Ch 22 Elite Warrior

One after another, snowflakes fluttered from the sky, covering the whole world with a layer of white. Father son duo Wu Yuntian and Su Hao stood side by side, quietly watching the silent world under the eaves.

In times like these, there was no lack of children that would play in the snow, but today was a special day. Even the children that liked to cause the most trouble, He Qingqing and her group, couldn’t be seen playing outside. 

Wu Yuntian glanced down at Su Hao and sighed inwardly: “This child is good at everything, but he’s too premature. Back when I was his age, it was the time I liked to play the most. He’s too settled. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.” 

His wife had died to protect this child. His inner heart used to have a trace of dissatisfaction and resentment towards the child, but since an unknown time, he had let go of it. The resentment in his heart had long since drifted away and had instead become into expectations for this child’s future.

Su Hao simply stood quietly by Wu Yuntian. It was difficult to feel at peace and just enjoy the scenery of the snowflakes. He didn’t know what his father had been thinking about, or why they were silent, but he was still happy from the pleasure of the two of them watching the snow. 

After a long time, Wu Yuntian took the lead and said: “Warriors are people who have broken through the body’s balance and have obtained a greater strength. A warrior’s cultivation starts with recognizing blood qi, then continually converting and accumulating, breaking through their body’s limits. Step by step, they climb towards the next level. But it becomes more difficult to improve after each step. Xiangwu, you’ve already reached the first obstacle correct?”

Su Hao returned to his sense and pondered before nodding: “That’s right. My current blood qi quantity seems to have already reached the limits of what my body can handle. Although I can continue to convert blood qi, it’ll wind up causing my body harm instead of increasing my strength. So my question is, what should I do for my next step?”

Wu Yuntian sighed: “For an average person, there are three obstacles. The first obstacle is blood qi accumulation. Every person’s understanding towards blood qi is different, resulting in differing speeds. To reach your level, an average person would need to accumulate for 5-8 years. For the slower ones, they might need even longer than that.  

The second obstacle is blood qi bottlenecks. When blood qi has reached a certain amount of accumulation, it will cause a new balance to be formed in the body. At this time, to continue accumulating blood qi is impossible. The balance must be broken in order for blood qi to continue accumulating.

The third obstacle is the one you’re currently at. Once blood qi has reached the body’s limits, there is no way to increase your strength. There are are two things you can do at times like these. The first method is to raise your body’s strength so that the body’s limit is higher. The second method is to change the blood qi’s essence to make it so that blood qi can have a new function and from there, raise the body’s explosive power.

For example…”

Saying this, Wu Yuntian dug through the snow, picked up a dead branch, shook it a bit, sending the snow on the branch to the ground.

“Watch carefully!”

The branch show out and sunk deeply into a rock. 

Su Hao’s eyes widened. The fragile dead branch had dug deep into the rock. This was unbelievable for someone like him who had been studying science. 

“Too amazing! Is this an elite warrior is like?”

Wu Yuntian nodded and chuckled: “This indeed is an elite warrior’s specialty. Do you find it hard to understand?”

Su Hao nodded and then asked impatiently: “Father, how did you do that?”

Wu Yuntian handed the dead branch to Su Hao. After Su Hao took it: “Look at the dead branch. Can it pierce a rock?”

Su Hao tested it and obediently said: “It can’t.”

“Indeed it can’t. No matter what, a branch can’t pierce a rock. So just now, it wasn’t the branch that pierced the rock. It was blood qi!”

“Blood qi? How can blood qi be transferred to the branch? Blood qi’s essence is is an energy substance in the body isn’t it?”

Wu Yuntian shook his head: “I don’t understand what you’re saying, but wanting to transfer blood qi to the branch is very difficult. This is also the threshold that common warriors must cross to become elite warriors, but it is possible.” 

Su Hao asked, filled with expectation: “How do you do it?”

Wu Yuntian didn’t skirt around it and said very directly: “Let your blood qi move.”

“Huh?” Su Hao was stunned. Based on his understanding, blood qi was similar to the body’s organs. Wasn’t it a joke to try and move an organ around?

Wu Yuntian wasn’t joking and explained: “Let the blood qi in your body move. Once it moves, the blood qi will undergo a new change. At the time, blood qi will easily transfer to outside the body and become a killing power. For example, you just saw the branch pierce the rock. Essentially, it was the blood qi that I transferred to the branch that pierced the rock.”

Su Hao had to mull over it. The words spoken certainly looked like what happened, but they were still mysterious. 

Su Hao asked a final question: “Then how do I get blood qi to move?”

Wu Yuntian squatted down and placed his hands on Su Hao’s shoulders and said very seriously: “Xiangwu, first don’t think about breaking through to become an elite warrior. Your current body is too fragile. Right now, it’s not necessarily a good thing to break through to elite warrior. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Su Hao saw his father’s serious face and nodded: “I get it.”

“I have no doubt you can easily break through to the elite level. I’m worried that your body is too fragile and won’t be able to withstand the strain. Your current blood qi is already enough. Next you should patiently wait for your body to grow up, wait until your body is strong enough, then I’ll teach you the method to become an elite warrior.”

“Yes!” Su Hao nodded in agreement. He asked a follow-up question: “At what point will my body be sturdy enough?”

Wu Yuntian had to think about it for a while, but he wasn’t sure what would be sturdy enough because it was the first time he had encountered this question. He also didn’t know. So he casually said an estimate timeframe: “Three years! In three years I’ll teach you.”

“Okay.” Su Hao didn’t doubt him and nodded.

Right now, he was at the high-level common warrior stage and had sufficient self-protection ability. He had three years to take a bit slower and properly study blood qi which wasn’t a bad thing. Also, what Wu Yuntian had said wasn’t wrong. He was only a bit over 4 years old. His body was indeed too fragile. Even a small accident while practicing martial arts would be too much for this fragile body to resist. If he rushed it, it was very possible that even though the coyotes hadn’t ended him, he might end himself. 

To Su Hao, planning his life was all about planning for risks. When the unknown risks of the world were more than the risks of practicing martial arts, he would take the risk of practicing martial arts to gain more strength, but now that the risk of practicing martial arts was greater than other risks, he would choose to stop practicing martial arts. 

Wu Yuntian thought a bit, then suddenly said: “Then in the next three years, you can learn martial skills with me! When there’s time, I’ll take you around the wild.”

Su Hao lit up and loudly said: “Thank you father.”

“It’ll be hard.”

“I’m not afraid of hardships.”

Wu Yuntian nodded and looked to the windswept snow, not knowing whether his decision was right or wrong.