Master of Kaidan
Chapter 231: Arms (Kaidan?) Race

Chapter 231: Chapter 231: Arms (Kaidan?) Race

was destined to be an unusual year. That year, starting with the Orca Martial God’s pillow disrupting the river, Yan Country finally lifted the martial arts lockdown, and when it did, it was big!

Many students, after experiencing a summer vacation, found their class schedules had undergone unprecedented change. Not only had physical education become "martial arts class," but it was now on par with major subjects like language and math, pushing courses like art and music into a single arts period. It even snatched some class time from less emphasized core subjects like English and geography.

While the idea of schools starting to teach inner strength might sound a bit like fantasy, for students in the throes of puberty, it was a welcome change that they accepted without needing any adaptation period.

The only thing worth noting was that the author section of all martial arts textbooks wasn’t like those of other books, which would list dozens of names. Instead, there were only two simple characters—

"Mo Ju."

About this textbook author, there has been much discussion on societal levels, but after all is said and done, what the public is more interested in is martial arts itself.

However, though interested, most people didn’t have so much leisure time to invest in martial arts; thus, in the first two months, the ones actually practicing martial arts were mainly from the military and police departments, athletes, fighting/martial arts industry professionals, and students in school.

Interestingly, after that, there seemed to be a minor scuffle on the border with the White Elephant, followed by Hollywood announcing the launch of a mysterious new superhero movie universe out of the blue.

This superhero universe was neither the already budding Marvel Cinematic Universe nor the equally influential DC Universe but an original superhero series.

Unlike previous superhero movies, all the superpowers in this universe were no longer fancy "proprietary" abilities, but everyone had received injections of some sort of super serum.

This change undoubtedly contradicted Columbia’s aesthetics, but Hollywood stubbornly continued to invest in several films, all featuring A-list actors, directors, and special effects. Even the pacing was so intense it seemed to smother the action films of twenty years ago. Many stars had to rush between three to five sets a day, with news of famous actors crying and fainting from exhaustion, prompting people to exclaim that Hollywood had gone mad.

Even more amusing, Victoria soon followed suit, reviving the incredible IP of 007 to shoot a British series, but the content shifted from standard spy drama to superpowered espionage, with Mr. Bond’s already scientifically improbable gadgets transforming into various fantastical tools...

Consequently, Russia started releasing mockumentaries of Russians facing off against various wild beasts; initially, they seemed somewhat authentic, and many took them for real documentaries, but by two months in, even absurd films of battles against sea monsters and giant dragons began to surface.

In the following months, the world seemed to become a stage for a multitude of demons to dance, much to the delight of drama and movie enthusiasts, who joked that Columbia had stumbled upon the correct method for cultural victory. Nations began an arms race on the cinematic front...

Only Yan Country showed no interest in joining the fray. If you ask why, it’s because Yan Country’s action choreographers, martial arts stars, and all sorts of stunt doubles had run off to practice martial arts.

The remaining actors could at most shoot some indie and romance films, but what could they bring to this spectacle of special effects?

Of course, Yan Country didn’t stand entirely still—they set up a special subsidy.

But it wasn’t to subsidize the film and television industry, rather...

Martial arts training subsidies.

Those who didn’t understand continued to enjoy the spectacle, but the astute smelled something special about this subsidy combined with the newly released public security management regulations, quietly bringing their families to join the martial arts bandwagon.

Students started practicing martial arts for their final exam grades.

Elderly men and women started practicing martial arts for an extra 120 yuan each month.

Smart people began martial arts training in anticipation of the coming storm (metaphorically speaking).

Those left soon noticed that more and more people around them were practicing martial arts and started to follow the trend.

Once those who practiced the Youthful Appearance Technique and the Strengthening Method began to see results, even the slowest to catch on started to go crazy.

Subjective martial arts practitioners began to increase. Major universities also began establishing related research institutes. The number of cultivation techniques available on the market swelled, and people’s cognition of martial arts continually strengthened.

Just as when the electric light entered thousands of households and people couldn’t help but exclaim, "Who invented such a handy tool?" The more widespread martial arts became, the more curious people got.

Where did martial arts come from, who created them, how were they passed down, and why, for centuries, were they only disseminated through some novels?

It was then that certain history teachers, while preparing their lessons, stumbled upon a blind spot—

In the seventh-grade history textbooks discussing the history of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of Yan Country, there was a small change.

Originally, textbooks of various editions mostly just mentioned the contention of the Spring and Autumn period and the Seven Warring States, with a few mentioning the Hundred Schools of Thought, only briefly introducing well-known individuals from Confucianism, Legalism, and Taoism.

But in the new textbooks, regardless of the version, they introduced the Hundred Schools of Thought in entirety, and all of them unanimously added a faction that, until now, had only been mentioned in passing by its founder in textbooks (or in language arts books)—the Mo Family.

Most people of Yan Country only knew about Mozi and his "sand table martial arts" with Gongshu Ban, while the younger generation, at most, knew from various animations and films that it was a "sect" skilled in mechanical techniques.

Yet, from the textbooks, they learned that the Mo Family originally had three branches. Besides the faction that joined the Qin State to focus on mechanical techniques, there were two others. One of them, the Dengling lineage (one of the three major branches of the Mo Family, which advocated "diligence in life and frugality in death, to meet the crises of the world"), was the forefather of the so-called adventurers and knights-errant.

Linking that the leader of the Mo Family was called "Master," a speculation suddenly arose—

Could this "Mo Ju," who compiled the martial arts class textbooks and facilitated the spread of martial arts, be the Master of the Mo Family of this era? And perhaps, the reason for the changes in the textbooks was that it was his condition for publicly revealing the Secret Martial Arts Manuals and their fundamental principles.

Although this seemed somewhat fantastical, the appearance of the mythical Orca Martial God made the emergence of reclusive sects and hermit families seem not so unusual after all.

Overnight, the Mo Family Master became a particularly hot topic.

The use of a code name in the textbook was not the official suppressing Feng Xue, but rather something he proposed himself after several rounds of negotiation.

On one hand, it was to ease official vigilance; on the other hand, Feng Xue was well aware that the Kaidan of the Martial Arts Source could not be brought to fruition overnight.

After all, the people of Yan Country were meticulous about tracing historical origins. You couldn’t just emerge from nowhere and claim to be the Martial Ancestor; nobody would recognize you, not even if you were officially endorsed.

But if you first subtly bring out an organization that already exists in history, then fabricate a code name, without saying a word, everyone would start thinking on their own.

Upon such reflection, a historical context would be imagined by the combined efforts of various geniuses. When this web of connections gradually took shape, Feng Xue would naturally achieve what he wanted.

And now, all he needed to do was quietly ignite his own consciousness.