The Storm Strike was, as its name suggested, a martial technique for pressing an attack like a sudden storm of wind and rain. The practitioner had to cut the inner breath into several segments following a set pattern and strike in time with their own rhythm of attack. It was a martial technique that only worked for someone with a certain power to suppress the opponent, who could be sure of keeping the rhythm of the fight in their own hands.
Zhang Haoying brought Ji Zhao to the side courtyard, tossed out a curt 'Watch closely,' then mobilized his inner breath and ran through a full set of the Storm Strike against a wooden dummy.
Of course, this was only the form. The difference between a martial technique and a fighting technique lay in the fact that a martial technique required not only form but also the route the inner breath ran. Neither could do without the other.
"Have you got it memorized?" Zhang Haoying asked. The question was really meant to put him on the spot. The gap between a manual and oral instruction showed itself right from the start: without a manual, one could only cram it all by memory. But who ever asked someone whether they had it memorized after a single run-through?
But Ji Zhao said, "I've got it memorized."
【"...Too stubborn to admit it."】
That 'I've got it memorized' left Zhang Haoying completely stumped, and he swallowed back every line he had prepared... Memorized in one go — if he had said that when Lu Yushi first demonstrated it for him, he would most likely have gotten a slap to the back of the head, along with a 'You haven't memorized a motherfucking thing.'
It was like someone putting a die into a dice cup, setting three empty dice cups beside it, and then, hands flying, shuffling the four cups around in a dizzying blur for a full five minutes. When at last he stopped, and the onlooker was sure he had found the cup with the die in it, the one doing the shuffling would say this:
— Please repeat what I just did.
— Who the fuck could do that?
Zhang Haoying, who had still been a little worried about the Storm Strike leaking out for no good reason, now set his mind completely at ease, and turned to explaining the inner breath's route to Ji Zhao.
This time Ji Zhao did not stay silent. Once Zhang Haoying had finished explaining how the inner breath flowed, he asked on his own initiative:
"Why does the inner breath for the second strike go through Heavenly Marsh?"
In this world, besides the acupoints, every meridian had a name as well. His predecessor had not remembered them very clearly, but Ji Zhao had gone over them again, and now he remembered them clearly.
By Lu Yushi's instructions, Zhang Haoying ought now to evade the question and throw out a line or two about how 'it can only be felt, not put into words.' But Ji Zhao's question was so concrete that he could not very well leave it unanswered.
It was like this: if someone brought you a reading-comprehension passage and asked 'What is the author trying to express in this paragraph,' it would be easy enough to put on an air of mystery. But if someone brought you a science problem, either you could do it or you couldn't, and it was very hard to bluff your way through. On top of that, Zhang Haoying was a clumsy talker who could not think how to fob him off, and after that 'I've got it memorized' just now, he did not believe, deep down, that Ji Zhao could really learn it. So he simply answered Ji Zhao honestly.
"To connect smoothly with Winding Shade from the first strike, of course."
"If it's to connect with the first strike, wouldn't it be better to surge the inner breath out through Broken Dragon?" Ji Zhao asked. "Besides, the books say Broken Dragon belongs to Metal among the Five Elements and its governing aspect is Surge — a keen edge that breaks armor. Stimulated with inner breath, it's more powerful than Winding Shade, which belongs to Earth."
Zhang Haoying laughed despite himself. "Young Brother Ji, that's a good question. I asked Master the very same thing back then... Look at the third form. That blow has to connect through Wind Valley. If the second connected through Broken Dragon, the inner breath would have to go the long way around to reach Wind Valley, and with the explosive power of an ordinary internal art, after a detour like that you'd never be able to link into the fourth strike."
As the words left him, Zhang Haoying felt something was off... He had only come up with that question after studying for the better part of a month. How had Ji Zhao come up with it the moment he started learning? And by the look of him — surely he had not actually memorized the inner breath's route?
Just as he was thinking this, Ji Zhao said, "Then what if the third strike doesn't connect through Wind Valley but turns straight to Heavenly Water, and connects to Hidden Edge after that — wouldn't that work?"
Zhang Haoying shook his head, without really giving it deep thought. "Inner breath can't run just anywhere. If the Five Elements and governing aspects of the meridians clash, the inner breath is thrown into chaos, and qi deviation or even your body bursting apart are common outcomes. Young Brother Ji, your sister ought to have taught you this. If it weren't so, why would creating martial techniques and internal arts be so hard? You mustn't go astray just because you think yourself a little clever."
Ji Zhao said no more, only smiled. "Brother Zhang is right to set me straight. I understand."
After that, sure enough, Ji Zhao did not bring the matter up again. He studied earnestly and sincerely for half the morning, then, as the noon mealtime drew near, took his leave on the pretext that his strength was failing, leaving a tuition fee behind.
Zhang Haoying felt truly embarrassed taking that fee. He was an honest man, and did not believe Ji Zhao could learn anything from him, but since the boy had left it, it was not his to dispose of either. So he handed the money over to Lu Yushi, and told him what had happened that morning while he was at it.
"Changing a martial technique's inner breath route... heh heh." Lu Yushi shook his head with a smile. Nearly every martial artist had such ideas, but an inner breath route was a thing where tugging one hair moved the whole body — how could it be changed just like that? "That boy, really... Still, leaving this money shows he has some heart. This old man will at least ask, then. Which strikes did he change? Tell me. If the Five Elements and governing aspects clash, we'll go and give him a word of warning so nothing goes wrong."
Zhang Haoying said, "He said the second strike connects through Broken Dragon, the third through Heavenly Water, and the fourth through Hidden Edge."
"Ho." Lu Yushi could not help laughing. "The boy's got some nerve, changing the routes through three meridians right off the bat. Mm, Broken Dragon, Heavenly Water, Hidden Edge — and if he doesn't change it after that, Waning Autumn next... The Five Elements are fine, but the governing aspects clash. If he runs his inner breath this way, he'll probably do himself a little harm."
Zhang Haoying said, "Shall this disciple go and warn him?"
Lu Yushi shook his head. "No. This is just as well. Let him take a small loss and learn a lesson, so he won't go meddling later and bring about some great disaster..."
He paused, a look of deep feeling on his face, and said, "Haoying, changing martial techniques and changing cultivation methods is just like gambling. It isn't something an ordinary person can handle. Better to lose right from the start than to win money, so that the idea is cut off for good."
Zhang Haoying nodded. "This disciple understands."
Lu Yushi waved a hand and said no more, and the afternoon passed hurriedly in training.
When night fell, Lu Yushi finished washing up and lay on his bed, cultivating his internal art for a while. As his inner breath flowed past Heavenly Water, his expression flickered slightly.
【"That's not right. Heavenly Water and Hidden Edge both have Harmonizing as their governing aspect, so they can smooth over the discord between Broken Dragon and Heavenly Water. And the Hidden Edge meridian lies very close to Waning Autumn, so that way the burst of the next form might actually come faster...?"】
He frowned, then shook his head.
【"What am I thinking... Better get some sleep."】
Though he told himself so, once he lay down he tossed and turned and could not fall asleep, thinking about those three meridians the whole time, until a streak of fish-belly white appeared at the edge of the sky.
The next morning, while Zhang Haoying was still deep in dreams, he was startled awake by a fierce pounding on his door. This was something even an honest man could not tolerate. He got out of bed gritting his teeth, thinking that unless it was the Black Cavalry bandits attacking the city, then whoever was out there, he would give them a piece of his mind...
With a creak the door opened. Outside stood Lu Yushi, his eyes shot with red, the dark circles beneath them plain to see. He refused to explain a single word more, only tossing out coldly:
"Come with me."