Watching Luo Feng's puzzled expression, Zhou Ze continued, "What people call tempering is usually needed when they hit a bottleneck. It's like being tested in life-or-death situations."
"Life and death hold great terror, but also provide boundless motivation. It's like the reflex that makes you instinctively close your eyes when a needle is pointed at them! When faced with the threat of death, every cell in your body struggles reflexively, and even your genetic material evolves faster! The terror of life-or-death situations can push both your body and soul into an unimaginable state of rapid evolution!"
"In that state, it's easier to gain insight, evolve, and improve your strength!"
Zhou Ze spoke at length. Luo Feng asked, confused, "Teacher, from what you're saying, isn't that a good thing?"
"Foolish!" Zhou Ze scolded. "True powerhouses value their lives. As long as you're alive, there's hope. Those who think they can improve themselves by experiencing death are often driven to it by desperation, or they've grown accustomed to taking things to extremes. They forget that you only get one life. Once you're dead, it's over."
"Your life isn't under any pressure that forces you to risk it right now, so why would you? It's irresponsible to yourself and your family, and it's not how a true powerhouse thinks."
Luo Feng gave an awkward smile. "Teacher, I'm not planning to risk my life. I just intend to go to 0231 County and hone my blade skills and movement technique. It's almost entirely filled with beast soldiers. There aren't many Beast General-level monsters, and most of those are Junior Beast Generals. There are hardly any Intermediate Beast Generals."
"With my current strength, I won't be in any danger."
Zhou Ze snorted. "I knew you'd think that way. But that approach to improving your strength is really just fooling yourself—you think that the more brutally and frantically you train, the faster you'll improve."
"Is that wrong?" Luo Feng said awkwardly.
"It's both right and wrong." Seeing Luo Feng's constipated expression, Zhou Ze smiled. "Think carefully: what was your biggest gain from this trip to the Wilderness Zone?"
After a moment's thought, Luo Feng replied, "The tempering in the Wilderness Zone, learning how cruel people can be, and earning hundreds of millions of Huaxia Currency!"
"What about your Ninefold Thunderblade?" Zhou Ze asked quietly.
"Uh, I didn't have time to train while I was in the Wilderness Zone, but I used the Ninefold Thunderblade whenever I fought monsters," Luo Feng quickly replied.
"So you only used the First Form of the Ninefold Thunder Blade, but never tried to grasp the Second Form..." Zhou Ze said calmly.
It was as if an invisible hand had closed around Luo Feng's throat. For a moment, he couldn't speak.
"Let me put it this way: practice is the sole criterion for testing truth..." Zhou Ze continued. "But you know practice is the final step. So where does the truth that comes before it come from? Truth is like the training you do every day. Once you've mastered it, that's when you put it into practice."
"You can't get the order wrong. If you're practicing and tempering yourself every day, when will you have time to train? Aren't you going about it backward?"
Luo Feng froze, thinking quickly over Zhou Ze's words. Soon, he understood. "I get it, Teacher."
"Good. Still, you really are short on combat experience, especially the experience of facing things alone. Other people accompanied you this time. You can go fight in 0231 County first and get it out of your system. After that, spend more time practicing the Second Form of the Ninefold Thunderblade. When you're tired of training, go fight for a while—but remember, don't put the cart before the horse!"
"I understand." Luo Feng nodded seriously. Then something occurred to him, and he hurriedly said, "Teacher, this trip really went just like you said. There were some parts that didn't feel right at first, but they fell into place quickly during actual combat."
"But I still don't understand what you meant about putting my heart into wielding the blade."
"Take your time. Focus on training the Second Form of the Ninefold Thunderblade first." Zhou Ze reminded him, "Go home and spend more time with your family. Once your strength improves, you might not have much time for them."
At that, Zhou Ze gave a strange smile. The most miserable "living widow" heroine in the Chinese version, tsk, tsk.
Limit Hall Headquarters.
In the director's office, a middle-aged man in a Tang suit sat at his desk, working. A beautiful woman dressed as a secretary knocked and entered.
"Director, there's something unusual happening in Yangzhou City."
"Oh?" Zhuge Tao looked a little surprised. He took the file and immediately noticed that the number of Quasi-Martial Artists in Yangzhou City had risen significantly for two months in a row.
"According to the investigation and report from the Limit Hall's Hall Master in Yangzhou City, the sharp increase in Quasi-Martial Artists passing the assessment is due to a Intermediate War General named Zhou Ze teaching there."
"Most of these Quasi-Martial Artists come from the Yi'an District Limit Martial Arts Hall. Quite a few others even make a special trip to the Yi'an District Limit Martial Arts Hall to seek Zhou Ze's guidance. They all agree that this Intermediate War General's instruction has helped them enormously!"
Zhuge Tao smiled as he read the report. "An Intermediate War General is holed up in a branch of a Limit Martial Arts Hall? Interesting. Yangzhou City has been producing talents lately. First there was Luo Feng, and now there's Zhou Ze."
"I understand. You can go."
"Yes, Director."
Zhuge Tao studied the figures in the report. They were very detailed, recording each Quasi-Martial Artist's assessment results for punching power, speed, and neural response speed.
"Senior Zhou Ze... I never expected him to be tucked away in a district martial arts branch in Yangzhou City..."
He still remembered Zhou Ze. He had heard stories about him back when he himself wasn't yet a martial artist. It was a pity that Zhou Ze's talent was limited. He hadn't expected him to have this kind of ability.
"I'll keep an eye on him." Zhuge Tao had an idea, but he would have to wait until next year's Martial Artist Combat Assessment was over.
The days passed.
Just now, Luo Feng had called Zhou Ze to tell him that he had broken through to the Second Form of the Ninefold Thunderblade and was working on integrating his blade technique, movement technique, and Guidance Technique. His physical fitness had also reached Beginner Warlord level.
Zhou Ze couldn't help grumbling. It was one thing for Luo Feng to learn the Ninefold Thunderblade so quickly, but how had his physical fitness improved so fast, too?
The next moment, Zhou Ze realized the reason: the Guidance Technique. Luo Feng had followed his advice, training along the path of combining blade technique, movement technique, and Guidance Technique. With every slash, he practiced the Guidance Technique. On top of that, he fought monsters frantically every day, burning through a great deal of energy. He absorbed far more cosmic energy each day than other people, so this progress wasn't surprising.
"That's ridiculously fast progress. No, I can't keep pinching pennies. I need to spend money and buy the Sixth Form of the Ninefold Thunderblade." Zhou Ze gritted his teeth and placed the order.
His comprehension was quite good. Although his basic punching power was only at Intermediate War General level, the power of his punches when he unleashed his strength was even greater than that of a Senior War General. Combined with his approach of integrating all three disciplines, ordinary Advanced Beast Generals were no match for him.
He could still scrape together a few billion.
"If I'd known, I should've collected more monster materials." Zhou Ze felt a little helpless. Back then, he'd slaughtered monsters like crazy to break through. To save time, he hadn't bothered cutting up their materials. He'd wasted who knew how many Advanced Beast General materials.
"Damn it, if I have to, I'll go hunting in the Wilderness Zone. I'm strong enough now, and killing a few Beast Generals will earn me plenty..." Zhou Ze was speechless. He'd taken on a disciple hoping to put his feet up, but instead he was being forced to improve.
He couldn't help it. It was too embarrassing when his disciple asked questions he couldn't answer.
Some time later, Luo Feng called again to say that he had mastered the Second Form of the Ninefold Thunderblade and had begun studying the Third Form. Zhou Ze felt the pressure once more.
"Should I just give up and take it easy? This is only the beginning. Once he enters the Elite Training Camp, how am I supposed to teach him? And before long, he'll be an Invincible War God and inherit Hu Yanbo's legacy..."
"Damn, forget it, I'm giving up. I wanted to slack off in the first place..."
"There's nothing shameful about a disciple surpassing his teacher..."
Even so, Zhou Ze didn't cancel the order. He waited for the Sixth Form of the Ninefold Thunderblade manual to arrive and began studying it.
What Zhou Ze didn't know was that he had already piqued Zhuge Tao's interest.
In the director's office at Limit Hall Headquarters, Zhuge Tao was reviewing the results of this month's Quasi-Martial Artist assessments in Yangzhou City. He had also specifically requested detailed information on the advanced students at the Yi'an District Limit Martial Arts Branch.
"Impressive. Amazing. How did he do it?"
As one of the four directors in Jiangnan Base City, he had seen countless talented people rise to prominence. But he had never encountered anyone with such an astonishing gift for teaching.
Zhuge Tao had always placed great importance on talent, and now he was completely focused on Zhou Ze. As a director of Limit Hall, he had access to plenty of information from higher up.
"What did it matter if his physical talent was poor? Dragon Blood and Spirit of Plants could make up for that. What if an arm was broken? There was always Water of Life."
"This Zhou Ze is no ordinary man!" Zhuge Tao exclaimed, losing his composure. "I never imagined Luo Feng would be his disciple!"
Luo Feng hadn't even passed the Martial Artist Assessment, yet he already had Conceptual Blade Art and Micro-level Movement Technique. In the past, Zhuge Tao would have chalked that up to Luo Feng's natural talent. Now, though Luo Feng certainly had talent, the guidance of his teacher, Zhou Ze, was clearly not to be underestimated!
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