Chapter 119: The Missing Footwork!

  The tent is very spacious, with a soft big bed, a large wardrobe, a bookshelf and a computer desk.

  Chen Dasheng went straight to the bookshelf, took out a wrapped satin from the bookshelf, moved a stool, and came to the flat ground outside the tent.

  Slowly unfolding the brocade, it was the gift that Nangong Mu gave to himself when he left Rong City, the secret manual of the "Drunken Immortal's Moon-Viewing Steps".

  These days, Chen Dashi has been studying the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. Although those two classics may not be the original versions, Chen Dashi has still gained a lot from them. His strength had only recently broken through to the third level of postnatal martial arts, but in terms of his state of mind, he was already far ahead, reaching at least the fifth level of postnatal martial arts.

  Nan Gong Mu Zong once said that the Drunken Immortal's Moon-Viewing Steps were passed down by a strong practitioner of the Wu Xian realm, derived from the true meaning of Taoist scriptures. To cultivate this skill, one must seek it out in Taoist studies. Chen Da Sheng's bookshelf was filled with Taoist texts collected from all over, almost all of which he had read through. Among them, the two classics that brought him the most benefit were the Dao De Jing and the Zhou Yi.

  After studying for a long time, Chen Daxing asked himself that he had already absorbed no nutrition from these classics. In Taoist learning, he should also have made some achievements, relying on his strong comprehension, at least much deeper than those Taoist masters!

  Now let's practice 'Drunken Immortal Gazing at the Moon Steps' again, should be able to understand it a bit more!

  With a hint of trepidation, Chen Dajun slowly unfolded the brocade and began to study it carefully from start to finish.

  "This school of lightness is based on the 64 hexagrams, absorbing the great achievements of Taoist learning, combining body, steps and breath into one entity, divided into three levels. Practicing to the first level, one can tread on snow without leaving a trace, rise from flat ground and ascend swiftly. Practicing to the second level, one can ride on emptiness and float in mid-air, travel thousands of miles on clouds, visit the North Sea in the morning and Mount Tai in the evening. Practicing to the third level, one can soar through empty space, move instantly across vast distances."

  This passage, Chen Dasheng had already read it long ago. It was precisely this passage that made Chen Dasheng determined to cultivate the Drunken Immortal's Moon-Stepping Step. Not to mention the second layer of Cloud Soaring and the third layer of Instant Movement, even if he could only master the first layer and fly, it would be enough to tempt Chen Dasheng. Flying was a dream that every Huaxia person had ever had, how could Chen Dasheng not be moved by it?

  He then looked at the text behind, after a large number of Taoist scriptures, now Chen Daxing looked at the text on it, but it was much easier than before. When he first got this step from Nan Gongmu's hand, Chen Daxing couldn't understand the text on it at all. However, now he could at least understand what was being said.

  After reading it once, Chen Dashi seemed to be thinking deeply, pinched his chin, and then read the scripture from beginning to end again. His eyebrows slightly furrowed, and after reading it for the third time, his face was filled with thick doubts.

  "This doesn't sound right, this scripture still seems incoherent and disjointed, it feels like something is missing?"

  The more Chen Dashi looked at it, the more he felt that something was off, and his doubts grew stronger. He could sense that this wasn't because of his own insufficient Taoist cultivation, but rather there was a problem with the scripture itself.

  Between those paragraphs, there are obvious blanks, and it's unclear whether the original text was like this or if the writer did it on purpose. The sentences before and after can still be read smoothly, but Chen Dasheng always felt that those blank spaces gave him a feeling of wanting to say something but stopping himself.

  He scratched his head, read it again twice, and that feeling became even more apparent. There were over a dozen blank spaces, and every time he read to where they were, Chen Dasheng felt the words were on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't make them out. This had really stumped Chen Dasheng, and the feeling was too strange.

  "Huh?"

  With a growing suspicion in his mind, Chen Daxing thought of searching for other clues on the painting. After an unsuccessful search, his eyes fell on the edge of the brocade.

  Chen Daxing's sharp eyes discovered that on the two narrow edges of the brocade, there seemed to be a string of small floral patterns embroidered, but upon closer inspection, they didn't look like floral patterns at all.

  Chen Dashi stared at it for half a day, his eyes lit up, and he immediately brought the two narrow edges together and pieced them together.

  "Ah, what a character!"

  Chen Daxing's face was filled with joy, and after the patterns were pieced together, they actually formed ancient characters the size of grains of rice.

  Can't help but say that the predecessor who wrote the secret recipe is really good at hiding things, making each word as intricate as the patterns on RMB, the words are written so small and delicate, if not pieced together, no one would think they are characters.

  Chen Daxing didn't have the mood to appreciate his predecessor's book-hiding technique, and his gaze was immediately drawn to the pieced-together text.

  "The Way that can be told is not the eternal Way; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. Attached are the diagrams of the steps, where the subtleties lie within, to be personally comprehended by oneself. There may be occasional omissions or deficiencies in between, which later generations should supplement on their own. In the Drunken Immortal's school, there are no dull-witted individuals lacking innate talent; after a hundred kinds of comprehension, there will still be those who do not understand, and they can be discarded, lest one deceive oneself!"

  It was a long string, but only a few dozen words. Chen Dashi finished reading it and was completely stunned. It turned out that his own feeling was not wrong, this scripture really had some omissions!

  And judging from the tone of the writing, it seems that the omissions were intentional on the part of the predecessor who wrote this book, with the sole purpose of selecting a worthy successor to inherit this step.

  "No wonder! No wonder!"

  Chen Dasheng was tongue-tied, no wonder this step method had been left in the South Palace for countless years, yet not a single person could cultivate it successfully. If this step method fell into the hands of someone with mediocre talent, then it would be nothing more than a piece of brocade, and even if they studied it their whole life, they wouldn't be able to comprehend this super lightness skill from this incomplete secret manual.

  It's a complete scam! Looking at the brocade in his hand, Chen Dabing felt a sense of sympathy for those predecessors who had devoted themselves to studying this technique, and he suspected that there were probably not a few people who had been deceived by this set of steps.

  Looking at that small line of words again, Chen Dabing was speechless. Although this line of small characters is not easy to detect, from ancient times to the present, countless people have flipped through it, and some people must have discovered it. However, those who discovered the anomaly did not speak out, probably because they were unwilling to admit that they themselves were mediocre.

  Can I be considered mediocre? Chen Dasheng asked himself and concluded that he shouldn't be.

  After all, from ancient times to the present, who can learn like oneself, what swordsmanship and boxing techniques, look at it once and master it, what English words, Taoist scriptures and classics, read it once and remember it, if such people are considered mediocre, then there may never have been a genius in this world.

  But whether it's a genius or an idiot, you have to try it out to know! Chen Dabing took out his mobile phone and looked at the time. It was only 11 o'clock in the evening, and there was still plenty of time, so he calmed down and slowly immersed himself in the brocade scripture.

  Previously, Chen Daxing only understood the scriptures in a superficial way. Although he felt that there were gaps and omissions in the blank spaces, it was just his own conjecture, and he only knew how to connect the text above and below. Now his speculation has been confirmed, and his goal has completely shifted from simply reading dead texts to taking a broader view to read through them, trying to fill in the missing parts of the scriptures.

  After reading it twice, Chen Dashi closed the picture scroll and closed his eyes. In the depths of his mind, a vague eight-trigram shadow slowly appeared, with a faint black figure standing in the center of the trigram shadow. His feet were treading on the mysterious ancient steps, as if drunk but not drunk, stumbling back and forth.

  With a long trail of residual shadows, walking in the Eight Trigrams diagram, free and easy, as if dancing lightly, making people's hearts flutter and souls wander.

  What struck Chen Daxing as strange was that the figure would take a few steps and then appear to stutter, like when it stepped from Qian to Dui, its footsteps clearly hesitating, just like a broken film reel, looking very bizarre.

  This must be the senior who left behind the footwork, intentionally making omissions. Chen Dasheng thought to himself, not paying attention at first, allowing the figure to slowly perform a complete set of footwork.

  The Bagua diagram has eight positions, each with eight steps. The complex changes make it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion. Every seven steps, one step is missing. After reading through it once, Chen Daxiong was deep in thought. This was a difficult problem. To master this footwork technique, he had to find the missing step.

  It is a diagram of the trigrams, derived from the classics of Taoism, so there is a way to follow. Chen Daxing was not flustered and used the black figure in his mind to slowly experiment. With his understanding of Zhou Yi and Dao De Jing over the past few days, he believed that by following the path of his predecessors, filling in the missing steps would not be difficult.

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