Chapter 383 The Old Fist God and the Mountain Yin-Yang 1
The old boxing god's statement sounds a bit strange.
He clearly didn't know how Yuchi planned to become stronger, yet he presupposed that Yuchi would have to pay a price that "courage is indispensable" to become stronger, which is truly puzzling.
Fortunately, I'm no longer the novice I was when I first entered this strange world, completely ignorant of the basics of witching. I can somewhat guess why the old Fist God would say something like that.
The way a Witcher becomes stronger is completely different from that of an ordinary person.
The magic used by Witchers is primarily the power of the mind. When it comes to the power of the mind, it seems more romantic and promising than physical power, but in some aspects it is actually less flexible than physical power.
An ordinary person—even one who utterly detests fighting—can become a qualified warrior if forced to learn combat and weapon handling techniques through various means, allowing their body to retain the experience and feel of battle, and to know how to make the right judgments on the battlefield. A witcher, however, simply cannot do it. If a witcher truly detests fighting with others, they are destined to never achieve anything significant in this area.
Unless he becomes a non-self being.
As a child, Zhu Shi, or rather Zhu Jiuxing, was someone who deeply disliked hurting others. However, in order to shoulder the responsibility of her family's demon hunters, she made a heavy decision, establishing an ambition and awareness that contradicted her own nature. As a result, the nature of her soul underwent a drastic change, and her personality became completely different.
It should be noted that Zhu Jiuxing was in the most malleable period of her childhood at that time. Although it is not to say that she experienced a complete spiritual death, she still lost her love and feelings. Even her innate right position of heaven and earth was transformed into the power of Buzhou Mountain.
Yu Chi, however, is an adult whose mindset and beliefs are already fully formed. Since he is still not good at fighting even after reaching the Great Completion stage, it can only mean that he is mentally incompatible with combat. If he wants to obtain enough fighting power to personally kill the Old Fist God, he will inevitably have to undergo a mental upheaval no less than that of Zhu Jiuxing.
That would absolutely kill the current Yuchi on a spiritual level, and then hatch a completely new one, someone who is not him.
By analogy, it might be like me giving up the pursuit of adventure now—would I still be myself then?
"The formations you excel at are the path of wisdom, which is gradual and progressive." The old fist god seemed to see through everything about Yuchi. "Once you start to be impatient for quick results and pursue power at all costs, you will not only fail to achieve anything in the path of power, but you will also lose your original wisdom."
"Unlike the talent of strength, the talent of wisdom is very fragile. You must take good care of it, or it will easily wither away."
Even so, do you still want to pursue power?
Judging from Yuchi's expression, it seems that the old boxing god was right about everything.
Yu Chi glared at the old Fist God and said hatefully, "Don't put on that superior face at a time like this... Qilin was your disciple, wasn't he? Why did you kill Qilin?"
"Strange, haven't I told you before?" the old boxer said casually. "It was an accident."
"Accidentally!?" Yu Chi's eyes were bloodshot.
"Because I noticed that my apprentice seemed to have become very strong, and there were even rumors that she might have surpassed me, so I was very curious." The old boxing master revealed a nostalgic smile. "I thought that she must have neglected her kung fu after falling in love with and getting married to a man, but the reality seems to be different from what I thought. So I couldn't help myself and went to her place to have a long-awaited martial arts exchange, wanting to see how much she had improved since she graduated."
"The result was a pleasant surprise. Could love really make a woman stronger? I had expected her to become stronger, but I didn't expect her to become so much stronger! So I was overjoyed and couldn't help but use a little more force."
"By the time I came to my senses, she was already dead."
Is this really the truth? Even I, an onlooker, found it too absurd for a moment, and suspected that there might be some hidden story. Not to mention Yu Chi, who seemed to want to crush his fists after hearing what the old fist god said.
“However, I believe Qilin must be very happy too,” the old Fist God said. “Although I deeply regret her death, being able to die in a battle with a strong opponent is a fortunate thing.”
“It’s fine if you want to take revenge on me for your own sake, but if you’re thinking of ‘taking revenge for her,’ then you’ve probably misunderstood.”
Yu Chi finally couldn't hold back and roared, "Stop joking! Do you think Qilin is a battle maniac like you? She's not like you, a maniac whose mind is always on fighting. She's always just using a mask of madness to hide her inner pain... You don't even know her pain and vulnerability, yet you keep talking on and on... Is this how you call yourself Qilin's master?!"
“That makes sense.” The old fist god didn’t completely deny it. “Qilin and I are different in age, gender, and circumstances. Even though we’ve spent a lot of time together, I can’t say that I fully understand her.”
"But do you truly understand my disciple? You think Qilin only pursues power because of childhood trauma, but in my view, Qilin has already transcended his childhood. Isn't it you who truly hasn't overcome it?"
Is the image you see the real her, or is it just a figment of your imagination?
"I'm going to kill you..." Yu Chi roared in fury, "No matter the cost... I will definitely kill you!"
“I’m really looking forward to it,” the old boxing god said.
Could it be that he said those things just now to deliberately provoke Yuchi?
"Well then, it's about time for me to get over there. You two can talk amongst yourselves from now on."
As he said goodbye, the old boxer didn't forget to pick up his plate, as if he wanted to move to another spot to continue eating.
I hadn't forgotten that I had something important to ask, so I immediately stopped Old Fist God and said, "Wait a moment, I have something I want to ask you."
"What's going on?" the old boxer asked, stopping to ask.
“I want to know… how you defeated Yama Ryougi,” I said. “I heard that you were once a Ryougi successor, but your talent was distorted by Yama Ryougi. If you confronted Yama Ryougi head-on, the accumulated power should have been plundered along with the power seed. In fact, I’ve also heard that the power seed in your body has indeed disappeared…”
"Mountain Ryo-Yo... It's been a long time since anyone mentioned anything related to Mountain Ryo-Yo to me." The old boxing god looked me over carefully. "And, you said 'also'..."
I don't know if he could see the Vermilion Bird Seed within me, but he nodded and asked, "Are you also a successor of Yin and Yang?"
“Exactly,” I said.
“Well, I’m sorry, I don’t know how to explain how to defeat Yama Ryougi,” the old Fist God said. “When I fought Yama Ryougi, he did take away the power seed in my body, but I did not lose the power I had accumulated. I only realized that the power seed was taken away after I killed Yama Ryougi.”
"You don't even know why your accumulated power didn't disappear after the seed of power was taken away? Isn't it because you anticipated the enemy's move and made some kind of preparation beforehand?" I asked.
“No,” the old Fist God said. “Although I’ve been active in this world for a long time, I don’t really have any in-depth knowledge about strange creatures or witchers.”
"Back then, I had heard of the person named Shan Liangyi during my training, and I also knew that I was the so-called successor of Liangyi. However, asking me to do some preparatory work in advance like a proper demon hunter really stumped me."
"In other words, you knew about the relationship between Yama Ryougi and yourself, and you had no expectation that your power would not be taken away. On this basis, you still fought against Yama Ryougi..." I thought for a moment and then said, "Did Yama Ryougi take the initiative to seek you out?"
The old boxing master shook his head: "I took the initiative to challenge Shan Liangyi. At that time, I was challenging powerful opponents everywhere. Shan Liangyi looked very strong, so I just went and fought him when I passed by."
Isn't this person's style of doing things a bit too wild?
The old boxing god added, "If I had to give another reason... it would be to vent my anger."
"To vent your anger?" I asked.
"I've loved martial arts since I was a child. Although I know about the existence of witchers, I still prefer the straightforwardness of fist and foot techniques to their magic and spells," the old fist master said with emotion. "Perhaps you can't understand why I'm so obsessed with what many people consider a very backward form of power, but to me, it's a kind of romance."
"Even in the world of common sense, where firearms and ammunition already exist, aren't there still many enthusiasts who are obsessed with building and wielding cold weapons? Perhaps their thoughts are similar to mine."
"The process of sweating and toiling day after day, honing one's body into a stronger weapon, has an irresistible charm that I cannot give up."
"And then, when I was almost fifty, I had a dream."
"A dream?" I asked.
"I dreamt that I entered a city filled with sin and had a martial arts contest with a strange young man," the old boxing god said. "That young man possessed martial arts skills that I had never imagined, skills that were beyond my comprehension. After waking up, I wanted to recreate the martial arts skills of the young man in my dream in reality, so I practiced my kung fu day and night, and even ventured into strange worlds, seeking inspiration for a breakthrough in the life-and-death situations of fighting with strange creatures and witchers."
"Just when I felt I was getting closer and closer to the boy of my dreams, something strange suddenly befell me."
"It's this damn thing that made me miss out on my dream of martial arts skills and accidentally awakened my magical powers!"
The old man uttered a heart-wrenching cry.
(End of this chapter)
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