Qing Shan prepared himself, although he was still confused what had happened. In some way, seeing everything at this normal speed was refreshing to him, but it also made him feel weirdly uncomfortable. Whatever the case, Qing Shan had to focus on what was in front of him if he did not want to be beaten up too badly.
He moved his body in preparation to fight, waiting for his master to tell him to start.
"Begin!"
Immediately after Qing Shan heard this word, he felt multiple impacts on his body. Before he could even tell what had happened, he was lying on the floor.
This time, Liu Tiansheng was the one who spoke.
"Damn."
He clearly did expect such a change from Qing Shan. This was definitely worse than he thought. He walked up to Qing Shan.
"So. How was it?"
Qing Shan spat out a mouthful of saliva. Before speaking in a distasteful tone.
"What do you mean 'How was it?'! I still have no clue what just happened!"
Liu Tiansheng did not try to soften his words.
"This is how everyone else in the world perceives time. Basically, until know you have had a monstrous advantage. I bet that like you are know you cannot even move how you were before."
The worst part of this for Qing Shan was the that everything spoken was undoubtedly the truth. If his master had actually fought him at the same speed that he usually did, then just what did that mean? He knew that he would not be able to move the new way that he thought himself like he was now, because he currently need to think about every single motion he made to move like that. There was absolutely no way that people normally fought while thinking, and Qing Shan definitely knew this.
But the worst was yet to come.
"From now on, you will spend eight hours every day sparing me like we just did. Your mind will be slowed down like it is now so that we you do not grow to rely on it. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Master Liu!"
Seeing the somewhat disappointed look on Liu Tiansheng's face, Qing Shan did not dare to disobey his master. However, Qing Shan felt somewhat joyous knowing that he had an advantage. Did this not mean that he would grow stronger that much faster than others?
The next day, Qing Shan immediately had his thoughts slowed before he sparred with his master. Although it was not like Qing Shan was restarting his training from square one, as he definitely had strength in his body, he kept being beaten down.
Over.
And.
Over.
At the end of eight hours, Qing Shan had been slammed to the ground way to many times to count. However, he still listened to Liu Tiansheng's small piece of advice as carefully as he could.
"Remember. No one can think about each and every one of their actions in a fight. It is not possible. Try to train your body so that the careful and well-thought-out movements that you have used up until now become muscle memory. That it your best hope as you now stand."
Qing Shan took this advice to heart, but as soon as his thoughts resumed to their normal pacing, Qing Shan began to meditate. He planned to take full advantage of having ten times the speed of thought of everyone else.
He calmed his mind, not slowing it down but hyper-focusing it, like he did while in the wind. He had found that with just some practice it was easy to slip into this state in just a few minutes, real time. Now knowing about his difference, he understood that this would take him at least half-an-hour if he were to try it with his brain slowed.
In this state, Qing Shan focused on each of his movements that he used fighting, one at a time. Punches, kicks, grapples, throws, that he had learned from watching his master were carefully analyzed and mentally simulated countless times. He knew that these would not be hard to turn into muscle memory, and that the only hard part would be how to use these moves.
Unfortunately, he could not say the same for his movement technique. When Qing Shan moved using this technique, he would adjust his body while in midair. When he was in the wind, he would focus his mind, and move a part of his body minimally, letting the wind brush past him instead of pushing against him. While this sounded simple, as he was basically just allowing himself to brush past any obstacles, he actually had to carefully think about each and every motion. But, while Qing Shan knew that this was definitely only something that he could do with his mind at maximum capacity, he felt that he had a chance of replicating the actual increase to movement speed that the technique provided. Basically, he moved his body like a leopard. He entirely loosened his body unless he was pushing off of the ground. When he pushed off the ground he instantly tightened all of his muscles, before releasing them again, creating a compression-like effect. Now while this springy motion would be hard to master, he felt that it was definitely possible.
Now that he was done analyzing his motions, Qing Shan started to try to make them into muscle memory. This time, he completely focused his mind on the movement of his body, going into the first move. A simple jab. He did not think about the movement, instead just focusing on the one motion with his whole core. He did this repeatedly for four hours.
For the following half-year, Qing Shan repeated this routine every day. He sparred with Master Liu for eight hours, then meditated for an increasingly smaller amount of time, before devoting the rest of his time on repeatedly executing one move.
Like this, Qing Shan began to gradually improve. At this point, Qing Shan had finally gotten acclimated to normal speed. He learned that while his opponents move faster, his body also responds a lot quicker. Naturally his actual speed did not increase, but in his perception he was moving far faster, ten-times as fast, when his mind was slowed.
Today was the day where Liu Tiansheng finally praised his disciple.
"Congratulations! You have managed to match your battle standards how you were half a year ago. You have actually managed to fix your huge problem in just half of a year."
This was the first time that Qing Shan could actually see that his master was impressed with him. And this time, he had no extra advantage that was the cause for his master being impressed.
While Qing Shan did not realize it, he had somehow managed to increase his actual battle standard by ten-times! This was why Liu Tiansheng did not hide his feelings about Qing Shan's growth.
Liu Tiansheng was actually scared by his disciple's rapid improvement.
'Honestly, I have no clue who would win if I suppressed myself to his level and let him fight against me with his full mental strength.'
This thought was quite frightening for Liu Tiansheng. When he was a live he had been a literal god that was revered by all! He had fought countless battles! Now, a little soon-to-be fifteen year old actually had the chance to give a run for his money in terms of battle power.
'Well, that's without the use of Qi…'
A small, malicious looking expression appeared on Liu Tiansheng's face.
'If he is like this now, I cannot wait to see what he is like when he has mastered a couple high-level martial arts and Qi Techniques. If he raises his cultivation…'
Liu Tiansheng's thoughts trailed off. Tomorrow he would start teaching his disciple how to apply his Qi.
Qing Shan was woken up earlier the next morning. He hurriedly ate breakfast before enthusiastically standing up and stretching.
"What are you doing?"
"Stretching…"
"Did you hear this old one say that we were sparring today?"
Liu Tiansheng continued.
"Today you will begin learning about energy application."
Hearing this, Qing Shan almost leapt with joy. While he had come to enjoy the basic combat training that he did every day, he had always been wanting to focus on his Qi. After all, who would not be excited to learn about something that they had not had, while everyone else did their whole lives after finally obtaining it?
Sitting across from his master, Qing Shan carefully absorbed his words, glad that his master had let him train his Qi at his normal mental pace.
"Now, when Circulating your Qi, you will want to make one counter rotation in a circle around each of your Minor Meridians as you circulate. These Qi loops will make it easier for you to transfer your Qi."
Qing Shan spent the next few days making the change in his Circulation before Liu Tiansheng gave him anymore instructions. Once he had finally finished this, He got another piece of information.
"The Meridians at the base of each of your appendages support and strengthen that appendage. For instance, if you were to fortify the Qi in your Seventh Meridian, your right leg would get an increase in strength for as long as you are fortifying that Meridian.
"To Fortify am Meridian, you use the Qi loops that you just established. You move some of your Qi into that loop and only allow it to Circulate there, temporarily separating it from your main Circulation. Be warned; if you keep a Meridian fortified for too long the Qi in that loop will become impure, potentially injuring that Meridian."
Qing Shan had a question to ask.
"If all of the Meridians support an appendage, then what appendage is located at the Third Meridian?"
Liu Tiansheng looked at Qing Shan strangely.
"There are four appendages that I am talking about, the arms and legs. The First, Forth, Sixth, and Seventh Meridians."
"But then what about the Second Meridian?"
"What are you talking about? There is not an appendage located at the… Little Bastard!"
"Huuu"
Liu Tiansheng sighed.
"Ignoring your unfortunate joke, the Meridians on the center line of your body are for the balance and stability of your body. Fortifying those Meridians creates a more balanced effect then the other four Meridians. For instance, If you were to fortify your Third Meridian, both your arms would be strengthened to a lesser degree than if you were to fortify your left or right arm alone."
Qing Shan began to interrupt his master with a question, but was cut off.
"For now, forget about the fortifying your Fifth Meridian. Its main use is fortifying your voice, but it can also stabilize your willpower to some extent. As of now, you have no use for it."
Given more instructions, Qing Shan jumped into training like a thirsty man finding an oasis. He began to train his Qi.
Liu Tiansheng was somewhat surprised when he saw the rate Qing Shan was improving. However, he quickly shook his head. While Qing Shan was now progressing at speeds equal to potential god-like geniuses, he was actually at least ten-times slower than them. He was only able to keep up this speed because he was lucky. He was born with a birth defect different than any other Bane Child was borne with. It was kind of like nature had been in a rebellious mood when it created Qing Shan.
Because of his nature-given cheat, Qing Shan only took three months to master fortification of one Meridian.
Qing Shan now only had one thing left to, or that he could learn, at his current cultivation level.
'Hmm. It is about time that I let him choose a weapon…'
After Qing Shan had managed to familiarize himself with the fortification of Meridians, he was brought into a serious conversation by his master.
"Your training is almost over. I plan to release you in to the world when you have reached the recognized age of adulthood, sixteen. While you may not be aware, that is only a few months from now. Only five, in fact."
Liu Tiansheng waited for a response. However, he did not have to wait long, as Qing Shan had a serene smile on his face as he nodded.
"I knew that this would happen sooner or later. I have calmed my mind enough that I will not attack unless one of those people from that clan are provoking me. Unfortunately, if things come to that point I will definitely not be able to hold myself back, no matter how much more powerful they are."
Qing Shan bowed low.
"Please train me enough so that I can stand strong against them!"
'Hoho. This boy… he's matured.'
Liu Tiansheng did not seem to notice that when Qing Shan even thought of the Huo name, his heart started beating rapidly, and his fists clenched.
"In that case, prepare yourself. While I have no confidence in raising your level of cultivation a large amount, I can give you a strong foundation and an upper-hand in battle. Just don't come crying to me if I beat you're a*s too hard in the coming months!"
"Yes, Master Liu! I look forward to it!"
Qing Shan was happy at the moment, because he noticed that his master had stopped putting himself on an unneeded pedestal in front of him. His master was just his master. Maybe a friend, but not a lofty stranger or an uncle. An uncle would not beat their nephew to the point of them passing out.
The next day, Qing Shan woke up exited for the last section of his training. To his surprise, his master had laid out a large arrangement of simple weapons out on the floor. Unfortunately, none of them were very high quality.
'Just where does master get all these things?'
Qing Shan pushed aside that thought, walking over to the arrangement of weapons while Liu Tiansheng looked on from the corner of the room.
"Go on, choose one."
"Shouldn't you choose one for me?"
"I believe that everyone, regardless of skill or talent, resonates with a weapon. Not even the best of teachers could guess which weapon, never mind me. I am just a dead wanderer. And while I could choose the weapon most suited toward you battle style, that may not resonate with you. So pick."
Qing Shan looked over each of the weapons. There where many different kinds of swords; longswords, shortswords, heavy swords, curved swords, ones with jagged edges, and others that he did not even know how to describe. There where spears, staves, quarterstaffs, halberds, war axes, war hammers, bows…
Looking on at the weapons, Qing Shan was indeed drawn to one of them. However, he did not know why. He had looked at the swords but disregarded them. He knew that a sword was supposedly one of the hardest weapons to master. But the weapon that he could not stop looking back to seemed even more simple. Except somehow, he felt like this seemingly simple thing which could barely be called a weapon held more secrets than any other weapon here.
Seeing Qing Shan reach for a weapon, Liu Tiansheng's eyes bugged.
'Don't tell me…'
However, Qing Shan had already made his decision. He reached for the weapon that Liu Tiansheng could not be more familiar with; Qing Shan had chosen the staff.