Taixuan

Chen Junxuan was the name of the old man standing before him. He was already sixty-eight years old, and this robust body, utterly at odds with his age, was proof that he had never stopped tempering his martial arts.

Yet as the old man looked at the youth before him, who had not even reached adulthood, he was filled with emotion. He had never imagined that anyone could learn all the martial arts he had spent his life summarizing and integrating in just two short weeks, then apply them in battle almost perfectly despite having no combat experience.

Terrifying comprehension, unbelievable insight, and a talent that seemed innate for perfectly controlling the strength throughout his entire body.

With only a single glance, the youth had learned the technique of generating power with his entire body on the spot. He was like a massive sponge. Even a martial arts master like Chen Junxuan had found himself with nothing left to teach after only two weeks.

All the youth lacked now was physical tempering and combat experience.

Having a disciple like this was both fortunate and sorrowful for any martial arts master.

Chen Junxuan, however, felt only fortunate. He had traveled far and wide throughout his life, with a freewheeling and unrestrained temperament, and had spent nearly half his time integrating his own martial arts path. After staying in this country for three years, he had absorbed the essence of most martial arts schools into his own system. Iaido, Ninjutsu, Karate, Kendo, Aikido, Judo, Tang Shou, Sumo—he had more or less witnessed the essence of all of them.

There was only one school within Kendo that he had not exchanged knowledge with, for various reasons.

Yet when he had more or less completed his integration of martial arts, he had no disciple to pass it on to.

Although Chen Junxuan was naturally carefree, he could not help feeling somewhat regretful. It was during this period that he heard about the youth through the martial arts world.

It had happened sometime between November 10 and 13.

Determined to become stronger and test just how fundamentally his extraordinary Soul Essence had changed, Su Qing'an signed up to study at a Karate dojo.

Then, in a brief ten minutes, he understood that, relying on the State of Still Water within his sword heart and his terrifying insight, he could directly etch into his body the muscle memory that martial arts normally required painstaking practice to develop.

Su Qing'an guessed that compared to an ordinary State of Still Water, his own was completely different. A normal sword-heart State of Still Water should be a method of putting the body into a competitive state.

Emptying the mind and relaxing the body ultimately served the purpose of sensing every minute change within the body.

His State of Still Water, however, could control the strength throughout his body with even greater subtlety and directness. That was why his learning speed was so terrifying and defied all logic.

At first, his speed was relatively slow. But after visiting more than a dozen dojos, his learning speed grew faster and faster. Almost immediately after seeing someone demonstrate a technique, he could learn it completely.

But soon, the youth felt himself hit a bottleneck. The martial arts taught at dojos generally kept a few tricks hidden. Even if they did not, Su Qing'an's learning progress was so far beyond that of ordinary people that it was difficult for him to explain his circumstances.

Using money to make people keep quiet, reveal everything they knew, and teach him seriously was one option. But that was both risky and too slow, so he spent a six-figure sum in yen to hire several sparring partners and test himself again.

During his fights with the sparring partners, besides confirming that his combat strength had already surpassed that of ordinary people, he also realized something else: he could learn through combat.

After fighting Su Qing'an for three minutes, he could learn every martial arts style you displayed that his physical abilities were capable of reproducing.

Once he understood this, he simply began challenging dojos.

Within the State of Still Water, his combat power had already reached the limit that an ordinarily gifted person could attain through a lifetime of effort.

Thus, he was confident that he would not be defeated. Even if he lost, he could settle the matter with money in a law-based society. If he could not get through the Honkai four months later, then no amount of money would be anything but empty words.

His ability to control every minute strand of strength allowed Su Qing'an to make his opponents feel as if they were engaged in a life-and-death battle. He held nothing back, because he was confident he could disperse his power perfectly before it reached them.

But his opponents did not know how confident the youth was. To avoid being beaten to death, nearly every one of them used everything they had learned throughout their lives, leaving them no chance to hold anything back.

Thus, in just three days, he turned Changkong City's martial arts world upside down.

What happened next was obvious. After watching one of the youth's dojo-challenging battles, Chen Junxuan felt as if his entire worldview had been shattered.

And that was how the current Su Qing'an came to be.

Su Qing'an naturally had a reason for treating Chen Junxuan with the respect due to a half-teacher. The man's personality was more carefree than anyone Su Qing'an had ever encountered. He had no airs and held absolutely no sectarian prejudices, while his martial arts foundations were as profound as the sea.

In theory, Su Qing'an could empty a school's ultimate techniques in ten minutes.

Yet when he studied martial arts under Chen Junxuan, even with the man's careful instruction, it still took him a full two weeks to completely learn his martial arts. This showed just how complex Chen Junxuan's knowledge was.

Although Su Qing'an's learning speed was fast enough to make even ordinary martial artists suffer a mental breakdown, Chen Junxuan was delighted. It was the pure joy of seeing his legacy passed on, and the peace of mind that came from knowing his martial arts had a successor.

The old man understood how complex the martial arts he had developed were. Throughout his life, he had absorbed most of the world's martial arts schools. If the person learning them had not been Su Qing'an, it was entirely possible that they would have been lost.

Thus, passing on everything he had learned in two weeks brought him immense comfort in his old age.

With Su Qing'an's talent, he was fully capable of carrying the past forward and pushing his Taixuan Style to an even more terrifying and profound limit.

The Taixuan Style he had created over an entire fifty years was completely integrated and mastered by the youth in just two weeks.

What kind of scenery and future would the Taixuan Style reveal in his hands?

It was truly impossible not to look forward to it, my disciple, Su Qing'an.