The Paradox of a New Art

"Master's temper has been really bad lately!" Old Six sidled up beside Song Daren and asked in a low voice.

"Isn't it because he's worried about Little Junior Brother?" Old Four replied as he gathered the bowls and chopsticks and put them into the basin.

"But hasn't Little Junior Brother always been like this? I think it's pretty good!"

"Because of Little Junior Brother, our Big Bamboo Peak has had a lot more amusing things happen! Our branch was already the smallest in number! Ever since Little Junior Brother came to Big Bamboo Peak, it hasn't been so deserted!" Old Five really could not figure out what Master was worried about.

"Little Junior Brother has to grow up someday! When the time comes, if he's still got this sort of character, that won't be good! Letting him be willful isn't being good to him—it's harming him!" Old Four sighed and explained.

"It's fine on the mountain! We spoil him and protect him. But if he goes down the mountain, with that temperament of his, he's bound to suffer a huge loss!" Song Daren sighed, seeming to imagine Luo Yunji's miserable state after going down the mountain, and hurriedly shook his head, flinging the image out of his mind.

"Little Junior Brother is only nine, right!" Old Five still could not quite understand.

"That's true!" Old Four thought about it and agreed. Because of Little Junior Brother's monstrous cultivation talent and comprehension, they, his senior brothers, always overlooked his age.

"We're all nearly a hundred or over a hundred ourselves. For cultivators, age really doesn't count for much. Little Junior Brother still has a lot of time to be willful! If something happens, doesn't he still have us?" After Old Five understood what Master was worried about, he smiled and said this to his fellow senior and junior brothers.

"That's true! But Little Junior Brother has never left Azure Clouds. He's stayed on Big Bamboo Peak since he was little. The farthest he's gone might just be those few trips to Heaven-Reaching Peak."

"And Small Bamboo Peak!" Song Daren added.

"Oh!... Senior Sister Wen Min! We understand!" Old Two laughed and teased Song Daren.

"You're the capable one! Hurry up and clean. Get back to cultivating! The four of you should cultivate to the fifth level as soon as possible. When the time comes, you'll be able to take Little Junior Brother down the mountain to see the world. Maybe after he comes back, Little Junior Brother will have become sensible!" Song Daren's ears reddened, and he sped up the movements of his hands, busily changing the subject.

"That's right! When the time comes, I'll take Little Junior Brother and have a proper bit of fun! Let him see what a world of blossoms and splendor is!" Old Six imagined the carefree days after going down the mountain with a face full of smugness and yearning.

"Little Junior Brother! Are you still angry?" In the two of them's secret stronghold on the rear mountain, Zhang Xiaofan saw Luo Yunji sitting in front of the bamboo hut, staring blankly at the three pools on the cave wall opposite. He handed a bowl of crispy grain beans before his eyes.

The little fatty grabbed a handful of beans and stuffed them all into his mouth. His cheeks bulged, moving and moving. Although Zhang Xiaofan could see this scene every day, every time he still found it very interesting.

Zhang Xiaofan also pinched a few and put them into his mouth.

"I'm creating a cultivation art!" Luo Yunji had on a lonely, haughty little look that said, You don't understand my sorrow, and glanced at Zhang Xiaofan.

"Creating a cultivation art?" Zhang Xiaofan was somewhat surprised.

"That's right! I'm going to create a cultivation art that can let me quickly catch up to that damn monkey! Since it dared snatch my things!" The moment Luo Yunji thought of that drab, grayish damn monkey, his belly filled with resentment.

After so long, that tube of monkey wine must have been drunk dry!

Just thinking about it made his heart ache!

"Then have you created it?" Zhang Xiaofan chewed the beans and curiously turned his head to look at the round dumpling beside him.

"No!" Luo Yunji drooped his head dejectedly. As if he had grown tired from sitting, his body tilted and he lay down on the ground, resting his head on Zhang Xiaofan's leg. "There aren't even any methods to refer to. I can't just create a nonexistent cultivation art out of thin air!"

"Wasn't that powerful formula, Myriad Laws Return to One, created out of thin air by you, Little Junior Brother?" Zhang Xiaofan asked curiously.

"That one had a basis! And usually, after training the Taiji Mystic Purity Dao to the fifth level, one can comprehend some methods for using cultivation arts. But movement arts don't seem to have much of a basis!"

"A movement art is just running faster, isn't it? If you create some kind of formula that can speed you up, wouldn't that be enough?" Zhang Xiaofan offered an idea.

"If only it were really that simple!" Luo Yunji racked his brains over some of the key points of movement arts. "You have to use movements to drive the whole body, and then through inertia, you can carry the body along without using effort. This 'movement' is very important."

"Even taking one step, planting one foot, they're all connected. If you add the driving force of a cultivation art's spiritual energy, it should be even faster."

"But all spiritual energy circulation requires the body not to move in order to run the spiritual energy inside the body along a specific route! A movement art, though, requires the body to keep moving! Otherwise, it wouldn't be called a movement art. In that case, the two are completely at odds."

"Spiritual energy circulation requires the body to be still. Even if it's only for a very short time, the body has to not move. Once the body moves, the cultivation art circulating inside the body might be interrupted." Luo Yunji stated the difficulty of the new cultivation art.

"Uh! This..." After Zhang Xiaofan finished listening, he had not understood at all. But he did understand one point: if one circulated an art, the body absolutely could not move. Yet a movement art required the body to be constantly in motion.

Zhang Xiaofan could not understand it. Seeing that he could not help at all, and that the beans in the bowl were almost finished, he helped Little Junior Brother sit upright, then picked up the bowl, stood, and went to the kitchen to get some more.

"Senior Brother!" The little fatty was sitting a bit uncomfortably and wanted to keep lying down, only to see that Zhang Xiaofan beside him had disappeared. He turned his head to look, and saw Zhang Xiaofan walking toward him with the bowl. A flash of light instantly swept through his mind, but he failed to catch it.

Deep in thought, he maintained that awkward posture without moving at all, staring at Zhang Xiaofan as he slowly approached.

"Junior Brother?!" After drawing near, seeing Luo Yunji's posture and his dazed eyes, Zhang Xiaofan knew Little Junior Brother had reached a crucial point in thinking through the problem, so he did not dare disturb him. He put down the bowl, got up, went to the kitchen to take a few bamboo tubes, and went below to draw some water.

When Luo Yunji came back to himself, he searched for Zhang Xiaofan's figure again and discovered he was down below, following the stone steps up toward him.

"Space? Direction? Time?" Several special words flashed quickly through his mind. "It seems very troublesome, but I do have some ideas now."

Just like that, it went on until Zhang Xiaofan discovered that it was already somewhat late, and they had no choice but to go back.

He hoisted him onto his back and left the secret stronghold.

"He..."

"Shh!"

Seeing Tian Buyi in front of him, wearing a curious expression as he sized up Little Junior Brother on his back, Zhang Xiaofan, afraid of disturbing Luo Yunji's thoughts, hurriedly said in a careful low voice, "Master, I'll explain to you later! I'll send Little Junior Brother back first!"

Tian Buyi waved his hand, indicating that he should leave.

Zhang Xiaofan sent him back to his room, then went to see Tian Buyi and explained Luo Yunji's situation.

"That little brat really wants to create a movement art?" Tian Buyi looked at Zhang Xiaofan in some astonishment.

"Mm! But it seems there's a very difficult problem. Little Junior Brother thought and thought until he became like this! I didn't dare disturb him, for fear of startling him and breaking off his train of thought." Zhang Xiaofan nodded.