Chapter 4: I Practice Kung-fu
Rosy clouds poured molten gold into the sea.
A lone gull cut across the frosted edge of the sky.
Standing on the fine, soft sand, feeling the salty sea breeze lash against his face, Ryan gazed toward the distant horizon and then up at the blue sky and white clouds of the pirate world. His mood was anything but cheerful.
The instant he was enveloped by the golden light of the Secret Realm passage, the booklet in his mind—"The 'Secret Realm Changes Fate, Aid Achieves Dreams' Program Proposal"—opened on its own, its contents erased and branded with new words.
Beneficiary: Ryan
Target Secret Realm:One Piece
Support Secret Realm:Kengan Ashura
Project Vision: Through targeted Secret Realm assistance, fundamentally enhance the beneficiary's strength and assist in completing the One Piece.
Wealth: 0
Fate Points: 0
(Note: When the beneficiary alters the future trajectory of a Secret Realm by causing influential events, Fate Points will be awarded. Fate Points are used to initiate assistance programs.)
Available Assistance Programs:
Foundation Training:
Seek a renowned master from Kengan Ashura to provide basic martial arts training to Ryan.
No tuition for the first year; starting from the second year, tuition increases annually.
(During foundation training, Ryan's consciousness enters the Kengan Ashura Secret Realm. Time in the real world remains frozen.) Combat Sparring:
Available after completing three years of foundation training.
Match Ryan with appropriate opponents for sparring, absorbing their strengths and compensating for his own weaknesses.
First session is free; subsequent sessions require a certain amount of Wealth and Fate Points. Star Encounters:
Unlocked after achieving ten consecutive victories in combat sparring.
Consumes a large amount of Fate Points to invite star-level fighters for sparring and guidance. Forging a Legend:
Unlocked after defeating star-level opponents and consuming an enormous amount of Fate Points.
Enter an enlightenment state and establish one's own martial arts style.
Combat Sparring, Star Encounters, and Forging a Legend are currently unavailable.
Foundation Training is available. Begin foundation training?
It sounded incredibly high-end. During foundation training, time would actually be frozen. But why—
Kengan Ashura?
This was also an anime Ryan remembered from his previous life. If he recalled correctly, Kengan Ashura was a pure fighting series, wasn't it?
Even the strongest fighters there could at most smash a large rock. Help him clear One Piece? At that power level, it could barely help him deal with Don Krieg.
"Well, something is better than nothing. And learning martial arts and gaining real combat experience will definitely help me survive in the One Piece world."
Ryan quickly made up his mind.
Let's try it first. Start foundation training!
Foundation Training Program Initiating
Please select an instructor and martial arts style:
Wen Yunshen — Xingyiquan Master
Hisayasu Takemoto — Takemoto-style Martial Arts Master
Darren Sack — Bartitsu Master
His memories were too distant. To be honest, Ryan had a vague impression of the latter two styles, but couldn't clearly recall what they actually specialized in.
Then I'll choose Xingyiquan. That can't go wrong.
The scene before his eyes shifted.
Heaven and earth spun, stars changing places.
…
"I had already decided not to take any more disciples. But since this was a request from an old friend, I could not refuse. I will personally teach you for one year. How much you can learn will depend entirely on your own martial comprehension."
"Eighteen years old. You've already passed the best age to lay a foundation. It's not too late, but you will have to put in far more effort than others."
"To study Xingyiquan, the first priority is stance training. You may have heard of the 'San Ti Stance,' but since this is your first time learning martial arts, you will start from the more basic 'Wuji Stance' and the 'Eight Absolute Hands.'"
"The Wuji Stance focuses on 'changing force.' You must alter your original habits of exertion, making the distinction between solid and empty clear throughout your entire body. Follow me and do it…"
"Hm? Still looking around?!"
A low, authoritative shout snapped Ryan back to his senses. A gentle breeze blew past, peach blossoms drifting down from above. He looked at the Xingyiquan master Wen Yunshen before him, white hair, a thin mustache on his lips, a youthful face beneath his age, and felt genuine awe in his heart.
"…Yes, Master."
Seeing Wen Yunshen's expression grow heavier by the second, Ryan understood what he needed to do. He hurriedly mimicked Wen Yunshen's posture, assuming the Wuji standing stance.
Only then did Wen Yunshen nod slightly. He stepped forward, patted Ryan on the shoulder, and said, "Straighter. Use empty force. Stay relaxed. Keep the waist and legs slightly engaged, but do not become stiff. Let your legs open naturally."
Ryan worked hard to adjust. Wen Yunshen looked him up and down, then said with satisfaction, "You have some foundation. Looks like you've done basic training before."
That was only natural. In his previous life, Ryan had been a professional athlete. In this life, with plans to enter the secret realms, he had long been training himself scientifically. His physique was well-proportioned, his abs clearly defined.
Smack!
The moment his focus slipped, a sharp pain exploded across Ryan's backside. At some point, Wen Yunshen had produced a wooden rod and lashed him hard.
"Don't relax your mind! Where's the solid?!"
Damn it! This old man is ruthless!
Ryan sucked in a sharp breath and hurriedly corrected himself, not daring to let his attention wander again. The stance looked simple, but it demanded extreme relaxation while maintaining a clear distinction between solid and empty. It was several times harder than Ryan had imagined.
Even with prior training, after just half an hour his legs had begun to tremble.
Then…
Smack!
"Where's the empty?"
A dozen seconds later, smack!
"Where's the solid?"
Smack! Smack!
"Where's the solid? Where's the empty?"
The entire morning passed like this. By the final hour, Ryan was standing purely on instinct. He could barely even understand the words "solid" and "empty" anymore.
When Wen Yunshen finally said, "That's enough for today," Ryan collapsed onto the ground. Sweat poured off him, soaking a patch of earth beneath his body, and it felt like he was barely breathing in more air than he was exhaling.
Satisfaction flickered in Wen Yunshen's eyes. He turned toward a disciple peeking from the corner of the wall and said, "Go get him a meal. Add more meat."
"Ah, yes, Master!"
One minute later, Ryan lay limp on the ground, his nose twitching. Steamed rice and beef stew with potatoes?!
His completely drained body gave rise to a fierce hunger. Some unknown surge of strength pushed him back to his feet. He muttered a vague "Thanks, senior brother," then snatched the lunchbox and devoured the food like a starving wolf.
In barely two minutes, the entire box was gone. He still wasn't full and asked tentatively, "Master, can I have another half portion?"
"Come inside and eat. Don't stuff yourself. You'll be training the Eight Absolute Hands this afternoon."
As a Xingyiquan grandmaster with a deep family lineage, Wen Yunshen owned a Beijing-style siheyuan courtyard house, feeding one more person was no burden at all. Once inside, Ryan finally met his five senior brothers and two senior sisters.
Among the seven, the oldest was already over forty. They all looked at him with curiosity, wondering why a master who had said he would take no more disciples had accepted another junior disciple. Still, every one of them was warm and kind.
"Come on, junior brother, sit here and eat with me!"
"Come sit with your senior sister."
"Thank you, senior sister!"
For a long stretch of time after that, every day at first light, Ryan was made to stand in the Wuji Stance in the courtyard, while the afternoons were spent practicing the Eight Absolute Hands.
The soreness in his body almost never faded, but with a stubborn grit in his bones, Ryan never complained or slacked off.
When the body reached its limit, willpower carried him through—though the most important reason was that Wen Yunshen's wooden rod really hurt when it struck.
At first, it was painful.
Then he gradually adapted.
Wen Yunshen never openly praised him, but he was clearly satisfied. Two months later, Ryan finally began interacting more with his senior brothers and sisters beyond mealtimes.
His Eight Absolute Hands had taken shape. He could now spar lightly with them.
Though called the Eight Absolute Hands, at its core there were only four movements: receiving, advancing, entering the body, and switching hands. Different combinations produced the eight absolutes.
It looked simple, yet was profound beyond measure. Every choice determined victory or defeat. In the beginning, Ryan couldn't last three exchanges against his seniors. A month later, he could trade back and forth a bit—still losing in the end, but no longer getting thrown around senselessly the moment they met.
Only then was he allowed to learn the San Ti Stance.
"The San Ti Stance is the foundation of all forms in Xingyiquan. Its requirements are far stricter than the Wuji Stance."
In that familiar courtyard, the peach tree now bare as late autumn set in, Wen Yunshen demonstrated the stance. "Both feet must bear weight, not favoring one alone. Favoring one does not mean one foot on the ground and the other raised, but that the front foot may be empty or solid, with emphasis placed on the rear foot."
Ryan fell silent for two seconds. "Master… could you say that in plain Mandarin? I'm not great with classical Chinese."
In his previous life, he'd been an athlete.
In this life, he hadn't studied classical texts either.
Wen Yunshen also paused for two seconds, then turned around and casually picked up the wooden rod. "You stand first. Stand for a while and you'll understand."
Ryan's face twisted in misery.
From next door came the muffled laughter of a senior sister.
Another three months passed. While learning the San Ti Stance, Wen Yunshen also taught him the Twenty-Four Correction Methods, precise adjustments for every part of the body, prerequisites for learning Xingyiquan.
At times like these, Ryan felt like a wooden puppet, bent this way and that by his master, adjusted here and there, fixing one part only to disrupt another, often drawing laughter.
Yet without realizing it, Ryan discovered he could now precisely control every muscle in his body.
"You can begin learning the Five Element Fists."
Wen Yunshen's affirmation kept Ryan awake for half the night. After six months of effort, he had finally touched the core techniques of Xingyiquan.
Splitting. Drilling. Crushing. Pounding. Crossing.
"The path of Xingyiquan is easy to practice, yet also extremely difficult. Its forms are simple to the extreme, but that very simplicity often breeds boredom and a lack of appreciation."
His master habitually spoke in dense phrasing, but now Ryan could grasp the meaning deeply. Xingyiquan seemed to temper not only the body, but the mind as well.
Sometimes, during early-morning practice, Ryan could even experience the state his master described, an emptiness of mind, neither fully present nor absent.
He immersed himself completely in the beauty of the art, until one day his master suddenly summoned him and said, "The one-year term has ended. The road ahead, you must explore on your own. Do not disgrace the name of Xingyi."
Behind Wen Yunshen, his senior brothers and sisters all looked at Ryan with deep reluctance.
Basic Construction (One-Year Term) Complete
You may spend 100,000 Beli to extend the Basic Construction period by one year.
Oh. Right.
I almost forgot where I came from.
A whole year passed that quickly?
Another year costs one hundred thousand Beli? That doesn't sound like much in the world of One Piece, but I don't have a single cent on me right now.
Before he even had time to say goodbye, the roaring sound of waves filled Ryan's ears.
The long-familiar beach, the ceaseless crashing surf, everything returned in an instant, yet felt like a lifetime apart. Ryan clenched his fists, his spirit soaring, his bearing utterly transformed from before.
At this moment, he felt like he could take on ten men at once.
"The vast ocean, where can I not go?"
Half an hour later, at the dock.
Ryan pointed at the cargo on the ground and asked, "Moving this onto the ship, eighty Beli per sack, right?"
The merchant ship's supervisor nodded. "That's right."
Ryan grabbed two sacks with one hand, hoisted them onto his shoulder, and strode toward the ship.
The supervisor was startled. "Slow down! If the goods get damaged, you'll have to compensate for them!"
"Don't worry," Ryan said casually without even turning his head. "I practice Xingyiquan."
"Oh…"
The supervisor was stunned. After a long moment, he frowned in confusion. "What even is Xingyiquan?"
Is it really that impressive?