Since Meng Zhao had begun cultivating martial arts, the time had been exceedingly short, yet the splendor of his experiences was beyond what many could imagine even if they spent their entire lives pursuing it.
Naturally, his gains had been equally abundant.
In his understanding, martial arts were martial arts: martial was the skill, but the Way lay in the person.
For instance, at the very beginning, he had yearned intensely for those earth-shaking divine techniques, believing that cultivating such arts would be enough to roam the world unchallenged.
Only as his cultivation steadily rose did he gradually understand that martial arts were martial arts, and people were people. The same martial art, comprehended and wielded by different people, could produce utterly different results—worlds apart, even running in opposite directions.
Take Mountain-Splitting Strike, for example. Some people emphasized force alone, seeking only to gather all the true qi in their bodies into one point, then bring it down with the Spirit Rhinoceros Slash and unleash it in a thunderous burst. The form of the move itself did not matter.
Others valued the principle of the word "split," focusing on adjusting the muscles and force qi throughout their bodies, turning their entire body into a great dragon. When they struck downward, they truly possessed the might to cleave mountains and crack stone.
All of this arose from differences between people, causing the same martial art—even the same move—to produce different effects and outcomes.
Martial arts were certainly important, but the person cultivating them was even more important.
Applied to power itself, this principle was no less fitting.
Xue Zihou came from a family steeped in martial learning. His father was a grandmaster who had founded his own lineage, so he naturally possessed relevant insights.
Only then did he understand why, though