Chapter 179: Master

Gao Yuan finally opened his eyes.

He felt a bit uncomfortable, with a sore back and a slight headache, but it was the kind of headache that comes from sleeping too long.

As soon as he opened his eyes, Gao Yuan saw an old man standing in front of his bed; behind the old man was a large group of people in white lab coats.

"He's really awake?"

"How miraculous, his heart rate hasn't changed at all."

Gao Yuan sat up and looked around in confusion, "What happened to me? Am I injured or sick?"

Feeling fine, but observing that he was clearly in a hospital room, Gao Yuan dared not assume that he was truly okay.

"You're not sick; you just suffered some internal injuries."

The old man spoke, and Gao Yuan felt an urge to laugh, thinking about the possibility of having an internal injury that could lead to cultivation deviation or something similar.

"Come, don't just sit there, get up and walk around."

Immediately, a doctor came over to remove various monitoring devices attached to Gao Yuan. After Gao Yuan got off the bed and took a few steps, he still looked baffled and asked, "Er, can someone tell me what's going on?"

The old man chuckled, "You exerted too much force and damaged your Vital Energy. I've seen the footage from the battlefield recorder on your body. To be able to send a dozen zombies flying with one blow, that's some serious strength. First, come out; a lot of people are waiting for your news."

Still bewildered, Gao Yuan followed the old man out of the hospital room, and indeed, he saw a crowd of people outside.

"Alright, notify whoever needs to be notified; um, but now I need to have a private chat with him, for the sake of his condition."

After finishing his words, the old man said to Gao Yuan, "Follow me for a bit; it will just take a moment."

Gao Yuan still looked puzzled, but he followed the old man into a room, and in this room, there was someone he knew—Li Jingang.

"King Kong Brother, hello."

Li Jingang smiled but did not speak.

"My name is Sun Yunxiang. I'm a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and a fan of martial arts. It hasn't been easy to have a private conversation with you. I applied for a long time just to get half an hour. So let me get straight to the point. Xiao Gao, do you want to train in martial arts?"

Gao Yuan paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "I do, I've trained in the Thirteen Techniques."

"The Thirteen Techniques are external weapon techniques, about fighting styles, but what you need now is to practice Internal Martial Arts. I can tell you with certainty that, given your current physical condition, practicing Internal Martial Arts can enhance your abilities significantly! Moreover, I'll tell you this: your current fighting style is wasteful. You're squandering most of your strength. To put it bluntly, after watching your videos twice, I dare say you're like a silly boy who tries to warm a cold bed with just his own heat, relying solely on brute force."

Gao Yuan, still stunned, asked, "What do you mean?"

"It means you don't know how to utilize your strengths and just blindly rely on brute force. Think about it, did the Thirteen Techniques help you when dealing with zombies?"

"Er, no, but that's because I could kill a zombie with just a casual hit; no need for any fancy moves."

"But if you could fully use your advantages, even if you were surrounded by zombies, you could handle them with ease. This is the benefit of practicing footwork. And when you strike a zombie, you do it with full force every time, whether it's one or ten—isn't that wasteful? What if I teach you martial arts, and you could solve problems using just one-tenth of the strength, how about that?"

Without any hesitation, Gao Yuan replied, "Good, will you teach me? That would be great!"

Sun Yunxiang had prepared many arguments just to convince Gao Yuan to be willing to follow him in martial arts training.

But now, it seemed that they weren't needed.

Why did Sun Yunxiang feel the need to convince Gao Yuan in the first place?

Because martial arts have been mythologized for so long and stigmatized for just as long, now when people hear about martial arts, the first thing they think of is kung fu movies, and then the performances of those swindlers. Many people's first reaction is to think that martial arts are deceptive.

So now, to persuade someone to practice martial arts really takes some effort, and besides, Gao Yuan's physical fitness had already reached a superhuman level.

When a person can easily get what they want, to then ask them to put in hard work to practice something new is definitely going to be rejected by the vast majority.

It's like telling a sniper who is skilled with guns that they should practice martial arts because it would be good for them, but it will take a lot of effort and time.

So would that sniper choose to shoot the enemy with their gun, or spend extra time practicing martial arts?

Any normal sniper would definitely not practice martial arts, there's no need.

Gao Yuan isn't a sniper, but now he had no equals among ordinary humans. At this point, asking him to go back to practicing martial arts, as long as Gao Yuan was even slightly lazy, he definitely wouldn't practice, and even if he did, he surely wouldn't put his heart into it.

But Gao Yuan was different because Uncle Xiang had told him that he should take the opportunity to learn Xingyi Quan from Li Jingang, and he had only been lacking the time and opportunity before.

Moreover, Gao Yuan had a great deal of faith in the effectiveness of martial arts, why? Because Uncle Xiang had taught him the Thirteen Techniques, and he had used that skill to save Luo Xingyu, which is a case of practice revealing true knowledge. He knew the usefulness and significance of martial arts.

Even Sun Yunxiang was caught off guard, as he didn't expect Gao Yuan to agree so readily and with such eagerness.

"You're really willing to practice?"

"Willing. Why wouldn't I be?"

"But practicing martial arts can be very tough."

"I know. And I'm not afraid of hardship."

Sun Yunxiang was left speechless, then after thinking it over, he said, "It's really tough."

"I'm truly not afraid of hardships!"

Sun Yunxiang laughed, then with satisfaction, he said, "Very good, very good. Now, I'll take your pulse, and after that, I've prepared a medicinal bath for you. You should soak in it, it's good for your body, and then... deal with your personal affairs first, and start practicing with me tomorrow."

Gao Yuan nodded, but he immediately said, "Tomorrow might not be possible. I have a lot of urgent things to handle. Um, how long have I been sleeping?"

"Fifty hours, a full fifty hours."

"That long!"

Gao Yuan was shocked, but then he thought that since those people at the shopping mall had held out for half a year, another couple of days probably wouldn't make a difference. However, knowing Gao Yuan's character, he definitely couldn't keep putting it off.

"I must make another trip to Ji City, and after I come back, I'll be free to practice with you. Um, King Kong Brother, what are you doing here? Do you need something?"

Li Jingang gave a bitter smile and said, "This man is my martial arts grandmaster. Well, I came to persuade you to practice martial arts, but it seems there's no need for that now."

What's there to persuade, really, such incomprehensible behavior from both of them.

At this time, Sun Yunxiang smiled and said, "It's alright now, Gao Yuan, if you have things to do, go take care of them. A lot of people are waiting for you. You handle your matters first, I'll be waiting for you. Oh, if it's convenient, we could do a little initiation ceremony, just for the formality, what do you think?"

Gao Yuan was still a bit stunned. Why did he suddenly have an additional master?

Should he ask first?

But seeing Li Jingang nodding at him repeatedly, with a look that said he should hurry up and agree, Gao Yuan spoke softly, "Alright... it should be okay, but I have to ask Uncle Xiang first. If he says it's alright, then there's no problem."