Chapter 14
Chen Zhen followed Shanggu Julong outside of the shack, he noticed that now in the clearing there was a stone platform that was three steps up from the ground. The platform was one hundred feet by one hundred feet square, made of white stone tiles.
"I've noticed a couple times that when we have exited the shack that things in the clearing have been different, but you have been with me the entire time. How are you changing things around here without me noticing?", Chen Zhen asked.
"So you have finally noticed, huh?", Shanggu Julong replied with a laugh, "This is a separate world I have created to shelter you from our world until you are ready to venture out on your own. I have changed the ratio of time here in this partial world to a 1:10 ratio. One day here is ten days in the regular world. I know that your main concern id returning to your family as soon as possible. It will require your strength to grow close to my level before you will be able to return there. It will take some time, to be honest it will take you many years. I did this to help you in a little way to achieve your goal a little bit sooner."
"Why can't I just stay in here till I reach the level I need to be able to return?", Chen Zhen asked a little depressed by what Shanggu Julong just told him.
"When you are walking the path of a martial cultivator you will find that the biggest components to you advancing are experience and enlightenment. When you are in the body refinement stage those aspect don't come into play, because you are solely training your body to be stronger. But as soon as you enter the liquid core realm the martial techniques you will learn to perform will require you to understand the intent and nature behind the move to truly bring out its greatest power. This can only be done with experience and sometime if your fortunate enlightenment.", Shanggu Julong instructed Chen Zhen.
Chen Zhen didn't fully understand what Shanggu Julong meant but he got the gist of what he was trying to express. At this point they had arrived at the stone platform. When Chen Zhen walked up the steps he saw copper armor sitting on the other side of the platform. The armor looked like something a medieval knight would wear, except that the arms and legs ended in sharp points. As they approached the center of the platform the armor stood up on its own and walked toward Chen Zhen and Shanggu Julong.
"This is a battle puppet. I want you to show me what you can do. I don't expect much from you but just try to attack the puppet in front of you. I need to be able to judge your strengths and weaknesses.", Shanggu Julong said
Chen Zhen
His favorite martial artist was Bruce Lee. He began imitating Bruce Lee's moves, attacking the armor with lounging punches to the armors abdomen, and high kicks to the head. His speed was very fast, and the armor didn't try to block any of his moves. Chen Zhen was feeling good moving his body this was. He began to have fun with it switching between Jackie Chan's drunken fist and then Jet Li's Taiichi fist. As he was having fun the clone suddenly informed him that it could combine a lot of the knowledge Chen Zhen had in his brain from martial arts movies, to video games to make a solid fighting style for him. Chen Zhen heartily agreed and felt new information flow into his mind. When he started using this new fighting style his moves became more natural and elegant. He almost seemed to dance around the bronze armor striking it with more and more power with each new blow. Even though his moves looked ch.o.r.egraphed they were still unpredictable and struck from awkward angles.
When Chen Zhen first started fighting he looked very rudimentary to Shanggu Julong. Even Shanggu Feng, and Lou Tian felt he was moving in a very clunky manner. But as Chen Zhen began to adjust his moves they all were very surprised with his combat prowess. By the end they were amazed that he could fight with such strength and dexterity. To seasoned warrior such as themselves they could still see many holes in his technique, but for someone from a world that didn't focus on martial arts his performance was outstanding.
"Where did you learn to fight?", Shanggu Julong asked.
"Hehe…. Well to be honest I didn't. Because of my body and mind becoming stronger, I can remember things that I have seen before with full clarity. I began to imitate the moves I've seen martial artist do in my world. We have things called movies which are a moving picture show. I've seen hundreds of them in my life, and a lot of them showed battles between martial artist. We also have things called video games were you can choose a character and fight as them using something called a game controller. As I was fighting against the battle puppet I was just using what I had seen before and making it fit what I liked better.", Chen Zhen said with an embarra.s.sed smile on his face.
Shanggu Julong, Shanggu Feng, and Lou Tian were all shacked at what they heard. They had no clue what a movie or a video game was. But to hear that Chen Zhen just copied martial techniques that he had seen and then modified them to fit himself better was amazing. Was that really possible? This meant that Chen Zhen's comprehension ability was off the charts. Thinking of this Shanggu Feng and Lou Tian now knew why Shanggu Julong said they would be able to learn things from Chen Zhen. For Shanggu Julong this was great news. It meant he wouldn't have to work so hard to train Chen Zhen's fighting ability.
"I want you to attack the battle puppet again but this time it will fight back.", Shanggu Julong said.
Chen Zhen had just been beating the battle puppet senseless, so he didn't take this seriously. As he threw a punch at the battle puppet it simply moved it head tom the side to avoid his fist. Chen Zhen was stunned at the speed the battle puppet displayed. Because he wasn't expecting it to be able to dodge his fist he just stood there with a dumb look on his face. The battle puppet took the initiative to attack Chen Zhen back. Since Chen Zhen was not a natural fighter he had no fighting instincts to speak of. He could clearly see the battle puppet charging at him with it shoulder but he didn't move to avoid this simple blow at all. After being struck Chen Zhen shot backwards like a cannon ball. The battle puppet followed closely behind him slamming its arms and legs against his stomach, head, legs, and back. If Chen Zhen body hadn't as strong as it was he would have been covered in bruises and hand many broken bones right now. It would be safe to say that he would have been on the brink of death right now.
As high as everyone's hopes were for Chen Zhen, they had now sunk to the very bottom all over again. There hopes of easy training session flew away on the breeze. When Chen Zhen raised his head he could see Shanggu Julong holding his lowered head shaking it from side to side.
"Kid you are completely hopeless…..",Shanggu Feng, and Lou Tian both said at the same time.