Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Martial Arts Psychosis
Yang Shen followed the dean, drawing curious glances from many.
The dean was one of the school’s top figures, second only to the principal, and held real authority. Aside from occasionally checking on student conduct at the school gates, he didn’t really interact with ordinary students.
Yang Shen only knew his name: this big shot was called Liang Shen.
Today was a rare chance for him to get a good look.
The director was nearly fifty and already had a noticeable bald spot. While practicing Martial Arts could make one taller and more muscular, it seemed it couldn’t do anything about balding.
He wore an unremarkable dark administrative jacket, giving off the strong air of a veteran official, but his frame was sturdy and upright—standard issue for most Martial Arts Practitioners.
Except for those who followed special paths, anyone with a body full of middle-aged flab would have seen their realm regress long ago.
Yang Shen followed the director up to the top floor of the academic building, finally entering an office on the sixth floor.
The room wasn’t large, only about twenty square meters. Besides the typical heavy desk and bookcase, the most eye-catching feature was a huge calligraphy plaque:
"Martial Arts as a Vehicle for the Dao"
Director Liang took two bottles of "Source Energy Forest" from a cabinet and placed them in front of Yang Shen. "An alumnus who came back to visit me a few days ago brought these. Should be the kind of thing you kids like to drink... Yang, Teacher Liu Yuankui reported to me this morning that you’ve grasped ’Fist Intent’?"
Yang Shen nodded. "Yes, Director. Do you need me to demonstrate?"
Director Liang waved his hand. "No, that won’t be necessary. I trust Teacher Liu’s judgment. Besides, how could you demonstrate in an office this small?"
’I’ll be damned, the dean is actually being pleasant...’
Seeing that the man was so approachable today, Yang Shen took the initiative. "Actually, I’d like to understand a bit more... what does Fist Intent mean?"
Liang Shen smiled. "Fist Intent, Sword Intent, Staff Intent, or others... they can all be categorized as ’Martial Dao Will.’ This, like ’Martial Arts,’ is part of the university curriculum. For a high school student, it’s not just beyond the syllabus—it’s incredibly distant. Of course, even in university, only a select few can master it."
"Generally speaking, ’Martial Dao Will’ requires long, arduous training, a complete integration of your techniques... and just a *tiny* bit of luck."
As he spoke, Director Liang picked up a bottle of "Source Energy Forest" and waved it in front of Yang Shen.
Then, he bent a finger on his right hand and flicked it with a POP.
The mouth of the plastic bottle flew right off.
It hadn’t been unscrewed; it had snapped off as if it were made of glass...
The bottleneck, along with the cap that hadn’t even been turned, landed precisely in the trash can. Like sabering a bottle of champagne, the break was so clean it looked as if it had been measured with a ruler... a complete violation of the laws of physics.
’He’d just nonchalantly shown off his skill... Was he hinting that this was also related to "Fist Intent"?’
Director Liang wiped the drink from his hand and said flatly:
"For you, your Martial Arts Realm is too low for Fist Intent to be of much help. At most, it will allow you to perform beyond your current realm in actual combat. But that’s enough. Practical combat is a major subject, worth 150 points."
Yang Shen nodded. "I’m already very happy with that."
A 48-point increase... many high school seniors couldn’t improve that much in an entire year.
’After all, how could slow and steady progress ever be as fast as using a cheat!’
"When you have the chance to reach a Martial Arts Realm at or above Innate—for example, when you become a graduate or even a doctoral student—the significance of ’Martial Dao Will’ will become more and more important. Teacher Liu asked me to guide you in your Fist Intent, but I personally don’t recommend you spend too much energy on it at this stage."
"The most efficient method is to secure your practical combat score and any special extra credit, then focus on raising your realm itself. After all, you have to spend your money where it counts most. You’ve been improving so quickly, you must have spent quite a bit, right? The pressure on your family must be immense. Too many loans can lead to a collapsing debt cycle. You need to be careful."
Yang Shen: "..."
Director Liang naturally had access to every student’s family situation. He assumed Yang Shen was "financing his martial arts with loans"—perhaps the kind of person who juggles a dozen credit cards.
For a poor family, having a child with "decent talent" wasn’t always a good thing...
This was also why he hadn’t paid too much attention to Yang Shen as a student before.
He didn’t get any guidance on his "Fist Intent," but Director Liang had been quite sincere in his advice.
He even warned Yang Shen not to take out sketchy online loans, mentioning he had a friend he knew well who could offer a campus loan with an interest rate as low as 18%.
This scared Yang Shen so much that he grabbed the Source Energy Forest and bolted...
However, Yang Shen was suddenly curious about the dean’s realm. As a fellow "Fist Intent possessor," he wondered if the director would appear special in the system.
So, before leaving, he used his only "Life Chart Inspection" for the day on the director.
"Liang Shen: Qi Cultivation, Level Five."
"Life Chart: Impartial and Unbiased."
"Impartial and Unbiased: Has a rigid personality and is weak in personal sentiment."
’Qi Cultivation Level Five? That’s the highest realm I’ve ever seen!’
He remembered the "Information Display Board" at the school gate listed Liang Shen’s realm as "Late-stage Innate."
As one of the school’s main leaders, the dean’s information was naturally made public. His academic qualifications and Martial Arts Realm were clearly listed, serving as an important display of the school’s faculty strength.
Both were Innate, yet the early-stage Liu Yuankui was only at the third level of Qi Cultivation in the system, while the late-stage director was at the fifth level... It seemed the conversion between the "Cultivation and Martial Arts" realms was more complex than he thought.
His sample size was still too small, but he guessed it wasn’t a simple "integer conversion." Other Late-stage Innate practitioners might not even measure up to the director; after all, this was a big shot who possessed "Fist Intent."
And his Fist Intent could linger on the classroom’s back blackboard for over a month without dissipating.
That move of flicking the bottle cap just now also had the feeling of "Martial Dao Will" influencing "matter."
Even though it was the information age, the world that high school students could glimpse and understand was still far too one-sided.
It was perfectly normal for a high school student not to understand a university curriculum, but this only strengthened Yang Shen’s resolve to go to college.
’I have to get into a good university!’
As for the director’s "Impartial and Unbiased" Life Chart... it was hard to say if it was good or bad. Neutral, maybe.
After all, he had recommended a loan... He seemed to keep loan agreements in his drawer at all times, and the way he pulled one out revealed a practiced ease. Director Liang had even looked disappointed when Yang Shen refused.
Yang Shen figured that quite a few of the school’s "model students" were probably Director Liang’s clients.
This was also a wake-up call for Yang Shen. Life Charts still had to be considered in the context of actual circumstances. You couldn’t blindly trust someone just because they had a good Life Chart.
For example, what if you saw a "Loyal and Devoted" chart and thought you had a confidant, but it turned out they were an undercover agent?
The kind who is loyal and devoted to their original boss, an agent who has been undercover for ten years without a change of heart.
’Wouldn’t that be completely screwed?’
Only one math class was left for the day, which was relatively relaxing. Yang Shen treated it as a mental break.
After school, Xu Bamboo went to the gym for extra training as usual, while Yang Shen dutifully headed home.
Passing by a small convenience store, Yang Shen paused for a moment before stopping, deciding to buy a couple of chocolate bars.
They were for Yang Mo and Yang Man. Little girls liked that sort of thing.
He wasn’t going to work at the milk tea shop anymore, and since his cultivation was now done at night, he wanted to use his spare time to pay more attention to his two little sisters.
After starting his Cultivation, although the road ahead was by no means smooth, it was filled with hope. While it was right to focus most of his energy on improving his strength, Yang Shen didn’t want to look back in a few months and find that his two sisters had become completely withdrawn because of this difficult and confusing time.
Yang Mo and Yang Man were speaking less and less, and neither he nor his aunt had had the extra energy to pay much attention to it before.
Perhaps in many poor families, a child’s behavioral problems weren’t due to a "lack of love," but a "lack of capacity."
In front of the convenience store, Yang Shen rummaged through a pile of chocolate bars, searching for his sisters’ favorite flavors, while the owner sat with his legs crossed, watching the news on an old television.
"Recently, multiple assault cases have occurred in Jianghuai City. All victims were individuals without any Martial Cultivation.... A friendly reminder: citizens without Martial Cultivation should avoid walking alone late at night..."
Yang Shen called out to the owner to pay, but it took the man a moment to react. He stated the price, but his eyes remained glued to the screen.
Yang Shen also stared at the screen for a moment, then asked curiously, "Jianghuai City? How come I haven’t heard about this? Have there been many cases?"
The owner, a man in his sixties, tutted. "Do you even watch the news or read the papers? You probably just use your phone to follow celebrities and chat. It’s normal that you haven’t heard. Besides, that’s happening in Jianghuai City proper. It’s not happening here."
’That’s true...’ Jinshui District had only been incorporated into Jianghuai City on paper a decade or so ago. In reality, it was a two-hour trip to get into the city proper. It was the suburbs of the suburbs, a place that had been kicked to the curb.
The owner quoted a price of 24. Yang Shen took out his phone to scan a QR code to pay, but the old man said he didn’t have one.
As he dug through his pockets, Yang Shen complained, "Sir, you need to get with the times. Who doesn’t use scan-to-pay these days? Hardly anyone carries cash."
’Except for a broke-ass like me.’
The old man scoffed. "You’re still too young. This QR code stuff is just some technology brought back from the ’Exotic Realm’ a few years ago. Who knows, in another couple of years, they’ll bring back something else, and no one will use QR codes anymore. Maybe we’ll pay by scanning our faces. Why would I bother setting all that up? It’s a pain in the ass."
Well, he had a point.
On Cyan Blue, R&D capabilities in fields outside of Martial Arts weren’t particularly strong. Most technology was dependent on exploration of the Exotic Realm, so some things did become obsolete very quickly.
Or rather, the environment for local technological innovation "outside of Martial Arts" was poor. You could pour your heart and soul into researching something, only for someone to turn around and bring the same thing back from the "Exotic Realm." Any investment would be a total loss.
Even if it wasn’t that coincidental, if an explorer from the Exotic Realm saw that your invention had value, they might actively search for a substitute. The law would even prioritize protecting the latter’s "exploration results." Over time, everyone just jumped into the rat race of martial arts technology, and as for other fields...
Who would bother with research when you could just take things for free?
After paying, Yang Shen asked casually, "So there have been several of these cases? There are cameras everywhere these days... they can’t catch them?"
The owner shook his head.
"Oh, they’ve caught them. But so what if they catch them in the act? More just keep popping up. The experts have given these people a label, something called: Martial Arts Psychosis. Means they’ve practiced martial arts until their brains went bad."
"These guys specifically target ordinary people without any Martial Cultivation, which has made a lot of people furious."
Judging from the television report, the perpetrators were all around Yang Shen’s age. At this stage, they were basically "Wu Gaosheng," and even a genius among them would be at Xu Bamboo’s level at best.
Yanhua Country was a society centered on Martial Arts, and Jianghuai City was the most prosperous metropolis in the nation. Honestly, practitioners at this level couldn’t make very big waves. Any random old man taking a stroll by the side of the road could be a retired Martial Arts master.
But the trouble was, there seemed to be no pattern to their attacks. They specifically targeted ordinary people... no connection, completely random.
That was what made it so vile.
The old man tutted again. "It’s because young people are under too much pressure these days."
Yang Shen was noncommittal.
’Too much pressure? Is their pressure greater than mine?!’
’Not only did I not go crazy, I awakened a system!’
Comments