History’s Top Sect Leader: Chapter 2 - The Secret Sword Fighting Manual

Translator: Kippya Translations
________________________________________________________________Ye Wen watched as the junior sister he’d inherited with this body left without a backward glance and was momentarily at a loss. Although he had sensed the animosity in his junior sister, he hadn't thought that she held such a notion.

Does she want my position as the head of the sect? It confused him. Then why hadn't she just killed or maimed me?

In the end, he concluded that his junior sister’s desire for the position hadn't driven her to lunacy yet; he had no other explanation for it.

But the problem looming over him was far more troublesome than his junior sister's desire to take over his position, for he and his junior sister were now homeless if the conversation rang true.

It had come about because the previous inhabitant of his body had been defeated in a duel and lost a bet in which he had wagered the right to use the sect's plaque as well as its home base and territory which had been handed down through the generations.

And the root of all the trouble was the name of their sect, the Shushan Sect, which meant Book Mountain in literal terms.

Dammit! So what if we’re called Shushan Sect!? It's neither intimidating, arrogant, nor should it affront anyone! So why had anyone bothered to challenge such a rotten name?!

Ye Wen didn't know it, but the area around them was called Shushan County while the mountain beside them was named Shushan Mountain or that the founder of the Shushan Sect had taken over the mountain and its name back when Shushan Mountain had still been a rural, secluded place.

His disciples had done well and brought fame and credit to their sect, thus cementing the Shushan Sect's name.

However, each generation of the Shushan Sect’s had grown weaker than the last and so the sect had dwindled in both size and stature.

Now that there were many more sects and clans on the mountain, many of them were unhappy that such a small sect held the mountain's name. That was why the previous inhabitant of the body had been challenged, resulting in Ye Wen taking over the body when he transmigrated.

But Ye Wen, the current inhabitant of the body, didn't know all that and his mind ran in circles trying to figure out why he had been challenged in the first place. He grew frustrated and decided to put the question aside to ask his junior sister at a later date.

If it's because we rubbed some important figure the wrong way, then I'll just give that junior sister the sect leader's position and let her do what she wants with it while I just chill, Ye Wen mused. Ye Wen saw nothing wrong with this way of thinking; everything here was foreign to him.

In a foreign environment and surrounded by strange faces, not even knowing if he was still on Earth, he no longer had the mental and emotional capacity to consider his junior sister's predicament if they had offended someone important.

All he needed to consider was how he would survive in this whole new world—it was that simple to him.

At this point, Ye Wen began to take stock of his worldly possessions.

He had confirmed that all his master had left him was the sect's home base and its plaque.

On the other hand, his master had probably left the miscellaneous items and money to his junior sister although she probably didn't have much either considering that the room he was in wasn't grand and in fact a little shabby.

Of course, this wasn't far from Ye Wen's expectations. He had deduced that the Shushan sect wasn't rich by any means since he and his junior sister were the only members of the sect who were now homeless at that.

Since it’s like that, looks like I will have to earn my keep!

When Ye Wen remembered that he would be worrying about his job prospects after graduation if he hadn't transmigrated, he felt as if the general path of his life hadn't changed much and his future was just as full of uncertainty and hard work as it had ever been.

Even so, this world seemed to suit him better since he had experienced countless fights and learned a lot of boxing so at least he would do better for himself if he entered the martial arts world. The memories of the body's previous inhabitant told Ye Wen that the martial arts of this world weren’t much more advanced than where his original world.

Ye Wen smiled bitterly at the thought. I could never have imagined this. To think that this happened to me when I had already decided to put these things aside! Ye Wen recalled the words he'd said to his good friend and could only lament the unpredictability of fate.

Ye Wen clenched and unclenched his fist with a cynical smile when his gaze fell on the ring on his finger and was abruptly reminded of the rag that had just fallen to the floor.

“Oh, right, I almost forgot about this!”

Ye Wen exclaimed as he jumped down from the couch. The movement caused another bout of pain in his chest, and he grumbled with his face screwed up in pain. "That blow didn't look like much yet it created so much damage. Could it have been enforced with the legendary Inner Energy?"

Ye Wen was filled with anticipation and excitement at the possibility. If Inner Energy really existed in this world, it meant that he too could walk on walls and fly over rooftops like the characters he had read about in novels.

"I'll get my revenge from you land-grabbing bastards when I've mastered some legendary techniques!" he swore.

Ye Wen pressed his hand to his chest and put up with the pain as he picked the rag up from the floor. Even the two steps Ye Wen took left him feeling so weak and drained that he had to take a seat on the table beside him before holding the rag to his face for a closer look.

Ye Wen's jaw dropped.

The rag wasn't large; Ye Wen could spread the entire rag out on one hand. But there was something inscribed on it—three human figures, each drawn in a different position in what was obviously a succession of movements.

What's more, the small words beside the illustrations clarified the important points of each position; there was nothing mysterious about it; even one who had never been initiated in the martial arts could tell that it was a secret martial arts manual!

Ye Wen wasn't stupid. Besides, both he and the body he now inhabited had been grounded in the martial arts, so he'd been able to tell that it was a secret martial arts manual at a glance; it was a manual on sword fighting at that.

The part that had made Ye Wen's jaw drop was the huge line of words at the top of the rag—its title—that read 'The Three Fatal Interlocking Sword Strokes'.

Perhaps not everyone knew its significance.

But the six words were only too familiar to a transmigrator; to be more specific, a transmigrator from the 21st century who had seen the boom of the wuxia and xianxia genres in the web novel world with his own eyes.

It was the acclaimed technique of the Huashan Sect's Sword Division as written in the famous novel by Jin Yong, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer! It was a name well-known to fans of the wuxia genre, and Jin Yong's fans in particular.

Moreover, an internet game based on Jin Yong's 14 novels had been released during the heady days of the internet, in which the sword form became the must-learn technique of the Huashan Sect Sword Division players.

Ye Wen wasn't just an avid fan of Jin Yong; he had also played the game with an avatar from the Huashan Sect although he had joined the less popular Qi Division instead of the Sword Division.

However, that hadn't stopped him from learning more about the sword form.

The Three Fatal Interlocking Sword Strokes were more of a technique than a form.

The entire form was composed a single technique that was made up of 3 strokes in a fluid, sinuous motion that would leave its target maimed if not dead. (Author's note: Of course the target would be injured even if he didn’t die as long as it hit him!)

The 3 swords strokes interlocked with one another and were next to impossible to counter once a swordsman wielded them and most if not all of its victims met with a miserable downfall.

In The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, the Sword Division's disciples had used the technique to slaughter countless disciples of the Qi Division during a violent power struggle within the Huashan Sect, demonstrating just how simple but deadly the technique could be.

Can this really be the technique written about in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer?

Ye Wen couldn't be sure, but out of interest, he had carefully pored over the detailed description of the technique back then. It was why he wasn't worried that the manual only shared the same title with the technique he was familiar with.

He compared the technique in his memory with the technique inscribed on the rag and found that it was indeed the technique he was familiar with! Better still, the inscription on the rag was even more detailed and specific; Ye Wen believed that he would master the technique as long as he followed its instructions even if he had never been initiated in the martial arts although it was difficult to say just how effective it would be.

He held the rag in his left hand and gesticulated with his right index and middle fingers held together as if it was a sword for some time before he carved it onto his mind. Yet it didn't mean that he had mastered the technique; he still had to practice it many, many times before his body would memorize what it felt like.

As for knowing how to apply the technique in actual combat, he would require far more fighting experience to figure out how to catch the best timing to use it.

Night had fallen without Ye Wen realizing it, and he kept the rag in his bosom before returning to the couch to continue his rest. Now, a different question puzzled him.

How did the secret martial arts manual from Master Jin Yong's novel suddenly appear before me?

The only explanation was the strange ring on his finger. He remembered clearly that there hadn't been anything in his hand and that he couldn't have bumped into anything considering where he was standing at the time, so there was no possibility of him having knocked it out of some nook or cranny.

At the same time, he had felt the ring suck something out of him before the strange rag had mysteriously appeared. “So it was this strange ring! Then what did it suck out of me?

As Ye Wen pondered the question, he remembered his chest injury and it suddenly came to him.

Could the ring have been sucking my Inner Energy?!

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