Capítulo 6: Chapter 6: Ability Over-used!
"Then, let's start!" said Ling Yu as she moved her left leg half a step forward and her right hand extended to the front, forming a stance. This stance was reminiscent of a sharp lance being jutted forward.
Mighty and unstoppable!
"Single lance momentum strike!" she shouted out. Her right hand bolted out to the front as all her fingers were extended outwards, shaped like the tip of an incoming spear as she pushed forward with a single dash using her right foot!
- Rringgg!
"As expected…" said Duan Li to himself as time began to slow down and he side-stepped to the right slightly.
- Whooshh!
"T-this... Instant reaction?!" Ling Yu's eye squinted and her brows creased together, surprised by the last second side-step performed by Duan Li. She was sure before that her attack would hit, only to be dodged and effortlessly at that!
Continuing her attack, she swept her right hand to the side where Duan Li was, and then the latter abruptly disappeared! She was startled but only for a fraction of a second before her eyes found Duan Li to be squatting down on the ground.
Clenching her teeth, she lifted one of her leg to do a round-flip back kick. This movement was very fast and occurred in less than a second, but to Duan Li whose world seemed to be as slow as a snail, he could see every movements that she made clearly.
"Hmm, she... is actually quite decent..."
Now that he had all of the time in the world to look properly, he realized that this sister Ling Yu was actually quite the beauty.
Pondering upon himself, a thought came across him. "From her appearance, she should be in her early thirties... How did mom become friends with someone of the younger generation?" he thought.
His mother was already over 40 years old as far as he knows. Not to mention, his age himself is 21 years old. Thus, it wouldn't make sense for his mother to be younger than that. However, he threw this miscellaneous thoughts to the back of his head as he returned to focus on the battle at hand.
...
"He had already dodged twelve strikes from me consecutively... this secret art is actually quite decent! Even I didn't manage to see how he moved..." thought Ling Yu.
"Well, Time to step it up then!"
Suddenly, her aura went on a qualitative change as it becomes sharper and somewhat more dangerous.
"Hmm? Her movements... had somehow becomes faster?" said Duan Li shocked.
He was still in the world where time had slowed down, but he could visibly tell that the strike was getting faster by the second. Eventually, it reached a state where her strike moved almost a quarter of a second faster in the real world. But to Duan Lin, this was still kind of slow, so he was able to dodge them yet again.
"What... he was still able to dodge my strike without a single counter? Interesting! Let me see then how long can you last!" thought Ling Yu inwardly as her aura burst forth yet again. This time however, it took a more tangible form between translucent and light emerald flowing outwards of her body like a river.
Noticing this change in pace, Meng Yue's heart shuddered for a moment. The technique executed by Ling Yu right now is called the spiritual Qi burning. It is a trade-off between stamina and speed. The more one burn their spiritual Qi, the faster they becomes, but also, the more tired.
Although the level of spiritual Qi burning that Ling Yu used right now was of the lowest output so as not to injure Duan Li accidentally, Meng Yue still felt worried as she did not know how long her son's ability of slowing down time would be able to last.
What if the ability abruptly ended and he was attacked with that level of speed?
Thinking up to here, Meng Yue did not dare to take chances anymore as she yelled "Enough!" and released a pressuring aura against Ling Yu.
- BOOM!
Ling Yu snapped out of her trance and stopped her assault halfway as she quickly turned and apologized to Meng Yue, "Sister! Forgive this junior here for going overboard! I was just feeling a little bit excited... that was why..." she said with a sheepish tone while playing with her fingers like a child that was getting scolded.
"Its fine..." replied Meng Yue with a sigh. She couldn't really blame her though. After all back then, even she had become too excited when she had a spar with her son.
"It's just that the secret art is extremely taxing for one's mind, if used for a long duration…"
- Thud!
Just as Meng Yue was about to make a believable excuse for intervening their spar, at that moment, Duan Li had suddenly collapsed to the ground. His face pale as sweat continued to pour out from him and his breathing haggard, gasping for air as he clutched at his chest.
"DUAN LI!" shrieked his mother with a horrified expression.
"Mother..." said Duan Li in a weak voice, his vision slowly turning into a blur as he then blacked out.
...
Inside Duan Li's room…
"Urgh... oww!"
Duan Li was startled when he woke up as all of his muscles started to suddenly ache with pains. Struggling himself to sit upright on his bed, he recalled that the last scene he saw before collapsing was his mother shouting for his name and was running towards him with tears flowing down her cheeks.
"Ouch!!" he yelped again.
Every time he tried to lift any part of his limbs, he would feel a terrible pain assaulting on his muscles. "Seemed like... the ability does have its side-effect..." he sighed.
In fact, for a cheating ability as such, it was already quite fortunate that his condition right now was not that severe. If it involved, let's say, hairs turning white... now that would be scary, he thought.
Turning his head to the left, he quickly saw a familiar figure sleeping soundly beside his bed with remnant tears still apparent below her beautiful eyes. She was sitting on the floor while her upper body was supported by her arms on his bed to act like a pillow.
"Mother... she must have been extremely worried..." he said slowly in his heart, feeling a little bit guilty.
As if hearing the inner voice of her son, the sleeping Meng Yue abruptly jolted up as she stared at her son in a daze.
Seeing the blank expression of his mother, Duan Li spoke out jokingly, "Mother… could it be that I... have grown more handsome?" he said with a cheeky smile.
"Idiot!!" yelled his mother as tears once more bawled out like a broken dam. "Don't you know how worried I am?!"
...
His mother lectured him for a straight one hour before coming to a stop. "Humph! Do you understand now?!" she said as she glared at Duan Li.
Duan Li couldn't help but had to suppress himself from laughing out loud as that adorable face of his mother looked more like an angry panda with her swollen eyes from all that crying before.
"Y-yes mother... your son here understands..." he replied slowly, afraid to lose control of the laughter that was about to escape.
"Good! Now that it is already morning, get up already and wash yourself! Humph!" harrumphed his mother as she stood up.
"But mother... my body hurts a lot... can I sleep for the whole day today?" he said, trying to find an excuse so that he can be lazy all day today.
"I don't care! Even if you have to drag your body around using your chin on the ground, you WILL get up this instant!" yelled his mother with her hands on her waist.
"I will wait for you at the kitchen to ready for your breakfast, if you haven't gotten up by then..." she said with a threatening voice as she widened her eyes trying to look scary.
- Pu!
Duan Li couldn't hold out anymore as he finally let out a laugh. His mother was way too adorable!
"W-what?! Why are you laughing?" seeming to not expect such a reaction coming out from her son. Her face then flushed red as she immediately understood why. The mirror hanged on the wall reflected how she looks like.
A panda!
"GET UP BEFORE I HIT YOU!!" shouted his mother as she quickly ran to reach for the door in embarrassment and closed it with a loud 'bang' sound.
Duan Li was still giggling and when he finally stopped, he let out a smile.
"Thank you mother for always worrying about me…"
...
Finishing his breakfast, his mother turned to him as she decided to be the one to speak up first in order to clear the awkward silence. "Today should've been your first day at the academy. But because you have fainted, Sister Ling Yu had given you a leave of absence. Thus, you will start tomorrow!"
She then continued, "She had also sent you the academy's uniform last night and I've hanged it on your wall."
Duan Li had already seen the uniform from that haughty young man yesterday, but having his own and giving it a thorough good look, he couldn't help but to feel impressed with it.
On the outside, the uniform looked to be no more than normal. But, if one observed them carefully and touched it, one would definitely realize that the uniform was far from simple! Ripples of power could be felt from the material, making it tough, stretchy and extremely durable!
Perhaps as a student of the academy, they would have to undergo quite a lot of intense physical activities and some sparring. Thus, it wouldn't work for the academy's budget if they had to replace the student's uniform every now and then, thought Duan Li.
"And also, this morning the academy was kind enough to sent you a batch of books containing some basic foundation for martial arts. You will have to study them carefully so as not to be completely like country bumpkin!" said his mother as her index finger pointed out to the bunch of books stacked together by the front door.
...
Carrying the stacks of books into his room, Duan Li stretched his back lazily. He could still feel the soreness from his muscles so he laid down onto his bed instead of sitting on his study table. He then picked out a random book to read, titled 'Foundation: Human Anatomy'.
- Flip!
He flipped the first few pages.
"There are about 206 bones in the body of human adults. Twenty-six can be found in the spine and vertebrae; eight in the cranium; fourteen in the face; twenty-six in the ribs and sternum; seventy in the upper body; and sixty-two in the lower extremities..."
"As for skeletal muscles, there are about 700 altogether, of which are divided into 300 major and 400 minor muscles. Both are then divided further into sub-categories..."
"In order for a martial artists to be able to execute their techniques well, one must know how each limbs would function, what makes them move and what drives the force within it. Thus..."
...
After two hours, he finished flipping all the 86 pages. To his surprise, he managed to remember word by word in that book as well as where each bones and skeletal muscles are located inside his body.
"This is quite strange... I loved reading, but I was never able to remember everything so thoroughly, even if I had read them for numerous times... but now..." Duan Li contemplated with a frown as he cupped his chin. "…is this because of the effects from the mysterious pearl as well?"
Closing his eyes, he tried to feel the bones and muscles inside his body according to the depiction illustrated in the book before.
- Shinggg!
EH?!
Confirming that he wasn't imagining, he abruptly opened his eyes. After a while, he then closed his eyes again.
- Shinggg!
"T-this!" he said with a stupefied expression.
...
Status de energia semanal
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