Chapter 1869 — Deliberating on Martial Arts, Part Two

Wei Zhao kept working through that single stance for a full half hour before he finally, slowly, drew his hands back.

By then he understood that he had at last gained a practiced mastery of this martial art. As for how he had managed it, he would have to go ask Old Jiao, for Wei Zhao himself was utterly at a loss.

Wei Zhao let out a long breath, and suddenly realized that several people had gathered around him.

It was his own courtyard, and he had been bursting with excitement, so for a time he had paid no heed to anything nearby; only once he withdrew his stance did he abruptly sense the presence of others. Wei Zhao was startled and inwardly chided himself for his carelessness.

True, his name blazed like the noonday sun just now, and it was hardly likely anyone would dare come knocking to provoke him—but there is always a one-in-ten-thousand chance. What if an enemy did come calling?

What if, while he was practicing his martial arts, an enemy came to strike from the shadows? Such a sneak attack was unlikely beneath so domineering a martial art, but it was still best to be careful.

"Yaoyao, Little Shu, Uncle Qing, Chengtian—you're back..." No sooner had the words left Wei Zhao's mouth than he noticed the looks the four of them were giving him, full of shock and disbelief, as though he had just done something extraordinary.

"Brother Arrowbrand, is that the martial art you used that day to wipe out three Earth-rank experts?" Shen Yushu asked.

"Xiaoyi... you've actually already comprehended all three stances of the Frenzied Fire Fist?" Uncle Qing said in astonishment. "That day—was it this move you used against those three Earth-rank experts?"

Earlier they had heard that Wei Zhao had slain three Earth-rank experts in a single move, but how he had done it, Wei Zhao had never said. Curious as Uncle Qing and the others were, they had not pressed him; only now, with the moment upon them, did they finally ask.

"Uncle Qing, you were the one who taught me these three stances. You should know their power well enough—could they kill three Earth-rank experts in a single move and burn them to ashes?" Wei Zhao said with a bitter smile.

"They should not," Uncle Qing said, shaking his head. "But back in my day, the force I could summon was nothing like the scale of yours. Seasoned as I was, compared to you I still fell somewhat short."

"Ah?" Wei Zhao was taken aback at Uncle Qing's words. He had actually... already surpassed Uncle Qing in his prime? How absurd that sounded! After all, before today, Wei Zhao had been no more than half-taught and clumsy.

"I am ashamed—I cultivated for years, yet I am no match for your few months," Uncle Qing said, a little red-faced. "But my master back then could bring out the twentieth stance of the Frenzied Fire Fist. Slaying three Earth-rank experts in a single move was no difficult feat for him..."

"Uh... actually, I only practiced it for an afternoon..." Wei Zhao scratched his scalp and said, somewhat embarrassed.

"Hiss—" Uncle Qing drew a sharp breath. An afternoon? He knew Wei Zhao would not lie to him, so an afternoon it must truly have been. But that Wei Zhao could grasp the first three stances of the Frenzied Fire Fist in a single afternoon left Uncle Qing able to call him only one thing: a genius. "Xiaoyi... the things that happen to you are far too strange. You can repair the meridians of Chengtian and me—comprehending the Frenzied Fire Fist in an afternoon hardly counts as remarkable anymore!"

"Heh..." Wei Zhao himself found it baffling. Could this be what they called a sudden flash of enlightenment? Yet he was filled with anticipation for the later stances of the Frenzied Fire Fist. The twentieth stance could wipe out three Earth-rank experts in a single move—was that not exactly what Wei Zhao longed for?

So Wei Zhao hurriedly asked, "Uncle Qing, do you have the later stances of the Frenzied Fire Fist?"

"I only have the first ten. The eleventh stance can only be brought out by a Heaven-rank expert. I never memorized the mental cultivation formula back then..." Uncle Qing said.

"Huh?" Wei Zhao blinked. "Then what rank was your master?" "Heaven-rank..." Uncle Qing said.

"Pff—cough, cough..." Wei Zhao choked on Uncle Qing's words. A Heaven-rank expert wiping out three Earth-rank experts in a single move hardly seemed like anything worth being shocked about, did it? That left Wei Zhao rather disappointed again. Sure enough, where in the world were there such heaven-defying things?

If an expert of the same rank could kill three peers of that rank in a single move, wouldn't that make him invincible?

"Actually... before I met you, I truly never knew of any cultivator who could kill three cultivators above his own rank..." Uncle Qing said with a bitter smile. "In truth, for a Heaven-rank expert—an early-stage Heaven-rank, say—killing three Earth-rank experts is still a very difficult thing, let alone when one of them was a late-stage Earth-rank..."

"...That day was an accident." Wei Zhao did not hide it from Uncle Qing and the others; these were his own people, and they would never harm him. "I forced out all the fire-poison true qi my body had produced when I suffered qi deviation, and used that fire-poison true qi to burn the three Earth-rank experts to death. It was not any martial art..."

"So that was it!" Uncle Qing and Wu Chengtian nodded in sudden understanding. All these days they had puzzled over how Wei Zhao, plainly only an early-stage Earth-rank expert, could have slain three even stronger Earth-rank experts in a single move.

"Brother Arrowbrand is the best—he even knows how to put waste to use!" Shen Yushu said.

"..." Gu Mengyao was speechless too, and inwardly counted their luck. If Wei Zhao had not put that waste to use, would the rest of them have even escaped?

But after bringing out those three stances of the Frenzied Fire Fist, Wei Zhao felt an indescribable weariness. He had not noticed it while unleashing them, but now that he had stopped, it felt as though more than half the true qi in his body had been spent. It was not enough to hinder his movements, yet the exhaustion was genuine.

"Uncle Qing, does the Frenzied Fire Fist consume a great deal of true qi?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Of course it consumes true qi..." Uncle Qing was slightly taken aback by the question, but then he recalled that Wei Zhao had not even known what martial arts were before, and understood. "But it is not that the Frenzied Fire Fist consumes a great deal—all martial arts consume a great deal, and the more advanced the art, the more so. That is why even in duels between experts, no one can unleash martial arts without limit. Otherwise, in the end, before the enemy is beaten to death, the practitioner would exhaust himself to death first."

"So that's how it is!" Wei Zhao nodded.

"But the true qi consumed by martial arts is very easy to replenish—unlike true qi spent in other ways," Uncle Qing said. "Martial arts require a great deal of true qi to unleash, but after use, the true qi is not entirely discharged. A portion of it is converted into another form and remains within the body; after rest, it can be converted back into true qi."

"So miraculous?" Wei Zhao said in surprise. Then he thought about it—of course. If it were truly so hard to recover, who would ever use martial arts? Then all the strength one had painstakingly cultivated would be gone, and the loss would outweigh the gain.

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