Long Shen felt terrible as the squad did yet another set of pushups because of him. Even though he was gifted with the highest cultivation in the recruit squads, he was the only one who had never learned a single martial art. Even with his ferocious speed and strength the other members of his squad made him look like a fool anytime they sparred. Sergeant Xian shouted his name so much that everyone in the squad was ready to kill him. Even Fatty Lai could execute martial arts perfectly. Only Long Shen looked like a complete amateur. Sergeant Xian stormed over to him and shouted, "You piece of shit, how can you be at the fifth level and not even know the fucking horse stance? My fucking nephew can do the horse stance and he is only five!" He angrily threw Long Shen's cap on the ground and stomped it over and over in a rage. "Everyone here listen up, you had better fucking teach this piece of shit some martial arts. We are having an intrasquad battle next week. If.." His finger shook while pointing at Long Shen, "If this fucking asshole can't throw a punch or throw a kick by then, you fuckers will start eating your dinner out of the fucking latrine pits! Fuck!"
Sergeant Xian walked away in a rage, he kicked a trash can over with so much force it exploded. He turned and shouted, "Clean this shit up too." Then he turned and stormed off.
Fatty Lai walked up beside Long Shen and said, "He's pretty mad."
"Do you think?" Long Shen stared at Fatty Lai in disbelief.
One of the older recruits walked over and said in a nasty tone, "Recruit Long, every night we'll all teach you martial arts until you can at least do the basics. You'll have to start staying up late to practice while we sleep until you can do at least look something like a fighter. We are all being punished for your irresponsible behavior."
Fatty Lai smiled and stepped between them and said, "Hey Leung, lighten up man, I got this. In a couple of days, my bro here will be a badass."
Recruit Leung glared at Fatty Lai and then pointed at Long Shen, "You better fucking become a grandmaster. We don't need you to be dead weight."
The rest of the recruits grumbled and then headed off to practice their martial arts. Fatty Lai smiled and said, "You seriously have no talent for martial arts. Have you considered going back to gold farming?"
Long Shen glared at Fatty Lai. "I never said I wanted to quit! I was forced to come here because of that stupid rule."
Fatty Lai laughed and then said, "Alright, I'm gonna teach you the basics. Just do what I show you and you'll be able to hold your own."
Long Shen sighed and then loosened himself up, "Thank you, brother, if it wasn't for you, I might get killed in my sleep by these guys. So how do I start?"
Fatty Lai started to adjust his posture and then kicked his foot a bit until he was in a perfect horse stance. He said, "Ok, this is the horse stance. Just hold this pose as long as you can. This is how you practice your balance. Martial arts aren't about kicking, punching and looking like an action movie star. You are trying to disrupt your opponent. Use your body movements to make them change their body movements. You want to be in complete control of your body while watching your opponent's movements so you can counter or use their energy against them. Balance, control, motion. Think of it like a VRMMO game, in a game you know that moving one-way results in a certain kind of action, right? That's all martial arts is, knowing how a movement leads to action."
Long Shen frowned and then asked, "Aren't you supposed to show me moves and how to throw a punch and kick?"
Fatty Lai rubbed his chin and then took Long Shen's hand, "Which part of your hand can be used to strike?"
Long Shen thought for a while and then replied, "Is this a trick question? I guess any part of your hand can be used but some might be better than others."
Fatty Lai just grinned and then said, "You can use any part of your body in a fight, but need dictates use. There are dozens of different styles of martial arts but they all use some basic building blocks. Elbows. Knees. Fists. Feet. Forearm. Shins. Shoulders. Head. Weapons. Those are your tools. But what makes you dangerous as a martial artist is knowing your balance and how your actions affect your balance. You cultivate to increase your strength and speed. To give you the power to make the tools deadly, but those tools are worthless when your opponent can disrupt your balance and follow your movements to know what you'll be doing."
Long Shen sighed and said, "I get that, but I still don't know how to throw a punch."
Fatty Lai burst out laughing, "Make a fist. Ok, now pull your arm back. Then push it out in front of you. See? You can throw a punch just fine, the problem though is that you have no balance. you don't understand how to stand and how to shift your body weight around. When you throw a punch it has no power behind it. First, learn how to stand and balance yourself. If you have no balance, it's pointless to kick and punch."
"Dude, are you just bullshitting me because it's too hard to teach me martial arts in a couple of days?" Long Shen frowned.
Fatty Lai shook his head and said, "Alright, I have one move I can teach you. If you learn this one move and execute it perfectly, no one can defend it." Fatty Lai lifted his arms up in the air and stood on one leg. He stared at Long Shen and then swiftly kicked out with the leg he had been standing on. "Crane kick. You try it."
"Motherfucker that's just the kick from the movie Karate Kid! If I knew martial arts I would kick your ass right now!" Long Shen roared at him as he laughed so hard his eyes began to water. "Damn it, man, this is serious, I am gonna die if I can't fight when we get to the battlefield."
Fatty Lai wiped his eyes as he still laughed, " I am surprised you have seen any twentieth-century cinema. I didn't take you as the type to care about the classics. Long Shen, seriously though you need to learn balance, no bullshit. You are a complete beginner, you can't learn to kick ass when you can't even stand right. Learn balance first, worry about the other stuff when you can't be tipped over with a simple shoulder push."
*****
That evening as they cultivated Long Shen pictured himself at the lake only this time he noticed something different. A black shadow of a man his height and build was waiting on the shore. The voice boomed out, "A dragon intuitively knows how to control his body in battle." The Shadow then ran up and combined with him. Long Shen was unable to move as the shadow took control. He felt his body moving against his will through a set of exercises similar to the practice of Tai Chi. At first, he tried to fight it but then as time went by he started to follow the exercises instead. After half an hour of repeating the exercises, he was confident that he could do them himself.
The voice boomed out once again, "A dragon's body is a weapon." Long Shen felt his body speed up the exercises now crisply swinging his arms and legs. He had trouble mentally keeping up and the movements of his arms and legs were difficult. For an hour he repeated the exercises at this improved speed. He felt confident he could recreate the exercises at this pace, but he was hoping the shadow would continue to run through the exercises to cement it into his mind.
"A dragon learns from his mistakes," rumbled the voice. A second Long Shen appeared by the lakeside and stood in the stance he had been using during the morning sparring session. Then he stood and watched as this Long Shen fought each of his opponents from the practice. Each fight was short and resulted in his loss without even being able to threaten his opponent even with his monstrous strength and speed advantage. Sometimes the fights would be shown in slow motion and other times at full speed.
"A dragon intuitively knows how to control his body in battle." The replays of his sparring session changed and now he watched as the slow movements he had been practicing were used by the other Long Shen. He gracefully dodged the attacks of his opponent forcing his opponent to strike out off balance which allowed the other Long Shen to knock them off their feet with minimal movements.
"A dragon's body is a weapon," the voice roared once again. This time the sparring session played out but the Long Shen was using the faster version of movements. Rather than knocking the sparring partner over he broke bones and blew them off their feet sending them sailing with his monstrous strength. Long Shen was shocked as he watched the displays over and over at normal and slow speeds.
"A dragon learns from his mistakes," roared the voice. The other Long Shen vanished and now he stood face to face with his sparring partners. Long Shen knew that he had to run through the exercises to fight his opponents but he was shakey in implementing them. He fought each sparring partner dozens of times. It took hours for him to finally start making progress. He pressed on over and over his movements becoming crisp. His arms and legs whipped through the air at incredible speeds causing the sparring partners to be blasted away even when they defended against him. He lost track of the time and just fought over and over until the movements became as natural as any other exercise he was used to.
Finally, his eyes opened and he found himself in an empty room. All of the others had long since finished cultivating and were long asleep. He checked the time and realized he had been cultivating well past lights out. Strangely he didn't feel even a little tired. He stood and ran through the exercises he had learned at the lake. His movements were sharp and crisp. His arms and legs whistled through the air. He ran through the exercises for an hour and then finally decided to return to his bunk. As he turned to leave a slow clap was heard from behind. He spun around and found Sergeant Xian clapping at him.
"Ok shitbag, we're gonna spar. Don't hold back like you did this morning. You were afraid of killing those guys, right? Well, I am fifth level myself, so you can come to me at your full speed." Sergeant Xian cracked his knuckles and then launched himself at Long Shen with a savage palm strike. Long Shen was shocked, but his body almost moved on its own quickly moving through his exercises avoiding Sergeant Xian's attacks. "Fuck! I knew something was off, you piece of shit don't you ever spare those pricks again, smash them up. If they can't take a spar we don't need them on the battlefield."
Long Shen wanted to defend himself but he realized he couldn't explain himself even if he tried. Instead, he sped up his movements and lashed out with his own attacks the way he had in the lakeside sparring session. Sergeant Xian's eyes got huge as a knee caught his leg sending him spinning through the air. He picked himself off the ground and roared sending a flying kick at Long Shen's head. Long Shen simply rolled his shoulder as he had learned in the slow version of the exercise and grabbed the leg as the Sergeant's foot missed the target. He viciously ripped down the sound of the bone breaking and Sergeant Xian screaming filled the room.
"Recruit Long. Get your ass to bed. Never mention this to anyone or you are dead. Do you understand me?" Sergeant Xian growled through his clenched teeth as he slowly pulled himself up and awkwardly dragged himself out of the room grumbling, "That motherfucker better kill some recruits tomorrow or I'm gonna kill them myself. Fuck! Pushups. Every pushup that has ever been..." Sergeant Xian was still insulting him as he headed to the infirmary long after being out of hearing range.
Long Shen wondered if he shouldn't have offered to take the Sergeant to the infirmary, but decided that might be a bad idea since he was given an order to get to bed. He made his way back to the barracks and found everyone in a deep sleep so he slipped into his bunk and closed his eyes trying to get at least an hour of sleep before the morning horn sounded. As he lay there it dawned on him that his heart wasn't beating fast. It was like he hadn't been exerting himself at all. His body had moved intuitively.
*****
The next morning when they lined up Sergeant Xian was absent and instead, another man was waiting in his place. He smiled warmly and waited for them all to be in place before he spoke up in a friendly tone, "Good morning squad 48, did you all sleep well? You are probably wondering who I am and what I am doing here. My name is Lieutenant Dan Li, you can call me Lieutenant Dan or Sir. I am the commanding officer for Charley Platoon of which squad 48 is one half. The fifteen of you along with Sergeant Xian will work with me and squad 47 when we train the platoon in the future. Normally when I make my first appearance I would separate you into two separate teams with Sergeant Xian in one group and the best new recruit leader as the other team leader. Unfortunately, Sergeant Xian had a small training accident last night and will be out today getting treatment on a broken leg. I understand that one of you has broken through to the fifth level of the foundation stage, is that right? Could you step forward recruit Long?"
He stood with his hands behind his back looking warm and friendly as Long Shen stepped forward and gave a crisp salute, "Reporting as ordered sir!"
Lieutenant Dan smiled and then said, "I understand from Sergeant Xian that you are the best fighter in the group and that you pretended to be the worst yesterday in order to spare your squadmates from injury and death." The squad started to chuckle as he went on, "That's not a question so don't bother to answer, I thought such a remarkable soldier would be a good sparring partner. Recruit Long, and I will demonstrate the level of combat that you will be facing in the future when we train as a platoon and when you fight against the Demonic Army."
Lieutenant Dan's leg whipped out like a snake attacking Long Shen's leg. Long Shen once again moved through the series of exercises that the shadow had taught him. Just like when he fought against Sergeant Xian he easily avoided the speedy kicks and punches sent out by Lieutenant Dan with simple shifts in his body weight and by steps right and left. The members of squad 48 watched in awe almost unable to see the moves of the two men because they moved so fast. Fatty Lai shouted out, "Fuck you, God Shen, I really thought you didn't know any martial arts!"
The other members of the squad all nodded and grumbled, "God Shen really seems like an appropriate name now. I kind of feel like an ass thinking I was better than him."
Lieutenant Dan and Long Shen were clearly evenly matched. Neither man managed to land a blow on the other and then Luetiant smiled. His attacks started to come much quicker than before and a red glow covered his skin. One of the squad members gasped, "Energy gathering!" Lieutenant Dan's foot once again struck out like a snake only this time when it missed Long Shen was still sent flying. Even though his foot hadn't connected, something about the way he was glowing allowed the kick to have an impact.
He didn't bother to check on Long Shen and said to the other members of the squad, "Lesson number one, officers are at the energy gathering stage, never try to fight one. Let the officers handle the Demonic Officers. Lesson number two, never hold back when you spar. If your sparring partner is weak enough to take damage, he's not worth keeping in the squad. There are plenty of recruits that can fill a spot in a squad, but a single weak soldier can get the rest of you killed. Get rid of them before they drag you into the grave with them." He looked them all in the eye and then called out, "Recruit Fatfuck, take recruit Long to the infirmary."
Fatty Lai looked around and then pointed at himself, "Do you mean me, sir?"
"Yes, that's right. You, recruit Fatfuck." He clapped his hands twice and said, "Chop chop. Move your ass." He chuckled and shook his head as Fatty Lai ran over and grabbed Long Shen throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of rice and running off to the infirmary. "Alright, so Sergeant Xian asked me to have you all do one thousand pushups compliments of recruit Long. So, let's get to work gentleman!" He walked through them as they all counted out loud after each pushup. He smiled and said in a pleasant tone, "No pain, no gain. You men will have the best upper body strength in the division by the time this training camp comes to an end."