Innate Qi?

The night was hazy. Spring rain gently crashed on the roof of the inn Soha was currently in. He stood by the window, looking at the churning dark clouds faintly visible at night. A drop of cold rain fell on his cheek from outside, and with a sigh, he closed it.

Silence inundated the dark room, just like the silence in his heart.

Only if you experience it by yourself could you learn how foreign it feels to breathe the air of another world, how different it feels to be in another's body. He had already experienced it once, being reborn into Aetherian as a child, but that was a distant memory.

It was in these silent times that the demon hidden in the dark, despair, aims to catch you unguarded, and just like all, his thoughts wandered. 

'Can I reach Martial Master level in a year? People take years to reach that level. How can I? How am I any different from them?'

Despair… he shook his head.

There was a difference in him; he was ready to die for martial arts, and he didn't have to care about his own long-time survival. He could practice any kind of Demonic Martial Art that would only leave him a bit of lifespan remaining. That was the reason he was not hopeless.

[Soha… I completed analyzing every Martial Arts we got, but you don't seem to be in the mood to hear it.] Emma's feminine voice was heard, similar to Evelyn's, but she felt more mature, even though, technically speaking, Emma was just months old.

"What mood?" Soha chuckled calmly. "Who cares about my mood? Certainly not the ghosts in the Abyss, and most certainly not the river of time."

[…I care about it.]

"Hmm, what was that?"

[The essence of practicing Martial Arts is,] Emma said, changing the subject, [training to control your own Innate Qi in various ways. Innate Qi, as far as I understand, is a force latent in the bodies of the people in this world, just that they can't sense it normally. If they can sense it, they become 3rd Class Martial Artists, and if they find a way to sense it on their own, that 'way' will become a 3rd Class Martial Art that others can also use to sense their Innate Qi.]

Soha smiled but grew contemplative. So, sensing the Innate Qi within them was what separated the 3rd Class Martial Artist from normal people?

"So what about the difference between Demonic Techniques and Normal Techniques?" He asked, his voice confused, "What makes the Demonic Techniques so much easier?"

[Normal Techniques aims to use the Innate Qi contained inside you in a tame fashion. You can't even sense it naturally, so it is more or less focused on making 'you' more sensitive, whereas Demonic Techniques stimulates the Innate Qi, making 'it' easier to sense, using methods like 'eating the living heart' which is a source of another person's Innate Qi to stimulate your own, while tainting it and making 'you' less healthy.]

"So if I was a bowman, the target comes closer instead of my aim becoming better, huh, while making me naturally rusted on top of that," Soha murmured. "Good job, Emma. Among all the techniques we saw, what do you say is the best for us?"

[Some of the techniques we saw had pieces of advice on them that other techniques we saw didn't have, like what not to do and what to do while practicing. I counter-calculated everything on them, and now I know better what to do and what not to do, so I fixed the flows of all the techniques we saw and created a technique by mixing the good parts of many of the Techniques here, and in my opinion, you should practice it.]

"Oh?" Impressed, Soha laughed, "You can do that?"

[I can, apparently,] Emma said, curious herself. [But they are not much different from the Martial Arts we saw; I just removed the issues I noticed; if you read all of the books there, you can do it yourself.]

"Show me the Art!" Soha's eyes brightened immensely as he exclaimed, full of anticipation.

[Okays!]

[Heart Devil Flowerless Art]

[This, as Li Yuntao had told us, is still just an internal art that can only help you sense and circulate your Innate Qi and does not give you any external fighting arts, but of course, even normally, you can use your Innate Qi to enhance your physique in all manner, and thus, you will become stronger even without any External Arts. This art has 4 Stages corresponding to 3rd Class, 2nd Class, 1st Class, and Martial Master Class Martial Artists.]

"What is the difference between each class?"

[3rd Class Martial Artists can sense the Innate Qi in their bodies, and that makes them much more vigorous than normal people. 2nd Class can channel the Inner Qi across the various parts of the body to enhance those parts while in battle or for other uses like using Innate Qi on the eyes to improve eyesight. 1st-class Martial Artists can use Innate Qi outside their body to enhance weapons or other objects' sharpness or toughness.]

"So in the end, it all boils down to Innate Qi…" Soha said, his voice barely a murmur. "What about the Martial Masters?"

[I am not sure. In all the books that we were given, that level of Innate Qi was too vague. I think the Li Family wants to keep that part hidden due to their cautiousness.]

Soha bit his thumb and thought for a second, then asked: "What do I have to do to become a 3rd Class Martial Artist?"

That was what was important for now. 

[You have to sense your Innate Qi to become a Third Class Martial Artist. To do it using our new technique, "Heart Devil Flowerless Art," you could either castrate yourself by crushing your cough balls or you could eat three living hearts while doing certain exercises. I noticed the compatibility with both of those techniques and mixed them to create something where you could start either way.] Emma sounded like she was smiling, which made Soha speechless.

"Damn, Emma, you really are another Evelyn," he muttered under his breath. 

Emma stayed silent for a minute. There was also another way to do it, which was by getting some expensive and rare herbs that could give him a pure influx of Innate Qi without leaving any future issues to cultivate the Martial Path, but there was no need to mention such since it required ungodly luck.

[cough, sorry, so what is the plan?]

"If it is not necessary, of course, I don't want to castrate myself…" 

[So… killing?] she sounded hesitant.

Soha sighed. "I feel no remorse for killing as long as it would save Evelyn. But I'd like to avoid killing innocents as long as it is unnecessary."

[…]