‘In order to achieve martial arts I created an immortal art simply named “Qi” so that means that true martial arts originates not from the Martial Record but from my heart.’
Yousti stood up from where he sat and looked up at the rising sun.
He had spent all night to reach this enlightenment even though he didn’t feel that long a time had passed at all.
‘Damn I’m getting all spiritual like Phaedo and all those other instructors.
This honestly feels less like martial arts and more like cultivation.
Am I sure this isn’t just the Great Dao Record and not the Martial Record?’
He smirked at the amusing thought and walked back to the camp where the woman had slept last night.
Except he didn’t find a camp at all.
Yousti walked around the spot where the campfire and tent had been and found nothing at all.
Not even a sign that anybody other than himself had been there.
“Huh.”
All he found was a spider making a spiderweb between the trees where the tent had once been.
Yousti was confused but being any more or less suspicious wouldn’t help him.
He shrugged to himself and began wandering along the silk road once again like he always did.
“Maybe I met a ghost. Or spirit. That would count as my first supernatural experience. But no way to confirm it.” Yousti nodded to himself in acknowledgement of the bizarreness of that woman he met.
‘Don’t get full of yourself Yousti.
You’re still just a first rate martial artist.
I don’t even know what exactly to do with the knowledge of what the Record calls Immortal Arts.
Although.’
Yousti could feel it.
He had successfully become a Late First Rate Master and achieved Unity of Man and Weapon.
He was now extremely close to becoming a Peak Master who according to the Martial Record could see an entirely new world.
But it refused to tell him anything more as that would actually hinder his progress instead of helping him.
~
Yousti was slaughtering a large group of bandits with little care for their origin as usual.
It was what he was known for as the Silk Spirit.
But as he was finishing up the last of the bandits he felt all the threads he had severed simultaneously.
‘That’s not good’
From the group of bandits came a robed figure.
“Who are you?”
“-”
He felt a sudden impact hit him from absolutely nothing.
Knocking him back hard enough to leave a trail of dug up dirt and knocked over trees.
‘He said something weird before that hit.’
The time had come Yousti felt a sense of excitement rise up from within him as he finally met someone who could give him a proper fight.
“_”
Yousti swung his arm sending a slash of strings straight at the robed figure.
However the strings hit some kind of barrier and bounced off.
“What are you saying?”
“Enuncia.”
“What’s that?”
Yousti began using his fingers, manipulating the silk to thread the whole area while reinforcing it with his internal energy to prevent it from breaking like before.
“-”
Many of the strings he just spread snapped and Yousti felt the sensation of something trying to split him in half.
If he were a normal human he would’ve instantly died to that force.
‘He’s saying it again!’
Yousti thrust his hand forward and a long spike attached to a string flew forward right between the robed figures eyes.
He put even more internal energy into it than usual to break that barrier.
“_”
The spike bounced off the barrier before he drew it back with the string.
The barrier had gotten stronger.
“—”
Yousti spit out blood as he felt his internal organs seperating.
Whatever force that robed guy was hitting him with was ignoring his external defenses and affecting his entire body.
‘I have to finish this fast before he actually rips me apart!’
He wrapped strings around his left hand and right foot to create an instrument of silk made of his own body.
With his right hand he began playing.
‘Let’s see if that barrier can defend against sound arts.’
The main reason he chose Silksong as his main martial art was for its immense versatility as Yousti hated the idea of restricting himself with his martial arts.
Nearly instantly the robed figure began spitting blood and falling to their knees.
“_”
The barrier strengthened again but it did nothing to the sound.
Yousti continued to play, slowly killing the figure until they layed in a pile of their own blood.
“Those were resonant frequencies of the human body I played. It’s quite painful but it’s also very difficult for me to play because the human body is really varied. I’m sure this would all be very interesting to you if you weren’t already dead.”
Yousti squated down and lifted up the hood revealing the face of middle aged man.
His expression though covered in blood was clearly baffled and terrified at the same time.
‘It would be really nice if he explained Enuncia a little more.’
He pulled back all the strings he had spread and wrapped them around his body once again.
‘That was pretty good for a first fight as a martial artist.
Short and Sweet.’
Yousti had fought for his life before.
The 20 year period he spent to attain Qi had plenty of life or death battles against bandits.
After he had become a true martial artist he had lost any more opportunities for real fights.
He sighed as he thought about the fight.
‘Honestly a pretty boring fight though.
He just dealt damage that ignored distance and aim and had essentially an indestructible wall.
If I didn’t have sound arts I would’ve just died without being able to do anything.
If this world has more opponents that can do bullshit like this, I should keep on focusing on increasing my strength and versatility.’
Yousti began walking away.
He didn’t bother cleaning up any of the corpses as he felt that nature would do that job for him.
As the days passed he kept training his martial arts and saving random people on the silk road as he inched closer and closer towards becoming a peak master.
He practiced constantly maintaining awareness of his five senses as the Martial Record had recommended him to.
And constantly performed his silk dance.
Over time his body began to become even more covered in the silk gifted to him by those he saved and what he ‘secretly’ borrowed from the temples dedicated to the Divine Silk Spirit.
He looked like a mummy wearing clothes.
Well not really like a mummy as his physique was too impressive to be hidden by the ‘bandages’ he wore.
Although as a generally effeminate male his physique evolved to be impressive in other ways.
But eventually one day during training.
Yousti felt some kind of limit release on his brain.
He had finally reached the Peak.
Yousti had become a Peak Master Martial Artist.
And now he understood why the Martial Record absolutely did not reveal any details.
He could now see red and blue lines coming forth from every person.
When somebody tried to attack him even if he was blind and deaf he would perceive a red line that traced where they would attack and he would also perceive blue lines that show the ideal paths of his own attacks.
‘If I had the idea of seeing red and blue lines for this stage, I might’ve actually hallucinated imaginary red and blue lines in the air without actually becoming a peak master.
I can only imagine what kind of madness would ensue if that actually happened.’
Yousti shook his head at the possibility of such an absurd future.
He felt very grateful for not having to deal with that thanks to the Records secrecy.
‘Thank you Martial Record your wisdom knows no bounds.’
But as Yousti mastered his new vision he slowly became more and more horrified.
“This is wrong. It can’t be!”
The world, everything…
Was colored
R e d