Bloodline of the Panda

Karni was silent, looking at Hu Jie like a jokester. Was he serious?

"Well, boy? Do you accept me as your master?"

Karni asked. "You're serious? Just because of bloodline?"

"Just because? Boy what?" He almost raised his arm to slap him but held himself back. Karni had yet to accept.

Hu Jie sighed. "Some of the techniques I will teach you need good bloodline. Your's is of incredibly high quality, while also coming from a panda. A creature known for its squishiness and great defence. Be glad that it's someone like me who has the same attributes in his martial souls. The technique uses precisely bloodline for its use. The higher the quality, the better."

Karni went quiet as his eyes went wide. Wait. Aren't those Body Sect techniques?

"So boy. Do you understand that I'm serious now?"

Karni smiled. He bowed deeply, putting his hands together in respect. "Karni greets his teacher."

The man raised his eyebrows. "Have customs changed on the Douluo Continent?"

Karni immediately realised what Hu Jie was referring to. He scratched his head. His other teachers have gotten used to this stuff already so he's forgotten just what kind of an oddity he is. "They haven't. It's just me that comes from a remote part of Douluo Continent. The culture where I'm from is different."

"So this is how you show respect?" His voice wasn't one that scolded, but one of curiosity. It was his first time seeing such a simple show of respect.

"Well, I do know the Douluo way, but if I had to explain it... Would you rather have my sincere respect or the performed one."

Hu Jie realised how unique this is. This wasn't just a difference in customs, but values as well. It's true, when people kowtowed in this culture, it was a show of sincerity. From what he understood, for Karni, this was showmanship. A pretence. Because he couldn't do the same thing without thinking that he's putting on a performance.

"How interesting. It's good that you hold onto your culture. To become a strong soul master, one needs to have this kind of mindset too."

He clapped Karni on the shoulder. "What an interesting disciple I have gotten myself. I'm curious about your upbringing, so I'll ask you about it later, but let me explain to you the reasons why I'm so enthusiastic."

He stepped away, and summoned his martial soul. Nothing changed. Then Karni noticed that the energy of the man's belly felt different.

"I originally hail from the Body Sect. Have you heard of it?"

Karni nodded. Of course he did. He's read the books! Though when he thought about it, it wasn't really talked about these days. It was a sect that used to be famous for the body-type martial souls. It specialised in control of one's own body, blood and muscles. With the advancement of Battle Armour, their sect has fallen on hard times.

Hu Jie was a bit shocked when Karni nodded. Unlike a certain nephew of his, he didn't fool himself on the sect's current position. Even if he wasn't in it anymore, his techniques still belonged to it.

"Good. That will save me the trouble of explaining things. You see, unfortunately, since I'm not in the sect anymore, I won't be able to teach you much of the original techniques. I would need the permission of the sect leader to do that. Another problem is that many of my own techniques also have the core Body Sect technique for foundation."

He showed his belly, it clearly grew in size along with Hu Jie himself, as well as hardened up forcefully. The might oozing from it made Karni feel hard to breathe. This was just his body!

"Fortunately for you though, since my own martial souls are the belly and the butt, I have developed a few techniques of my own. Most Body Sect techniques focus on tempering the body itself to become stronger, to control it. But to my own martial soul, it didn't affect it as much as some others. In my case, since the butt and the belly are both soft in nature, squishy and flexible, I redesigned some of the techniques to better suit myself. To amplify those aspects. That is what you will learn."

'And if he proves himself,' Hu Jie thought. 'I'll have to contact that brat, so the boy can learn the best techniques.'

Karni got excited. He will learn something exclusive that not even the protagonists learned? This trip as a whole turned out into an amazing experience! First it was Hopper, now this.

He could feel the crow nodding at Karni's thoughts at the back of his Spiritual Sea.

"Sit here. Let me first show you how to manipulate your own body correctly. A reminder, this isn't of the Body Sect. Don't go thinking you'll be physically stronger, or that your muscles will be as hard as stone, because that won't happen. You'll be more flexible and squishy. The defence will be stronger because you'll be able to bend your own blood that much more. It's a different type of defence than that of armour, understand?"

Karni nodded. He had an inkling of what the man was talking about, but he'd really see once he tested it.

"For now, since you haven't been using your bloodline until now, feel how I manipulate it with your own soul power. You'll get used to it slowly."

Karni focused as Hu Jie put his giant, soft and round palms on his back. He could feel a similar effect as before rising up from inside. From when Hu Jie examined him.

He could feel his own blood moving unnaturally. Through the muscles, through the organs, most importantly, through the heart. It wasn't a particular circulation, but more like stirring up the bloodline in the right places.

Hu Jie could also feel that effect from his disciple again. The feeling of friendliness. So it did come from his bloodline. This boy's bloodline seemed mysterious. It clearly wasn't that strong right now, but with how potent the effect is, as he develops it, how will he be able to use the effect to his benefit? 

After 10 minutes, he left Karni alone.

Karni could feel the difference now. Controlling the blood himself and with help was night and day. He sensed some power in his bloodline, but wasn't sure what it was yet. He manipulated it as best as he could.

It really was different. Soul Power was like leading water through his own body, but when it came to his blood, it felt like he was moving mud instead. Instead of the usual paths of Soul Power, he also had to guide the blood through his blood vessels, heart and muscles.

Now for the first time, after gaining some control, it wasn't just the others that felt the effects of his blood. He himself also finally understood it. It was a strange feeling. Like he became a friend with everything. Not just the living, but even with the atmosphere and the locations around him. Like he was a part of this very place. Like he belonged to it, even the table felt like a lifelong friend. For a second there, he almost believed it.

Meanwhile Hu Jie was looking with shock. He could feel that the boy's presence lessened. But it wasn't exactly like the people who comprehended fusion with the very world and its surroundings. It was more like he became a natural part of the environment. If this was a forest, Karni would be just like another tree in the forest. Definitely there, but a part of the ecosystem.

Just what kind of bloodline did he get this from? What was the original source? Things like these don't just appear out of nowhere. He'll have to message his nephew. Forget talent in techniques. This alone was worth the trouble of contacting that boy. He needs to fully awaken this child's martial soul and bloodline. He wanted to know what it truly is.

A Panda. There were only a few legends connected with those bloodlines, but those were long gone. If anything, right now was the age of dragons when it came to impressive bloodlines. All sorts of dragon type martial souls have been awakening recently. In ancient times, they were rarities. Now, when it came to powerful people, they were a common appearance in Titled Douluo.

Dragons were also considered the founding myths of many Soul Beasts and their genesis, though not much was confirmed. For Pandas, there were only some rare locations that were connected to them. He knew of two locations particularly.

"One of which is a week's drive away." Hu Jie whispered to himself. "Hm. I'll make the boy strong enough to bring him there before he goes back."

… … …

"Excellent. You've understood how to control your bloodline now. Now, as I know you have some limited time yourself, that being about 5 months only now, we'll be doing some extra training, starting today, since your memory is still fresh."

Karni nodded. He felt excited. It won't just be the techniques and Mecha Engineering that he learns here. He'll progress with combat as well!

"The training is simple. I'll be using the same manipulation of bloodline as you'll have to use in the future. I'll be hitting you, while you figure out what to do."

Karni was about to argue. What does this serve? Wouldn't it be simpler to just teach him?

But he didn't find the time. The belly of the man suddenly extended and hit him almost like a whip into the wall.

"C'mon now, my dear disciple. Show your master what you have. You aren't allowed to use your martial soul. Only have the panda activated."

Karni stood up. That hit. He could feel the way he was using it. The soft flow of blood. Before he had more time, a butt was swung towards him. He went flying again.

"This will serve you well. You will learn the technique as well as train your body to become stronger. Aren't I a good master?"

"It sounds like- Ugf." He got sent flying again.

"Let me say somethi- Agh!" Karni yelled as he landed, then immediately got bitch slapped by a belly again.

"I will." The man used his soft muscles to play with Karni like a ball. "If you can talk while being beaten, that is." Hu Jie laughed heartily.

Karni's body was shaking a little. Just after these few hits. It was like he went through an intense massage. All of his muscles were itchy. He could hardly feel much strength in them. Was this how people felt when he sent his sound into them?

"Don't think unnecessary things! Use your blood!" The man bounced Karni up, then, when he was falling down. Hu Jie hit him sideways with his belly.

If one would look at it in slow motion, they would laugh. When Karni landed, his whole body was basically enveloped by the belly. The belly had waves on it like it was water, not a solid substance. Karni would proceed to bounce out of it after a "soothing" massage.

Karni forced his blood to move through the itchy places. It was harder to do now than when he did it before. He could do it without soul power at that point, but now he had to resort to it again.

"Oops. No soul power allowed." Hu Jie tapped him at a few points and Karni could feel the blockage of soul power forming. 

"Shit."

He was sent flying again. The body was constantly moving, constantly bending. Moving the blood within the moving thing was hard! He realised what kind of monster that guy Tang Wulin was for him to do it subconsciously. I guess he had the benefit of growing up with it, but still!

"Yes, that's good. Struggle. Feel it!"

Hu Jie had to do this so that Karni could figure it out. Not only that, but Hu Jie was intentionally hitting certain spaces on Karni. He wanted him to get used to activating his blood on those parts. Parts that usually Body Sect people didn't use much.

The norm was the arms, legs, the chest, but he was making it circle in the squishy and soft parts of the body instead. The belly, the waist, the butt. It was what will serve Karni the best.

Karni was bounced again. To the side, up in the air, circled around. After about 10 more tries, Hu Jie could finally feel the sense of friendliness oozing from Karni again. He used a single droplet of his spiritual power to remove this feeling.

"Good. We'll up the ante now."

… … …

"So you managed to come back. Did the Hall Master train you?" Siduo chuckled, seeing Karni's roughed up state.

"Karni nodded. He found out that I have a special bloodline from my Fluffy Bamboo Panda. I never knew."

"Well, since your first martial soul is so special, wouldn't it be a given that its twin would be special too? Otherwise you wouldn't have gotten both."

"Of course I know this in theory, but still. I guess I forgot about that to an extent. Say. How do you feel when I do this?"

He activated his bloodline and released the friendly effect. He called it the Relaxing Aura, since that was the base of it all. To relax someone when it comes to their relationship to him. To relax himself to become friendly with the surroundings.

Siduo could feel the atmosphere change. Karni wondered how she would feel, since the two were already friends. Would it just cancel out? Then he saw a deep blush on Siduo.

She started looking at him up and down, her eyes temporarily stopping on his eyes and lips. "S- Stop it. Please." She said, gasping a little.

He looked at her weird and stopped. "Everything okay? What was it like?"

"It doesn't matter, it worked. No worries. It worked, just… let me catch my breath."

Karni was quiet and confused, while Siduo's mind was currently on overload. The effect of his blood was to make everyone around him friendly towards him. Even the environment was affected, accepting him as part of it. So what happens to someone who already felt something more than just regular affection?

Siduo always held back when it came to this. Even though she liked him; both of them were adults on the inside, who weren't that good at hiding their feelings towards one another. Neither of them felt right about it, because they were thirteen year olds right now. It was wrong. The instincts of attractiveness usually weren't really there. They didn't really feel lust towards each other, simply love and appreciation.

Well, what Siduo experienced right now was that those feelings were forcefully brought up in the open. For a second there, she thought she saw an adult Karni, and she'd rather not go through her thoughts in that moment again. Even though they've never expressed their attraction to one another, she could barely hold back here.

She didn't expect this. It's not like she wasn't familiar with this power of his. It felt different than what she knew. Was it because he couldn't yet control it, so it simply amplified her suppressed emotions?

She glanced at him. "Sorry. That thing was a bit too strong for me. I need to shower."

She really needed to clear her head.

"Before you go." Karni interrupted, much to her displeasure, she was still feeling the effects from before. She really wanted to jump into the shower to get rid of them!

"I'll likely be going early and coming back late as well from now on. Master Hu Jie told me to come see him early in the morni-"

"That's fine. That's fine! It won't change much for us anyway right? We'll have the same schedule. I really need to shower. Sorry. Bye."

Karni was confused as hell. Just what was going on with her? He couldn't even tell her what he went through. She'd usually enjoy hearing a story of his suffering.

Meanwhile Siduo was in the shower. Freezing water running over her head. Her instincts were finally calming down. She'll have to be careful not to do anything stupid when he uses those abilities.

Everything was so inappropriate. She cursed to herself.

Then she realised something even more terrifying. She was 13 now. She's about to hit puberty.

"No. No. No. No." She hated it. No matter her rationale, her hormones are about to start running wild, whether she wants them or not.

"It'll be fine. It'll be fine. I'm still going to be a rational human being."

She didn't realise she's already been affected a few times. She's hit early puberty already. Her emotions will be… unstable. She really wasn't looking forward to it. She's been through puberty before and to sum up her thoughts: it wasn't fun. Less so when she was an adult on the inside.

… … …

"We aren't training today?"

Hu Jie shook his head. "Only today, but no. We aren't. I do have to introduce you to something. In the mornings, from now on, you'll be spending your time here, while in the afternoons, you'll be training with me."

Karni nodded. He looked around as they were walking. He felt like he's walked this street before, which was unusual, since he hasn't explored much of the city yet.

Then he noticed that they've arrived at the rehabilitation centre from Tang Sect. Why were they here?

He noticed Hu Jie who visibly started changing. A bit shorter, thinner, older. It was the old man who examined him back then!

"Surprised?" Hu Jie laughed with a different voice. "From now on, refer to me as Ji Hueyan while here."

Karni really was surprised. No wonder Hu Jie kept on glancing at him awkwardly during the presentation in the Tang Sect.

"So in the morning, I'll be helping with patients?"

Hu Jie nodded. "Of course, you can also say you don't want to. This is actually the source of the Human Augmentation Project. It was you that opened our eyes a little with how you used the muscles. It made me realise that some things from the Body Sect can be useful in this technology as well. We've started researching it already, but starting from scratch and jumping off of someone else's point are two completely different things."

He turned towards Karni. "This is actually a personal request. If you'd share your research with us, I'd be most helpful. This isn't weapon research, but medical research instead. The continents have been restless for a while, and while prosthetics are research that date ten thousands years, they've never been perfected. We hope to make those injured in the line of duty have a chance to fight again. With the current level of research, it's simply impossible. They can lead normal lives, but only office jobs and the bunch."

Hu Jie didn't want to hide anything from his disciple. His knowledge of prosthetics could really help them further this situation of theirs. He wanted Karni to understand how important it was to him.

Karni agreed. When presented with such things, he simply couldn't refuse. His main focus of research had been the body and machine for years now. Most of them revolved around medical use as well. The AR glasses were the first exception in a while, and they even had the purpose of joining machines and minds together. So there were still parts connected to the research.

"I'm lucky to have such a disciple. We'll be giving you an appropriate amount of contribution points as well. Don't worry. Though I hope you're aware, you're now officially entering the medical team of the Tang Sect. Not just here, but on other continents as well, once you return. It's really a subdivision of the Science Division. Sometimes you might be called to other posts as well."

"Like, other Science Division projects? What if I don't have the knowledge for those parts?"

"Again, you shouldn't worry. Tang Sect always includes the key members. If it's not your field of research, you simply won't go there. From what I know, this is your only research so far, so you're unlikely to be called elsewhere. At least not here. I can't say anything about when you return to the Douluo Continent."

The two entered the room. Everyone warmly welcomed Hu Jie inside. The man Karni helped last time, winked at Karni as well. It felt like he knew Hu Jie's identity as well.

The two approached that man first. Karni could see that he was wearing Karni's prosthetic right now. He felt… relieved. He helped this man.

"This is a good friend of mine. He was once a branch manager of a city up north. His name is Gong Sying. He was once known as the Starspeed Douluo."

Karni's eyes went wide. This guy was a Titled Douluo? He thought he was a Soul King. Was that intentional?

"Karni, use your bloodline on him, more accurately, on the prosthetic. Sying, if you'd please tell me how it feels."

Both of them nodded. Gong Sying looked expectant as well. Bloodline? He didn't know about that. He was curious about what was going on.

Karni infused his bloodline and its aura into the prosthetic. He was focusing. Only sending Relaxing Aura his bloodline produced into the prosthetic. Gong Sying's eyes changed.

"Where did you find this boy?"

"How is it?" Hu Jie answered with a question.

"It's amazing! It feels like an actual part of my body! Like I never even lost the leg!"

Karni was shocked too. So it could have those kinds of effects as well?

Hu Jie also seemed excited. His guess was correct.

"Hu J- Ji Hueyan. Where did you find this boy?"

"I met him when you did back then. It was fate that I found this out about him. He's become my disciple."

The man looked at Karni differently now. This boy really will be a help to their project.

"Good. Now then, Karni, come with me." The two went into the Mecha Engineering room to the side.

"Listen. From now on, we'll be focusing together to figure out a way to imprint your bloodline effect on a soul tool. Imagine how helpful it would be for the people if they could feel so acquainted with their prosthetics."

Karni nodded. It felt like this bloodline really was meant for him. From the research he began once, years ago, to now. His own powers seemed to complement his own interests. Or perhaps that was the point? One's own martial soul was supposed to be a manifestation of their character anyway no?

Thinking of this, he'll have to have a talk with the Tie Family as well about this. If this is a sect-wide operation, their research and his own that he contributed to the family might help as well.

This led to another thought. Could he combine this with his other research?

He took out his glasses. The AR glasses. His unfinished blueprints. "Do you think I could combine it with this?"

Hu Jie took the blueprints and examined them. At some point he had a change of expression. He put fingers on his face as if in thought. Every now and then, he would nod, but at the later part, he stopped.

He handed back the blueprints. "You're an absolute monster, you know that?"

Karni took the blueprints. Before he could ask for Hu Jie's opinion, Hu Jie started speaking. "I suggest against using what we'll try here on these glasses. You should finish these separately. Truly figure out how to implement what you're trying with the space perception and spiritual power. Only after you complete this, should you try to combine your bloodline effects with it."

"But wouldn't it solve a lot of the problems that I have with the design?"

Hu Jie nodded. "But think of this. Right now, the two effects you tried to do are completely separate from one another. If you replace one with another, they won't amplify each other."

Karni's eyes shined in understanding. "When I know both, I could add them up!"

Hu Jie smiled cheekily. "Not add. Multiply!"

… … …

Karni was swinging his arms in protection as Hu Jie attacked. He's gotten proficient using his own bloodline to aid him. His eyes were shining. He could feel some sort of layer starting to peel off his body. Like it was transforming into a higher realm.

Two months. Two months of constant training, and he finally feels a true breakthrough.

Finally, Hu Jie's body enlarged, sending shivers down Karni's whole body. He could feel something breaking. Something was broken through.

A Black light filled the room.