“What level are you trying to reach with your hidden weapons?” Liu Long had been very relaxed since retiring…completely settled, fully withdrawn, not participating in any activities.
Typically, a Heavenly King-level fighter like him would immediately start appearing on variety shows, acting in films or TV dramas, maintaining their popularity and earning more money right after retirement. If managed well, they could even make more money than during their active career.
This made sense…many retired fighters quickly spent all their money and ended up impoverished. Even famous world boxing champions were no exception.
But Liu Long was devoted wholeheartedly to cultivation. For him, retirement represented the true beginning of his cultivation path. His final fight had earned him enough money, and his lifestyle was not extravagant.
Even more impressive, he had entrusted part of his funds to someone else for investment management, generating substantial returns.
That someone was none other than Su Jie’s roommate, Lin Tang.
Su Jie hadn’t entrusted his own money to Lin Tang, but Lin Tang frequently trained at Liu Long’s dojo, and over time, he and Liu Long had become good friends. Though Liu Long was a fighting Heavenly King, when it came to financial knowledge, he was like a child compared to Lin Tang.
Over the past few months, Liu Long had let Lin Tang invest in stocks…and made a fortune.
He had come to see that Lin Tang was a true financial genius.
“Formless and invisible…subdue the enemy without them knowing,” Su Jie said, practicing his needle-throwing techniques over and over.
These weren’t embroidery needles, but something similar to acupuncture needles, with weighted tails…in fact, they were ancient plum blossom needles, which could both heal and save lives, as well as serve as hidden weapons to subdue demons and uphold the Way.
Hummm…
As Su Jie practiced, the needles initially made only a soft whoosh sound, still distinguishable. But as his training continued, the needles flying from his fingertips and palms began to buzz like mosquitoes…you could hear the sound, but couldn’t see the projectile.
And their range grew longer and longer.
“It’s dark now. Let’s practice outside,” Su Jie said to Liu Long. “Perfect for using mosquitoes as targets.”
It was now June, the weather hot, and the woods were full of mosquitoes…ideal for hidden weapon practice.
Hitting stationary targets with flying needles was simple for Su Jie. The next step was hitting moving targets, which was far more difficult…especially something as small and agile as a mosquito.
Mosquitoes were tricky…even with a large electric swatter, hitting them wasn’t guaranteed, let alone with needles.
Su Jie and Liu Long went into the small woods and indeed heard the buzzing of many mosquitoes.
The lighting here was dim…for mosquitoes, you could hear them but couldn’t see them.
Smack!
Liu Long killed a mosquito that had landed on his skin.
The mosquito had just landed, not yet bitten, when Liu Long precisely slapped it dead.
His skin sensitivity as a master was something ordinary people couldn’t match.
Buzz…
At that moment, Su Jie struck.
He raised his hand and three needles flew out, embedding themselves in a nearby tree.
Liu Long hurried over and found that each needle had pierced a mosquito…precisely through the abdomen, pinned to the tree. One mosquito had a full belly, apparently having sucked someone’s blood, yet it still died under Su Jie’s flying needle.
“Not good enough.” Su Jie walked over, pulled the needles from the tree, and retrieved two more from the grass. “I fired five needles but only hit three mosquitoes. Two dodged. My technical skill still can’t keep up with my mind.”
Just now, Su Jie’s perception had locked onto five mosquitoes. He had calculated their flight trajectories and fired the needles in an instant, aiming to eliminate them all at once.
Unfortunately, his hand technique hadn’t fully coordinated with his mind, causing the error.
This was a common human flaw…the mind thinks something can be done, but the body falls short.
The term for it is “high aim, low ability.”
Normally, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen to Su Jie. But what he was attempting now pushed beyond his limits. In the dim woods, mosquitoes were barely visible…he had to rely on extraordinary perception to detect them.
The mind naturally surpasses the body.
This required constant practice to calibrate.
Su Jie had never focused specifically on hidden weapons before. To him, they were just a means of killing. What he truly pursued was bare-handed movement…unity of body and mind, and ultimately, unity of heaven and man.
But now, with dedicated practice, he discovered that hidden weapons could also train the inner spirit.
Whether with weapons, hidden weapons, or bare hands, the essence was using one’s essence, energy, and spirit to drive the limbs.
At this moment, Su Jie realized he was somewhat like a computer…the mind was the software system, the body was the hardware. Software controls hardware…virtual things control physical reality.
Moreover, when killing mosquitoes with flying needles, the perception needed to be intensely strong, radiating outward like radar, precisely detecting the surroundings. In an instant, with exquisite technique, the needle would be fired…not a hair’s breadth off.
And mosquitoes were moving targets with keen senses; their position and trajectory had to be locked and calculated in an instant.
Every mosquito was an evasion expert.
Each one Su Jie killed was like a process of attack and evasion with a master.
He had learned many hidden weapon techniques. First, he had studied with Gu Yang, a master of hidden weapons, who had taught him almost all of his assassination skills. Then he had absorbed much from Odell’s teaching videos.
Odell’s videos included a series specifically on releasing hidden weapons…how to kill enemies quickly, how to generate power, what angles to use, with flying knives, daggers, needles, stones, shuriken, kunai, and all sorts of other improbable objects.
Su Jie had never specifically trained in these. Now he was reviewing them, synthesizing and refining them into his own unique methods.
His physical quality and strength were beyond question. His baseline hidden weapon skill was already high. With further refinement, it was easy to push to a new level.
And so Su Jie practiced ceaselessly.
Day and night, through various studies, he integrated his essence, energy, spirit, movement techniques, and all his skills into his movements, striving for divine mastery.
After a full month of practice, Su Jie’s hidden weapon skills had advanced by leaps and bounds.
During this training, he also experienced the sensation of focusing all his power into a single point and releasing it with explosive force…that piercing penetrative power.
Every release…whether flicking, throwing, dropping, rolling, or releasing…he incorporated into his boxing techniques, greatly helping his control of that critical point.
Tai Chi was the same…once you found the weak point in an opponent’s movement, the Hooke blind spot, you could deliver devastating destruction.
And the needles Su Jie fired were the same…in that instant, gathering all his essence, energy, and spirit, using his sharpest aspect to attack the opponent’s most vulnerable point.
This too contained profound martial principles.
During Su Jie’s practice, Liu Long watched and contemplated, sometimes offering constructive training methods, even volunteering as Su Jie’s target.
Through their continuous research, Liu Long’s evasive techniques improved greatly, especially his understanding of the Tai Chi blind spot theory…he grasped it thoroughly.
Over time, Su Jie noticed that Liu Long’s boxing had also acquired a needle-like quality…a highly concentrated power focused into a single point in a devastating strike.
Whether in boxing or any other attack method, the goal was always concentration and condensation of power.
In practicing needle-type hidden weapons, Su Jie had brought Liu Long to achieve this as well.
During this month of training, Wen Ting at Hedao Group hadn’t made any major moves…just continuing the acquisition negotiations with Haoyu Group. Su Jie and Liu Guan had been waiting to draw the snake out, but the other side hadn’t acted.
Feng Hengyi seemed to have disappeared as well.
But Su Jie felt this was the calm before the storm…a hurricane of sudden attacks was likely coming.
Wen Ting and Feng Hengyi were definitely waiting for the perfect moment. The instant Su Jie and Liu Guan let their guard down, they would strike for the kill.
So Su Jie seized this opportunity to train intensely in hidden weapons…only hidden weapons could allow him to fight both of them. Though those two were also skilled with hidden weapons, Su Jie had strong confidence that he could surpass them in this area.
Bang!
Su Jie flicked five needles at a wooden board ten paces away.
The first needle pierced straight through the board, but the remaining four only embedded themselves without penetrating…showing significantly reduced power.
“Just as I thought…only the first strike has enough power and speed. The subsequent strikes are much weaker,” Su Jie said. “If I use hidden weapons against Feng Hengyi and Wen Ting, I have a seventy percent chance with the first strike. The second drops to thirty percent. Overall, my odds are slim. If they come at me together, I might take one out in an instant, but the second would kill me before I could recover.”
Su Jie had run the calculations repeatedly in his mind. He had fought both Feng Hengyi and Wen Ting and knew roughly their capabilities…though both had trump cards they hadn’t shown, and in critical moments they would surely unleash unexpected potential. But that was fine…he could account for that by overestimating them.
In his calculations, he found that against two opponents, he could at most kill one before being killed by the other.
He could calculate this…and Wen Ting and Feng Hengyi could calculate it too. Neither would want to be the one to fall. And the two of them likely had their own mutual calculations.
This was precisely why they had been so hesitant to act.