Chapter 130: The Swordsmanship of Mozi

The banquet hosted by Chu Qingfeng was extremely lavish: exquisite shark fin, butter-baked lobster, pan-seared lamb chops, abalone sauce sea cucumber, rainbow beef tenderloin, paradise fragrant concubine chicken, crispy roasted duck... Most of the dishes were meat-based, and they were all served right at the very beginning.

It was safe to say that Yan Luo had never witnessed such an extravagant feast in his entire life.

Zhu Xiaoyong, a typical otaku with an ordinary family background, used to gnaw on roasted lamb legs with great relish in the ancient Greek world, but now, seeing plate after plate of meat dishes, his mouth watered profusely, threatening to overflow.

"Alcohol? I don't drink. Get me a bottle of Nutri-Express instead," Yan Luo said.

The pretty waitress standing nearby was rendered completely speechless. Ordering a bottle of Nutri-Express at a four-star restaurant? What kind of nonsense was that? You are not a child.

"I want alcohol!" Takanashi Yori shouted. "Bring me a bottle of '82 Lafite!"

Once again, the waitress was left speechless. '82 Lafite was just something people ordered to show off; who on earth comes to a restaurant and yells out like that? Besides, this was a Chinese banquet, not a Western dinner—who would open a bottle of '82 Lafite here?

"No alcohol for you. You're still underage," Wang Dongwei said.

Takanashi Yori opened her mouth to talk back, but caught a single glance from Li Changxin sitting nearby. She immediately shrank back like an obedient little rabbit, not daring to utter another chuunibyou word.

"Get her a bottle of Nutri-Express too," Yan Luo instructed.

The waitress: "..."

The customer is god, so the waitress had no choice but to fetch two bottles of Nutri-Express. Since neither Wang Dongwei nor Zhu Xiaoyong drank baijiu, Chu Qingfeng and Xu Han simply abandoned the hard liquor as well, calling for a large crate of beer instead.

"Dig in, everyone is among friends, no need to be polite."

Chu Qingfeng played the host, gesturing for the nearby waitress to leave the private dining room. The reason he had asked them to bring out all the dishes at once instead of serving them course by course was precisely because, as Modders, their conversations were not meant for the ears of ordinary people.

Yan Luo happened to be seated right in front of a Dongpo pork hock. A hefty knuckle weighing two or three catties sat right on the plate before him, glowing an orange-red hue. Red, glossy juices were drizzled over the knuckle and pooled around its base, making the rich, meaty creation look exceptionally appetizing.

"Why are you staring at the pork hock? It's not going to talk back. Eat!" Chu Qingfeng feigned a friendly intimacy, patting Yan Luo on the shoulder.

To be honest, Yan Luo was slightly stumped by this massive hunk of meat. He had never seen such a huge chunk of meat served on a plate in all his life; how was one supposed to eat it? Seeing that the host was so enthusiastic, however, he decided to dispense with politeness, leaned directly forward, and took a bite out of the knuckle.

The orange-red skin on the surface of this large chunk of meat offered a remarkably chewy texture upon entry, rich in gelatin. It was both slippery and resilient to the bite, and directly beneath the skin lay a thick layer of fat that melted instantly upon touching the tongue, spreading a deep, mellow flavor across his taste buds.

"How is it?" Chu Qingfeng asked with a smile.

"It tastes much better than instant noodles," Yan Luo praised, looking seemingly sincere.

You have perceived intense emotions:
Bewilderment +1

Of course Dongpo pork hock tasted much better than instant noodles—the two were simply in completely different leagues! Chu Qingfeng could not fathom Yan Luo's thought process at all. How on earth did eating a pork hock lead him to think of instant noodles...

"The food at this restaurant isn't bad. Everyone, eat up."

Everyone picked up their chopsticks.

Aside from Takanashi Yori, who seemed entirely uninterested in the food—sucking on a straw to drink her Nutri-Express and occasionally using her chopsticks to pick up a slice of fruit from the fruit platter—everyone else tucked in heartily, and the atmosphere around the table quickly grew lively.

Chu Qingfeng began recounting the experiences he and Xu Han had shared in their previous detective deduction world.

The guy had indeed crossed over into the State of Qin—not through role-playing, but by direct descent. Given the State of Qin's draconian laws, the sudden appearance of two strangers wearing bizarre clothing meant they were almost seized by the local magistrate the moment they arrived, sentenced to hard labor as coolies until they worked themselves to death.

Fortunately, this psychologist used hypnosis on the legal officer, and as a Modder who had already survived a newbie world, he possessed a certain degree of martial prowess.

In short, he and Xu Han—one a psychologist, the other a mortician—managed to carve out a foothold in the State of Qin. One became a prison official while the other served as an assistant, successfully cracking a dozen or so accumulated major cases... Each case rewarded them with 1 Gene Point upon settlement.

Because Xu Han's contribution was slightly lower, he mostly served as background support, answering whenever Chu Qingfeng asked, "What do you think, Xu Han?" During the settlement, his reward was halved, but he still pocketed 7 points.

"My personal takeaway from this time is that entering a Minor World you excel in is crucial... At least in the initial stages, it allows you to complete the most difficult primitive accumulation. The gains I made this trip weren't just Gene Points, but something else as well..."

Chu Qingfeng retrieved a scroll of bamboo slips from his storage space.

"I obtained this by sheer coincidence after cracking a major case that linked back to the descendants of the Mohist school. Yan Luo, are you interested?"

Yan Luo picked up the bamboo slips and discovered it was a manual.

Naturally, this was not a hereditary technique manual, but merely a standard item manual. If one paid a certain amount of somatic energy, Dream Space could assist in manufacturing a hereditary technique manual—the bamboo slips recorded an entire set of sword techniques.

The Mohist Sword Technique

"Among the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, this is the sword technique left behind by Mozi, the founder of Mohism?"

Thanks to Wang Dongwei's popular science lessons in the ancient Greek world, Yan Luo had a fair understanding of Mozi and Mohism. During the Warring States period, Mohism was known as a "prominent school," and Mohist disciples were said to fill the world in countless numbers! As for the Mohist Sword Technique, he remembered it featuring prominently in the television drama *A Step into the Past*.

However, upon opening the bamboo slips, the stances recorded within differed from those in the drama.

The sword stances listed were:
Exalting the Worthy, Exalting Uniformity, Universal Love, Non-Offense, Economy in Expenditure, Economy in Funerals, Will of Heaven, Honoring Ghosts, Condemnation of Music, and Fatalism.

"Ten stances, just like the Ten-Directions Staff Technique."

Yan Luo's Heroic Soul Mask of the Sword Immortal Li Bai had already been used up, leaving him no way to activate cheats for sword techniques, and his Millennium Lightning-Struck Peach Wood Sword had also been destroyed. While he possessed the Ten-Directions Staff Technique and lacked no means of weapon combat, what he truly lacked was an unarmed close-combat martial art.

Furthermore, his most pressing goal right now was to integrate his physical force into a unified whole, progressing from External Force and Internal Force to Mastery, which would allow him to execute his ultimate move: The Invincible Ten-Directions. He didn't want to get distracted by practicing sword techniques.

On top of that, the Mohist Sword Technique had annotations beside its stances detailing matching mental methodologies. For instance, executing the "Universal Love" stance required maintaining a spirit of benevolence, injuring enemies without killing them. The Mohist Sword Technique could be said to be a set of "good guy swordplay," and Yan Luo, considering himself firmly in the absolute neutral alignment, felt his affinity with this set of techniques was low.

Therefore, he said, "Not interested."

Chu Qingfeng: "..."

This guy completely refused to play by the rules!

Instantly, all the subsequent things he had planned to say evaporated.

Wang Dongwei, sitting nearby, caught sight of the "Mohist Sword Technique" and couldn't help asking, "Chu Qingfeng, neither you nor Xu Han want to learn this Mohist Sword Technique?"

"Well... there's nothing really to hide. We're all our own people, and we might still be fighting together in the future... Brother Xu Han obtained the inheritance of Mohist mechanism arts. Inside his coffin right now rests a wooden puppet he crafted himself, called Crow."

"He's currently crafting a second puppet: Black Ant. All his mental energy is poured into mechanism arts, so naturally, he has no spare energy to study any Mohist sword techniques. As for me..."

Chu Qingfeng smiled faintly. "I acquired the Ability Seed of the Qin Legal Codes!"