Chen Jing took these martial arts manuals and first read their prefaces.

The preface will explain the abilities of martial arts, its origins, uses, and so on. You can choose to read it based on your abilities.

Chen Jing first chose "The Judge's Iron Pen," a title that sounded very powerful, and began to study it.

He stood beside the bookshelf, placed the bright, non-flammable incense stick next to it, put the other books back in the cabinet, spread the secret manual out on the bookshelf, and flipped through it with his good hand.

Judge's Iron Pen is an advanced version of the Demon Blade. Its attacks will affect the victim's senses more comprehensively, not just the loss of distance and spatial awareness. Various hallucinations will automatically appear in his mind, causing him to lose almost all external perception for a short period of time, and he can only fight blindly.

Moreover, the Judge's Iron Pen is essentially a technique that injects the aura of battle into another person's body. This will damage the opponent's physical structure and greatly weaken the aura armor formed by the aura of an enemy who is also at the Qi Realm.

But as Chen Jing looked at it, he frowned.

He has no way of practicing this martial art!

The reason is very simple: he lacks presence.

Martial arts are essentially techniques in the form of martial arts. The moves are all external and changeable. The true core is the core of the technique, which is the use of spiritual power and the state of mind and body. The external moves are just an indispensable introduction, just like how spells require incantations, casting postures, and sometimes even the use of magical weapons such as wooden swords.

Qi Realm martial arts, on the other hand, require the aura that Qi Realm practitioners must possess!

Without imposing presence, one cannot use Qi-based martial arts at all.

Moreover, Chen Jing also suspected that even if he reached the Qi Realm, he would not be able to copy this martial art exactly.

Because the aura used in "The Judge's Iron Pen" has many special characteristics that only the aura of battle possesses, Chen Jing suspected that the aura of the Dao could not completely imitate its effect.

"Hmm... If this were changed to a martial art based on the Dao Qi, the lethality might be lower, but the various illusions would have a greater impact on the senses... Reducing the output while increasing the control time?" Chen Jing thought to himself.

"It seems I can't study Qi Realm martial arts now. I'll abandon them for now and focus on Dan Realm and Blood Realm martial arts," Chen Jing thought.

Chen Jing dismissed the martial arts manuals for the Qi Realm and began to organize the martial arts manuals for the Dan Realm and Blood Realm.

Aside from the martial arts Chen Jing had already learned—namely, offensive martial arts like the Deceptive Blade and the Fake Weapon, enhancement martial arts like the Shadow Cloak and Shadow Step, and footwork martial arts like the Shadow Illusion Step and the Eye of Assassination—Chen Jing read through the prefaces of several other martial arts manuals from the Blood Realm and Core Formation Realms.

After flipping through them, I found that there were only three martial arts books left that I could learn.

For offensive martial arts, there are two Dan Realm level martial arts that can be learned: "Shadow Strike" and "Shadow Devourer".

I have finished learning the advanced martial arts techniques.

Footwork-based martial arts include "Shadow Dance," which is also a martial art at the Dan realm level.

Based on Chen Jing's experience, martial arts at the Dan realm level not only consume a lot of spiritual energy, but each martial art also brings an unbearable mental burden, making it difficult to use them continuously at the Blood realm level.

As before, Chen Jing first read the preface.

"Shadow Strike" is actually a ranged attack martial art, somewhat like the "Six Meridian Divine Sword" that Chen Jing saw before his transmigration. It uses extremely concentrated spiritual power to unleash a powerful attack at high speed, causing damage to the opponent. It is more like a regular spell than a martial art.

According to the description, the Shadow Sting is more lethal than a rifle.

Better than a rifle...

Chen Jing looked at the description and didn't know how to respond.

The preface to *Shadow Strike* provides a very detailed description of this martial art's attack range and destructive power. It's clear that its advantage lies in its ability to easily penetrate ordinary armor, shields, scales, and hard hides, directly causing internal injuries to the target. However, it cannot penetrate condensed aura armor, which will be neutralized.

The drawback is that the Shadow Whip has a very short range, similar to a pistol. Once out of range, the activated spiritual energy diminishes significantly, rendering it ineffective. Furthermore, due to the nature of Dan Realm martial arts, continuous use is extremely mentally taxing, allowing only one shot at a time, unlike a revolver which can fire in rapid succession.

“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, but it’s not useless…” Chen Jing thought, “If I had it when dealing with the Cocoon People, it would be much more convenient and simple.”

Then, he started watching "Shadow Eater".

Shadow Devourer is a melee attack spell. Unlike illusionary soldiers or senseless blades, it targets the enemy's body. Once an attack imbued with Shadow Devourer hits an enemy, it directly weakens their physical body, making them frail, as if they have recovered from a long illness, greatly reducing their strength and speed.

According to the description, Shadow Devourer can instantly weaken a strong young martial artist to the level of an old man.

However, like the Demon Blade, its effect is only perfect when blood is drawn; if it is blocked, it becomes useless.

"It's also somewhat of a mixed bag..." Chen Jing thought to himself, and began to flip through the last book, "Shadow Dance".

Shadow Dance, as a martial art of Danjing footwork, is very similar to "lightness skill" in the true sense. Its characteristic is that it uses the spiritual power changes in the hands and feet to make people easily stick to the wall and climb like a gecko.

Of course, this climbing speed cannot compare to the straight-up and down light-foot skills that Chen Jing saw before his transmigration, because it is a real climb that requires one's own effort. Shadow Dance only provides assistance to prevent people from falling.

However, its advantage lies in the fact that the sound it makes while climbing is very quiet, making it ideal for covert operations such as intelligence gathering and assassination.

The reason it is called "Shadow Dance" is because this martial art was originally invented by the Shadow Sword School duelists of the arena style, so that they could duel on a vertical cliff with one hand against the wall and the other holding a sword, so that more people could see them.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!