Chapter 83

New Discoveries

“Ugh. I’m so exhausted!” Chu Shen flopped down on the bed with a groan. Lucas gave him an inquisitive glance.

“That ‘Grandmaster’ Qin” He said making quotation marks in the air. “Has been training me nonstop for five days now. And to make it worse it’s actually felt like fifteen since he has that illusion array. It’s awful!”

Lucas shrugged. “Can’t be that bad.”

Chu Shen looked at him with a blank stare. “Yeah. I just have to look at examples of two hundred basic moves from different weapons and techniques. Then learn it so that I can predict where the moves are going to land by reading the opponent's muscles. And to top it off, if I don’t learn it, I have to do it all over again.”

“Yeah. That seems difficult for an organic to do. Maybe I should skip the training then.”

“Nuh-uh. If I have to learn it, so do you.”

“Well it would be redundant since I have a map of the human muscular system so I can just run a program to tell me anyways.”

Chu Shen stared at him for a second before promptly throwing a pillow, which Lucas dodged. “I hate you Lucas. I really do hate you.”

Lucas shrugged. “Well. I wanted to show you something I discovered while you were gone. I was investigating the attribute Qi from the beast cores and discovered it’s actually a 7th state of matter.”

Chu Shen looked at him. “What do you mean?”

Lucas sighed. “You know the other six states of matter right? Liquid, solid, gas, plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate, and hyper-matter.”

Chu Shen nodded. “Yeah. Well except the last two. Only briefly heard it on a physics simulation.”

“Bose-Einstein condensates are bosons, a quantum particle, cooled to absolute zero. Or at least close to it. Hyper-matter is the state of all matter in hypers.p.a.ce. It is when all matter has lost all distance between the electron cloud and the nucleus.”

Lucas had an excited look on his face as he explained all this. “However, I found out that attribute Qi actually is a seventh state! This state is a fluctuation of matter and energy. This ‘Earth Qi’ is actually a form of energy that can fluctuate between being actual earth and energy! I even found it can temporarily turn real earth into this energy and be used to manipulate it!”

It was Chu Shen’s turn to shrug. “And? I knew all this anyways. I grew up seeing this.”

Lucas sighed. “Yeah, but if I can discover how to induce this seventh state it can be limitless! We use fusion and fission to power our systems now but if we can use this seventh state we will no longer be forced to use exotic matter or Hydrogen as fuel but everything! The limits on s.p.a.ce travel could be undone! We can even turn mining into a complete waste of time!”

“Whoopee. Now let me get some sleep. I’m tired.” Chu Shen rolled over on the bed.

“Ugh! I hate it when people don’t listen!”

Chu Shen showed up at the Agata Family mansion as usual. Just like before Grandmaster Qin was there to meet him. However, this time he was not led to the illusion formation. Instead he was led to a small table and served some tea.

“Hmm. Thank you Grandmaster Qin. However, why am I not training?” Chu Shen asked.

“Simple. You are done. While I can’t say your grasp of the basics are perfect, they are adequate. To be honest you learned quite fast. It took me several months to learn. Of course, I had to learn the entire body and how it worked instead of just the front like you did.”

“Why did I not learn the entire body then?”

“Because of time and practicality. I am teaching you how to fight an opponent and judge their moves head on. Because of that you only need to see how they move from the front. Also it would take much longer.”

"What I will teach you now is the fundamentals of martial arts. Or rather, some secrets that most do not learn for a long time. So pay very close attention.

Do you know what a martial art does?”

Chu Shen replied back hesitantly. “It enhances your power?”

Grandmaster Qin nodded. “Correct, but how?”

Chu Shen shrugged. “I don’t really know. Isn’t it just by circulating Qi and then releasing it?”

Grandmaster Qin nodded again. “True to some extent. Now let me talk about the limits of Qi. We channel Qi through our meridians. However, by channeling too much our meridians can burst. Qi also leaks through the meridians into our body. If the body absorbs too much energy it can be destroyed. That is the reason behind backlash of powerful martial arts.

Our soul also controls Qi. That is why when we absorb Qi we need to concentrate by meditating. When absorbing Qi we make it our own by imprinting our soul on it, meaning we can use it without meditating. Otherwise we would have to meditate every time we wanted to channel Qi.

However, this imprint has it’s limits. If we use too much Qi, we have to concentrate which distracts us. Distractions in a fight are fatal. It can’t happen lightly.”

Chu Shen nodded. Everything made sense so far. For example, when he made the s.h.i.+eld for the soldiers during the bug war he had to stop fighting and focus on making it. Also the body absorbing Qi was described in the

technique and was the reason having a strong body was necessary.

“Now let me talk about breaking these limits. Reflex actions require no thought. They happen automatically and they do not occur solely in the body but the soul as well.  An example of a reflex of the soul would be a martial artist’s body s.h.i.+eld, an automatic reaction brought on by the bodies survival instinct.

Reflexes are made by endlessly repeating an action. Martial arts are the same. By training a martial art to the point of being a reflex for your soul, you can activate martial arts requiring large amounts of Qi without being distracted. But you must first learn how to channel Qi in those particular meridians, which can be a great roadblock to cultivators.

As for the meridians, martial arts use certain amounts of meridians to channel their energy. The more meridians used, the more energy can be channeled without risk. Of course, these meridians, even for the basic martial art, is over a hundred since the outer meridians are in the millions.

Lastly is the body. By spreading out the Qi between meridians you can avoid such backlash. However, sometimes it is a necessary price. Now there is one more feature of martial arts. Creating a structure.

Qi evaporates when it leaves your body. This is a result of the soul imprint fading when it doesn't have support directly from the soul but by making  a structure, you can allow it to hold it’s form longer. The reason is that the Qi isn't dispersed but concentrated. It can also have effects like making blades that slice, s.h.i.+elds, increasing your speed, or your bodies strength.

However, do not think that just by being able to circulate Qi in random ways one will create a martial art. By thinking this way you can destroy yourself from backfire if the Qi does not create a structure but instead destabilizes.”

The reason martial arts is often based off of nature or animals is because by studying the circulation of Qi in animals or plants and how it affects such objects, one can copy the Qi flow and recreate the objects.

These are the secrets of martial arts.”