Oh god, so much pain everywhere…
I wasn’t dead… yet. I wasn’t even sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing anymore.
The room I found myself in smelled of medicine and herbs. Senior Brother Ren was sitting on a chair next to the bed, beside me, rocking back and forth nervously. I could almost read the anxiousness on his face as he stared at the wall on the opposite side of the room.
Shifting my body slightly I groaned from the sharp pain. My chest felt as if someone took a rifle and shot a hundred bullets through it. A quick check with Magic Eyes proved that to be almost true. The organs in my chest were ravaged and showing signs of recent destruction.
The bleeding had stopped, fortunately, but the damage remained. The wounds were still raw and sensitive, making me feel pain with every breath I took.
“Junior! Oh, thank the Heavens!” Ren jumped up and then knelled beside the bed I was on. He took my hand and held it firmly.
“I’m so sorry! I accidentally used my Martial Art on you. It was an accident. I… I did it subconsciously… I was so afraid you might not make it. I’m really, really sorry!”
I could feel it in his voice that he was feeling terrible for what he had done. He probably hadn’t fought against someone as weak as me for decades. It was my stupid idea, I couldn’t really blame him.
[What… the hell… was that…] I forced out. Even breathing hurt like hell, much less speaking. And my throat was dry.
Ren Kong just kept apologizing, and while I appreciated the sentiment, truth be told, it quickly got on my nerves.
[Alright, enough!] I shouted… or tried to. I just spoke a bit louder than a whisper, but he stopped. [It was... my fault. It was my… stupid idea. You just did… what I asked you to.] I hoped he would just let me rest, but he wouldn’t have it. He began apologizing once more, even saying he was going to make it right.
Compensation? Okay then, I won't say no to that, but I really needed rest, dude. Luckily Senior Sister Lilly heard him speaking and came into the room. After she saw I was awake she visibly relaxed and then pulled Ren out of the room after seeing my pleading eyes.
Finally, I got some peace and quiet. I mentally thanked her and closed my eyes.
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One punch. One punch and I nearly died. My magic defense didn’t do jack shit. I don’t even remember what happened, I just found myself on the floor, puking blood. Luckily it was just a weak strike and not a real fight. Heh, weak. What a funny world. My chest would probably explode if we fought for real.
I internally sighed and began circulating Qi to slowly heal myself. It soothed the aches a bit, just a tiny bit though.
Perhaps I needed to rethink all of this. Cultivation, my actions, the Sect…
I think my hubris was finally shattered this time. A person is bound to learn from repeated mistakes right? … Yeah, I wasn’t holding much hope either. People can be really stupid or stubborn sometimes. Unfortunately, I appeared to be both.
Perhaps my previous death wasn’t because of the plentiful gear my opponent had after all. I was just arrogant, thinking I could fight real Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Realm. Senior Brother Ren Kong could kill me with a casual strike of his hand. And he was still just an Inner Disciple.
Then there were Core Disciples above him, Elders above them, and Grand Elders above even them.
I didn’t even want to know how strong they were. I would probably fall into a depression if I did. Oh, and let’s not forget the ruler… The Patriarch, I believe? Or was it Sect Master? Eh, either way, I… had a long way to go.
The only thing that barely kept me alive was the fact that my body was strong and healthy. But with this damage, it was probably going to be difficult going forward. Medicine that could heal these wounds wasn’t going to be cheap.
Perhaps I should find a few more defensive Martial Arts. Something that can protect me against sneak attacks maybe? That would be good. I couldn’t always rely on the Elemental Avatar to protect me, as I had just experienced.
The Turtle Breathing Technique was boosting the overall durability of my body, but that just meant all my cells got harder to destroy. I needed something to stop the damage altogether, on the surface preferably, like a second skin or something. Metal armor wouldn’t do much to help in my case, unfortunately.
I decided to check the library once more after I recovered. Until then, I was just going to stay here, mooching off others, recovering.
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About a week later I was back on my feet. Seniors Lilly and Ren took good care of me and fed me many healing pills. They were unfortunately not that potent, so the recovery was slow. They just sped my natural recovery by a few times, I believe. Ren Kong was still apologizing every day, but it wasn’t constant anymore.
He spent a lot of time with me and we chatted a bit after I could speak again with only mild pain. I was curious as to what the hell his Martial Art was, and he didn’t try to hide it.
As it turned out, his Piercing Iron Fist, a special Martial Art designed specifically to pierce the strong hide of powerful monsters, was the exact worst counter to my magic. It concentrated the power onto a smaller area in the form of a destructive wave of Qi with the ability to disrupt defensive enhancements.
Just my luck! I asked a man with a perfect counter to my magic to beat me up. So, in the end, I couldn’t even see if I could block his normal strike. But it didn’t matter. He barely put any power behind his punch, and yet I nearly died. Qi or no Qi, I was no match.
In hindsight, the idea was really dumb. But we were just a few levels apart. I was just a step away from the Nascent Soul Realm, so I didn’t think there would be that much difference between us. But I miscalculated.
That would be just the difference in our Soul strength/size/quality while his body was superhuman. I skipped the Realms like a cheater while he slowly Cultivated properly over decades.
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I believe he mentioned he was about 40 years old. Looked damn good for that age, but that just meant decades of high-quality Qi reinforcing every single muscle in his body. No matter how strong a Soul became, you couldn’t beat a mountain of quality muscle with a toothpick.
Not to even mention he specialized in breaking defenses. My puny ass had no chance.
I lost most of my strength during the resurrection. Even my reinforced bones reverted back to normal brittle sticks, though I couldn’t say they were much use against a solid light sword before.
My ribcage and skull were pierced as if they weren’t even there…
I wondered if they had a pill or potion to reinforce bones. Or something to strengthen ligaments? I couldn’t be consuming too many Essence Cores or my muscles would tear themselves apart if I was not careful.
I made that mistake once before. I only increased my strength, and when I realized my mistake it was already too late. If I flexed too hard or exerted too much force, my bones would snap, and my ligaments would tear. I had to walk on eggshells or boost my defense with magic to keep my body in one piece.
Maybe I should stack many defensive Martial Arts this time? It was something to consider. I had enough Qi to keep them going even if they were really expensive. Probably.
I concentrated my Qi and shaped it into a shield in front of my chest. It was about the size of a big plate. I then flicked it with a finger while doing my best to mentally hold it together.
It shattered.
I sighed. High ranks of Nascent Soul Realm were probably needed for this technique to be of any use. Or perhaps even the Golden Core Realm now that I think about it. Quality probably didn’t increase linearly throughout the Realm but instead got through a qualitative change at the breakthrough.
At least that’s how I understood it.
Man, this was hard. Using Souls of the dead to empower ourselves and prolong our life. I wonder what the guys back on Earth would think about it? The government would probably try to keep it under wraps while doing a million experiments on it.
Sooner or later the truth would escape, and then the whole world would go to shit. Or not, I have no idea. It would be fun to see though. If I ever got the opportunity to go back, I would definitely take it. For a short vacation, of course. No way I’m returning back to that twisted world forever.
Life here might not be as comfortable, but at least the environment is nice. And they have good meat, that’s a bonus too. Compared to that garbage back home, this was heavenly.
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I recollected myself. My thoughts drifted off the path once again…
What was I thinking about again? Oh, right... Martial Arts.
I don’t have that many SSS left, but I should be able to read a few more manuals for a few hours. Hopefully, I would find something that suited me.
I went back to the library. My body still ached so I popped another pill in my mouth. They gave me a few to take with me since I wasn’t completely healed yet. They were good people, Lilly and Ren. I just hoped this accident wasn’t going to tear them apart. I would feel guilty if that happened.
Lilly said to come back if I needed pills in the future. She even said she would give me a discount for them. We will see… I don’t like charity. It was my fault in the first place, and I would deal with the consequences like a man, damn it!
I arrived at the library. There was another Disciple there I haven’t met before. They appeared to be on a rotation. Each day a new guy. Well, I have seen at least five different ones.
“Hello, Brother.” He greeted me. “Looking for anything specific?”
Was I? I was planning to search through all the defensive Martial Arts, but if he was offering help… [I was wondering if there is any Martial Art against sneak attacks? Anything that hardens the skin or something similar?]
I could swear the guy’s eyes glowed for an instant as a smile spread across his face.
He took a step closer and threw his hand over my shoulder, forcing me towards the other room with a smile. It was the smile a sleazy car salesman would adorn when discovering a new victim.
“Brother, I got the perfect thing for you! Come with me.” He dragged me toward one of the shelves with wooden tablets. After searching for a little while, he found what he was looking for and pushed a tablet into my hands.
“Here, I think you’ll like this!”
I looked at his oddly excited smile and then at the tablet in my hand. I read the description out loud.
[Scales of the Earth. A Defensive Martial Art that changes the properties of the skin to react to sudden impacts, instantly hardening that part of the body to prevent damage. Minor agility penalty.] That sounded interesting.
“Cool, right?”
[I guess so. If an assassin or beast tries to land an attack it’s going to stop them for a bit, right? A few seconds to retaliate is all that is needed.] I was tempted to take it, but because this guy was so excited to push it on me I became suspicious.
“Ha! I knew you would recognize its utility! The others said it’s a worthless gimmick!”
[Others?] Why would anyone care what a Martial Art did, unless… I looked at the guy and at his proud look. I could guess where this was going. [Did you make it?]
“That’s right!” Unmistakable pride. Yup, this guy was the creator alright, and he didn’t even try to hide it. But he clearly didn’t expect his effort to be mocked, so…
“On one random day, before I even joined the Sect, I was feeding the animals back at home, and I carried a big bucket of food, mostly ground grains mixed with old milk.”
Hah? What was he going on about now?
“But then I tripped and fell, landing with my head inside the bucket.” He laughed at that like one would when remembering a fond memory. “I expected to smear the feed all over my head, but instead I smashed my forehead on top of it.”
Cool story bro. But what is the point of all of this? I’m just here for another defensive Martial Art, not your entire backstory. Of course, I didn’t say anything out loud, just letting him speak. I didn’t want to be rude.
“I didn’t think much about it at the time, but I later remembered it when I joined the Sect and I worked with the Beastmasters as my first job. I did a few experiments and I discovered that at a certain point, when mixing solids and liquid, like sand and water, or ground grains and milk in my case, they begin to act weirdly.”
The guy took a quick breath and continued his story. “If you move or mix them slowly they act as a liquid, but if you try to punch it, it becomes like a stone for a short time.”
[Oh, I get it now. You are talking about the non-Newtonian fluid.] So that was the entire point of his story. It’s an interesting train of thought.
“The what? You know this effect?” He appeared surprised. I was sure it wasn’t the first time it was discovered in this world, but I guessed not every little quirk of material science was widely known.
[Well, yeah. It’s widely known in my… village. But I haven’t heard of anybody making it into a Martial Art before you. How does that work?]
The Senior Disciple appeared slightly disappointed when I told him he wasn’t the first one to discover that effect, but when he heard he was the first one to make it a Martial Art, his mood brightened instantly. He also became slightly embarrassed and rubbed the back of his head, looking at the ceiling.
“Well, everything I know is recorded in the manual. I can just tell you that it took me nearly ten years before I got it right. It can’t be too sensitive or it would hinder your movement, but the effect also can’t be too mild or there would be no point. Finding the sweet spot wasn’t easy.”
I would guess so. As far as I understood it, Martial Arts training takes many years, sometimes even decades to show their true power. So testing different variations was bound to waste a lot of time. The fact that he only needed a decade was probably praiseworthy. But what do I know, I was just a new guy.
And so I decided to take a look at the manual at least. He convinced me, the damn sleazy car salesman. I’ll bite.
Still, there was something that I was wondering about, and as he handed me the key, I couldn’t help but ask.
[Why did you try so hard to convince me to take your Martial Art? It couldn’t be just because you wanted to show it to someone?]
He blushed again and then looked away, not daring to keep eye contact any longer. “Well, if someone chooses to pick your Martial art, the fee for it gets split, one half for the Sect, and the other half for the creator.”
He appeared guilty and lowered his head. “And I really need money.”
I sighed and shook my head. I almost wanted to laugh. That’s what he was feeling guilty about? At least he was being honest, so that was a point in my book. Oh well…
I didn’t bother him any longer and made my way underground through the secret tunnel. I had Martial Arts to learn!