Chapter 376: Body Cultivation Aura and Martial Arts Runes
“Alright, Senior, I can see you’re not here to give me advice, but rather to have some fun, right?”
I was forced to interrupt my practice halfway through the second round which wasn’t even completed yet. At first, they only talked, but now they were getting ready to take action. If I didn’t stop them now, were they going to take advantage of me?
In the past, I might have found this amusing, but now it just made me a bit unhappy.
Perhaps… I should establish my authority.
The faint scent of bl**d around me already pointed the way; you can’t appear too weak, because trouble usually prefers to take shortcuts.
“Of course not,” the Senior, whose hand I had just pushed away, showed no sign of anger at being exposed. Instead, she continued to smile and walked closer to me.
At this moment, I calmed down. After saying that, I realized my emotions were getting riled up again.
Even though I want to fully master my emotions and not be swayed by external things, it doesn’t mean I should allow myself to be taken advantage of. I needed to suppress my emotions; proper guidance and venting are also part of mastering them.
“Senior, I wonder what kind of power you have? Interrupting me here and wasting my time?”
I smiled and squinted my eyes, silently removing that ring from my right hand and tightly clenching it into a fist. I was worried I might break it when I moved my hand later.
“Oh~ You’ve got quite the temper, huh? But I like that. I’ve been practicing Body Techniques for several years now, even before I entered the academy, I was already the type to frequently work out. The body training ring you’re wearing is an outdated style; how about I gift you a new one? As for the price…”
“No need for that, besides, I already have a girlfriend, so stop bothering me.”
“Huh? You have a girlfriend?” The leader of the pack was immediately shocked upon hearing my words.
They had originally been considering bending the little junior’s orientation for fun but didn’t expect her to respond directly…and that she already had a girlfriend.
“Having a girlfriend? Hehe~ That makes it even more interesting~”
After a brief moment of shock, smiles immediately appeared on their faces. Since the little junior had already tried the fun between girls, it became even more intriguing!
“Hehe…”
I sneered. I guessed it correctly; they were indeed going to take action. However, although the other party claimed to have practiced body cultivation for several years, my Spirit Vision told me that they didn’t seem to be true practitioners; they should be Body Cultivation practitioners focused on Body Techniques.
I admit that their physical quality was much higher than mine, as that is what years of accumulation do. For body training rings, from basic to advanced, if one practices hard enough, they can indeed reach such physical quality.
However, at this moment, the way they moved, their bodies lacked the natural resonating ability, which, according to body cultivation standards, meant they had no aura.
It’s important to know that before reaching the extraordinary level, the physical body has a so-called limit. Therefore, pure body strength without extraordinary backing is just food for a predator.
Among those closest to me who possessed aura, only that senior who was carrying a water bottle had a vague presence of it. That characteristic of resonance between the body and the surrounding energy was almost impossible for me to miss.
I hadn’t paid much attention to the others from a distance; after all, as long as they didn’t bother me, I didn’t feel like investigating their backgrounds.
“So why do you think my girlfriend lets me come here all alone?”
I gripped my right wrist with my left hand, lightly rotating my clenched fist as if warming up my muscles.
“Oh? Are you going to use your tiny fists to pound my chest? Then come on!” The Senior, seeing my actions, provocatively unbuttoned the first button of her clothing, proudly pushing out her chest.
It wasn’t just her; the others beside her were doing the same. It seemed these few were a group of habitual offenders, their movements so practiced—why not sh**t a suggestive video and upload it to the academy’s network for the benefit of lonely seniors?
“Hey! Wait a minute, please give me some face…”
At this moment, Liv, the coach who had followed me and stood there for a while, quickly stepped forward, ready to mediate. However, before she could finish her sentence, the words stuck in her throat.
Because… at that moment, I tightened my fist. The emotions I had just stirred up now had an outlet, yet I wore only a faint smile.
An aura of energy surrounded me, and the moment I assumed an attacking stance, that energy began to rise, and my body resonated with extraordinary energy.
There was nothing fancy about it, just a straight punch. As I swung my fist, it created a deafening sound that shattered the air.
In a simple buildup to my punch, in the instant I coiled my strength, the smile on the other party’s face froze.
They only felt a suffocating sense of pressure gathering before them, their bodies perceiving the danger even quicker than their minds did.
Boom—!
A piercing explosion of air erupted in the direction of my fist, sending ripples of air around me.
The indoor venue that wasn’t particularly well-ventilated whipped into a whirlpool of airflow at that moment.
And the Senior right in front of me… under the terrifying air pressure, even her face contorted for a moment, and her hair was blown outwards by the gust.
Once everything settled, her face was left blank, her hair carelessly hanging down her back, her clothing in disarray from the powerful airflow.
This punch had a tremendous momentum.
However, only I knew that this punch’s aura wasn’t concentrated; otherwise, I would have just given the Senior an unintentional facelift.
After all, what I wanted was to establish my authority and create a visual impact, so I would not harm her. Otherwise, I would have to bear the cost of treatment, which would be quite unprofitable. A little scare should be enough to keep her from bothering me again in the future.
“Earlier, you said you wanted me to use my tiny fists to pound you where?”
After retracting my fist, I moved my wrist again, as if still feeling a bit unsatisfied with that punch.
Watching her face transition from dazed to terrified made me internally satisfied; at least, the effect was pretty good.
“I… you…” This Senior was clearly still recovering from that strike, and her legs visibly trembled before she directly crumpled onto the ground.
Meanwhile, the other seniors watching from a distance were left in stunned silence. What did they just witness?
Body Cultivation Aura!
What a blow to those still practicing Body Techniques!
This was not just any newcomer junior; this was a big shot!
At least in the realm of Body Cultivation, this was undoubtedly a big shot! They felt like they’d lost their minds, witnessing a big shot come here to stir up trouble at the fish pond, and crucially, it was someone who had barged into this situation themselves.
On the other side, the senior who had just adjusted her physical state and was about to take a sip of water was caught so off guard by the scene that she spurted water everywhere…
“Pfft… cough, ugh… sigh, such a waste…”
She wiped the corner of her mouth and sighed lightly, quickly getting up to head over there, realizing she had misjudged the situation earlier.
But… a junior girl mastering Body Cultivation Aura came here to practice basic body training ritual dances?
What was she thinking?
She instinctively looked at her right hand, clenching her fist, a faint aura dissipating, but obviously, she knew she couldn’t replicate that momentous punch I just delivered.
Just then, I glanced at the seniors nearby watching the spectacle. They promptly spaced themselves out. The one who provoked me had been awkwardly dragged away by her friends.
I fixed my gaze back on the one who hadn’t yet left. “Liv, coach, thank you for your earlier reminder, but my problem has already been resolved, so you don’t need to worry about it.” I smiled.
After all, I heard what the coach shouted just a moment ago. It may not have been useful, but I appreciated the sentiment.
“No, I didn’t really help… Haha, um, I’m going to head off now.” Liv awkwardly scratched her head and turned to leave.
But inside, she was thinking wildly.
Did this person have some background in Body Cultivation? Was she here to stir up trouble with them?
With no one bothering me anymore, I felt a sense of relief; it seems that the power of Body Cultivation really was quite intimidating.
However, I never expected to scare someone to the point they collapsed in fear. To be honest, based on my assumptions of seniors, they shouldn’t be that weak, right?
Moreover, for a witch, Body Techniques weren’t everything. Even if all energy had been invested in Body Techniques, the confidence gained from a Spellbook should not let her get scared by this level of intimidation.
But I didn’t want to dwell on these thoughts. I had no obligation to compare myself to them.
After all, the people around me were supposed to apply pressure and spur me on, not make me feel superior.
If I could do better, then why should I feel pride over an environment like this?
That would be a form of laziness on my part.
At this moment, with no one bothering me, I could practice on my own.
I felt that I had just begun to grasp the essence of this ritual dance. Being interrupted earlier almost made me lose my train of thought, but now I could pick it back up.
First, it was the initiation of the ritual dance…
As I started to attempt it, I caught sight of that Senior who had directed me earlier. She stood quietly at a certain distance, the nearly empty water bottle in her grasp. This time, she said nothing but just watched.
Confirming that she had no pointers, I closed my eyes and ignored everything else.
I focused on practicing the ritual dance.
Naturally, practicing the ritual dance was better with my eyes open, ideally facing a mirror where I could correct my movements anytime.
However, as a practitioner of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, I had already gained sufficient control over my body to operate without visual correction.
I closed my eyes and simply sought to simulate those movements in my mind, trying to extract the runes interpreted from those actions.
Gradually, my body movements began to shift. While the actions were still of the ritual dance, I was slowly correcting them, exploring new possibilities, attempting to trace back to the source of the ritual, relying on the runes to express the meaning of the ritual through my body.
The nearby Senior clearly noticed that my movements were becoming uncoordinated. She wanted to speak up several times but ultimately remained silent, having lost her earlier ease to point out others.
Until she saw my form, seemingly illuminated by a transforming rune behind me, moving in rhythm with my dance.
Upon seeing this, her pupils trembled!
She affirmed that it was indeed correct not to act rashly before.
The primary ritual dance… had manifested the signature of perfected Body Techniques, Martial Arts Runes!
This ritual dance, which needed the assistance of alchemical items, also counted as a form of Body Technique?
She instinctively gulped, what she perceived challenged her understanding…but she didn’t care about that. All she felt was a bit of heat in her body because this was the level she had always pursued.
Coach! She wanted to learn this too!
As for the inner thoughts of this Senior, I naturally didn’t care at all. I was solely focused on exploring new possibilities. From the start, I had no intention of following the textbook approach. What the book described were concepts and frameworks, and it’s not accurate to generalize everyone’s experience. Therefore, I only learned the thought processes and principles, while the rest depended on my rich knowledge and intellect to fill in.
And indeed, things went as I expected.
I could now feel that the body training ring was continually extracting my magic power while simultaneously feeding it back to me, which was the greatest affirmation of my efforts. Thus, I persistently attempted a couple of times without stopping in between.
Once I opened my eyes, I sensed that a kind of extraordinary power seemed to resonate around me. This extraordinary energy appeared to be a “natural phenomenon” that naturally coalesced after my modifications to the ritual dance, a product of resonance between my body and the environment.
Having contemplated this, I decided not to worry about it anymore; I would just consider it a special effect while performing the ritual dance. After all, this kind of thing was without any practical application.
After gauging my physical stamina, I decided to wrap up my first attempt for the day. I understood the concept of moderation; even having practiced the ritual dance several times.
I also took the opportunity to assess the improvement in my physical quality, which was quite delightful. Even without the resonance of aura, that punch of mine was indeed terrifying in terms of force.
I wasn’t sure if there was any way to measure strength, but sometimes pure fist power didn’t represent everything.
Once I mastered the aura, it became clear that if Body Cultivators were still competing in brute strength, it fundamentally indicated a limitation in their thinking. It was similar to comparing mental power strengths via meditation; using mental power as telekinesis to see whose telekinesis was stronger was utterly meaningless. Isn’t mental power meant to be used in this way?
Mental power has never been about a direct comparison of strength; spells based on mental power are far more potent than simple mental power.
This is akin to physical quality; so-called strength, agility, and reaction ability are merely extensions of a body cultivator’s attributes. The cultivation realm is fundamental, and Body Techniques are the means to confront enemies—a pure form of combat skill.
“Phew~”
I sighed lightly, allowing my body to gradually relax back to normal.
Again, my gaze fell upon that Senior standing beside me. It seemed she had been standing still for quite a while, without moving, and I had no idea what she was doing.
I snapped my fingers, and the sweat on my body and slightly damp clothes immediately dried up. Using small spells was quite convenient now.
I subconsciously looked around and, seeing that there was nothing to take away, I clapped my hands and prepared to leave.
“Um… wait a moment.”
Just as I was about to leave, I was finally called by this Senior.
I glanced over at her, thinking she would just keep standing there. “Is there something you need, Senior?”
“Uh…” Suddenly called “Senior” gave her an odd feeling, “I want to ask, how did you practice that? That just now… that must be the Martial Arts Runes, right?”
“Martial Arts Runes… does this resonance effect even have a proper name?”
“Resonance effect?! This… this isn’t a special effect! How could it possibly be a special effect?” She excitedly began explaining, feeling even more eager than I was about it, even though this wasn’t something she could achieve.
“Stop. While I appreciate your earlier pointers, can you at least tell me your name before getting too familiar and discussing this with me?”
