Chapter 376: Shocked Duan Yanqing
A person's reputation is like the shadow of a tree; these have immediate effects.

After hearing Xin Zhen's name, the people from the Qianye Gang immediately became humble and submissive.

The elder who taught them martial arts and others felt very lucky that they did not rush forward, otherwise they would have died without knowing how they died.

Xin Zhen naturally would not explain that he was not just alone with his sword, and that he had the great master Qiao by his side, or that he had killed only a few dozen people, not hundreds.

As for the nickname Sword Demon, it really made Xin Zhen laugh and cry. Xin Zhen thought, "When I first started practicing martial arts, I was the Dugu Nine Swordsman. Calling me the Sword Demon is very appropriate. However, this Sword Demon is probably different from the Sword Demon of Dugu Qiubai. My Sword Demon is probably a big devil who kills people with a long sword."

When Xin Zhen thought about this, he also found it a little funny.

Xin Zhen smiled, then looked at the people from Qianye Gang and asked, "What do you think now?"

The people on the side of the elder who was in charge of the skills transmission looked at each other, and then Li Changlin wanted to speak, but Xin Zhen stopped him and pointed at Shen Liqiu and said, "Your opinion is no longer important. This person is Shen Liqiu. You robbed his entire family and killed his parents and brother. You will pay with your life."

Li Changlin's expression changed drastically when he heard this, and he shouted, "Don't be afraid of him. No matter how powerful his martial arts skills are, we can still kill him if we all rush forward!"

Xin Zhen smiled at the others and said, "Yes, maybe everyone can give it a try."

However, except Li Changlin, no one else had the idea of ​​taking action.

Li Changlin panicked when he saw this, but he managed to calm himself down and said, "Am I the only one who has robbed merchant ships? Am I the only one who has killed people? Since he is after me, he will also pursue you one day. None of you can escape!"

Xin Zhen looked at the others, only to see that they all lowered their heads and nodded in satisfaction, saying, "I think everyone has made a decision."

After saying that, he took a step forward and slapped Li Changlin, saying, "You slap me, I slap you, and we don't owe each other anything."

Seeing Xin Zhen's palm coming lightly, Li Changlin felt horrified, because he found that no matter what he did, he could not dodge Xin Zhen's seemingly simple palm. He could only grit his teeth, mobilize all his internal strength into his palms, and meet it with all his strength!

Xin Zhen's palm was originally light, but when it came into contact with Li Changlin's palm, a strong wind suddenly blew up, and there was a sound of broken bones. Li Changlin was hit and flew up, falling straight out of the hall!

Then there was a thud, and Li Changlin was already dead. A helmsman ran over to feel around and came back with a pale face. He told the elders and others, "His entire body is shattered, and he's dead."

Everyone in the Chiba Gang held their breath.

Only Shen Liqiu cried out, like a wolf cub who had lost its mother and howled in the night.

Xin Zhen sighed, and waved his sleeve across Shen Liqiu's neck, and Shen Liqiu fainted. He was so sad that he would die. If he continued to be so sad, he would probably fall seriously ill.

Xin Zhen said softly: "Old Duan, you guys can handle the rest."

As soon as Xin Zhen said this, the sound of Duan Yanqing's footsteps could be heard.

Duan Yanqing had naturally arrived a long time ago. He had planned the entire plan, but he also understood that Xin Zhen had to show up at this time. Now that Xin Zhen had shown off his military power, the next step was his job.

Xin Zhen no longer cared about anything else. He stretched out his hand, picked up Shen Liqiu, and turned into a wisp of green smoke and left. This piece of light skill made the Qianye Gang hold their breath.

When Shen Liqiu woke up, he found himself in a small courtyard. He looked up and saw Xin Zhen watching the snow under the eaves. He seemed very comfortable. Xin Zhen was lying on a recliner covered with thick quilts. There were roaring stoves on both sides, and water was boiling in the stoves.

Shen Liqiu was just hesitating whether to speak or not, when Xin Zhen said, "Put on the thick clothes next to you and come out to talk to me."

Shen Liqiu immediately put on his coat and hurried to the eaves. This young man helped him get revenge, so he had to respect him more.

Xin Zhen looked at the snow falling in the courtyard and asked, "What are your plans for the future?"

Shen Liqiu stood still for a moment, then sighed, "Let's go back home. There are still a few acres of good farmland in my hometown, which is enough to support me to study and take the imperial examination. Well, I will go back and marry a wife, so that the Shen family will not be cut off."

Xin Zhen smiled and said, "That's right, but do you want to stay in Gusu? The level of schools in Jiangnan is higher, there are more learning materials, and there are countless famous teachers. If you want to get a good ranking in the exam, you have to stay here."

Shen Liqiu smiled bitterly and said, "It's not easy to live in a big city. I have no money now, how can I survive here?

Besides, my registered permanent residence is not here, so it may not be easy for me to take the exam here."

Xin Zhen smiled and said, "These are all minor matters. You can live in this courtyard. The Qianye Gang will give you twenty taels of silver per month to cover your expenses, which can be regarded as compensation for you. As for your studies and academic status, I will help you solve it."

Shen Liqiu hesitated and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

There is no love without reason in the world. This young man is so good to me, he must have some ulterior motive. However, he has avenged me and done so many things for me. If what he asks for is not too excessive, it would be fine.

But Xin Zhen smiled and asked, "Do you like practicing martial arts?"

Shen Liqiu had some expectations in his heart, and nodded quickly, "Yes, I used to follow my father to teach in a wealthy family. While I was studying, I asked the guards to teach me martial arts, which is why I love practicing martial arts so much."

Xin Zhen nodded and said, "Are you willing to take me as your master?"

As expected, Shen Liqiu had no reason to hesitate. He immediately knelt down, touching his forehead to the cold stone brick, and said, "Liqiu is willing to become Master's disciple!"

Xin Zhen flicked his hand gently, and Shen Liqiu stood up involuntarily. While he was shocked, he heard Xin Zhen say, "Study hard and practice martial arts well."

Shen Liqiu was confused. He didn't quite understand why Xin Zhen wanted to accept him as a disciple and wanted him to continue his studies.

But he didn't ask too much, he would naturally find out these things in the future.

When Xin Zhen saw Shen Liqiu's expression, he introduced his own situation and also mentioned the hidden sect Huashan Sect.

He is now very familiar with this business. Zhou Zhiruo has fabricated the history of the sect very completely, but the time and story line need to be revised.

Xin Zhen then taught Shen Liqiu the Sanskrit version of the Nine Yin Manual, and then taught him the essentials of the Sword Manual, which was the treatment of a true disciple. As for why Xin Yu was taught the Quanxin Zhenfa, it was mainly because the Quanxin Zhenfa did not have the danger of going astray, and when practiced to a certain level, with the assistance of the Yijing bone forging chapter, it was also a very good path.

Xin Zhen taught his apprentices in the small courtyard, and Master Duan Yanqing and his apprentice often stayed in the Qianye Gang to sort out gang affairs.

To control a gang, it is not enough to just use force to intimidate them; management is also required.

Duan Yanqing was worthy of being a man who had once been a prince and had received education from a king. He led the Qianye Gang to fight more than a dozen battles with other water gangs.

Not only did he seize most of Pingjiang Prefecture's water system, but he also used the war to adjust the power structure within the gang and promoted some people who were originally capable but unable to move up.

After this adjustment, the middle and lower classes now have a fairly solid foundation.

However, Duan Yanqing did not make any adjustments to the upper level because there were currently no replacements.

But it is enough for the time being. As long as the middle and lower levels are controlled, even if the upper level wants to do something bad, the impact will not be significant. Naturally, there are many spies watching them.

If they disobeyed, Duan Yanqing could easily wipe them out without Xin Zhen even having to take action.

However, conquering the Qianye Gang was only the first step. Duan Yanqing wanted to go to war with the Murong clan, but Xin Zhen disagreed because he wanted to set the battlefield in the Tianlong Diya Valley in Runan, which was the test for the Xiaoyao Sect's Wuyazi to accept disciples.

There is still about half a year left, and during this time Xin Zhen will focus mainly on recruiting disciples.

Although the Chiba Gang was not considered a big gang in Pingjiang Prefecture, it had a membership of over a thousand people. Excluding those with dull aptitude, illiterateness, old age, and bad character, Xin Zhen only accepted five disciples into the gang.

Xin Zhen still adopted the previous method of recruiting disciples from the Fuwei Escort Agency, and expanded the scope of accepting disciples to include disciples from the entire Qianye Gang. Now the range of choices available is wide.

Everyone has brothers, sisters, relatives, aunts, uncles, etc. Every family has a few children.

After this round of recommendation and screening, Xin Zhen accepted nearly seventy or eighty disciples.

Xin Zhen was generally not too strict when it came to accepting disciples; as long as the candidate was above average in terms of overall talent, he would be willing to teach.

The Musashi that Xin Zhen possessed was too powerful. Even if they were just mediocre talents, he could train them in half or even one-third of the time it would take other sects, and he could allow them to reach the limit of their talents.

Generally speaking, most people in the martial arts world have average qualifications, which is the median. People with upper-average qualifications are considered the middle class, not many but not few either, accounting for about 5%.

As for those with superior qualifications, there may be only one percent. As for those like the Four Great Masters of Tianlong, there may be only a few of them in each era.

As for these above-average talents, they have first-rate Musashi to learn from. Their bottom line is to become third-rate masters. Most of them can become second-rate masters, and there are not many who can become first-rate masters.

Generally speaking, it takes them at least twenty years to become first-class masters.

But for Xin Zhen, with his martial arts, it only takes five to ten years for him to push these disciples with above-average qualifications to the level of first-class masters.

If people in later generations look at Xin Zhen, they will certainly call him a first-class master in making factories or molds.

But to be honest, for Xin Zhen, it is easy to increase the number of soldiers.

Xin Zhen still uses the same old routine.

In terms of internal strength, it is Quanxin Zhenfa plus Yijinduangu Pian. After the foundation is solid, it will make rapid progress. Just ask who has this ability, and it is suitable for all disciples with average or above qualifications;

The main technique is swordsmanship. Xin Zhen's Essentials of the Sword Manual has lowered the threshold for learning swordsmanship by two dimensions, making swordsmanship both easy to learn and easy to use. Basically, as long as the disciple has a rough understanding of the Essentials of the Sword Manual, his swordsmanship attainments will surpass those old swordsmen who have been immersed in swordsmanship for ten or twenty years.

Spending ten years on these two things would be enough to train all the disciples into first-class masters with some shortcomings.

But Xin Zhen was not just a man who was good at these two things. His martial arts collection contained all kinds of secrets of punching, kicking, palm, finger pressing, acupoint pressing, various weapons, etc. Moreover, Xin Zhen would not bother to collect any secrets that were not of the first-rate level. The first-rate secrets were only the threshold for him.

Xin Zhen would provide these secret manuals for his disciples to refer to, allowing them to choose the ones they were interested in practicing. At least in addition to being good at swordsmanship, they had to know some boxing and kicking skills to deal with special situations. They also had to choose a good light skill to use for escape. Acupressure skills were also a must.

In this way, we can train first-class masters who have basically no shortcomings.

Although he has just started to recruit and teach disciples, Xin Zhen is not in a hurry. The power of the Beggar Gang has basically been excluded from Pingjiang Prefecture, and now Duan Yanqing is holding on temporarily. After accepting the Eight Friends of Hangu and Su Xinghe, he will be considered to have a strong army. After a few more years, hehe, when the disciples have grown up, he will want to give them a slap in the face.

Recently, Duan Yanqing has become more and more respectful to Xin Zhen. The more moves he learns from the new Duan-style swordsmanship, the more he admires Xin Zhen's level of martial arts.

Duan Yanqing felt that he was already one step ahead of before, but when he looked at Xin Zhen again, not only did he not feel that the gap had narrowed, but he felt that Xin Zhen's realm was like a mountain and a deep abyss, and it was difficult to see clearly at all.

It took Duan Yanqing nearly two months to figure out the subtle secrets of the new Duan-style swordsmanship. This was after Xin Zhen broke down each move one by one. Otherwise, Duan Yanqing felt that he might never be able to fully grasp it in his lifetime.

Xin Zhen was quite satisfied with Duan Yanqing's progress. He added a lot of things to the new Duan's swordsmanship later. It can be said that the content of the new Duan's swordsmanship is more than ten times the original one. Duan Yanqing was able to master it in just two months without studying the essentials of the sword manual. His aptitude is already excellent, and his diligence is needless to say.

After Duan Yanqing arranged Xin Zhen's disciples into various important positions in the Qianye Gang one by one and showed his selflessness, Xin Zhen taught the Yi Jin Duan Gu Pian to Duan Yanqing.

Duan Yanqing initially thought that Xin Zhen's approach was a bit redundant. After all, the Duan family's internal energy skills were top-notch in the martial arts world. Otherwise, how could they support the Six Meridians Divine Sword? Although very few people could practice the Six Meridians Divine Sword, it did not mean that this skill was useless.

However, Duan Yanqing was surprised as soon as he started practicing. The power of this Yi Jin Duan Gu Chapter was extraordinary. He had just practiced the second section of "Yi Jin Duan Gu Chapter" in the scripture. Although he did not learn any new boxing moves, his original strength suddenly increased by 20%. This pull, this slap, and this kick, although the moves were ordinary, the strength was unusually great!

Moreover, the key point is that his progress in the Duan family's mental method, which had originally been extremely slow, has now increased by several percent!

Too scary!

(End of this chapter)