Chapter 452: Po Jie Shou

“Understood, I’ll assign an expert from the Ark team specializing in mecha to teach you personally—I’m sure you’ll be satisfied.” Dr. Chen agreed.

“Thank you, Doctor. I have no other requests.” Wang Yu said.

“Good. I happen to have a few matters concerning the cultivation world I’d like to confirm with you again.” Dr. Chen smiled as he spoke.

“Doctor, please go ahead.” Wang Yu replied without hesitation.

“Student Ding, you once mentioned seeing the exact same ‘Saitan’ celestial phenomenon in the cultivation world. After extensive research by our team over this period, we believe several possibilities could explain this occurrence, but we still need to verify a few details—how does the ‘Saitan’ phenomenon you witnessed in the cultivation world compare to our Blue Star’s ‘Saitan’?” Dr. Chen asked solemnly.

……

Afternoon.

Inside a simple wooden house.

Wang Yu sat cross-legged on a cushion, wearing casual attire; opposite him sat a brown-haired man with slightly dark skin, appearing to be in his forties.

The two were conversing in English, and before them, hovering at low altitude, floated two silver-white metal spheres the size of fists.

As they discussed, the two silver spheres darted rapidly up and down, or swung wildly side to side, performing bizarre movements.

At that moment, the foreign man raised one hand and made a grasping motion toward the silver-white sphere before him.

An astonishing sight appeared!

The originally round metal sphere rapidly flattened, turning in an instant into a thin sheet like paper scraps.

Witnessing this, Wang Yu seemed to grasp something—he raised a single finger and pointed at his own metal sphere.

The silver-white sphere began slowly elongating and deforming; within a dozen breaths, it transformed into a short silver rod.

Seeing this, the foreign man smiled and clenched his fingers tightly.

The thin metal sheet, as if crushed simultaneously from all directions by immense force, instantly contracted into a crumpled metal ball.

Under the foreign man’s gaze, the silver-white metal ball spun wildly in place, blurred for a moment, then stopped—now restored to a perfectly smooth, round sphere.

The foreign man spoke again in English, continuing to instruct Wang Yu.

Wang Yu listened intently, his face occasionally lighting up with sudden understanding.

……

In a spacious, well-lit room resembling a classroom, Wang Yu—the sole student—listened carefully as an elderly man lectured from the podium.

On the metal desk before the elder, vivid virtual images continuously projected—various types of power generation devices, all appearing extremely crude, and often disassembling into simpler components with labeled dimensions.

Wang Yu listened intently, faint glimmers of crystalline light flickering deep within his pupils, imprinting every image on the metal podium into his mind, ready to be recalled at any time.

……

The next day.

Inside a strange room entirely decorated with massive lenses.

Wang Yu stood facing a white man wearing metal-framed glasses.

On the ground between them lay three enormous, ferocious-looking wolfhounds.

The white man was thin, with pale skin, but his eyes behind the lenses were unusually sharp as he smiled and spoke to Wang Yu:

“Although both ordinary people and governments worldwide now classify psychic energy users as hypnotists, I believe this is profoundly mistaken.

While powerful psychics can forcibly hypnotize ordinary people, I’ve always held that such behavior isn’t true hypnosis—it merely exploits superior mental strength to distort or overwrite an ordinary person’s consciousness.

A true hypnotist uses physical cues unrelated to psychic power, or leverages the natural environment, or even ordinary-looking small objects, to induce hypnosis without the subject realizing it.

For example, sound alone can target specific creatures and hypnotize them without their awareness.

As the man spoke, he suddenly snapped his fingers before Wang Yu.

The three enormous wolfhounds, which had been lying motionless between them and seemed increasingly agitated, simultaneously tilted their heads and fell into deep, snoring sleep, each in a different posture.

“Master Depa, this is exactly what I want to learn.”

Wang Yu’s eyes lit up as he said this.

……

Several days later.

Inside a spotless, empty, spacious room with no furnishings.

Wang Yu, bare-chested and drenched in sweat, his body bruised purple and blue, pressed both hands and feet against the smooth floor, assuming a standard wolf-charge posture, staring fixedly ahead.

Not far opposite stood a short, white-haired old man, his face lined with deep wrinkles.

The old man’s wrinkles piled upon wrinkles—he was impossible to age, his eyes narrowed to mere slits, standing there as if a breeze could knock him over.

Wang Yu let out a low roar, his limbs moving simultaneously as he lunged through the air like a vicious wolf.

The short old man merely raised one arm and somehow seized Wang Yu’s forearm, then gave it a casual shake.

“Thud.”

Wang Yu’s body, weighing one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty jin, landed heavily on the floor like a sack of grain—with not a shred of resistance.

Wang Yu grimaced, slapped the floor with one hand, and instantly bounced back up, spreading his arms wide to hug the old man fiercely.

But the short old man merely smiled, stepped forward suddenly, and in an inexplicable manner appeared behind Wang Yu, raising his arm to grasp the waistband at Wang Yu’s back.

Wang Yu was startled—he tried to spin around in a whirlwind kick—but suddenly his feet felt light, his body rising involuntarily into the air, flung high by the old man.

Wang Yu twisted in midair, flipped a somersault, and plummeted swiftly toward the ground.

“Thud.”

Wang Yu landed again, face-first in a dog-eating-dirt posture.

The short old man, who had somehow appeared beside him, slowly retracted his stick-like leg, smiling.

This time, Wang Yu seemed to have been hit harder—he groaned, crawled on the floor for a long while, unable to rise.

The short old man spoke calmly:

“I began training at seven, mastered ancient martial arts at thirty, became undefeated in the ancient martial world at fifty, traveled the globe at seventy, studied and experienced over a thousand foreign fighting styles, and only at ninety did I comprehend the ‘True Essence of Martial Way,’ earning the title ‘Wu Zu.’ Boy, do you know what the True Essence of Martial Way I discovered is?”

“I humbly beg your venerable guidance!” Wang Yu rose, gritting his teeth against the pain, bowed deeply to the old man, and replied with utmost respect.

“Those who rely on strength to overcome strength win by strength; those who rely on technique to overcome strength win by technique.” The old man chuckled, then immediately explained before Wang Yu could ponder it:

“This means that if two martial artists differ vastly in physical conditioning, no technique can compensate—the stronger, faster one always wins. Conversely, if their physical conditioning is roughly equal, the one with experience and technique wins.

But remember, by ‘vast difference,’ I don’t mean ordinary disparity—I mean overwhelming superiority, such as one side’s physical stats being several times—or even ten times—greater than the other’s.

Therefore, my advice to you is: if possible, refine your body first—that is the true path of martial arts.

Of course, if you truly wish to learn some rapid-application ancient martial techniques, I can teach you a set I created after decades of experience and drawing from countless foreign fighting styles: the ‘Po Jie Shou.’”

“Po Jie Shou”

Wang Yu paused, startled.

“Yes. The attack methods of Po Jie Shou are simple—only seventy-three striking techniques and thirty-eight power application methods—but you must memorize over six hundred and fifty different attack and evasion postures to seize your opponent’s openings and strike decisively.

Normally, no one could master Po Jie Shou in three days—but for the state to send for me, you clearly aren’t ordinary.

Also, Po Jie Shou only works against humans; it’s mostly useless against animals. Do you still wish to learn it?” The old man gazed at Wang Yu and asked slowly.

“I’ll learn it. If Master Wu Zu is willing to teach, I’ll stay awake three days and three nights to master Po Jie Shou.” Wang Yu replied without hesitation.