I couldn't figure it out, there was something clearly in front of me, within the footprints the old man had left, but I was still failing to grasp them.
I then decided instead of deducing and understanding, to try and practice, and experience it firsthand.
I placed my foot on the first of the footprint set.
Then took a second step and immediately felt the world turning upside down.
It wasn't the world, it was as if I, for trying to move I that pattern had completely forgotten how to even move. I was like a toddler trying to move.
"What the fuck?!" I cursed surprised by what had just occurred.
This wasn't something normal, I just fell from trying to take a single step forward, how is that even conceivable in the realm of possibilities? An old person like me, having lost balance just like that?
With renewed resolve, I stood up, then tried the same thing once again, taking another step only to fall.
I stopped, there was no reason for me to keep trying without figuring out the issue first. Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome is madness.
I needed to understand what was going on first.
Now, the full set of footprints looked like a person moving in a circle. However, I clearly remember the old man making specific motions before every step.
I then stood up again, and this time, instead of just blindly trying to walk over the same footprints, I tried to move my foot, in the same manner, the old man had done before I touched the ground.
I took a step forward and slowly twitched the sole of my foot before touching the ground.
Once again, I fell but this time I felt that it wasn't as awkward as before.
I tried again, this time increasing the jerk of the foot, but the same result happened only more severely.
"Perhaps it's too much, let's tone it down," I muttered and continued on.
Adding more 'jerkin' to my foot, or reducing it, min-maxing the motion of the foot as I stepped forward.
It took me a damnable long time, of trying, falling, standing back again, and trying again, the motion itself needed to be incredibly accurate to even hope to function.
I tried again and again but still didn't manage to take a single step.
Frustrated I sat back down, took my pipe, and began smoking, as I looked at the footprints.
I was no fool, the old man clearly left this for me. A movement technique. Something I desperately needed, my movement is too slow, and I have no methods of avoiding blows from other cultivators, my firepower in comparison to cultivators at the same stage as I am is good enough, as they say a good offense is the best defense, however, against something that I can't fight against a trap or something of the sorts, without a proper movement technique I'm a sitting duck.
I continued smoking as I was looking at the footprints, then thought of something, why not add some law to my movements? Spatial law, to enforce my foot into the correct position.
I stood up and began trying. I used Law to set up a 'fixed' motion, of my foot, instead of 'manually' moving my foot, I applied spatial law in a sequence so that my foot would move slightly to the left and then to the right before it fell down on the correct spot.
And surprisingly it worked.
I then took another step, and the same happened, however, the ground underneath me shivered.
I frowned, the ground was about to break from the second footstep, and if I were to take a third, everything here will be destroyed and I'll lose this footstep set.
I then decided it was best to fully memorize the moves and footprints, then headed into Lucid Springs city.
I didn't need to inform anyone of my presence because I was about to enter secluded training.
I went inside the main hall building unnoticed and into one of the private chambers inside it, I locked it and went inside the Lord of Lords pagoda into the white space of practice.
I set up the time dilation to the maximum and then applied the same foot pattern of the old man on the ground by drawing it manually.
I then began taking the same steps from the start.
With every step, the second became heavier, and it increased its weight more and more. I don't think this was something the old man had meant to teach me while he was showing me this movement technique, but at the same time, this byproduct discovered by chance isn't something to look at lightly.
Every step seemed to have a momentum to it, and every time I took another step, the power behind it doubled. And it kept doubling, increasing its destructiveness as I felt that whenever my foot fell down, the whole white space shuddered. And the best thing was, I wasn't exhausting any of my Qi in the process, it was some sort of application that gathered momentum and released it with me being the medium and enabler but not the supplier of Qi.
I continued exploring all the possibilities of this 'Momentum Step' and discovered a few things.
Once I took the seventh step, I couldn't handle the weight anymore, though I didn't use Qi, I could feel that my foot's weight had increased tremendously.
And the impact from the seventh step, and I'm not exaggerating, was enough to bust down an entire mountain top.
Secondly, I couldn't do it again for an entire day, it wasn't Qi that was exhausted, but my own body, after the seventh step I could feel like I was emptied out and couldn't even take another step forward. Finally, the fact that this momentum motion can actually be transferred.
For example, I could take six steps, and instead of taking the seventh step, I could thrust my palm forward using the same application of spatial jittering and can transfer the momentum from my foot to my palm, causing a destructive shockwave to be released instead. The problem was the moment I transferred the momentum to my palm, I lost the ability to move my entire arm for a whole day.
"Neat," I muttered. Something came out of that practice. But, this was a movement technique in the first place, so I'll need to actually solve the issue of this momentum gain and obtain the ability to transfer the momentum into movement speed.
I tried again this time without relying on spatial law but failed nevertheless to even take a single step.
I tried other things but I couldn't figure out a way how to replicate the old man's movement.
First off, the application of the law was a good idea, but that was cheating. The old man didn't use any laws in his movement, it was pure motion.
However, he added something to it, and I needed to figure out what.
I walked around trying to figure out how this whole mess can be solved. And I didn't seem to be able to find anything.
Perhaps, it's true, I have no talent as the old man had said, I don't have a talent root, nor a Qi body. I'm a parasite that hosted the body of a young kid in a different world. I never was a cultivator and all my achievements were due to me relying on my otherworldly knowledge.
I immediately, shook my head, why the heck was I thinking such nasty thoughts.
Shen Bao, drop the self-deprecation and self-loathing, it's beneath you, I achieved all I have due to my own effort and hard work. Whenever I was presented with a problem, I always solved it, my way.
So, if I can't figure out how exactly the old man did his movement technique, then so what? I'll try and learn another movement technique at worst. At least I learned something from that movement technique even if it was just a side effect of the main skill.
As I was giving myself a pep talk and moving around, I stopped momentarily.
"Wait, I'm a genius! It was obvious! Form the start!" I said and went right back to the steps.
And then took the first step, then the second, then the third, in quick succession as my lips widened up in a big smile.
The motions I made were immaculately accurate, to the smallest action, even the foot jerking was included in my moves.
And then, my speed, increased incredibly so, so much that I was honestly amazed at myself at how fast the motion and movement can be. I could swear that I was so fast I was actually catching up to my own afterimages.
I stopped soon however as I was assaulted with a wave of exhaustion, but at the same time, I was happy to have discovered the secret of this technique.
It was simple, a side effect. The steps the old man took, felt devoid of all Qi, however, in essence, they weren't, no martial art is fully devoid of Qi, it was just that the old man was actually using a minuscule amount of it, at an extremely rapid pace.
It was like sending a shockwave of Qi to his feet in bursts, and the 'side effect' of these sudden bursts of qi was the twitching of his foot, at first I thought it was something that needed to move, but it was actually nothing but a side effect.
I continued practicing the movement technique for several days more inside the Lord of Lords pagoda and didn't leave until I was fully confident in my own ability to use the movement technique without messing up a step.
Not only that I also made sure to further practice the Momentum Movement Technique that I discovered by sheer luck.
Now that I learned the movement technique, it's time for me to stop ignoring the giant elephant in the room.
My personal cultivation has been stagnant for a while, and I no longer have an excuse not to push it forward.
It's time to hit the Soul Formation stage.
