Seeking the One Through Wholeness

At five o'clock in the morning, Liu Qi woke up under the influence of his Biological Clock. He habitually circulated his True Qi to dispel the lingering drowsiness, but suddenly found that his state had changed.

"That's right, Entering Stillness, I successfully Entering Stillness last night!" Liu Qi patted his face, and after confirming that he was not dreaming, a strong sense of joy welled up inside him, but he forcibly suppressed it.

"Tap tap tap..."

A knock came at the door. Liu Qi picked up his phone to check the time, and called out, "Who is it?" while quickly putting on the clothes he had thrown on the bed. Then he heard Feng Xue's calm voice.

It's me.

"They're here!" Hurrying to the door, Liu Qi felt a sense of unease upon seeing his master, still dressed in tattered clothes. Before he could ask, Feng Xue said:

"Time for my morning exercise. Pack your luggage and check out."

"Check out?" Liu Qi wasn't surprised by the morning exercise, but Liu Qi expression turned somewhat unpleasant upon hearing about checking out.

"Yeah, take the dirty clothes to the laundry, then find a pedestrian bridge to stay under for a few days, and then continue on our way." Feng Xue answered casually, as if it were something perfectly ordinary. Liu Qi was momentarily embarrassed. She could accept sleeping in the wild, but sleeping under a pedestrian bridge...

"Excuse me, sir, why do people have to sleep under the overpass?"

"Cultivate the mind." Feng Xue uttered two words, then, seemingly feeling it wasn't clear enough, added:

"Spiritual practice requires a sufficiently firm will, and this kind of will cannot be trained simply by traveling. To give a simple example, if someone hits you with a mop covered in feces, how would you react?"

"Ah, this..." Liu Qi's expression suddenly turned strange. As a netizen, he naturally knew the meme "a mop dipped in poop, Lu Bu reborn," but he never expected that this question would come from his master's mouth.

"True courage is understanding fear, facing it, and accepting it as something you can control. Simply strengthening yourself is meaningless if you want to train your mind."

Feng Xue calmly recited the lines she had wanted to say for a long time. Although Liu Qi felt that the words sounded familiar, he couldn't remember them for a moment. However, after realizing that he couldn't resist, he could only turn around, repack his luggage that he hadn't had time to pack yesterday, and then prepare to find a pedestrian bridge for morning exercise with Feng Xue.

"Do you know why I haven't told you the essentials of my martial arts lineage?"

Leaving the hotel, Liu Qi, feeling awkward, suddenly heard Feng Xue start a conversation. He was momentarily at a loss for words, but Feng Xue didn't expect an answer from him, and simply muttered to herself:

"I don't think you can stick with it."

"I can do it!" Liu Qi said earnestly, while Feng Xue waved her hand with her back to him.

"Actually, before you, I had taken on other disciples. Some were doing it to uphold Act of Chivalry, some were burdened with deep-seated hatred, and some were simply poor and wanted a better life. I taught them a lot, but none of them learned real skills. Do you know why?"

"Didn't meet your standards?" Liu Qi subconsciously used polite language, but Feng Xue simply shook her head and said:

"It's simply not a good fit."

As he spoke, he looked at the Yangtze River, which had come into view, and continued forward:

"Our martial arts are not passed down from one school or sect. We have Buddhist Secret Transmission, Daoist classics, and of course, some strange and ingenious techniques from minor sects. If needed, I can design a suitable set of martial arts for someone. If someone is thirsty for revenge, I will teach them how to kill. If someone wants to Act of Chivalry, I will give them the means to break the law. But in the end, none of them are suitable to inherit our mantle."

Seeing that Feng Xue didn't pick up the heavy pillow, but instead started practicing a set of boxing moves by the river, Liu Qi, who was in a horse stance, couldn't help but become curious:

"Then how can I inherit your mantle?"

"This all begins with our sect's understanding of 'martial arts.'" Feng Xue, while attempting to use the "spiritual differentiation" technique she had accidentally learned during her "Entering God State" state to suppress the Killing Intent Fluctuation, explained her understanding of "martial arts" to Liu Qi through her conversation.

"The purpose of martial arts is nothing more than to defeat an opponent, but this opponent is not just a 'person'. It can also be an abstract concept. Your opponent can be an enemy, the world, a phenomenon, or even yourself."

"This so-called 'opponent' is the goal of your martial arts training; this is the way."

"Achieving a goal requires a theoretical foundation; this is the law."

"Putting theory into practice requires feasible skills; these are the techniques."

"Practice techniques with skills and strength."

"Interpret the Dharma with heart and intention."

"Pursue the Tao with your spirit and your sexuality."

"Use all your skills, Full Heart, Full Mind, all your heart, Full Spirit, Full Nature to achieve unity—this is our school's philosophy on 'martial arts'."

At this point, Feng Xue suddenly punched the river. There was no special light effect, only a fleeting sense of crisis. A trench-like depression clearly appeared on the river, which then closed again under the force of the rushing water.

"So, are you telling me all this to say that I've passed the test?"

Looking at the river surface that had returned to normal after the waves had surged, Liu Qi couldn't help but show an excited expression. In the end, he still had a bit of a protagonist's dream, because he felt that since his master had told him these things, it naturally meant that he might inherit this so-called mantle.

"I guess you've just passed the first hurdle." Feng Xue didn't keep him in suspense, calmly affirming Liu Qi's thoughts. "You're different from your senior brothers and sisters. Ultimately, most people treat 'martial arts' as a tool. Give them a gun and some money, and it won't make much difference. Of course, I'm not saying that's bad. In the end, martial arts itself is a tool. Using it for revenge, for upholding justice, for seeking thrills, or even for showing off and picking up girls is fine, but that doesn't align with the sect's principles."

"So, the thing that makes me stronger than them is that I don't have any deep-seated grudges; I simply want to learn martial arts?" Liu Qi quickly understood Feng Xue's meaning, and Feng Xue nodded in agreement, but then shook her head:

"Being simple is good, but being strong is not necessarily true."

As he spoke, Feng Xue suddenly flicked his hand behind him, and a water jet shot out from the river, transforming into a water ball the size of a basketball. It landed in Feng Xue's hand and flowed slowly as he moved like he was practicing Tai Chi.

Seeing this amazing scene, Liu Qi's question, which was already on the tip of his tongue, suddenly caught in his throat, but Feng Xue still spoke up to explain:

"Your goal is simple, which is good, but correspondingly, you lack the motivation to persevere. Those who can't even afford food are awakened by poverty when they are weary; those with deep-seated hatred are pursued by hatred when they are weary; those who yearn to uphold Act of Chivalry are inspired by the injustices of the world when they are weary. But you are different. You don't have this kind of motivation because everything is based on interest, so you have the luxury of giving up at any time. In our sect's terms, you lack a consistent driving force."

The Dao, Method, Technique are my personal understanding of cultivation.

The Way is the goal.

Law is a method.

"Shu" refers to technique.

The so-called spiritual practice is the process of complementing, enhancing, and promoting each other through techniques and methods, ultimately leading to one's desired goal.

This applies not only to cultivation in a fantastical sense, but to any form of learning.

For example, healing the sick and saving lives is the Way, then Medical Arts are the techniques, and medical theories are the methods. We create new medical technologies with medical theories and discover more medical theories through the practice of Medical Arts. The process of interaction between these two is the process of seeking the Way (healing the sick and saving lives).

So, if martial arts are a skill, what do you want to achieve through them?

If martial arts itself is a way, then what techniques and methods should be used to pursue it?

I think this is the essence of "martial arts".