Book 1. Chapter 15. High-speed transformations (2)
As time goes by, except when Qin Yu trains, he spends most of his time trying to figure out the offensive techniques of his own. He determines to break down what he must do in order to figure out his offensive techniques into 3 aspects: body-maneuvering skill, close-quarters offence and weapons.
Body-maneuvering skill,
Body-maneuvering skill and defensive dodging are related. It is also connected to close-quarters offence, pursuit and fleeing. Qin Yu's requirements for his body-maneuvering skill are as follows: quick like lightning, sensitive like a cunning hare. To do research for his body-maneuvering skill, he has to study the art of Qi Men Dun Jia, and study various other body-maneuvering skills.
Close-quarters offence,
During the course of his training, Qin Yu found that he is fond of challenging his limits and fond of being burning with excitement. Therefore when it was time for him to choose his way of offence, he chose to practice ... close-quarters combat! In close-quarters combat, life or death can be decided in a mere moment. It is extremely dangerous but also full of the passion of life.
Weapons!
Until now, Qin Yu has not decided his weapons of choice. Each of the 18 standard weapons such as the knife, the spear, and the staff has its own merits, but Qin Yu likes to use his own fists and legs even more. At least he still has not decided what weapons he is going to select.
In the study,
Qin Yu is reading a book with the name Book of Changes.
'Oh, this chapter's principles seem to … seem to be quite similar to the body-maneuvering skill Nine Appearances of the Cloud Dragon on page 3 of the Ancestral Dragon Art book,' mumbles Qin Yu. Then he puts the book down and spontaneously starts to organize some knowledge he just acquired in his mind.
The principles of various body-maneuvering skills and of Qi Men Dun Jia continuously float through Qin Yu's mind...
'The composition of Liuyi, Sanqi, Bamen and Jiujing forms the circumstances of Qi Men. Bamen becomes Du, Shang, Jing3, Xiu, Sheng, Si, Jing1 and Kai. Qi Men Dun Jia is divided into Tianpan, Menpan and Dipan, which are called Sancai…' Some most basic concepts of Qi Men Dun Jia start to take root in Qin Yu's mind.
Even though they are the most basic ones, they are the foundation. Countless formation arts and escaping techniques have been developed from these principles.
Various mysterious, profound body-maneuvering skills are all more or less influenced by Qi Men Dun Jia.
Because Qin Yu practices external techniques, there is no internal energy in his body. Therefore, he cannot practice ordinary arts of lightness and body-maneuvering skills. He can only create a body-maneuvering skill for himself. The 68 internal secret books all have some internal-energy-based unarmed fighting techniques, knife techniques, body-maneuvering skills and so on.
Even the 28 external secret books also have various offensive techniques.
Like an ocean which contains the water of 100 rivers, Qin Yu reads all the various offensive techniques of the 96 internal and external secret books then combines them with the general principles of Qi Men Dun Jia and the Book of Changes which he already learned. Looking for some hidden essentials of his future body-maneuvering skill is exceptionally difficult but as soon as his body training is finished Qin Yu makes great efforts to research regardless of day or night.
...
To reach the peak of external techniques, it is vital to study the art of medicine. This is what Zhao Yunxing said on the first day he taught Qin Yu. At the moment Qin Yu is reading medical books. For the last 3 years, he has read many medical books and his knowledge has also increased greatly.
'Every bit of strength and every attack must make the enemy pay the biggest price. If I make a chop at the opponent's stomach, I'll only hurt his stomach at best. But if the same chop hits the opponent's throat, he'll die.'
Qin Yu puts the book down. His eyes glitter.
The human body has various vital points. Qin Yu knows very well about the body's joints, the intersection points of the channels and the movement paths of blood and energy. Attacking the vital points is to attack the crucial acupoints, to attack the physically weak parts, or to break the joints of the body using grappling techniques, and so on.
In short, Qin Yu's offensive principles are: each and every bit of strength causes the heaviest damage and no amount of strength is wasted!
Each of his arms has only 100 jin of strength, but his offensive force must reach the offensive power level of experts with 200 jin of strength in one arm, or an even more formidable level!
To do this, he must try hard using various techniques — using body-maneuvering skill; attacking vital points; taking advantage of the surroundings and time; taking advantage of the opponent's psychological changes; and so on. Qin Yu is very confident because he has a body in which agility, explosiveness, flexibility, toughness and so on all exist in perfect harmony. Moreover, he also has various secret books he can consult.
At midday, on the training ground,
Various mechanical wooden dummies have been put on the training ground, forming a wooden dummy lane. This is the highest achievement of mechanics grand-masters. To fight through the wooden dummy lane is highly difficult. It is not something ordinary people can do. Today, Qin Yu decides to use the wooden dummy lane to practice his close-quarters offensive techniques.
Qin Yu is standing stock-still before the wooden dummy lane. Suddenly, he charges into it. A slight move in one part can affect the whole thing. Soon after he touches a wooden dummy, the other dummies in the lane all start to move. Qin Yu only has calmness in his eyes.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! ...
His hands, aimed directly at the wooden dummies' joints, attack quickly like a flash. His legs mostly defend, but if an opportunity arises he breaks the wood in one kick. Qin Yu is moving very fast, but only because he is not carrying weights at the moment. Qin Yu knows very well that if he puts on those 100 jin of weights, he simply will not be able to defeat this wooden dummy lane.
Having taken off the 100 jin of weights, Qin Yu is surprisingly agile. But … there are too many wooden dummies in the wooden dummy lane. He is even hit in the head by a nearby wooden dummy. Soon after he gets hit, he is attacked several more times in quick succession. Qin Yu has no choice but to do a roll and run out of the lane immediately.
'Not bad. Every wooden dummy's joints are similar to the human body's joints. Practicing this way is much more effective.' Qin Yu's eyes glitter. He charges into the wooden dummy lane again.
The wooden dummy lane is no more than a relatively easy training method in Qin Yu's plan. There is still the higher-ranked copper dummy lane. The copper dummies, of course, are not only made of copper. Rather, they are wooden dummies with an outside layer made of copper and iron. In this way, obviously a copper dummy's offence and defense both are stronger than a wooden dummy's by a level.
...
Qin Yu has not determined what weapons he is going to use in the end. Late at night on the same day, in the secret room, Qin Yu is carefully reading the offensive techniques in every secret book. Most of them use the knife or the sword. A small number of them also use strange weapons.
'Huh?' Qin Yu suddenly opens an internal secret book. When he reaches the chapter about swordsmanship, there is a passage in it which catches his attention: 'Even though our school's Afterimage Sword is an assassination style of swordsmanship, in terms of close-quarters assassination swordsmanship, the number one is still the Yu Clan's One Sword. It does not matter who the target is, assassin Yu Shi has never failed. In those days, this assassin was the legendary top assassin of the assassination organization Heavenly Net.'
Qin Yu is startled.
Heavenly Net — Qin Yu has heard of this name. This is an extremely old assassination organization with a history longer than even a millennium. Its influence has spread throughout the whole Qian Long continent. Not even one of the 3 big dynasties on the Qian Long continent has a history as long as that of the Heavenly Net. This assassin Yu Shi was known by reputation as the legendary top assassin so his killing techniques must have been terribly good.
Suddenly —
Qin Yu's eyes pop out of his head.
'Yu Clan's One Sword, Yu Clans' One Sword, ah, the back side of page 3 of the Ancestral Dragon Art book seems to talk about it.' Qin Yu read the Ancestral Dragon Art book carefully before. It has 3 gold pages. Nearly half of the contents are about an internal secret technique. Another half is about the body-maneuvering skill Nine Appearances of the Cloud Dragon, the unarmed fighting technique Flame Dragon Fist, and the sword technique Heaven-Splitting Ultimate Yang Sword. That so-called Yu Clan's One Sword is only described a bit at the end so Qin Yu did not take much notice of it at that time.
Only now does he know that the obscure Yu Clans' One Sword in the Ancestral Dragon Art book is actually the sword technique of the so-called legendary number one assassin.
The internal technique Ancestral Dragon Art absorbs the universe's holy energy at an extremely high speed. Among various internal techniques, it is undoubtedly the number one. The body-maneuvering skill Nine Appearances of the Cloud Dragon, the unarmed fighting technique Flame Dragon Fist, and the sword technique Heaven-Splitting Ultimate Yang Sword are all terrifyingly formidable but to practice them requires practicing the Ancestral Dragon Art in coordination. Therefore Qin Yu can only see them without practicing.
Opening the last page, Qin Yu finally looks at the piece of information about the Yu Clan's One Sword.
'Ah, I didn't think that it even had the practice method of the Yu Clan's One Sword.' Qin Yu's eyes brighten as he goes into ecstasies. No one could have thought that there would be the practice method of the Yu Clan's One Sword in the Ancestral Dragon Art book. Qin Yu immediately starts reading carefully. But the more he reads, the paler he looks. In the end, he even looks a bit pasty.