Chapter 29: Chapter 29 – Clothing and Lock
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
On the night of the fourth day of their training, the camp partic.i.p.ants were led to a large building by their respective instructors.
“303…we’re here,” Zhao Jingzhong said as he stopped in front of the door of one of the many rooms in the building. He pushed the door open as he turned around and said to the group, “When all of you are inside, don’t touch any of the things or you may damage them…If anything happens, you will have to bear the consequences.”
Over the course of the last three days, all the members of Group 8 had gotten a better idea of their instructor, Zhao Jingzhong’s character and habits.
Although Zhao Jingzhong was previously from the military, he always spoke in a calm and composed manner, and never once emphasized important information twice. It was possible that this was his natural character, or perhaps it was due to the fact that Xie Qiansi had gone against his instructions on the very first day.
He would make sure to teach the group all that he needed, but he never once talked about the consequences of misbehavior in detail. It was all up to the students to follow his instructions, but it was also not unreasonable to say that he was merely “going with the flow” and “doing the bare minimum”.
On the third day when they headed to the third exercise ground to train, Zhao Jingzhong briefly told them to avoid using any of the equipment which had a red-colored star marking on them but did not tell them the rationale behind it. One of the group members had been curious and used one of such equipment. He instantly found himself drained of all his energy and had no strength to carry on training the entire morning until he drank the elixir during lunch and recovered some of his energy.
They soon found out that those equipment were specially for first-tier Pract.i.tioners. Such equipment will slowly and healthily deplete their active Reiki, through which they can gradually expand their total Reiki storage capacity. Users of such equipment who have yet to develop into full-fledged Pract.i.tioners would only find themselves drained of all their energy.
From then on, everyone took Zhao Jingzhong’s warnings seriously and did not dare to ignore them. When they entered the room, they saw three long rows of tables with a hexagonal plate on each of them, and above each plate hovered an almost transparent cube-shaped crystal. There was also a blackboard and a teacher’s desk at the front, making the room look like a cla.s.sroom.
There were 10 members in Group 8, and there were 30 cubic crystals in the room. They stood behind the rows of tables as they watched the crystals float above the plates, giving them a mysterious feeling.
“Magnetic levitation?” one of them asked.
“To be precise, it’s Reiki levitation,” Zhao Jingzhong corrected. He said solemnly, “I have to ask all of you now, has anyone not activated their own breathing currents?”
No one spoke up.
“That’s good. Only those who have activated their own breathing currents will benefit from today’s lesson,” he said.
He continued, “Today, you will be learning about the most basic and elementary Reiki techniques.”
Reiki techniques!
Instantly, everyone became excited. They were finally going to master some out-of-the-ordinary abilities!
If Extraordinaires were compared to firearms, then they had been acc.u.mulating ammunition when they were practicing how to generate their own breathing currents previously, while the weapon itself was the Reiki technique they used! The power of the Extraordinaires was, of course, not how much ammunition they had, but the magnitude of the effect from firing their shots!
Zhao Jingzhong picked up the two large diagrams from the desk in front of him and attached them to the blackboard with magnets. There were two people demonstrating an ability on each of the diagrams. One of the diagrams has the word “Clothing”, and the other had the word “Lock” on it.
He explained, “The two Reiki techniques that you all will be learning today are ‘Clothing’ and ‘Lock’. ‘Clothing’ utilizes the active Reiki of your internal breathing current to protect you from external harm by forming an invisible armor on you.”
“I’m sure many of you have witnessed, for yourselves, the incident that happened in the afternoon, where the man Awakened. That Awakened ability is actually decently powerful, and not only does it allow the user to transform himself physically, it also allows him to control the strength of the flames. However, once you make use of the ‘Clothing’ technique, you will not be harmed in any way,” he continued.
“When you are swimming, the ‘Clothing’ technique will allow you to breathe in the water by channeling away the water directly around you.”
“In tests which have been conducted to test the ability of ‘Clothing’ to withstand an external force, it was found that a Pract.i.tioner who has used ‘Clothing’ can withstand an impact from a heavy truck traveling at 60 kilometers per hour, and even remain rooted to the ground on impact. Of course, the a.s.sumption here is that the Pract.i.tioner has sufficient Reiki to sustain the ability. However, with ‘Clothing’, physical attacks from normal people is well within tolerable limits.”
As he explained, Zhao Jingzhong pointed to one of the large diagrams on the board. One of the figures in the diagram was attacking the other figure who had an invisible armor on him. He said, “Swords and daggers, the fist, chainsaws…These are just some of the more commonly seen weapons which ‘Clothing’ can protect you against without much difficulty. However, you all must remember that ‘Clothing’ cannot protect you from bullets, so if someone is pointing a gun at you, I would still suggest that you run away first.”
“Furthermore, ‘Clothing’ has other useful applications, for example…”
At this juncture, Zhao Jingzhong took the ‘Clothing’ diagram down from the board. With a swift movement of his finger, he slit the paper into two halves!
Following a quick whoosh, a clean cut appeared in the paper. Although he had only used his finger to slice the paper into two, the cut looked so clean and neat, as if it was performed with a pair of scissors.
“If you find the time to study ‘Clothing’ in detail and practice more, you would be able to concentrate your Reiki onto just a tiny spot, and use it like a knife or sword. Of course, this is not easy at all and also unnecessary,” Zhao Jingzhong said. He continued, “If you are really going to be fighting for our nation in the future, you will definitely be taught other Reiki techniques used for war. Nonetheless, ‘Clothing’ is the starting point for most other Reiki techniques, so you will definitely not go wrong practicing ‘Clothing’ more.”
Ren Suo was sure that Zhao Jingzhong had used the ‘Clothing’ technique to protect himself from water when he sparred with them earlier on. If he had used this technique when he sparred with Ren Suo, Ren Suo would still have stood no chance against him even though he was equipped with the [Enhanced Physique] and [Fighter Novice] abilities!
“Everyone, this is ‘Clothing’,” said Zhao Jingzhong as he showed his right arm to everyone. He continued, “Although we say that ‘Clothing’ is invisible, you would still see some traces of it when you scrutinize at a closer distance. Look carefully…”
The students observed Zhao Jingzhong’s arm carefully. There seemed to be a layer of mist forming around his arm, as if heat was radiating and disrupting the airflow.
“Upon using the ‘Clothing’ technique, a thin and almost invisible layer of Reiki would form over your skin. This layer of Reiki would be able to filter the molecules directly around you and hence, will disrupt the flow of air around you slightly. This is also the reason why you are protected from most external harm and impact. Once you are more adept at the technique, you will be able to manipulate the layer of Reiki as you desire, allowing it to form only where you need it. Naturally, this would require a very high level of mastery, but would greatly reduce the amount of Reiki it requires to sustain it.”
“Currently, we have found that ‘Clothing’ cannot protect you against objects travelling at or faster than the speed of sound, such as fired bullets, as well as attacks using light, poisonous gas, and sound. Well, if you were to jump from a building, the result would differ based on the height you jump from. Generally, you would be safe from a height of 30 metres or less, but any higher, and it would depend on your luck.”
Zhao Jingzhong pointed to the other diagram on the board and said, “Apart from the ‘Clothing’ technique, you all would also be learning the ‘Lock’ technique.”
On the diagram, a small figure A was holding on to the right hand of small figure B, while pus.h.i.+ng down on the back of the head of small figure B with the other hand.
“Reiki is intangible and cannot be seen, and so are your breathing currents. However, it is possible to use Reiki to disrupt the breathing current,” Zhao Jingzhong said. He explained, “The ‘Lock’ technique is the ultimate move to use when dealing with ordinary people. It uses Reiki to suppress and control the physical movements of the human body. When [Lock] is used, the Pract.i.tioner can only control the target and other techniques cannot be used concurrently. As a result, the target would be locked in position and unable to move at all.”
“This does not mean that ‘Lock’ becomes useless when dealing with those who are Awakened. It would still be able to limit the effectiveness of the target’s Reiki current. Of course, the a.s.sumption is that the target would not be hindering you from using your Reiki to attack him. In other words, the ‘Clothing’ technique would be able to overcome ‘Lock’ completely. However, when you are dealing with those who become Awakened on their own, using ‘Lock’ would likely make your target lose the willpower to continue fighting or resisting your attacks.”