Close Combat Mage

Upon hearing Suo Jia’s words, an expression of sudden realization spread across Xiang Yun’s face. After thinking it over for a while, he tilted his head back and burst out into laughter. Amid his chuckles, he shook his head and said, “I hadn’t imagined that the difficulties I’ve been struggling with for so long could be resolved with just a single sentence from you, Boss. You’re absolutely right, an impatiently eager frame of mind is indeed the greatest obstacle to practicing the Eastern-style of martial arts!”

Xiang Yun stood up and cupped his fists together as he resolutely stated, “After hearing Boss’s words, I seem to have come to understand a lot more things, so I will be going to seclude myself off to train, and try to…”

“Stop there!” Suo Jia abruptly reached out to stop Xiang Yun and smiled, “If you leave like this, I can assure you that you won’t get anywhere. That’s because your heart is still just as impatient as before!”

“That’s…” Xiang Yun paused for a moment, then bitterly smiled. That was right…wanting to hurry and go train was still the same thing as being impatient. Although he had thought he’d understood something, going off to shut himself off to train now was pretty much doomed to not show any results.

Suo Jia continued to look at Xiang Yun to add, “Your strength has already advanced far enough, but…from beginning to end, your heart has lacked tranquility. I believe that whenever your heart is truly able to settle, you will immediately be able to experience your next breakthrough!”

Xiang Yun nodded with difficulty. “It’s not that I don’t understand your words, but an undisturbed heart isn’t something that is achievable just from talking about it. Even though I know that is what it should be, I just can’t seem to calm myself down.”

Suo Jia confidently replied, “That’s simple. If you believe in me, then don’t train at all for now. Just look out at the rolling ocean and catch some fish daily. Without a doubt, you still definitely have a breakthrough within a month!”

“What…?!” Xiang Yun stared at Suo Jia is astonishment and stuttered, “You’re joking, right? Staring at the sea and going fishing every day is enough to have a breakthrough? Do such miraculous occasions exist in this world?”

Suo Jia chose to not answer directly, and instead smiled as he indifferently replied, “It’s up to you to believe it or not. If you would like, you can go back and continue your rigorous training. I can’t say with absolute certainty that this method will work. Honestly, it’s more like an 80% chance. As for whether you should follow my suggestion or not, the decision is yours!”

Xiang Yun stared at Suo Jia for a long while before he declared, “Screw it, I’ll listen to you this time. I haven’t been able to advance from this same point for two or three years now anyways, so wasting a month is no big deal!”

Suo Jia nodded and happily said, “Since you’ve chosen to follow my method, then there are a few points I need to clarify that you must take note of. The goal of fishing isn’t to suddenly make a breakthrough. You have to focus your entire mind and body on fishing, and thoroughly enjoy the experience. If you go to catch fish with the goal of just advancing in your training, you still won’t be able to get past the final realm, and you won’t see any beneficial changes at all!”

Suo Jia then turned to look at Roger and said seriously, “Finally, let’s talk about you. Although you’ve made some significant improvements recently, you clearly haven’t been developing your personal strength yet!”

“Huh?” Roger asked in confusion. “My personal strength? My specialty is my agile legs!”

Suo Jia shook his head and rebuked, “No, your strength isn’t your legs, but your immensely great force of impact and your unparalleled, crazy speed!”

Suo Jia patted his own thighs as he explained, “From a biological perspective, the reason that the arms cannot be twisted more than the legs is because the legs are thicker and so their strength is more excessive. From a martial arts perspective, because the legs are larger in size, the amount of energy they can collect and release is greater. In other words, when you are up against someone of the same rank and level of strength, they shouldn’t be able to stand up against a direct hit from your repeated kicks. After all…your output in both physical strength and battle qi should be at least twice those of the other person!”

“That’s right!” Xiang Yun sighed in admiration and continued, “Boss’s words are spot on. My Eastern-style martial arts states that hands are just gateways. One should rely on their legs to fight someone, because the legs and the feet naturally exceed the hands and arms in terms of strength, without any external aid!”

Suo Jia continued in agreement, “That’s right. Because the legs are much thicker than the arms, and the feet are much larger than the hands, the amount of physical strength and battle qi that they can exhibit should be around two times the amount that hands can. A person’s punch at full strength can’t ever be as powerful as their kick at full strength!”

“But…” Roger frowned and countered, “What you’re saying is something that I thought about many years ago, and know very well. But, let’s take Xiang Yun as an example, his hands can also hold a weapon,. Doesn’t that cancel out the difference in strength?”

“Hahahaha…” Suo Jia stared blankly in response to Roger’s words at first before laughing out loud. He continued, “You’re just wasting your time on an insignificant problem. Although other people can hold a weapon with their hands, can’t you also attack with both your feet at the same time? If the opponent uses their weapon to block one of your feet, they may be able to cancel out the force of the blow. But you still have another leg to attack, and what would they be able to block that with? Don’t tell me you think that people have three arms?” 𝐟𝙧ee𝔀e𝐛𝓃𝐨𝚟𝑒𝗹.c𝗼𝚖

“Ah!” Roger cried out in astonishment and murmured, “Right! Even if the other party uses a weapon to block and cancel out the attack from one of my feet, I still have another one, which would be impossible to defend against!”

As Roger said this, Xiang Yun added, “It’s not just the point of being able to attack with another foot. In reality, even though the opponent is using a weapon, it’s impossible to completely transfer all the energy from both hands onto the weapon!”

Xiang Yun paused there for a moment before continuing to say, “Roger, why don’t you try it? One fist repeatedly attacking versus two hands simultaneously repeatedly attacking, which do you think has more power?”

“That’s…obviously the two hands attacking at the same time!” Roger said in a matter-of-fact tone. 𝙛𝐫e𝚎wℯ𝗯𝒏𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄o𝚖

Xiang Yun spread his feet apart and patted his own chest. “No point in talking, just try it yourself. But this is only a test, so don’t any abilities!”

Roger was momentarily frozen, but he then nodded, having understood Xiang Yun’s implication to use his physical strength to attack. Just attacking with physical strength alone should follow the same principles as adding battle qi to it. And if he didn’t use his abilities, Roger’s attack would be harmless.

Roger rolled his shoulders, then abruptly threw a hard punch out with his right hand. It firmly landed on Xiang Yun’s chest. As expected…without the pretense of any abilities, Xiang Yun didn’t even bother to dodge Roger’s attack.

Xiang Yun indifferently looked at Roger and said, “Now, try attacking with both of your fists at the same time.”

Roger nodded and gripped his left fist tightly around his right. He then fiercely tossed another punch at Xiang Yun. As the muffled sound of impact rang out, Roger could only stand there blankly in surprise.

Xiang Yun smiled at Roger’s stunned expression. “How about it? Is the power behind using both hands really twice as great as just using one?”

Roger furiously shook his head and asked in bewilderment, “How could that be? From what I could sense, the force of two fists attacking is even lower than from a single fist!”

“Hehe…” Xiang Yun assured him, “That’s because you’re not an expert at using your fists to attack. But I must have you know that even if you mastered using both fists to attack, it wouldn’t be possible to combine the force of both together completely. As each fist releases its own power, they collide and cancel each other out to a certain extent. That’s because…one can at most express 80% of the combined force of both arms at one time. That’s man’s limit!”

“But…” Roger protested, “If the opponent was carrying a broadsword or an ax, the result would be different as well!”

Xiang Yun nodded and agreed, “That has to do with the weapon’s mechanics. With regards to going up against a battle-axe, you can’t let it attack you from the position where it can release the most power. Axe-users are typically all stupid. Once you close the distance between you and them and activate your Hormone fruit, there’s no way they would be able to keep up with you.”

Xiang Yun pointed at Roger’s sturdy legs and said, “Moreover, don’t you think that your legs are like the handles of an axe, while your feet are like the blades? Even if you collided with an axe head-on, you wouldn’t be in any disadvantage!”

“My God!” Roger’s eyes lit up after hearing the explanations from Xiang Yun and Suo Jia. A brand new door had gradually appeared and opened itself before his eyes. This was a new scope to his martial arts!

Seeing how wildly excited Roger was by this new information, Xiang Yun smiled at Suo Jia. “Since Boss has been so generously advising us, then I, Xiang Yun, shouldn’t keep anything back either.”

“Huh?” Suo Jia looked back in confusion, not catching on to what Xiang Yun meant. It couldn’t be that…he could also teach everyone something? That seemed unlikely! Xiang Yun had come from an Eastern country that practiced ancient martial arts. There was no way any mage professions existed there