Short Nights, Short Dreams
Willow leaves danced beside the plaque.
A Prince was not somebody to be disrespected.
Despite not officially taking Zizi as my disciple, despite me not having any money, I was an adult. How could an adult deprive a kid when he was acting as the kid’s guardian? Hence, we had to pick a secluded spot. I even bought two chicken drumsticks, 2.5 kilograms of beef, a pork thigh, and three jugs of wine to the spot. I let him carry all of it so that he wouldn’t feel bad about it. Once we arrived at our spot, I dug in. If I accidentally ate all of it, it was no biggie. Zizi still had money. You needed to respect the imperial family. Giving a Prince money was implying he was poor, man.
Whilst giving me a back massage, Zizi queried, “Shifu, who are they?”
“People after you.”
The reason we dined in a wild forest while the sun was still up was to wait for five folks to show themselves. They tailed us from the moment we left the capital. I had time to eat half a grilled chicken and one pork thigh before the unarmed quintet showed up with weapons.
“Why the surprise? If we were any later, they’d likely have called it a day. You think everyone is willing to come out to die on such a hot day?”
I spent two days synthesising the two manuals into one. The manuals weren’t actually a problem. As a said previously, the end result was the same regardless of which manual one followed – as long as they could fathom my shifu’s madness and go along with it. Those two factors were unquestionably challenges for honest-to-a-fault Zizi. For that reason, I split it into “training” and “real combat” sections. I had him focus most of his time on refining his qi to prepare for upcoming real fights, which was when he’d truly be practicing the discipline.
If the discipline was too hard and complicated for Zizi, he could’ve sought out aid from his maternal grandparents. They would’ve been more than happy to provide him with manuals to learn. Regrettably, he had started on a path of no return because it was more than a month too late by the time I understood the manuals.
Pure Yang One Qi required the practitioner to progress as fast as possible. As it was supposed to be developed in actual combat, the remaining sections on collecting and refining qi were written expressly. Although it required the practitioner to be smarter than the average person by far, it was easy to get the gist of. At least, Zizi had already understood the essentials and had most of the qi components down pact.
Owing to my late discovery, Zizi had already planted the seeds for qi deviation in his qi circulation methodology. Thus, he still ran the risk of qi deviation even if he picked up another discipline later in life. If he couldn’t learn to control it, then the consequences would be even more dire. Erasing all of his training wasn’t an option due to his weak foundation and young age. Deleting his progress would’ve been adding another barrier to his progress in the future. While I could’ve facilitated him in nurturing essence with my own energy so that he could build a new foundation, it was too troublesome. Further, I preferred to not “plant progress” if possible. He had a knack for martial arts, so I didn’t want to let it go to waste. An ordinary person would’ve hesitated and contemplated if they ran into the same scenario, but I was different.
I immediately shared my new understanding with Zizi. He instantly understood what had to be done once I gave him a few warnings. Instead of treading cautiously, slowly and hesitantly, he pushed himself to enter a qi deviation state. Alas, he couldn’t have beaten up all of Mount Daluo’s disciples in a matter of years and forced Grandmaster into intervening. Even if he could’ve reached the same level as Shifu then, he couldn’t have had the same mindset and fluid mindset Shifu had back then, which were the two most vital ingredients.
Shifu had the ability to alter a technique due to circumstances, his opponent, or even a single word. If he and someone else were to learn the exact same skills, he’d be more deadly than them with the skills. That was a product of talent alone; it was impossible to mimic. Moreover, he had plenty of people stronger than him around to fight. As aforementioned, his approach was extremely risky and borderline insane. Luckily, Zizi didn’t have to imitate Shifu’s process to the T. As long as he continued fighting and winning, he was fine.
Zizi instinctively tensed up as he watched the five strangers encroach upon us.
The elder armed with a bronze whip offered me a cordial smile. “Brother, are you implying you deliberately showed up to lure us out?”
The skinny gnome had an ugly face, yet he liked to smile. Even an idiot would’ve realised he should’ve been vigilant around the old guy.
“This is embarrassing.” The elder scratched his head. “You lured us out to catch us all at once? You believe you can take us all on?”
I asked Zizi, “You’ve been training for a month. You know how to fight now?”
Zizi froze as he reflected on all his training for the past month. He had been training daily, but he stopped short in sparring, so he wasn’t sure if he had progressed.
“You won’t get better staying cooped up in your room training, and it won’t earn you respect from your enemies. They won’t even think you’re worthy of dispatching someone decent to deal with you.” Ignoring the five strangers cursing and roaring, I questioned, “Answer me this: is fighting avoidable?”
Zizi cast his gaze from the five of them to the ground, stopped to think, then raised his head once he was ready. “Yes, but I do not want to.”
I smiled. “Had you said, ‘It is best to avoid conflict where possible,’ I’d have knocked you out, taken you back, and erased your training. People who want to avoid conflict aren’t cut for the discipline.”
When Grandmaster asked posed the question to Shifu back then, Shifu replied, “Why the hell should I avoid them? I want to see how tough they are.” That was what convinced Grandmaster that Shifu was the sort of man who wanted to see the world burn, or he wouldn’t be satisfied, and deemed it necessary to kidnap him back to Mount Daluo.
“As a Prince, avoiding conflict was impossible from the moment you were born. Pure Yang One Qi is the same. Once you stop training, your own energy will torment you endlessly. Choosing to engage in conflict is a path of no return. Are you sure you want to step onto it?”
Zizi marched to the forefront and proudly smiled. “Let’s see what you crooks are made of.”
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