===Chapter 022: Elite Warrior===
Snowflakes fell from the sky, covering the entire world with a white carpet. Wu Yuntian and Su Hao stood side by side in front of the eaves, silently watching this peaceful world.
At this time, there would usually be children playing in the snow, but today seemed different. Even the usually lively children like He Qingqing didn’t go out to play.
Wu Yuntian glanced at Su Hao who stood next to him and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, “This kid is good in every aspect, but he’s too mature for his age. This is the time when he should be most interested in playing, yet he appears so calm. I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”
His wife died protecting this child, and he should have felt some dissatisfaction and resentment towards him. But he didn’t know when it started, he had already let go of those grievances. The resentment in his heart had long dissipated, and was replaced by expectations for this child’s future.
Su Hao stood quietly beside Wu Yuntian, rare for him to calm down and truly appreciate this rare snowscape. He didn’t know what his father was thinking and why he remained silent, but he was happy like this. They each enjoyed the spiritual pleasure gained from appreciating the falling snow.
After a long time, Wu Yuntian was the first to speak, “Warriors are people who break the balance of their bodies in order to gain greater strength. The cultivation of a warrior begins from the comprehension of qi, continuously transforming and accumulating, breaking through their own limits step by step to climb higher levels. However, each advancement for a warrior is incredibly difficult. Xiangwu, have you encountered your first difficulty?”
Su Hao snapped back, pondered for a moment, then nodded, “Yes, it seems that the quantity of qi in my body has already reached the limit that my body can bear. Although I can still continue to transform the qi, it not only does not bring any improvement in strength, but may also harm myself. So my question is, what should I do next?”
Wu Yuntian sighed rarely, “For ordinary people, there are three difficulties. The first difficulty is the accumulation of qi. Each person’s understanding of qi is different, leading to different speeds of accumulation. To reach your level, ordinary people would need to accumulate for 5 to 8 years, and slower individuals would need even longer.”
“The second difficulty is the bottleneck of qi. When qi reaches a certain level of accumulation, a new balance will form within the body. At this point, further accumulation of qi is impossible. The balance needs to be broken before qi can continue to accumulate.”
“The third difficulty is the one you’re facing now. When qi reaches the limit of your physical body, it cannot be further enhanced. At this point, there are two methods. The first is to strengthen the body to increase its limit, and the second is to change the nature of qi, allowing it to produce new functions and increase the explosiveness of the body. For example…”
As he spoke, Wu Yuntian casually dug into the snow and picked up a withered branch. He lightly shook it, causing the snow on the branch to fall to the ground.
“Watch closely!”
The branch straightened and deeply penetrated into the stone.
Su Hao widened his eyes. A fragile dead branch managed to pierce through a hard stone, which was quite unbelievable to him, who valued science.
“Amazing! Is this what an elite warrior is like?”
Wu Yuntian nodded and chuckled lightly. “Indeed, this is a characteristic of elite warriors. Do you find it hard to comprehend?”
Su Hao nodded and eagerly asked, “Father, how is this possible?”
Wu Yuntian handed the withered branch to Su Hao and then continued, “Look at this branch. Can it penetrate through a stone?”
Su Hao tried and honestly replied, “No.”
“Indeed, it cannot. Regardless, a dead branch cannot possibly penetrate through a stone. So, what just pierced through the stone was not the branch, but lifeblood!”
“Lifeblood? Why can lifeblood transmit to the branch? Isn’t lifeblood a type of energy substance within the body?”
Wu Yuntian shook his head and said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying, but it is indeed difficult to have lifeblood transmit to the branch. This is a hurdle for ordinary cultivators to become elite warriors, but it’s not impossible.”
Su Hao’s face was filled with anticipation as he asked, “How can it be done?”
Wu Yuntian didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, “Make the lifeblood move.”
“Huh?” Su Hao was confused. From his understanding, lifeblood was like an organ inside the body. Wasn’t it a joke to make it move?
Wu Yuntian was serious and continued to explain, “It means to make the lifeblood within the body move. Moving lifeblood will create new changes, and then the lifeblood can easily transmit outside the body, causing damage. Just like what you saw earlier with the branch piercing through the stone, essentially, it was the special lifeblood I transmitted to the branch that penetrated the stone.”
Su Hao pondered on it, and it did sound plausible, but also quite mystical.
Su Hao asked his final question, “How can I make the lifeblood move then?”
At this point, Wu Yuntian squatted down, placed his hands on Su Hao’s shoulders, and solemnly said, “Xiangwu, don’t think about breaking through to an elite warrior for now. Your body is too fragile at the moment. Rushing into becoming an elite warrior might not be a good thing. Do you understand my meaning?”
Seeing his father’s serious expression, Su Hao couldn’t help but nod and say, “I understand.”
“I have no doubt that you can easily break through to the elite level. I’m just worried that your body is too weak to withstand any risk. Your current lifeblood is sufficient. So, patiently wait for your body to grow stronger. Once you have a strong physique, I will teach you the method to become an elite warrior.”
“Understood!”
Suo Hao nodded in agreement, then asked, “When will my body be strong enough?”
Wu Yuntian looked at Suo Hao for a long time and couldn’t come up with a clear answer to what constituted a strong enough body. It was the first time he had encountered such a question, and he honestly didn’t know. So he casually mentioned a rough time frame, saying, “Maybe three years! I’ll teach you then.”
“Okay.” Suo Hao believed him without doubt and nodded in agreement.
At the moment, he was at the stage of a high-level ordinary martial artist, having more than enough self-defense skills. Having three years to slow down and study Qi would not be a bad thing. Moreover, what Wu Yuntian said was true. He was only a little over four years old, and his body was indeed too fragile. Even a slight accident during martial arts training would pose a risk to his fragile body. If he rushed ahead, it was likely that the wilderness wolves wouldn’t take him away, but he would end up taking himself away.
For Suo Hao, managing his own life meant managing risks. When the unknown risks outweighed the risks of martial arts training, he would take the risk of training to gain greater strength. But when the risks of martial arts training outweighed the others, he would choose to stop.
Wu Yuntian thought for a moment and suddenly said, “So for the next three years, you will learn martial arts skills from me! I’ll take you to the wilderness when we have time.”
Suo Hao’s eyes brightened, and he immediately said loudly, “Thank you, father.”
“You will have to endure some hardships.”
“I’m not afraid of hardships.”
Wu Yuntian nodded and looked at the snowflakes filling the sky, not knowing if this decision was right or wrong.
