Martial King's Retired Life

“Erm… Normally speaking, if you can master it and work hard, you might be able to match your second sister once you’re over thirty. To reach your eldest brother’s level, you’ll require luck.”

Zizi showed doubt.

“What?”

“Shifu, why are you teaching me this when I am already running so late? I want to become stronger. Second Sister is not even thirty yet, yet I can only match her once I am thirty? That is not very impressive.”

“Oh, don’t want to learn it?”

Zizi shook his head.

“Fine by me. It’s only considered one of the Three Fists Five Palms disciplines. Even your father only obtained a portion of it. If you don’t want to learn it, th-”

“I will learn it!” As an inheritor of his bloodline’s shamelessness, Zizi jumped up and grabbed my arm. “But if it is so amazing, why do you speak so badly of it?”

“Listen carefully: didn’t I say, ‘normally speaking’? Frankly, it’s not easy to master the discipline. I’ve come across two practitioners. Both of them did well, but their results are limited, and they haven’t maximised it. They’ve also done a lot of things that don’t suit the discipline.”

Although Shifu never taught me Pure Yang One Qi, he had boasted about it. Therefore, I had personally heard how it was meant to be when utilised properly. If he didn’t overexaggerate, then Zhao Tiankui and Yuan Kou’s method of training it was wrong.

“In order to teach it to you, I’ve considered where they went wrong. Firstly, they weren’t kids when they started learning it, so their yang qi wasn’t pure. Secondly, they practiced other disciplines beforehand, so their true qi was already mixed. Accordingly, their gains were limited even if they could get any. Third, despite its categorisation of Three Fists Five Fists, it’s not a boxing discipline. It was only categorised as so because an astounding boxer was the one who popularised it. Its nature is an internal discipline’s mental cultivation that can be applied to any technique, armed or unarmed. Because they treated it as a boxing discipline to learn, they went down a different path. It’d be a pain for them to walk back and restart.”

“So, as long as I avoid those mistakes, I will not have any obstacles, right?”

“I did say you were smart.”

“Teach me, Shifu!”

“Does it look like I have a manual on me?”

“Oh…”

“But I have a talking manual.”

“A talking manual?”

I smiled, then yelled, “Come down.”

A big man glided down from the tree trunk beside us, landing without making a sound.

“I have been waiting for ages, Sir!” Yuan Kou kept his volume within the bounds of respectful and didn’t stand too close to us.

“H-he is…” stuttered Zizi.

I smiled. “You really think I left you alone? If anything happened, your mother would shred me.”

I pointed to the shady-looking man rubbing his hands together. “He’s a constable at Liu Shan Men who’s okay at martial arts.”

Zizi widened his eyes. Could you blame him? Nobody would’ve believed Yuan Kou was a constable if they looked at his face. Plus, his silent landing was impressive to Zizi.

“Don’t judge him by his appearance. As smart as you are, I can’t guarantee you could reach his level in five years.”

Yuan Kou griped, “Sir, you fooled me so badly. Since you knew I went wrong early on, why did you not mention anything? Since it is not a boxing discipline, what point was there in learning boxing from General Zhao?”

After losing to Zhao Tiankui, Yuan Kou frequently discussed martial arts with the former. While their martial arts origins were different, both of them practiced Pure Yang One Qi, so they were able to mutually help the other. Yuan Kou was quite smug about it until he just heard what I told Zizi.

“Zhao Tiankui was born to be a boxer. His boxing is fine, but I practiced palm techniques from childhood. I have no idea how tedious it is going to be to make up for it now that I have learnt boxing.”

“I didn’t call you here to hear you winge. Start reciting the theory already,” I demanded.

Yuan Kou recited the mental cultivation he learnt. I nodded throughout and then pulled Zizi aside to explain it to him. After several rounds of repeating the process, Zizi had a general grasp on it and was able to recite it himself. While Zizi sat on the ground to practice it, Yuan Kou and I stood guard far away.

“Sir, you had me fooled again. He is a Prince?”

I had my reasons for having Yuan Kou protect Zizi. Yuan Kou was the only one among my new recruits who wanted to enter the imperial court’s employment for wealth and status. Therefore, it was no surprise he bit the bait when I told him about Zizi’s importance. In addition to being able to hold his own in fights, he was also clever. He was bound to establish himself as long as he was given time and opportunities. Unfortunately, his background was shrouded in mystery, and the perverted organisation kept him at arms’ length, and they must’ve have had good reason for doing so. He wouldn’t try anything funny in my presence, but that wasn’t guaranteed once I turned my back, so this was my test for him. Additionally, he was the only person who knew Pure Yang One Qi’s mental cultivation, so being able to pry that from him was another challenge in and of itself. He was only valuable to me if he could pass both tests.

“Sir.” Smiling with disappointment, Yuan Kou said, “You are too distrustful of me. I even brought you the manual. This is the version I learnt.”

“Zhao Tiankui brought it, too.” I waved the other part of the manual in Yuan Kou’s face.

“… How dare he try to cut in line!”

Zhao Tiankui didn’t have the complete version, either. I had to combine Yuan Kou and Zhao Tiankui’s versions, my understanding of Shifu and his stories about the discipline, plus the contents of Mount Daluo’s old manuals that I had read, to make it more complete. That’s why the version Zizi learnt was half my creation.

After one round of practice, Zizi commented, “This is really hard.” He scratched his head as he asked me, “Who was the person who created this? This is really hard…. Do I know his name?”

“You may not know what he has done, but there is one important thing. Twenty-nine years ago, he picked up an orphan and raised said orphan, including teaching him martial arts.”

“And after that?“

“After that, you call the orphan ‘shifu’.”