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"I must study lots of things or I won't become a great person."
- KOTOMI ICHINOSE, (CLANNAD)
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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
"Continue to stay in that stance as long as possible without moving or dropping the buckets in your hands. Now, focus on creating ripples in the water inside your buckets with the help of only your chi." Ducra, the old short female monk said as she stood with a stick in her hands and a strict expression on her face.
"Goddamn it. How the hell did I even reach this current situation? I thought I was here to read a few manuscripts or something and then fight off some immortal siblings. I never even in my worst dreams thought that I would be forced to be a part of '36th chamber of Shaolin' here." I muttered sarcastically as I did my best not to fall into the dark ominous pit below me.
Yes, you heard right, there was a bottomless pit below me. I was currently balancing myself on a string-thin rope using just one leg with two extremely heavy buckets filled with water in both of my hands. The weight normally would have been quite light for me due to my current superhuman characteristics but strangely the buckets were as heavy as dozens of tons of metal making this entire thing needlessly more difficult for me than it should have been. Also, I had been continuously standing like this for the last six hours.
"At least you are part of some supposed prophecy concerning the All-caste and the Untitled. But, what about me? Why the hell am I training like this? I don't think I can feel anything in my hands any longer." Nyssa Al Ghul mournfully said as she did her best to manipulate her chi to create ripples in her bucket, something which she was surprisingly really good at.
She was doing the same balancing exercise as me, only the weight of her buckets although the same size as me was nowhere near as heavy as mine. They were very heavy and enough to make her sweat severely to hold them up when compared to her physiology but they didn't weigh tons like mine which was probably somehow done with some sort of bullshit magic or mystic art.
"You shouldn't complain too much. Your elder sister never did. What both of you are doing right now is laying the groundwork for your future progress in the mystic martial arts. You yourself said that you were sent here by Ra's AL Ghul to kill all the Untitled, right?
So, this should be something trivia for you. Once you comprehend how to manipulate the chi inside your body expertly as well as affect other objects with it, then you will be ready to start learning the true power of chi, a small display of the true might of the mystic arts." Ducra said, her voice slightly shaking due to her progressing age.
"Wait, what do you mean by my sister? Is she here? Did you train her as well?" Nyssa got excited at the mention of the fact that her sibling might be here as well.
"I did train her long ago when she came to me with the same request as yours, yes. She was quite a talented assassin but at the time that was all she was, a talented and brainwashed killer to serve her father." Ducra answered.
"Maybe, you could just show some of the techniques to me. I tend to learn things pretty quickly if I see them." I tried to trick her into showing me some of the mystic martial arts she wanted to teach me but unfortunately, she remained as unmoving as a piece of rock as she just shook her head in a brutal rejection.
"Copying everything is not the best solution to learn everything. Sometimes, you have to use your own comprehensive abilities to figure things out." Ducra said with a knowing look on her face signifying that she had some sort of knowledge about my photographic reflexes cheat.
I frowned at her statement but didn't retort to it and just focused on my own task. As much as I wanted to know about the so-called prophecy and how she came to know about it, I didn't want to take a chance and do it in front of Nyssa. I couldn't be sure that the old woman was not an idiot and wouldn't reveal anything of importance in front of the daughter of one of the most shrewd villains in this world.
"They are weak, mother. They cannot defeat them. They don't have enough power and they won't be ready when the time comes. We are just wasting our time here. Instead, we should march against them right now while the Untitled are still enjoying their previous victory and strike while the iron is hot. That is the way we will be able to take revenge against them for killing so many of our people and for committing the grave sin of turning them into those despicable undead." Essence, the daughter of Ducra protested as she entered the training area with teenage anger visible on her face.
Truthfully, I did not blame the girl for thinking like this. Calling me weak might be over the top but I knew just how much powerful the white-haired young girl truly was. She had been trained by monks from birth and considering that I could feel the thick remnants of chi emanating from her without her even trying to intimidate me, I could confidently say that defeating her at my current level of strength would probably cost me some slight injuries before I win the battle which was really amazing for her considering that I had access to not only my own breathing style but also chi on top of my superhuman physiology.
Also, she had the right to be angry here. After all, the undead that we fought a few days ago after arriving here were actually the monks that used to live with them. They were part of the All-Caste, part of her family which she lost when the Untitled killed them in a surprise attack and turned them into the walking dead.
"Revenge is a dark emotion, daughter. An emotion that leads us astray into the world of hatred. Taking revenge only makes you feel good for the first few seconds but after that, the emptiness inside you will only increase until it consumes you. Revenge is never the answer, it's the path the weak takes because they hope that it will make them feel better." Ducra spoke in a slow yet serious tone as she said the last part while looking directly at me.
"Why the hell are you looking at me while saying all that? Your daughter is the one who is hell-bent on revenge. I am just here to do my duty and kill the nine Untitled siblings, not for revenge mind you but because it's my quest. Aren't you training me for the same reason, because I am in your prophecy where I am supposed to destroy the Untitled?" I helplessly shrugged.
"No, I am not training you to fulfill your prophecy of killing a bunch of nameless immortals, son of Wayne. I am training you to help you fulfill your destiny of bringing balance, true balance. Because that is what Destiny dictates... Oh and as for the Untitled, they aren't nine siblings. They were once, but one of their siblings left them three thousand years ago and adopted a name after she could no longer bear their desire for endless death and destruction. She now fights against them in a desperate bid to uphold balance." Ducra revealed.
"Mother, we aren't supposed to talk about that." Essence complained as she looked at her mother with a complicated gaze which Ducra completely ignored by keeping her eyes closed like she was reminiscing about something from her life.
"Huh really? Do you know where this person might be? Maybe they can help us fight off the Untitled..." Nyssa quickly spoke up at the chance of gaining more allies to complete the quest as efficiently as possible.
"I think she is talking about herself N. You should learn to read between the lines. But again, what can we expect from a sheltered daddy's ninja?" I couldn't help but tease.
"Don't call me that... Also, if you are really one of them then does it mean that you two are immortal as well?"
"Indeed we are. The day that those selfish animals reached and tried to manipulate the waters of absolute evil, we were there. The water changed us just like it changed them. It gave us access to powerful but dark magic, made us immortal but also took away something extremely valuable from us. It took away our happiness and our humanity. It took away our lives and tied us to this place, this mountain forever.
But the others still weren't satisfied. They wanted more, they wanted to get into the 'Chamber of All' hidden somewhere in this cave and use the chamber's secrets to boost their dark powers to the extreme so that they could take over the entire world. That's why we have been protecting this cave all our lives from their wicked hands as the All-caste, that's why they want us gone so desperately." Essence admitted as tears slowly leaked from her dark eyes.
"..." The entire room was silent for a couple of minutes at the revelation.
"Now, that's enough. Essence, go to your chambers. As for you two, you should focus on completing your training. After all, that rope you two are standing on will break on its own in about one more hour, so you should finish the test within that time. But don't worry, that's still plenty of time for you to master chi manipulation." Ducra said with a straight face like she was just stating normal facts.
"What? Is this even worth it? The League already trains us in mystic martial arts and chi but they never go this far. No martial arts no matter how magical is worth training if it's as difficult and risk-inducing as this. Practicing archery would have been much better compared to this..."
Nyssa wasn't able to complete her words as Ducra had slightly tapped a wall of the cave with her chi-enhanced fist that was enveloped in a slightly green hue resulting in half of the wall immediately collapsing like pieces of loose legos.
"Mystic fist. A basic move and a small example of what you would be able to do once you master the mystic martial arts that you would be learning when you complete your current task."
"Okay maybe this is slightly cooler than regular archery," Nyssa admitted.
"No doubt," I chortled with my eyes shining as I comprehended what I had just seen, my cheat working at full power to find out the workings behind the move.
I had the front-seat view of what had just happened because of my 'Transparent World' ability and it was beautiful. But the most important thing of all was that I just realized how broken this mystic martial arts really was. After all, this might just be the thing I needed to make my Hamon dream an actual reality.
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