"There's an Eastern saying that goes, skills cannot be passed down easily. You're asking me to teach you my secret skills, but if you don't show your sincerity and determination, and I just teach them to you just like that, you wouldn't appreciate something that you had obtained so easily, don't you think so?" He finally spoke.
Looking at them, he continued.
"I don't need money, so you can forget about that line of thought. As for how you will demonstrate your sincerity, well, that depends on your own determination, everyone has a different thing that they prize over all else. I'm not asking you to bring out your deepest sincerity, it just has to be something that would hurt you to give away."
His words made them all rather thoughtful.
It was only that green-haired boy Dahm who, after that shock just now, had a hint of hatred flash through his eyes. He did not say anything, but it was clear he had a grudge against Garen now for causing him to lose face just now.
"Sincerity, is it?" The black president frowned, "Sorry, my passion for combat is not enough to make me trade something I prize for it." He paused. "Apologies. Combat is just a temporary hobby of mine, to me, it's just a way to train my body, this point is a bit too far for me. I won't participate from here on out."
Garen was not surprised, and even the others were not surprised at all.
The black president was pulled into this to make up the numbers by the other five elite team leaders anyway, he did not have the strong family support the other five did, he still needed to fight for his own future, combat was just a hobby and training method of his, it was too much to really take that step further up, that would already depart from his initial aim.
So although it was unfortunate, that he could not learn that legendary peak-level combat technique, this still was not his final goal.
Shaking his head, he gave the others an apologetic glance, turning around and leaving the hall, and soon they could hear the sound of the door closing as he left.
Garen did not really mind either, he had long since noticed that the black president was not nearly as passionate as the other five.
And even if the remaining five did not want to learn, he did not intend to force them, the ones he truly had his eyes on were just those two, Xander and the Asian girl Cece. Their talents were strong and very suitable for the Two-Faced Waterbird Fist, their wills were pretty good too, once they learned it, they should be able to achieve a very high standard in a very short time.
Of course if the other five vice presidents could make it, that would be even better, that meant he could indirectly influence the wide web of connections they had behind them.
"How about we go it like this." Garen thought about it, "Cece, you start first, what I want from you is very simple."
"What is it?" Cece's seemingly calm exterior also became slightly nervous.
"Go out for a run, and keep running around the mansion's grassy lawn, don't stop until I tell you to stop."
Cece widened her eyes, bit her lip and nodded hard.
Without any hesitation, she turned around and ran towards the door, as soon as they heard the door open, she immediately started running.
Everyone there looked at each other, they did not think Cece would be so serious.
Quentin walked to the window and looked out, and Cece was indeed already running rounds, not stopping at all on the green grass, her gaze dead serious.
Garen smiled. Looking at the six people here, the five vice presidents and one Xander.
The six of them looked at Garen, ever since they saw how terrifying he was when he exploded, nobody suspected what kind of power this soft and weak-looking boy had, he might be abnormally pretty and gentle when he was calm, but as soon as he exploded, his blonde hair flying, that terrifying destructive power could destroy almost anything, that wild and violent extreme offensive power, it was as though they were not facing a person, but a real golden lion. He could run wild whenever and hurt them, that feeling of danger and threat that almost seemed to prick their skin made them all more than a little stiff in front of Garen despite themselves.
"Actually I won't force anyone either, forget it, let's just do it this way, you all go run with Cece, don't stop until I tell you to, how's that? That's a simple enough test, right?"
Garen said, smiling.
"No problem, I'm good at running!" Jamie grinned. "When the coach my family hired first started to train me, he asked me to run too."
He was the first to lead the way out of the house again, following behind Cece as he ran.
Quentin and Serena nodded, and ran out as well. After that it was the girl with the short auburn hair, Raelan, the bespectacled Hochman, and Xander.
Finally Serena clenched her teeth, and followed them out as well.(1)
All that was left was the green-haired Dahm, he clenched his teeth and looked at Garen, who was sitting on the sofa calmly, when suddenly he changed his mind, turned around and ran with them as well.
The terror of that moment had also raised in him an infinite craving for power. If I was the one who had that power… it was as though a torch burned in his heart.
It would be too cool!!
He studied combat not only for self-defense, but also because it was cool enough!
That's right, because it was cool, just for that reason. He had been a genius since young, and was quick to learn anything, the only exception was combat, when he came into contact with it he was pleasantly surprised to realize that it was much harder than everything else, plus the moves were cool enough, and he could train up a perfect figure, so he was instantly enamored with it.
"Wait until I learn up all of your petty tricks, then I'll get back at you!" Dahm thought sinisterly, and followed the others out to run.
Garen was the only one left in the mansion hall, he stood up, and walked to the door as well, standing in front of the mansion's hall, he watched the eight of them run evenly on the grass.
How nostalgic…
A hint of remembrance flashed through his eyes, wasn't he the same when he was small and weak back then, didn't he also desire for and obsess over getting stronger?
Too bad… The eight of them were no more than lambs to the slaughter in his eyes, none of them knew, that the combat technique they craved so much was actually a demonic secret skill that had terrifying side effects.
Perhaps it was because this world never had anything like secret techniques, so they had no idea that the secret skill could have such an intense side effect.
The secret skill Two-Faced Waterbird Fist was not like the Shooting Shadow, the more they practiced this secret skill, the more they needed Garen to personally give them a primer, to suppress the Waterbird Fist's internal forces as it grows stronger, otherwise there was the chance that they would die from internal bleeding, pain all over their bodies, and the general weakening of their bodily functions.
In other words, once they started learning this secret skill, they could not stop, if they stopped, they could trigger the side effects, and they had to continuously train in the ways of the secret skill, whether they improve or not.
Even if someone with great talent appeared, and trained to a high level, the effect of the secret skill was precisely that the higher they trained, the more they relied on Garen's primer, and the more they were controlled by him.
Leaning on the doorframe, Garen watched the eight of them run constantly around the grassy lawn.
Unsurprisingly, after twenty rounds, Garen declared that Cece had passed, and after thirty rounds, after forty rounds, after fifty rounds, everyone had passed.
The lawn was very big, just one round was about six hundred meters.
Twenty rounds equalled twelve thousand meters, Cece ran until her clothes were drenched in sweat, when she heard Garen declare that she had passed, she just slumped to the ground. Thank goodness she had some foundation in martial arts, otherwise she really could not have withstood all that running, and even then, she had basically reached her limit.
The others had much better foundations, thirty rounds or eighteen thousand meters, forty rounds or twenty-four thousand meters, fifty rounds and thirty thousand meters.
The last one to stop was Jamie, he really was the best at running.
By the time they had all finished running, more than five hours had passed.
After all, they did not specialize in long-distance running, such a record was already very good, and they did not even rehydrate on the way.
Garen looked at the eight of them in front of him, all dog tired, and two of the mansion's servants were serving them water, slightly salty water that had salt added to it.
"Now that that's done, let's start."
"N-Now?" Jamie asked, panting. He bent his waist, his hands on his knees, his sweat dripping down his chin.
"Of course…" As soon as he finished speaking, Garen's figure instantly flashed, appearing beside Jamie, the five fingers on his right hand as though playing a piano, instantaneously hitting several tens of pressure points on his back.
He was so fast that his fingers made just three crisp sounds.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Nobody could see how Garen's fingers moved, they just saw a shadow flash past Jamie's back.
"Close your eyes and feel it!" Garen's figure flashed towards the rest of them like lightning, and the series of crisp sounds kept coming. "Pay attention and feel the qi pathways in your body!!"
His voice was like a clap of thunder, transmitted straight into their ears.
The two servants at the side were completely dazed, the way they saw it, it was only as though Garen had walked a circle between the eight of them, because it was on their backs, they could not see Garen's movements either.
Garen purposely avoided the cameras and the servants' gazes, using a secret hand technique to insert a wisp of his primer aura, creating a wisp of power inside their bodies, and leading it to flow according to the path of the Two-Faced Waterbird Fist.
His aura right now could affect actual things, not like the Grandmasters of Combat in the Secret Technique World that could only affect the spirits of creatures, so he was perfectly capable of triggering their bodies, and channeling the flow of the force.
"Feel the flow of the force, don't forget it!"
After walking one round, Garen returned to his original position, and watched as the eight of them sat down one by one, their whole bodies stiff, their eyes closed as they tried to feel the changes in their bodies.
It was high noon, the sun at two o'clock unnaturally hot, and all eight of them sweated drastically, but none of them dared to open their eyes or say anything, all of them were extremely cautious, terrified that the movement and force inside their bodies would suddenly vanish.
After a full dozen minutes or so, they opened their eyes slowly, each of them with energetic gazes, as though they had recovered all of the stamina they had just spent.
"Miraculous! This is too miraculous!!" Jamie murmured, he gripped his fist, and released it again lightly, "I feel as though all my stamina has returned. Just in that little bit of time…!"
"Is this the true secret of the Two-Faced Extermination? That stance and move that do not obey the laws of physics at all!?" Quentin's eyes were full of irrepressible awe. She had never thought that there was this side to combat, that feeling when she closed her eyes, and that sensation when her consciousness was guided everywhere by that icy-cold qi, it was like making love, no, compared to pure physical gratification, this feeling was even more intoxicating!
It was not just her, even Dahm seemed to be drooling, his whole body shaking, that feeling was even more satisfying than taking drugs, so much so that he did not want to leave it at all.
"That felt too good…"
Translator's Note:
Yes, Serena appears twice; no, I don't know why. There is literally no one else.