Not Doing It, Not Being a Master Anymore

"Huh?"

Emiya stared closely at Old Tang's smooth, fair, long face, his eyes practically spinning, but he couldn't find anything unusual.

Seriously, he had just talked to Old Tang about the Atlas Institute a few days ago, and then Old Tang turned around and gave him an unbelievably coincidental surprise...

Was it Emiya's mouth that was blessed, or did you, Old Tang, really have a cheat?

"Hey, brother, don't doubt me, I'm really not lying to you. My memories are all back now—I remember this set of Seven Deadly Sins, I brought it out from the Atlas Institute back then. And now I feel like my brain is super sharp, like there are several calculation personalities in there, Old Tang 1, Old Tang 2, Old Tang 3..."

As he spoke, Old Tang focused and held his breath. Two seconds later, he opened his eyes wide, looked at Emiya, and pointed at his handsome face, "Brother, hit me with some force, right here!"

"Real hit or fake hit?"

"Cut the crap, real hit! Today, I'll show you what real skill is! I, Old Tang, am no longer the Old Tang who always got beaten up, I'm the super-evolved Old Tang!"

Seeing this, Emiya raised his fist, his arm suddenly exerting force for a right hook... a feint. In reality, he lifted his leg and kicked out like a rapidly whipping chain.

Who knew Old Tang seemed to have known this was coming? He took a small step and dodged Emiya's leg.

Heh heh, couldn't hit me, could you?

Emiya, not believing his luck, started flying up and kicking out with deadly rapid kicks. Old Tang raised his head, gave an evil smile, and began using Ling Bo Wei Bu, actually walking with a fierce, powerful gait through micro-movements.

"Seriously, brother, do you really have a cheat?"

Old Tang rolled his eyes. "Can you call what an Alchemist does 'cheating'? This is called combat intelligence... As soon as you start fighting, the personalities in my brain link up and go into a frenzy of analysis, like a supercomputer, analyzing all your moves and patterns—"

"Heh heh, Brother Emiya, as soon as you make a move, I know what you're going to do the next second."

Hahaha! The inflated Old Tang laughed wildly in his heart, finally feeling the exhilaration of his combat power soaring. I can even predict the future now, doesn't that mean I'm almost invincible?

What Great Hero Emiya? He was just a mortal who was born before I, Old Tang, awakened!

"Again!" Emiya also exhaled, his entire body's Mana surging and circulating rapidly.

This time, he would also get a little serious. He had been continuously sparring with Zhou Minhao and other Zhou Family disciples in different martial arts styles before, and he had a vague, elusive feeling.

That feeling wasn't a sixth sense, but a pure physical sensation.

"..." Emiya took a stance. This was different from Old Tang's method of rapidly rotating his brain to calculate his opponent's fighting style; this required him to empty his mind and let his body take over.

Old Tang on the opposite side was about to say, "Come on then," but after analyzing it with his brain, his face immediately became serious. Damn, I can't figure out this style, the calculation pressure is a bit high.

Whoosh!

Emiya rushed forward without any warning, thump thump thump. Old Tang also gritted his teeth and attacked forward—they were still in the room now, they couldn't let the opponent back them into a corner!

Emiya's speed as he instantly sprinted forward was like a suddenly rising swift leopard, but Old Tang wasn't a pushover either. He had already calculated in advance that Emiya would suddenly stoop down and follow up with a serpentine punch in the blind spot of his left vision—

Whoosh! The air in the room exploded. Old Tang leaned aside lightly and dodged before the sound of the wind. So their figures crossed, but Old Tang didn't relax yet.

The next move, Emiya would stomp the floor, use his waist as an axis, turn around, and unleash a heavy palm strike. From a distance, it looked like a swimming dragon that was unaffected by inertia and could change its path at will! This was the You Shen Bagua Zhang, "shaped like a swimming dragon, turning like a circling hawk"!

Old Tang also turned and met the palm strike, having predicted it in advance. With a bang, the sound of their palms meeting in the room was like someone violently striking a huge bell! The Mana gathered in their palms overflowed and shot out, and the air echoed with bursts of thunder!

However, Old Tang's martial arts were ultimately not refined. He had a body full of surging Mana but was caught off guard and was actually forced to retreat instead of advancing. Of course, he could also output Mana and counterattack with fire, but that wasn't necessary. If he got heated, he might accidentally set the house on fire.

But using this force, Old Tang could also dodge diagonally. This was because he had again predicted that Emiya's attack was a continuous palm strike. He seemed to be in a dangerous situation, but in reality, he dealt with it calmly, letting Emiya's next palm strike brush past his cheek—

However, what Old Tang didn't expect was that a sudden change occurred! Emiya's palm strike suddenly changed into a fist. Just before his cheek was about to dodge, the fist suddenly extended half a foot out of thin air!

Old Tang hadn't calculated this. His eyes could only bulge out as he stared blankly at the rapidly enlarging fist in front of him—Oh my Tong Bei Quan!

Slap, Old Tang's big face, which had been smug and looking like an otherworldly expert, was hit squarely before he could dodge. His entire body fell backward and crashed heavily onto the solid wood floor.

Lying on the ground, Old Tang covered the half of his face that had been hit directly, hissing and drawing two cold breaths. After a while, he recovered and said with a resentful expression:

"Ouch, don't hit the face! My martial arts aren't good enough, Brother Emiya, at least know the limits and go easy on me."

"..." Emiya was speechless, thinking, Weren't you the one who told me to hit you for real?

Now that you know you can't win, you're not pretending to be a master anymore?

Old Tang sprang up energetically like a carp flipping over, covering his face with one hand and waving the other, saying he wouldn't fight anymore, he wouldn't be a master. Then he quietly asked Emiya how his style had changed this time, to the point where even his brain couldn't calculate it.

Emiya said this was a combat skill called "Mind's Eye," which could predict the opponent purely based on physical combat experience. Simply put, it was making on-the-spot predictions based on accumulated experience. The more experience, the more accurate the prediction.

...Old Tang, your future prediction is amazing, but I know about this thing, and I've also roughly seen how much time you can predict the future. So, as long as I adjust my fighting style and strategy based on your ability to predict the future, and step by step block your routes so you can't dodge, that's it.

Seeing this, Old Tang said, "Holy crap, then my future prediction seems useless in front of martial arts masters. Their punches and kicks are definitely fast, and their footwork is exquisite. As soon as they get close, they'll rely on experience to block all my dodging routes. What should I do?"

Emiya shook his finger and said, "Not necessarily. If others can predict you, then you just predict their prediction, right? Prediction and prediction will cancel each other out. At this time, it's a competition of whose prediction is further."

At that time, the person with the furthest prediction will control the overall situation and be invincible.

Old Tang listened with great interest. It seemed like he still had a chance to be a master?

But how should he practice predicting further?

Emiya took a stance again. Want to learn? I'll teach you.

Let me tell you, the secret to this thing is one word: practice. It's just about getting better with practice. Fight with me more, and you'll understand it yourself. Besides, my Mind's Eye also needs continuous combat accumulation. You practice, and I'll practice too. Let's improve together.

Old Tang's face paled, and the half of his cheek that was hit throbbed faintly. Are you sure this isn't because... you're taking revenge for me leaving you with the Wa Lord last time and going off on my own?

Thanks to @咸鱼人类@书友20200127210121611@书友20230621234234791@书友20240213104655413@帕拉德dx@书友20230611095209090@书友20210310125548732 for the monthly votes!