this deeply before.

Such techniques as the use of force to achieve great results with a little force in Tai Chi, the ancient Chinese martial art in the previous life, some techniques of using the opponent's force to defeat him, "killing a cow from a distance", and Bajiquan which uses the recoil force of the Baji step to punch, etc., are all techniques of using force.

Combining the animal skins with some of his own experiences in his past life, he gained a new understanding of the techniques for using strength.

Putting the animal skin aside, Fang Xu came to the forge and began to prepare to try to forge the first piece of Red Sun Ore.

The dark red ore was thrown into the furnace and subjected to fierce fire calcination. The ore gradually turned red. When the temperature reached a certain level, Fang Xu took it out of the furnace, placed it on the anvil and began to forge it.

Ding ding dong!
Ding ding dong!
The rhythmic sound of forging brought a faint smile to Tieshan's face outside the door.

"This kid has a strong understanding, and he deserves to be the number one in the outer sect this time."

The forging continues.

If you want to refine Chiyang ore into Hundred-Refined Chiyang Iron, you must first remove the impurities in the ore.

With each fall of the hammer, a large amount of impurities were stripped from the ore, and the red sun iron on the anvil gradually turned into bright red glass.

Fang Xu's eyes were fixed on the Chiyang Iron that was constantly being hammered and deformed in front of him, and he gradually fell into a strange state.

In this state, the red sun iron in front of him, which looked like bright red glass, gradually grew larger, until finally, Fang Xu's eyes seemed to be able to see through the surface of the red sun iron and see all the details inside it.

Impurities...cracks...and the process of the Chiyang Iron deforming when his hammer fell.

Falling into this state, Fang Xu completely forgot everything and immersed himself in the joy of forging.

Ding-ding-ding-ding!

Ding ding dong!
……

If his previous hammering process only followed a simple rhythm, then the sound of hammering now formed a complete piece of music.

This movement has an orderly rhythm of speed, fast as a sudden downpour, slow as water dripping from an eave, heavy as a landslide, light as a breeze...

Tieshan can't sit still anymore!

With a look of surprise on his face, he quietly came to the door of Fang Xu's stone chamber from outside and saw that Fang Xu was completely immersed in it.

The piece of red sun iron on the anvil had completely transformed into a hundred-tempered state at this point, but Fang Xu continued to hammer it.

"Good boy!"

"He's a natural born blacksmith!"

Looking at Fang Xu who was in this state, Tieshan couldn't help but admire him.

Bang!
As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Xu in front of him suddenly dropped a heavy hammer, and the Chiyang Iron in front of him suddenly underwent a drastic deformation, and then shattered into pieces of varying sizes like glass.

This movement directly brought Fang Xu out of that mysterious state.

Looking at the shattered Chiyang Iron in front of him, he knew that he had failed.

"Deacon Tieshan?"

After some regret, Fang Xu was about to take out another piece of Chiyang ore and put it into the furnace when he suddenly found that Tieshan was standing in front of him without him knowing when.

"That's enough, kid. You passed."

"However, you have ruined a piece of the Chiyang Iron Mine, so I will not give you the Contribution Points as a reward."

Hearing this, Fang Xu was slightly stunned.

"what do you mean……"

"Go into seclusion. When you succeed in making a breakthrough, just tell me how much time it takes." Tieshan said with a smile.

Fang Xu quickly walked out from behind the forge, bowed to Tieshan and said, "Thank you, Deacon Tieshan!"

"Haha...you are born to be a blacksmith."

"If blacksmiths didn't have holy bodies, I would have suspected that you were born for blacksmithing."

“By the way, I’ll take you to see something.” Tieshan said, and walked straight towards the depths of the Divine Weapon Hall.

Fang Xu followed behind, looking curiously at the corridor which was gradually becoming dim, and was somewhat curious about what Tieshan was going to take him to see.

The two of them passed through layers of stone doors and soon appeared in a small cave. "Fang boy, come here."

At Tieshan's invitation, Fang Xu came to something that looked like a stone tablet.

"This is……"

Because he was far away, he thought that what was standing on the ground in front of him was a stone tablet. Now that he was closer, he noticed that it was not a stone tablet but a huge broken sword!

No one knew what material the broken sword was made of. It was more than three feet wide, and even if it was broken, it was still more than ten feet long!
"What kind of sword is this big enough to be used as a weapon?" Fang Xu said in horror.

Tieshan stroked the broken sword, and said with deep admiration on his face: "My current position is closely related to this sword."

"have a look."

Suppressing the doubts and shock in his heart, Fang Xu began to look around at the huge dagger.

The material of the giant sword looks somewhat similar to bronze, but it is far from comparable to bronze.

There are some mysterious patterns engraved on the broken sword, which look like some kind of words, or like traces of some mysterious formation.

Reaching out to touch it, one could feel a hint of sharpness coming through the broken sword, making one worry that the next moment the broken sword would rise from the ground and split oneself in half!

While observing, Fang Xu memorized the patterns on the broken sword in his mind.

He had a hunch that these patterns seemed to be some extremely mysterious inheritance.

Tieshan didn't disturb him and just watched quietly from the side.

Time passed quickly, and three days passed. Fang Xu stood in front of the broken sword without moving.

At this time, the patterns on the broken sword had gradually been completely replicated by him. After the additional spiritual attribute reached 75 points, his memory and comprehension had greatly improved. These patterns had some invisible commonalities with the patterns on the bone tablet in the Blue Mountain ruins and the patterns on the "Cliff Heavenly Scripture" of the Ascension Society.

He had carefully observed the bone stele and the cliff-carved scriptures, and had some understanding of these mysterious patterns.

"Deacon Tieshan, thank you very much."

Another half day passed before Fang Xu finally moved.

He looked at the dagger deeply, then bowed to Tieshan and thanked him.

Although this broken sword is not like the jade stele of the Cliff Heavenly Scripture, which can help people understand martial arts and skills, after carefully experiencing it, Fang Xu still gained a lot of insights.

"Is it done?"

"Let's go."

Tieshan didn't ask Fang Xu what he had learned from the broken sword, but just took him away.

Outside the gate of Shenbing Hall.

"Practice well, and when you break through to become a martial artist, you can consider becoming my disciple."

"You have also seen that my school is a peaceful place with not so many problems. Becoming my school will not affect your practice."

Tieshan was really moved by his love for talent and tried to persuade Fang Xu again.

"Kid, remember this." Fang Xu bowed slightly, then turned and left the Divine Weapon Hall.

After leaving the Divine Weapon Hall, Fang Xu said goodbye to the elder who taught him martial arts and walked directly out of the mountain gate.

A villa at the foot of the mountain.

The courtyard gate slowly opened and Fang Xu walked in.

On a recliner in the yard, the old ape's aged body was lying in the sun.

He stared at the sky above his head with somewhat cloudy eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

"Uncle Ape."

Holding some wine and food in his hands, Fang Xu came to the old ape, slowly squatted down, and pulled the old ape's arm.

The old ape's Qi and blood rapidly declined, and at this point his strength had fallen below the level of Martial Master, and he couldn't even maintain the most basic human form.

"Fang boy." The old ape who had regained his ape form was still wearing human clothes. After seeing Fang Xu, he forced a smile on his old ape face.

"Uncle Yuan, I'm sorry for putting you through this period of time." Looking at the old ape, Fang Xu's heart was filled with guilt and heartache.

It was he who escaped to the depths of the Tilan, bringing crisis to the Disha Demon Ape Clan, forcing them to leave the small valley that seemed like a paradise on earth.

It was also he who brought the old ape out of Tilan Mountain, causing him to fight to the death with Lu Shengren and Tuoba Xiong, ending up in his current situation.

After the entrance examination, Mu also went to Baicaotang.

The old ape was left alone in this villa.

"Boy, what are you talking about?" Feeling the guilt in Fang Xu's words, the old ape immediately wanted to get up.

But his body suddenly stiffened. Seeing this, Fang Xu quickly helped him up.

"Hehe..." With an awkward smile, the old ape gently patted Fang Xu's palm and said, "Has your training been going well recently?"

Fang Xu nodded.

"It's good as long as it goes well, it's good as long as it goes well."

Standing up from the recliner with some difficulty, the old ape walked a few steps with a hunched body, looked up at the snow-capped Huayang Mountain, and suddenly turned to Fang Xu and said, "Fang boy, I have a favor to ask of you."

Upon hearing this, Fang Xu quickly stood up and walked up to him and said, "Go ahead."

The old ape thought for a moment and sighed, "If I die, please take some time to send my body back to Tilan Mountain."

"After living in the mountains all my life and getting old, I suddenly wanted to go back."

"The human world is just so boring."

Hearing his words, Fang Xu felt a sudden pain in his heart.

He knew that the reason why the old ape found the human world boring was entirely because he had been staying in this courtyard all this time and had not been able to go out.

"Uncle Yuan, Elder Jiang has promised me that he can extend your life by one year."

"I will definitely find a way to cure you, and when the time comes I will definitely take you to visit this human city and show you the mountains and rivers of mankind."

Hearing this, the old ape's originally dull eyes suddenly burst into a gleam of brilliance, and then quickly disappeared.

"Fang kid, you know your own business. My body is already exhausted."

"You, practice well. If you can help my Earth Demon Ape clan return to their ancestral land in the future, it will be worth it for me to accompany you to the human world."

"What good things did you bring?" As if he felt these topics were too heavy, the old ape glanced at the things in Fang Xu's hand and changed the subject.

Fang Xu finally reacted and put the food he bought on the stone table beside him: "I bought some food for you."

The old ape sat down on the stone bench with a smile, looking at the delicious food in front of him with great joy.

"Boy, are you still unwilling to have a drink with me?" Seeing that Fang Xu did not bring any wine, the old ape spoke.

He didn't understand why Fang Xu drank by himself but just didn't want to drink with him.

Fang Xu shook his head and said, "Just eat the food, don't drink."

"Uncle Yuan, if you want to drink, I'll ask the wine shop in Zhongzhou City to send some to you regularly."

As long as this wine doesn't pass through your hands, it's okay to drink it.

Once it passes through your hands and you drink it, it will inevitably be forced into your friend list.

After so long, he has roughly understood that no one who appears on his friend list will have a good ending.

Li Xun seemed to be an exception, but he didn't dare to bet.

"Forget it, there's no need to bother yourself. It's boring for me to drink alone."

The two of them ate the delicious food quietly.

"Uncle Yuan, I will be going into seclusion tomorrow, so I may not be able to come and accompany you during this period..." Fang Xu said after taking a bite of the food.

Hearing this, the old ape paused slightly with the chopsticks he had stretched out to the plate, then took them back.

"Haha... It's okay. I just bask in the sun in the yard every day, which is also quite good."

Fang Xu could tell at a glance how fake his smile and calmness were.

"Okay, I'm full."

"By the way, boy Fang, please leave some Qi and Blood Pills for me." The old ape suddenly said.

"Why does Uncle Yuan need the Qi and Blood Pill?" Fang Xu was a little curious.

Given the old ape's current physical condition, taking Qi and Blood Pills has almost no effect.

Moreover, after his Qi and blood were exhausted, every time he took Qi and Blood Pills, he was only accelerating the consumption of his own Qi and blood.

"I have had some insights recently and want to give it a try." The old ape said casually.

Fang Xu thought for a moment, and a light flashed in his hand, and a porcelain bottle appeared.

"There are five sixth-grade Qi and Blood Pills in here."

"Uncle Yuan, don't take it easily."

The old ape nodded: "Don't worry, I know what to do."

After accompanying the old ape for a meal and staying until the evening, Fang Xu returned to the Ascension Gate.

He did not go into seclusion to practice immediately, but instead found Huang Qingzhou, whom he had not seen for a long time.

"Brother Huang."

"I will be in seclusion soon. If you have time during this period, please buy some wine and meat and visit Uncle Yuan more often."

Huang Qingzhou nodded and said, "Are you preparing to break through to the Martial Master level?"

Fang Xu nodded slightly: "It's time to break through."

"One more thing. If Elder Jiang sends someone to look for me, you can just take this token and take Uncle Yuan to see him."

Fang Xu handed the token Jiang Feng gave him to Huang Qingzhou and spoke.

Jiang Feng said he wanted to help the old ape extend his life. There has been no news for some time. He was afraid that Jiang Feng might come looking for him while he was in seclusion and he would miss this opportunity.

"Okay." Huang Qingzhou took the token carefully, and then said, "Why don't you go into seclusion after the New Year's Day? These few days won't make a difference anyway."

Fang Xu shook his head and said, "No, I need to break through to the Martial Master level as soon as possible. I have more important things to do."

Huang Qingzhou heard this and did not try to persuade him any further.

After saying goodbye to Huang Qingzhou, Fang Xu returned to his residence.

Although the treatment of the outer disciples of the Shengxian Association is not as good as that of the inner disciples, their residences are also private.

After Fang Xu came back, he immediately hung red lanterns outside his residence.

This is a "do not disturb" sign. In the entire Ascension Society, except for the disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall, no one is allowed to force their way into the residence of the disciples where red lanterns are hung.

After everything was ready, he sat cross-legged in the secret room and began his retreat.

(End of this chapter)