Chapter 4 European Martial Art

Author's note: if anybody is wondering why I'm writing in 3rd person? You see I like playing strategy games like the Total war series, Hearts of Iron and Crusader kings and my writing style very much reflects that even in shooting type games I prefer 3rd person over the first person.

Plz, comment if you want me to change it to a first-person.

—— story start

Suffice to say school is pretty as much expected filled with bullying and oppression.

He is constantly being mocked, humiliated and made fun off to the point that he doesn't care anymore.

"Hey look it's Feng Jin he's sleeping again"

"I don't even know we keep a trash like him who can't cultivate"

Feng Jin? Ah yes that's the name he's given in this life, he's called Jin(金）which mean gold for his golden-colored hair.

Anyway, Vlad is sleeping in class as he can't cultivate than it's pretty much for him to listen to it, not to mention this is his way to show his disrespect to the teachers who regularly scolds and humiliates him.

Some people from earth might not understand but in this world, teachers are very much respected and even worshiped in some cases.

There's a saying "A teacher for a day, is a father for a lifetime" (一日為師,終身為父 ) one could infer just how respected being a teacher is. A teacher has the same if not higher standing than your parents.

And this is a world that places great emphasis on filial piety (孝), where one must respect their parents who gave birth and raise them to go as far as kneeling before them, which seems very ridiculous from a modern man's point of view.

Of course, they're regularly graded as their cultivation resource is distributed according to their rank.

Not that Vlad cares about that as his "cultivation" technique doesn't require that all he needs to do is pray 3 times a day and follow the teachings of the holy book. He doesn't need no whatever dandan pill or whatever profound nonsense secret breathing technique or whatever ancient heavenly bullcrap cultivation technique.

Judging by Vlad's condescending tone it isn't hard to tell that Vlad doesn't a good view of cultivation in general.

Considering that who he has been bullied because he can't cultivate, it's pretty reasonable actually.

So as the teacher yammers on about some Ying Yang ching chong nonsense about "The Great Dao" Vlad happily slept along.

'Feng Jin this trash dare to sleep in my class despite being unable to cultivate' the teacher thought as a blood vessel burst in his forehead.

Of course, the teacher would naturally give him the lowest rating possible but does that even make a difference? I mean he can't cultivate and the teachers are biased against him, they're going to give him the lowest evaluation anyway so might as well.

Months passed

The bullying continued, he got used to the mocks and ridicules but Vlad is afraid that it's only a matter of time before he snaps and kills these little shit stains.

He's been getting into fights despite his he tried his hardest to avoid such situations, of course, Vlad held himself back as he knows that while he can beat the crap out of these little shits once their parents get involved he'll be on the loss on the losing side, which means he'll land a good hit or two before letting them beat the crap out of him.

Fortunately, his "cultivation" is showing signs of progress as the bruises he sustained heals quite rapidly.

Saying that he has also started showing signs of physical changes besides the faster health regeneration, he also notices improved strength and his skin showed signs of changes in texture.

Now sure what direction it's going but the changes are starting to become more noticeable which forced Vlad to hide them by covering himself in bandages, he pretended to be suffering from all the bullying to hide his physical changes.

Besides that these few months, Vlad also made a bunch of European styled swords via transmutation and he began practicing them in secret.

In his opinion European martial arts is superior to Asian martial arts.

European martial arts? It might come as a surprise to some people but Europeans had martial arts. After all, Europeans had been fighting all this time don't tell me they've been mindlessly clubbing each other with sharpened iron bars?

The Chinese might brag about how great their martial arts is and write epic stories during the 3 kingdoms era where a man would just sweep over platoons of men like they were nothing, but you see reality is quite different and it's also a fact that the 3 kingdoms era is about a Chinese civil war which says nothing about facing foreign adversaries.

To see how effective Chinese martial arts is one would have to see how effective they're when facing foreign adversaries.

Looking at it historically the Chinese military can be considered... subpar at best.

Let's take this one case for example during the Goguryeo–Sui War China invades the Korean Peninsula with 3 Million men and fails.

Now let's look at a similar situation in Europe about a thousand years earlier where a Middle Eastern empire invaded the Greek peninsula with 2.5 million men and got repelled by the Greeks.

So let's move on to a common foe that both the Europeans and Chinese faced as that might be more of a fair measuring stick... The Mongols!

You see, unlike the Chinese who got swiftly conquered as soon as theybypass the great Chinese turtle shell. The Europeans, on the other hand, succeeded in repelling the Mongol invaders, the mongols just stopped right at the border of the Holy Roman Empire.

Just as he pope called for a crusade of the Mongols and the Holy Roman Empire is calling up its levies in preparation for the battle, the cowardly Mongols retreated and the epic battle of the century never came.

The Mongols obviously got intimidated as the reforged Roman empire not something they can easily mess with. The Mongols must have known that the Europeans have resisted several nomadic hordes from the east in the past like the Magyar who invaded Europe 300 years earlier and eventually settling in Hungary, or the Huns 1000 years earlier who also invaded Europe and which is based primarily around Hungary, interestingly Attila the Hun died in Hungary.

Anyway, the Mongols stopped as they realised they can't proceed any further, the Holy Roman Empire might be a fragmented mess trapped in eternal infighting but if they were to truly unite then they're the most unstoppable force in the world.

Some might say that the Holy Roman Empire is a logistical and governing nightmare but I beg to differ as those viewing things from a centralised government stand point. For here you see rather that taking the centralised form of government as most empires do, the HRE instead took the complete opposite the decentralised government.

The Holy Roman Empire lasted for a thousand years and remained an influential throughout its thousand year long reign in the center of Europe , incidentally Rome also lasted for a thousand years.

The advantages of a decentralised government is the micro-managing all the pesky individual settlements, after all the a baron living in his own town will certainly know to better manage his stuff rather than some bureaucrats hundreds of miles away.

Ideally that's how the HRE should run.

Of course there's also the tendency for infighting amongst it's members but it might not be all bad as it is also due to this tendency of infighting, that not only it trains the warriors in a warrior culture it also compelled all Lords who hold land to build forts and castles.

At it's hight the HRE has more than a thousand princes, its a logistical and governing nightmare sure but imagine a thousand forts and castles.... the HRE is practically invincible! Right?

You see European martial arts is not just a few simple moves or a bunch of old treatises, it's more that that.

It was born at the aftermath of when Rome fell, it was born at endless infighting left by the power vacuum when Rome fell, it went on many changes and evolutions brought by new foes and challenges. It fought the Vikings, it fought mongols, it's been to the crusades, it's been to the Americas, in Asia, it has been to all over the world, at every continent and faced out off all the formidable warriors of these lands.

Where ever they go war follows, such is the European way since the fall of Rome... No... Such is the way is the way of Rome the founder of Europe.

—— end——

Epic ending

Note that I'm using Europe martial art a bit loosely so that I could make epic lines.

For those who want to correct me about Americas and Asia part. I'll say Spanish and Portuguese 16th century, also Rapiers and Sabres which could extend the scope to WW2 because they still employ horse cavalry in WW2.