Chapter 101: The Categories of Martial Arts

While Catherine lay unconscious, Vayne had already snatched the crab meat from her hands and begun to feast. She devoured the first few bites ravenously, but as the energy replenished within her and the gnawing hunger subsided, her manners gradually returned to their usual elegance.

Chewing, she praised, "For a long time, I've wanted to eat the meat of magical beasts, but back then my body couldn't absorb it at all. Now that my wish is finally fulfilled, it is indeed extraordinarily delicious! If practicing martial arts means eating meals of this caliber every day, then the martial path is indeed something worth wasting time on."

Ling Mo smiled, ignoring the subtle offense in her words, and simply asked, "How do you feel now? Can you control your body?"

"Barely," Vayne said, swallowing the last bite of crab meat. She patted her stomach, and seeing she was full, reluctantly set the remaining meat aside before answering his question. "But during the fight with Senior Sister just now, I could vaguely feel that as the battle dragged on, I ran out of oxygen. How do I solve this problem of insufficient oxygen supply to the lungs?"

"Oh? You can feel it that clearly?"

"Of course! I am a Chief Physician of Potions!" Vayne lifted her chin proudly. "Back when I was making puppets, I double-majored in Human Anatomy and Potions at university. I've dissected twelve corpses. While I wouldn't say I know the human body inside out, I've certainly crossed the threshold. Combined with the heightened internal perception from martial arts, if I couldn't even detect a minor thing like oxygen deprivation, all those years of study would have been for nothing."

"Very good. Having a basic understanding of human anatomy beforehand is incredibly helpful for practicing martial arts," Ling Mo nodded in approval. "It's simple. There are two solutions: the first is to increase oxygen utilization efficiency, and the second is to increase the concentration of inhaled oxygen."

"Oh? That's the approach?" A look of surprise crossed Vayne's face. "I thought it would involve using energy to forcibly reconstruct the lungs. That seems like the way to address the root cause. No matter how refined a breathing technique is, it only treats the symptoms."

"Believe me, attempting to forcibly modify your internal organs at the Novice Martial Master stage is suicide," Ling Mo said solemnly. "Reconstruction isn't done one organ at a time. All organs must be modified together to reach a new equilibrium, keeping the internal systems stable. Otherwise, if you reconstruct a powerful lung, are you sure your heart's blood circulation can keep up?"

"Alright, that makes sense." Vayne pondered for a moment, then held out her hand. "So, dear Master, hand it over."

"Hand over what?"

"A special breathing technique, of course! You're not going to tell me I have to figure that out on my own, are you?" Vayne said as if it were obvious. "If that were the case, there would be no hope of promoting the path of martial arts. How could a discipline with incomplete foundational techniques ever spread?"

"Ha! As expected of a Magic Sage's sister, you do have some foresight," Ling Mo laughed, pointing to Catherine who was still sprawled on the ground. "My first disciple here is a different story. After figuring out her own breathing technique, she got a bit full of herself and never bothered to ask for my guidance. I was actually waiting for her to hit a wall when she tries to break through to Senior Martial Master. That way, the lesson will stick, and she'll finally understand what a 'master' is actually for."

Vayne chuckled. "Before I came, my sister shared some of Senior Sister's background with me. She's self-taught, so it's only natural she doesn't know these things. For you to just stand by and watch her fail, Master, you're quite wicked."

"When I was practicing martial arts back then, I relied entirely on myself with no one to guide me," Ling Mo explained. "So I never developed the habit of teaching. It wasn't that I was deliberately making fun of her."

"I see... So you were self-taught too, Master?" Vayne nodded in understanding. She paused, a subtle expression crossing her face. "Still, I can't help but feel... this eldest disciple of yours is a bit dim. I've used the exact same trick on her three times, and she fell for it every single time. Are you sure she'll survive long enough to grow up?"

Ling Mo winced slightly at this, spreading his hands in resignation. "Over the past few days, I've dragged her through several life-threatening situations. Normally, after a few brushes with death, anyone would become far more alert, if not outright meticulous. But this girl... I don't know why her mind is still so carefree. Her personality hasn't changed a bit since the day I met her. It's truly a mystery."

Vayne stared off into the distance. "I suppose that's what they call being blissfully obtuse... So, what's next? If there's nothing urgent, I'd like to start my magical engineering experiments."

With that, she reached into her one-piece mage robe—which was covered in childlike doodles—and with a heavy thud, produced a massive, polished laboratory table. It was laden with various tools and reagents, and nestled in a slot beneath the workstation was a half-finished alchemical puppet. Lacking its outer casing, its mechanical gears, ball joints, and runic arrays were completely exposed, exuding a strange, mechanical beauty.

Ling Mo tested the weight of the table and asked curiously, "Is that... a genuine spatial bag?"

"Of course, this is a genuine Subspace Bag," Vayne said, pointing to the lining of her mage robe with a smug smile. "This isn't some low-grade wind-magic 'compression pocket'. It's true spatial magic. It creates a pocket dimension, and you carry the spatial beacon of its entrance with you. Whenever you need something, you open the entrance via the beacon and pull it out. It doesn't weigh a single ounce. The only drawback is..."

"Alright, alright, I'm not particularly interested in magic theory. Let's hold off on that, and your experiments can wait until I've sorted things out," Ling Mo waved his hand, cutting Vayne off. He then nudged Catherine with his foot and barked, "Get up! Stop playing dead! What, embarrassed because you got hit on the head three times in a few minutes? If you're so embarrassed, get your butt up. It's time to teach you how to cultivate!"

Wincing, Catherine scrambled to her feet. Her face flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and anger, and she stood there tongue-tied. Vayne, however, gave her a warm smile and gestured for her to sit at the laboratory table. Catherine hesitated, but perhaps the multiple times Vayne had called her "Senior Sister" while she was playing dead had softened her. She slowly shuffled over.

Once they were both seated, Ling Mo's expression turned serious. He pulled a few thin booklets from his hide trousers. "Catherine, you've been practicing for a while now, so you should have a basic understanding of the martial path. Vayne, your sister undoubtedly briefed you before sending you here. The essence of martial arts is to refine magic elements and integrate them completely into one's own body. You both understand this clearly, yes?"

Seeing them both nod, Ling Mo continued, "According to the common knowledge of this continent, allowing magic elements directly into the body will turn a human into a monster. That is true. However, the martial path has a foolproof way to bypass this. As for the underlying principles, I will explain them to you once you advance to Grand Martial Master. For now, let us focus on the cultivation methods."

"Magic is divided into several major schools: Light, Dark, Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Mental, Spatial, Necromancy, Curse, Summoning, and Transmutation. Since martial arts also utilizes magic elements, it is naturally divided into schools as well, though not as detailed as magic. There are only four: Fire, Wind, Light, and Ice. Starting from the Intermediate Martial Master stage, different breathing techniques will guide the body, consciously or unconsciously, to absorb the corresponding elemental magic. Even if two practitioners eat the same Flame Vulture, a Fire-attribute Martial Master will absorb slightly more energy from it than those of other attributes. By the time you reach Senior Martial Master, your techniques will carry the power of your respective element. Catherine, you are already locked into the Fire attribute, so there's no changing that. Take this Fire manual. It's a compilation of my own insights over the years, and it should be of great help to you."

With that, Ling Mo handed a red-covered booklet to Catherine. As she accepted it with delight, he cautioned, "Remember, while Fire-attribute skills have incredible explosive power, your sustained combat capability is the worst among all martial masters. Much like Fire magic, it is flashy and consumes a vast amount of energy. If you miss your mark, you'd better pray for luck."

Ling Mo then turned his gaze to Vayne, his brow furrowing deeply. "You share a body with your sister, and she is an Ice Magic Sage. I assumed your affinity for the Ice element would be top-tier. Yet, from what I sensed just now, your body's affinity for Ice is actually the worst among all elements. What on earth is going on?"