Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

”You should drop your other classes.”

Mason looked at the old man from his Tai Chi classes with a tilted head. A few weeks had passed since his date with Alice, and the time for his fourth session with the old man had arrived. Before he started his training, he told the old man about the other martial arts classes he took, hoping he would have some recommendations for better dojos.

He had given them enough time each, but seeing no real progress, he decided to change.

The old man’s answer had been quite negative, however.

Mason had experienced quite a few changes in the past month, both thanks to his soul and to his training.

Although it was little time, just barely enough for Mason to have four classes in each of the martial arts he had taken up, he had grown quite a bit. Literally so, as he had now caught up to his older sister, setting himself as the second tallest in the family after his father.

He had also grown in size, going from the scrawny kid to a svelte but well-built athlete. Of course, this had brought some questions from his family, who thought he had started taking steroids, something they were strongly against.

It was only after a visit to a professional, who, while perplexed by Mason’s recent drastic changes in mass and height, assured them that it was all natural and there was no danger to his health. Quite the contrary, actually.

Seeing the look on Mason’s face, the old man knocked his forehead with his bottle and explained, ”Stupid! Even if I brought you to masters of each style and you were as talented for them as you are for Tai Chi, it would be a futile endeavor.”

”How so, Master?” Although it had already been a month since they met, the old man still hadn’t told him his name. Well, Mason hadn’t asked either, as he contented himself with calling the old man Master.

The old man tapped his stick on Mason’s Breath, and asked, ”What do you think the exercises I have had you doing are for?”

Seeing no need to play ignorant, Mason replied truthfully, ”To strengthen my body, and infuse it with Qi.”

The old man tapped his cane and asked another question, ”How long have you mastered my cultivation technique for?”

Remaining truthful, Mason answered bluntly, ”Since the moment you taught it to me. I was not as efficient at first, but I’m getting there.”

The old man actually smiled at that. It was the first time Mason saw him smile. His Master tapped his cane against Mason’s forehead, at his Spirit, and said, ”If I did not have direct access to your Three Treasures, I would have thought you had found a way to cheat. But it looks like your imbalance was not the only factor in your rapid advancements.”

”My imbalance?”

The old man nodded, ”Yes. But first, I should tell you more about Neidan. The refinement of the Three Treasures is split into several stages, or realms.”

Mason repeated what he had been told on day one, ”You start by laying the foundation, then refining the Essence into Breath, Breath into Spirit, and reverting Spirit to Emptiness, reaching Unity.”

”Good. These indeed refer to some of the realms of refinement.”

Mason picked up on the peculiar turn of phrase, ”Some?”

”Indeed. The refinement of the Three Treasures starts with laying down the foundation, what is commonly known as the Awakening Realm today. It consists of connecting the Three Treasures, awakening them and thus building the foundation for future realms. But to build this foundation, one first needs to strengthen and balance their Three Treasures. That is the Body Refinement Realm.”

Mason frowned, looking down at his body as he said, ”And you spoke of my imbalance?”

The Master nodded, ”I did. All men under the heavens are born with imbalanced treasures. For most, their Essence is the strongest. For you, however, it is your Spirit that is strongest. Though unusual by itself, what is truly rare is how much stronger it is compared to the other two. This constitutes a flaw, although it does come with its fair share of benefits, as I’m sure you have seen.”

”Please elaborate.”

The old man was patient and much more talkative than usual. ”One of the first hurdles practitioners of Neidan encounter is sensing their Three Treasures and internal energy. Then, they must distinguish them. For you, however, there is such a discrepancy between your Spirit and your other two Treasures that you will only need to work on distinguishing your Essence and your Breath.”

Mason nodded, as this was an issue he had been aware of. Ever since he had learned of the Three Treasures, he had attempted to find his Essence, but only found Chi. As it turned out, his Breath and Essence were already merged. This did raise another problem, however.

”Why is the last realm unity then, if the Three Treasures are already merged? Shouldn’t we develop them while they are merged?”

The old man tapped his head with his cane again, ”Don’t be stupid, foolish disciple. They are not really merged; you merely are unable to distinguish them from one another. Besides, these realms are mostly theoretical. As far as I know, no one ever went past the Awakening realm.”

Mason was not bothered by that, first because he was already aware of the lack of ‘proper cultivators’ in this world, and secondly because he would be quite pitiful if he let something like other people’s failures stop him.

Still, he had to ask, ”What about the flaws then?”

”As I said, the Body Refinement Realm consists of balancing the Three Treasures. The wider the gap between the Three Treasures, the longer and harder it will be to balance them. Still, with how fast you’ve been progressing, it would appear you are dealing with the problem on your own.”

Mason nodded, explaining, ”I usually exercise first, bringing my body to its limits, keeping close to that limit for as long as possible through Qi circulation, and when I no longer can, I follow your technique and revolve my Qi around my body. I also don’t need sleep, so I have more time than others.”

”Do you practice a sport?”

”Fighting ones. I am learning to fight with various martial arts.”

The old man was content with this choice, contrary to the other internal arts. ”Good. Fighting is always an important skill to learn, and it provides good training for your body. No wonder you have been advancing so quickly. Your flaw might end up saving you time after all.”

”What about the later cultivation realms?”

The old man tapped his cane against his forehead again. ”Lay down your formation before losing yourself in these uncharted realms.”

After a moment, the old man suddenly changed subjects, saying, ”Since we’re being openhearted, tell me, why did you choose my dojo? How did you find me?”

Mason shrugged, ”I was actually honest with you, although I guess I could get into more details. The world is turning more dangerous every day, and I cannot afford to leave my fate in others’ hands.”

The old man observed Mason silently, the silence tense, but Mason did not flinch under his gaze. After a while, the old man finally muttered, ”I suppose that’s as good a reason as any.”