Teaching benefited both teachers and students; when one taught, they could also improve at the same time. San Yuan agreed to help out since he could also review what he had learned before. "Recall the past to understand the future[1]"– obtaining new inspiration and breakthroughs in magic through teaching was in fact another Dao path as well.That was also the reason some great masters liked to look for stupid disciples to teach; generally speaking, the harder it was to teach these disciples, the more enlightened the masters became. Moreover, according to latest research stats, civic teachers in the cultivation world were 7 to 15 percent more likely to achieve new breakthroughs in their spell compositions compared with orthodox cultivators.
San Yuan had come to No.60 High to obtain new enlightenment through teaching; in the end, he discovered that each student in this special cla.s.s was smarter than the next…
"Is this right, Teacher San Yuan?" w.a.n.g Zhen put on a timid act and performed the devouring spell in front of the others; his rate of absorption was extremely fast, and almost on par with San Yuan.
"Well done…" San Yuan"s lips twitched under the mask. He had never expected the students of No. 60 High to be so talented in cultivation. San Yuan had heard that there would be plenty of schools taking part in this national compet.i.tion this time.
Looking at the ranking of battle strength, San Yuan thought that No. 60 High would be very lucky to make it into the top 50. Now, however, he had to admit that he was mistaken.
The students of No. 60 High were much stronger than he had expected!
"Since everyone has mastered it, let"s move on to the next lesson." Saying this, San Yuan gave each person a pair of black sungla.s.ses.
"What"s this?"
"This is an extra component of our special training. I especially borrowed these. The full name of this item is: Mountain River Construction Mirror. It used to be very costly, but it can now be considered a ma.s.s-produced magic treasure. However, you still have to give them back to me when you"re done with them this time."
San Yuan said, "Simply put, these gla.s.ses can synchronize and connect everyone"s minds. I"ve already set up my gla.s.ses so that it"s the main pair. In other words, after you put on your gla.s.ses, you can follow me into my mindscape."
Everyone nodded at San Yuan"s words. w.a.n.g Ling had also guessed that the next lesson would probably have to do with actual combat. He had still been agonizing earlier whether or not he should just throw the fight, and he was extremely relieved when San Yuan handed out these gla.s.ses that could synchronize their minds.
In a mindscape, even if his control over his power slipped, it wouldn"t directly threaten a person"s life…
Yep, it should be safer…
"We"ll employ a one-on-one challenger mode. You need to challenge six people. I"ll be the sixth and last boss. As long as you defeat six people, you"ll pa.s.s today"s test," San Yuan said.
Actually, this was for the training session tomorrow, but what could he do? w.a.n.g Ling and the others had performed too well, so San Yuan had no choice but to bring the body techniques training forward.
San Yuan remembered the checkpoints that he had already set up. As long as he controlled the scene, everything would be fine. This was just a group of students from a key district high school – San Yuan thought that as a professional cultivation special forces soldier, he could still completely handle them.
"We just need to defeat the boss?"
"There"s a time limit. If you go over time, you"ll have to start again," San Yuan said. "Everyone has to closely observe the movements of each boss at each checkpoint. They all have their openings and weaknesses. As long as you grasp the openings, it"ll be very easy for you to clear the checkpoints."
w.a.n.g Ling fell silent.
From San Yuan"s description, the body technique test this time was not so much about practicing body techniques as it was about training their observation skills. Observation was also an important lesson for cultivators in studying body techniques.
In a showdown of body techniques, more and more case studies were proving that sometimes, victory didn"t go to the stronger party. Immense strength was simply an advantage – turning that into a victory also required a combination of experience and the power of instant observation.
Formidable body technique cultivators had very strong instant observation skills. Some could even grasp the opponent"s weakness the instant the latter threw a punch. Even if your own strength might be inferior to the other side, you could use your insight and speed advantage to attack their vital points.
This was the meaning of the saying "In all martial arts, there is no defense that is impregnable; only speed is king[2]."
But to possess this power of observation and speed, simply relying on the ability to react was far from enough. This was something that was acc.u.mulated from years of training to ultimately become muscle memory and conditioned reflex.
Those international martial arts masters seemed like they could detect it in an instant, but it was in fact more a conditioned reflex.
However, genuine body techniques and traditional martial arts were different to some degree. For example, the lethal style of traditional Tai Chi and Wing Chun had been toned down; the circulation of these traditional martial arts to this day relied on their spread of martial thought and virtue as well as the healthy effects they had on the body.
But there would always be people who didn"t know their place.
Some self-proclaimed kung fu masters liked to step into wrestling or mixed martial arts arenas and fight using these martial arts, which were meant for cultivating one"s self. In the end, they only wound up disgracing themselves.
But w.a.n.g Ling had always felt that it was necessary for traditional martial arts to carry on. Traditional martial arts, as well as wrestling and mixed martial arts, all had their own merits. One could win compet.i.tions with wrestling or mixed martial arts, but the damage which training in these techniques caused to the body would continue to acc.u.mulate.
In the end, it was still cultivators who trained in the traditional martial arts who lived longer…
When w.a.n.g Ling put on his sungla.s.ses, his mind was filled with a lot of questions from Gu Shunzhi, w.a.n.g Zhen and the others. This was their first time pretending to be high school students, so they weren"t sure what level they should be demonstrating in this test…
Gu Shunzhi: "Senior, do we need to fake it? Or would it be better for us not to overdo it? For an outstanding high school student, will ten rounds of mixed wins and losses do?"
w.a.n.g Ling: "…"
w.a.n.g Zhen: "Not enough, I think it"s safer to add five more rounds. Also, we should put on a bit of a show. Didn"t Teacher San Yuan say that he wants us to look for openings? Given who we are, we should be able to see them, right?"
"That"s right, we should pretend!" Zhenyuan was also in favor of this suggestion.
"We have to put on a show; if we don"t, it"ll be too fake," Liu Qingyi said at that moment. "Is there any need to look for openings at this level of confrontation… We can settle it with one punch, right?"
w.a.n.g Ling: "…"
What Liu Qingyi said actually wasn"t wrong.
Not all cultivators with overwhelming strength could ultimately emerge victorious… However, if the gap in strength was too big – that was to say, if one side had absolute strength – it was clear who the winner would be.
[1] From "The a.n.a.lects of Confucius."
[2] From the movie "Kung Fu Hustle."