If Tang Ye heard what I just told Zizi, he wouldâve let it fall on deaf ears until he hit a wall and had to find an alternative route. Or, he wouldâve had to cry himself a river. In short, he wouldâve tried to find his own solution.
If Su Xiao heard it, heâd have assumed I was lying to him, and Iâd have to coax him into training.
Boss wouldâve instantly given up any desire to reach an elite status and searched for something else to work on.
Young Shiyi wouldâve gladly quit and told me to wait on her no differently to a servant waiting on an Empress. She wouldâve used it as a reason to play instead of train.
âNo! You saved me!â asserted Zizi.
More than likely, Zizi was used to asking for help, and this wasnât going to be the last time, either. While trusting someone after being betrayed was likely a product of oneâs environment, it was probably in their blood for the most part. His mother was virtually the same as him.
âDidnât I tell you that you donât have a bad character?â
Zizi beamed despite not understanding, but he did understand that I was willing to lend him a hand. He seemed to have a lot more confidence in me than I thought. A while later, he realised something wasnât adding up.
âShifu, what did you mean?â
I smiled. âI said your character isnât bad because youâre not bloodthirsty, but youâre also not painfully merciful. Itâs admirable to be good at fighting but not bloodthirsty.â
I patted Ziziâs shoulders that had grown wider and stronger. His shoulder strength was a lot more consistent compared to when I first returned. His open wounds had stopped bleeding, and his internal injuries had entered recovery mode. I treated his wounds while conversing with him. Before he realised it, he had escaped danger, and the severity of his injuries had reduced considerably.
âI told you that men make martial arts. Men have character. Thatâs why picking a discipline that aligns with your character is paramount. You may not have heard about it, but there plenty of people who just train and train without understanding the what, how, why, when, and principles, ignoring their errors. You can have two people learning the same discipline, but rates of progress wonât be the same. These are the reasons only a select few are able to truly become the cream of the crop.â
I was much younger than Zizi when Shifu said those words to me. He clobbered me several times because I paid no attention to him. The harsher he was, the more I ignored him. The more I ignored him, the harsher he was⊠Every time, heâd use a different discipline to beat me while saying the disciplines didnât suit his character. When he said a certain discipline suited him, heâd still beat the daylights out of me. You could say I personally learnt to understand the teaching in the flesh.
I caressed the confused kidâs head. âYouâre kind at heart, which enables you to learn a lot of disciplines. Thatâs something many canât say about themselves.â
âKind?â
I pointed to the marks on the ground. âYou had at least three chances to kill your opponents, but you never tried to, which dragged the fight out. You didnât need to suffer injuries as bad as you did. That is kindness. My shifu split martial artistsâ personalities into nine categories. âKindâ is the fifth one, and itâs one that equips with the ability to learn the majority of disciplines.â
Zizi vividly remembered the fight as his opponents fought back ferociously every time he spared them.
âI was not strong enough, so I would have had to hit their vitals if I wanted to drop them. Otherwise, I would not fear them even in a rematch.â
âSparing your opponents when youâre strong enough is the equivalent of inviting yourself into hell.â
Zizi went red in the face. âWhat should I do, Shifu?â
I picked up two rocks. âIâll throw these. You punch them.â
I threw a rock at Ziziâs face right after I finished speaking, forcing him to swing his fist in panic, knocking the rock away.
âHereâs another.â
I threw the rock vertically. Zizi watched the rock slowly descend and smashed it into tiny fragments once it was within range.
âWhat was the point of that, Shifu?â
âAsk yourself.â I got up and walked over to the spot he fought. âYou beat two people with punches here. This was key to your victory.â
Zizi followed me over. âUhm, this was the spot.â
âYou threw two simultaneous punches and couldâve defeated two of them at once, so why couldnât you drop one when you only had to focus on one punch? Where did the lack of strength conclusion come from?â
âWhen I threw the two punches, I had spent ages charging up, but I had no time to charge up when they attacked me at once, so my punches were weak, like the first rock⊠Oh. Shifu, are you saying that, if you can read them and charge up, you will have an advantage and have stronger attacks?â
âIn terms of offence and defence principles, youâre not wrong. However, youâre not fighting rocks. Most of the time, youâll be dealing with situations similar to the first rock, except theyâll be faster and less predictable. How would you charge up?â
âWhat do I do, then?â
âWhat if you could use all your might in one breath?â
âYou could have all your power behind every strike, which would make it hard for your opponent to fend off! Shifu, are you going to teach me martial arts?!â
I shook my head. âI canât do that myself.â
Zizi gave me a look of disappointment.
âDonât get down yet. I canât, but it doesnât mean I donât know how to. To be honest, I donât know what the result of using it will be since I had to put together the mental cultivation. In saying that, this is the creation of someone you can respect. Any ordinary person who tries to learn it would go crazy, and you stand to gain nothing from learning it. That said, there arenât many people who can master this discipline. I think Iâm the person who has come closest to mastering it besides its creator.â
âCan I become an adept if I learn it?â
âThe creator is among the top two greatest martial artists. He wasnât much older than you when he came up with it, and he went on to create countless more, paving his own way to the top. I donât think you can replicate his success.â