Shackles of Humanity

”You... you’ve never been in a fight before?” a deep, rumbling voice sounded from the side.

Luo Kai turned his head in confusion. Squatting on one side of the ditch was a tall, burly man with four arms. It was the Four-armed Mutant, Shisan.

”No.” Luo Kai crawled to the side and sat down. His whole body still ached, and the bloodstains on him had been roughly washed off. This was the first time the Four-armed Mutant had spoken to him. Facing this non-human being, he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. ’Was he the one who threw me into the ditch?’

The Four-armed Mutant was silent for a moment. Suddenly, he picked up a rock from the ground and punched it. The rock immediately shattered into dust, the kind that turns into fine particles.

Luo Kai jumped in fright. If that punch had landed on him, the consequences would have been far worse than what happened to the rock. He looked at the Four-armed Giant in fear, not understanding what he meant.

Shisan noticed the nervousness in Luo Kai’s eyes and said in a low voice, ”Don’t be afraid. I just want to teach you some techniques for generating power.”

A nostalgic look inexplicably appeared in Shisan’s large, bell-like eyes. After a long while, he said, ”Watching you fight just now reminded me of myself as a child. I don’t like the people here. You... you’re not a bad person.”

Luo Kai was stunned for a moment. ’Was he here today, too? Watching me get beaten?’ Since they were strangers, he couldn’t blame Shisan for not helping. After a moment of contemplation, he said, ”It’s not that easy to distinguish between good and bad people. Take this place, for example. In a good environment, you’ll naturally find more good people. In a bad one, you’ll naturally find more bad people.”

Shisan nodded. ”That makes a lot of sense.”

The two fell silent again. It was Luo Kai who broke the silence. ”Th-that thing you mentioned... what is this technique for generating power?” After what happened today, he was desperate to become stronger.

Shisan pointed around them. ”It’s a type of Body Technique. Your physical condition is actually very good. Better... better than everyone else here. You just don’t know how to use it.”

Luo Kai pointed at himself in confusion and asked, ”How can you tell my physical condition is good?” Shui Su had also said his physical condition was good, but he himself felt it was average—just that he could take a beating better than most.

”...It’s mainly based on experience. Look, most of the prisoners here have sagging skin, stiff movements, and bloodshot eyes. That’s a sign that their Life Force has been overdrawn from prolonged, high-intensity physical labor. But your skin is firm, your movements are agile, and your eyes are bright and full of spirit. That’s a sign of abundant Life Force.”

”Oh.” Luo Kai thought about how the prisoners here looked. It was true that many of them were like that.

Perhaps because he hadn’t spoken much for a long time, Shisan’s speech was a bit halting. He continued, ”...Mmm, when you throw a punch, the exertion of power isn’t just limited to the arm. The power of your waist, legs, and even all the muscles in your body can be focused on a single point.”

”Is that the power generation technique you used to punch the rock just now?”

”No, I only used the strength of my arm. I... I’m different from you all.”

’Of course you are. You have four arms, which is like having two extra muscles compared to a normal person,’ Luo Kai thought wryly. It was the first time he had killed someone, but he didn’t feel the slightest discomfort. More than a year of pain and repression had finally been vented, and he actually felt much better.

It was perfectly normal for people to die in the mining quarry. Even though the deceased was a lackey of the Prison Tyrant, Fat Dragon, it didn’t cause the slightest stir. Many people had seen Luo Kai kill Wai Gou. He had expected to be punished or face retaliation, but no one came looking for trouble.

In the period that followed, Shisan specifically arranged to work alongside Luo Kai, breaking rocks and teaching him the techniques for generating power. Gradually, the two became simple friends.

Although Shisan was clumsy with words, the breadth of his knowledge was simply unparalleled. Luo Kai finally had a chance to learn about the outside world, and he also finally understood what ”Body Techniques” were.

In this world, the study of the art of combat had reached a level where it bore the rise and fall of human civilization. The art of combat was one component of Body Techniques research, which, along with mechanical research and biological gene research, were known as the three pillars of human civilization.

The rise of Body Techniques was primarily due to powerful gene technology. Humanity’s genetic research institutes had developed a method to obtain the abilities of Fierce Beasts—namely, Genetic Potions. Imagine a human-sized body possessing the Power and formidable Recovery Power of a Fierce Beast. How monstrous would that be? Of course, it was impossible to completely obtain a Fierce Beast’s Abilities; one could only inherit about one to ten percent of them. Even so, with the aid of machinery and the Cultivation of Body Techniques, powerful humans could possess combat strength nearly comparable to that of a Fierce Beast.

Shisan was a very strict teacher. The power generation technique he taught was a pre-Cataclysm religious self-cultivation art called the Mighty Dragon Fist. It was an Ancient Boxing Skill that required mobilizing every muscle in the body to unleash maximum power. Outwardly, it resembled boxing—no fancy moves, just an emphasis on killing with a single blow.

Practicing it was extremely difficult. First, one had to learn how to activate the muscles. Every time force was exerted, the feet had to move first to add forward momentum. Then came the legs, waist, and chest, and even the head had to be thrown forward. With every single step, all the muscles in the body had to be engaged.

This was equivalent to changing habits a normal person had developed since childhood, especially such deeply ingrained ones. The prerequisite for learning the Mighty Dragon Fist was to use the entire body’s Power with every step, turning the motion into muscle memory.

If it were anyone else, getting used to this power generation technique would certainly take a very long time. But for Luo Kai, it wasn’t difficult. His body was like a blank slate, ready to be written upon. After about ten days or so, his walking posture was almost the same as Shisan’s, always leaning his head forward, puffing out his chest, and swinging his arms. It looked a bit strange at first glance.

Next was learning to regulate his breathing and activate muscles that were rarely used. Essentially, the goal was to keep mind and body in perfect unity at all times, thereby achieving the effect of unleashing one’s full Power in a single strike.

Luo Kai immediately noticed the benefits of this power generation technique, as well as its drawbacks. For example, when he hammered ore, he felt his force had increased by several times, but the stamina consumption was equally immense. Before, he would rest for a moment after about ten breaths; now, he needed to rest after just five or six.

The specific moves of the Mighty Dragon Fist were extremely simple, consisting of only three types of punches: straights, hooks, and swings. They were all direct and wide-opening, emphasizing overwhelming the enemy with force.

The subtle part was how it dealt with being attacked. The Mighty Dragon Fist had no defense, only offense. For example, if your throat was attacked, you met it directly with your head. If your chest was attacked, you countered with your shoulder. If your waist was attacked, you used your hips.

This required extreme control over every part of the body. Luo Kai had previously learned the Soft Body Technique, so his body’s flexibility was already exceptionally strong. As a result, he learned very quickly. Before long, he had completely mastered this combat-oriented Body Technique. He just hadn’t had a chance to test it on the other prisoners yet.