Chapter 8: Surge in Strength
Suddenly, every moves of Huashan Swordplay, Huashan's Fist Arts, Huashan's Arts of Lightness were imprinted in his mind where a silhouette seemed to exist there, repeatedly performing the martial arts in a lifelike manner.
Lin Yi knew this was an effect from game system, which enabled him to remember every moves of the martial arts instantly. However, it only let him remember them. If he wanted to wield them, he would have to rely on his own efforts.
Because, as for the moment, he had not even reached initial stage mastery.
Therefore, the only effect it had was that he wouldn't forget them!
He didn't need to go and ask for guidance anymore. He only needed to practise and practise continuously!
Having learned Huashan Swordplay, Huashan's Fist Arts, and Huashan's Arts of Lightness made Lin Yi's tightened nerves loosened.
With his experience of a God-ranked player, it wasn't a hard thing for him to go back to the ranks of top experts. What the most difficult thing wasn't practising martial arts, but the lack of martial arts.
He had extremely rich combat experience as he managed to slaughter all the way from being an ordinary player to someone of God-ranked player. Therefore, he was familiar with almost all martial arts existed in Great Pugilistic World.
The features of various martial arts, he understood almost all of them.
Which faction of the martial arts displayed by someone belonged to, he could tell with a single glance.
But understanding it didn't meant he could use it!
At most, he was capable of imitating it, moreover, it was only the appearance. To imitate its essence as well was extremely difficult!
The higher grade a martial arts, the more difficult it was to imitate it.
Therefore, to instantly regain the strength of a top experts was something impossible!
The biggest restriction was martial arts!
Without martial arts to learn, his attributes wouldn't be able to increase.
Unable to increase his attributes, even having wonderful experience, facing someone several folds stronger than him, the only outcome would be to be crushed by him opponent!
With this Huashan's introductory martial arts, Lin Yi could now begin his path of martial arts. Lin Yi believed that he would surely shock the entire Huashan someday!
Without hesitation, he went back to his thatched hut. Lin Yi went into seclusion for the first time since he had arrived here at Great Pugilistic World.
He wanted to make breakthrough in the mastery of these martial arts!
Practising Huashan Swordplay, Huashan's Fist Arts, and Huashan's Arts of Lightness crazily, he even dreamt of them in his sleep. He filled his daily schedules completely, except for mealtime, he used all of his time to practise martial arts.
This crazy act made his roommate, Jiang Xiaoyu, shocked to the extreme.
How admirable!
Jiang Xiaoyu also tried his best to help by bringing Lin Yi's food over from the canteen. With Lin Yi as an example, Jiang Xiaoyu also practised diligently.
However, he wasn't as crazy as Lin Yi. He would take a rest when he was tired. During his spare time, he would go and inquire for information.
Gradually, Jiang Xiaoyu told Lin Yi the situation of ten thousand new disciples, like whose sword arts had reached which stage, like whose arts of lightness had breakthrough to which stage.
Hence, though Lin Yi didn't step out during seclusion, he was aware of the progress of his peer disciples through Jiang Xiaoyu.
…….
Soon, a month had passed by.
During this month, Lin Yi tried to breakthrough the stages of all martial arts with all his might.
Apart from Huashan's introductory martial arts of silver grade, he didn't even let go of Basic Blade Arts, Basic Fist Strikes, Basic Arts of Lightness which he obtained from rummaging the room of Black Wind Stockade's Chief.
These martial arts of iron grade, regardless of the increase in attributes or its power, simply couldn't be compared to likes of Huashan's introductory martial arts of silver grade.
However, as a God-ranked player, Lin Yi clearly knew that during a battle, who had higher attributes or higher mastery in martial arts alone couldn't determine who was the strongest one.
It was a test of who had more solid foundation, who had more martial arts, who had more hidden cards.
Foundation, martial arts, hidden cards!
These were what experts emphasized the most.
The more you learn, the more you know, then you wouldn't be seen through when executing of a skill, number of flaws would decrease as well.
If one were to think that Huashan Swordplay was stronger than Basic Fist Strikes, then only specialized in Huashan Swordplay and discard away Basic Fist Strikes.
Then that was really courting death.
It was true that Huashan Swordplay was powerful, but once the others could see through your moves, then they would be able to defend.
Its might would then drop drastically!
Eventually your opponent would be able to control the pace of the battle. Once it got to that point, then death wasn't far away.
A true expert would use his/her weaker skills to face his/her opponents and use his/her exquisite skills as hidden cards. Only when it was time to determine the winner, he/she would use it. One move to determine the winner!
Because he had fought many players from Huashan in game before, Lin Yi had a quite deep understanding towards Huashan's martial arts. Now that he had learned it, his understanding towards Huashan's martial arts deepened even more.
His practise speed was faster as an outcome.
Practising the same move, if one didn't understand Huashan Swordplay and was unfamiliar with it, one would only gain two or three experience points.
If one had a good grasp of Huashan Swordplay and deep understanding towards it, completing a move would yield eight or nine experience points. By any chance, if one managed to execute the move with its essence behind it, the experience would be even more!
Obtaining tens or even hundreds of experience points wasn't impossible.
Borrowing his extensive experience in practising martial arts and his understanding of the martial arts, he was closer to grasping the essence of each moves. As such, his progress in practising martial arts was getting faster and faster!
Eventually, his progress in a day was comparable to several folds, tens of folds of when he first started!
Just in a span of one month, Lin Yi finally mastered all his martial arts to the third out of five stages of mastery, the intermediate stage!
Displaying his attributes panel, Lin Yi inspected his harvest after one month of seclusion.
Attributes Panel
Name : Lin Yi
Status : Yu City's Long Zhilong's son, Disciple of lower courtyard in Huashan
Attack : 30
Defense : 30
Speed : 30
Intenal Strength : none
Sword Skills : Huashan Swordplay (Silver Grade) (Intermediate Stage +20 attack)
Blade Skills : Basic Blade Arts (Silver Grade) (Intermediate Stage +10 attack)
Movement Skills : Huashan's Arts of Lightness (Silver Grade) (Intermediate Stage +20 speed), Basic Arts of Lightness (Iron Grade) (Intermediate Stage +10 speed)
Bare-handed Skills : Huashan's Fist Arts (Silver Grade) (Intermediate Stage +20 attack), Basic Fist Strikes (Iron Grade) (Intermediate Stage +10 attack)
Note : Attribute bonuses will be chosen from the highest value from each discipline.
Looking at the attributes panel, Lin Yi let out a smile. A span of one month had changed his attributes tremendously, from the previous 13 attack points to the current 30 attack points.
Though he had attack points of 30, he was nothing compared to the experts in pugilistic world. He was still at quite a distance away from being a third-rate martial artists where the minimum was 70 points.
Nonetheless, never underestimate this 30 attack points and 30 speed points.
The attributes of ordinary people averaged at 10 points.
30 attack points meant his physical strength was the three folds of ordinary people!
Back at his previous world, a person who was stronger by three times of ordinary people could be regarded as Superman!
Moreover, this was just a comparation of attribute points. Now he had learned martial arts, his combat strength was far much higher than his attribute points.
Sword arts of iron grade would be able to unleash his attack by one hundred percent, while sword arts of bronze grade would be able to unleash his attack by one hundred and twenty percenty, and sword arts of silver grade would be able to unleash his attack by one hundred and fifty percent.
In other words, Lin Yi's attack attribute was 30 points and he had learned Huashan Swordplay of silver grade. Once he execute Huashan Swordplay, his attack power would be the same as someone with 45 attack points who used martial arts of iron grade.
The power increment by grades of martial arts goes the same for arts of lightness as well.
The current Lin Yi could have a fight with someone with 45 attack points in pugilistic world!
The harvest in this month could be said as bountiful!
"Having secluded for a month, it's time now!"
Lin Yi slightly squinted his eyes, tilted his head and gazed at the direction of peak of Mt.Hua, murmurred to himself. Desire to battle could be seen in his eyes!
His martial arts had reached a bottleneck. It was difficult to have a breakthrough in the near future. It was time for him to move about.
The wish and quest to become the head disciple, he didn't forget it in the slightest!
"White Clouds Emerge, Phoenix in Harmony, Inverted Gentry, All-encompassing White Rainbow, Ashened Pine Welcome Its Guests, Flight of Golden Geese, Descend of Edgeless Wood!"
Outside the thatched hut, Jiang Xiaoyu was practising Huashan Swordplay while constantly shouting out the name of the moves in succession.
Lin Yi stepped out from the thatched hut, took a look at Jiang Xiaoyu and nodded in satisfaction. In a span of one month, Jiang Xiaoyu had mastered Huashan Swordplay to the initial stage. This kind of progress was acceptable compared to their peers.
Naturally, it couldn't be compared to Lin Yi's!
Lin Yi was a top expert who had cleared twelve standard meridians and eight extraordinary meridians, the founder of internal circulation previously in game. His understanding towards martial arts was far much deeper compared to rookies who had just came in contact with martial arts like Jiang Xiaoyu.
These two simply couldn't be compared. If one were to force a comparison between them, then that would be a bit too excessive.
"Your White Clouds Emerge is still quite stiff. This move is to squat down and halt, then slash your sword horizontally. When you are squatting, the speed must be fast. Halt doesn't really mean to stop completely. You should leave some strength left in your leg. Stamp on the ground with one feet and lift the other leg slightly from the ground, so that you can maneuver and change direction freely. Slashing sword horizontally must be done fast and naturally. When you are about to slash it horizontally, speed up your pace! These successive movement must be done in a blink of eye. In addition, you have to be able to wield it while able to change move instantly, so that you can be both offensive and defensive!"
"This move is suited best for group attacks!"
"And this All-encompassing White Rainbow …."
When Jiang Xiaoyu had finished his practise, Lin Yi pointed out his flaws, and told him how to execute them better.
"Senior Brother Lin Yi, have you exited your seclusion?" Seeing Lin Yi stepped out of the thatched hut where he never came out from for one month, Jiang Xiaoyu called out happily.
"Yeah, I have exited it." Lin Yi smilingly nodded. This roommate of his, Jiang Xiaoyu, a youth of thirteen or fourteen years old, made Lin Yi felt like he was his brother, therefore he was concerned with the progress of his martial arts and gave him a helping hand, "Ponder on the points I had said just now and practise well. You will be able to reach novice stage soon!"
"En!" Jiang Xiaoyu nodded repeatedly, with a look of worship he stared at Lin Yi, "Senior Brother Lin Yi, I think that you are much better than the instructor. Even the instruction from the instructor wasn't as detailed as yours. I also feel that even the instructors don't have the grasp of essence of sword arts as much as yours!"
Lin Yi just smiled without replying. though he had agreed with what Jiang Xiaoyu had said in his heart. It wasn't that he was conceited, but it was the fact. With his deep understanding towards martial arts as a top expert, naturally he was better than those instructors who were only at the ranks of third-rate experts.
With regards to understanding towards Huashan Swordplay, he was akin to someone at higher, strategic position. Naturally he could see much further and grasp the essence better compared to those instructors
"Is there any news recently?" Lin Yi put away the previous topic and asked Jiang Xiaoyu.
"En, let me think about it…." Jiang Xiaoyu tilted down his head while pondering, lifted it not much longer afterwards, with a depressed and disdain look he said, "A few days ago, the independent courtyards for new disciples were open. After days of competing, the top one hundred new disciples have emerged! Hmph, were it not for I have never come into contact with martial arts, I will surely beat them down!"
"Oh, top one hundred new disciples have emerged?" Lin Yi's eyes showed a trace of light and playful look.
Jiang Xiaoyu suddenly looked at Lin Yi, with glinting eyes, he said excitedly, "Senior Brother Lin Yi, I think that you are far stronger than them. How about you go and try? With you stepping forward, they will surely stand no chance!"
"You are that optimistic about me?" Lin Yi smiled playfully.
"Of course, to me, Senior Brother Lin Yi is even stronger than instructors!" Jiang Xiaoyu nodded heavily.
"Then let's go and have a try?" Lin Yi laughed.
"Okay!" Jiang Xiaoyu smiled like a blossomed flower, raised both hands in agreement, He thought in his heart, with this mysterious Senior Brother Lin Yi stepping forward, he would surely be able to teach a lesson to those arrogant top one hundred new disciples and teach them how to behave!
The two of them brought their swords, stepped out of the thatched hut and rushed towards the area halfway up the mountain where the independent courtyards for top one hundred new disciples were located.