Chapter 157: Chapter 157

“Rebound effect?” For one rare moment Geezer Shi looked serious as he chewed the two words and asked, “Let me ask you first. Do you wish to be a fighter, or do you want to be a cultivator in the future? You’d not be able to regret your decision once you’ve entered high-ranked Dan Stage.”

Lou Cheng was a child who grew up watching Professional Martial Arts Competitions. He was nurtured this way, and he held a dream and a pure and passionate love for martial arts. When he heard this, he answered without hesitation,

“Of course, I want to be a fighter!”

More importantly, the legacy of cultivators had been severed since a long time ago. Cultivating based on remaining records would only produce minimal results at twice the effort. On the other hand, he had the guidance of seniors and the collation and examination of his lovers if he trod on the path of martial arts. There was also an immense number of relevant information and companions whom he could spar and discuss with!

“Very good.” Geezer Shi praised once before clicking his tongue. “Then you must always remember that martial arts is your main path, and cultivation is something that supplements it. It’s true that the other mountain’s stone can polish jade, but it doesn’t mean the stone itself can become the jade you wish to be. The greatest taboo in the path of cultivation is none other than to shilly-shally, hesitate, unwilling to choose and irrespective of what’s important and what’s not. Alright, why don’t you tell me how you normally digest it first?”

Lou Cheng deliberated his choice of words and said, “It could help me recover my fatigue. Through this, I continuously push myself and increase my stamina…”

Geezer Shi interrupted him in annoyance before he could finish.

“I knew it! No wonder I was gasping for breath at the beginning!”

Before Lou Cheng could explain, he let out a sigh and continued, “Not bad. You understand how to purposefully use your fortuitous encounter to increase your abilities and not purely rely on it. With your willpower and temperament, it’s not in vain that I’ve taken you as my disciple. Ay, come on, continue!”

“Wasn’t you the one who interrupted me?” Lou Cheng judged silently on the inside before recalling where he had left off the conversation. “It could help me enter meditation and conceal my spirit and qi swiftly. However, half a year of hard work later, I’m able to enter into a meditative state now swiftly. In fact, I’m close to achieving the level of great attainment. However, I’m still unable to perform inward vision just yet…”

Geezer Shi nodded slightly as a sign of acknowledgment, but he did not interrupt further.

“Other than these two points, its balance would be broken whenever I push it to its limits. A bit of its energy would leak outside, integrate into my body and create the talent of a supernatural ability through a rebound effect.” Lou Cheng said honestly, “During the first rebound effect, I had nearly died at Yanling.”

“As I thought, it’s a little similar to the physical invulnerability stage…” Geezer Shi said thoughtfully, “Longhu Immortal’s cultivation emphasizes on the balance between ice and fire, yin and yang. The might of the rebound effect when you awaken the Power of Frost should be similar to the first rebound effect. You can try this with your current constitution.”

Lou Cheng said ‘weakly’, “I did… it’s about the same as the rebound effect when I first awakened the Power of Blaze…”

The corner of Geezer Shi’s mouth twitched once before he said in annoyance and amusement, “Your wings had gotten tough I see, brat! If I’m to describe this philosophically, your self-initiative is seriously impressive!”

“Master, you know about philosophy?” Lou Cheng sidetracked the topic and said.

Geezer Shi let out a ‘heh’ and said,

“Do you think your master is illiterate? Mm, since you’ve awakened the Power of Frost, I’d be able to teach you a few things once your arm has recovered. As for the time for the second cycle of your awakening, you don’t be hasty. You should wait until the qi and blood of your physical body have reached the peak of body refining state, and when you can withdraw and release them freely, you can attempt again. Remember to come and look for me then. At the worst, I’d be able to protect your life at least! Tsk, young people these days are so foolishly bold!”

Lou Cheng was assaulted by a pang of guilty conscience and didn’t dare to answer him.

“For now, digest the Jindan following your own pace. Later on, you should learn how to extract its essence and discard the useless residue. When you’ve merged the stuff of cultivation into your martial arts, do allow your master to figure out how you should tread the next step.” Geezer Shi laughed in self-depreciation before saying, “I guess I have to suffer the embarrassment and ask for some research data later.”

“Research data?” Lou Cheng asked in curiosity.

Geezer Shi spoke with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, “Do you think that Longhu Immortal was the only cultivator in ancient times? Many relevant legacy residences have been found in succession, and it’s also why we can confirm that the path of cultivation takes a different approach but shares the same end destination as martial arts, but it’s not able to break through the limits just the same. Moreover, the inheritances of the path of cultivation were unavoidably severed because its cultivators often secluded themselves in mountains and forests for great lengths of time.”

“The army had found plenty of inheritances and thus had a deeper researched understanding of cultivation. They had even purposely chosen a group of volunteers to tread the path of cultivation for observation purposes. Hehe, in the end, the imagination that could not be made real is just an imagination.”

At this point, he sighed. “However, the data researched by the military isn’t of much use to you. Your wish is to walk the path of martial arts with characteristics of cultivation merged into it. There’s nothing in your path that coincides with the direction they’re headed right now. You’d have to wait until my old friend obtains the inheritance of Longhu Immortal and combines it with his findings as reference and see if he can discover anything. You don’t have to be hasty. Right now, you should focus on training your physical body to the peak first.”

“Yes, master.” Lou Cheng said sincerely. The fact that his master would watch over him the next time he squeezes the Jindan was a great boon to him already.

Geezer Shi nodded and returned to his usual lax appearance, saying, “Alright, that’s it. Go do whatever you need to do.”

Lou Cheng was just about to turn back to the locker room when he failed to restrain himself from asking one more question.

“Master, are you seriously not curious about this?”

Geezer Shi smiled and said, “Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

“What’s the truth? What’s the lie?” Lou Cheng asked with the mind to get to the bottom of things.

“The lie is that your master has attained physical invulnerability for many years. My path has been set since a long time ago, and the stuff of cultivation can only be useful to me for a time or act as a mere reference. It can no longer boost my abilities directly, which is why I’ve never paid too much attention to the military’s research of cultivation despite having cooperated with them for many years.” Geezer Shi chuckled. “As for the truth, your master is old and can’t afford to squander much time and effort anymore. Even if blending the stuff of cultivation could really help me achieve greater heights, I don’t have the courage to attempt recklessly any longer. After all, isn’t it better to have my old friend opening the path ahead and you, a lively lab rat to experience things for me? What you obtained, your masters possess all the channels in the world to obtain as well.”

“That is true…” when he heard the truth, Lou Cheng felt at ease completely and relaxed on the inside.

Geezer Shi took out a small wine jug, took a sip, hummed a Chinese opera tune and turned around to leave at his leisure.

As he watched his master going away, Lou Cheng’s feeling was like the surface of a lake that had calmed down after an intense turbulence. There were still some ripples amidst his calm and collected mind.

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He suddenly sighed and felt a strange kind of loss.

To him, the Jindan was the crutch he relied upon to swiftly fly through the ranks of martial arts and his greatest trump card. It was the secret that he was most unwilling to share with anyone because it made him unique and full of confidence.

When his master discovered its existence, and when he realized those cultivator inheritances were rare but not unique, he seemed to have lost that feeling of uniqueness and confidence. Therefore, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of loss.

However, looking from another point of view, the Jindan itself contained too much danger and unpredictability. His life would be much, much safer if he had his master, a physical invulnerable Mighty One to watch over him. Moreover, his true uniqueness and confidence were not the Jindan, but the tenacity, willpower, temperament, confidence and combat talent he ‘awakened’ through the Jindan.

They were his true and biggest dependence on his path of martial arts!

When he figured this out, Lou Cheng recovered himself and felt exceptionally relaxed. He felt as if he had discarded a heavy burden that had been hidden inside his heart for too long; discarded the worry that he would perish at any moment due to the instability of the Jindan.

He began walking towards the entrance of the locker room as confidently and calmly as ever.

…

When Geezer Shi walked out of the martial arts arena and headed to the teachers’ apartment, he suddenly hiccupped and smacked his head.

“Look at my memory. I forgot to ask exactly what the brat had obtained.”

Oh well, if it’s not a life artifact, then it has to be an externally cultivated spirit core…”

…

When Lou Cheng entered the locker room, Yan Zheke had just finished bathing. Her black hair was tied together loosely by a black elastic band, making her looking refreshing and attractive. Li Mao walked back and forth excitedly and talked to others non-stop. The sweat on his face was still present, and it was evident that he hadn’t bathed yet. The others were busy with their own things.

Li Mao hurriedly shouted when he saw Lou Cheng coming in,

“Cheng, everyone, I’ll be treating tonight. We’ll celebrate at the academy cafeteria!”

He wished to express his own gratitude and happiness.

Yan Zheke took out an ointment from the cabinet and joked. “Senior Brother Li Mao, are you disregarding Senior Brother Sun Jian and me? We’re the protagonists of today as well. If anyone’s treating today, then it’ll have to be the three of us together!”

Sun Jian also echoed. “Yeah, Li Mao, are you trying to take all the merit or something? I’m the last fighter to stand in the ring, and I’m the captain this match. How can I possibly let you treat us alone?”

Lou Cheng and the others all understood that they did not wish for Li Mao, whose family was of average wealth to spend too much money. Therefore, they had echoed the sentiment and made Li Mao both embarrassed and touched. In the end, he accepted the compromise.

“Let me help you massage your bruises, alright?” Lou Cheng walked before Yan Zheke and took over the ointment with a great smile on his face.

Yan Zheke pursed her lips and cast a smiling glance at him. She let out a cute humph and said,

“Show me your skill then~!”

When she was done speaking, she turned around and sat down at the edge of a bench. She opened the button of her cuffs and rolled her sleeves upwards, revealing a section of snow white skin. However, the minor bruises and swellings on her skin looked rather scary. Perhaps it was because that her skin was tender.

Lou Cheng picked up her wrist and put ointment first on the small swelling on the surface of her fist. He felt both regret and tenderness for her wounds, and he applied the ointment extremely seriously.

“Not bad…” Yan Zheke smiled with a little bit of embarrassment as she stared at the swirling pattern on top of Lou Cheng’s head and bit the bottom half of her lip softly with her pearl white teeth.

“Of course, I apply ointment to my own body everyday after training. My proficiency reached max level a long time ago.” Lou Cheng said humorously while feeling relaxed and happy on the inside.

When Yan Zheke saw Sun Jian, Lin Hua and the others leaving one after another, and Li Mao had entered the shower room to shower, she exclaimed softly.

“Cheng…”

“Hmm?” Lou Cheng lifted his head and looked at the girl. He could see that her eyes were as gentle as water.

“Thank you…” Yan Zheke turned her head and looked sideways as she spoke softly.

She wasn’t thanking him for now, but before.

Lou Cheng answered with a mischievous smile,

“Do we still need thanks between us?”

This was the purposely innocent answer Yan Zheke had given him earlier. Now that he had used it to reply her gratitude, it immediately drew a laugh and a playful pout from the girl. Lou Cheng felt dazed as he stared at her, feeling a sense of his own ‘uniqueness’ once more…

In this world, I’m the only boy Yan Zheke likes…