Martial King's Retired Life

Would You Dare to Call Me Grandpa?

He fights dirty! He fooled us into thinking he can’t fight!

Lu Jianqiu drew his sword as he hastily retreated. Seeing as Li Shoulin was practically matched with him, there was no reason he would not also go through a wall in one blow. Nevertheless, Ming Feizhen was as still as a statue again. Observing Ming Feizhen’s locked brows and sitting posture, he suspected Ming Feizhen was practicing some internal discipline that helped him surpass Li Shoulin. On second thought, though, there was always bound to be an opening when one was in practice irrespective of how sophisticated, advanced of profound a discipline was. Thus, he attributed Li Shoulin’s downfall to a lack of wits not skill.

Deciding to attack Ming Feizhen’s weakness instead of when his power was at its peak, Lu Jianqiu cautiously crept forwards, aiming his sword at Ming Feizhen’s neck as he circled around. He gradually circled faster until he spotted an opening. Despite not knowing why that particular spot was the opening, he decided that was the spot and that was the opportune moment. This was the moment he could beat Ming Feizhen and walk away as the winner of the three-way threat.

Boom!

Another wall crumbled.

And then, it fell silent again.

Only disciplines in the Heart Realm category were able to read thoughts without error, but their practitioners were not able to “hear” another person’s “thoughts”. Divine Realm’s “Interlinked Minds” was not an omnipotent mind-reading technique as rumoured. “Five Apotheosis” was not the act of divine skills as the name suggested; it was purely the extreme augmentation of certain body functions. Thus, “Interlinked Minds” was the act of augmenting one’s sensory organs far beyond “ordinary” people’s limits. For instance, someone born with excellent vision and hearing may have been able to read one’s mood from seeing hair movements – and hearing blood flow or heart beats – if they honed those senses and supplemented them with internal energy. As they gained experience and continued honing those senses, they had the potential to seemingly read minds with a single glance. Whether intended or not, the user could apparently hear all another’s thoughts at lightning speed.

As magical as it sounded, it was a useless ability unless the user communicated with others and understood emotions. As such, it was impossible to be born able to utilise “Interlinked Minds”. It was also impossible to comprehend the significance of every word on another’s mind precisely, but it was possible to have a general picture if they familiarised themselves with the factors involved with the skills.

Had one ran “Interlinked Minds” all day every day, they would have started to develop “heart beat reading”. Arguably, they could have developed it into mind reading via reading heart beats. The problem was that a human being’s energy was finite, and operating it at all times as one moved about in the world would place an enormous burden on their internal energy demand regardless of how much or potent their internal energy was. Therefore, it was ruled a pipe dream until another Divine Realm martial artist rose over a decade ago on Mount Daluo.

Nobody taught Ming Feizhen how to utilise “Interlinked Minds” after he unlocked it, so he experimented with it himself. The combination of Yijin Jing and the Fengpeng’s energy granted him nigh infinite internal energy. Tai Chi taught him how to use energy and recover more efficiently and quickly than human comprehension by far. That was the reason he could recover faster than the enormous volume of internal energy he expended, allowing him to live with it running constantly throughout his life.

Initially, operating it at all times was problematic until Ming Feizhen became so accustomed to it that he found it simplified life and made it more convenient. Unless he wanted to, he did not purposely analyse everyone’s thoughts, especially those close to him as it felt as though he was invading their privacy. He never expected to resort to it in a venue with thousands of people present for the sake of one person.

Ming Feizhen eavesdropped multiple times on everyone, fearing he missed information. He was unable to capture Hua Yumeng, which was not to say that he could not locate Hua Yumeng. As long as Hua Yumeng had allies present, they were the leads to him. The challenge was sifting through so many people and their thoughts that were constantly changing by the second. When he focused in on one person, they might not have been thinking about Hua Yumeng, but they might have thought of him the moment he shifted his attention elsewhere. Hence, he had to concentrate on those he deemed the most likely leads.

Bai Zhiqing’s attendance came as a surprise, though it was a fact he discovered upon arrival. He had planned to leech off Bai Zhiqing, never expecting to be thrown into the contest. Due to their martial prowess, their heart beats were far fainter compared to the ordinary man, making it hard for Ming Feizhen to hear them. With that said, he did overhear their conversation.

Lady Bai? Hua Yumeng’s target is Lady Bai?

Lady Bai was possibly Zi Wutong’s equal in combat and an expert in murder, but Ming Feizhen could not figure out why Hua Yumeng would look for her. Based on what he heard from their room, she had been “sneak attacked” twice. Because Bai Zhiqing was basically a recluse, had it not been for the fiasco in the underground palace, Ming Feizhen would not have known that Bai Zhiqing had a beautiful wife. Her elderly servant mentioned that she had met Ming Huayu in the past, so Ming Feizhen pondered if this was ultimately linked to his shifu. While he could not figure out the connections, he was certain that Hua Yumeng was looking for Lady Bai and, therefore, focused on her.

When he opened his eyes, Ming Feizhen was dumbfounded. Li Shoulin and Lu Jianqiu were kneeling before him, holding onto their ears.

Li Shoulin and Lu Jianqiu: “Grandpa.”

Trivia

Interlinked Minds – For the record, this sort of stuff is debatable in real life, but it’s also impossible to refute entirely because we can’t live in the skin of some of these elite athletes who have said they are able to see the seams of a baseball flying towards them. However, having treated and worked with elite athletes from several sports for a while now, it’s true that those who tend to have general dislike or struggles with physical activity will have visual, balance and movement deficits (anecdotally, cerebellar and vestibular system deficits). We’re moving more and more towards the idea that elite athletes are those who simply survived for longer, and those who never have an opportunity are those who have visual, balance or movement deficits that are never addressed. At the moment, I’m noticing a trend of children with cerebellar deficits. If you can’t balance well statically, how willing would you be to sprint or perform dramatic motions where you have to quickly accelerate and decelerate all your body mass?