A Master's Instruction

Everyone permitted to enter the Mohist Knight Guard base was anything but mediocre. Zhong Lingxiu possessed level-seven internal cultivation at such a young age, already meeting the standard for a university student, and she had won prizes in domestic science and technology competitions on multiple occasions. Compared with Si Ming, a genius who had only just gotten started, Zhong Lingxiu was undoubtedly a genius who had already made a name for herself. Si Ming felt a mountain of pressure, worried that if he revealed the truth about himself and disappointed her, he might lose his very first fan.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before he saw Yan Jinghong.

"Senior, I came as promised."

Yan Jinghong nodded. "It seems your injuries have all healed. You're young, after all, and your body recovers quickly."

Pan De, standing nearby, said, "You make it sound as if you're so old. You're a rising star yourself, yet you're already in such a hurry to put on an elder's airs?"

Yan Jinghong heard the sourness in his voice and chuckled, declining to argue.

After some thought, Si Ming confessed, "Senior, on my way here, I heard a rumor that you wanted to take me as your disciple. Whether it's true or not, there's something I must tell you. I was born with severed meridians and can't cultivate internal power."

He had already thought this over while recovering from his injuries. Yan Jinghong was a Heavenly Ultimate Mohist Hero Guard of lofty standing; looking into the background of a nobody with neither power nor influence would be all too easy for him. Since he was bound to find out anyway, Si Ming might as well come clean first and earn his goodwill.

Sure enough, Yan Jinghong smiled at this and said, "I already knew about that. Heaven helps those who help themselves. Instead of sinking into despair over your own defect, you pulled yourself together and found a way out of your predicament. That's a truly rare and precious quality. The tremendous progress you made in just one month is Heaven's reward for your unceasing efforts to better yourself."

With the government's resources at his disposal, Yan Jinghong had long since investigated Si Ming's background thoroughly, including his orphaned upbringing, his severed meridians from birth, and the incident a month ago when he had risked cultivating internal power and nearly lost his life.

As Yan Jinghong saw it, Si Ming had been unknown and had an unremarkable record in the past because his congenital severed meridians had been a leaf before his eyes, blocking his view. He had been so fixated on cultivating internal power that he had overlooked his talents in other fields. Fortunately, after a brush with death taught him a lesson, he had finally achieved a thorough awakening, leaped free of the cage of being unable to cultivate internal power, and discovered where his true talent lay, allowing him to be reborn and show his edge.

This reasoning was perfectly plausible and explained why Si Ming had performed so modestly before. After all, nothing could change a person quite like coming face-to-face with death. At the very least, this explanation was far more plausible than a soul transmigrating.

"Being unable to cultivate internal power is indeed a major drawback, but even before the martial arts revolution, there were powerful external martial artists in history. If others could do it, so can you, and you can do it even better than they did. Times are advancing, after all, and the conditions we have for practicing martial arts are far better than they were in the past," Yan Jinghong said reassuringly.

Pan De looked full of regret. "He went through the great terror of life and death and broke free of his obsession. With a temperament like that, Daoist martial arts would suit him best."

Yan Jinghong laughed and scolded him. "You still haven't given up? He can't cultivate internal power. Even if he did join the Daoist Gate, he'd never choose your Ping Mountain Sect."

The Ping Mountain Sect was universally acknowledged as the most violent sect in the Daoist Gate.

Si Ming looked at Pan De, whose physique was nearly bursting out of his Daoist robes, and thought it matched the impression of the Ping Mountain Sect rather well.

Daoist martial arts had always been more than supple and skillful enough, but lacking in hardness and strength. Ideas such as "the Dao flows like an empty vessel that can never be filled," "the highest good is like water," "attain utmost emptiness and hold fast to stillness," and "great perfection seems flawed" all held that what was too hard broke easily and opposed pursuing hardness and strength to the exclusion of all else. The Ping Mountain Sect alone was an exception.

The Ping Mountain Sect believed that "great strength works miracles." All the martial arts it passed down followed a hard and mighty path, and, breaking all precedent, they chiefly possessed the attribute of "yin hardness," flying in the face of the commonly accepted pairings of "yin softness" and "yang hardness." Their signature moves often had the power to shatter mountains, trample seas, and shake heaven and earth, so they required a deep reserve of internal power to support them. Otherwise, after unleashing a single move, a practitioner would be drained of Qi and strength, unable to continue fighting. The greater the power, after all, the more True Qi it consumed.

Thus, Si Ming, born with severed meridians, was destined to have no affinity with the Ping Mountain Sect.

As for a Daoist disciple becoming a Mohist Knight Guard, that was nothing worth dwelling on. Although the Su State had been founded by the Mohist School, its constitution granted everyone the freedom to choose their own school of thought. It did not forbid citizens from studying the ideas of other schools, and it welcomed immigrants from other countries as well.

Besides, the Mohist School and the Daoist School had always gotten along well. One preached universal love and non-aggression, while the other preached tranquility and non-action. Neither was the type to go out and make trouble for others.

Yan Jinghong looked at Si Ming and said, "Since you've already heard the news, I won't be secretive and play games with some entrance test. I'll ask you just one thing: are you willing to become my disciple?"

Si Ming answered without hesitation, "Master, please accept your disciple's bow!"

He stood with his feet together, straightened and pressed together the four fingers of his left hand with his thumb bent inward, and closed the five fingers of his right hand into a fist. He pressed the fist firmly into the center of his left palm and bowed deeply at a ninety-degree angle.

Yan Jinghong reached out, placed his hand on top of Si Ming's head, and gently patted it three times. "From today onward, you are my, Yan Jinghong's, disciple. We'll hold the formal apprenticeship ceremony when we have time."

Si Ming did not kneel and kowtow three times, because that was Confucian School etiquette. Ritual was at the heart of Confucian thought, so naturally its rules had been made extremely elaborate. By comparison, the Mohist School's were much simpler.

The disciple cupped one hand around the other fist, bowed, and lowered his head before his master. Since the head was the most important part of a person, placing it unguarded before the other person represented entrusting that person with one's entire life.

The master patted the disciple's head, just as an elder stroked a younger child's head. This represented both the elder's care for the younger and the master's promise to pass all his knowledge on to the disciple.

Once this step was complete, their status as master and disciple was established. As for the "formal apprenticeship ceremony," that was for others to see, a kind of announcement; the form it took was secondary. They could present a cup of apprenticeship tea and put on a show for the guests, or beat gongs and drums and shout it out loud. The Mohist School valued practicality and paid no mind to such formalities.

In fact, the Confucian School had not originally established a dedicated apprenticeship ritual either. It had all been devised by later generations.

Kongzi said, "I have never refused instruction to anyone who brought me a bundle of dried meat or more." A bundle of dried meat meant ten strips, so what he meant was that as long as someone brought him ten strips of dried meat as tuition, he would pass on all his knowledge.

It was clear that Kongzi, too, considered the intention sufficient to complete the rite when taking disciples; there were none of those rotten rules.

Yan Jinghong said with satisfaction, "If you trace our lineage back to its source, it came from the Dinghu Sect in the Realm of the Hundred Schools on the Divine Continent of the Central Land. But now there are only two or three big cats and kittens left, too few people to speak of. If you hoped to find a great mountain to lean on, you're bound to be disappointed."

Si Ming smiled. "No matter how many people the other sects have, I doubt all of them put together could make a mountain as great as you, Master."

"You certainly know how to flatter," Yan Jinghong said with a laugh. Then he continued, "I've already given your situation some thought. There's nothing wrong with taking the body-refining path, but it produces results too slowly. Who knows what year of the monkey or month of the horse it would be before you cultivated True Qi? It could easily wear away a young person's edge. So I went to the Mohist Academy of Science and asked whether they had an internal cultivation method suitable for someone with severed meridians. As it turned out, they really did find one."

Si Ming's eyes lit up. "May I ask what this internal cultivation method is called?"

"Actually, calling it an internal cultivation method isn't quite accurate. It's a complete martial arts manual that also records related martial techniques and moves. Moreover, its cultivation method is entirely different from traditional internal cultivation. Ordinary internal cultivation methods absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and convert it into one's own True Qi, but what this one absorbs isn't Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi."

"What does it absorb?"

Si Ming couldn't help speculating. Could it be a technique like the Northern Darkness Divine Art, which absorbed other people's internal power for one's own use?

Yan Jinghong said gravely, "It absorbs solar energy."

"Solar... solar energy!"

Si Ming nearly bit his tongue. That's way too scientific! It feels like the whole thing just became a lot less impressive!

"This martial arts manual is called the Blazing Yang Battle Art. It's a martial art from a foreign land. The people at the Mohist Academy of Science originally thought it came from the Western Luo Continent, but after checking, they discovered that while its form followed the patterns of western martial arts, its core remained an orthodox cultivation method of the Central Land. It was even said to bear traces of the Divine Continent Xuan Sect's supreme scripture, the Record of Ten Thousand Slaughters and Evil's Extermination. You could say it was a martial art developed by combining eastern and western martial philosophies. Its purpose is to draw upon the sanctity of sunlight, the ferocity of blazing fire, and the swiftness of a storm..."

Yan Jinghong was still explaining the characteristics of the Blazing Yang Battle Art, but Si Ming couldn't help getting distracted.

His thoughts wandered. Could it be that his future Mohist Knight Guard title would be "Solar Warrior"?

Chapter 17: A Master's Instruction

Although he had found a way to bypass severed meridians and cultivate internal power, Yan Jinghong did not indulge Si Ming's impatience. Instead, he cautioned him, "The Blazing Yang Battle Art is only a translation, after all, and only two-thirds of it has been deciphered. The Mohist Academy of Science is still making slow progress on the parts belonging to the foreign martial arts system. You must be especially careful when cultivating it. Stop immediately at the slightest discomfort, and never rush ahead recklessly. You're still young and have plenty of time; there's no need to hurry. At worst, you can stick to the body-refining path. It'll only take a few more years."

Si Ming nodded and reined in his excitement. His fixation on internal power was far weaker than that of the people of this world. They regarded internal power as an inborn necessity, like a person's limbs; without it, they were incomplete. To Si Ming, however, internal power was an additional bonus. Having it was certainly a pleasure, but going without it was perfectly normal.

Yan Jinghong studied Si Ming's face for a while and, after confirming that he truly wasn't impatient, nodded with satisfaction. "No one has ever cultivated this technique before, so no one can give you guidance. You'll have to cross the river by feeling for the stones yourself. Even I can only tell you what I understand; once you go beyond the bounds of my knowledge, I'll be just as helpless. That's also why the state hasn't made the Blazing Yang Battle Art public."