Chapter 160: Nine-Styles Weapon Subduing Art

Inventing something new was truly difficult, even for someone with a lot of resources like Sila. Even though he had a strong foundation and possessed several profound arts, it still took him a week to come up with the core concept for his Weapon Subduing Fist Art.

Although, the time he took was, in fact, incredibly short. When it came to anything else, Sila might be dull and stupid, but not when martial arts were involved. Going over what he had learned, practising diligently, mimicking others, and adapting what he had seen were all things he had done since childhood.

After writing the final sentence, Sila put his pen down and closed the book in front of him. On the cover was the title “Weapon Subduing Fist: Sila”. For the record, the content within this book was vastly different from common martial art manuals, as Sila was a bad writer, writing everything that came to mind in the middle of training. As a result, this book ended up being very hard to read. The handwriting was downright ugly, the topic was not properly explained, there was no table of contents, and there were even a lot of symbols that he made up as well as many sentences that had been crossed out. No one would be able to understand this book.

Except for the writer himself, of course. Finally, Sila had finished developing the Weapon Subduing Fist Art that he envisioned, just as both he and his teacher hoped.

The full name of this art was Nine-Styles Weapon Subduing Art. Sila intended to come up with exactly nine styles in honor of Mora’s Nine Sun-Melting-Fists. Nevertheless, even though he said it was a single art that had nine styles, in fact, each style acted like an individual art. It was the result of him combining various arts together.

Sila divided the art into three parts: Lesser Styles, Middle Styles, and Greater Styles. The difficulty in terms of usage increased with every tier, going from easy to insanely difficult.

Leaving the book on the ground, Sila stood up and started demonstrating the first three styles. The first three could be used even without the implementation of inner force.

The first style was called Armament Trampling. It was derived from Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps combined with footwork techniques from Nine Sun-Melting-Fists, and further improved by his experience fighting against Montra.

The basic of this style was to attack while evading. Sila took several steps back and forth. Some movements were neat while some looked chaotic.

With Twelve Celestial-Traveling-Steps as its base, he had added bending down, jumping, gliding, and dragging feet into the art. Initially, he had never understood why these kinds of movement weren’t included in the art, though he finally figured out why because of something Mora had said. It turned out these kinds of movement were compensated by utilization of the Star Ocean Sword Art.

Another aspect that was included in the style was offensive moves using feet. Prior to this moment, Sila hardly relied on using his feet to attack opponents since, for him, using his feet was harder than using his hands. However, due to his last fight against Montra, he realized how important kicking was. Seeing Montra skillfully use each part of his body like a separate weapon, Sila decided to develop a kicking technique that aimed to counter the use of weapons. Most of his techniques centered around stopping the opponent’s movements and following up with his own attack, though there were some directly offensive moves. The name of this style was inspired by the idea of enabling himself to walk leisurely, even in the middle of a battlefield.

Sila stopped moving and started utilizing the second style: Bone Claws, which he derived from Death Bridge and Nine Sun-Melting-Fists.

This style emphasized speed, power, and having no mercy. No, rather than being merciless, it was a mercy to let the opponent die without having to feel pain. This style was one of the styles he could use proficiently despite having developed it from an art that he had only practiced for three days.

He suspected that it might be due to the fact that dark arts were easier to practice than ordinary ones.

Both his hands were swiftly striking an imaginary opponent. Each spot that he aimed at was a vital point and would easily result in death. Even if he couldn’t finish the opponent with a single move, he would still possess various methods to gravely injure the opponent, such as crushing their bones, or disabling them by detaching or twisting their joints.

As for the last style among the first three styles, it was called Martial Formless. It was the only style that was solely his idea without relying on others. It wasn’t derived from any arts he learned. Rather, it was developed from his imagination and self-training.

It didn’t have a fixed movement. Rather than calling it an art or a style, it was just a concept. Sila threw a simple, almost ordinary left hook forward, not too fast and not too slow, before stopping. His expression showed that he was very proud of himself.

“For this style, it seems I need to use it against a real opponent before I can be sure of its usefulness,” muttered Sila, before writing more lines into his book.

In the eyes of ordinary people, they wouldn’t see anything in particular with that previous punch. However, true experts would be intrigued. They would even compliment Sila and say that the name Martial Formless was by no means an exaggeration.

This style was birthed from his unorthodox learning process and out of the box thinking. With this concept in his head, his attack would completely defy common sense. It was a style that suited Sila the best, while at the same time, contradicted his nature the most.

It was the ultimate art of deception. Relying on masterful and clever use of inner force, a fierce punch that looked like it could break a mountain might turn out to be a weak tap upon contact. On the contrary, a slow and weak-looking punch might turn out to be almighty. When his opponent see his muscles and center-of-gravity shift, and they think that Sila is about to throw a right punch, it might instead turn out that Sila kicks them using his left leg. The more skilled the opponent, the more confused they would become.

“No problem found in the first three styles. Next are...”

The middle three styles were ones which Sila could execute but not as skillfully, since all of them were delicate styles that required time and experience. He couldn’t practice them well enough secluding himself under the cliff. In addition, from the fourth style onward, inner force was required to utilize them.

The fourth style was called Moon Perishing Yizichan. It was derived from the knowledge regarding acupoints used in Nine Sun-Melting-Fists. However, there were a lot of acupoints within a human body, and they varied from person to person. Since the time he spent learning it was too short, at the moment, Sila could only remember a handful of important ones.

T/N: Yizichan means “finger art”.

In his mind, this style would one day become the ultimate art for subduing opponents. If he mastered it, he would be able to defeat an enemy without killing them. Furthermore, he would be able to disturb the opponent’s flow of inner force to weaken them.

The obvious difference between this style and Bone Claws was that Moon Perishing Yizichan focused on damaging opponents from the inside, while Bone Claws aimed to directly injure them.

For this style, there was no fixed movement. The main point was striking at the opponents’ tiny acupoints with precision, using his fingers.

The fifth style, Stellar Wheel, was derived from the defensive techniques of Six Moon-Grabbing-Claws and the borrowing technique of Death Bridge.

Yin Yang Energy was like a revolving wheel within his body. The higher the speed of the rotation, the more powerful his body became.

Despite there being no visible change to his external appearance, the energy was spinning fiercely within his body. Sila slammed his hand into a nearby rock and it immediately cracked through the center as if pierced by a drill.

In theory, this style should be powerful when it came to both offense and defense. However, the problem was, under the cliff, Sila had no targets aside from the lifeless stones and trees for him to attack. Stellar Wheel, in Sila’s imagination, should be able to receive the opponent’s attack and return the force back to them, which he intended to try once he was outside.

The sixth style was now considered the most powerful move in Sila’s possession. The name for it was One Above All. Its name might sound arrogant, but Sila believed it wasn’t over the top. He had combined all of his strongest skills into one; be it Genesis Punch, Dragon's Fist, or Tiger's Claw, not one was left out. Even Tiger-Dragon Fusion was included.

As a result, this style became Sila’s current ultimate offensive skill. Not only could he exert its power using his fists, but he could also unleash it with his palms, feet, elbows, knees, or even forehead. Sila was quite certain that he could mix this style with other styles. If he could just weaken or stop his enemy using his other moves and then follow up with One Above All, he was confident that his opponent would not survive.

Depending on Profound Qi Circulation Art, Sila’s power was constantly regenerating. Even after utilizing all those actions, he still had remaining energy to spare. Nevertheless, the biggest problem he found was with the last three styles’ energy consumption.

In theory, the last three styles weren’t difficult to execute. Each of them were severe, dangerous, and could be used in various situations. Sila believed that just one of them was too much for anyone to cope with. The problem was the energy consumption of the last three styles was insanely enormous, which was logical. Even though Sila’s growth was extraordinary, these styles were too strong for his current inner force capacity. He would need more time and practice to be able to use them in the future.

Exhaling, Sila inspected his body and found that his energy had been fully replenished. His eyelids opened and his eyes under them glowed with mysterious light as if they belonged to an evil spirit. His body floated slightly from the ground as if the concept of gravity no longer work on him.

The seventh style, Lone Soul, enhanced Sila’s speed to surpass his limit, even greater than Zero’s. Moreover, speed wasn’t the only prominent point of Lone Soul. This style was derived from Divine Raiment, elevating his concentration and causing everything around him to become slower. Every detail, despite how small it was, couldn’t escape his eyes and profound sense. Sila’s body flashed once and a big boulder near him disintegrated into dust.

*Thud*

Sila collapsed on the ground. His body was soaked with sweat and fatigue overcame him. He quickly sat cross-legged and focused his mind to regenerate his power.

“Sadly, I can only maintain that state for a minute. It’s a lot shorter than Divine Raiment. Isn’t there a method that will allow me to maintain it for a longer time?”

Regretfully, the truth was as he had expected. There was no shortcut to building up inner force. Considering his age, possessing his current power was already deemed as outstanding.

Sila dismissed false hope and concentrated. Today was the last day he decided to stay in the Slime Kingdom. Now was the time to review all of his styles before going out to try them in real battles. The next destination in his mind right now was the Desert of Death.

Most of his power had regenerated. Though, Sila still sat motionlessly on the ground. The reason for that was because the eighth style didn’t require any movements.

The eighth style was called Psychic Crush. When he named this move, he was too lazy to come up with a cool name, so he simply mimicked the name of his newly acquired skill from the Right Arm of the Sealed One. The principle of this style was an ingenious utilization of energy, sending his power through objects.

Sila tried sending his energy through the ground and damaging a tree three meters away from where he sat. After a moment, a crack began to spread across the width of the tree, and the upper half started tilting. Based on the result, it seemed the power was quite weak. The body of the tree gradually fell to the ground.

If he managed to master this style, it would be very amazing. He wouldn’t even need to lift a finger to attack an enemy, and it would be an invisible attack that they wouldn't notice until it was too late. Well, there were a number of problems. First, the further the target, the harder it would be to control his power. Second, the energy consumption wasn't worth it, considering the small amount of damage. Lastly, it took him a great deal of concentration to send his power through objects without damaging them in the process. Regardless, it was still one of his ultimate moves.

Anyway, in practical combat, the current him should be able to attack the opponent without moving a muscle. For example, he could place his palm on someone and attack them directly, with no further movements required. If there was no distance between him and the target, it became easy for him to send his power to attack them. Thinking about it, this style was the only one among the last three styles that Sila thought he could put into use in real battles.

The last style was called Fist of Reversal. The name of this style was related to Heaven’s Decree Sword Art. As he had yet to practice the sword art, this style was something he couldn’t execute yet. It only existed as an idea for future reference.

Mainly, this style was inspired by the eighth sword style of Heaven’s Decree: Fate’s Reversal. Nevertheless, there was a big difference in executing a move through hands compared to a sword. As such, he would need more time to adapt it before he dared to call it his own profound art.

Overall, Heaven’s Decree Sword Art relied on keen usage of inner force with great delicacy and skillful technique. However, Pumin was well aware that sometimes great strength was required to subdue an opponent. As a result, he invented the last sword style, Fate’s Reversal, in accordance with this fact. The principle behind this move was short and simple.

It was an attack that was so strong, it could change what was almost a loss into a victory, turning the tables in an instant with a single move.

The concept was simple, but the way of utilizing inner force in order to execute this skill was very difficult and complex. Upon reading over the description about it time and time again, Sila couldn’t comprehend even half of it. As expected of a move that his father marked as a very difficult step in mastering his sword art.

Sila prepared to unleash the power of Fist of Reversal. All of the fingers on his right hand connected and pointed toward the sky. The ground trembled slightly before it suddenly stopped. As for Sila, his power was completely spent and he was on the verge of falling unconscious. His face smacked into the ground, his tongue sending him the weird taste of soil. His stamina dropped to the bottom, and he could barely move his fingers.

“Cough. No doubt about it. Unless I can comprehend Fate’s Reversal, I won’t be able to use Fist of Reversal.”

He heard the sound of footsteps as they approached him. His inner sense told him that Divine was coming, though he couldn’t move to give the man his respect due to his fatigue.

“I noticed the cliff trembling, so I came to take a look. Are you practicing? That pose looks very funny.”

Divine couldn’t help but show a smile, noticing Sila’s current posture; he was sitting cross-legged, but his upper body bent down and kissed the ground, while both his hands were laid sprawled across it. This was the funniest training pose he had ever seen.

Sila’s face reddened with embarrassment. He quickly circulated his energy to regain sufficient strength to push himself upright, although barely.

“M-Mister Divine, do you have business with me?”

“Oh, nothing. I just came to tell you that Poluk has come back.”

“I see.” Sila nodded.

Divine seemed to not want to disturb him, so he left without further delay.

“It’s time for me to get out of here as well. Hopefully, the bounty on my head will be tempting enough that other players come and give me a chance to practice my art. I don’t want to be the first to pick a fight.”

Once he felt like he could move, Sila stood up. However, upon taking three steps, his body stumbled and collapsed, and he experienced the weird, salty taste of soil again.

“Puh!” Sila spat the taste of soil out of his mouth. “First things first, I need to properly stand up.”