Ding Songyan strolled toward the edge of the courtyard and remarked casually:
"Those variations were different responses I devised against hypothetical opponents using different martial arts. They're neither complete nor continuous. You lack my level of attainment and have never faced the corresponding opponents. If you commit them to memory, you'll inevitably look forward and backward in a fight, hesitating and struggling to make a decision.
"All you need to remember is that the fist techniques and footwork of the Iron Injury Fist were created by predecessors whose bodies were impervious to blades and spears. They might have considered descendants who hadn't fully mastered their body-hardening arts, but they could never have accounted for everything in such meticulous detail. That's where you can make improvements suited to your current strength.
"If a sword is fast enough, it needs no feints. But very few people can bring swift swordplay to such a pinnacle, which is why all those complicated moves exist. The same principle applies to the Iron Injury Fist. First go from simple to complex. Once you've fully mastered your body-hardening arts, return from complex to simple."
At the Xiaoming Sect, besides seeking advice from Senior Brother Wan, Senior Sister Zheng, and others, Ding Songyan would also spar periodically with disciples assigned specifically to combat practice.
These fellow disciples already had little hope of progressing along the martial path, yet were unwilling to grub after profit in some money-reeking trade. They chose to remain in the sect and practice the martial techniques collected in its scripture library, giving other disciples experience against opponents wielding spears, fists and palms, whips, bronze maces, large and small hammers, long and short sabers, hidden weapons, arrows, and more before they ventured into the martial world.
With different true qi and different unusual apertures, the