"Asta is not like what you say! He must have his reasons for not teaching!"
Yuno was the first to stand up and defend him. In the past, regarding such matters, he would at most be angry in his heart, but he would never have stood up to express his opinion.
But ever since the moment he decided to follow Asta to practice martial arts, he found that he had changed!
He had become sharp, no longer hiding himself in a thick eggshell, wallowing in self-pity as before!
Instead, he dared to stand up fearlessly like a man!
"You people, I really don't know what to say. Have you forgotten who saved you?"
A butcher who had been keeping his eyes closed for a long time opened them and roared, "Is this the attitude you show toward your savior!"
"Uh..."
Many villagers felt ashamed and didn't dare to say anything more. They grabbed their children and prepared to leave.
"May I ask why?"
Before leaving, the butcher, unable to resist his son's stubbornness, asked embarrassedly.
"Because, what I teach is for proper men with determination! Not for those who come to learn Taijutsu out of curiosity, for fun, or to use it as an appendage to magic! And who! Gave you permission to insult Taijutsu? How dare you look at it with such contempt and mockery!"
After Arlan finished speaking, enunciating every word, his gaze became sharp. A soul-captivating aura began to seep out from his body—this was the aura belonging to a powerful martial artist! It was an aura that made people tremble!
All the villagers lowered their heads under Arlan's gaze. Their expressions gradually changed from arrogance to awe!
At this moment, not only did the villagers shut their mouths, but even the people in the church looked at Arlan with new respect!
"Is this aura really Asta, whom I know?"
The nun, the father, Rake, Yuno, and even Yuno, who had always had no doubt about Asta's ability, began to question it. Because the strength Arlan was displaying now was even more formidable than the aura of any big shot they had ever seen!
"Big Brother Asta, I don't look down on Taijutsu. I really want to learn!"
A little chubby boy said stubbornly.
"Me too!"
Another child chimed in.
"If you really want to learn, bring your determination and find me at the Demon God's skull behind the mountain before the sun rises tomorrow!"
Arlan withdrew his aura. The Demon God's skull behind the mountain had always been a nightmarish existence for these children. If they truly possessed the determination, he wouldn't mind teaching them a thing or two.
The next day, including Yuno, a total of seven children arrived at the Demon God's skull before dawn.
Arlan naturally didn't hold back in his teaching. He carefully observed each child's physical fitness and then formulated a targeted training plan for each person. From then on, every day, the villagers could see Arlan leading a group of little monkeys, doing handstands while exercising around the Village.
"Asta, I've seen you all chopping wood and building houses from time to time lately. If possible, I'd like to ask you to repair the fence for our Village. That way, incidents of wild boars running into the Village won't happen anymore."
One day, while Arlan and the others were training, the Village chief of Hage Village suddenly walked over and said.
"Repair the fence? That's not impossible."
Arlan nodded. After all, the father and the others lived in this Village, so making the Village safer was naturally good. However, expecting him to work for free was clearly impossible!
The Village chief was an old and crafty person. Seeing Arlan pondering, he immediately said, "For this, the Village has decided that no matter how hard life gets in the future, we will provide the church with enough food and aid for five years!"
"Deal!"
Arlan snapped his fingers. Repairing the fence was a piece of cake for him. Although Hage Village wasn't small, it wasn't as big as imagined either. Even if it were just him alone, a week would be enough. But now that he had seven little monkeys under his command, repairing the fence was naturally a form of training!
"Kids, these trees look crooked and twisted, not round at all. Work on them!"
Arlan pointed to a large tree that was over ten meters high.
"Yes!"
Yuno and the others didn't hesitate. They held their axes more professionally than lumberjacks, and in no time, they had chopped down a large tree that required two people to wrap their arms around.
"Very good. This time our task is to repair the fence, so we don't need fine processing; we just need to sharpen one end."
"Also, how many times have I said this? Chopping a tree is the same principle as chopping a person!"
"To deliver a full-force blow, you must first exert force starting from your two calves. When the power from your legs travels up to your waist, use your waist as a pivot, and finally swing it down fiercely with your arms. This way, you can exert more power than someone who only uses their waist and arm strength. That is the full force a person can deliver!"
While training, Arlan also closely observed each child's movements, offering pointers from time to time. Although these casually spoken experiences sounded simple and easy to understand, they were the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancients. If no one pointed them out, these children would likely never understand these principles in their entire lives.
Yuno and the others applied force according to the method Arlan described. Keeping their waists still at first, they suddenly exerted force with their legs. Their whole bodies seemed to be flying, driven by the muscles in their legs. At this moment, their waists seemed to stretch like a civet cat, naturally bursting out a supple strength. When the power from the legs and waist reached their arms, every child felt as if a beast was about to rush out of their body—the force was unprecedentedly huge!
"Bang!"
When the axes bit into the tree trunks, Yuno and the others' arms immediately went numb. Some children were even knocked to the ground by the rebounding force. But the effect was significant; one swing went three points deep into the wood, feeling deeper than five swings had before!
"When you unleash your full strength, you must know how to dissipate the force; this is the only way to protect yourself from being injured by your own explosive power. The secret to dissipating force lies in 'relaxing' and'sinking'. As beginners, you can loosen your grip on the axe handle before it sinks into the tree trunk, preventing the backlash of force at the root."
"Once you are proficient, you can hold onto the handle and take advantage of this rebounding force to exert force a second time. This is called dissipating force while simultaneously borrowing it. Only then can you maintain a continuous, endless burst of power!"
While explaining, Arlan picked up an axe to demonstrate. He chose a large tree that was thick enough for three adults to join hands around. He gripped the ground firmly with his feet, then his calves instantly tensed. A tremendous force rose from his legs, then his waist twisted to exert force, carrying the massive power to his shoulders, and finally transferring it through his arms to the axe.
"Thwack!"
The axe landed fiercely on the tree trunk, leaving a cut nearly one-fifth of the way through!
However, it wasn't over yet. When the axe sank into the trunk, although part of the force was absorbed by the tree, another part was returned to the axe through rebound. When Arlan sensed the huge reaction force coming back from the axe, he immediately used the momentum to lift it. Thus, most of the rebounding force not only didn't hurt Arlan but actually helped him pull the axe out and raise it again!
As the axe drew a semicircle in the air, Arlan exerted force with his legs again, driving the axe back into the tree. Repeating this, he seemed to get more and more energetic with each chop, just like a perpetual motion machine. In less than six chops, a large tree with hard wood was chopped down by Arlan!
"Hiss..."
All the children gasped, because they clearly noticed that Arlan was chopping faster and faster!
They knew that they had the most strength on the first chop, and their strength would drop significantly by the second. But Arlan did the opposite; the more he chopped, the greater his strength became!
"This is the charm of borrowing force!"
Arlan said.
At this moment, bright lights shone in all the children's eyes. They finally realized that Taijutsu actually possessed such charm!