Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

Mason frowned as Fury finished, which made the Director of SHIELD narrow his eye, staring at Mason like he wanted to read his mind. He thought he read displeasure on Mason’s face, so he was surprised when Mason said, ”I do have things to teach. I would even go as far as to say that my understanding of the Three Treasures is unparalleled throughout human history, not to mention present times. There are also certain perks that only come with a certain power level, which I doubt your ‘experts’ can replicate. For example, stimulating your Three Treasures so that you may feel them, even without awakening them.”

”I sense a mighty but coming.”

Mason nodded, ”My butt is mighty indeed. Also, I have the skill, but not the time. I’ll be leaving the city shortly, right after taking down Fisk, to destroy the Hand.”

Fury leaned back ever so slightly, seemingly relieved by his answer, and proposed, ”We could help with that as well. We’ve been trying to locate them for years now.”

Mason was expressionless now as he replied, ”No offense, but it would be better for everyone involved if you did not.”

Fury and Agent 19 did not look happy with that, but Mason did not budge. Actually, having SHIELD’s support would make the whole thing a thousand times easier, but the aftermath would potentially be catastrophic.

Because he was not simply trying to destroy the Hand, he was working to stop them from opening a portal to a demonic prison.

Mason did not trust SHIELD itself to leave the prison alone, not to mention Hydra, so it was better if they remained in the unknown.

Meanwhile, although Fury did not like the naked refusal, he still asked, ”If your teachings are so transcendental, then surely a week would be enough for some results.”

Mason gazed at Captain America, who straightened up, and said, ”Well, in these matters, a single piece of advice to the right person might do more than a thousand to the wrong one.”

Agent 19 clutched her batons, her voice almost a growl. ”Why do I feel like you’re insulting me?”

Mason snorted, ”I wasn’t, but the odds aren’t in your favor. Our boy here,” he gestured towards Steve, who looked slightly offended at the form of address, ”is at the cusp of the Awakening Realm, or he should be anyway. Technically, all he needs to do is awaken his Essence.”

Steve looked like the odd man out as he admitted, ”Back up a second son, some context please?”

”You guys didn’t brief him?”

Fury gestured, ‘get at it’, so Mason briefly explained to him the basics of cultivation, to which Steve said, ”And that’s all it is? Feel this Essence within me and awaken it?”

Fury rolled his eyes, already expecting Mason’s response. He was right, as Mason laughed, ”There’s probably quite a few who would want to murder you for even saying that. First, the vast majority of the world’s martial artists never get to feel their Three Treasures, because only a second Stage Awakening Master can help with that. Those are extremely rare; there’s probably been fewer than 10 of them at any given time across human history. And the vast majority of those that did exist were selfish, paranoid rats who were too scared to create someone who might shake their power.

”Second, even for those few lucky enough to get help with feeling their Three Treasures, to even hope awakening their Essence, they need to reach the peak of the Body Refinement Realm, which is another extreme limiting factor. How many people do you think can match your physique through sheer training alone?”

Steve blinked, left unable to even feel bad for what he said as he heard something utterly nonsensical. ”It’s possible to train to this level?”

Mason shrugged, ”Not with usual training, but there are techniques. The Awakening Realm is usually required to consciously control any of your Three Treasures, but it is possible to stimulate them through certain techniques. The point of the Body Refinement Realm is to feed your body with Chi, to push it to the limits of human potential.”

”Shouldn’t this training allow one to feel their Chi?”

”Do you feel the chemical and electrical signals transmitted between your neurons when you use your brain?”

Steve stopped, taking a moment to stare at his own hands. Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, or anyone in the world, really, as he never told anyone about it, Steve had always felt a strange feeling of alienation ever since he had taken the serum.

It had changed him to the very core, transforming him into something more, and while that was a good thing in the grand scheme of things, helping his country win the war and take down Hydra, it also meant he had become fundamentally different from those around him.

He had crossed paths with other Supers, especially mutants, during the war, but they were also considered something different. The problem was that Steve was in a strange in-between, never feeling quite like a simple human, nor someone who had transcended it.

To learn that a human was capable of becoming like him through training, or even surpass him, meant that he was no longer in that in-between. He was human. Enhanced, but human.

Although Mason did not know what was going on in Captain America’s mind, he could see he was deep in thought, so he turned to Agent 19, resuming, ”The Captain’s polio shot naturally gives him better odds, but awakening the Three Treasures is not an exact science. It’s just that if anyone else wanted to get a shot at it, they would first need to cultivate their body all the way to the peak of the Body Refinement Realm, which would take weeks even in the very best of scenarios, before having a shot at awakening their Essence.”

Mason realized he might have been a little insensitive when Steve’s head whipped in his direction at the mention of a ‘polio shot’, but fortunately for them, they were spared the awkwardness when Fury said, ”Then let’s do it like this. In exchange for our cooperation in bringing down Fisk, you will train them for however long you will stay in the city. Do we have a deal?”

Mason stared at Fury and did not ask whether he was interested, because he could feel Fury had his lifespan artificially increased. It somewhat surprised Mason, as Nick Fury looked like his MCU self, but it looked like he had gotten that serum Mason couldn’t remember the name of in the comics. Something like the Eternity Formula?

Before, it would have been impossible for Mason to feel something like this with only his Divine Sense. He would have needed to personally examine his Three Treasures to feel anything. However, his Breath had improved by quite a lot recently.

His improving Breath not only meant Mason could use his Divine Intent for longer and understand more complex forms of his Concepts, but also that he could feel more details when scanning someone.

So the moment he scanned Fury, Mason knew that he had stretched his lifespan through some means, distorting it. If there was one taboo to cultivation, at least in this world, it was to artificially stretch one’s life.

It was the same reason why those people also could not procreate. The way they stretched their lives was so deeply unnatural that a cost had to be paid. Captain America was different, because the Super Soldier Serum did not stretch; it added more.

So Mason ended up nodding, ”Alright, that’s fine with me. Should we start now? I happen to be free.”

Although not everything had gone the way Fury wanted, he never expected it to. In fact, he had been surprised by how many things Mason had agreed to, since he knew as well how closely guarded the secrets of cultivation were usually. He was the director of SHIELD, after all, and even he had not managed to get one at the peak of the Body Refinement Realm, not to mention an Awakening Master.

Getting up, Fury stretched out his hand, calling, ”To a happy partnership, then. You may consider your name cleared by tomorrow.”

Mason took his hand, adding with a smile, ”To a happy partnership.”