Bitter Training

"Watch carefully, and memorize the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching!"

Zhou Wu gave a low shout, spreading his limbs and stepping forward as he began demonstrating the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching.

Qin Fen did not blink, staring intently at every move Zhou Wu demonstrated. His entire mind was focused on Zhou Wu, and he automatically ignored everything around him.

In his eyes, there was only that set of takedown techniques.

"The second move of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching is Jade Maiden Shuttle. Use your right hand to strike the right side of the enemy's face. When the enemy raises a hand to block, swiftly thread your left hand upward from below and knock their arm aside. At the same time, step forward with your left foot to trap the enemy's right leg. Draw back your right palm and use its heel to deliver a trembling short-force strike to the enemy's chest, sending them falling backward.

"The key lies in knocking aside the arm at the right moment and unleashing trembling inch-force with the palm strike."

Since he was teaching, Zhou Wu deliberately slowed down his movements, demonstrating and explaining at the same time.

The third move, "Spreading Wings and Flicking Elbow"; the fourth move, "Twisting Waist and Smashing Arm"; the fifth move, "Hooking Leg and Slapping Back"; the sixth move, "Abdominal Force Takedown"; the seventh move, "Wild Horse Collides with Trough"; the eighth move, "Straightening Body and Entangling Leg"...

After demonstrating the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching from the first move through the eighteenth several times, he slowly came to a stop.

Zhou Wu looked at Qin Fen and asked, "Do you remember them?"

Qin Fen pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

The Eighteen Falls Upon Touching had eighteen takedown moves. At most, he had remembered the first ten, and even those had been memorized by rote. If he performed them, they would probably be riddled with mistakes.

He summoned the Panel. The Eighteen Falls Upon Touching had not appeared under the martial arts section.

Perhaps it would only show up on the Panel once he had completely memorized all the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching.

"Perform them once first. Let me see how much you remembered."

Qin Fen's reaction was within Zhou Wu's expectations.

Back when he had learned the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching, it had taken him a full day just to memorize all eighteen moves. To perform every move without pausing had taken him an entire week of practice.

If Qin Fen could remember them after only these few demonstrations, that would have been a true surprise.

Under Zhou Wu's gaze, Qin Fen recalled the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching in his mind, then slowly began to move. As he recalled each move, he slowly performed the techniques.

Qin Fen's movements were extremely awkward and clumsy. After each move, he often needed several seconds to think before he could perform the next one. Some of his movements were not even standard, not enough to count as even a Rudimentary Understanding.

After Qin Fen performed the tenth move, he stopped. He could not recall the moves that came after.

"That will do. If you can't remember, don't force it. Now follow me and practice slowly."

Zhou Wu nodded and began teaching Qin Fen one move at a time.

"Yes, Teacher."

Following Zhou Wu, Qin Fen slowly practiced the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching.

After going through them more than a dozen times, Qin Fen finally memorized all the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching.

Once Qin Fen had memorized the moves, he practiced them slowly by himself while Zhou Wu stood to the side, occasionally pointing out flaws in his execution.

Inside the training room, Qin Fen performed the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching again and again. Sweat flew from his body, yet he remained undistracted, practicing the takedown moves with a serious expression.

For the entire afternoon, Qin Fen stayed in the training room, training bitterly without a moment's rest.

Such hard work was not without results. He became increasingly proficient in every move of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching. Though he still could not perform the entire set fluidly, he had at least reached the realm of Rudimentary Understanding.

Qin Fen summoned the Panel and looked at the displayed data.

Qin Fen: Quasi-Martial Artist

Martial Arts: Galloping Horse Strength/Entering the Hall and Reaching the Inner Chamber (16/100), Eighteen Falls Upon Touching/Rudimentary Understanding (4/10)

Righteous Qi Value: 3

Those 3 points of Righteous Qi Value had been obtained from doing good deeds on his way to school that morning.

Furthermore, Galloping Horse Strength had originally only been at 14 proficiency points. After practicing in the morning and at noon, it had gained 2 points of proficiency. By that calculation, it would take forty-two days for Galloping Horse Strength to reach the peak of Entering the Hall and Reaching the Inner Chamber.

That was without using Righteous Qi Value to increase proficiency, relying entirely on bitter training.

"Let's stop today's training here and continue tomorrow." Hearing the school bell ring, Zhou Wu looked at Qin Fen, who was drenched in sweat, and said, "Martial arts training requires a balance between work and rest. The human body is made of flesh and blood, not forged from steel. There is always a limit. If you keep training with your head down, you can easily injure yourself.

"Although you have already become a Martial Arts Student, Class Division has not officially begun yet. In the morning, you should still attend your original class for academic lessons. In the afternoon, you may come here to the training room in the Martial Arts Hall to practice martial arts.

"Once you can perform the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching in one fluid sequence, like drifting clouds and flowing water without the slightest obstruction, I will spar with you and teach you how to apply martial arts in actual combat."

"Yes, Teacher."

Qin Fen wiped the sweat from his face and stopped practicing.

Zhou Wu was an External Training Master who had reached the Fifth Realm of Jin Li. His experience in martial arts was far richer than Qin Fen's.

Qin Fen had only just begun on the martial path and was still very inexperienced. Whatever his teacher said, he would do. That way, he would not go wrong.

Learning martial arts was not like eating or drinking; one could not simply act as one pleased. It was easy to make mistakes and go astray.

After training bitterly for an afternoon, he felt somewhat hungry as well.

Qin Fen sent Chen Bo a message, telling him not to wait and to head back first.

Then he went to the fourth floor of the cafeteria and ate a Nutritional Meal, using the massage techniques Teacher Zhou Wu had taught him at noon to digest the food.

After dinner, Qin Fen went to the training room and practiced martial arts for another hour before finally leaving school.

Over the following days,

Qin Fen trained according to the plan Zhou Wu had laid out.

He attended academic classes in the morning and practiced in the training room of the Martial Arts Hall in the afternoon.

By Thursday, Qin Fen's Eighteen Falls Upon Touching had finally entered the realm of First Glimpse of the Path.

He could perform the moves of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching in one continuous sequence, but the transitions were filled with stiffness and lacked spirit. He was like a machine, his movements somewhat rigid, still far from the feeling of drifting clouds and flowing water.

To train that sense of spirit and acquire the feeling of drifting clouds and flowing water, one had to at least reach the realm of Entering the Hall and Reaching the Inner Chamber.

A step further was the realm of Comprehensive Mastery. Every move of the Eighteen Falls Upon Touching would be ingrained in one's heart, requiring no deliberate thought. Each move would have become instinct, deeply remembered by the body.

When facing an enemy, the instant the opponent attacked, the body would immediately react, knowing which move to use in response.

Galloping Horse Strength was a foundational external training martial art, so it only had four realms: Rudimentary Understanding, First Glimpse of the Path, Entering the Hall and Reaching the Inner Chamber, and Peak Perfection. The Eighteen Falls Upon Touching, however, was a ranked martial art. Although it was only low-grade rank one, it had one more realm than foundational external training martial arts: Rudimentary Understanding, First Glimpse of the Path, Entering the Hall and Reaching the Inner Chamber, Comprehensive Mastery, and Peak Perfection.

Low-grade martial arts had the additional realm of Comprehensive Mastery compared with foundational martial arts. Middle-grade martial arts had the additional realm of Pure as Furnace Fire compared with low-grade martial arts, while high-grade martial arts had the additional realm of Realm of the Gods compared with middle-grade martial arts.

The higher the grade of a martial art, the harder it was to train it to its peak.

Thanks to reader Qian Feng for the 1,000-coin reward.