Chapter 307
He can say for certain he didn’t learn squat from Aragon’s Star Dou Qi, but Du Wei did manage to get this basic foundation routine down. First was Gandalf’s half, then Hussein’s half. Combining both together, Du Wei can technically say he’s learned two sets in total. Anyways, after learning this and practicing for a while now, it’s a definite fact his body’s been greatly improved since his childhood. Unlike his sickly self from way back then, he’s seen such a drastic change to his body in the past two years that compared to a common person of his age, his body was a level higher than the rest.
It’s just that, no matter how incompetent he himself was at learning martial art, this basic foundation routine was still related to the Star Dou Qi.
A skill that was said to be used by the invincible Aragon in his conquest of the world. Something this important and amazing was only known by Hussein in this era, and even then, the guy only learned a bit of it. Now that White River suddenly asked himself so eagerly, Du Wei had to wonder what sort of intent this guy had in mind.
Can it be… this crazy strongman saw through the secret of this routine and is coveting it?
See Du Wei’s refusal to answer, White River grunted heavily, his eyes gradually returning to normal. With a cold smile: “You must be thinking I’m coveting your routine there right? What a joke. Your routine is nothing more than a set of moves to stimulate a person’s muscle growth and maneuverability, making the practitioner’s skill more powerful than usual when used. It’s not like my Snowy Mountain doesn’t have anything of similar nature. It’s just that, according to my knowledge, the martial art of the Roland Empire shouldn’t have something like this. I’ve always thought this form of training is unique to my Snowy Mountain, but it seems the world is a big place and similar things can exist without ever crossing paths.”
Du Wei shook his head after listening: “I don’t know exactly either. This set of routine was taught to me by a friend of mine.”
White River also shook his head at the excuse: “Your words are insincere. Too much hesitation and too dishonest. This is clearly a basic foundation for some sort of extremely formidable martial technique that requires high maneuverability rate and extreme muscle strength. To meet that requirement, this set of moves were created by the original creator to allow future users to achieve the needed physique to practice the higher level stuff.”
Du Wei became aghast at that speculation, This White River is truly formidable. One look and he can make an approximate guess at the truth!
Seeing Du Wei becoming stunned by his own words, White River coldly smiled: “Fine then, I only asked because I wanted to confirm something and see if it’s similar to my Snowy Mountain’s version. Since you are worried about me stealing your routine then I’ll be generous today. First I’ll show you my Snow Mountain’s version to make up for peeking at your performance earlier. I, White River, isn’t the sort to steal from others behind their back.”
At that, he didn’t wait for Du Wei to speak and stepped into a clearing on the snow: “Look carefully now!” he shouts.
Suddenly, his body surged and gained several inches in height. Carefully looking over, Du Wei saw that it was due to the posture White River was making. Then without indication, the guy started to twist and turn his body in a freaky and strange way!
Every action, every movement, it’s as if he’s moving in a way beyond human limitations. Reversing his back, waist, arms, shoulders, every joint can be freely and randomly twisted and turned in a three sixty-degree angle.
Just looking at this gave Du Wei the willies and left him shocked beyond words. It’s not the first time he’s seen this action routine before. In fact, he already knew about this from that female assassin and even had Aoi perform it in front of himself several times already. But unlike all those times, White River’s display was simply too jaw dropping!
It’s too detailed, too masterful!
He didn’t catch onto it before due to Aoi’s inability to truly bring out the essence, but White River’s done it. Like the man said, this routine of the Snowy Mountain had a lot of similarities to the Star Dou Qi’s version that Du Wei simply can’t deny.
This similarity didn’t lie in the way of the posture or the movements, it’s the method and principles behind it!
The only difference was… Du Wei’s Star Dou Qi version only focused on muscle strength and maneuverability. As to joint flexibility on the bones, it had very little involvement. Compared to his own, this version on the Snowy Mountain can only be called bizarre.
If the Star Dou Qi’s version was the version of a yoga training on the muscles and tendons, then this Snowy Mountain was the yoga version of the bones… No! That’s not it. This level of flexibility was already beyond what simple yoga can accomplish!
If Du Wei had to roughly estimate both routines, then the Star Dou QI version trains roughly seventy percent of the muscle while the remaining thirty on the bones. As for the Snowy Mountain’s version, its seventy percent on the bones and thirty percent on the muscles!! They are completely polar opposites of each other using the same philosophy.
After White River finished the first set in the clearing, he repeated it again out of worry that Du Wei couldn’t remember it. Three times down, he finally stopped. Watching this over and over again, Du Wei couldn’t resist making a sigh: “Oh heavens… If people can master this set of moves then anyone can become a “Transformer”, bending and changing their shape at will!!”
“Did you see it clearly? If you didn’t then I can repeat it again.” White River asks this with a tinge of coldness in his voice.
Hurriedly nodding, Du Wei would love nothing more than to see it again. A little bit annoyed inside over Du Wei’s eagerness, White River did as he promised and displayed the moves again in front of him. Not missing any of it, Du Wei focused with all his willpower and memorized every step, every move, everything that occurred down to the miniscule eye movement.
Watching Du Wei’s dumb attempt at simply memorizing everything without understanding anything, White River coldly chuckled at his efforts: “From the looks of it, a person like you seems to have no talent in martial art. Years ago, Blue Ocean only needed two days to nail down this set of moves while Scarlet Water needed half a day. A person like you wanting you learn it all will likely require half a month or more.”
Despite being ridiculed by White River, Du Wei didn’t get angry and instead thought: I don’t need you telling me this. I knew I had no talent for martial art way back when I was three, that’s a well-known fact.
Even so, he couldn’t resist asking, “And you? How long did you require?”
Smiling: “Back then teacher Gu Lanxiu only showed me once, then I can follow him exactly on the second time.”
Spatting his tongue out, Du Wei was even more determined to not compare himself with this sort of monstrous being.
At this moment, White River suddenly stepped over and grabbed at Du Wei’s palm. Chuckling, White River’s hand worked its way up to Du Wei’s wrist, elbow, shoulder, then finally sliding down Du Wei’s spine.
Frightened by the sudden encroachment, Du Wei wanted to jump away but couldn’t under the guy’s constraint. Then once the madman finished checking all of his bones, this bastard grabbed him on the waist and lift Du Wei right off the ground and into the air. Spinning Du Wei like a disk, this crazy Shaman King kept laughing the entire time until he finally tossed Du Wei back to the ground.
“You… What did you do that for?” Du Wei got a serious creepy feeling inside of him right now.
Bellowing out a laugh: “Duke Tulip, speaking about it, it’s not necessarily a bad thing that you met me. Maybe it’s even a good thing for you.”
“Good thing?” Du Wei became a little annoyed.
“Of course.” In a mild tone, White River explains: “A person like you, seriously, your physique is simply too poor. I don’t know how much talent you have for magic, but considering you could kill one of my white robe shamans with your age, then I’m assuming it’s not bad. It’s just that, your talent for martial art is simply too unsightly. I can say for certain, any one of the disciples in the Snowy Mountain Sect can wipe the floor with you. But the blame is not on you. Your body’s weak from birth and didn’t have a good foundation to work with. What’s more, your bones and muscles also had issues when growing. However, you’re lucky and managed to learn that weird movement set before growing too old. After practicing it for a few years, your physical conditions have improved dramatically. This way around, your qualifications have increased a lot compared to before. If only speed and strength were to be considered, then you are superior to most of your peers around the same age.”
Hearing this, Du Wei couldn’t help but get a little cheeky. He’s known all his life that he’s not suitable for martial training, but inwardly, he’s like any teenager with a rebellious nature. Through the constant training with the basic foundation of the Star Dou QI, he did have some thoughts about become a powerful martial art master one day!
After all, every man has their time where they dream to be a hero: riding a valiant horse and swinging a glistening silver sword in his heroic white armor. Sure, a magician was powerful too, but it’s not manly enough to win the girls!
But White River quickly crushed that dream: “Don’t get too proud of yourself. Although you repaired most of your horrible foundation with that weird training move, but it can only improve your muscle and tendons, leaving your bones and joint structures vulnerable. Therefore, if you hadn’t met me, then the furthest you can go is at most an eighth level swordsman after many years of diligent training. Maybe when you reach fifty then you will get there, but that’s all, you will not reach the top!”
Level eight?
Du Wei spat his tongue out again. To tell the truth, Du Wei himself never expected to reach that far.
Even so, Hussein already explained this to him back in the frozen forest. Although he himself was lucky to come across the foundation to the Star Dou Qi, but he will never reach the peak level of a martial artist with that alone.
It seems that both of these Saint Class experts are of the same opinion on this subject.
Grinning, White River continues: “Your luck is meeting me. The taijutsu of my Snowy Mountain emphasizes on one’s bone and joint structure. This is also your body’s biggest flaw! Fortunately, you are still young. If you were twenty years of age or older when you encountered me, then even if you do learn my Snowy Mountain’s taijutsu, it will still be useless. You should be fifteen years old, right? Now that you have learned my taijutsu, you can cover up your weakness. Through diligence, your growth will be far reaching. Even if you do abandon your Roland people’s magic in the future, it’s not impossible for you to break into the Saint Class by going down the martial art path.”
Breaking into Saint Class with martial art?!
Hearing those words, Du Wei’s heart couldn’t stop beating like a bomb!
Then doesn’t this mean he can become as strong as Rodriguez and Hussein?
“You don’t believe me?” White River remains cold as ever, “If you look down at yourself then that’s your issue. With both forms of taijutsu in your hands, it’s not that difficult now to reach Saint Class even if your constitution is utterly crap!”
Contemplating the idea, Du Wei eventually sighed anyways: “Even if I do reach the Saint Class, what’s the point if I’m going to be seeing monstrous beings like you every once in a while. I can’t even hold a punch against you before I get flattened.”
Grunting, White River unexpectedly didn’t get angry: “A guy like you really is interesting. You are clearly holding a treasure yet you don’t know how to use it. Humph! You need to know, since ancient times, most peerless masters can only specialize in one form due to their limits: magic or martial art! But you, your talent in magic is superior to the rest and now you also landed yourself with two forms of taijutsu skills to propel yourself to the Saint Class as long as you work hard! In the past millennium, how many are there with your fortune and encounters?!”
Now that literally knocked him out of his depression. Trembling in his heart, Du Wei couldn’t hold down his excitement.
Narrowing his eyes, White River carefully looked over Du Wei, the curiosity becoming more intense. Finally noticing this uncomfortable gaze, Du Wei smiled wryly: “Mr. White, Boss White, your Majesty White, please stop looking at me like that!”
White River repeatedly sighed: “How rare! To think I would see a glimmer of hope again today!”
Pausing for a moment, he shook his head again: “What a pity, why did it have to be you, aigh!” His words carried a hint of frustration.
One moment he’s spouting “rare”, then the next he’s saying “pity”. This left Du Wei in a bit of a daze.
Pondering for a moment. White River continues to stare at Du Wei: “To tell you the truth, I’m quite happy inside to meet such a strange kid like you!”
Meanwhile, Du Wei was thinking: To meet a strange old monster like you is heaven’s punishment on me!
He may be thinking this, but he didn’t dare say it aloud. Shaking his head to throw himself back to reality: “So why are you so happy again?”
“I exhausted my life in order to pursue the summit of power! Just that, the higher I climb, the lonelier I feel inside! This feeling, someone like you would never understand.”
It must be the devil controlling him because Du Wei unconscious threw out this sentence without thinking it through: “You are feeling frustrated because no one in this world can make you draw your blade, right?”
White River’s gaze immediately became anxious: “That’s right! The loneliness in my heart is precisely because of this! Just that, you caused me to see hope again!”
Whispering: “The masters on this continent is few and in-between. Blue Ocean is one, Scarlet Water and my teacher is also in there, then there’s that Pope of the temple… Pity that Gandalf is already dead according what I hear. Besides these people, there’s also someone by the name of Rodriguez. However, the guy is Blue Ocean’s apprentice and a user of the Ice Dou Qi. Humph, no matter how powerful he is, he can never stand up to me using that skill. So, we can skip him too. Both Blue Ocean and Scarlet Water isn’t my opponent, that’s a fact. And my teacher’s already dead too, leaving only the Pope left on my list. From what I hear though, every generation of the Pope is weak and frail, only knowing that divine magic of the goddess. Even if his divine magic is more power, how can he stand up to my dual wield? Sadly, the most promising of the bunch, Blue Ocean, is already on his last breath. As for Scarlet Water, he’s even more disappointing and lost his ways to his own demonic heart. It’s true, there’s none left out there that can be my opponent.”
But Du Wei thought differently: that is not necessarily true. When it comes to dual wielding, that old dragon in the north is definitely your match with his draconic magic and dragon martial art. Plus there’s that perfect constitution of the gold dragon specie. With all those variables together, how can they not be your opponent?
“But you gave me hope! You are so young but is already a famous magician. Needless to say, your magic talent is definitely there. And now you also got the two set of taijutsu moves to help your body, a definitely plus to pushing yourself into the Saint Class. That’s why I’m saying it’s so rare!”
“Then… What about the pity?” Du Wei asked.
Turning cold on his face, White River seems a little angry: “Pity is that you robbed me of my magic pet! And you also went ahead and formed a soul contract with it! If I want to take it back then I’ll have to destroy the contract at the level of your soul! I may not want to kill you, but stripping your soul out and then removing the contract is bound to cause some damage even if it doesn’t kill you. At the very least, your magic will be weakened due to the impact on your spirit. In the end, you won’t be my opponent either. Alas, the pet is too important to me so I can’t let you go… What a pity!”
Feeling cold inside, Du Wei’s image of this guy can only be regarded as depressing. One second those eyes are warm, then the next second it’s cold…