Reinforcement

"Very well, Basara, it seems that your progress is quite frightening and suitable at the same time, we will have to step things up a notch. Now that you are at the third level you should be able to do basic Reinforcement." said master Shen while scratching his chin. the shock must have been powerful as he had yet to fully grasp the situation, the variables and the sudden progress must have ruined his plan and now he will need to reorganize himself in order to make a new training program.

"I cannot make you use full body strengthening right now, though you managed to breakthrough your body will suffer the consequences, due to it not being fully developed and your young age of fourteen is still not suitable for it, forcing your body to do such a task will mostly result in severe side effects, so first we start by the basic, your index finger..." he said while holding his right hand's index forward.

"To strengthen the body is different than to hone a weapon, unlike weapons, they don't feel pain and they can be honed and reinforced without a problem, however, the human body is different, it is made from flesh and muscle so your task will be to enhance these specs without harming yourself. let's take this finger, for example, if it is properly reinforced it can withstand a chop of a none reinforced blade without a problem. however do it poorly and your finger my either collapse on itself or shatter like a piece of glass on contact with a weapon. the trick is to find a balance between strengthening the body member and keeping it in a state where it can still move."

"So it has to maintain its flexibility while gaining enough durability to sustain damage from other weapons... this will not only need minute control over the body, I suspect it will need enormous focus and concentration to keep the state of the body member as it is even after receiving a shock, am i right?" I said to Master Shen.

"Indeed, that is the basics, now try to use your inner energy to not only to coat your finger but to fully imbue it muscle bone and skin, once you manage that we will proceed to the next step," he said

"Can you do a demonstration?" I asked

"Why do you need a demonstration, this will not be seen by simple vision it is an operation that happens deep within the body. I don't think you will be able to see the change"

"Well I have a way," I said with a smirk

Master Shen then forced his inner energy to circulate through his finger while I Focused on his index.

using monochrome vision I began to notice the change

"Monochrome vision... the second level already... quite frightening indeed," said Master Shen "With this, you will probably be able to see... good"

I didn't mind him and kept on looking at the energy. it swirled and moved then latched to his muscles, every fiber strengthened yet at the same time, not enough for it to turn rigid, just enough for it to remain flexible but they gained enormous durability.

"Alright, I think I got it," I said

looking at my index I willed Qi to move within it, as I already saw the process it was much simpler to do it once I saw it once.

the energy that I called, however, was much more than I needed, in the end, my finger felt like if it would explode if I didn't somehow redirect that excess energy somewhere else. so I made it coat my whole right hand.

"This should be about it?" I said.

Master Shen was mouth agape that moment and stayed that way for another moment before he said.

"I told you to only reinforce one finger… and you managed your whole hand… What a monster…" he said clearly in a good and encouraging way.

"I feel like I can break through a steel made a door with this," I said as I was amazed at the newfound strength of the hand.

"No, you might feel like your hand became stronger and sturdier it but if you try you will break your wrist, if you want to do that, you will need to strengthen your hand, wrist elbow your shoulder your spine, your back ribs muscles and lower body and finally your legs in order to send a punch with that, if you fail to strengthen any of them at the same time then your body will break. Just because your hand is strengthened doesn't mean that your body is. That is why you need time, though your progress is magnificent your body is far behind your talent."

"That sounds like hard work"

"Hard work? What you just did took me three months! You succeeded on your first try! Don't you dare speak about hard work you make my achievements fail one by one!" he said clearly dissatisfied, but at the same time, I could feel a hint of pride in his words.

"Good, now that you are able to properly strengthen your hand, try to reinforce your joints, and redo the exercise for the first level of the Lotus technique that I showed you the other day. It will help a lot once you manage to practice the formes while your body is reinforced."

"Alright, I will do it at once," I said then closed my eyes and concentrated.

The moves that Master Shen showed me were still etched into my mind, however having to move around like that time will be most troublesome if I use the reinforcement on my joints mainly I will be like an unoiled doll, but practice makes perfect.

Clearly envisioning the move set and all the movements that the body should move through I understood what is the reason behind adding reinforcement over the joints. Simply put it is to put as much strain on the body for it to force itself to evolve to accommodate to the needs of the moves, by strengthening the joints the pressure on the body will become far larger and it will force it to grow in ordre to accommodate to the change, adding Assimilation to the mix will make the body grow the needed muscles to perfect that martial art.

At first, I thought that the teachings of master Shen were rather different and are saw no mean to use them all at once, but just right now, everything fit in.

From basic honing to assimilation to the lotus martial art and strengthening, they all harmonized in one single practice, to force the body to develop itself to become a war machine.

'Only the more for you to respect that man, he is well versed in the arts of war and knows the human body better than many, that man is one with himself and for your to reach his level not only talent is needed, but also dedication.' Said Nocturne who sounded like he was admiring Master Shen

'I know, he is an amazing man to be able to understand so many different methods to strengthen the body, and even apply them to his training… quit and impressive person'

'True, however, there is something that you can do to make your training even more productive.'

'What is it Nocturne?' I asked as I was tracing all the different joints in my body and was imagining all the moves that I was going to be using.

'You will be needing to Cultivate while in the process of training your strengthening technique. You already managed to reach their level of Cultivation, now you will be needing to imbue that into your training,'

'Ah, you are right, you already told me that there was a way for me to Cultivate without having to remain still in one place, well what should I do?' I asked Nocturne

'You subconsciously found the way even without me telling you how. What you are doing now is a part of that technique, you need to breathe in, and circulate the Qi in the outside world, you must remain within your monochrome vision world, and at the same time make your body do the moves, split your mind and make it do many actions at once, then you will be able to reach the realm of experts.'

'Two tasks at once, that is difficult…'

'Not but two tasks Basara, you will be needing to strengthen, move your body, and cultivate. However, the mind of a man is filled with mystery and can bring many miracles if one only has the will. What is your aim Basara? What is it that you seek? What is it that you want and need?' said Nocturne.

'You know what I want, I just want strength so that no one would bother me…'

'The weight behind those words are too much for you to understand now Basara, acquiring enough strength so that no one will bother you is the equivalent of becoming a god. Only them cannot be bound by mortal matters, and if you truly wish to have power equivalent to them, then your will is far too feeble to acquire what you want'