Only now did I truly understood how the practice in the Flesh Tempering Realm actually works .
So hitting something solid and much powerful than me like the rock in front of me or the previous wooden and metal posts back in Dojo can act as a stimulant to the mysterious energy within me which will bless my whole body with the Tempering effect especially the area that was used on the attack, so even though the technique had a Tempering effect on the upper body .
The technique actually focused more on Tempering the shoulders,hands and fist, the recoil force will be the thing responsible for on actually tempering the rest of the upper body, the Flesh Tempering Realm required the Practitioner to use his Blood Qi and the use of Martial Technique to guide that mysterious energy to temper his body .
That was how the Solid Rock Fist Technique way of practicing in this Martial Realm seemed to be working at least in my opinion, whether was this the general way of practice in this Marital Realm or some unique way of practicing unique to the Solid Rock Fist Dojo, I really can't tell, what I can tell was, practicing with the Solid Rock Fist was very much indeed self-harming .
Releasing the strength collected from the postures and hitting your body against something solid and use that force recoil that will come out as a result to enhance the amount of that mysterious tempering energy, which will then strengthen the body from the inside out, but that was indeed something quite dangerous, life-threatening even .
Maybe Blood Qi together with the execution of the other postures could allow a great tempering effect due to how much recoil force that will be released due to the person at that stage ability to pack a powerful punch .
It now began to make a complete sense the sense of discomfort I had earlier about me sensing that something was missing sarcastically enough I finally was able to understand the sarcastic remarks of instructor Lu this morning .
About helping old Han in having a breakthrough to the next layer by getting 80 lashes, if he were practicing some External Technique similar to Solid Rock Fist, he might really be able to benefit from those 80 laches, but something in the scornful tone he used this morning was telling me that he hadn't, so how much will he be able to benefit is up to how strong his fate is, the same goes for that old Sun as well .
External Martial Technique, that was the word senior brother Fu used to describe the Martial Techniques similar to the Solid Rock Fist Technique and telling me that they all had side effects, but I didn't pay much attention that time, thinking that it might be another word that doesn't have much meaning, so I didn't dwell on it much .
But here I was, once again being taught a serious and perhaps quite an important lesson even, that lesson laid in the fact that there was probably nothing in this world of Martial Arts that had no meaning to it .
Solid Rock Fist Technique was a perfect example to showcase this, it worked on hitting solid things to seek improvement, External Martial Arts are probably Martial Arts that used External Items to improve one Martial Realm and as a result the strength of a person, how much of that was true, with what I seen today, I believe that 70, 80 percent of it was much likely correct .
Finding out about this will help me achieve much results in practicing Martial Arts and improving my Realm as well, I might still not have a clue on why we were practicing these dangerous External Martial Techniques, I at least can practice with not much care to that .
Releasing a long sigh of relief, I opened my eyes and almost sensed that after the last round of Tempering, the world in front of me seemed to be a bit different, it could be an illusion but I felt that my body had gotten stronger and my senses to have improved as well, just as I was about to stand up and continue to test whether that was an illusion or not, a massage appeared suddenly in front of me .
In fact two message tabs appeard simultaneously, the first one was the normal tab telling me that execution of the four postures was executed, but instead of poorly being written as every time, the message said executed and I didn't believe for even a second that was a mistake, I was about to open the other Taps to probe, but before I do that, my attention was caught by the second message that appeard .
(internal injures, bleeding, blood vessels, meridians, veins, all bursted, internal organs got severely injured, bones shattered, paralyzed upper body, due Insufficient Blood Vitality leading to a failure in awakening the dormant Blood Qi, all negative effects were removed .
After seeing that messay, my whole body went cold all over, my heart almost stopped beating for a second, my whole body became drenched in sweat, I was gasping for air, my whole body seemed to be at grave danger, but after a second later, my state stabilized and I was finally able to take a breath of air .
Just seeing the first part of that message made my heart fell into my knees, not to mention that by the end of reading that message, my mental state completely collapsed just now, a psychological effect of fearing for my life assaulted me, so even though nothing actually happened to my body, my mind was trying to convince me that I was already dead or dying .
Luckily it didn't continue to feel so for long, or I might have still be fighting to take a breath of air, what just happened, showed me the dangerous consequences of taking a bad move in practicing Martial Arts, if not for the existence of that weird message, panel or whatever that was to help me, my body might have get crippled just now or worse, it might have burst from the inside just now .
~Huff, huff, huff, huff~ .
Just now when I was focusing on trying to lead that mysterious energy to temper my chest all the way to the waist, passing by the veins and meridians mentioned in the instructions .
I did feel that something was beginning to awaken inside me just now and right after I began to feel a torturing pain, pain so strong and intense that it even forced me to stop with the process of Tempering any longer .
The mysterious energy disappeared right after, that pain as per the words that appeard on that weird panel were saying that the cause was falling to awaken my Blood Qi due to the insufficient Blood Vitality, something that instructor Lu did mention earlier this morning, but to think that it would lead to something so sever .
Was he unaware of how dangerous it was for me to practice, I don't believe that to be the case, after all it didn't seem that he wanted to hurt me, he also seemed to be quite surprise at him finding this out back then, he even asked me to curse that Lu Si for his ruthlessness .
Wait, that was it, if I wasn't able to found much reasoning behind what was happening with me before, then after recalling the incident with that Lu Si from before, I couldn't help but notice that the pain came to be from the exact same place, that ruthless guy hit the original Tian Long in, it was the same place that I felt pain in, just after I appeard in the body of Tian Long .
There were something else I discovered about that incident after recalling that unpleasant piece of memory, I found that his movements seemed to align with a Martial Skill move that looked familiar to one that I seemed to have read about, but which one, that what I was currently trying to figure .
It was easy to filter through the information stored in my mind, a few seconds and I was able to conclude that was was used against the original Tian Long was indeed a Martial Skill and High-grade and a quite vicious one too, the skill that was used was the Secret Martial Skill, the Charging Tiger, the move that was used was one of the moves I revered in that Secret Martial Skill, the Tiger's Strike move .
Even though it was poorly executed by comparing to how it should be executed according to the instructions I had on mind, that guy execution couldn't be describe as even entry level of mastery .
Yet even though it was only at the entry level, that attack was launched using the Blood Qi of an at least a Middle Stage 5th layer Martial Apprentice on Flesh Tempering Realm, that attack landed on a normal person Tian Long who have nothing but his own regular training and Horse stance, a guy who was completely a normal person .
And with the effect that Tiger's Strike have, it seemed that the details of how the original Tian Long died was no longer a mystery, that technique should have taken effect and severely injured that guy's Blood Vitality and soon enough with that amount of Blood Vitality lost, he died a day later .
So him losing Blood Vitality had nothing to do with me inhabiting his body after he died, his body was already lacking it to begin with, as I reached that conclusion, I wanted to kill that guy even more than before .
His action not only just set something similar to a time bomb on the original Tian Long's body, but me who inhabited this new body had also inhabited this time bomb and it had detonated just now, that time bomb was the lack of Blood Vitality which almost killed me while I was about to awaken my Blood Qi .
I suddenly thought of this problem from another angle and the outcome I reached made me collapse on the floor, if my Blood Vitality kept unable to support me in awakening my Blood Qi, then that could possibly mean that my Martial Arts Path might be cut off without me even able to take the very first step on it .
I succumbed on the floor due to me understanding how desperate my situation was, if I'm unable to awaken my Blood Qi, which was the most crucial requirement to advance through the layers of the Flesh Tempering Realm and the layers of the other Martial Realm, then what was exactly the difference between me and a person who is crippled, so how can't I fall into despair .
I stayed on the floor watching the starry sky above me and felt that the sluggish in my thinking began to be swept away little by little, it was weird but just staring at the sky above me eased my mood by quite a lot, I don't know the reason, but the sky in this world was completely swarmed with stars, releasing faint light that was barely visible .
I found my hand suddenly outstretched towards the sky as if wanting to reach it or even what was maybe beyond it, I couldn't help but remember my thoughts while ascending those weird stairs which were leading to the Dojo's Main Training Hall .
As I was ascending that time, my mind was filled with aspirations, I even set a goal for myself, I wanted to reach the heaven, at me remembering that goal of mine and remembering my current situation .
I couldn't help but cupping my hand that was reaching towards the sky into a fist and clenching it tightly, thinking to myself that what could I be already despairing about, I only suffered from one setback and I'm already losing all hope, was becoming someone through Martial Arts really that easy, then why isn't everyone here a Master then .
I'm certain that there were people out there, who might find their situations even more severe than mine, people that might find even taking the next step on their Martial Path as difficult as climbing a mountain,yet they are persistent in seeing it through .
Not to mention that I could be considered to have a huge advantage over othe guys and that advantage came out of the existence of that weird panel in my mind that gave me a huge advantage over others, also there was the fact that I can still recover thr loss of my Blood Vitality through the use of special treasures of heaven and earth and even though those Nutrition Soup that might have an effect, even if it was a little as possible, as long as it can help, I'm willing to give it my all .
I stood up from the ground and decided that there was no time to waste, I have yet to find out whether the panel or message in my mind have a use limit or not, I'm glad that I was at least able to be a bit more at ease, after what just happened before .
Seeing that weird panel remove all those side effects made my worries about some negative effect being able to effect me, it was even able to block my blood vessels from bursting and even the paralysis that was about to hit my upper body, so I do believe that there is currently nothing that it can't deal with, at least I'm not feeling any discomfort with my body even after practicing 3 times now without much of a problem .
As I thought of this, I felt a sudden spark of enlightenment began to appear on my mind bringing an idea with it that me completely unable to know whether to laugh or cry, that idea was regarding the fact that I might be able to awaken my Blood Qi if I were to retort to risk doing something that the least that could be said about it, that it was reckless .
But after I contemplate about it for a while, i felt that the idea in mind looked more and more viable, if the Blood Qi meant to be nurtured and increase with each advancement in the Martial Realm, that progress might be achieved through the use of Martial Technique and since I'm able to get a good result no matter the consequences and no matter how wrong my posture was .
Then I had this crazy idea about why not execute all the 16 postures of the Solid Rock Fist Martial Technique then .
After all even if I were to fail then, I will be just failing and nothing bad might end up happening, but if it were to succeed, I might be able to soar to heavens directly, if my theory about those External Martial Techniques were correct, then even without the use of Blood Qi, I might be still able to execute all the 16 postures mentioned in the manual .
Even if a severe side effect were to appear, I trust the panel in my mind to be able to deal it, my worries stem from me doing this might have completely unknown results, in fact I already had an idea about what might one of those results be .
With me doing this and even if my everything went according to the plan I had in mind, I might be straying from the orthodox way to practice Martial Arts, whether that will be a problem or not, that's not clear to me at the moment .
But the thing that was currently clear to me, is that I currently have the chance to change my fate and whether it was me or the intent that the original Tian Long left inside me, both were not willing to let that chance go, so even though I was treading towards the unknown, I don't have a fraction of fear at doing this .
I took a few deep breaths to calm my agitated heart and mind up, I began to recall how my senior brother executed all the 16 postures and all the four punches and kept replaying the scene in front of me over and over, the biggest hurdle in front of me was that to deal with the huge amount of recoil force that will appear, I will need to awaken my Blood Qi before finish executing these postures, or I won't be able to tell what might happen next .
Sensing that I had regained my composure, I stood in front of the big rock ahead of me and executed the first posture, I leaned a bit forward and took half a step and executed the second posture, I then returned to the first posture but got immediately in a punching position and with that I felt the 3rd posture was executed without a problem .
The 4th posture was to sync my breathing rhythm with the moment I will be striking down on that rock, due to experiencing with it before, I was able to punch in sync without breaking the rhythm .
The fourth posture was executed without a problem, my punch seemed to have really gotten a bit stronger, I was able to blow some of the debris on the strong rock in front of me, even though the numbness in my arms hadn't disappeared like before .
But I won't be stopping now whatever happened to me, all the remaining postures were the same as the first one, the only change was a slight adjustment to the coordinates of the posture and the hand that was striking and the breathing rhythm, there was also the involvement of the circulation of Blood Qi, but I currently hadn't awaken it .
I ignored the strong heat in my body and continue to execute on posture after the other at the 8th posture, I struck the rock with my right hand, the heat inside me began to turn into an aching pain, I felt my whole body beginning to become sore, I was short of breath, the pain under the naval area came once again .
But it was that pain that didn't let me stop what I was doing, even though I was feeling tremendous amount of pain, even more than before, that painful feeling came accompanied by another feeling, the feeling that something was about to be awakened seemed more clearer than ever and that alone made me grit my teeth and struggle to continue .
The buzzing of messages kept sounding in my ears, notification were coming to my mind, all screaming at me for poorly executed Martial Art, but I paid them no mind after seeing the negative effects that were being removed, to not disrupt the little bit of composure I had left .
I executed up to the 12 postures and once again strike at the rock in front of me with my left hand, but not only I was completely out breath, but it seemed that the heat in my body has reached its limit, if someone were to pass by here and saw me, he might saw a red colored human that looked like a demon straight from hell, my body was bloated, my orifices were beginning to bleed, due to the fact that my upper body was filled to its brim .
The only choice I currently had was to stop practicing and try to digest my gains first, then I can try again after, but I didn't want that, just now I felt that the Blood Qi dormant inside me was beginning to show signs of awakening, the redness of my skin was more than enough proof of that .
I will continue to persevere, there is only a few little steps left, I can't give up on matter what it took me, I executed up to the 15th posture with the help of the last bit of determination and resolve that I was able to muster, but that was all that I was able to do, before I felt the scene in front of me goes dark, no, it was more accurate to say that I LOST CONSCIOUSNESS AND JUST WHEN I WAS THIS CLOSE TOO, ONLY THE LAST PUNCH, DAMNIT .