Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
In the Msasi Martial Arts Gym.
As the students enrolling in the advanced class all had great martial arts standards, there wasn’t a need for much preparation to get them up to pace. Therefore Lou Cheng had enrolled in the advanced class. It wasn’t long before he was coordinated to be in one of the small groups and was allocated a personalized training area.
This small group had a total of nine people including him. Most of them were men who had advantages in terms of build. Only 3 of them were different. One of them was a 1.8 meter tall girl with a thick and solid body and red eyes. From the fearful looks of other students had for her, one can tell that her strength wasn’t weak and she could be considered as a “Big Sister” figure in this place. Another one was a middle-aged man with a head of white hair. His name was Cole. Typically speaking, with his age, he should be choosing weights classes. However, he trained harder than everyone else. In his eyes, one could also feel tinges of ruthlessness. He also seemed to be using all his strength in every punch and kick of his.
As for the third one, it was obviously Lou Cheng. His muscles were average but had great strength hidden in it. Lou Cheng wasn’t able to fully support the martial arts suit. When compared with the other students, he was also relatively shorter and skinnier. However, none of the students was discriminating or taunting him. This was because whoever could join the advanced classes definitely had great strength as foundation.
Their conjectures were quickly verified by the introduction given by Coach Lin Deluo. This was an Asian kid that had practiced Chinese Kungfu!
After observing from the side, Lou Cheng had a direct understanding of the fighting techniques of “Geruga” Sect. They used fist strikes as the core and blended in various aspect of judo and wrestling. It was extremely good at using the body to restrict the joints. However, these were all content for the lowest level. There was no mentioning about connecting with one’s own body, communicate with other living things and other aspects at all.
With Lou Cheng’s foresight, experiences and martial arts foundation, he quickly joined in the training after just twenty minutes. He quickly got the hang of it and looked like he had been practicing for at least five years. This greatly impressed Ossie and the other students. Only the middle-aged man, Cole, didn’t care about what was happening around him. All he did was treating the space in front of him as his nemesis and was throwing punches and kicks at it incessantly, generating crisp and short sounds.
Not bad. He got the standards of a professional nine pins. Why isn’t he accepted as an apprentice of martial arts... Lou Cheng swept across with the edge of his eyes and the doubts flashed through his mind.
Just like this, he had practiced for more than an hour. The other students were all drenched in sweat. At this point, Coach Lin Deluo announced that the training for fighting techniques had ended and everyone was to enter the room at the side to start the training on awakening one’s own spirit. This was also why the advanced class costs five thousand American dollars and yet there were so many people registering for it.
In the room, Ossie picked up the towel from the place in front of her. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and took a peek at the Asian boy, Lou Cheng. He was looking calm and composed and almost didn’t have any sweat on his forehead. It was as though the training previously was just his warm up.
How mysterious... She looked at the other members and started discussing softly with them, classifying all these as results of mysterious Chinese kungfu.
The truth is that was really just warm up to me... Lou Cheng could faintly hear their discussion and thought to himself.
At this moment, Coach Lin Deluo closed the door and stood in the middle. He faced the nine students who were sitting down and said,
“The strength of the body is the key to strengthening your “own spirit”. However, it is also a cage that restricted us from awakening our “own spirit”. Therefore, we have to go through tough training to strengthen our body and make it enter a fatigued state to minimise disturbance. The current condition you guys are in is very suitable for undergoing the training of “Awakening”.
He had said similar things previously but as there was a new student, Lou Cheng, today, he decided to reiterate them again.
The body was tired but the mind was still excited. Ossie followed the breathing tempo of Coach Lin Deluo and slowly regulated her breathing. Gradually, a mysterious calm feeling could be felt.
At this point, Lin Deluo pressed the remote and the surrounding stereos started playing a holy melody so as to induce the students to relax.
Relaxing herself to the maximum, Ossie had the feeling of drifting away. It was as though she had seen the spirit that belonged to her body but she was still unable to awaken it and communicate with it.
“Isn’t this the state of meditation? Although there are some minor differences. It seems to have the limited application of self hypnosis...” Lou Cheng was feeling interested as he experienced his attempt in the awakening of his “own spirit”. Moreover his conscious was at a “higher level” looking down at his body, feeling every changes to his body without fail. It was just like he was the “God” who controlled this body.
Hmph, this isn’t the “own spirits”. It should be called “own god”. “Encountering Gods In The Void, The God is yourself”!
After half an hour, Lin Deluo stopped the music and said to the students who were looking lost,
“Stop your attempts or you might lose yourself.”
After which, he took out a red box that looked like a jewellery box. Yeah, it’s really a box to keep jewellery! When the box was opened, there was a blue gem lying quietly in it.
“This is a blue gem that my teacher, martial artist, Mr Joseph had forged using his “own spirit” as a guide to give it a certain level of spirituality. Come and attempt to communicate with it and tell me how you feel. This is a practice for communicating with the spirits of all things and can help you in the awakening of “own spirit.,” remarked Lin Deluo seriously.
He was a white man who was below thirty years old and had black hair. He also clearly had the bloodline of Latin Americans and his face seemed to be engraved using knives and axes.
Following the sequence, the middle-aged man, Cole, was the first to received this gem. He communicated quietly with it for a while before opening his eyes and said,
“I felt a large patch of blue.”
Lin Deluo nodded his head faintly and did not comment if he was right or wrong. After which, he ordered Cole to pass the gem in a clockwise manner.
“I felt like I have touched the water.”
“I couldn’t breath just now.”
“Waves, waves, I saw waves!”
...
After several people, that “spiritual object” reached the hands of an extremely curious Lou Cheng. He imitated the other students and placed the gem in the middle of his palm, raised it to the left side of the chest and then closed his eyes.
Letting his thoughts sank in, he used the “Ice Mirror” to reflect the surroundings. His mind started descending gradually and contacted the gem by surrounding and wrapping around it.
Suddenly there were ripples over his “Heart Lake”. On his “Ice Mirror”, sounds of raging waves were splashing across. It filled the surrounding and was piling up layers by layers, glowing in dull blue light.
Essence... Lingering effect... These two phrases flashed passed Lou Cheng’s mind suddenly. He felt that this blue gem was very similar to the “Fighting” Formula paper he had written. However there was some minute difference in the details.
“Three Thousands Ways of Taoist Cultivation, Although Different, Ends In The Same Place”..... He suddenly recalled the words in the manual of Taoism Cultivation. He gradually sank his mind and conscious into the gem to delve deeper.
The waves were blue and raging, exposing the bottom. At that place, there was a layer of blood-like liquid flow.
Concentrated, viscous, stinky, ruthless, evil and other various feelings flashed across Lou Cheng’s Ice Mirror, creating exaggerated ripples and hideous cracks.
Instinctively, Lou Cheng made his response and visualized “Ice Spirit Holy Light Diagram” to “advanced” a little further.
“Blood flow” immediately disappeared and the “Ice Mirror” regained its stability. The blue sea engulfed everything again while carrying a little cold wave, forming a stark contrast from before.
What was this about? Martial Artist Joseph wasn’t able to control his emotions when forging this gem causing the negative things to be tinted with spirituality? Moreover the evil thoughts were buried very deeply. If it wasn’t an exploration by someone at a similar level, it would be difficult to discover and caused the changes. Moreover, experts of a similar level wouldn’t research the “Spiritual object” Joseph left for his disciples for no good reasons under normal circumstances...
Lou Cheng was still not very clear about the awakening and forging process of “Geruga” Sect. Therefore it would be hard for him to conjecture the reasons behind. He decided to open his eyes and explain simply what he felt,
“Sea.”
Lin Deluo was clearly surprised. After a short pause, he nodded and replied, “Not bad.”
Ossie was ready and communicated quiety for a while. She opened her eyes excitedly and answered,
“Coach, I saw an ice mountain!”
......While Lou Cheng was still stunned, Lin Deluo shook his head with a stern face.
“Ossie, you have deteriorated.”
Ossie’s laugh crumpled instantly. As for the subsequent two students, one of them said, “Cold” while the other said, “Deep waters”, proving that the lingering effects caused by Lou Cheng were dissipating.
The training regarding “own spirit” had ended. Lou Cheng and the rest started on the training of fighting techniques once again. This allowed him to re-understand the “foundation” of his own martial arts from a different perspective and train of thoughts so as to discover problems that were hard to notice previously.
He could make use of the knowledge from a different place to improve himself!
When it was eleven thirty, Lin Deluo announced that the lesson for today had ended. They could come back for an hour of free exercise in the afternoon.
Lou Cheng had no time to socialize with the other students. After bathing and changing his clothes, he returned to Connecticut University and have lunch with Yan Zheke. Since she had the companionship of Lou Cheng, Aunt Du now had the free time to settle her own matters.
Aunt Du returned after noon and Yan Zheke was back into the classroom. Lou Cheng found the nearest cafe and ordered a cup of iced latte. While he was drinking, he was using the internet of the cafe to search for famous criminals in Connecticut.
The first one that he found was a terrifying guy nicknamed “God Slayer”. His crimes spread across the entire America and not just concentrated in Connecticut. He targeted famous “Superheroes” as a hobby. Other than that, there weren’t any regular patterns. Up till now, he was not apprehended.
“He probably has strength equivalent to the strength of physical invulnerability stage...” Lou Cheng was secretly astonished.
However “God Slayer” targeted powerful “Superheroes” and almost certainly wouldn’t affect Yan Zheke. He wasn’t within the scope Lou Cheng had to guard against.
Lou Cheng moved his thumb and started looking at the other search results.
“‘Nightmare’ that will kill randomly each year. There is no regularity in his target. What could be confirmed is that when the corpses were discovered, the forehead would be split opened and the eyes would be bloody... Based on the information reported by the police, there was once a criminal who imitated his crimes to escape from the police. In the end, he offended “Nightmare” and became the next victim...”
“From the limited information of his previous two fights, this guy is probably a senior martial artist, which is equivalent to our inhuman stage...”
“No lead, no lead...” Lou Cheng drank a mouthful of coffee worriedly. This was because his plan to eradicate crimes had ended before it even started.
He doesn’t even know who he was......
Following his reading patterns, he continued reading. He saw a case about two to four high school girls disappearing each year. After years of investigation by the police, the police had confirmed that the criminal was the same person, nicknamed “Butcher”.
Among the list of suspects on the web, Lou Cheng saw a familiar name.
“Eh, Joseph? Joseph from Msasi Martial Arts Gym?”
...
In a typical car opposite the street, Smith was looking at the surveillance screen. He asked his underling,
“Can you track the content he had viewed?”
“Yes, but I would need Boss to use your Skynet authorisation.” answered the brat in baseball hat casually.