Chapter 4: How Hard Is It to Hold On as One Person?

How hard is it to hold on as one person?

Every trainee at the Northern Dipper Qi Refining Dojo can answer this question.

But before answering it, one must first understand a concept—what is Northern Dipper Fist?

[Fist of the Battlefield]

[Death God Fist]

[Ultimate Assassination Fist]

[Human Explosion Fist]

These are its famed titles and epithets.

A high-risk fist art founded in China during the Three Kingdoms period eighteen hundred years ago, passed down through generations to only one successor, destined to seal itself in times of peace and appear only in eras of chaos.

Originally a fictional dark assassination art based on mythical interpretations of human acupoints from traditional Chinese medicine and martial legends, it earned the title of [Strongest] for achieving countless impossible feats and wielding unimaginable power.

It is said Northern Dipper Fist discovered 708 “meridian secret holes” in the human body, capable of injecting Qi to destroy enemies from within.

If the opponent is merely an ordinary person, no matter how many there are, one touch of this fist means death, one strike means demise.

Moreover, it can explode only a part of the body, freely control opponents, erase memories, and even heal injuries depending on the pattern of its perforations.

Without exaggeration, most of Northern Dipper Fist’s mysteries are built upon this almost magical technique.

Another secret of this fist art is a special breathing technique called [Dragon Turn Breathing Method], through which the Dragon Turn Battle Qi forged can unlock 100% of the human body’s potential, drastically increasing the user’s physical capabilities and delivering strikes powerful enough to shatter a person with a single blow.

Additionally, according to Jia Ji’s memories from his past life, Northern Dipper Fist possesses many superhuman secrets, such as “turning the body into steel through rage,” “tracking the seven blind spots in human movement,” “seeing arrows in flight,” and “possessing the skill to deflect bullets.”

But what makes Northern Dipper Fist the strongest on Earth is its boundless idealistic trait: “infinite evolution by finding openings in ever-changing battles, creating entirely new techniques tailored to each opponent, capable of breaking through all Kunjing , dead ends, and hopeless situations, endlessly increasing the power of the fist.”

“Many villains are defeated by the protagonist’s improvised moves,” Jia Ji remembered clearly—his younger brother Ken Shi Lang always lands a counterkill within twenty minutes after suffering a setback.

Selling blood then locking blood, single-target and AoE, human mecha, body-wave emission, eyes on the back of the head, last-minute breakthroughs, copy-paste, first-encounter kill, hellish war god… all these are Northern Dipper Fist’s hallmarks, all must be experienced.

Without doubt, cultivating Northern Dipper Fist is Jia Ji’s best path to becoming stronger right now.

“This is not an ordinary fist art—it is a metaphysical, magical idealistic fist art that once held the title of Strongest.”

Invincible, truly invincible.

Yet the difficulty of cultivating this peerless fist art is proportional to its power.

“Crack.”

The sound of bone snapping as he thrust his right index finger with full force into the trunk of a towering tree.

Ear-piercing.

Inside the grand Northern Dipper Tai Sheng Temple, where gods and buddhas gather, towering, mighty Luohan statues silently watched the trainees’ efforts on either side.

This is the first step toward becoming the successor of Northern Dipper Fist.

Piercing through a tree trunk thick enough for one person to embrace with a single finger.

For the young trainees, this demands not only courage and determination, enduring the constant pain of shattered finger bones and forging their hands into unbreakable weapons, but also gathering, guiding, and unleashing the “Qi” within—transforming it into their most trusted companion and strongest weapon: Battle Qi!

Only with Battle Qi can one pierce through the hardened Kulian tree with a finger.

This first trial tests not only their willpower but also their innate talent.

Those without talent cannot achieve it no matter how long they try—this trial eliminates the vast majority.

Jia Ji was once among them.

He might never awaken, live a dull, ordinary life as a faceless bystander, then die cleanly in a global nuclear explosion.

Fortunately, he was rescued from the fire by Long Quan; his adoptive father is one of the strongest in the world.

With the stubborn heart of the original Jia Ji and his admiration for his father, he pushed himself to complete the initial cultivation, crossing the first threshold from human to fist master.

Unfortunately, his fellow trainees were all undisputed monsters.

Their physical Tianfu and comprehension were top-tier!

Their determination and endurance were exceptional!

Each one surpassed Jia Ji in every way, each strength absurdly beyond measure—once-in-a-thousand-years geniuses.

Even something as ethereal as awakening and ambition, he could not match these three “fate-blessed children” burdened with great destinies.

In the words of Northern Dipper Fist itself: “This world, destroyed by nuclear fire, is the most brutal era in the eighteen-hundred-year history of Northern Dipper Fist. For this reason, the gods sent forth three geniuses capable of picking up the era.”

In short, born to meet the calamity.

Duo Qi and La O’s status in this world is like Ao Jia and Hai Hu’s in the Magnetic Field world.

“I am the least qualified among the candidate successors.”

After recovering, Jia Ji gritted his teeth and trained alongside his brothers for over a month, finally arriving at this unshakable conclusion.

Inferior in every way, behind in everything.

Four successors, three with golden tags, and only me with a blue tag? What’s going on—this feeling that only I can’t do it?

As he himself admitted, the soul that had crossed over into this body was still an ordinary person, with less perseverance and endurance than the original “human” boy Jia Ji.

This is not something that can be changed by knowing the plot—on the path of cultivation, strong is strong, weak is weak.

Even if he knelt before Long Quan and begged, “If I can inherit Northern Dipper Fist, I’ll do anything,” it would be useless.

“In this kind of orthodox Japanese manga story, there is no way to take a heretical path or shortcut. Exploiting the advantages of a transmigrator to find loopholes or remedies is utterly impossible.”

Compared to the Jia Ji who refused to surrender even in death, he had a clear self-awareness—he was mediocrity.

The most superfluous person in this dojo.

There was no way—mere relentless training was not enough. To reach the pinnacle of invincibility through the most basic methods was simply impossible.

How could he possibly compete with those who were more talented than him and trained harder?

Impossible. (shaking finger)

Even though Long Quan treated them all equally, without discrimination, Jia Ji himself was no super-resilient hero who could remain oblivious and carefree under such pressure.

But quitting the team was out of the question!

Facing overwhelming talent gaps that had nearly shattered his spirit many times, the boy Jia Ji still possessed one advantage—something no one else in this world had, the one thing that allowed him to endure the brutal training.

Something that could elevate and complete this inherently flawed character, enabling him to reach strength he could never have achieved—and then use that strength of his own to crush every obstacle.

How hard is it to hold on as one person?

Jia Ji’s answer was—

“Ding!”

Geng Encyclopedia, Episode Two:

1 “Oh no, I’m surrounded by nuclear warheads” is a parody of “Oh no, I’m surrounded by beauties.”

2 “Hope remains even in despair” is from the dialogue of Zhao Yun in the game Three Kingdoms Kill.

3 “How hard is it to hold on as one person?” is from The Cultivation of the Demon Sovereign.





(End of Chapter)