It wasn’t just Joseph’s Qi, instincts and mind, but his whole mindset was changing. He was so happy to have discovered this little secret that he irrationally started thinking that even reaching Jacob’s level was not out of his reach anymore.

It was, as mentioned, an irrational thought, something absolutely moronic that made no sense. But Joseph didn’t know that. Instead, he felt as if he had just reached one of the greatest insights a man could touch upon.

And, unknowingly, he had touched on one of the main aspects needed to become a true expert: belief.

Joseph’s Qi was vibrating inside his body, shaking more and more violently with every second passing without release. And he was now getting sort of a ‘timer’ feeling from his own Qi. If he could keep all these new moving parts in the right place at the right time, he was sure he was going to eat sushi very soon!

“HA!” Joseph shouted.

First Martial Saint Martial Style, 1st stance – Foolish Dodge

The fish started running away as soon as he heard the shout, but Joseph had already accounted for that and he had jumped in advance, covering the distance with his food in a second. Then, while twisting mid-air in a seemingly awkward position, he shot out a hand as if his entire body had been made for that precise movement and he felt the fish slippery skin in his grip.

“HA!” Joseph had done everything perfectly and shouted in exhilaration.

Well, not exactly everything.

The grip contained the full strength of a Mantis realm cultivator.

The fish got split in two while Joseph was raising it above his head and all the viscera from it spilled all over the boy.

“Oh fuck!” Joseph cried out.

…

While his disciple assumed a sad expression, the First Martial Saint had been left speechless.

“I’m sorry, Master, I miscalculated how much strength would be required to catch the fish. Your lesson was… hard to grasp. I think I figured out a couple of things more but I’m still lacking the fine control that should be applied at the end of the motion. Was that part of the energy efficiency control, a lesson in how to avoid wasting more energy by applying just the right amount of force?”

Tommy had absolutely no idea what Joseph was talking about, but he really didn’t want to let his disciple know that.

Sure! That’s one of the most important lessons, tsk! It will take a few more tries to a few weeks to master it perfectly! This master is pleased to see that his unfilial disciple has finally learned even a little bit from his master’s teachings.

Joseph nodded solemnly and he bowed toward nothing.

“Thank you, First Martial Saint—master. I knew your training would be similar to karate-kid ‘wax on, wax off’, but I didn’t know it would share the same principles. Turning an everyday activity into training is the most genius thing. I was ashamed to try something like that before, but I suddenly got enlightened while trying to provide for food when you, master, told me that I still had to catch my own dinner!”

The First Martial Saint had absolutely no idea what Joseph was talking about, but he had no intention of spoiling the boy’s insights.

Tommy had no idea of what had just transpired and how it was possible that Joseph had just reached such a deep focus—

He’s doing it again!

Joseph started once again falling into the deeply focused mind to catch another fish, trying to incorporate the lesson just learned on strength control in this new attempt.

The First Martial Saint was speechless.

Joseph had somehow found out how to follow the natural current of his Qi and not rely just on his mind doing the work. Instincts were fundamental in a battle and if they could be controlled by his mind, they would become a perfect weapon.

And not just that, but Tommy had just felt Joseph’s aura. The boy had started to develop his own path way ahead of what the First Martial Saint had thought possible.

Tommy had brought his disciple on this journey in order for him to discover some personal insights sooner or later. But the First Martial Saint had been ready to wait for years before the young boy could actually do something on his own.

Somehow, instead, Joseph had convinced himself that his master had been trying to teach him some extremely weird lesson that instead turned out to be a massive insight into his own cultivation.

He was Joseph try again, and this time the boy went extremely close to catching the fish whole.

There had just been so many insights going into what Joseph had just done that the First Martial Saint could hardly classify and distinguish them all one from another.

Is Joseph one of those people?

Once he tried again, Joseph caught his first entire fish with the first stance of the First Martial Saint Martial Style.

He is one of those people. Incredible.

The ‘people’ the First Martial Saint had been referring to were an anomaly in the cultivation world.

Cultivation worked with insights, enlightment, fighting experience, resources and so on. But one of the most important characteristics – if not the most important – was mindset. If a cultivator could visualize himself winning a battle, he already was a step closer to victory. If a cultivator could visualize himself crossing the next realm without a problem, he already had a step into that realm.

The greatest cultivators, warriors and mages alike, heroes and monsters, had all one shared characteristic. While they did not have the same resources, talent, Cultivation Techniques of the same grade or God knows what, they still had the same ability to simply believe that they would be the strongest.

And that was the greatest thing Joseph had just gained. He had just gained some belief. Considering the boy had just advanced years – if not decades - into his understanding of the first stance, saying that his new belief was even superior to that really spoke volumes about how many bottlenecks the boy had just broken through.

Joseph was one of those people, those people who were so idiotic they actually stumbled upon one of the greatest insights of cultivation because they were simply stupid enough to mindlessly believe in themselves.

Now, a good chunk of those people died the most miserable deaths, running straight into the most dangerous situations like the idiots they were.

But a fraction of them… a very small fraction of them…

Well, they became some of the greatest masters who ever existed.