"Feeling upset?"
Luo Lao grinned and beckoned him with a finger. "Come hit me, why don't you?"
"When I get a Gatling gun spouting blue flames, you're dead for sure!"
For now, Huai Shi could only indulge in talking tough.
Over the past three days, he had been completely battered—by the muscular old man in front of him, who had methodically destroyed every method related to the use of weapons and then tried to rebuild them from scratch.
It wasn't mere torture. It was a ruthless correction.
Exerting what could be described as a 'precise' amount of Power, the old man savagely but calculatingly crushed Huai Shi again and again.
Any slight imperfection in stance or movement brought on brutal Absolute Punishment.
If not for this, he doubted he would even know how to hold a knife anymore.
This baldy must be exacting personal revenge, resenting me for having such long hair...
Gulping for air, Huai Shi slapped some Silver Blood Potion onto his arm wound. He got up from the ground and reached for both the knife and the axe.
"Come on!"
"This ability really is convenient," Luo Lao pinched his chin, examining Huai Shi closely. "You wouldn't happen to have an Alchemist license too, would you, kid?"
Not yet, I haven't even taken the test! Huai Shi thought about this and realized that, without knowing it, he really did seem to want to collect every single license in the world. An Astronomical Society registered Action Officer, a First-Stage Border Hunter, a Legendary Investigator, an apprentice Chef Demon, and even a damned Disastrous Musician... To think that even after becoming a Sublimator, I still have to test for all these licenses—it's just too miserable!
In the moment of his distraction, a sinister old face suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Hey, what are you thinking about?"
In Luo Lao's hand, the Wolf Fang Club swept across, aiming for his head—going for a clean hit!
Without any thought, Huai Shi raised his knife to block the sweeping Wolf Fang Club, advanced with the Yu Step, and the axe in his other raised hand chopped violently towards the old man's bald head.
This time, he had the upper hand!
A shrill, piercing sound rang out. The old man pulled back his joyous club, which not only deflected Huai Shi's stance but also struck away the axe blade before thrusting straight at Huai Shi's face.
Huai Shi stepped back, but the old man pressed on, his Wolf Fang Club chopping down again, forcing Huai Shi to retreat step by step.
Just as the old man attempted to close in, Huai Shi had already unthinkingly thrust out the Spear of Compassion, piercing to keep the threat at bay. But in the next instant, the iron club broke through his defense, smashing directly into his center.
Huai Shi instinctively leaned back, and immediately the Wolf Fang Club followed, pressing down on him.
The old man delivered a flying kick.
Huai Shi was sent flying backward, crashing into the wall.
Darkness clouded his vision.
"What on earth goes on in that head of yours?"
Luo Lao looked at him in annoyance. "Even though the foundations of your posture and stance have been rebuilt, why are you still so stiff?"
"You're so many levels above me. If you say I'm stiff, there's nothing I can do about it," Huai Shi said helplessly, his vision blurring.
To be honest, he felt his response was already fast enough, but still, he couldn't defend against that unpredictably swift Wolf Fang Club. In the hands of the muscular old man, the heavy iron rod seemed as quick as a toothpick.
Sometimes heavy, sometimes nimble, leaving Huai Shi completely unable to grasp his movements.
"I've already limited my strength and speed to the First-Stage level. If you can't even beat that, then you're just trash," Luo Lao said contemptuously, spitting. He then emphasized, "Don't just react passively. Seize the initiative, understand?"
Seize the initiative? Huai Shi almost laughed. How many people in this world could seize the initiative against you? Definitely not me.
"You're too rigid. Both your defense and your 'Offensive' are too rigid," Luo Lao said, his expression one of utter disdain, as if looking at a mud wall that couldn't be plastered. "You need to learn to adapt, to use Transformation, understand?"
"Easy for you to say," Huai Shi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked up. "Why don't you demonstrate this 'Transformation' then?"
"I've never seen someone so pig-headed."
Luo Lao casually swung the Wolf Fang Club in his hand. "Watch closely, I'll demonstrate only once... Xiao Xian, come here!"
The young woman knitting a sweater nearby, Luo Xian, smiled in response. She put down her knitting, rose, slipped off her high heels, and stood in the center of the training area, casually picking up a dagger.
"I'll take the 'Offensive'; you defend. Slow the rhythm down a bit; let this kid get an eyeful."
Luo Lao cast one last glare at Huai Shi before walking towards the Teenage Girl and stopping in front of her. Suddenly, without warning, the Wolf Fang Club came crashing down towards the Teenage Girl's head!
Thunder erupted.
Power equivalent to ten thousand jun burst forth with a BOOM, roaring down as if Mount Tai itself were crashing upon her.
Luo Xian didn't even think, her hand shot out, dagger thrusting toward the old man's wrist. In that hair's breadth of a moment, it was as if the old man had deliberately presented his wrist to the blade.
But immediately afterward, the overwhelming momentum vanished. Accompanied by the resonating BOOM, the descending iron club, heavy as Thunder, abruptly shifted from ferocious to gentle. It traced a nimble arc through the air, bypassing Luo Xian's dagger and striking for her throat.
Luo Xian remained rooted to the spot, unmoved. With a mere flick of her wrist, her dagger shot upwards and outwards in a counter-attack, slicing towards her father's fingers.
In a flash, Luo Lao let go of the club.
With a casual slap on the handle mid-air.
The iron club shuddered, its center of gravity shifting. It circled back through the air and, following Luo Xian's backward lean, brushed past her cheek and landed in the old man's other hand.
Agile and unpredictable.
The heavy iron club, in the old man's hands, seemed to transform into a feather-light staff, wielded with an effortless, dazzling grace. The Power behind it shifted from light to heavy in an instant, its speed astonishing.
And Luo Xian, the target of the 'Offensive,' countered it all with a single, unchanging defense, meeting a thousand transformations with constancy, perfectly sealing off the Wolf Fang Club that seemed as mighty as Thunder and endlessly variable.
Although it was largely a demonstration, it was clear neither held back. Even with intentionally slowed movements, the deadly intent within their skillful exchanges remained palpable.
There was no gentleness.
Instead, it was as if they were engaged in a battle to the death.
In a daze, Huai Shi thought he grasped something about Transformation, yet he couldn't articulate it. It was like encountering a math problem he felt he'd seen before but had no idea how to solve.
A vague understanding, which was as good as no understanding at all.
He'd had this fleeting sense of comprehension several times in recent days, but every time he confidently tried to apply it, he only met with abject defeat.
It was as though everyone could talk the talk, but very few could walk the walk.
The high-intensity, fierce battle had left Huai Shi mentally and physically exhausted. As he relaxed, he began to feel drowsy, yawned uncontrollably, and his eyelids started to droop unwittingly.
He could only faintly hear the continuous WHIR of air being sliced and the CLANG of steel.
Until Luo Lao swept the Wolf Fang Club his way in irritation, only to have it blocked by the Sacrificial Knife that sprang from Huai Shi's hand, jolting him awake.
His expression changed, a mix of shock and confusion, as if he had just seen a ghost.
"Hmm?"
Luo Lao frowned, puzzled at what Huai Shi was up to.
"This…"
Huai Shi raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Old man, that... that move just now... it was in 4/4 time!"