Chapter 16: Talent Emerges

  He could guess all he wanted, but An Jing truly had no way of determining the retionship between all these events and the savage beast meat or the medial solutions.

  The person who uood savage beast meat best—Zhang Ying—had already gone down the mountain. Although Gu Yeqi knew herbs quite well, she only knew about the effects of individual pos; she couldn’t say much about the finished product’s overall properties.

  Ever since Zhang Ying, Ye Xiuyuan, and Zhan Feed, An Jing had been p these questions day and night. Whether he was training or practig martial arts, he often seemed distracted.

  He spent much of his time frowning ihought or staring into the distance, lost in a daze.

  Even the instructors noticed and came to ask what was wrong, the shaking their heads.

  Nobody found it strahough.

  After all, Zhang Ying and Ye Xiuyuan were An Jing’s friends. And while Zhan Feng called himself An Jing’s follower, at their age, “follower” simply meant training and pying together. They had spent so much time as a group. Suddenly losing three panions in a row could well leave An Jing in low spirits.

  Fortunately, Gu Yeqi and g Linzu were still there. Chatting with them was the only time An Jing managed a smile.

  However, even in his distracted state, An Jing remaihe stro of all the trainees.

  Several who had always wao challenge him thought to seize this moment—perhaps he was off his game. The result? They were easily defeated by an An Jing who still looked half-absent, frowning and not putting much effort into the fights.

  By the end, An Jing didn’t even bother using both arms.

  With a single hand on his staff, eling his Armor-Pierg True Force, he knocked every challenger’s on from their hands. None of them sted more than two and a half moves.

  —Was he hiding his true capabilities all this time?!

  After seeing him dispy power far beyond what he had shown before, everyone realized that An Jing’s prior skill was just the tip of the iceberg—a mere fra of his true ability!

  But on sed thought, it wasn’t that shog.

  An Jing had always been strong. Once everyone began learning martial arts teiques and cultivatiohods, that gap wouldn’t shrink—it would only widen. It was entirely possible An Jing had already mastered these teiques inside and out, whereas everyone else had only begun to grasp them. From An Jing’s perspective, their weaknesses were multiplied several times over.

  Now that others had discovered his hidden capabilities, An Jing decided there was no point in tinuing to ceal them. He simply revealed his true skill.

  But once he did so, no one could stand against him in sparring anymore—not because An Jing or the others were unwilling, but because in a typical match, he would crush them. Though no one minded losing to someoronger, and they could learn a lot from defeat, the instructors objected.

  After all, practig with ordinary children wouldn’t make An Jing any stronger, which ran ter to their goals. So on Jing stopped holding back, the instructors decided to take matters into their own hands and spar with him personally.

  An Jing saw no reason to refuse.

  They wanted him to show his full power, so he did just that, openly fag off against the instructors in unarmed and ons training.

  Even though he lost each time—serving as a ive example for the others—no one looked down on him. Instead, they admired him.

  Because not everyone could walk onto the field again and agaihe instructors throw them onto the ground, the ba their feet each time and issue yet another challenge.

  After a while, although An Jing still lost, he no longer went down so easily. He could even exge several direct blows with the instructors and occasionally turables for a few moves.

  The instructors, initially casual, began taking him seriously. These men, who usually looked as though they felt nothing, even praised An Jing now and then.

  Because as martial artists, with overwhelmingly superior physique and experience, if they couldn’t handle a mere child without pulling out all the stops, then it would be their own failing not to aowledge how gifted he was.

  In truth, An Jing still wasn’t using his full strength—he tio hold something back.

  Previously, he had suppressed half his power; now, he revealed all but about ten pert, leaving only a few hiddeo himself. Apart from those, he exposed every st bit of his skill.

  He had a simple reason for doing so:

  —Rather than stantly hiding and scheming, it was better to shine openly and use as many of Hanging Fate Manor’s resources and instructors as possible to improve his abilities.

  After realizing that Hanging Fate Manor seemed to be hiding something and that his friends were bei down the mountain one by ohe sense ency that had once subsided surged again within An Jing.

  Even if there was a deeper darkness behind Hanging Fate Manor, territories he could not reach, or hidden plots aimed at those who were elimihey were clearly searg fehey needed on their side.

  If he could prove himself worthy enough, maybe he could learruth behind the manor, or at least have more opportuo iigate.

  That was the path An Jing chose.

  Though everything remained shrouded in mystery, and though there was still that strange “mysterious voice,” An Jing khere was only ohing he could do—to bee stronger.

  Only by growing stronger could he soothe his unease ahat pressing sense ency.

  For now, he ate the most each day, and he practiced more than ah the instructors. His already polished martial arts skills gradually became even more refihe restless heat within him slowly ebbed away, making his movements swift and decisive, while outwardly appearing unremarkable.

  He even merged Armor-Pierg True Force with some grappling teiques from his tent memories. Groundwork and holds, bined with a sudden burst of Armor-Pierg True Force, could produce frightening power in an instant.

  But it still wasn’t enough.

  “I o break through to the internal energy realm.”

  That was the goal he set for himself. “Only with internal energy I better ceal my presend evade the senses of other internal energy fighters.”

  “Only once I achieve internal energy I use my body to analyze the effects of that ‘beast meat’ and ‘medie’ more clearly.”

  Oh of martial arts, one began by temperi, body, and teique.

  When a student’s mind and body reached the threshold, and they could unleash a strike that perfectly unified mind and flesh, they could attempt to cultivate “internal energy.”

  Internal energy was the “ial breath.” It was the result of martial artists honing themselves through acquired effort, returning to a portion of their inborn state, and geing a subtle power within.

  Only those who possessed internal energy could be called “martial artists”. From there, one advahrough internal energy’s three stages—Internal Breath Like Threads, Internal Breath Like Rivers, Internal Breath Like Tides—each ferring a major leap in ability.

  As soon as he possessed internal energy, even if only at the most basiternal Breath Like Threads,” An Ji fident he could slip past every instructor and avoid beied on their regur patrols.

  He judged that both his heart and body had already reached the required standards, and his “teique” was nearly there as well. With his mastery of Armor-Pierg True Force deepening day by day, he sensed he could break through to internal energy with near certainty if he had one more month.

  However, such a breakthrough would iably be noticed.

  After all, throughout Great , almost every martial cultivatiohod was based on the “movement approach.”

  A healthier, stronger body meant more abundant ial breath.

  When one’s body was active, that ial breath also became active. While fog one’s mind, one seized that opportunity to capture the vital breath.

  Both elements fused during teique—an a demanding maximum alig between body and mind—thus f internal energy, a force martial artists could then trol and circute within.

  Such was the movement approach, the core of cultivati, body, and teique.

  Essentially, it required the practitioo rea ideal state where they performed with plete immersion—body and mind as oransf that innate breath into their own power.

  Achieving this state was a momentous event, with an unmistakable disturbahere would be no hiding it.

  Revealing his internal energy breakthrough openly would likely lead to greater reition and possibly even major support from Hanging Fate Manor. But then the Manor Lord and the instructors would focus ily on him, and he would lose all ce to explore the manor’s secrets.

  That was what An Jing truly wao keep cealed.

  But he had made one miscalcution.

  Namely, he didn’t eveo break through to internal energy—his current performance was already eye-catg enough.

  He had achieved his objective.

  “An Jing.”

  One m, after their dawn training session, Instructor Li did not dismiss the group. Instead, he called An Jing forward.

  With a touch of envy in his voice, he spoke pinly: “You’ve made tremendous progress tely. We instructors really don’t have much else to teach you.”

  “This afternoon, you don’t o go to the training grounds.”

  “The Manor Lord wants to see you at the Medie Pavilion and impart to you the level of authentic teags.”

  (End of Chapter)