The Essence of Cultivation

After Zhou Qi finished answering, Tashigi didn't need to.

After all, just looking at his appearance, Koshiro wouldn't refuse to teach him.

But the teaching method was different from teaching brats outside. For the brats, he could just teach them suburi and let them practice on their own.

For Zhou Qi, he directly brought out his family's secret techniques.

Shimotsuki Isshin-ryu, a thick book, completely different from the three pages Tashigi had brought out!

"This is our Shimotsuki Family's hereditary swordsmanship, which includes sword techniques, drawing techniques, naginata techniques, spear techniques, shuriken techniques, jujutsu, ninjutsu, feng shui, castle building, sword forging, and many other martial arts techniques!"

"Wait!" Zhou Qi was a bit confused. "I accept that your swordsmanship includes spear techniques, as it's normal for a Sword Master to use a spear, and I also accept sword forging, as the best sword for oneself is one forged by oneself. But why are there also jujutsu, feng shui, and castle building? Does that count as swordsmanship?"

"A Sword Saint doesn't have their sword on them every second. If the sword is lost, would they lose their combat ability?" Koshiro said as a matter of course. "So, jujutsu is naturally a part of swordsmanship. Sword Saints need to travel extensively to improve their swordsmanship. If they don't understand feng shui and castle building, wouldn't they die from natural disasters or get lost in the jungle?"

"As for castle building, it's even more important. Sword Saints endure loneliness all year round, so they naturally need to build their own houses. This is also a way to understand various materials. Additionally, learning more about architecture can help them fight in different environments..."

You make so much sense, I have nothing to say!

Speaking of which, Hawk Eyes' castle is very cool. Did he build it himself?

Also, Zoro always gets lost. Is it because his feng shui is not up to par?

"But you don't need to worry about it being too complicated. Except for feng shui and castle building, which require rote memorization, the fundamentals of swordsmanship that need practice are not much different. Once the fundamentals are well-trained, any weapon can be used with ease!"

"So that's how it is!" Zhou Qi understood. It was like playing League of Legends; if you master playing as Ashe, you can basically handle 90% of ADCs.

"The ultimate secret of Isshin-ryu is to control all mysteries with a heart of wisdom..." Koshiro drew his sword and lightly slashed at a nearby iron block, which broke in two.

He then casually threw a piece of paper and slashed it again with great force. The paper remained completely unharmed and floated gently to the ground!

"This..." Even though he had seen this scene in the anime, seeing it in reality still brought Zhou Qi immense shock.

Is this really something humans can do?

It's understandable to be able to cut steel; it's just brute strength!

But why couldn't he cut the paper, even though he used a lot of force?

Is it Ryoukou Haki? But I didn't see anything change color!

And if it really was Ryoukou Haki, why didn't he just say so instead of using such obscure terms to explain it to me?

"Can I see the sword manual?" Zhou Qi asked.

"Of course!" Koshiro handed him the sword manual.

Zhou Qi quickly opened it and looked at the basic parts. He found that they were not much different from the three pages Tashigi had. It was still suburi, striking practice, and... huh?

Zhou Qi discovered that the part about meditation had different content.

Tashigi's sword technique described meditation as maintaining a state of emptiness, then continuously concentrating one's spirit, gathering one's thoughts, like condensing scattered clouds into a single pearl.

It could be called the Pearl Meditation Method.

However, Isshin-ryu's meditation viewed the spirit as a tide, first concentrating it in the mind, then spreading it throughout the body. Each inhale and exhale was a cycle of concentration and diffusion.

It repeated like a tide, hence it could be called the Tidal Meditation Method.

The similarity between the two was the process of concentrating the spirit in the mind.

But the Pearl Meditation Method ended after concentration, while Isshin-ryu had an additional process of spreading it throughout the body.

Which one was superior?

Zhou Qi believed that Koshiro's family's method was naturally superior, as the Shimotsuki Family had produced great Sword Masters for generations. But the Marines?

They only had Gion!

If the Marines' meditation method was truly powerful, the success rate wouldn't be so low!

But why?

Why did this diffusion process increase the success rate so much?

Zhou Qi knew nothing about swordsmanship and couldn't figure it out on his own, so he could only ask Koshiro.

"Concentration, diffusion?" Koshiro nodded. "You've described it well. However, as for why diffusion, I'm actually not sure..."

After all, he didn't create this sword technique; he was just a successor.

"Is that so!" Zhou Qi nodded and asked again, "Is this meditation method really useful? I mean, are there any physical changes after practicing it?"

"It will improve your control over your body, develop your potential, and thereby increase your strength!" Koshiro said. "Human strength has its limits. If you only train your body and not your mind, you will eventually hit a bottleneck. But through meditation, you can refine strength that was originally unusable, thereby raising the upper limit of your body. If you cultivate it to the extreme, it's not impossible to resist mountains or wrestle with dragons and elephants!"

"Sitting and Forgetting, Turtle Breath?" Zhou Qi thought of Stellar Transformations, this path felt strangely familiar!

"For beginners, I don't recommend them to understand so much right from the start. After all, suddenly receiving too profound knowledge will only make them unable to calm down. I believe you have the wisdom to calm down. Cultivation still needs to start from the basics!" Koshiro said. "It's okay if you don't understand; I don't understand either, but that doesn't stop us from cultivating!"

"Is that so..." Zhou Qi shook his head. The education he received since childhood was somewhat different from Koshiro's.

He was more inclined to understand the principles behind it first.

Chairman Mao once said: "We must look at the essence of things and take their phenomena as mere guides to the door. Once inside, we must grasp the essence. This is a reliable scientific analytical method."

Getting stronger, improving body control – these are just phenomena of meditation, not the essence.

So, what is the essence?

Before discussing this issue, we need to determine whether the increase in strength caused by meditation falls under the scope of science or metaphysics.

If it's metaphysics, then this increase in power should have no upper limit, otherwise it wouldn't be metaphysical.

But if it's within the scope of science, then this increase in power should have an upper limit. After all, the human body has its limits; you can't expect someone to withstand bullets with flesh and blood alone.

Zhou Qi leaned towards the issue being within the scope of science.

After all, if strength could increase without limit, Koshiro wouldn't be troubled by Kuina being a girl.

As long as she meditated, Kuina's strength could increase without limit, and she would eventually catch up to those powerful men.

It was precisely because Koshiro knew that this kind of strength increase had a limit that he wasn't optimistic about Kuina.

If it's a scientific problem, then it's easier to study.

Under what circumstances does a person's strength increase?

Increased muscle mass, decreased body fat.

However, a decrease in body fat leads to a decrease in stamina, and a battle might only last three to five minutes before exhaustion sets in.

This doesn't align with the common understanding of strong individuals in the One Piece World, where powerhouses can fight for days and nights.

Even if they need to eat when tired, battles can still last for three to five hours.

Under what circumstances does a person's control over their body increase?

Developed nerve cells, capable of reaching down to the finest cell clusters, allowing the brain's commands to be precisely transmitted to every muscle.

The more precise the transmission, the stronger the control over the body.

And with more nerve-controlled cells, strength will also increase. After all, cells in a group tend to slack off, not giving their full effort.

But if you can precisely command each cell, you can naturally unleash the full strength of the cells and muscles. The cells that were slacking off before now become elite soldiers, and your strength will naturally increase significantly.

Moreover, this also aligns with a power system within the Marines: Life Return!

When you can control all the cells in your body, you can naturally control your stomach and intestines, speeding up food absorption to quickly recover stamina, and you can also arbitrarily adjust the position of your organs to avoid fatal damage!

As for meditation, it's clear that both the Pearl Meditation Method and the Tidal Meditation Method can increase strength, otherwise Gion wouldn't have become a Sword Master.

But the Pearl Meditation Method is inferior to the Tidal Meditation Method, lacking the step of spiritual energy radiating throughout the body.

What is this step doing?

It's naturally using the subconscious to influence nerve cells, or rather, it's activating nerve cells that are originally controlled by the subconscious, making them move.

Examples of consciousness influencing the physical body are countless even on Earth. Clearly, the development in the One Piece World has gone further; they have applied the influence of consciousness on reality to physical enhancement.

But there are also many people who practice meditation on Earth. Whether it's Taoism or Buddhism in China, ascetics in India, or Swordsmanship in Japan, they all involve meditation and ascetic practices. Why haven't they cultivated themselves into gods?

This brings in another concept.

Spiritual Energy!

The One Piece World and Earth are clearly different. The difference lies in the fact that herbs that grow for six years here are treated as if they were forty to fifty years old by doctors on Earth!

These two worlds are different. Zhou Qi doesn't know what else the One Piece World has. Given its effects of strengthening the body and accelerating plant growth, he tentatively names it Spiritual Energy.

Earth lacks Spiritual Energy, so the effect of meditation has an upper limit. The One Piece World has Spiritual Energy, so the upper limit of meditation's effect is higher than on Earth!

This also explains why Kuina's strength is inferior to men's. Because whether it's cell strength and toughness or muscle distribution, women are indeed inferior to men. Even after meditation, with an increased upper limit, they are still inferior to men of the same level.

Don't use Big Mom and the Empress as examples; they can't be judged by common standards. Big Mom is exceptionally talented, and the Empress's island is also unusual.

The peak for ordinary women should be Gion. She is powerful, but her strength is limited. She can surpass Vice Admirals but can never touch the edge of an Admiral.

Therefore, the essence of Swordsmanship cultivation is to strengthen the spirit through meditation while also enhancing control over the nervous system, thereby achieving control over all muscles. During this entire process, a person's strength naturally increases, and their control over their body becomes stronger and stronger.

As the spirit grows and muscle control improves, some mystical powers will naturally emerge. For example, with unprecedentedly developed ear nerves, one can achieve spiritual powers like sensing the wind before it blows, which is called Observation Haki here.

As for the cultivation of martial arts in the Marines, it should involve tempering the physical body to train the consciousness. After all, a strong spirit follows a strong spirit!

As the physical body becomes stronger, the consciousness naturally grows, and then one can control more of the nervous system, thereby learning Rokushiki, and even Life Return.

So, Swordsmanship cultivates the mind, while martial arts temper the body, but they lead to the same destination, with only minor differences in focus.

This is the essence of cultivation!

However, Swordsmanship has high requirements for one's state of mind, as it is difficult to calm the mind. The Marines' martial arts, on the other hand, have high requirements for physical talent.

Understanding these points, Zhou Qi suddenly realized that his choice of Swordsmanship was correct. After all, his physical talent was hard to say if it was stronger than people in the One Piece World.

But his talent in spirit...

It might not be strong, but there are too many classics on Earth, and he can ponder and learn them slowly to calm his mind.

Especially after years of hardship in society, Zhou Qi's mood has long since become calm. Perhaps he might even be a genius in cultivating his mind!

"Thank you, Master, for imparting your teachings!" Zhou Qi stood up and bowed sincerely. Koshiro not only gave him his family's techniques without reservation but also made him understand the essence of cultivation in this world. From now on, although he wouldn't dare say that cultivation was a smooth path, he would at least avoid many detours.

With such great kindness, he had no way to repay it.

Perhaps in the future, he could travel to more worlds and gain more abilities, and then he could help Koshiro revive Kuina?

Zhou Qi thought silently.

"Not at all. You have also taught me a lot. Let us learn from each other!" Koshiro also stood up and returned the bow.

"Since that's the case!" Zhou Qi thought for a moment and said, "How about I build a house in the village? I'll cultivate here from now on, and it will be convenient to ask you for advice anytime."

"Of course!" Koshiro nodded. "I can make this decision. I'll build a house for you next to the dojo, and it will also give you a chance to see the construction skills of my Shimotsuki Family!"

As for the potential issue of exposing his connection with the Revolutionary Army, it wasn't a big problem. With Zhou Qi's strength, if the Revolutionary Army wanted to hide it, he would never be able to discover it.

Moreover, Koshiro didn't intend to hide it. He felt that there were many common topics between the Revolutionary Army and Zhou Qi.

"But Master, I can't let you work for nothing. Consider these medicines as payment for building the house!" Zhou Qi thought for a moment, then reached into the Space Gate and took out five bottles of Amoxicillin.

"What is this?" Koshiro was stunned for a moment, not expecting that Zhou Qi was actually a Devil Fruit User?

However, he didn't think too much about it.

"This is called Amoxicillin, it specifically treats inflammation caused by various infections…" Zhou Qi said.

"Really?" Koshiro was immediately surprised. There was such a medicine?

As a member of the Revolutionary Army, he immediately thought of the value of this drug to his own army.

"Of course it's real!" Zhou Qi smiled. "This product has already been verified by the Marines. Once my factory is operational, it can be mass-produced. The initial price is 10,000 Belly per bottle, but our country doesn't use Belly, so we only accept gold…"

"Ah, this…" Koshiro was dumbfounded. The Revolutionary Army didn't have much money!

However, if this medicine truly had such good efficacy, they would sell everything they had to buy it!

After all, the lives of comrades were more important than anything!

"Of course, Devil Fruits are also acceptable. One fruit will be counted as 300 million Belly!" Zhou Qi continued.

In the market, a Devil Fruit was only worth 100 million Belly, so his price was not unkind.

Tashigi looked at Zhou Qi curiously. Why were you saying this? Master is just a dojo owner. At most, he could buy a little to prepare for his disciples, how could he exchange it for a Devil Fruit!

"Of course, 50,000 Belly is not enough to build a house. Consider this a deposit, and I'll give you another two hundred boxes later…"

"This…" It was too precious. He wanted to refuse, but he couldn't bring himself to say it, so he could only accept it with a flushed face.

In his heart, he had already made up his mind to teach him diligently and never hold back!