"shiinggg""W-what is this?" exclaimed Duan Li feeling extremely shocked.
When he closed his eyes to recall everything that he had read in the book before, his vision that was supposed to be dark when one"s eyelid closed had instead turned into a see-through eyes!
"Holy-moly.." he said in bewilderment.
Looking down towards his body, he could see every bones and skeletal muscles in his body!
As he lifted his right arm he could see what made it moved. The forearm muscles, biceps, triceps and other sorts of muscles worked simultaneously while others alternatingly.
As he was tranced by this phenomena he subconsciously thought, "what"s behind this muscle?" and to his surprise, the muscles that was blocking his view got filtered out!
"W-what the..!!"
Duan Li panicked at first thinking that he had lost a portion of his muscle, but immediately recomposed himself as he felt that was not the case as there was no pain at all.
"Maybe..." a theory came into his mind.
"shingg!"
"Aha! Its back there again! Now I see..." he said. It turns out that whenever he wanted, he could filter out any sorts of bones and muscles as long as he willed it. Feeling excited, he experimented for awhile.
"This is interesting! But the human body should have the blood vessels and all those sorts right? where are they?" he thought.
Throwing a side glance at the stack of books on his table, he quickly scanned them and saw a book t.i.tled, "Foundation: Human blood vessels".
"Is it like that..?" he said inwardly as his mind seemed to click on something.
Wasting no more time, he took the book out and began to flip it to study its contents;
"The blood vessels are the part of the bodily circulatory system that transports
blood throughout the human body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the arteries , which carry the blood away from the heart; the capillaries , which enable the actual exchange of minerals between the blood and the flesh; and the veins, which carries blood from the capillaries back towards the heart..."
"According to experts, the human blood vessels could stretch out for a total of 100,000 km. The blood vessels is essential for a martial artists to understand as it is... "
...
Spending around three hours, he finally finished flipping through all 112 pages as he read them word by word, and studying the ill.u.s.trated drawn image carefully so as not to miss out even a single detail especially the crucial ones.
He then closed his eyes to recall every single thing that he had learnt about the human blood vessels.
"shiinggg!"
"I knew it! Hahahaha!" shouted Duan Li to himself as he clenched his fist in agitation, excitement filled his body.
Previously, he had made a theory that anything he has learned involving the human body, he could visualize them if he closed his eyes. Thus, when his conjecture is proven, he couldn"t help but to feel extremely happy.
He looked down at his body once more while in that state of closing his eyes, and he could see all the relevant blood vessels coiling around the muscles in his body. It looked a little bit eerie as he could even see the blood travelling around being delivered here and there, a sight to behold that he had never thought before.
Opening his eyes, his vision turned normal again.
"Well, now that I am a master of the human anotomy and blood vessels, I could understand the reason why my body was a.s.saulted by pain after using the ability to slow down time before.." said Duan Li.
It turns out that his body is quite unfit for extended usage of the ability. Time might have slowed down for him, but in actuality, that is only in his perception and reaction. The natural law still applied to him all the same.
Thus, moving faster than possible in reality had put a strain on his muscles that his body can"t handle after a duration of usage. Thankfully, all he did previously during the spar was just dodging here and there, and that requires minimal bodily movements and energy.
Had he used the ability to do strenuous body movements like counter-attacking, he might be in a worse condition than now. Perhaps his muscles might even explode?
Duan Li shuddered as he thought about it.
"Hais.. from now on, I have to train my physical body so that my bones and muscles are stronger, and my stamina better.." he sighed.
Physical exercise is one of the thing that he hated the most. But now that he wanted to make full use of his ability so that he doesn"t faint prematurely during its usage, he had no other choice.
...
"knock knock!"
"Young man! Its already noon! come out from your cave this instant!" yelled his mother from outside the door.
"Yes mother.." replied Duan Li lazily as he reached for the door.
As he came out from his room, his mother gave him a training Gi uniform that is all white in color.
"Put that on! Your mother here is going to give you a crash course so that you don"t end up shaming yourself too badly against your juniors!" said his mother with a teasing glare.
...
Outside their house..
"Today, I am going to impart you on one of the foundational basics of martial arts, stances!" said his mother with a strict tone.
She then lowered her body as she raised both of her arms together in a guarding position and spread her legs a little.
"This is a defensive stance! Every martial arts technique varies, but the essence of it remains the same! Now watch again!" she resetted her position as she lowered her body once more into the previous defensive stance.
"Observe! My legs are now stretched out a bit so that I could spread out my center of gravity. I"ve also lowered down my body so that the area where my opponent can strike me becomes limited. Furthermore, in this stance, you put up a defensive guard like this."
...
Duan Li"s mother put up demonstrations of some defensive stances one after another according to their needs. Meanwhile, Duan Li mimics the bodily movements of his mother.
To her surprise, Duan Li was able to follow along her moveset well enough like he had already practiced it some while ago after two or three tries.
"Duan Li, did you secretly practiced some martial arts movements without me knowing?" asked her mother with furrowed brows.
"No mother, somehow.. I could remember really well how you do it.." he answered and continued, "Also mother, I"ve discovered another new ability.. its like this.."
Duan Li began to tell his mother about the new ability of seeing through his body.
...
"What? You are now able to see all your bones, skeletal muscles and blood vessels clearly once you closed your eyes?" his mother stared at him widely with shocked eyes.
"Yes... and maybe as I read more books, I could visualize all the other aspects of my body too.." answered Duan Li slowly.
"That is great!" shouted his mother, jumping happily.
"Although you"ve become such a cheat character now, but that ability to visualize clearly your inner body will definitely help you to advance your martial arts by leaps and bounds!" she continued.
"This is because, martial artists requires their body to memorize the movements technique by instinct at its pinnacle level! For you now, although you won"t jump straightly to the pinnacle, you should be at the adept level at most for every martial arts you learn for the first time!"
"Adept level?.. pinnacle?" thought Duan Li sounding confused.
Seeing his reaction, his mother giggled for a bit before explaining, " It"s like this, there are a total of five levels to one"s own mastery of any particular martial arts! From the lowest mastery; beginner, novice, adept, master and the highest is pinnacle!"
"You should know that most martial artists or pract.i.tioners, could only master most of their martial arts to the adept or master level. This is because, reaching the pinnacle would be very time consuming, with all sorts of martial arts everyone is learning, rarely would they have the time to practice each to their pinnacle state!" said his mother.
"Is that so.. then that means.."
"That means you have suddenly become a genius!" interjected his mother while exclaiming happily.
Duan Li touched his hair feeling embara.s.sed being called a "genius" by his mother. Nevertheless, he felt happy about it.
"If you could learn every single martial arts straightly to the adept level.. then.." his mother said slowly.
"...then..?" asked Duan Li.
"Then, you are going to train all night! The advance technique could be learned some other time. But for now, I am going to impart you with all the basics that I can squeeze today! So man up!" shouted his mother sounding like a strict drill captain.
"Y-yes!" answered Duan Li.
...