Extra's Strategy: Cultivate Protagonists, Become Invincible-Chapter 178: The Lightfoot Swallow Art

With his entry into the Martial path, Han Xuhan’s days fell into a strict routine.

Every morning and evening, he spent an hour practicing the moves of the Lightfoot Swallow Art under Xuanyuan Zhou’s guidance. If she was busy with her own cultivation, he went to consult Mu Ran.

At times when both of them were busy, he practiced alongside Xiao Wu, who was now one of Elder Long’s favorite pupils despite being from the Salted Fish Mountain Peak. The Elder lamented every now and then how Elder Daheng had lucked out with three martial geniuses in his shitty mountain.

True to Senior Brother Lin’s description, the Lightfoot Swallow Technique was the simplest martial art out there. Han Xuhan managed to grasp its essence within a few days, and all that remained was to put his comprehension into practice.

The manual had only seven sections.

The first section contained a breathing technique, meant to be used during every moment of a practice session. This breathing method unlocked and harnessed vital energy, which was the core of martial strength, just as important as qi is to Mystic Arts.

The second section dealt with stances that improved the practitioner’s physique when coupled with the breathing technique. There were twelve stances, each focusing on a distinct part of the body.

The third section took several stances and combined them into offensive moves. The practitioner had to execute each move while continuing the breathing technique for maximum effectiveness in combat.

Similar to the third section, the fourth section displayed several defensive moves, each of them combining two to five stances. The lengthier ones could even be called escaping moves in close combat.

The fifth section was the most difficult part of the manual. Without practicing for a long time, it was not possible to comprehend its essence fully; because the fifth section combined everything from the earlier sections into one chaotic, generalized movement technique, called the ’Swallow’s Martial Might’.

It seemed to be a free-flowing state of the technique, allowing the practitioner to transition from stance to stance, offense to defense, and from an ordinary move to a martial move fluidly.

The sixth section shed light on how a practitioner could go from the first phase to the final phase of the Physique Transformation realm by relying on the technique.

Each phase had a higher passing requirement than the previous one, and every breakthrough brought a qualitative enhancement in the practitioner’s physique. However, Xuanyuan Zhou hadn’t been wrong when she called the final outcome a trashy physique.

Most orthodox martial arts focused on certain domains of martial prowess to give the practitioners an edge against enemies. The Lightfoot Swallow came painfully short in this aspect.

Be it the level of physical enhancement, the offensive and defensive moves, or the quality of the stances and breathing methods, it lost to nine out of ten popular martial arts.

Not to mention, it had no special ’Killing Moves’, which was the prime objective of every martial artist out there.

However, Han Xuhan preferred to kill enemies with ’kindness’. So he didn’t feel any heartache over not having these difficult-to-master special moves, complex stances, or breathing methods.

The seventh and final section was the most straightforward part of the manual. It simply listed some medicines, pills, and herbs, all meant for bodily nourishment and recovery, to be applied strictly after each practice session.

"Each effective martial cultivation session burdens the body beyond its concurrent limit. This builds up hidden injuries and weaknesses in the physique that will not heal naturally. Without medicinal assistance, progress will be slow, and chances of destroying your body are overwhelmingly high."

Having read this part, Han Xuhan was not surprised. Even ordinary exercises in the mortal world followed a similar principle. It’s just that those exercises didn’t damage the body so deeply that only special medicine could heal the practitioner.

Fortunately, the simplicity and shallowness of the Lightfoot Swallow Technique came into the equation here, putting forth the only advantage it had over other manuals in the market.

The medicines it required were the cheapest sort, easily available even in ordinary human settlements. Anyone with a bit of expertise in herbology and pill-concoction could produce them. Some ingredients could even be found on the side of the road, growing without care.

He didn’t even need to use Xuan Zi’s medallion to buy a week’s supply. Needless to say, Han Xuhan’s entry into the Martial Path went far more smoothly than he could have anticipated.

Xuanyuan Zhou could partly be credited for this. She had taught him a shortcut, and Mu Ran had vetted the method with stars in his eyes, as if it was the first time he had heard of such a method.

Mu Ran’s amazement made Han Xuhan wonder. How the hell was he progressing on the Martial Path so quickly if he didn’t even know the most basic shortcuts?

And after learning this shortcut, how much faster was his growth going to become?!

The method Xuanyuan Zhou had revealed didn’t involve any esoteric principles. In fact, Han Xuhan might have figured out himself after a few days.

"The traditional approach to mastering a martial art is to touch upon all of its stances and moves from day one, which nourishes every part of the body equally and gives the practitioner a harmonious growth over time.

"For the sake of weeding out latent weaknesses and avoiding disharmony, most martial instructors don’t allow their disciples to break this tradition.

"However, you don’t need to worry about weaknesses if you’re practicing this shitty manual of yours. So instead of practicing to master all twelve stances drawn in your manual, just pick the most common two or three stances which will allow you to execute a full offensive or defensive move.

"If you practice them with the breathing technique synced perfectly, you’ll be able to squeeze out enough vital energy from these moves to nourish your body past the first phase of the Physique Transformation realm.

"Who knows... you might even get lucky enough and make considerable progress on the second phase."

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