" All of you who stayed in the Dojo, either came from an ordinary and even less than ordinary background or you come from a prominent family that you believed to be enough to let you escape punishment, if the Dojo was actually attacked, am I right ? .
Without needing for them to respond, the looks on their faces said plenty, the most people who stayed in the Dojo were from those poor guys that have nowhere to go except this place, if the Dojo chased these Inner disciples out, or they left willingly and even if they got compensated, they were well aware of the fate that wait them outside .
As I got to learn during the passing time I spent in the Lu Family, the Solid Rock Fist Dojo was the only Dojo in the Howling Wolf city that had no requirements based on how prominent the family behind those who went to enroll in it was .
Anyone can learn Martial Arts as long as they invest some silver taels, it was either this or sign a contract with the noble families in the city for an opportunity to learn Martial Arts, but signing this contract was just another form of slavery .
Those who stayed here know that quite well, even the guys who were cursing at me seconds before had fallen quite and were now listening to what I have to say, seeing that we were starting to have some kind of mutual understanding of the situation, I continued to say :
" So, I believe that all of you here, at least most of you have struggled greatly while making this decision, since that is the case for most of you, I will propose something to all of you here .
" How about I help you guys in the next 4 or three months to be even stronger than those so-called previous bosses of this place and who knows, maybe you might be even strong enough by then to pick your own route to walk at that time, maybe even joining the competition of the City Young Masters as well, as long as you put enough hard work and resilient, you might achieve whatever you liked .
As I made the suggestion, chaos erupted among their ranks, with them feeling that this wasn't possible, while others were in complete disbelief, some people, the last 3 to 4 guys whose extravagant clothes already made it clear to me that they come from the prominent families started to get out of the room, starting a chain reaction .
More and more people headed out of the room, the room filled with 40 or 30 people had now become left with 11 guys, 4 of these 11 people were guys that had already got help from Lu Chiang's and their loyalty was completely completely up to question .
I had already accepted that not everyone will still be willing to listen to me, but I hadn't expect that so many of them would leave, those guys should also drop out of the Dojo soon as well, but in the future, I'm certain that they will going to regret it .
" So I'm left with just the 11 of you, well I expected that only a few people would dare to stick their hands out and grasp the olive branch I throw, this was a good results nonetheless, allow me to continue then .
" I believe that all of you are very much aware of how medicore your talents are, after all if there was even the slightest bit of chance to depend on your talent to join another Dojo or even becoming a gang member, you would very much have already did so, am I wrong .
This time I waited for them to answer, my words seemed to have reached them, since I saw them bitterly shaking their head as if indicating that I was indeed not wrong .
" No matter whether you didn't leave because you have no where else to go or you not willing to end up as a ruffian, you stayed and that's all that matters .
" But I need to clear some things up for all of you here, don't expect that you will get any compassion from me, I will tell you this clearly as to stop you from getting delusional with expectations, the next period of time will be a bit dark for the Dojo .
" I and everyone that still continue to serve the Dojo will need to fight for the resources we get, meaning that I can't promise any of you, Panacea or anything like that, so don't raise your hopes up .
As I said this, I examined each one of their expressions and surely enough, there were not a few number of them that were more frustrated than others, those guys were the ones that I'm going to focused a bit more on nurturing .
Even though their reaction left little to expect from them, to me all that was secondary, the fact that they were honest enough with their expressions left a very good impression on me, the other remaining guys also seemed annoyed at this, but whether they were currently standing in front of me or maybe because of something else, they still tried to hide their displeasure with my words .
Umm, Senior Brother, can I ask something ? .
A guy from those 11 guys who stood rooted in place before me suddenly raised his hand a bit shakily and wanted to ask something, I already expected what he might have in mind, but due to him being one of those who pleased me, I couldn't help but say :
" What is your name ? .
My name is Bi Ji, senior brother .
" Well, go ahead and ask ? .
Umm, senior brother had said that he is confident in making all of us as strong as the previous bosses who had already reached the 8th layer of Flesh Tempering and even compete in the Young City Masters Competition, but how exactly are you going to help us improve this quickly and by this much .
Bi Ji, you, you should know better than to question the words of Senior Brother .
Just as Bi Ji finished pointing out a very good question, he was suddenly reprimanded by another person and it seem that this guy who reprimanded Bi Ji was quite the popular figure in this group, echoes of agreement sounded from almost half the guys gathered here .
Before everything start to escalate beyond hand, I gestured for them to quiet down and they out of respect or maybe fear, complied instantly and silence reigned again, but I didn't let the silent to stay for long, I said with a smile as I took a few steps towards Bi Ji, who was quite alarmed at me doing this for some reason .
Out of everyone's expectations, I suddenly started to pat him on the shoulder while showering him with praise, saying :
" What are you guys criticizing him for, he asked a very good question, why are you getting fuzzy with him, in fact him asking this question already made him leave a good impression on my heart, you lot need to be more perceptive and daring, there is no problem with asking meaningful questions like this .
" Your name is Bi Ji, right ? .
Y..., yes senior brother .
" You are a good guy, I look forward to seeing what kind of surprise you are going to give me and how far can you go in the path of Martial Arts .
Th..., thank senior brother for his praise, I hope to be able to meet your expectations .
For some reason as I heard him say this, I couldn't help but recall my first meeting with Master, I did also reply in the same manner, but I may have been less nervous about it than Bi Ji in front of me, I stepped back a few steps for all of them to be able to see me and said :
" Let me answer your question with one of my own, but my question is directed to all of you here, what do you think the most important thing to have for Martial Artists ? .
They all stayed quiet for a few seconds before the first answer came, one of them said that resources was the most important thing to have, another said that naturally talent that make him superior to others, some said fortunate encounters, a few said having good foundation, some said to have a suitable and righteous heart and yearning for Martial Arts .
After collecting all their thoughts, I finally give them my own answer, saying :
" All that you have mentioned could be considered both correct and not at the same time, this is only my opinion though, but even though all the things you have mentioned are indeed crucial things to a Martial Arts Practitioner .
" But I think at some point in the future, these things won't be feasible to depend on anymore to achieve progress, I believed that having understanding of Martial Arts will be the only thing that always can push people forward, do you understand what I mean ? .
" How can a person achieve to become a Martial Artist in the first place without having an understanding of the Martial Arts he practice and the path that this Martial Art will eventually lead him to, that's at least what I think, but again, I'm not trying to fix your own line of thought, it might get proven to be the correct answer later on .
" You asked me how will I help all of you to improve yourselves, my answer is simple and quite straightforward too, I will help you with your understanding of Martial Arts, I believe that all of you are aware of how important something like this is .
As I finished saying this, all of them looked at me with a mix of shock, horror and disbelief, what I was suggesting was indeed crazy, too crazy that no one ever dared to say in front of them before, the guys who were from Lu Chiang's faction and might have had ulterior motives for joining me wore a difficult to explain expression on their faces, it was a mix of lamentation and uncertainly and regret .
They might be regretting ever accepting that power he offered them, now that they were aware of how much it cost then to use and nourish, the place become deathly quiet for a few more minutes and the silence was only broken with Ti Tu own shocked voice falling into all of their ears, saying :
Can you really do that, imparting your understanding of Martial Arts to others ? .
Well, the truthful answer would be no, but to his inquiry I could also say yes, with the help of the Panel, I can indeed help them with their understanding of their Martial Arts, techniques and skills .
It will require me to read through dozen of different Martial Skills and execute them myself before finally adjusting the errors and mistakes in my form and then help them improve themselves by imparting the knowledge and experience I gained onto them, this should allow them to make much progress in each and every session .
So I can indeed help them with their Martial Arts, so I nodded my head at him, even though the latter had opened up to me and admitted that he was a cockroach that have no issue with adapting to whatever he was thrown into for the sake of survival, I still didn't want him to get close to me .
But keeping a distance from him and still keeping him close was not much of an issue, after I nodded my head in response, he stood there in daze for a while, before his eyes started to gleam with brilliance, but he didn't say anything else, he just strode towards the group of 11 guys and stood beside them silently without saying a word .
Seeing his reaction, the others opened their mouth wide and all seemed to wonder what in the world was going on today, I looked at him and the latter nodded his head but he still didn't say a single word, I understood that talking to him will have to be postponed for another time and let nature take its course .
In front of the eyes filled with disbelief, I started to execute a few Martial Arts moves, praises of how I seemed to be dancing flawlessly with how swift I used my Martial Skills, giving them this display was for the sole reason of making them more open to accept my uniqueness .
They were still dumbfounded and unable to discern whether what I said before was actually true or just bunch of lies, but after the first session of training, they will surely come to understand that what I said was indeed the truth .
I had offered to guide them two days a week until they are finally able to practice on their own, every session of normal training was already quite precious to these guys, they aren't wealthy enough to buy medicine after all, so them willing to forsake two training session a week and appear here in time was another test of mine .
Even though I wanted to grant Master's wish of making the Dojo great again, I still decided that it was better to only focus on nourishing only those who could be taught and were more than willing to towards achieving something in their lives .
So I already expected that a whole bunch of them, might not appear here again, but I was completely indifferent to that, I only need to focus on those whom I consider worthy of being instructed by me .
After all, I too needed to work on building my strength, even though I could be said to have no equal in Howling Wolf City once I go all out, even having a secret ace up my sleeves that could possibly pose a threat to even Bone Forging Realm experts, my opponents and enemies are way stronger .
In the next few months, the envoy sent by Feng Rui will arrive, if I'm not ready to show signs of being worthy enough for her, they will try to severe our relationship, even going to as far lengths as killing me won't be that much of a surprise, so I need to be prepared for them as well and have enough strength to compete and if that were to be difficult and somewhat impossible .
Then the next best thing to do is to have enough measures up my sleeves to escape their pursuit, as long as I stay alive there will always be a chance for me to make a comeback, hopefully things won't develop in such a direction .
These were the reasons for why only two training sessions in a week were suggested, the meeting place would be this arena, if their were any disputes that needed to be solved, then after the matters are over, we can start practicing .
" Oh, right, I forgot to tell you this, I'm aware that all of you might think that this me being all kind and benevolent towards you and so, but that isn't true, it's true that I want to reward you for staying behind in the Dojo even though doom was imminent, but the more important reason is related to me wanting you to represent the Dojo well in the future, do any of you have any issue with that, if he does, the door is right there .
" Now, I would like for all of you to write down your name and give that guy the list of your names and beside your name I wanted each one of you to declare the Martial Arts he practice, those who practice the Solid Rock Fist Technique can be exempted from writing it down, but skills must be written down .
As I finished said this and pointed at Ti Tu, I saw that everyone present except for him seemed to feel ashamed, then seeing my bewilderment, Bi Ji was a good enough guy and even though he was ashamed as well, he still stepped forward and explained what was going on, these guys were actually ashamed of the fact that not a single one of them know how to read or write .
That was one of the reasons that their ability to make progress in their training was quite lacking, they only depend on imitating the moves executed every group training session with either of my senior brothers in every morning, that was another issue that I will need to work on with them .
" But all of you still know the name of the skills you are practicing isn't that right ? .
They nodded their head and it was agreed on that they were going to verbally report their Martial Arts to Ti Tu whom I was a bit surprised to know that he can actually read and write without a problem, maybe because I was just being paranoid, but I kept thinking that this guy wasn't as simple as he made himself seem .
After he finished making a list of the Martial Arts those guys practice and their names, I took a look at it and memorized its content, thankfully I was given a permit to read all the books in the Scripture Hall, learning those Martial Arts should be an easy task .
Most of the Martial Arts in the list in front of me consisted of Martial Skills and as I suspected most of those guys practiced Solid Rock Fist, everyone had given me the Martial Skills and Techniques they practiced, all except for Ti Tu .
I was about to ask the reason for that, but suddenly we heard the sound of the door being forcefully opened and we heard there wondering what was going on, a tired disciple was catching his breath after he seemed to have run all the way here at maximum speed, then seeing us coming into his view, he forgot about how tired he was and screamed on top of his lungs :
The Moon-Whispering Willow had gone berserk again, all the disciples are to head towards the Medicinal Garden at once .