7 Senjutsu
Sun Wukong. He was someone that went against Heaven and angered the Gods. While it sounded funny or impressive, it required the capabilities to actually do so first. Gods were often petty and reacted over the top for the slightest things.
Due to his abilities he rightfully gained his titles as the 'Great Fighting Buddha' and the 'The Great Sage Equalling Heaven'. While they sounded a bit over the top, they showed how great an achievement it was.
In his long life he went on many adventures and gained a long list of abilities along the way.
He is said to have complete mastery over Youjutsu. Due to it he is able to transform every single of his hairs into either a clone of himself or weapons, other objects or even animals. Just like his hair, he can transform himself into exactly 72 different forms.
Overall, his abilities as a magician were top notch. He was able to freeze humans, devils and gods all the same.
His skills in Senjutsu aren't any lower than the ones in Youjutsu as he is said to have complete mastery over it.
And this person is now his third teacher for the foreseeable future. Yuudai couldn't believe it. His mother really pulled every trick she could to offer him the best possible environment for growth.
It was decided that his mother took his intellectual teachings upon herself. This included teachings about other factions and strong individuals, common sense in the supernatural, mundane world and basic knowledge from different fields.
Karasu would still be his teacher when it came to aerial combat. The only difference would be Yu-Long helping occasionally, courtesy of Sun forcing him to do something useful.
Sun Wukong himself would be his teacher in anything from Youjutsu and Senjutsu related and accompany him in his spear training. While he uses a staff, the difference from a spear isn't too big and his experience is enough to bridge that gap.
"We have three years until I have to return to my dusties, and I want you to learn as much as possible in these years. If your mother's claims are true, you are extremely talented, but that is only one part. Both Youjutsu and Senjutsu require just as much knowledge as they need practice. Therefore, we will need to concentrate on one of them while supplementing your skills with the other one." Sun explained.
That was roughly what Yuudai expected. He was able to learn a lot in a hands-on approach, but what he lacked the most was knowledge. Since Senjutsu had many useful abilities and further improved his ability to fight in close range, he already chose to concentrate on Senjutsu. Youjutsu would them become his support skill and long-term project he would work on by himself.
"I want to learn everything about Senjutsu first and the essentials from Youjutsu if possible." Yuudai stated his wish.
"A wise choice. I would have suggested the same. It compliments your main form of combat which is the spear. Aside from that its abilities vary widely as you can even heal yourself, others or neutralize poisons. I would suggest learning about seals, however. It would erase one of your few weaknesses while granting you a powerful auxiliary skill. First, I will introduce you to the basics of both schools of Senjutsu and Youjutsu. Afterwards I will instruct you on a deeper level in Senjutsu and about seals." Sun Wukong listed their plan to confirm it with Yuudai one last time.
"That sounds perfect to me." Yuu replied.
"Since I don't know what you already know, I will start from the beginning. Senjutsu is the ability to control life energy or Ki in living beings. One of the most useful abilities of a Senjutsu master is his ability to sense other living beings through their aura or Ki." Sun explained.
"I can already do that. As far as I know I always had impeccable control over my Ki, but not just mine, even that from outside of my body." Yuudai revealed, shocking his teacher. Now if this was true, he understood why Tamiko praised him as extremely talented.
"If that is true, I would be able to bring you close to mastery in at least Senjutsu in the time I will be training you."
Yuudai was ecstatic. The master level was what was seen as the pinnacle in these arts, when one had complete mastery over them.
"Then let's get to it. Since you don't have any need to learn this particular ability, I will show you a few more advanced techniques. Then we will start with applications of Youjutsu next week."
Sun walked into an open space. Upon taking a stance and concentrating a white aura surrounded him. It was obvious that his strength, speed and defence skyrocketed.
"This is called Touki or fighting spirit. You can use your base of life and surround your body in an aura of life force. It will tremendously increase your bodies abilities while at the same time functioning as a layer of defence. If you get proficient in its use, you can even brush off magic attacks or coat your weapon with it." He said as he picked up his staff and it began to radiate the same white aura.
"If you have the enough strength, it is even possible to stop the True Longinus or other strong weapons with just a finger or two. This however is something I only recommend when you reached full mastery of Senjutsu."
"So, the more Ki one has and the stronger one's body is, the stronger he gets while using Touki?" Yuudai questioned.
"Exactly, which brings us to the next use of Ki. The higher your life force, the stronger your body will get. It passively strengthens your body due to its unique nature and because a strong body is needed to house big amounts of Ki. Aside from its passive strengthening, your body will adapt to an extent. This is especially true as you grow naturally into an adult." He clarified.
Yuudai nodded along, he already knew that his body was unnaturally strong, and it was still gaining strength every new day.
"And in the end, this is something good for you. The amount of Ki you have is ridiculous and I doubt any exercising would actually help you strengthen your body further. You can just concentrate learning how to use this strength instead." Sun elaborated. While other people would need to use a big chunk of their time for only training their body to an acceptable level, Yuudai could skip this step and directly learn how to best utilise it. That way he would learn a lot more in three years than other people.
"As for using Senjutsu to attack with Ki, it lacks the destructive nature of other energies like demonic power, but at the same time it can attack the spirit of your opponents directly. If you disrupt or sever your enemies Ki, you can easily cause permanent damage or even kill him. On the other hand it has very effective healing capabilities with the only flaw being the requirement of skin-contact."
The ability to heal as well as a unique way to damage your opponent makes Senjutsu already a versatile art. Yuudai now understood why Senjutsu healers weren't as well-known despite their ability. The requirement of skin contact made it a rather intimate act, that was usually only performed for close ones when it came to serious injuries.
"But it still has one glaring weakness that has to be handled carefully. If you take in the malice around you, you can lose your mind. There were many examples of this in the past, resulting in Yokai being called demons in certain instances. And while you said that your control is very good, I want you to exercise your control over the surrounding lifeforce and judge that ability of yours myself."
Yuudai agreed as he sat down in a meditative pose. He concentrated on their surroundings and felt the lifeforce. He felt every blade of grass, every little living creature or plant as well as the ambient life force in the air. He slowly spread his control over every single bit of them.
Sun Wukong was surprised about the control this little body had. While he wasn't exactly proficient in using it, he did by instinct, what took him hundreds of years to learn to perfection. With a bit guidance he would overtake him in no time. But what really stumped him was the pureness of the lifeforce around them. He clearly felt the negative emotions and malice surrounding them, which was no surprise as a Senjutsu master. But the moment Yuudai spread his complete control over the whole area and began to interact with it, the malice vanished. He purified the lifeforce to its most optimal state without even knowing it. Alone this one ability would probably make him the target of every Yokai's worship if it ever got out. They would need to talk about this after his training, preferably together with his mother.
"That is enough. We are done with the theory for today. I want you to try using Touki now." Sun was back into teaching mode, as he demanded.
Yuudai took a while to recall the feeling he got from Sun using it. In the end it was just spreading a layer of his own Ki over himself and he did just that, resulting in a near invisible aura forming around him due to how pure his Ki was.
"What now?" He asked.
"Now-" The old monkey grinned: "You will be sparring with me. We will only fight with our bodies and Touki, which I want you to keep active at all times."
Contrary to his mother or Karasu, Sun didn't hold back much, since he know how strong Yuu's body already was and directly attacked him. Yuudai did his best to sidestep, duck and avoid the flurry of attacks thrown at him.
As expected, the Monkey King was a master combatant, knowing exactly how to react in every situation. His decision making was top notch. That was actually what Yuudai lacked the most. In his former life he didn't gain much experience since his father was already weak when he started his training. And now he was only close to five years old. That was nowhere near enough to match Sun Wukong. It just further strengthened his wish to explore this world and meet new opponents to sharpen his skills.
