"Ready for what?" I asked.
"To learn the Fist of Roaring Ki, for now, lets get out of here and we can find an appropriate place to train you," he said.
I nodded at the old man and followed him out of the small cave.
Once we were out, the Sect Master made sure to place the small insignificant rock back where it belonged, causing the entire formation to brighten up once again, then fully hide everything from sight.
We then took flight and headed to a random far away mountain peak. Arriving there, the sect master handed me a small manual.
Looking through the manual caused me to frown. This was almost the same as the book that Elder Gin had given me, the manual about the Fist of Roaring Ki, however, the writing style was different. And it had slightly more about it than the other book.
It was just a slight difference in forms to take, and patterns of attacks but it made a lot of the already simple move sets much simpler to practice.
I then had to judge that the book that elder Gin had on him wasn't the original but a replication from observation. Not to mention that the Fist of Roaring Ki that elder Gin had given me was missing a huge portion that this book had.
"God's Eternal Fists, and Ancient Titan's Stomp…" I muttered.
"Those are more advanced techniques, you should start with the basics you'll be able to learn the Titan's Martial Art later on once you master the basics first," the sect master said.
I nodded to him and re-read through the whole book again making sure to not miss anything this time.
I mentally adjusted all I knew about the Fist of Roaring Ki and all the ways to maneuver and move by applying the original move-set. It wasn't that difficult since they were too similar, it was only a bit of adjustment that I managed to understand in practically no time.
"Right, I think I understand the gist of it," I said as I nodded to the sect master.
"I'm surprised," the Sect Master said.
"Why so? Perhaps because I learned it fast?" I asked.
"No, that's not it, actually learning it fast was never the issue since this is a very simple martial art, the thing is, everyone who ever saw this always thought this was nothing but a brutish cultivation art that was too simple and not worth their time," the sect master said.
"Simplicity is perfection, a complex martial art might be powerful but it comes with great disadvantages such as cultivation level, Qi needed, or even the need to rotate Qi in specific rotation through one's meridians, a simple art doesn't make it weak, and a complex art doesn't make it strong," I replied.
These were basically reiterations of what Old Man Gin had spoken.
"Spoken like a true sage, good, now that you understand how about a practice session?" he asked.
"Oh, why am I not surprised," I said as I stood up.
"Oh not against me," the sect master said, "I'm afraid that I might end up killing you if I were to get too excited," he said then he struck the ground with a step forcing a pillar of dirt to manifest.
Then he placed his palm on the pilar, molding it and reshaping it into the shape of a human.
The sect master rose up high and then like if he was some sort of puppet master threw his hands forward causing tendrils of concentrated Qi to shoot from each of his fingers and attach themselves to the dirt puppet.
"You'll be fighting that," he said "Show me what you have Ling Cao," he said and then flicked a finger, sending a jolt of Qi into the puppet.
The puppet shot forward like a loose arrow with an extended fist aiming to tear my chest open.
Anyone would think of dodging a surging blow like this, but if I were to do that Master Gin would be disappointed.
I took a step forward and with all the power I could muster swung my right arm to the side completely parrying the puppet's blow and before the Sect Master could even react, the other arm which I had tucked under my armpit shot forward like a bullet train, blasting a massive hole into the dirt puppet, sending dirt flying all over the place.
"Oh my, impressive reaction time. Let's see what you can do about this," the sect master flicked more of his fingers, causing the puppet to reconstruct and then shoot forward this time slightly slower but more prudent and ready.
A slugfest started as I parried and dodged the puppet, but I was completely in control. I was extremely surprised, this improved body was not just working perfectly, it was doing something beyond that, I was able to easily see every move the puppet made and was more than capable of contending with it in speed and power. I continuedly to force the puppet back and broke it on every turn or chance I had.
"You're more experienced in close quarter combat than I had assumed, alright let's increase the difficulty a bit," he said as he shot more Qi into the puppet.
The puppet that I was able to easily track became much harder to keep under sight, it moved faster and more subtly, and attacked from positions that should be possible, however, it was not much damage dealt even after I messed up and took a straight punch to the ribs, the puppet could barely harm me and the damage was minimal at best.
"Good, your body had been constructed beautifully, nothing but a good weapon can pierce your skin now, good, keep up with the puppet, however," he said.
The puppet began gathering more power in its legs and arms then moved in a most erratic way, side to side then front to back mixing in them all sorts of jabs, blows, and kicks.
I instantly went on the defensive as the flurry of attacks gave me no breath to take or a chance to move.
"Don't stay on the defensive for too long," the sect master patiently advised.
And I sure as hell wasn't.
I took a step forward causing the sect master to frown because I was in direct contact with an incoming blow.
Taking full advantage of the new body's durability, I took the blow to the face and head on, literally.
My nose immediately fractured but in that frontal step, I was able to gather one full momentum of a step.
I had my palm forward upon trading the blow, and it shot forth power beyond what the dirt puppet could take.
A conical blast of charged-up Qi shot up from within the puppet's chest, separating its torso from the rest of its body, by separate, I meant completely evaporate it.
The puppet's limbs fell to the ground helplessly as the sect master was finding it amusing how he could no longer control the puppet to move anymore without a torso.
"You traded your nose for a kill, admirable, but you should know that this might not fly facing another opponent," he said.
I snapped my nose back to position and held back uncontrollable tears.
"I know, if someone else had more power in that punch I would probably lose my head, I took the risk based on the first blow I received from the puppet, it was tough but I knew I could take it, that's why I risked my nose for the kill," I replied.
"As you should, you took note of weakness and exploited it, it is the way of martial artists. Now, I saw something interesting, however," the sect master said as he came down.
"What was it?" I asked.
"You've been holding back," he said.
"Not really," I replied.
"I'm not talking about the martial arts, I saw that you tried your best to contend with the puppet, but I believe that you wanted to do something…more," he said.
"To be honest, I was, but didn't find the opportunity to, nor do I think I have the ability right now, I had to take this fight as a serious one, not a practice that's why I didn't try and use…' That'" I said.
"Then try it, right now, let me see how far you can go, or do you need to read the manual again?" he asked.
I shook my head, "Photographic memory, I don't forget something I've read once."
I then tucked both my arms under my armpits, aiming at nothing in particular.
The Qi within my Dantian began roiling and coiling then it shot out flooding out of me as if I was a living torch of green flames.
"Fist of Roaring Ki!" I chanted, and immediately all the Qi that was raging around me seemed to be sucked into both my fists almost immediately. "Fists of the Eternal God!"
The orbs of Qi that manifested around my fists raged on and shaped themselves into large gauntlets of green fire and light around my arms. There was something like jet thrusters shooting out from the Green and Golden Gauntlets.
The sect master smiled and then stomped on the ground, causing a massive pillar to appear in front of me.
"Punch it," he said with all the excitement he could muster.
I took a step aiming to punch the pillar, but the gauntlets took the initiative and the jet thruster behind them ignited even further shooting me up like a rocket.
The pillar in question had as much of a chance at blocking my fist as would a piece of paper against a burning great sword.
Echoes of explosions that seemed to rattle space itself shot from the point of impact. And a spherical shockwave seemed to surge out from the crash, the shockwave was powerful enough that it dented the ground under me and seemed to visibly distort space around us for a brief moment.
Then came the final release as all the Qi from the creation of the gauntlet seemed to shoot forward from the knuckles into a blast of green fire and light that seemed to cover a gigantic distance up front and burnt every blade of grass and every unfortunate tree in its wake.
"My god…" I muttered as I realized the destruction brought out by this art.
"Finally," the sect master smiled, "Finally someone else able to learn the Fist of The Eternal God."