Chapter 41: CHAPTER 40: THE PAST, DRIFTING APART (2)

In the days that followed, he began to practice controlling and unifying Pure Qi in each motion. He practiced nonstop for hours on end, sometimes forgetting and skipping his meals in between. 

Then his master paid him a visit one day, he was overjoyed and tried his hardest to show it off to his master, but when he finished his practice, he noticed that his master was no longer standing there and had only sent someone to deliver his message instructing his disciple to come to his office for some counseling when night fell.

Binh An, of course, followed the instruction. That night, he came to the rustic chamber to seek guidance from his master, who was now sitting across from him at a long table. He instantly felt distant; the master, who had always walked or stayed alongside him while teaching him, never putting up such formalities before, suddenly felt like a complete stranger. The comments of his master that he ended up receiving that night were then merely critiques, stating that he still did not practice well enough.

Binh An immediately clasped his folded hands and asked his master for a clear path for future improvements.

Master continued saying, "You will not be able to improve if you rely solely on others for cultivation. You can discover your own technique to train yourself and feel the state of your spiritual power now that you've arrived at this phase. Draw yourself a proper path from then on out; this is also the spirit of a true cultivator."

Binh An was astonished, but he also considered the possibility that he was too attached to his teacher; perhaps he had reached the age where he needed to be independent and design his own course.

Having said that, that night, he fed his little pet chick while reading a number of books acquired from the public library, attempting to learn all the methods of self-development. Normally, all of the most advanced hidden literature was given to him; today he had to go hunt for them himself, which took him a long time and a great effort.

The chick noticed that he was busier than usual and ignored it, so it pecked him twice on the back of his hand. Binh An couldn't help but chuckle, pushing it away to see how it would react. The chick was dumbfounded for a while before dragging its chubby little body back to him. He chuckled, still trying to tease it, and pushed it away whenever it approached. When the chick became upset, it closed its wings, showed him its back, and stayed in one spot at a distance.

The chick was angry, he poked it with his fingertip, there was no response, he poked it twice, there was still no response, he felt even more ridiculous, he had no idea chicks harbored grudges. So he embraced the chick in his lap, tempting it with fragrant rice grains, which happened to be its favorite type. The chick was quite easy to coax, food was its own method of comfort and so it huddled in his arms again. The chick kept him company while he was reading until dawn.

In the following days, Binh An immediately put what he had read into practice.

He was continuously training his self-control, how to manage his raging energy, and how to better control his impact on the opponent, in order to better control the outcome.

He felt that his moves were somewhat better controlled after a long period of practice. But if he restrained this tremendous energy, preventing it from escaping, it would set his entire body on fire, as if he were engulfed in a sea of lava and as if he had a burning fever yet couldn't sweat. Stuffy, tired, and worn out were all he could feel in his training; eventually, greatly affecting his endurance as well as his strength in his performance.

He had no idea how to prevent this energy from forming and developing, nor how to properly combine self-control with maintaining the devastating strength of the secret he was cultivating.

He nearly turned the entire library upside down, and yet he still couldn't find a correct answer; the reason was that the secret martial art he practiced was not a common thing, and thus there weren't many details written down for him to refer to.

Running out of ideas, he decided to take the initiative to find his master and seek guidance, rather than waiting for him to come to him like before. However, for several weeks, he couldn't meet his master even if he wanted to. At this time, Master often went out of the mountains to handle matters, and each time he left, it took a long time for him to return, sometimes it could be up to a month.

Even when his master returned, he didn't know anything; it wasn't until he departed for another business that he realized his master had returned to the mountain but had not notified him in any way. He just missed the master; the two of them seemed to be separated by fate; unlike in the past, he would visit him every time he returned after his business, sometimes buying him modest gifts, other times telling him about all he encountered along the trip. During that time, he saw him as a close family member rather than an instructor.

Binh An was lounging on the training ground, it had been a week since he had seen his master, and he couldn't help but be nostalgic and mourn the good old days. His sweat was drowning his clothes, which were all sticking to his body; he was greasy all over, but he didn't care.

He used to think of practicing as fun and reading as mastery. Every time he successfully practiced a move, or recited a book, he was greeted with a smile and compliments, recognizing his efforts.

But now, no matter what book he picked up, he found it useless and became frustrated. The practice development was also at a halt; he had no idea where to begin or what to expect from each practice session. In the end, he was spending time and effort on a series of fruitless experiments.

As he sat and pondered, a figure approached and sat next to him, startling him. A very pleasant voice was heard.

"What are you dreaming about, wouldn't you have been ambushed if it hadn't been me but someone else?"

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Binh An recognized Thanh Hien - the girl he secretly admired. As soon as he saw the lovely shadow, his eyes lit up and he replied smugly.

“If they can afford to ambush me, then go ahead, I don't mind anyone.”

"That's too presumptuous." She laughed, "Here!"

Thanh Hien handed Binh An a bag of cool water, and he was excited. He took it and drank it right away, thinking to himself that it was possibly the sweetest drink he had ever tasted. He was so lost in thinking that he forgot his body was crying out for water.

"Long time no see, do you still practice regularly?"

Binh An suddenly felt a little helpless, so he said.

“No, I just did a few exercises from time to time, you know, stretching and warming up; currently I am still researching the best translational path for myself."

“Why do you have to be so humble? You think I don't know you come here to practice day and night? I almost mistook this training facility for your permanent residence!"

Binh An laughed dryly, not knowing why he was terrified. Thanh Hien, on the other hand, didn't catch the idea and chuckled as she nudged him with her shoulder.

“Please slow down your practice, don't outgrow us too much and cause us to lose all face when fighting against you. Also, there's no need to give in to those people, especially now that they believe they're fantastic and behave so arrogant all day, it's so irritating."

Thanh Hien was referring to the most recent friendly match, in which Binh An attempted to restrain himself and ended up allowing his opponent to counter-attack him a lot. There was only one problem: Binh An did not give in to them at all, as Thanh Hien thought, it was him failing in his training; yet, his ego was still quite big and there was no way he would admit it, he leaned back, the corner of his lip curve up, revealing his mischievous fang.

"At that time, if my body was in good shape, they would not have had the opportunity to flatter themselves."

“Yeah! And you did eventually set them straight after that, even when you weren't in your best state of health. Yet those people really thought highly of themselves and kept chewing the matter over and over again."

"Dare they say anything about me?" Binh An frowned.

"They claimed you have reached your limit, like a wet towel that has been squeezed out of water, unable to advance any further; in addition, your moves are chaotic and hesitant, even a minor strike from them could cause you a lot of damage. Really! My brother always found a way to make fun of you, I can't even listen to those comments, and I don't want to be around him anymore."

Binh An never thought that they gave him that look and felt even more ridiculous, a swarm of bugs gathered together to mind other people's business, if they could spend less time chatting, perhaps they wouldn't have been left so far behind in cultivation. It was only a small match and yet they seemed to make a big deal out of it.

The two were chatting when they were approached by Thanh Cong, who was looking for Thanh Hien and overheard the two of them whispering and gossiping behind his back. He immediately went mad.

That day, both Binh An and Thanh Cong fell into a scuffle, although Thanh Hien tried her best to stop it but she failed. She then had to run for help, and they were successful in momentarily stopping them from fighting further.

And after this fight, the hatred between the two of them grew so strong that it appeared that even a minor catalyst could make them explode and ready to rush in and destroy each other.

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