After he said those words, I decided not to stand up even though I'm completely currently able to do so, I didn't feel any discomfort with my body, if anything I felt that I'm more energized than ever .
My chest were beating stronger than before, I felt a great deal of comfort mixed with a bit of less, due to the thing that made me become like that was really really short-lived .
My Senior Brother's words resonated in my ears, but this happening wasn't intentional, I didn't miss up due to executing a Martial posture wrongly nor did I lost my rhythm of breathing on purpose, I was distracted by that weird message that appeared on my mind and forced me to make a mistake .
At the sudden mistake, I expected that I would get severely injured just as my Senior Brother said, I was even scared that I might really get crippled, but weirdly enough that didn't happen, instead I get to taste the Tempering effect of practicing Martial Arts for the first time and I can only describe that feeling as addictive .
But forgetting about that for now, it wasn't like my Senior Brother was wrong with his judgment, no, he was most likely correct, but I believe that whatever that was bound to happen to me, was negated by that weird message that appeard .
This wasn't the first time it appeared, no, I thought that I was hallucinating before back at the Lu Family Courtyard, but it happened again when I unconsciously started to practice the Solid Rock Fist Manual and this seemed to be the third time this happened, so this might not be me going crazy as I previously thought, no this message was actually real .
Realizing this, I suddenly felt all the hair on my body raised up to an end, people always are scared of the unknown and I was no different, even if this world where Magical Martial Arts exist, getting a message appearing directly in my mind was enough to had my face go instantly pale with fright .
What's with the pale complex, I checked your body just now and it seem that there no much problem happened to it, your Blood Vitality might be in a little bit of disorder, that what might lead you to feel like you are unable to move a muscle for the time being, but don't worry after relaxing a bit, everything will go back to normal, so cheer up, you had just taken the first few steps towards beginning your Path Of Martial Arts .
I heard senior brother say these words trying to cheer me up after misinterpreting my expression as being afraid of getting injured, to some extent he was indeed correct, but this was no longer the main reason to why I was like this, not anymore no .
I nodded at his words and calmed down a little and began to think about what was exactly going on with me, what exactly was that message that appeared in my head, I tried to close my eyes and try to reach out to it one more time, but to no avail, nothing happened anymore .
I beginning to feel a bit desperate began to call game words like status window and the like, trying every word that might trigger some reaction, but all of these tries of mine shared the same fate, all failed .
I sighed and wanted to ask the Senior Brother in front of me for guidance, but thinking that this might be so abnormal that I actually might get in trouble for it, I thought that something might be wrong with the Solid Rock Fist Technique, if that was the case then asking another disciple might be sufficient to get to the truth about this, so there was no need to Involve him in this .
No matter how friendly my senior brother seemed, I can't entrust him enough to share something like that with him, I already learned my lesson from that incident in my past life, so until I'm able to defend myself, no sharing secrets with no one, no matter how familiar that person was to me .
But if that weren't the case then what exactly was the message in my head was, was that something Tian Long left behind as well, or this appeared after I inherited this body, what exactly did it do to remove the side effects of the misshap that just happened and the misshapes from before, I recently remembered that it helped me win the competition earlier in the morning, even after I broke my posture .
Wait, doesn't that mean that it had nothing to do with the Solid Rock Fist Manual, it removed the side effects of my poor execution of the postures and still allowed me to keep the beneficial Tempering effect, or that at least what I currently believe, but believing so, still don't make it right with me, there was something inside my body sending this message to me and I won't be able to rest until I find what exactly was going on .
Since you seemed to have realized the benefits of meditation, I would suggest that you do it more often from now on, it's indeed beneficial for the mental state of the Martial Practitioner, but since we have a bit of time until you regain control of your body, I wanted to give you a few tips on how to improve your form .
As I was contemplating about the incident earlier, I heard senior brother Fu say this and directly opened my eyes, he seemed to believe that I was meditating, I was indeed half-heartedly doing so, but I fully focused on the guy in front of me, his flawless execution of the 15 postures from the Solid Rock Fist Technique, was something that I aspire to be able to do in the future, so there was no way, I would be dumb enough to pass the chance to get some pointers from him .
Currently the 4th posture is your current limit, something that was a bit shocking truth to be told, considering that only those at the early stage of the Flesh Tempering Realm are able to execute the 4 postures without straining their bodies, but if we mentioned that the reason you were able to do so thanks to the Enlightenment you had, then it will make complete sense, with the ointment you would be able to execute the 4 postures without a problem .
But I felt that there seem to be a few problem with you shifting from one posture to another, it seemed that you aren't finding the right rhythm, which should allow you to gain insight to the right flow you need to execute those postures with it in mind for a maximum effect, you need.... .
For the next 5 minutes, senior brother Fu kept talking about the shortcomings of my Martial postures and how to fix that, I was inscribing all the tips he was giving me and tried my best to store all of them in my mind .
After he finished explaining everything to me, I couldn't help help but ask senior brother about how to augment someone's mastery over a certain Martial Technique or Skill, he nodded his head at my question as if appreciating me for asking a good question, he then said :
There are four level of mastery : ( Entry - Minor Success - Great Success - Perfection ), reaching any one of those 4 levels is a new milestone to the strength of the Martin Practitioner that in case of both the Martial Techniques and Martial Skills, for an example the person who tempered his body with a technique that he achieved the level of Great Success in, is quite superior to the one who tempered his body with a Minor Success one .
But that advantage varried if we added the grade of Martial Technique or Skill practiced by both parties, but to increase your level of mastery over a Martial Skill or a Technique, you will first need enough Comprehension and enough experience and insights with using that Martial Technique or Skill as well .
Each level of mastery allow the Practitioner to gain a deeper understanding of the Technique Or Skill he practiced, it result in him gaining a substantial boost whether in increasing the Tempering effect of a Technique Or The power that a Skill can help the Practitioner to unleash, mastery level also tied tightly to the Realm of the Martial Practitioner, it increase with his increase in Realm and him refining his Martial Skill and Techniques .
Solid Rock Fist for an example, being able to perform 4 postures out of five that is you being at the entry level, but how much you are able to refine your posture and form is what define how different you are compared to the others who are at the exact level of mastery, it also allow you to breakthrough the next layer of both your Martial Realm and your Level of mastery .
That is the reason why Martial Practitioner may focus on nurturing a few numbers of Martial Techniques and Skills their entire lifetime, Time was in the end the most precious resource for the Martial Practitioner, so wasting much of it on refining his mastery over a varried set of skills was something akin to a taboo, so adhere to my warning and tried to specialize in a set of skills .
I want to show you the effect of raising your mastery level on the Martial Skill, I hadn't practiced Crouching Tiger so I can't demonstrate it for you, but coincidentally I also trained Thunderclap Fist for sometime before changing into a more powerful Martial Skill, I will show you what Thunderclap Fist at the Great Success of mastery looked like .
Senior Brother Fu finished saying this and without even waiting for me to reply he went and stood in front of a metal post that was being used for training earlier but before he execute the Martial Skill, he suddenly paused and turned to me saying :
I completely forgot this, but do you have any problem with the concept of hurting yourself to achieve success ? .
I answered him with shaking my head, indicating that even though I hadn't really understand why he suddenly asked me this, it seem that the answer satisfied him, since he said that this was good, then he fixed his posture again and took a stance identical to the one described in the skill booklet and then he punched .
The moment he punched, I was actually able to hear a faint sound of rumbling, it was low yet seemed to have affected my body somehow, the speed at which my blood was running through my veins seemed to have slightly decreased, I then waited, waited for that message to apper again and remove the uncomfortable feeling in my body .
~Clang~ .
But what happened next wasn't the message appearing, what I heard was the sound of metal colluding, I didn't even do anything like batting an eye, but I didn't see when Senior Brother Fu's fist punched the metal post in front of him, I only heard a clanging sound, I saw my senior brother refixing his posture and he pointed at the middle of the metal post, the place where his punch landed .
I looked at where he was pointing and felt my eyes dilated in awe of the scene I was seeing, I had already become aware that the this world had a magical Martial Arts in it, but this was my first time seeing it in action, the body of the metal post in front of me was deformed in the middle where it just got punch, seeing my shock, he raised the back of his hand at me while smiling .
I hadn't still awoken from the first shock, when another shock was suddenly imposed on me, looking at the back hand of my senior brother, I saw that even though it looked to be quite rough, it hadn't had even a scratch on it after hitting that metal post .
I gaped at this and couldn't help but think about what if that punch hit a normal person instead of that metal post, will that person even be able to survive, probably not .
I woke up from my trance when the same senior brother tapped me on the shoulder, then said :
I believe that your body is now able to move .
I almost jumped out from my position on the ground at him appearing suddenly like that, I looked at the hand he tapped me on the shoulder with and couldn't help but shudder a bit, then I nodded my head a bit nervously .
Seeing my expression and reaction, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit, he then said :
That's how Improving mastery over your skills affect your strength, it increase the speed of executing your skill and the power it can unleash, carve this experience in your memory it will help increase your proficiency with the skill and allow you to reach similar level in a short period of time, you are a gue who was able to get Enlightenment, even if that too was for a short period of time .
I nodded my head and got up my gaping expression was still on my face, but I calmed down and inwardly felt disappointed at the fact that the message I waited for didn't appear, I was thinking that I might had a chance to become invincible, but it seemed that was nothing but a foolish dream .
I shook my head and shook these thoughts with it, I looked at my hands and began recalling the scene of his punch in my mind, a bit excited to try doing it myself, but seeing that knowing smile on my senior brother face as if he was seeing through my thoughts, made me discard that thought immediately .
He continued to smile at me and said :
You won't ask what is the early stage, I mentioned earlier .
I regained my composure and at his question I shook my head and said :
" I actually had an idea about what it meant, the early stage mean those that had entered the first or second layer of the Flesh Tempering Realm, isn't that right ? .
He nodded at me with appreciation and said :
Your line of thought is indeed correct, each Realm Of Martial Art is divided into stages, those stages are used to describe the stage that the Martial Practitioner in with Tempering his body, they exist due to the fact that even inside the same realm, the difference in power between the first layer and the 9th layer and the amount of changes happened to the body of the Martial Practitioner after each breakthrough, it was difficult to leave things like that without differentiation, so these stages were very needed .
They were 4 stages in total, Early Stage from the 1st layer to the 3rd layer, then the Martial Practitioner once he make a breakthrough to the 4th layer, this stage was called Middle Stage, this stage covered the layers from the 4th to the 6th, then when he breakthrough to the the 7th, he will then enter the Late Stage, that stage covered the 7th and the 8th layer of that Martial Realm .
Then once he breakthrough the 9th layer, he will be at the Peak Stage of that Martial Realm, the next breakthrough he make will make him enter the next Martial Realm .
I absorbed all that he telling me and even though I was thankful to him for imparting such a valuable information to me, but I felt a little overwhelmed by all these information, I believed that it will take me some time to completely comprehend the knowledge I had now in mind .
I still nodded as to indicate that I understood, he seemed to have something to do or something like, I was feeling like that due to him asking me, if I had any more questions to ask .
I was about to shook my head, but remembered what happened at the Bathhouse, I wanted to ask about if he know anything about that Heavenly Messenger, the voice of the Bathhouse mentioned earlier, but in the end decided against it and just shook my head at his question .
He once again seemed to have misinterpreted the conflicated expression that was on my face and he said as if he already realized what was troubling me, he said :
Don't you want to know about the connection between the Crouching Tiger and the Charging Tiger Martial Skills, anymore ? .