Chapter 48: Techniques must not be recklessly passed (2/2)

Opening the ?Vajra Foundation Building Fist Technique? folder revealed a total of eighteen images, and every image contained a different picture scroll.

With a tap of his finger, the first image was opened.

Although ?Vajra Foundation Building Fist Technique? was a rather ordinary name, it didn’t matter as long as it was strong. Moreover, martial arts were generally like the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms; every move and stance would have an extremely bada.s.s name, like Dragon Seen in the Fields and Divine Dragon Swishes its Tail, right?

[TL: The Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms is a fictional wuxia martial art created by Jin Yong.]

Shuhang was full of antic.i.p.ation and excitement.

Then he looked at the name of the move.

‘Foundation Building Fist Technique One.’

The words were all in traditional characters.

[TL: For those who don’t know, chinese is written in two main forms, Simplified which China had switched to during the 1950s, and Traditional which is still standard in Taiwan.]

That was all.

There was no kicka.s.s ‘Vajra Subduing Demons’ or anything like that, just a simple Foundation Building Fist Technique One.

Song Shuhang turned to the second image, Foundation Building Fist Technique Two.

Unwilling to give up, he flipped to the third image. Foundation Building Fist Technique Three.

“……” Alright, Song Shuhang knew that he no longer needed to continue looking.

Next was ‘Foundation Building Fist Technique Four’ then on and on till ‘Foundation Building Fist Technique Eighteen’.

Medicine Master watched Song Shuhang quickly flipping through the images, and asked curiously, “What are you doing?”

“Looking at the names of the moves,” Song Shuhang replied, “I never thought that the names of the moves would be so simple.”

“It’s more practical this way, things like names would make it easier for people to identify them, putting an order to them is enough.” Medicine Master resolutely said.

That make sense, it’s practical that way. Song Shuhang nodded, but why did he feel slightly depressed inside?

He imagined for a moment what it would be like for him to duel with someone at the Forbidden Purple Peak.

The opponent snorts, soars into the air, unsheathes his sword, and shouts with an elegant posture, “Immortal Flying Over The Heavens!”

Then he makes a grunt, steps forward in a heroic manner, and releases a punch with his right arm, “Foundation Building Fist Technique Three!”

It would be a great loss for him just in terms of charisma.

“Alright, stop dilly-dallying on the names of the moves. Those things are useless, if you really want them to be different, just alter their names in the future.” Medicine Master paid no heed to the matter, “Here, I’ll first explain the early stages of cultivation and the purpose of foundation building.”

Song Shuhang promptly sat upright, then concentrated on listening.

“On the path of cultivation, there are three thousand great Daos, countless techniques, and each school and sect has their own way of cultivating. However, it doesn’t matter whether they are Daoist cultivators, Buddhist cultivators, Ghost cultivators or Devil cultivators, every cultivator’s first step is virtually the same: temper the body, and thicken the power of qi and blood in the body. This step is called foundation building.”

“The first step of foundation building is to strengthen the body externally with fist, kicking, and sword techniques and so on, which tempers the body. This leads to blood thrumming throughout the body in abundance. Next is to strengthen the body internally with meditation techniques, harvest the overflowing power of qi and blood, and funnel it into the heart. In normal circ.u.mstances, no pills are required. Be hardworking in practice and it’ll take approximately a hundred days; the artery to the heart would be crammed with qi and blood, the liquid reaches the channels and the Qiao acupoint will be opened. Once the artery to the heart is open, all of the acc.u.mulated qi and blood would transform into a sliver of qi and blood energy. This is foundation building, also known as opening the artery.”

“Once the heart’s artery is open, one would truly have entered the profession of being a cultivator, transcending mortals. This is known as the 1st Stage – Beyond Mortal Realm.”