NOVEL SIMPLE How Martial Arts Technique Work
Brax and Peter arrived back at his place and walked in. Peter closes the door on his way in as he feels the Intermediate level breathing technique in his hand is a priceless treasure and anyone who even gets a glimpse of it might try to take it away from him.
It's not uncommon for a disciple to suddenly lose their cultivation manual for no reason. Sometimes they get bullied into submission and forced to hand it over and sometimes, it just magically disappears from their possession.
Peter felt that he needed to be careful with it. He didn't want anyone other than Brax to know that he had an Intermediate level breathing technique.
Brax didn't care what Peter was thinking. He is more interested in seeing how an Intermediate level Qi breathing technique differs from a basic level one.
"Are you ready?" Peter asks anxiously, as if he is about to reveal the biggest secret ever. "Sure, go ahead," Brax says and takes a seat on his bed. Peter joins him and takes out his newly acquired breathing manual from his robe and places it in front of Brax.
Brax reads the title of the manual "Spirit River Qi breathing technique". From the name, Brax can't tell anything about the book and luckily he doesn't have to guess it as Peter opens it and starts flipping through the book.
There is an uncontrollable excitement in his eyes as he goes through the different pages of the manual. If there was someone else in Brax's position, they wouldn't be able to understand a single sentence or movement from the book, but Brax only needs a glance.
He doesn't need to pay for the manual like his "friend" here. Little does Peter know, he is being taken advantage of. In Peter's eyes, he is just showing off his new technique to his friend, but little does he know, that his precious cultivation manual is being stolen right in front of him.
The reason Peter is not worried about showing his manual to Brax is because cultivation manuals are complex and a cultivator needs to keep referring to the manual so that they don't make a mistake. If a cultivator practices his Qi breathing wrong, it will severely damage their veins.
No cultivator in their right mind would practice the Qi breathing technique without a manual beside them. Even if their memory is good, they hold it dearly beside them. They only discard it to the side when they fully understand what they are doing and their body is used to the process of where it just becomes muscle memory, and that takes time.
But Brax just doesn't have a good memory. His eyes are like cameras. To this very day, he remembers everything that happened throughout his whole life, down to the very minute second.
Just by Peter flipping through the pages, he gave away his Qi breathing manual to Brax.
Reaching the end of the manual, Peter closes it and puts it back inside his robe. "I can't wait to get started. If I can breakthrough to the 7th level in six months, I might be able to participate in the outer sect exam,"
"Oh, is it in six months?" Brax asks. "Yes, but you don't have to worry. It's not like you will be able to participate in it with your cultivation level, and you still have a lot of years. With your talent, you might become an inner sect disciple in two to three years," Peter says.
"Who knows, I might get lucky and come across a fortunate encounter," Brax says jokingly, but also planting a seed into Peter's mind that it might be possible for Brax to enter this year's exam alongside him.
"Well it is possible, hahaha" Peter laughs but doesn't discredit Brax's claims as it is not uncommon for such a thing to happen, sometimes a cultivator comes across a treasure or has an epiphany while cultivating and can make major strives in their cultivation.
"By the way, do you know about this outer sect disciple named Darvin?" Brax asks.
"Darvin Rand? the bully?" "Yes him"
"Shit, did something happen? Did you offend him?" Peter asks in a worried tone.
"I don't think so, but I had an interaction with him in the manual hall," Brax said.
"Shit, you got lucky. He is a known bully. Not only is he one of the top 10 outer sect disciples, but he is also the cousin of a very influential inner sect disciple. That is why many disciples try their best to keep away from him and if he decides to target someone, he will make their life miserable." Peter explains.
"Is it that bad?" Brax asks. "You don't know the length Darvin has taken his torture methods. Some of his victims killed themselves, while others left the sect. He is also a well-known womanizer, so many pretty junior and senior sisters have become his victims."
"And the sect doesn't take any actions, I presume," Brax says. "You are right, and why would they? He is seen as one of the talented ones in the recent batch. They are willing to sacrifice thousands to keep him," Peter says, pauses, and then continues. "You should pray that he doesn't remember you or he might make you his next victim. In fact, you should lock yourself up here for a few months," Peter warns him.
"And what about senior brother Luke Blane?" Brax asks.
"Oh, senior brother Luke Blane is a very good person. He is known for helping his junior brothers and sisters unconditionally. He is an angel in human clothing," Peter says with reverence filled in his voice. Brax can clearly tell that Peter looks up to this Luke.
But the more Brax hears about Luke, the more shady he becomes in his mind. Nobody is that perfect, and Brax knows that. In fact, Brax believes Darvin is a much better person than Luke, as he doesn't hide behind a mask.
At the end of the day, this is just his speculation and Brax has no way to prove it. But he trusts his intuition. They have never failed him.
"Hmm, well then, I should go back to cultivating," Brax says, as he wants to be left alone now. He is done worrying about insignificant characters. "Yes, me too. I can't wait to go back and thoroughly read it and try to understand how it works," Peter says and bids his farewell.
With Peter gone, Brax is left alone to think and his mind starts working on overdrive. "There are many factors I need to consider," Brax murmurs as he skims through the Intermediate level Qi breathing technique in his mind and quickly realizes the difference between it and a basic level one.
First, Brax sorted out the martial art techniques. After skimming through so many of them, he realized their biggest flaw, but also found that they could be of great use to him.
A basic-level martial arts technique uses Qi energy as its main base. By channeling Qi energy and converting it into a form of element, a cultivator can use different elements in their attack. Them being fire, water, wind, ice, and many others. But what makes them basic is not the Qi energy, but the movement associated with it.
The simplest way to explain this is by comparing a normal straight punch with a combination of punches.
Basic martial arts techniques are just Qi energy and basic attacking movements fused to perform a singular move, a single punch or kick.
Intermediate-level martial arts technique combines Qi energy with more complex move sets, but that is not all. As it is a combination move, the better you get at executing it, the more Qi energy you can channel, making it even more effective and powerful.
Brax doesn't care about the Qi energy part of the martial arts technique, but its movements. He can easily find a better way to implement elemental energy into his martial arts, as he knows almost everything about how elements work and why they work as such. But the movements, they are important to him.
These movements are purely physical in nature and a hundred times more advanced than the one back in his world. Brax used to practice martial arts such as boxing, Maui Thai, taekwondo, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, judo, and many more, but all these martial arts pale in comparison to what this world has to offer.
And why wouldn't it be more advanced? The people of this world have been fighting and killing each other for billions of years for the sake of becoming immortal. The only thing they know is how to fight to grow stronger. So, over time, they have become better and better in terms of pure physical martial arts.
Brax is smart and arrogant, but he isn't ignorant. He knows he needs to learn these movements. If he can implement his own theories into these movements, he will become unstoppable.