7 Chapter 7:The All-Seeing eye!
- Shiinggg!
"W-what in the world is this?" exclaimed Duan Li feeling extremely shocked.
When he closed his eyes to recall everything that he had read in the book before, his vision that was supposed to be dark when one's eyelid closed had instead turned into a see-through eyes!
"Holy-moly..." he said in bewilderment.
Looking down towards his body, he could see every bones and skeletal muscles inside his body!
As he lifted his right arm he could see what made it moved. The forearm muscles, biceps, triceps and all other sorts of muscles worked simultaneously while others alternatingly.
As he was tranced by this phenomena, he subconsciously thought, "What's behind this muscle?" and to his surprise, the muscles that was blocking his view just now got filtered out!
"W-what the...!"
Duan Li panicked at first thinking that he had lost a portion of his muscle, but immediately recomposed himself as he felt that was not the case as there was no pain at all.
"Maybe..." a thought struck into his mind.
- Shingg!
"Aha! Its back there again! Now I see..." he said. It turns out that whenever he wanted, he could filter out any sorts of bones and muscles as long as he willed it. Feeling excited, he experimented for a while.
"Hmm… This is interesting! But the human body should have the blood vessels and all those sorts right? Where are they?" he thought.
Throwing a side glance at the stack of books on his table, he quickly lifted them up one by one and saw a book titled, 'Foundation: Human blood vessels'.
"Is it actually like that..?" he said inwardly as his mind seemed to click on something. Wasting no more time, he began to flip it to study its contents.
"The blood vessels are part of the bodily circulatory system that transports blood throughout the human body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the arteries, which carry the blood away from the heart; the capillaries, which enable the actual exchange of minerals between the blood and the flesh, the veins, which carries blood from the capillaries back towards the heart..."
"According to experts, the human blood vessels could stretch out for a total of 100,000 km. The blood vessels are essential for a martial artists to understand as it is..."
...
Spending around three hours, he finally finished flipping through all 112 pages as he read them word by word, and studying the illustrated drawn image carefully so as not to miss out even a single detail especially the crucial ones.
He then closed his eyes to recall every single thing that he had learnt about the human blood vessels.
- Shiinggg!
"I knew it! Hahahaha!" shouted Duan Li to himself as he clenched his fist in agitation, excitement filled his body.
Previously, he had made a theory that anything he has learned involving the human body, he could visualize them if he closed his eyes. Thus, when his conjecture is proven to be true, he couldn't help but to feel extremely elated!
He looked down at his body once more while in that state of all-seeing eyes, and he could see all the relevant blood vessels coiling around the, skin, nerves and muscles in his body. It looked a little bit eerie though as he could even see in real-time where the blood was travelling to and around being delivered here and there, a sight to behold that he had never experienced before.
Opening his eyes, his vision turned normal again.
"Well, now that I am a master of the human anatomy and blood vessels, I could understand the reason why my body was assaulted by pain after using the ability to slow down time before.." said Duan Li as he cupped his chin.
It turned out that his physical body was quite unfit for an extended usage of the ability. Time might have slowed down for him, but in actuality, that was only in his perception and reaction. The natural law still applied to him all the same.
Thus, moving faster than possible in reality had put a strain on his muscles that his body couldn't handle after a duration of usage. Thankfully, all he did previously during the spar was just dodging here and there, and that requires minimal bodily movements and energy.
Had he used the ability to do strenuous body movements like counter-attacking, he might be in an even worse condition right now. Perhaps his muscles might even explode?
Duan Li shuddered at the thought of it.
"Hais... from now on, I have to train my physical body so that my bones and muscles are stronger, and my stamina better..." he sighed.
Physical exercise is one of the thing that he hated the most. But now that he wanted to make full use of his ability, so that he will not faint prematurely during its usage, he had no other choice.
...
- knock! knock!
"Young man! It's already noon! Come out from your cave this instant!" yelled his mother from outside of his room.
"Yes mother..." replied Duan Li lazily as he reached for the door.
As he came out from his room, his mother gave him a training Gi uniform that was all white in colour.
"Put that on! Your mother here is going to give you a crash course so that you don't end up shaming yourself too badly against your juniors!" said his mother with a teasing glare.
...
Outside their house...
"Today, I am going to impart on you one of the most foundational basics of martial arts, stances!" said his mother with a strict tone.
She then lowered her body as she raised both of her arms together in a guarding position and spread her legs a little apart.
"This here is a defensive stance! Every martial arts technique varies, but the essence of it remains the same! Now watch again!" she rested her position as she lowered her body once more into the previous defensive stance.
"Observe! My legs are now stretched out a bit so that I could spread my centre of gravity. I've also lowered down my body so that the area where my opponent can strike me becomes limited. Furthermore, in this stance, you put up a defensive guard like this."
...
Duan Li's mother put up demonstrations of some defensive stances one after another according to their necessities. Meanwhile, Duan Li was mimicking the bodily movements of his mother by the side.
To her surprise, Duan Li was able to follow along her move set pretty well enough like he had already practiced it some time ago after only about two or three tries.
"Duan Li, did you secretly practiced some martial arts movements without me knowing?" asked her mother with furrowed brows.
"No mother, somehow... I could remember really well how you do it..." he answered and continued, "Also mother, I've discovered another new ability... it's like this..."
Duan Li began to tell his mother about the new ability of being able to see through his body.
...
"What? You are now able to see all your bones, skeletal muscles and blood vessels much more clearly once you closed your eyes?" his mother stared at him widely with shocked eyes.
"Yes... and maybe as I read more books about the human body, I could visualize all the other aspects of my body too..." answered Duan Li slowly.
"That's great!" shouted his mother, jumping happily.
"Although you've become such a cheat character now, but that ability to visualize clearly your inner body will definitely help you to advance your martial arts by leaps and bounds!" she continued.
"This is because, martial artists requires their body to memorize the movements technique by instinct at its pinnacle level! For you now, although you will not jump directly to the pinnacle, you should be at the adept level at least for every martial arts you learn on your first try after only several attempt!"
"Adept level? The pinnacle?" replied Duan Li sounding confused.
Seeing his reaction, his mother giggled for a bit before explaining, "It's actually like this, there are a total of five levels to one's own mastery of any particular martial arts! From the lowest mastery; beginner, novice, adept, master and the highest is pinnacle!"
"It would be good for you to know that most martial artists or also known as practitioners, could only practice most of their martial arts to the adept or master level. This is because, reaching the pinnacle would be a very time consuming process! With all sorts of martial arts everyone is currently learning, rarely would they have the time to practice each to their pinnacle state!" said his mother.
"Is that so... then that means…"
"That means you have suddenly become a genius!" interjected his mother while exclaiming happily.
Duan Li scratched the back of his head feeling embarrassed being called a 'genius' by his mother. Nevertheless, he also felt happy about it.
"If you could learn every single martial arts directly to the adept level... then.." his mother said slowly as she looked at Duan Li with a big grin.
"...then..?" asked Duan Li as he swallowed his saliva.
"Then, you are going to train all night! The advance technique could be learned some other time. But for now, I am going to impart on you with all the basics that I can squeeze today! So man up!" shouted his mother sounding like a strict drill captain.
"Y-yes!" answered Duan Li as he straightened his body.
...
