9 Chapter 8: Martial Arts Manual (1/2)

I wasn't sure what to make of the librarian's warning, but I merely nodded to acknowledge it. Taking a deep breath, I proceeded toward Shelf 408B.

Approaching the massive shelf, I took a step into the aisle. Suddenly, the air around me shimmered and I detected a ripple in the dense qi that permeated the library. To my amazement, the shelf in front of me seemed to warp and shapeshift, and suddenly transformed into a small shelf.

”Whoa!”

Instinctively, I took a step back. Was this yet another kind of martial magic that this timeline adhered to? Nonetheless, I could guess what happened. Either the librarian had programmed the shelf, or the shelf itself had intuitively adjusted to my request, saving me the trouble of rummaging through countless manuals for the right one.

”Near the bottom of the shelf…right?”

Recalling what the librarian told me, I squatted down and tilted my head to get a better look at the bottom of the shelf. There were a few manuals stacked against each other, all of them level 1 techniques. I suspected that Shelf 408B held more than just level 1 techniques, but the higher level ones did not appear because I wasn't qualified to browse through them.

This must be it!

Spotting the Shadow Steps manual somewhere in the middle, I reached out with my fingers and pulled it out. The crisp, papery feel of the scroll felt dry and coarse against my fingers, the surface yellow with age.

But that wasn't what surprised me.

The moment my fingers came into contact with it, I felt a tingle. That tingle grew exponentially when I pulled it out and held it in my hand, turning into a raging current that threatened to devour me. I staggered back, stunned by the manual's response.

I see…so that's why they don't upload the martial arts manuals digitally into the school's intranet system. The manuals themselves contain power!

The Shadow Steps manual was just bursting with qi, arcane qi that was not part of the library but originating from the ancient scroll itself. Martial arts manuals weren't just mere copies of books, but entities that seemed to possess life and qi of their own. The martial arts inscribed into their pages had imbued them with some sort of arcane power. It wasn't the same type of strength that physical martial arts possessed, but something more mystical…something spiritual.

No wonder Wu Ling Academy preserved archaic copies of martial arts manuals rather than just render everything digital. There was power to be held within these physical scrolls, power that simply couldn't be replicated digitally and electronically.

Ah…so that's why the librarian told me to beware of the shadows.

The shadowy qi was creeping out of the Shadow Steps manual and wrapping around my hands, almost like a silkworm spinning silk over my arms. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to resist the dark embrace, exerting my will in stopping the shadows from spreading around and encasing my entire body. The shadows slowed noticeably, but its movements continued inexorably.

Damn it…

I had no idea how to deal with this. Teacher Jiao never mentioned this, and even my fuzzy memories of this timeline said nothing about manuals coming to life and attacking the bearer. The librarian's words were the only one…

Like hell I'll let you devour me!

With an explosive force of will, I yelled at the dark shadows that had now reached my shoulders and were threatening to wrap around my neck in a suffocating grip. The shadows abruptly stopped, and suddenly retreated. I glared at the fleeing tendrils as they escaped back into the scroll, trying to exert my willpower onto it.

Then…nothing.

”Phew…”

I sighed in relief after a few seconds when it seemed that the shadows intended to stay in the scroll for good. Shaking my hands as if it would loosen whatever remnants of shadows on my skin – not that there were any visible traces on my arms – I turned and left the aisle. Despite conquering the Shadow Steps manual, I could still sense potent qi swirling from the other manuals stacked within the shelf, circling around my body as if threatening to strangle me.

So that's the other risk of trying to learn more than one martial arts at the same time…you'll get overwhelmed by the manuals.

With manuals behaving like this, it was no wonder that they established an ancient tradition of banning practitioners from learning martial arts not from their sects. It was as much for the practitioners' safety as it was to protect the sects' secrets and martial arts.

Staggering out of the aisle, I approached the librarian shakily. He looked up and smiled.

”You didn't take as much time as I thought you would. Impressive.”

”Huh?”

I stared at him blankly. Well, come to think of it, I did spend less than a minute before conquering the manual and bending the shadows to my will…

”All right, you're good to go.” The librarian had made some note in his tablet, allowing me to sign out with the Shadow Steps manual in hand. He waved somewhat impatiently for me to leave. ”Good luck with learning Shadow Steps.”

”Thanks.” I craned my neck and glanced in the aisle where Zhu Jiao had disappeared to. That was weird. He had went in to retrieve his book earlier than me, so he should be out by now. Well, it was fine. I didn't mind waiting for him.

The librarian noticed that I was still dawdling at the front of the reception desk and staring at the aisle. He smiled.

”If you're waiting for your friend, he has left already. I told him to head back without you.”

”Eh? That was fast!”

”No, not really.” The librarian chuckled. ”To be honest, I expected you to take a while longer, but you still took quite some time to escape the grasp of the shadows.”

”What do you mean…?” the question died in my throat when I caught sight of the clock. It had been approximately 3.30pm when we stepped into the library, but now the hands were indicating that it was a little after four.

Huh?! How…?! Did I really spend thirty minutes fighting with those shadows?

”Your sense of time can get confused when you're in there, especially when you're dealing with darkness-type elemental qi such as shadows,” the librarian explained kindly. Then his smile widened. ”To be honest, I thought you would take an hour, but you only took half of that time. Oh, don't worry,” he added when he saw me looking aghast. ”If anything untoward happened, I was ready to step in and help you. We can't have our students dying from manuals before they even start embarking on the path of martial arts.”

I nodded numbly, then bowed to express my thanks. My head still swimming from the revelation, I turned to leave the library.

”Oh, and you have six months to return the Shadow Steps manual!” the librarian called out after me. ”But you're more than welcome to apply for an extension to your loan if you still have not finished making a copy or studying the scroll by then!”

”Thank you.”

Then I paused when I thought of something. Since I had come all the way to the library, I might as well pick up more books.

”Do you have encyclopedias? Normal books?”

”…encyclopedias?” the librarian frowned when he heard my question.

I nodded ”Yeah, history books…books that provide general knowledge on the world…like on monsters and stuff.”

”Ah…we do have monster encyclopedias and history books.” The librarian rummaged through his tablet again. ”Hmm, that shelf. I would recommend these titles, though.”

A buzzing sound roared by the side of the desk and a printer churned out a small slip of paper bearing several titles.

”Here you go.”

”Thanks!”

I accepted the slip of paper and scanned through the list of titles. Then I proceeded to the shelf and earnestly took the books out to borrow them. Having come from another timeline, or a different dimension, I needed to stock up on my knowledge regarding this world. I knew next to nothing regarding this timeline, and knowledge was a very important commodity.

As they said, knowledge is power.

”Phew…”

Once I picked out the books that the librarian recommended me, I then ferried them to the desk for him to scan.

”Six months for them as well.” The librarian raised an eyebrow at the number of volumes I had checked out. ”Will that be all?”

”Nope. For now, anyway. Thank you very much!”

Trying to carry all the books with both my hands, I bowed awkwardly one last time before stepping out of the library and into the vast courtyard that surrounded the complex.

*

”Okay, so how do I start?”

I was browsing through the manual, checking how many pages it had. Weirdly enough, it was pretty thin, and was only about twenty pages long. There weren't that many techniques, and in fact, it was focused on building the body.

”…so I have to run everyday, and gradually increase the distance?”

Sounded like the typical training regimen. There were instructions on how to strengthen my body, build up my fitness and increase my stamina. Hell, it reminded me of the military exercises that I went through in my previous lifetime when I served the mandatory national service. Conditioning, strengthening and acclimatization.

Well, that makes sense. Martial arts is a physical activity, after all. The whole point is to strengthen your body and build up your fitness.

It wasn't as if I was expecting to copy wuxia novel protagonists who spent all day sitting down and meditating, and suddenly they had awesome spiritual powers and could level mountains or destroy concrete with their bare hands just because of qi. As if you could just rely solely on meditation to grow physically powerful.

There was also the fact that this was a step or movement technique with a few kicks inscribed into its nature. It was only natural that the first…uh, step to mastering it was to strengthen my legs and ensure they were fit and strong enough to execute what seemed like complex maneuvers. Plus there was no point relying on kicking as my main offensive methods if my legs were weak. Of course, it made sense to strengthen my legs if I wanted to kick people to death. Or at least to knock them out. I wasn't a psychotic murderer, after all.

Pushing up my glasses, I took a deep breath, closed the scroll and stood up.

”Might as well get it done and over with.”

The first step was always the hardest and most boring, but I recognized that it was essential if I wanted to build a solid foundation. When my Traditionalist classmates were already surging far ahead of me, I had no room to complain about the methods. I couldn't afford to be picky about my methods, nor could I attempt to compete with them. I could only establish a firm, solid foundation, and build upon there. It was the same whether I was in a sect or not, I was sure.

Changing into a jersey, I left my room and began jogging along the campus. There was a winding track that snaked along the perimeter of the vast academy grounds which was perfect for jogging. There were even markings on the ground to indicate how far you had covered, and from the ever-changing numbers – which was powered by qi – I could estimate the distance.

The entire perimeter was about sixteen kilometers long, and the campus ground itself covered about approximately sixteen square kilometers in terms of area. I doubted I could run the full sixteen kilometers on my first try, so my goal was four kilometers. I was only thirteen, I had just recovered from an accident, and I hadn't built up my fitness prior to enrolling in Wu Ling Academy, so it was preposterous for me to attempt to cover all sixteen kilometers…or even half of that distance in one go.

”Huff…huff…”

It wasn't even two kilometers and I was already perspiring from head to toe. It was a good thing that the temperature was cooling, about ten degrees Celsius and chilly, so I wasn't suffering as badly as I would when I served National Service in my home country to the south. Sucking in a lungful of air, I powered on, refusing to give up. It didn't matter if I had to stop and walk some of the way, I was going to complete all four kilometers.

It took me almost forty minutes, but I did it. Damn, but I was definitely out of shape. My drill sergeant would definitely yell at me if he saw how pathetic I was right now. I could already imagine him frothing at the mouth, his face red, and bellowing at how I was an embarrassment to the army.

Speaking of which, if I remember correctly, there is no National Service in this timeline…

Since military prowess was determined by martial arts, qi and other mystical techniques, there was little point in having a citizen-conscripted military to defend one's nation. Apparently one martial artist was equal to a hundred, or even a thousand normal men. In fact, the higher-ranked martial artists could be considered as either one-man armies, or weapons of mass destruction. No, seriously. They were actually using that term to describe some of the legends out there.

Well, that's way out of reach for someone like me. I'll just focus on strengthening myself for now.

Wiping the perspiration from my face, I glanced at the numbers that layered itself upon the jogging track. It was 4.012km. Hell, the technology here was so advanced that they actually measured the distance to three decimal places. I couldn't help but be impressed. Best of all, they were using natural qi, so there wasn't any pollution or environmental degrading.

Looks like I have a long way to go…

Feeling a little discouraged, I trudged back to my room for a much-needed rest.

”You okay, my friend?”

On my way back, I passed by Zhu Jiao. He also looked pretty ruddy and reddened, his skin glistening with perspiration. Evidently I wasn't the only one working hard on learning martial arts techniques or trying to improve my fitness.

”Yeah. You?”

Zhu Jiao grinned. ”Couldn't be better.”

Infected by his enthusiasm, I raised my hand in response to his waving hand we traded a fist bump.

”We're going to do this, aren't we?” Zhu Jiao declared determinedly. ”We're going to become stronger than everyone else and make them regret ever looking down on us.”

”Yeah,” I agreed half-wearily and half-angrily. ”Screw the whole Star Constitution thing. We're going to prove their bullshit method of measuring strength wrong.”

Then my legs buckled and I had to grab onto the railing to prevent myself from toppling over. Way to go. That was humiliating.

Zhu Jiao laughed and slapped my back, but I felt the trembling in his hand, as well as saw the blisters.

”Let's go rest. You look like you really need it.”

”Yeah. You too.”

Zhu Jiao didn't argue, and we returned to our rooms to grab a clean change of clothes before hitting the showers.

*

And just like that, three months passed.

I kept up a slow and steady progress, increasing my distance by a kilometer every week until I could finally run all sixteen kilometers by the end of three months. And that was just the start. I planned on increasing the distance to twenty once I had built up the adequate fitness.

I had also begun adding more exercises to my training regimen, as advised by Teacher Jiao. As our homeroom teacher, he took an interest in the techniques that Zhu Jiao and I picked, and was on hand to advise or make adjustments to our training regimen. It appeared that he had great knowledge of Shadow Steps as well, and was thus able to help me better than when he tried assisting Zhu Jiao with mastering the Red Jade technique.