Chapter 5 - Basic Combat Arts

When Cassius arrived at the edge of the training ground, Li Chu’s training squad was coincidentally taking a break. The two of them walked over to a corner.

"Sis, eat these." Cassius pulled out the two eggs from his pocket, slightly warm from his body heat.

His sister immediately rejected the eggs, but Cassius had expected this. The two siblings argued back and forth like they were playing a game of tug-of-war.

The game finally ended when Cassius whipped out his trump card by mentioning that Instructor Lisa was waiting for him. Only then did Li Chu lower her head and start peeling the eggs. Li Chu's eyes were tinged red, but she didn't want her bad mood to affect her brother so she forced herself not to cry. Although their parents were no longer with them, her brother still managed to mature into a sensible young man.

They were still young—she was only fourteen, her brother thirteen—and had promising futures ahead of them. The two of them had to live well from here on out. Giving up was simply out of the question.

Li Chu swallowed down her emotions along with a mouthful of egg.

Cassius left only after Li Chu finished both eggs. His philosophy on life was very simple: if someone was good to him, he would respond in kind. It was only fair. Of course, the opposite was true as well.

"

Huff, huff, huff

..." Cassius dashed up the stairs, panting heavily. This body, with its thin arms and legs, was just too weak and frail.

He pushed open the door. "Instructor Lisa, I'm back."

"Catch."

There was the sound of an egg flying over. Cassius caught it, slightly surprised.

The Wind Elephant Sect’s hospital was a hundred meters away from the training ground. Had Instructor Lisa seen what had happened from that far away? Strange.

"Let's move, we're going to the small training field next to the hospital." Lisa walked slowly toward him, reaching out with a rough hand to pat Cassius's shoulder.

"Yes, Instructor."

Cassius followed Lisa and they soon reached a rectangular field. Bathed in sunlight, the field appeared pale yellow, with a running track that circled around the edge. In the distance were two gray-white buildings used as warehouses for exercise equipment.

The duo walked toward the leftmost part of the field’s center, where several wooden training dummies awaited.

Lisa leaned against a tree next to the dummies, her arms crossed. Her hair, styled in a pixie cut, gleamed in the sunlight that filtered through the leaves, casting mottled golden spots.

Cassius stood opposite her and waited silently.

"Li Wei, this is all I can really do to help you catch up after you’ve missed four days of classes. You’re to join the usual training with the other members of our group tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, Instructor," Cassius said gratefully.

"No need, it's my job." Instructor Lisa shook her head lightly. She stared at Cassius for a moment before asking, "Do you know what martial arts are? Have you ever learned any?"

Cassius thought for a moment and said, "Martial arts are arts of killing. I can use them to kill someone, and maybe even take on ten people at once."

"You’re right. Crude, but you’ve got the rough idea. But the main thing I want to point out is that with martial arts, you can take on not only ten people at a time, but also a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand!" Lisa gazed deeply into Cassius's eyes. "Do you think that’s possible?"

"I..." Cassius suddenly realized that this world was not like the one he had lived in for twenty-five years, where life was simple. There were some things that lay beyond the superficial activity of this world.

Supernatural things that were out of ordinary people’s reach.

Being made of flesh and blood, martial artists obviously stood no chance against firearms. But what if they trained their body to become fast enough to dodge bullets? Or perhaps toughened their skin to be impenetrable like steel?

Nothing was impossible, especially in a supernatural world.

Cassius thought for a moment before nodding slowly. "Yes, I do."

Lisa smiled. "Look at this." She opened her hand.

Cassius lowered his gaze and saw a hand with thick knuckles and a palm full of calluses. Other than it looking nothing like a girl’s hand, there didn't seem to be anything special about it.

Just as Cassius was puzzling over this, Lisa stretched out her other hand and lightly flicked a branch.

An oval leaf slowly drifted down into her palm. But the leaf didn't touch her at all; instead, it started spinning like a top, hovering just five centimeters above the center of her palm, as if it were the blade on a fan.

"This..." Cassius widened his eyes.

The next second, the leaf transformed into what looked like a green boat. It swiftly shuttled back and forth between Lisa's fingers. She raised her hand slightly and flicked her fingers. The leaf instantly exploded into powder.

"Give me your hand," Lisa said calmly.

Cassius hesitated for a moment, but still offered his hand. Lisa suddenly extended hers to him and he froze in place.

The reason was simple. A layer of air flowed in the space between their hands like quicksand. The way it rubbed against Cassius's palm in different directions felt like sandpaper. Sometimes, the current was fast; sometimes it was slow. At times, it flowed left; other times it went right.

Had the pressure been just a little stronger, his skin would have been rubbed raw.

"Alright, you can let go now."

Cassius quickly did as he was told. When he looked down at his hand, he saw that it was somewhat red and his palm burned.

"That was just a taste of what you can do with martial arts. Make this your goal, but be sure you’re not overly ambitious. When it comes to practicing martial arts, being steadfast and diligent is the most important. Sweat doesn't lie, and diligence can make up for lack of talent. The road ahead is long."

Lisa then began to introduce the basics of combat.

In simple terms, there were three aspects: Martial Stances, Combat Techniques, and Explosive Techniques.

Martial Stances were the foundational stances of martial arts; similar but with some slight differences from the horse stance he was familiar with in his previous life. Martial Stances activated the muscles in one’s entire body, refining their body control and coordination.

Combat Techniques, as the name suggested, were the technical parts of fighting. Simply put, it was the basics of striking techniques: splitting punch, swinging punch, extracting punch, straight punch, drill punch, collapsing punch, and many more. With enough mastery, you could use any part of the body to strike in the same way.

It was all about learning the fundamental techniques of combat. Once a solid foundation was built, the techniques could then be combined to create a martial arts combination.

The third aspect was Explosive Techniques, but it was best to learn this after the first two aspects were mastered to a certain extent, otherwise, injuries could occur. Explosive Techniques enabled practitioners to better exert force.

How would one strike faster? How would one hit with more power? The answer to these questions was Explosive Techniques.

Besides these three aspects, there was also physical fitness. It was important to train one’s body by doing exercises like push-ups and squats, as well as build up one’s stamina through running. Being physically fit would help the practitioner’s usage of Basic Combat Arts and speed up their improvement.

Cassius spent the entire morning with Lisa, watching as she demonstrated the Basic Combat Arts of the Wind Elephant Sect for him several times. In the end, he was able to somewhat imitate the stances. As for the Combat Techniques, he could only remember one.

The swinging punch!

That was just how deep of an impression Instructor Lisa’s demonstration of the technique had left on him. Instructor Lisa said the swinging punch was the essence of the Wind Elephant Sect. A real swinging punch would emulate an elephant swinging its trunk.

As soon as she finished talking, she swung her fist.

Thud!

There, on the wooden training dummy that was as thick as half a man’s torso, was a deep indentation of about five centimeters.

If that had hit a person... Would their ribs fracture? Would it pierce through their heart and lungs?