I could understand now that Monster here wasn't mentioned as an insult but an actual compliment, it implied something so abnormal, but it also implied someone who was a genius and quite bizarre level of this as well, that word baffled me for quite some time since I first heard it from Senior Brother and now the mystery behind it was solved .
The Old Man was looking at like I was a ghost or something similar, weird enough my senior brother only shrugged his shoulder as if had already anticipated this, he was much more calm and composed than the old man was .
So can you show me your execution of the technique now, just so that I become certain that what you said was indeed the truth .
After taking a full 2 minutes or so, he seemed to have came back to his senses as he asked this, still doubtful about what I was saying and it was completely reasonable, what he had been told was quite shocking to him, I'm certain of that, even though I really didn't want to stand out before .
It seem that this role was being forced on me nonetheless, I really don't know why I keep putting myself in these kind of situations over and over, but I was becoming more and more at ease, happily finding that I want be dissected to get my secrets uncovered .
I nodded my head at the old Man and tried to stand up but just as I tried to do this, I seemed to have not used an appropriate amount of strength and ended up jumping from the bed and almost hitting the ceiling above me, but luckily I was quite short from it, the bed that I was on didn't survive and it directly collapsed .
It wasn't poorly made, but it just wasn't made with this situation of mine in mind, I'm quite certain that if I wasn't progressing with the Full Body Refinement Path, this would have never happened .
I was unable to control my newfound strength appropriately, but luckily with the Tempering that my Blood Qi got in there, I had much easier time in adapting to my newfound strength, soon I landed on my feet and even though the earth beneath me cracked a little, they didn't seem to be bothered by this in the slightest .
I directly began executing the technique to its 9th posture, after that I stooped, my ability to execute the moves in the technique become more flawless than before, my mind seemed to be in a weird sync in my body, my muscles were contracting in a stronger manner than before, I felt some weird feeling born from the rhythm of my breathing, but I just couldn't put my finger on it .
The Tempering Energy that suddenly appeared in my body was instantly absorbed, normally I would have to meditate for a while before it being completely digested, but weird enough, the moment it appeared was also the moment it was completely digested, which was quite bizarre to me, but I currently paid it no mind .
After I had finished executing these moves, I looked up to see the Old Man reaction, the Old Man was now more calm than before and he said :
I'm not certain about you having a superior Martial Arts talent, but I'm certain that you little guy might have quite the strong comprehension, so what do you say, want to learn from me, I might even teach you a trick or two about the Art Of Formations and how to set them, what do you say .
After hearing the praise of the old man and the offer he made, I almost jumbed out of joy and relief, I can now be at complete ease, those guys have accepted the excuse that I gave and he even no longer cared about this, but Old Man Ma was more caring about what would I choose .
I didn't what the Art Of Formations was even, but just from it being mentioned in that mysterious log and what I had experienced earlier, I can tell that it was something good, great even, but I still need to think about this a bit more longer .
After all, I was no genius, I was only labeled as such due to using the advantage that the Panel had given me and the same advantage might not be as helpful with learning the Formations, so I really didn't know what to say to this old man in response, but it seem that thinking about it wasn't needed .
He seeing me hesitating, said :
You can come to ask me for guidance anytime, also take your time to think this through, you shouldn't have known this, but people who dream about becoming my disciples and improving under me with as many as there were clouds in the sky, I'm waiting for your next visit .
The Old Man said this and was about to leave, but my Senior Brother who was currently looking like someone had hit him in the gut said :
Old Man you shouldn't try to steal this genius junior brother of mine from Master and why did you say that my Junior Brother's talent in Martial Arts was still yet to be confirmed, hasn't he already proved that he might be even more worthy for the prodigy title .
The old man stopped in tracks and turned towards my Senior Brother and said :
I'm not stealing your Master's disciple, I'm only offering him a great chance that other people might die for and that to guide him in the path of Formations .
As for why I had said that him being a Martial Arts Prodigy was yet to be confirmed, is actually quite simple, how many geniuses do you guys think that I saw falling from grace, enough to make you lack motivation to continue going forward, too many to count .
Him being able to still achieve what he did was good, but it was with a big stroke of luck, that what really allowed him to achieve success this time around and it wasn't without cost, his body should have begun already accumulating pill resistance .
You understand what this mean for those of you who are stupid enough to follow that damn Path of Full Body Refinement, whether will he be even able to Practice in the later stages of Flesh Tempering Realm is still unclear, so I wouldn't go as far as comparing him to the hidden Dragons and crouching Tigers in Howling Wolf City and in the entire Qin Empire .
I believe you understand this even more than I do Fu Liu, his ability to take pills to achieve success on the later stages would be quite difficult, even with him being some young master from a wealthy family, the resources he will need to use to try and achieve success in his practice were quite astronomical .
He might even doubt that taking those Pills were even a good choice this early on in his practice journey, but what gone is gone at this point of time .
Umm, I now realized what old man Ma is talking about, Junior Brother Tian you really gave me a huge amount of troubles, I guess you will need to pray that the Master would be willing to support you more with your training, otherwise you might really need to sell yourself to be able to get some money that could help you in your practice .
Huh, why would he need to do that, isn't he from a good family or a spoiled Young Master from somewhere around here ? .
My Senior Brother shook his head and introduced my situation briefly to him, after he heard what my senior brother have to say, the Old Man almost went berserk and he directly got out of the room, leaving some harsh words before he went away, he said :
Forget about my previous offer then, it will be quite a troublesome thing .
Then he got out of the room, I wondered what has gotten into him that made him become like this all of a sudden, but this topic seemed a bit insignificant compared to the other situation that I was now forced to deal with, my senior brother calm and composed demeanor from before had completely vanished and I saw him sizing me up and down with a scrutinizing look .
I already understood that the beating he said he would gave me before was unegotiable, so I accepted my fate, but I still felt that there was a need to try and clarify some things here, but before I even had the chance to do so, he first sighed in desperation and his sigh was quite a long one too, after that he said :
Junior Brother don't take that old man words to the heart he had his reasons for that, but let me ask you one thing, why do you practice Martial Arts ? .
I was stunned before at the fact that he didn't let me say what I wanted to say, but hearing him asking this question completely shut down the part that was responsible for the logical thinking in my brain for a few seconds there .
The question wasn't that difficult to comprehend, no and even the answer to it was quite simple, but I felt that he didn't want the answer I had in mind, but I still said :
" I want to become stronger .
A second after that, he said :
For what reason do you want to become stronger, what motivate you to pursue strength, what do you want to achieve, what do you intend to do with the strength you gain .
So I guess my Instinct was after all indeed right, he wasn't interested in my answer or to be more accurate, he had already anticipated my answer and had no interest at all in it, he was asking what keep me so determined in pursuing Martial Arts .
The atmosphere at his second question become even more tense than back when he asked me to spar with him and more than the tension that was there a few minutes ago .
I might have overreacted just now, you don't have to answer if you don't like to, but I do hope that whatever answer you came to form, I just hope that it will be good enough for you to succeed in your journey and allow you to reach your journey safe and sound .
Sensing that the scene become a bit eerie, senior brother said this thinking that I was refusing to answer him, if I wanted to end this awkward situation right here and now, i would be completely able to do so by staying silent, but something inside me was telling me that I needed to answer this question, not for the sake of my senior brother, but for my own sake as well .
The answer I had before was blurted out uncontrollably, I said :
" It's not like I don't want to answer senior brother's question, it's just that the answer itself is a bit complicated, I made someone close to me a promise, that promise is to become stronger enough to reach the Heavens .
As I gave him my answer, he smiled faintly but there was no happiness or any kind of positive thing in that smile, it was a plain and blank smile, after that he said :
A promise huh ? .
For some reason I felt that Senior Brother seemed to have remembered something, his voice from just now carried a heavy tone of regret that was very clear, after a few more seconds, I saw him returning to his senses and saying :
So if that person who you had promised were to revoke the promise he made you make, then would you stop trying to get stronger ? .
I wanted to tell him that this would be completely impossible, first the person who I had promised was the original Tian Long, that guy had already died so him revoking the promise I made was quite impossible, secondly, my survival in this world depend mainly on how strong I'm .
Thirdly and that was the most important part, I had the Panel and this allowed me to aspire to achieve more than just surviving, if I had promised Tian Long to make sure that his dream in soaring into Heavens become true, but I for myself wanted to achieve something even greater, I want to reach whatever that was beyond those Heavens .
But after contemplating for a while, I figured that there was only one answer that I could give senior brother, I said :
" Even if that were to happen Senior Brother, then I wouldn't stop pursuing Martial Arts, if before I tried to do so due completely to the promise I made, if the promise were to be revoked, I would still continue to practice senior brother .
" I would still try to reach the Heavens for my own sake this time, not to mention that my ability to ensure my survival will always be linked to how strong I'm compared to my opponent, I hope that this answer satisfy you senior brother .
I said this with my tone carrying a hint of taunt in it, then just as I said this, Senior Brother slap was what met me directly, this time, the slap came faster than me blinking my eyes, all that I sensed was the stinging pain that was assaulting my right cheek, then his ridiculing voice came right after, he said :
Then to achieve this, you should carry on forward with a bit more cautious and stop throwing away your life in every chance you got, stupid Junior Brother, I'm really tempted to give you a good beating now .
But sadly we are short of time at the moment, until you want to spend the night in Recuperating Hall, I would suggest that you start moving .
He said this and directly began to move towards the exit, I circulated my Blood Qi and felt that it was somewhat heavier than before, I could have judged it as an illusion, or me still a bit sleepy or the same might be the case with my Blood Qi, but it wasn't like this a few seconds before .
Yet this feeling was genuine, maybe because I was trying to circulate my Blood Qi in those new circulation routes in my head, I wonder if this was the weird thing that Old Man Ma was talking about .
My current Blood Qi reserve was bigger than before, but what shocked me was the fact that Old Ma wasn't able to find out that my Blood Qi hadn't even made a full recovery yet, if I'm not wrong with my judgement, I would say that after it fully recover, I might have an abundant amount of Blood Qi that was at least double the amount from before .
In the worst case scenario and if my calculations were to be completely wrong, I would say that I at least have an abundant amount of Blood Qi that was equivalent to those who were at the 5th or even the 6th layer of Flesh Tempering .
I channeled my Blood Qi to where the stinging pain was and it numbed the pain directly, but I also sensed that heaviness again but this time it felt even heavier than before, but seeing that my senior brother wasn't even turning back to check whether I was following him or not, made me discard the thought of dwelling more than I already did and follow after him .
As I caught with him, he was already opening the door that should be the exit, I wanted to ask about what motivate him as well, but in the end, I wasn't able to bring myself to do this .
I had already seen the expressions on his face earlier and understood that he might be uncomfortable with discussing the matters anymore further, so I dropped this thought as well and just followed after him .
As we passed the door, what came into view was another room where a middle aged guy was sleeping on the counter of an office of some kind, my senior brother gestured me to stay silent, then he actually used a Martial Skill to sneak upon the sleeping man and with a loud voice he shouted suddenly, saying :
Doctor Shi, someone is dying .
The second these words were spouted, the man who was called woke up quite startled and as a result, the movement he made ended up in breaking the chair he was just laying on, but even when that happened, the guy still stood alarmingly in a fighting position with his two hands spreading forward like two pairs of sword and he yelled :
WHO IS DEAD, I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU AREN'T .