Chills ran down my spine, I almost collapsed on the floor out of fright and shock, if I were to choose between being found out by Lu Chiang or the scene in front of me, I will choose the first .
What does the scene in front of me even mean, I can't wrap my head around what was going on currently, not with how frightened I was currently, I kept looking around me wondering if there's anyone still lingering in the area, but I wasn't able to see anyone, but that didn't mean for certain that no one was around, I might just be unable to see them .
This can't be true, that was what I kept on telling myself trying my best to regain my composure, but i was failing miserably in doing so, how can a person calm down when his life is being threatened .
Yes, that what I believe the booklet in front of me, a threat to my life, if that was any book, I might have been startled a little, not to mention finding a Secret Martial Skill that even the information about it was labeled as forbidden, at this thought I calmed down a little as I remembered that there was a copy of that Secret Martial Skill here in the Lu family, that didn't have the secret technique .
So my guess about who sent me this booklet might be wrong, with shaking uncontrollably hands, I reached for the book fearfully as if I was disarming a bomb, but just in case, I flipped the book upside-down a few times, then took a deep breath and finally opened it up .
How authentic was the book in front of me was a question that I could not answer, but I do believe that it was an authentic book, but I will confirm with Instructor Lu tomorrow, the book was bigger than even the Crouching Tiger, it also had the same weird concepts and description of the human body, both books were mentioning some vague things like ' Bridge Between Heaven And Men ', ' Only The Destined Can Live .
For the most parts even though I stored all the information of the Crouching Tiger Martial Skill, I can indeed understand why even until now Senior Brother Fu said that they were unable to fathom what was written on that Martial Skill booklet and neither was I .
The book in front of me pinpointed a few places on the human body illustration in it, it pinpointed at a location below the navel and above the pubic area, I couldn't help but began tracing the places pinpointed on that illustration, it pinpointed to one other place and that was on the forehead, I couldn't help but began tracing it as well, but no matter how much I kept tapping on my forehead, nothing happened .
I was quite engrossed in reading the book in front of me that I completely discarded of the fact that I still have no clue about how come this book was even here and the reason for that attitude was the fact that the content in this book completely caught my undivided attention, the book in terms of the Martial Skills written on it, there were three moves mentioned in the book in front of me .
They were : ( Clawing Tiger, Leaping Tiger, Tiger's Strike ), all those three techniques required the existence of Blood Qi, meaning that I can't even get started with them without having at least entered the first layer of the Flesh Tempering Realm .
Two attacking moves and one footwork were in that booklet, those were what I had currently read and noted, the description of Leaping Tiger seemed to be the upgraded version of Tiger's Lunge, but much stronger, it gave even the ability to kick the air one time, I can't grasp what that exactly meant .
But even without much knowledge about Martial Arts, I was beginning to understand what Senior Brother said earlier about this secret skill book being decent even without that secret technique, I too believe that after getting to read about the move it had .
Clawing Tiger was almost identical in execution as Tiger's Pounce but the way to circulate Blood Qi was more complicated or more simple, I really can't tell, but what I'm able to tell is that since this skill was High-grade Martial Skill that it must be stronger as well .
It was Tiger's Strike was what caught my interest, the reason was that its obscure description and that it had quite the absurd effect on the body of the person it hit as well, as per the description of that skill, it can allow the Practitioner to unleash tiger claws like attacks that if they hit the enemy will leave part of the Blood Qi in his body as a residual effect, that residual Blood Qi will try destroying the enemy body from the inside .
The words unleash was quite vague in the description, the illustration showed a guy striking out and on the next page 5 claws were illustrated in the air, it was quite obscure to me, not to mention that the Blood Qi circulation seemed quite complex, there was even a condition needed to be met, so that I be able to use that move, it was to reach the Middle Stage, the 4th or the 5th layer of Flesh Tempering Realm to be able to use that move once .
Even though it was an amazing move, the consumed Blood Qi seemed quite huge too, I couldn't help but see the creator of that Martial Skill in a new light, this was a High-grade Yellow Martial Skill and I felt incredible just reading about it .
I couldn't help wonder about the other skills he might have used or maybe created like this one, what about the other magnificent Martial Arts that might be out there, I'm falling more and more in love with this world and the Martial Arts in it .
I took a deep breath to regulate my breathing and calming my agitated heart, I reorganized my thoughts and continued to read the Marital Skill book in hand as I continued to flip through the few pages left, I couldn't help but widen my eyes at reliziy that the book in hand seemed to consist of over 40 pages, most of them were filled with quite obscure and weird concepts .
Just as I was about to flip the last page, I caught a glimpse of the title on top of the last page and had a jump scare and throw the booklet out of my hand, the cheerful mood that I had just a minute before had completely disappeared second after I saw what that title said, it said :
DRAGON-TIGER TRANSFORMATION SECRET TECHNIQUE .
Even if I wanted to remove seeing that title from my mind, I wasn't able to do so, in fact I was getting more curious about seeing the content of that secret technique, but the idiom ' curiosity killed the cat ' kept circling on my mind to convince me against it, but just to confirm my suspicion, I decided to do it, but after I take a few minutes to catch my breath from the startle just now .
Night was already upon us, light was beginning to become scarce as well, there was a lantern likely put and hanged inside the hut, but there was one huge problem, there was no lighter here nor there seem to be a way to lit a fire .
But as I was contemplating about this, my memories seemed to be refreshed, I remembered that there was a lantern next to the house that I should be able to lit my own lantern with, but that solution also quite difficult, if my suspicion was indeed correct someone might be waiting for me to step out of that door to finish me off or worse kidnap me or something like that .
I already had an idea on who might have put that book here, it was how and why did he put it here, those were the actual questions that I wanted to find an answer for, reading and confirming that the secret technique was indeed written on that last page would make me much certain, but due to the lack of light and the full moon from yesterday already had receded, so there will be no source of light as than to use the lantern .
Which will require for me to go to the dangerous outside and either got killed on the spot or get kidnapped and I really wasn't on the mood for either of those two choices, there was also the chance that I might be just overacting and there wasn't anyone out there waiting for me, I guess I will need to find out the hard way .
I already made up my mind to check everything that booklet had inside of it before asking the instructor about it and handing it over, but even though I tried to tell myself this, my body was still a bit shaking from all that happened in the last half an hour or so .
My heart wasn't as determined as my mind and it was showed on my moving speed, each step I took, I kept looking to my left and right and I hadn't still got out of the door even, something like this might make me appear a bit weird, but if it will save my life, then people opinions matter naught to me .
Also I didn't need to worry much about this, my hut was in fact far away, and isolated from the other huts, so no person should be snooping around here unless he came with an intention of wanting something or doing something, it seemed that I was worrying for nothing, as I lighted the lantern and got back it seemed that no one was here to kill me or kidnap me so that was a relief .
I still hurried back to my hut and unlike before, I closed the door behind me and hanged the lantern in the middle of the room then I started to read the last page of the booklet .
After finish reading the last page I couldn't help but squint my eyes a little as I approved that the secret technique in front of me was quite evil, it would literally burn all that was important for the Martial Practitioner to progress .
Giving him the boost of strength he desire, but crippling his path of Martial Arts for the rest of his life, that to a Martial Practitioner was a fate worse than death, but even though I became aware of this, I also confirmed that it seemed I was targeted indeed by the Evil Tigers gang, movement or whatever they call themselves .
My mind and heart seemed already numb at this discovery, even though I felt that this was a life-death crisis, I felt that it was no longer that much of a deal, well instead of saying that it wasn't that much of a deal, it was better to say that I currently can't do nothing but be nonchalant about it, even though I'm currently completely weak against fighting those guys .
I now have realized that freaking out about this won't help in solving the situation in the slightest so there was no other way than to deal with it without giving it much of a thought, but one, I had one thought that I might start with and stick to .
That thought was that I won't be going down without a fight, especially now after I got my hands on that secret technique, if things went south, I will at least take a few of them with me to the grave by using that secret technique, since it will be a death either way, I had no problem on giving them one last surprise, I will be doing my all to survive .
But even though I had become accustomed to shocks to the point of getting numb, I still feel irritated by the fact that this booklet appeared here without any guard following suit, no one seemed to be aware of it appearing on my bed, there was no bad premonition in my heart, nor I felt like someone was watching, how weird .
Shouldn't the Lu Family's mansion be more tight on security, so how can someone break in and do this then get out as if nothing happened, was that an indication of how strong was the Evil Tigers organization or something else, could they already have recruited someone from the family .
Could I have read the situation with Lu Jiu wrong, maybe he didn't get the booklet through Deacon Lu, no, that couldn't be true, I saw him staring at Lu Jong when he was at the last strings of his life and he even asked him for what I presumed to be the reward he was promised, so there was still a connection lining all this messed up information together, there must be .
But what was it exactly that completely incomprehensible to the current me, I may be able to grasp something if I slept and let my mind and body rest a little, but this wasn't going to happen, today's night is still long and I won't even a second of it, after all, I finally got my hands on Martial Arts, so how can I let go of trying it out and go to sleep .
Seeing that the house would be unsuitable for training I stood up and went out again with the lantern in hand, unlike before my stride was much steadier than before, I directly put the lantern next to a big rock that looked like a small hill to me and crossed my legs and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down and discarded of all the unnecessary thoughts, I had on mind .
I reached a good state of mind and got up and began to recall the information I have on the Solid Rock Fist and surprisingly enough, even though a bit of time had already passed, I was still able to recall every detail that I had stored in my mind earlier today, I tried to recall the content of Thunderclap Fist and Crouching Tiger simultaneously and found out that I was able to recall the details on them without a problem .
Luckily my mood was currently very calmed down, so even though it surprised me a little to have such a strong memory, I still didn't dwell much on it, I labeled it as my good fortune and the original Long Tian original blessing, after doing so, I completely discarded of that thought as well and began to look at the terrain in front of me and coordinated with the moves in mind, I didn't want to trip over a stone or get my leg stuck in the mud here .
I removed my vest and I began to move according the instructions on my mind, I executed the first posture with quite ease the harmonious flow that Senior Brother Fu told me to try and find was still difficult for me to find, but it was a good start nonetheless .
The second posture was executed without a problem, there were one punch to be executed every 4 postures, the whole manual had 15 postures with 4 punches in total, the last punch was the one mentioned to be the attack mentioned by Senior Brother Fu before, so the manual had 16th postures with that last punch that is used for attacking .
I executed the 4th posture and punched out further, I was beginning to feel the heat from earlier beginning to rise again, but I completely discarded that thought when a long waited message came to my mind, it said :
( Strains, Fractures, Scarring, Bone Enlargement were detected due to the execution of Martial Arts, Strains,Fractures, other detected negative effects, all removed ) .
It was a similar massage to the first one I had after unintentionally practicing this Marital Technique, but this time It didn't disturb my breathing rhythm as before .
I couldn't help but notice that the damages that were removed this time was much stronger than before, but I was able to find the answer quickly, the answer laid in the fact that I wasn't using the black ointments that Senior Brother Fu gave me earlier while practicing .
It was accurate to say that it had disappeared, it should have enabled me to practice 2 times a day and if I to reach small success, I might have had the chance to practice 4 times at least, but side effects would have appeared on my skin and arms and even some hidden injuries, but with the apperance of that weird massage, I believe it had completely been negated .
Since I had wanted nothing more than to interact with that message in mind, I opened it up by reaching to it with my mind and even though I didn't expect it to react, contrary to my expectations it actually did react, but not in a way that I understood .
I found that the massage suddenly expanded in front of my consciousness, then it turned into a window tab, I was able to see that my body was being illustrated in front of me in an x-ray like illustration, a few dots were in red on the illustration of my body, just as I wanted to open one of these red dots, another window tab like thing appeard, it was describing what the dot on my left arm was, in that window tab it said :
( Negative Effect : Strains, Mild Fractions ) .
( Status : removed ) .
(Cause : poor execution of a Martial Technique under the name of Solid Rock Fist ) .
" What the..... .
I was completely at loss of words, all these words that appeard in my conscious made me understood that I might be able to finally understand and discover what was that message exactly and what's with those tabs .