Martial Arts Encyclopedia - Chapter 12

Paradign Shift (1)

Once more I wake up to that heavenly sight, staring straight at the soft twin peaks which all dreams of mankind rest. Yesterday when we came back home she fussed over my health, forcing me to sit down while she helped around to make me comfortable. She even made a bowl of porridge for me to slowly regain my strength while she made me a hunter’s roast: a big boar cooked on a fire outside.

During her time as a squire under Ser Hector she had to perform all sorts of menial tasks, learning how to hunt, clean and cook her food, though she still prefers my cooking. I allowed her to work in peace while I rested, only occasionally giving advice on how to use the spices available in Orario. Differently from her era, there are many more spices, herbs, and even types of salt sold in the city for a cheap price. We had a magnificent feast on a budget, though I made sure not to ask her how far she traveled to hunt that boar.

We decided to update my Falna on the next day, and after filling our bellies and cleaning the dishes we went straight to bed.

Eventually, Artoria's eyes opened, and I met her eyes, which shone emerald-green for a moment before turning back into a more familiar amber color.

“Good morning, beautiful.” I greet her with a smile.

“Good morning, my Andrew.”

We also need to eventually talk about our relationship, where we stand with each other and what to expect for our future, but for now, I have an urgent need: I have to pee.

Huh, déjà vu.

“How about we get up and have some breakfast?”

My goddess internally struggles between staying in bed some more and the siren call of food, but in the end it was a foregone conclusion.

After our morning routine we had a simple meal of “yesterday leftovers sandwich” eaten in relative silence, but we both couldn’t keep dancing around the subject for much longer. There is also the issue of our current relationship, and where we stand with each other: does she only sees me as her Chosen One, or “child” as the local gods say, or as something more?

I will need to fall back to my father’s advice on this, since it has yet to stray me away: ‘Try to find ways to make your intentions perfectly clear, without relying on a dramatic confession, it’s the easiest way for you to fuck things up. That shit only works on tele dramas and Mangas.’

My father was a very frank man.

“How about we go on a date? I heard there’s a festival coming soon, we can use this opportunity to enjoy each other’s company in a different setting.”

She blinks for a moment before smiling at me. “That sounds wonderful, I’d love to.”

“We can talk some more about ourselves. I heard the Falna doesn’t focus much on events before the blessing, with the exception of natural Skills.”

We don’t talk much about each other’s past. She knows I was thrown into this world by a transcendental being that also gave me the Martial Arts Encyclopedia, and I don’t ask her about her past, or how she ended up here as a ‘descended goddess’.

If there is any hope for us to start something, we should be willing to open up to each other. If she is unwilling to do at least that much…

Well, we will cross that bridge when it comes to it.

“Okay, that sounds perfect! I will eagerly wait for you to escort me to the Monster Feria.”

We both stare at each other, Artoria with a radiant smile on her face, while I’m forcing my body to remain relaxed to mask my shock.

I will just take the ‘W’ and wait to sate my curiosity for the date.

“Alright, how about we update my Falna for now?”

“Certainly. Please, show me your back.”

I take off my shirt and sit with my back straight, patiently waiting for her to update my Falna. Instead of going right away she traces her fingers over my back, slowly tracing her mark on my back.

The symbol of the Rhongomyniad Familia is the spear stabbing downwards, with wisps of energy symbolizing a storm. In the background, there is a familiar sheathed sword and scabbard acting as a reminder of her status. Her finger leaves her symbol and continues tracing down towards a familiar area where a small patch of discolored skin is the only evidence of my close encounter with death.

“Your back is wider than before, proof of your training and dedication.”

“Thank you, Artoria.”

She rests her hand on my back for a moment before I feel the cod Ichor of divinity on my back, and I bare my soul to her as she reads my latest adventure. How I accepted the challenge of the dungeon, chasing after the Jack Bird and earned myself the famous Gold Egg, my completionist run to ‘unlock’ the full mental map of the floor I keep track of, the ambush from several pass parades converging towards my direction, the punishment of the four adventurers who had the audacity to threaten me to join their god after trying to kill me twice, the fifth adventurer who became fodder for the aberrant monster, the ensuing duel against the one I called Kuro Oni, the sudden power up, and my successful use of the Demonsbane secret technique.

“Ah!” She calls out in alarm, her other hand digging into my back.

“Something wrong?” I ask while trying to turn my neck to see what made her react like that.

“You,” she takes a deep breath before answering me, “you accumulated enough High Quality Excelia to gain a new skill.”

“That’s good, right?” I mean, some skills almost act like curses, but I don’t think I got anything like that. Right?

She takes a moment to answer, but her reply is firm. “Yes, this is a good skill. Just like me, finish updating the rest of your Falna.”

I don’t take much longer afterwards, and she gives me a piece of paper containing my new stats.

…

Andrew Uehara

Level 1

Strength G 217 > F 301

Durability G 254 > F 398

Agility H 189 > G 254

Utility F 311 > E 522

Magic I0

Spells

-

Skills

道德經 (Tao Te Ching) – Martial Arts Encyclopedia - ‘Every cycle, Karma coalescence into Spirit, Spirit liquefies into Essence, and Essence dissolves into Blood and Qi. By paying the appropriate tribute, you shall reap the benefits left behind by your ancestors.’ Grants access to the Martial Arts Encyclopedia.

騎士信約 – First Knight Vow – ‘A vow that transcends life and death, guiding body and spirit back towards their proper resting place.’ Massively increases chances of survival proportional to the danger you’re facing. Gain the Development Abilities “Battle Continuation” and “Disengage” when returning home.

…

Oh.

Ohhhhh.

I slowly turn towards Artoria, but I’m interrupted by her embrace.

“I won’t let you go, either.” She whispers in my ear, and I can’t help but shudder at the gesture.

Right. Okay.

Splendid, even.

I will open that particular can of worms later.

I patted her hand, showing I understood, until she reluctantly broke the embrace.

“Now, let me check the Martial Arts Encyclopedia. It should have given me enough Karma now.”

I pick up the book and look at the contents, blink twice and re-read the same section again to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t.

3974.

That’s way more Karma than I earned the first time around. Whatever force gifts me with those points, you have my deepest gratitude, and I hope to be worthy of this gift.

Thankfully, I had already earmarked a couple of items for a future purchase. Using the MoSCoW method, I separated a couple of items into four different categories: must have, should have, could have, and wish have. There are far more items in each category, but I had to make sure they were separated into groups.

The first group comprises of what I call the “foundation” purchases that will help me shape my future. As stated before, I choose to walk the path of cultivation since there is a guaranteed method to gain access to different and possibly conflicting power sources, like Cosmo, Dragon Ball Ki, Nasu verse Prana, and Cursed Energy, for example.

The Must Have items are Cultivation Talent, Clear Qi Profound Art, Peerless Heavenly Scripture, Immortal Crafting Talent, Super Aiki, and Futae-no-Kiwami. I choose this first set to start the path of cultivation using the scriptures found in the History Strongest Senior Brother as a base, and the Clear Qi Profound Art is a post Great-Calamity scripture that is proven to raise a cultivator into the third stage of the Martial Saint Realm, which will give me a concrete idea of what the actual hell Cultivation looks like in the first place. With that primary understanding of cultivation, and the newly brought talent, I will work towards cultivating the Peerless Heavenly Scripture as I ascend in the stages and realms. Super Aiki and Futae-no-Kiwami are techniques I can use immediately, with Super Aiki helping with the Redirection Kata, and Futae-no-Kiwami providing another method to boost my attack power alongside Xiaoli and Adamantine Kata. This will cost 1760 karma.

Next is the Should Have purchases with Mentat, Prana-bindu, Eight Extreme Arts, Immortal Forging Method, External Alchemy, Talisman Drawing Method, and Immortal Chef Method. Mentat is a rare art from a science fiction universe, geared towards supreme mental ability that was refined through thousands of years, helping me develop the processing power of a supercomputer at an early stage of my cultivation, while Prana-bindu body control technique was also refined through millennia and can manipulate individual nerves. The Eight Extreme Arts is a “bundle deal” from the History Strongest Senior Brother, starting at a lower proficiency compared with buying them individually, containing eight martial arts from the Sacred Land Broad Creed Mountain, of the Eight Extremities World. While not top tier martial arts in that setting, that’s due to the world limitation instead of inferiority of the practitioners. This set also has the required crafting skill that will supplement my cultivation. Yes, I bought Immortal Chef Method, I need to find a way to properly feed the lion. This set cost 1500 karma.

Finally, Could Have items has Outer Body Training Method, Abyssal Insight, and Kaioh-ken. The Outer Body Training Method and Abyssal Insight will be invaluable for me to further train my techniques. If I combine it with the Touki, Mentat, Prana-bindu and Hercules Method focus on body and mental control I can train anywhere, anytime, potentially at an accelerated rate. Last, but not least, once I can mix the different types of Qi and Ki, the Kaioh-ken will be a powerful trump card. It is my theory that everyone else did learn Kaioh-ken, either from Goku or King Kai directly, but only Goku was able to “complete” the technique. For example, if you compare the “aura” of Demon King Piccolo and Nappa, powerful combatants on their own, it is notably different from Saiyan Saga Vegeta, Goku, and other stronger fighters. The “strong white aura” that surrounds the late Dragon Ball Z fighters is simply the “normal” Kaioh-ken that spread through the universe, while the “violent red aura” is the completed technique that pushes the practitioner aura to 100% and beyond. The hint as to why only Goku was able to learn this technique comes from the Super Saiyan 3 form, which was invented by a dead Goku that kept his body in the afterlife. Perhaps, you need to be in the afterlife, or have a freakish control over your body, to reach the same level as Goku. Of course, I will only figure that out once I finish the purchase. This will cost 700 Karma, leaving me with 4 Karma.

My wish list has a few other techniques that can wait, such as the Strange Secret Exercises, Wind Fire Calamities, Vajra Body, Total Concentration Breathing, Artist Society Martial Arts, Sen-no-Sen, Phantom Steps, and Six Spirit Demonic Fist. Most of them came from History Strongest Senior Brother, but they can be considered alongside the next purchases, and the Strange Secret Exercises is an alternative to the Hercules Method that focuses only on body building instead of the focus of the later. The wish list is also expensive, around 2080 Karma.

After I pen the final item and dot the final dot, a stream of knowledge floods my mind. I can feel from a great distance an entity raising a classical Spock eyebrow before scratching his chin while playing with an imaginary beard. Behind him three other existences roll their eyes before going back to their business, but the first existence attention lingers on me for a while before giving a knowing smile towards me.

“Andrew, are you alright? Did something happen to you?”

I look between Artoria standing protectively in front of me and where the Existence was “staring from”.

Cheeky bastard.

“I’m fine, just some cheeky bastard teasing from beyond.”

“Oh,” understanding quickly reached her, “I’m so sorry.” Her heavy expression of pity can only be born of experience.

“Alright, I will need to process the information I got so today I’m skipping most of the training to meditate.”

“Very well, I will leave you to it. I also need to go to my job today.”

Right, her day job. She works as a waitress in a restaurant somewhere in the city, but I never went there. Maybe I will see how she does there.

After dusting the main hall, I sat in a comfortable position to properly digest what I learned, and it both confirmed and revealed new things about Cultivation. In ancient times cultivation was done by directly breathing and taking the energy of the Heaven and Earth during the Qi Gathering Stage, which then solidified into a Foundation, forged into a Golden Core, which hatches a Nascent Soul that then transcends into Divinity and Immortality. After the event known as Great Calamity that upturned the heaven and earth, breaking apart the old world, the quality of Qi and the universal laws changed so the new cultivators had to adapt the old methods, though the original scriptures still held the keys for the new cultivation methods, regardless of the differences in universal laws.

In the post Great Calamity World, martial cultivation seeks to achieve immortality through martial excellency, building the body so that it can become a temple that can gather the Heaven and Earth Qi. Basically, the Martial Arts Realm and the Martial Scholar Realm are two “sub phases” of the old Qi Gathering stage. The Martial Artist Realm is also called the Body Refining Realm, with the Martial Scholar Realm being the Aura-qi refinement.

The Martial Artist Realm is divided into Four Stages: Body Tempering, Meridian Opening, Qi Directing, and Inner Discernment, with the first three stages also being subdivided into Early, Middle, and Late stages.

The real genius of cultivation is how each of them build on top of each other. While the Body Tempering sounds simple at first, it is far from it. In this stage the cultivator must build their muscles, sinew, and bones to its limits, however, it must be done in a specific way that will act as a frame for everything else that will come afterwards, much like building the body for a ship, the skeletal frame of a skyscraper, building muscles for Bodybuilding, or muscles as a Strongman. You must build your body for future Cultivation, and it must adhere to a strict standard.

The best and simplest example I can give is from a manga that my father showed me, Houshin Engi, a Japanese manga about the Investiture of Gods, where Taigong Wang or Taikoubou is approached by the Lord of Primordial Beginning, and an image of the “Sennin Kotsu” or “Immortal Bones” appear (which denotes “essentials of immortality”) that is supposedly different from a normal human, turning giving a physical manifestation to a metaphor.

In Early Body Tempering, the muscles are tempered to the extreme so they can manipulate the body structure. In the Middle Body Tempering, the sinews are tempered to the extreme so they can have a firm hold to the bones, and finally in the Late Body Tempering the bones are shaped in accordance with the scriptures to reach the desired form. Adhering to this strict procedure correctly will bring a qualitative change to the Cultivator of the Martial Artist Realm prowess compared with mortal martial artists.

In the next stage, the Meridian Opening, the body also suffers another qualitative change as their body’s meridians open, connect with each other to form large cycles, and then are enlarged to at least three times their original size. This change in quality helps the Cultivator overall quality of life, which in turn permits them to push their already formidable bodies even further.

In the next stage we start entering the true supernatural aspects of Cultivation. With the meridians connected, the Heaven and Earth Qi can circulate inside the Cultivator body and strengthen their bodies even more. In the early stage, they must gather a single wisp of Qi, in the middle stage they must gather the Qi and circle it through their bodies in a process called First Washing of the Marrows as the Cultivator’s impurities are expelled from the body, and once the First Washing is completed the Cultivator can start to fill their Qi Sea/Qi Ocean with the gathered Heaven and Earth Qi.

The peak of the Realm is the Inner Discernment, where the Cultivator has perfect control of their bodies and can perceive their inner workings.

Making a quick comparison between the Hercules Method, Clear Qi Profound Art, Prana-bindu and Peerless Heavenly Scripture, I can catch the immediate differences.

The Hercules Method naturally shapes your body into a Weapon, Hunter, Killer. It naturally cultivates Vicious Qi, which is something that I need to worry about later, though it is also relevant since the beginning of the cultivation journey. The Hercules Method doesn’t match one-by-one with Cultivation, as it already grants a type of immortality to the talented user. You can consider the Hercules Method a type of body cultivation with stages all over the place. 

The Prana-bindu grants incredible control over your body, but it doesn’t have an end goal like a true Cultivation Method as it already gives a limited form of immortality, however, I can tell it cultivates Transformation Qi.

Clear Qi Profound Art is a proper cultivation technique, with each stage building towards the next. The Clear Qi Profound Art cultivates Pure Qi, which grants the Cultivator great versatility in the techniques and martial arts they train.

Finally, the Peerless Heavenly Scripture. A special scripture that requires heavenly permission from the Three Pure Ones to simply exist, gifted to Yan Zhaoge so that he can escape the machinations of the ultimate antagonist of his story. The Four Entities that I felt earlier must be the Lord of Primordial Beginning, the Lord of Luminous Treasure, the Lord of Dao and Virtue, and finally Lord of True Three Purities Yan Zhaoge. Well, since I have the full scripture in my head and wasn’t smote on the spot I can assume they will allow me to cultivate it.

Thanks seniors!

I take a deep breath before chanting the scripture for the first time in this mortal world.

…

Chaos is peerless. It has no beginning and no end, being able to tolerate all things, birth all things, exterminate all things.

混沌无极，无始无终，可容万物，可生万物，可覆灭万物。

No yin, no yang, no before, no after, no beginning, no end, no movement, no stability.  

无阴无阳，无前无后，无始无终，无动无定

That existence which seemed able to contain all things and extinguish all things.

那仿佛能包含万物，生灭万物的存在

…

I open my eyes, looking at the sky and noticing that it’s almost lunch time.

Before starting my light cultivation session, I thought something dramatic would occur, but once I started I realized that was a pointless worry. The Peerless Heavenly Scripture allows you to absorb all forms of cultivation scriptures into itself without revealing any traces of itself. 

Yan Zhaoge could mimic mastery of several other scriptures without anyone suspecting any abnormality with his cultivation, marking him as “just” a supremely talented individual. He had cheat level raw talent, but nobody expected him to have both cheat level talent and access to cheat level scriptures from the beginning.

I lazily stretch my back before going to the kitchen to prepare food for my hungry goddess, while pondering on my future training schedule.