In a rented house in the Bashui District of West Capital City, Feng Xue sat in front of a desk lamp, wearing a monocle magnifier, common among jewelers and appraisers in films, making him look as if he were admiring a rare treasure.
However, he appeared more like a ticulous craftsman than an appraiser at the mont, carefully handling fragile components.
His will, thin as filants, seeped gently into the crystal-like shell, then slowly converged inside the dice, under Feng Xue’s precise control, weaving into the desired form.
An illusion of texture slowly took shape, and within that tiny, one-centiter-square dice, a human figure gradually appeared.
At this mont, Feng Xue was like soone assembling a ship in a bottle, bit by bit inserting components and then assembling them inside.
The roar of engines outside the window, the ticking of the clocks in the room, the arguing of the neighbors upstairs, the panting from the tea and coffee shop next door...
The various sounds were exceptionally clear under Feng Xue’s high concentration of spirit, yet they did not cause the slightest ripple in his ntal state.
"Done!"
Suddenly, the statue-like Feng Xue let out a light sigh, and a clear figure had already ford inside the small dice in his hand.
"Next, next!" Feng Xue placed the small dice on a rack beside him, then took out a new one from his suitcase, which already housed over 300 "Crystal Dice" with shadows in them. Clearly, there were many more in the suitcase.
The shadows in the dice on the shelves beca thinner towards the bottom, and at the very bottom layer, so shadows had completely dissipated.
But Feng Xue didn’t mind, or rather, those that had dissipated were the finished products—
It ant that the "Identity" inside the dice had been completely imbued with his consciousness. Only then would the consciousness that had finished its mission dissipate on its own.
After all, this was not so item disguised by the authority of "Whale", but a true Martial Arts True Form.
He nad it—"True Self".
"I feel that progressing along this path, I could directly take on the Hell War God," Feng Xue tossed the random thoughts that erged in his mind along with the salt into his background, refocusing his attention on the dice.
"Knock, knock, knock..."
A series of short knocks ca from the door. Feng Xue slightly frowned, waved his hand to roll up the packing cloth on the table, turning the entire workbench along with the suitcase and finished dice into a lychee-sized bundle. He stuffed these items into his pocket before getting up to answer the door.
It wasn’t that these items were ant to be hidden; he just realized after condensing the Martial Arts True Form that the observation from the real world greatly disturbed the "Identity", even through a protective shell, and could cause subtle influences. For this reason, he directly discarded the dice used for earlier experints—as his journey in Kaidan concerned, he wanted no accidents.
Of course, these dice weren’t just thrown away. As "purer Identities", Feng Xue planned to take them back to Infinite City later, to refine illusions and see if there would be any transformations.
"Click..."
The poor-quality lock made a light noise, and the door opened. Seeing the girl standing at the door, Feng Xue felt a headache coming on—
"Tell , how co you are here? Is high school that relaxing these days?"
"Third-grade students with guaranteed spots go like this." Chen Xiyao squinted and smiled, then picked up the book bag at her feet with a serious face,
"No joking, this is the second edition of the martial arts textbook. Check it out and see if there’s any problem with it."
"A change after just one term of the first edition?" Feng Xue took the book bag, which weighed at least forty pounds, and moved aside to indicate for Chen Xiyao to co in and talk.
"No help for it, the first edition was considering senior students who also lacked basics, so there was a lot of repetitive content, just like when Pinyin was first created, both primary and high schools studied Pinyin. After a year of popularization, the basics that must be mastered are pretty much known, so it’s also ti to divide it by age groups."
Chen Xiyao spoke seriously, which Feng Xue found unusual. She lifted her hand and gave this girl a flick on the forehead, then said,
"Speak properly, don’t put on airs!"
"I’m not putting on airs! I’m just talking seriously, okay?" Chen Xiyao rubbed her head discontentedly and sat casually on the edge of Feng Xue’s bed, looking at Feng Xue as she started to read the textbook,
"Apart from removing the basic sections like visualizations from the middle and high school textbooks, the order of teaching has also been revised. For instance, in the Qinggong section, only movent technique is retained because there were too many kids last year who learned Qinggong and did reckless things."
"That makes sense." Feng Xue rembered the recent news about parents suing over the new textbooks after so kids using Qinggong got into an accident on the highway and winced.
"Actually, the authorities initially considered keeping only soft and hard gong, since if children grasp too much power, it easily leads to trouble. But now martial arts are spread so widely, many parents teach it directly, and it’s no use if schools don’t teach it."
Although Chen Xiyao wanted to move to a private conversation, as a ’communication ambassador,’ she still needed to get the job done.
"You’re telling this doesn’t help. The popularization of martial arts will lead to many changes, like if everyone on the street masters the Golden Bell Shield, then the city traffic speed limits will definitely increase, the standards of elevators and stairs will be raised too. If children don’t practice from a young age, they won’t be able to keep up with these changes. But if it doesn’t change, it will lead to a distorted social structure—surely we can’t divide administrative regions based on martial arts strengths in the future, right?"
Listening to Feng Xue’s words, Chen Xiyao had a vision in her head. As people’s martial arts skills improved, various facilities weakened to accommodate human physical quality would steadily be enhanced. For example, in an area where everyone was a Qinggong expert, buses wouldn’t even need to stop. They just open the doors, and those experts would Qinggong onto the bus.
Then ca the problem—if, according to the authorities, reducing the martial arts learned by children to curb their reckless behavior, it would make them the weakest group in their environnt. If it really reached that point, the survival pressure on children would greatly increase.
It couldn’t be that we’d have to send children to a special city in the future?
"Can’t they develop a type of cross-training technique that children can practice? The kind that just focuses on defense!" Chen Xiyao blurted out with a wide imagination, but Feng Xue looked at her as if she were a fool,
"Children can practice the Golden Bell Shield too, but the problem is they can’t handle the hardship, understand? Ultimately, cross-training is about using inner strength combined with taking hits to enhance the body’s resistance to blows. Expecting children to get hit every day to train—how is that possible?"
"That’s true!" Chen Xiyao revealed a sowhat naive smile, but Feng Xue suddenly had a flash of inspiration—
"Hey, you know what, it might actually work. Wait for !"
Feng Xue said and left Chen Xiyao by the side, rushing to her computer and started typing furiously.
An hour later, Chen Xiyao looked at the stack of printed papers in her hand, the line at the top of the first page left her dumbfounded,
"What is this?"
"Isn’t it written there? ’Gold Placenta Iron River Car Hexa Cross Training Fetus Protection Skill.’"
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