192 Synchronization (2/2)
Seventh Sister, Sixth Brother and Chen Pipi, standing or sitting, looked at him in sympathy. These days, the experiment of flying arrow brought more happiness and jollification to the Back Mountain of the Academy, and it even had attracted that two Chess Addicts in the mountain to watch twice. However, as they looked at painful Ning Que, they couldn't help worrying about him. Unfortunately, no one could give a hand because the Talisman Arrow field hadn't been successfully developed up to now.
”You also know the root of failure. The two things, the shooting of arrow from bowstring and the stimulation of Fu character on the shaft, must simultaneously happen. If you failed to figure it out, a greater thought would be useless, either.”
Fourth Brother stood at the doorway of the forge-iron room and looked at them without any facial expression. Seventh Sister and Chen Pipi looked at each other and felt confused. These days, Fourth Brother, who was sharp at the practice of Talisman Taoism, never showed little interest in Ning Que's experiment and didn't have a glance at it, not to mention making comments. They even thought it seemed that Fourth Brother was sneeringly waiting for their failure.
After standing from the threshold and politely greeting to Fourth Brother, Ning Que explained, ”Indeed, it is the root, but I have noticed it the day before yesterday and then improved it. At every test, I have paid much attention to keep the two steps synchronous, but why does it still fail?”
”It is impossible to achieve absolute synchronization if your stimulation depends on Psyche Power, no matter you stimulate the Fu character before or after shooting the arrow. That's because the speed of human movement is definitely slower than that of Psyche Power. When you intend to stimulate the Fu character, you just need to do it in your mind. In comparison, the movement of your finger will always lag behind it.”
Ning Que carefully said, ”I know this point, so I shoot the arrow in advance.”
”How much time in advance? How do you count it? By feeling? How do you know your own psyche doesn't influence your finger movement? How do you know your consciousness can be precisely divided into two parts?”
Fourth Brother looked at Ning Que and rebuked him in a deep voice, ”Maybe you have a great aptitude in Talisman Taoism, but unfortunately you forget the most important part. If Talisman Taoism is used for practice, it can't be achieved only by feeling and imagination. Instead, it requires the most accurate and intuitive method, and the method depends on nothing but skill.”
Ning Que explained, ”But I really have kept it precisely synchronous enough.”
Fourth Brother sneeringly looked at him and said, ”What's precise? What's synchronous? Synchronous means the same! Differences of one minute, one second, or one moment are all different from synchronization! There were so many Talisman Taoism Masters in the past and none of them were more stupid than you, but why did they still fail to develop Talisman Arrow? That's because they couldn't make it totally synchronous.”
After listening to the severe reprimand, Ning Que suddenly became calm. Since he was praised as the successor of Divine Talisman Master by Master Yan Se and then gradually found his gift in Talisman Taoism, Ning Que naturally felt proud in his deep heart, though his facial expression still looked peaceful. Thus, he always thought that the problem of Talisman Arrow should be solved soon because he had spent enough wisdom and effort on it. He didn't realize his wrong attitude and superficial thought until Fourth Brother pointed the most crucial part out.
Looking at Ning Que's earnest state, Fourth Brother became a little more peaceful and said gently, ”Little Younger Brother, in fact, your idea about the design of Talisman Arrow is very excellent. In my view, you could make it, but you should be more careful and think more deeply about the most crucial part–synchronization. If you can do it, I think perhaps we can witness a historic key breakthrough in the practice of Talisman Taoism. For the breakthrough, I hope you can keep trying.”
Ning Que sincerely said, ”Thanks for your reminding, Fourth Brother.”
...
...
Early morning of the next day, Back Mountain of the Academy.
Ning Que, obviously being awake all night, showed up in front of the iron-forge room again. For unknown reasons, he looked cheerful with high spirit, who should have been paler. His hair had turned into a messier henhouse from the previous bird nest, a proof that he had scratched his head and hair for so many times.
His voice was slightly trembling, excited but lack of confidence, ”Senior Brother, you are right. It is impossible to maintain synchronization between human's psyche and body movement, so the idea of stimulating Fu character after shooting arrow must be abandoned. But later I think that is it possible to synchronously stimulate Fu character by the action of shooting arrow? That is, right at that moment when the archer shoots the arrow, the Fu character on the shaft is exactly stimulated by the action of shooting arrow. In such case, it totally relies on the objective coordination between body actions, irrelevant with the psyche of the archer.”
Fourth Brother goggled and asked, ”The action of shooting automatically stimulates Fu character? This idea... is indeed interesting, but how could it be completed? The Fu character will be stimulated once you finish the writing, but how can you write it when you are to shoot arrow? If you write it in battlefield, how to make sure that it will synchronize with the movement of shooting arrow?”
”It can't work by writing on myself, so it has to be done by the arrow. The Fu character on the shaft isn't finished in the beginning, but it just needs the last stroke. Thus, we can try to figure out a way to make the shaft to finish the last stroke by itself in the process of shooting the arrow.”
Ning Que, like a heresy who was about to receive a trial, nervously looked at Fourth Brother and asked, ”What do you think of this idea, Senior Brother?”
”The arrow finishes the last stroke of Fu character by itself as it leaves the bowstring?”
Fourth Brother stared at Ning Que's eyes for a long time. Then he couldn't suppress his shock and excitement in his heart and said in a slightly-raucous voice, ”Little Younger Brother, you... are a damn genius.”