Chapter 86: "An Elder Brother Is Like a Father"

Chen Chuan stared at Yang Shiduo opposite him. He had worked out why he lost and how to clinch victory next time, but after turning the question over many times, what he finally asked was something else entirely, "Who taught you to fight like that?"

The approach just now was completely at odds with Yang Shiduo’s original style. Otherwise, Chen Chuan wouldn’t have fallen for it. From the bottom of his heart, he couldn’t believe Yang Shiduo had come up with it himself.

Yang Shiduo had just opened his mouth when he suddenly remembered Ding Songyan’s earlier instruction: "Whatever the outcome, don’t mention my name."

He composed himself and said, "I ran into an elder outside the hall who casually gave me a few pointers.

"Then my friend volunteered to come in and arrange another match for me."

An elder... Chen Chuan’s gaze swept over Ding Songyan by the corridor before instinctively ruling him out—that must be the friend, not the elder.

"Next time I won’t fall for it. You’d definitely still lose," Chen Chuan turned back to Yang Shiduo and said his piece with poor grace.

"I believe you." Yang Shiduo had a sufficiently clear-eyed understanding of why he had won.

Then it occurred to him: in a next match, Chen Chuan would certainly adjust his approach, so could he himself make new changes to counter that adjusted approach?

If so, he might not actually lose!

Next time, and the time after, and the time after that—each time he could make some prior prediction, but he couldn’t let the opponent guess what he was targeting...

The more Yang Shiduo thought about it, the more his head ached. He felt as though his head might split open.

He could not help scratching the back of his head.

Isn’t this getting a bit too complicated?

Seeing that Yang Shiduo showed neither arrogance nor stubbornness, Chen Chuan’s mood improved considerably. He cupped his hands, turned, and walked back into the depths of Tianyang Hall.

Outside Tianyang Hall, Yang Shiduo turned to look at Ding Songyan beside him and made a sincere bow.

"Ding Songyan, many thanks for your guidance."

Ding Songyan accepted the bow without ceremony, and strolled along the street in the autumn breeze that still carried some warmth.

"I still have one question," Yang Shiduo asked, unable to contain his curiosity. "If that man hadn’t taken the bait and hadn’t closed in to attack my weak points, could I still have beaten him within ten moves?"

If he hadn’t taken the bait, it would have dragged past ten moves for certain. What I said was that you could win within ten moves. I said nothing about what happens beyond ten. And if you can’t win within ten, you’d most likely lose... Without being elevated to a systematic and theoretical level, targeted tactics like this can only serve a single occasion. They can’t truly compensate for your weaknesses. At best they earn you a reputation for being clever in a fight, but as the saying goes, he that touches pitch shall be defiled. Ding Songyan mulled it over in amusement.

In doing so, he also crystallized a principle of his own for combat.

Fight straight; win by surprise.

Deception was one tool, not the whole kit. Relying on it constantly would inevitably throw one into danger.

Ding Songyan naturally would not say anything like "I only said you could win within ten moves" as that would shake Yang Shiduo’s trust in him and was not conducive to their future "exchanges."

He only smiled and said, "Your lower stance is solid and your style is all about standing your ground and slugging it out. With no weapon in hand, you can only meet length with shortness, and this kind of opponent is exactly the matchup you need to fear most. If you don’t address that weakness, or don’t elevate your Iron Wound Fist to greater mastery as soon as possible, you’ll lose again the next time you meet him."

Without waiting for Yang Shiduo to respond, Ding Songyan continued, "However, your in-the-moment performance exceeded my expectations. That unconventional drop to one knee and the arm-clamping were things I thought you were incapable of. It seems you have more innate martial talent than I imagined, and a capacity to improvise in the moment. It has simply been buried under your habit of sticking rigidly to convention, to the point where you hadn’t even discovered it yourself."

Yang Shiduo was simultaneously surprised and delighted from receiving such praise from a powerhouse like Ding Songyan. His heart surged with excitement.

That really had been the highlight of his match just now. This was no empty flattery!

"A pity." Ding Songyan shook his head again. "Your Iron Wound Fist still has a good number of flaws that will hold your innate martial talent back."

Yang Shiduo was taken aback, a feeling of urgency rising within him.

Through these two bouts, he had come to know that his Iron Wound Fist was still imperfect, but he didn’t know where the flaws were. His master hadn’t been able to identify them either, and had simply pushed him to advance his realm and achieve imperviousness to blade and spear as quickly as possible.

Amid the swirl of thoughts, Yang Shiduo steeled himself and forced out the words despite his discomfort.

"I humbly ask for your instruction."

Wasn’t what I said precisely to get you to say this sentence? Ding Songyan glanced at Yang Shiduo.

"Heaven helps those who help themselves. From the look of your clothes, your circumstances are probably modest, yet you’ve never stopped training and your foundations are solid. Reaching the level you’ve reached wasn’t easy. I’ll give you some guidance."

Hearing this, Yang Shiduo was suddenly overwhelmed. For a moment he could barely hold himself together, his eyes growing full and hot.

All the bitterness, hardship, uncertainty, endurance, suffering, and waiting of his past seemed to well up in this one moment.

My perseverance, my efforts, weren’t wasted. Someone has seen them... Yang Shiduo lowered his head to hide the change in his expression.

He bowed again, more solemnly.

"Such great kindness is beyond words of thanks. I will find a way to repay it."

"No need to wait." Ding Songyan gave a short laugh. "I’m rarely in the prefecture city. Keep an eye on Xu Chang’an for me and push him to train every day without the slightest slacking."

As far as Ding Songyan was concerned, Yang Shiduo’s acceptance of his guidance and field-testing his ideas in the future was repayment enough. However, he still needed to give the man something to do on the surface.

"You treat Xu Chang’an so well. He hasn’t lived in vain to have a close friend like you." Yang Shiduo hadn’t expected Ding Songyan to be so loyal.

That he could leap to the heavens truly shows that good people reap good rewards!

Ding Songyan tilted his head back slightly to gaze at the sky and let out a sigh.

"What can I say? An elder brother is like a father after all."

Yang Shiduo didn’t quite understand what he meant.

"The streets are no place for instruction. Let’s go to Baoping Lane. Oh, and don’t tell anyone about my leap to the heavens." Ding Songyan brought his hands forward from behind his back and leisurely walked ahead.

Back at his residence, Ding Songyan found that Xu Chang’an had already arrived, working diligently through the last five forms of the Nine Primal Arts in the second courtyard.

"That’s rare." Ding Songyan nodded with a smile.

Xu Chang’an stopped and said quietly, "All these years, only Heroine Zheng has ever thought well of me and been willing to treat me as an equal. I can’t keep being idle every day. Even if I can’t become a great thief, I have to work toward my ranking and make a name for myself."

Hold on, isn’t that overthinking it? Senior Sister Zheng treats even beggars by the roadside as equals—that’s precisely why she has her reputation for compassion toward the poor and weak. Besides, she was willing to befriend you on my account because you and I are friends. You should be thanking me. I, a bona fide Grandmaster and the future hope of the Brightnight Sect, have always treated you as an equal... Ding Songyan offered a few silent jibes to himself, then pointed to Yang Shiduo.

"As it happens, I’ve already asked Brother Yang to keep an eye on your training for me."

Only then did Xu Chang’an notice Yang Shiduo behind Ding Songyan.

After the two had exchanged greetings, Xu Chang’an looked toward Ding Songyan, hesitating, as though he had something to say.

"Go ahead." Ding Songyan had a rough idea of what Xu Chang’an wanted to raise.

Xu Chang’an then produced the diagrams for the Nine Primal Arts and pointed to the form called Yin and Yang Begetting.

"I can’t get through this part."

As he spoke, he demonstrated a few of the movements.

Ding Songyan took the diagrams, studied them for a moment, and passed them to Yang Shiduo.

"Give it a try."

Feeling grateful to Ding Songyan, Yang Shiduo made no objection, took his stance, and went through it slowly. Afterward he reflected and said, "I can manage it with some effort, but for a beginner below the aperture refinement stage, it would be utterly impossible."

He specifically pointed out two of the movements.

Ding Songyan took the diagrams and fell into deep thought.

Oblivious to his audience, he would at one moment take a stance and make some movements, at another stand still with his mind elsewhere, and at another pace back and forth, moving his arms, palms, and wrists this way and that.

After quite a while, Ding Songyan had a handyman fetch brush, ink, and paper, and seated himself on a stone bench at the courtyard’s edge to redraw all four diagrams of the Yin and Yang Begetting form with new annotations.

He then tossed them to Xu Chang’an.

"How about now?"

Xu Chang’an went through it and said with delight, "No problem at all now."

Ding Songyan had Yang Shiduo try it as well, then asked, "Can a beginner manage it?"

Only now did it occur to him that Yang Shiduo, who regularly taught students in his master’s stead, understood beginners better than he did.

"With some effort, yes." Yang Shiduo gave his verdict.

"Good." Ding Songyan let out a breath of relief.

At that moment, Xu Chang’an and Yang Shiduo both suddenly realized something.

Ding Songyan was revising a body-forging art created by a past master!

And he had actually produced revised diagrams that were easier to execute while losing little of the effect!

Brother Ding is truly remarkable. Apart from storytelling, he has such outstanding martial talent too. No wonder Grandmaster Tao of the Brightnight Sect took notice of him and accepted him as a disciple... Xu Chang’an praised Ding Songyan from the bottom of his heart.

He truly lives up to his leap to the heavens. Even before his foundations are fully set, his insight and vision surpass ordinary people’s. No wonder he was so confident earlier, saying a few pointers would turn my defeat into victory. I thought he was boasting at the time... Yang Shiduo felt that this was what a true Grandmaster was, and quietly assumed that all Grandmasters must be roughly like Ding Songyan.

With Yang Shiduo’s help, supplemented by the newly diligent Xu Chang’an, Ding Songyan worked all the way to lunchtime and finally finished a full revision of the Nine Primal Arts, making it easier for beginners to start. Naturally, beginners could still only practice one form per day.

While Xu Chang’an went to wash and change, Ding Songyan had Yang Shiduo perform the Iron Wound Fist from beginning to end three times.

He then pointed out many small flaws and deviations in the forms. Every pointer came as both a surprise and a delight to Yang Shiduo, each one updating his understanding of the Iron Wound Fist.

After all these years of practice, he was only now discovering that he didn’t know the Iron Wound Fist well enough. It wasn’t nearly as good as Ding Songyan, who had only watched it three times!

When he had finished providing pointers, Ding Songyan adjusted his scholar’s robe and began to perform the Iron Wound Fist himself.

As Yang Shiduo watched, his eyes gradually widened.

I-is this still the Iron Wound Fist?

Every single move has seven or eight variations added to it!

After finishing the last form, Ding Songyan dropped his stance and asked Yang Shiduo with a smile, "How much did you take in? How much did you forget?"

"I forgot about 70-80%," Yang Shiduo answered honestly.

With Ding Songyan having performed it only once, retaining 20-30% was already quite good.

Ding Songyan smiled and shook his head.

"Not enough. You need to forget all of it."

"Huh?" Yang Shiduo was baffled.

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