Chapter 4: Balancing the Inner and Outer Cycle (1/2)

Chapter 4: Balancing the Inner and Outer Cycle

Translator: TransnEditor: Transn

One month had gone by. Because he was the little brother-in-law of Wang Tianlei and still young, it was natural that Wang Tianlei would have his guard down. In fact, Wang Tianlei never had any intention of being on guard because he knew so little about martial arts and had only learned some basics.

But the basics were enough for Little Shiba.

This was a martial arts world.

However, it was quite different from what he had read about in martial arts novels.

Here, the martial arts focused on balancing the inner and outer cycles. In a novel, you could gain a hundred years of power just by eating a piece of fruit. But here it was impossible. Even if there were such a magic fruit in this world, if a little childlike Little Shiba ate it then he would blow up like a balloon, turning into a mass of flesh with his blood in a roaring spray, and finally disappearing from this world.

Wang Tianlei was skilled in the martial arts that he had learned from the army. At the age of 15, he was forced to be a dependable man and joined the army and learned martial arts skills from the army of Jin. But just like those of other countries, the skills taught by the military were the roughest and crudest, but also the most practical.

The greatest benefit that he had gained from Wang Tianlei was not martial arts skills, but instead simply knowledge. Having been born in a closed off village, Little Shiba knew little about the details of the world.

And Wang Tianlei, having been a soldier for a few years outside, had been able to bring him a wealth of information. Although the martial arts he had learned were the most rudimentary, his three-year military career had made him become the most knowledgeable man in that tiny village.

This principle was similar to that of Little Shiba's previous life. In those remote western mountains, the most knowledgeable villagers were often those demobilized veterans.

People, who served in the army, came from different places and backgrounds and so each brought with them a diverse collection of trivia. Even though some of their news was exaggerated, Wang Tianlei still had a lot of general knowledge about the world, such as some basic knowledge of geography, the name of the Emperor, the army he had served in, and the martial arts he had practiced.

Unusual Strength Qigong, Dark Bear Fist, Nine Sword Fighting Styles and Thousand Killing Punching.

As the roughest meant of internal cultivation, Unusual Strength Qigong could hone his Internal Strength and wield great power when combined with Nine Sword Fighting Styles and Thousand Killing Fist. It was most suitable for a battle array. As for Dark Bear Fist, skin toughening was at the core of this fighting move.

Internally the warrior worked on his breathing and Qi, while externally worked on his muscles, bones, and skin—these two maxims were the most widespread in martial arts circles, and also the most fundamental.

In this world, martial arts sought to balance inner and outer cycle for both Internal Strength and External Strength. Exercising Internal Strength was an inside-out process while exercising External Strength was the reverse. Both were equally important.

If you practiced External Strength without Internal Strength, you would only toughen your outer skin. And as for the other way round, you would be only a simple Internal Qi, which had no real use in the outside world.

Training one's Internal Qi and External Strength was a reciprocal process and each was equally important.