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墨書 Inktalez
Memories of the Past
In a serene and silent forest, Shao Meng was being struck repeatedly by a rapidly moving evil spirit. Although he managed to defend against each attack, he found himself at a loss on how to respond.
Shao Meng closed his eyes and began to recall the days when his father trained him.
That year, deep within the forest, his father took him for a training session.
Shao Meng's father was Po Huan, a teacher of many heroes from the Trial Grounds, including Qian Wen, Meng Jiang, and Yu Long. He was known for his powerful techniques and was among the fastest cultivators in the Tai Chi group. It was said that he could catch silent arrows shot by assassins from a hundred meters away with his bare hands and determine their location through that brief contact, retaliating with fire vitality in an instant.
In that battle, Po Huan single-handedly helped a group of residents from Peach Blossom Village deal with numerous assassins, most of whom were possessed by evil spirits aiming to transform humans. He severely injured a leading evil spirit named Hun Po, who still remains active in the intelligence network of the Trial Grounds, becoming a significant regret for Po Huan.
After that battle, Po Huan was elected as a trusted Tai Chi cultivator for his efforts in protecting the people and was recognized alongside Meng Jiang and Yu Long as part of the Iron Triangle of the Trial Grounds.
This training session mirrored that lesson from years ago: to attack one's body, one must first know its position; to know its position, one must first calm the mind; strength must have direction; one must go against the current and seek the sound; even if it is a meteor, one must know its position.
However, at this moment, what Shao Meng recalled was not this teaching.
After multiple defenses and an eagerness for battle, his calmness gradually wore away. He circulated his vitality through both hands and launched powerful counterattacks whenever the evil spirit struck. Yet after being hit by an attack from the evil spirit, he was astonished to discover that it had not used its true form during the attack.
"Damn it, where could it be?"
Shao Meng The more anxious, the more vitality is used each time, unexpectedly, the voice of evil spirit echoed in the ear.
"Is this how your teacher taught you, hero? I remember reading in your human books about articles on finding one's goal. People from hundreds or thousands of years ago knew to mark directions on certain things, and yet you only know how to be anxious in one place?"
evil spirit sneered at the current Cultivation practitioner, mocking how immature and naive they were, and finding it laughable that such simple truths still needed to be explained. Watching Shao Meng gradually become angry, the evil spirit couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Yes, perhaps it's your childishness that makes you let your guard down."
Shao Meng With a cold snort, it seems to have calmed down a lot. The angry expression on the face has gradually softened.
evil spirit Seems to have laughed too much, looking somewhat surprised for a moment.
"Alright, are you trying to play mind games with me? Why don't you take a look, is the me beside you really me?"
The evil spirit raised its hands, displaying a standard gesture reminiscent of a well-dressed gentleman in modern times, seemingly indicating that Shao Meng was about to take action.
Sure enough, Shao Meng fell into the trap, and a heavy blow of vitality struck once again at the clone.
However, this reminded Shao Meng that the long journey of the Fire Element begins with a spark and ends in a raging fire. A wildfire has its origin, and a spark has its starting point. To find the intended direction, vitality must discover its starting point. Yet, his current anger and impatience obscured the essence of seeking.
Shao Meng suddenly recalled his training; he had been hit by his father's arrows because he acted impulsively. Despite holding a longbow, he had never used a single arrow from his quiver. His father's swift footwork and sudden flying arrows gradually wore down his patience. Although he ultimately managed to hit the target on his father, the training ended in failure.
Now, the evil spirit before him mirrored that past experience.
He never expected that as he grew older and reached new positions in life, an unknown confusion would begin to erode his thoughts. Eager to find answers, it seemed that only an outburst of hatred could ignite his power.
However, using the Fire Attribute skill fueled by hatred would violate his teacher's rules.
"Damn it, another clone! Where is the true form? Where could it be?!"
Shao Meng has become somewhat impatient. Despite continuously countering the attacks from the doppelganger based on the sound judgment, the prolonged concealment of the true self has left Shao Meng feeling weary.
Father's words
At this moment, Shao Meng suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion. Looking at what seemed to be the appearance of the true self in front of them, there was no energy left to launch another attack.
Amidst the mockery from the evil spirit, the taunting remarks were becoming increasingly indistinct. Gradually, their vision darkened, and they fell to one knee, supporting themselves with one hand on the ground.
It seems that the evil spirit is not yet satisfied, and disappointingly seizes Shao Meng's body.
"Just at this level, unable to withstand even this move, what kind of hero are you trying to be?"
Out of helplessness, the evil spirit did not continue to do anything, using evil power to create a rope, directly leaving Shao Meng at its feet, and then it disappeared like mist.
In the woods that day, the father and son enjoyed a warm meal after training, and Shao Meng listened to his father's words.
"Silly child, just now you shot so many arrows, do you know why you didn't hit what you wanted?"
Shao Meng Perplexed, just nodding continuously.
"You have always been like this, eager to prove yourself, to prove that you have the ability to become a certain type of person. This obsession, when you encounter difficulties and experience a psychological gap, will become a barrier in front of you, that is anger, confusion, and evil thoughts."
Shao Meng was listening absentmindedly, "Dad, how did you know there was someone shooting arrows from a faraway place or the direction the arrow was coming from when you caught it barehanded?"
The father didn't answer directly, but instead told Shao Meng to quiet down.
"Listen?"
Shao Meng was greatly surprised. Although he didn't understand the meaning, he followed his father's instructions and sat in place, beginning to listen to the sounds of the wind, the chirping of cicadas, the movements of animals, and the murmuring of the stream. His father told him that the next training would begin when he started to sit and listen, which made Shao Meng feel somewhat nervous.
Soon, the test arrived. An arrow flew at great speed towards the target on Shao Meng's back.
The target represented the object that a knight was protecting in this training. If the target was hit by the arrow, it meant a reminder, and the training would need to start over.
At that moment, Shao Meng felt as if his inner self was as calm as a still mirror, quiet, without a ripple. Even the wind passing over the surface would leave clear ripples in its wake, following its direction. This made the present Shao Meng instantly understand something about recalling memories.
In the memory, Shao Meng suddenly stood up, reached behind him, quickly grabbed something, and an arrow stopped in his hand. Then, in an instant, he kicked something, and his longbow instantly appeared on his body. Using the arrow he had grabbed, he quickly prepared to shoot, and a second arrow stopped in his right hand before it even landed on the longbow.
During these two actions, the still water in his heart showed two clear but different ripples, perhaps indicating the direction from which the arrows came.
The unconscious Shao Meng suddenly opened his eyes and said, "To attack the body, first know its position. To know its position, first calm the mind. Power needs direction. Go against the direction, seek the sound, and even if it's a shooting star, you will know its position."
Slowly reciting these few sentences, Shao Meng stood up again with vitality. This time, the muscles on his face had fully relaxed, no longer tense, and his breathing had become even. The anger no longer burned within him, as if he had seen it in his memory, like ripples suddenly appearing on the mirror-like water surface, it seemed that everything around him began to enter his perception.
"Could this be the Fire element: the tranquil heart decision?"
Shao Meng Close your eyes and wait quietly for the moment when the ripples appear in the water. But before the ripples appear, an evil spirit suddenly makes a surprise attack.
However, the ripples do not appear.
"Could it be that the clone does not cause ripples on the water's surface? So that's how it is."
Shao Meng dodged and activated vitality, landing a punch on the clone. His earlier judgment was confirmed: this was a clone.
With his perception, ripples seemed to appear to his right rear. Shao Meng quickly leaped and turned around, indeed spotting another evil spirit. Two evil spirits surrounded him, causing him to instinctively take a few steps back, only to bump into another evil spirit.
It turned out that there were eight evil spirits here, with only one being the original.
At this moment, Shao Meng closed his eyes again, provoking the evil spirit to angrily exclaim, "You dare to close your eyes and fight with me, you simply don't take me seriously. Watch me take you down!"
Ripples of water appeared in waves, and Shao Meng sought the essence of tranquility. With a simple raise of the hand, he blocked the oncoming barrage of purple energy blasts from the lead evil spirit.
Sensing the attack, Shao Meng swiftly dodged a sweeping strike, then used a forceful maneuver to knock down one evil spirit with a charging horse stance. He then leaned back to evade a series of straight punches from three evil spirits, and followed up with a low sweeping kick that took down all three.
As the ripples behind him swayed, Shao Meng swiftly moved, emulating his teacher's footwork, and stepped behind his own evil spirit, catching it off guard and bringing it down.
At this moment, signs of the doppelgänger's disappearance began to show.
"It seems that if the doppelgänger is defeated, it will slowly vanish. In that case, the original should be right here!"
Gradually, all seven avatars turned into a black smoke and disappeared, but the true form has not yet appeared.
Following the recent fluctuations in the heart, Shao Meng immediately raised a hand in the direction and grabbed the fist of the true form.
"You've got some skills, kid. It seems you're quick to comprehend. Let's see who's better!"
Shao Meng wasted no words, swiftly advancing and changing positions in the blink of an eye, launching attacks on the evil spirit.
The evil spirit also showed no weakness, countering with four different strikes from various angles, all of which were skillfully defended by Shao Meng and countered in return.
Finally, Shao Meng unleashed his vitality, evading the evil spirit's desperate counterattack and ultimately reducing it to ashes with a single decisive blow.
With the trial concluded, a beam of light descended beside him, marking the exit of the illusion. Shao Meng took a deep breath and walked towards it.
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