Yousti was trudging along the muddy road with a frown on his face.
One of his legs had gotten completely submerged in mud when he wandered away from the caravan to take a piss.
One wrong step and unseen mud pit and voila a leg covered in mud.
He still took a piss after that.
Phaedo looked at Yousti with a look of light amusement.
“You seem upset. Did something happen?” he inquired pleasantly.
“I have sacrificed my leg for silk. Does that make you happy?” Yousti was not in a pleasant mood.
“We’re almost at the next Oasis. We will trade silk there then travel through a desert for months. You can clean your leg when we get there.”
Yousti rubbed his mud covered leg on a tree trunk, it did little to wipe away the mud.
He then rubbed his hands down his leg while walking to wipe away the mud.
Finally he began kicking the air to shake of whatever mud he could.
It was all quite awkward as he still had to keep up with Phaedo while doing all this with a heavy pack at the same time.
“You still practice those kicks you learned from the east?”
“Yeah that guy named Zhao something showed a whole bunch of cool kicks and punches.”
“His name was Zhao Wu. He taught you martial arts, don’t forget that. You spent all your time within the east practicing those moves.” Phaedo stated matter of factly.
“What can I say I’m just built for it.” Yousti peformed a backflip with one leg.
“Ugh, can’t we find a river nearby or something to wash my leg?”
Phaedo rested his hand on the pack on Yousti’s back, subtely reminding him what he just backflipped while wearing, with silent disapproval.
“No.”
The conversation ended there.
Although Yousti and Phaedo were tagging along a caravan they would soon detach from it.
It was just Yousti and Phaedo traveling along the silk road trading silk and scholarly knowledge.
They were currently traveling west after spending 2 years in eastern China.
There Yousti had developed an obsession with martial arts and sought out anyone who could teach martial arts with zeal.
However he was far too zealous and usually got rejected before learning anything.
Luckily an old man named Zhao Wu taught him seriously.
But only for only a few weeks because they had to head back to Phaedo’s homeland of Greece.
But Yousti had entrenched the teachings within his mind and practiced every day.
‘I’ve learned martial arts but how am I supposed to learn an internal energy method?’
Yousti had entered deep contemplation after ending his banter with Phaedo.
He had thought that in china he would find some kind of master or at least some kind of Murim martial artist that would teach him.
But he had been dissapointed, the martial artists he met spoke of meridians and qi but they were ‘historically accurate’ in that their power was still just mundane human strength.
‘I’ve transmigrated with all this martial arts Wuxia cheat knowledge and I’m stuck at early third rate.
I may only be twelve but I refuse to let my progress be so slow.’
Yousti had transmigrated or more accurately reincarnated to this ancient world 12 years ago as a baby.
He was glad to know that he had come with a cheat, talent, gold finger, whatever you call it.
It was knowledge of supernatural martial arts.
‘No matter what I do this world remains stubbornly mundane.’
There were 14 realms of martial arts.
Third Rate
Second Rate
First Rate
Peak
Three Flowers Gather at the Summit
Five Energies Converging at the Origin
However the names of further stages were unknown to Yousti .
He would have to reach higher stages to properly learn of the further realms.
‘Not just that but even the martial arts I have learned are mediocre at best.
How am I supposed to ’embody the principles of my martial art’ when my martial arts has no principles in the first place!’
He sighed.
‘I really just have to figure out how to make a martial art from scratch.
Has my cheat given me the talent to do that?
This sucks.’
Yousti went back to mindlessly watching his own footsteps thud along the thin trail.
Eventually the trail split into a fork the caravan turned left.
“This is where we split off.”
Phaedo began saying his goodbyes to the people in the caravan before heading right on the trail.
Yousti just waved goodbye as he had scared off anyone with his aggressive martial arts practice.
Most people would choose to mind their business in the face of a child doing backflips and kicking and punching like there was no tommorow, especially in the risky business of travelling the silk road.
Bandits or groups of people demanding ‘protection fees’ could could show up any minute.
They continued hiking on for what felt like hours.
Yousti had no idea what Phaedo thought about when he was walking but he had an idea.
So he slowed his pace to move next to Phaedo to ask him a question.
“Phaedo, do you think we’ll meet one of those Buddhist monks along the way or at the next city?”
“…” Phaedo remained silent.
“Yes, why do you ask?”
“I heard they had this thing called uuh.”
“…”
“uuuh”
“Go on.”
“Satipatthana, that’s the word, Satipatthana.”
“I’ve heard of that term used by monks in passing. Feel free to ask them if you encounter one. I myself am ignorant though and cannot satisfy your curiosity.” He replied elegantly.
“I see.”
Yousti nodded in acknowledgement.
‘Shit.
Now I’ll have to wait and find a monk for a breathing technique.
Whatever maybe I’ll just use box breathing and see if I can make a internal energy method from that…’
He felt a wave of frustration as he thought about his predicament.
‘How am I supposed to do this.
I can’t even sense any so called supernatural energies no matter how I meditate at night.’
He remembered something that Zhao Wu told him when he was training.
“Power from martial arts comes from your breath not your muscles. The breath creates qi within your body and your body expresses that qi as martial arts.”
‘What the fuck kind of psuedo-science bullshit is this fossil talking about?’
Yousti shook his head at the memory.
‘Think ancient, not modern.
I really should have considered Zhao Wu’s words more carefully.
I was too focused on just learning punches and kicks.
Now I’m stuck on sensing this supposed qi for an internal energy method.’
Phaedo noticed Yousti frowning as he was trudging along.
“Is something upsetting you?”
“No.”
“Do not let your emotions dictate yourself, one must be stoic to make it through life.”
Yousti didn’t bother responding to Phaedo’s usual advice.
‘I’ll just figure out internal energy later then.’