Chapter 99: Fusion
Chapter 99: Fusion
Because it was Sunday, after a short sleep, Fang Jing devoted all his energy to studying the newly learned “Cloud Dragon Willow.”
Using Growth Value like a super cheat tool, he advanced the Dragon Division ultimate skill to the “Advanced Level” perfectly without much effort.
He kept pondering, analyzing, and interpreting information about the Dragon Division skill Cloud Dragon Willow, sorting out the core details for easier understanding.
He knew deeply that the more he understood each technique, the stronger his combat power became in real fights.
What Fang Jing had studied before—like karate, wrestling, and competitive kendo—were only rough introductions; to truly master them to perfection, he needed to practice repeatedly, bit by bit.
“Ordinary people learn martial arts by focusing on one style; mastering that one leads to knowing them all. But I’m learning various skills and merging them together, taking the best parts from many schools to make one unified path…”
Fang Jing now clearly saw his future direction. He needed a solid plan, like growing a sapling into a big tree, and “Huanzang Style” could be the foundation. From glancing at it, he could tell that the Hiden-ryū Eight Arts weren’t just simple fighting skills.
“Putting aside ‘Torrent · Hundred Strikes’ from the Water Division, just ‘Cloud Dragon Willow’ alone made it worth all the time I spent studying…”
The harder he worked on it, the more he found the movements of “Cloud Dragon Willow” fun and effective at strengthening his body.
“After such a short practice, I felt soreness in my lower back, hip muscles, thigh muscles, and calf muscles. Those jumps, rolls, and hand-foot inversions—against normal fighting tips—were meant to boost my central nerve reactions. They made my whole body’s muscles and bones work together under control, sharpening my sense of space, movement, and center of gravity.”
In the empty garden’s spacious spot, he was training as hard as usual when suddenly, he thought about trying to mix the Torrent Skill he had learned with Cloud Dragon Willow to see what changed.
“The Dragon Division skills mimic a dragon in clouds or a swaying willow, while the Water Division torrent becomes wild, raging waves that never rest…”
On his seventh step, it felt like a flash of lightning struck his mind, clearing everything up.
He pushed his toes down, holding the ground as if his feet were hands. His waist and legs rose and fell gently, as if borrowing power from the earth.
Like springs in his legs, a spiraling force pushed upward. A warm flow surged from his tailbone, soaking into every muscle and pore—it was a faint vibration.
But even such tiny power, building up bit by bit, could become a massive flood.
“Vibration! That’s exactly the key to joining both Divisions’ skills. This subtle quaking, with strength borrowed from the earth through adjusting my center of gravity, lets force start from the ground, form from the feet, and flow from the legs and waist…”
Using this smartly, the force traveled through ankles and knees to hips. Then, with smooth movement from waist muscles, it rose to back muscles and shoulders. Shaking shoulders, stretching elbows, and shifting wrists made his whole body like a tight “circle.”
“This is like ‘Uchiate’ from the karate Kume Nansho used—both are force-generating skills.”
The difference was in the technique: Kume Nansho’s Uchiate focused on twisting power into one line to boost punching penetration, achieving a through-shock effect.
But the new skill he mastered let power burst out from any body part.
“Through the breathing method from Water Division and the whole-body training of muscles and tendons from Dragon Division, this kind of shock rhythm spreads to every little bit of me. Is this the real magic of combining Water and Dragon Divisions?”
No… it wasn’t full yet; he could dig deeper. It felt like he’d touched some hidden treasure.
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“Mom, is your stomach hurting again? Can’t you eat?”
Yesterday’s dinner was still untouched. Kuranaga Kuraruka sighed, took the food out, and dumped it in the trash.
After a quick tidying up, she lay on her back on the bed, took her phone out, opened her email, and tried to write a message.
“Senior, I saw you with second-year Shokuba yesterday. Are you two dating? No big deal… just asking casually.”
In a mood of heavy worry and tension, she let out a soft sigh and paused her finger before hitting send.
Finally, like several other messages, that one didn’t get sent either.
The draft box was piled with lots of emails like this, but not one went through.
She had finally gotten the senior’s number from her sister Satsuki, but it felt useless now, which was just upsetting and made her feel hopeless.
This was terrible and gross; even she hated herself for being like this.
What to do? If she kept this up, Shokuba might get ahead of her. After all, that was Shokuba, the super famous one in school.
…Would the senior even like someone like Shokuba? Wasn’t she super popular?
She had overheard boys in her class say Shokuba was dashing and cool.
They said even younger girls admired her, and she got a lot of confessions from girls. No wonder—as a true beauty, she won over everyone.
Even feeling a bit jealous, she had to accept that Shokuba was an amazingly rare beauty.
Guys and girls saw “beauty” a bit differently, but judging with her own critical eye, Shokuba was top-level and total perfection—a hundred percent, unlike her.
Plus, Shokuba’s hair looked so lovely; that long style was probably a hit with boys.
As for her? She wouldn’t even hit sixty; she was just the kind boys didn’t care about.
Thinking that made her want to bury her face in her pillow.
She was like the ugly duckling in stories, but real life wasn’t a “story”—the ugly duckling couldn’t suddenly turn into a pretty swan.
Just as she was feeling down, the phone rang, which only made her mood worse.
“Hey! Kuraruka? …You skipping work today?”
“I don’t want to go; I feel awful everywhere.”
“You didn’t get dumped, did you?”
“…”
“Too bad, but that won’t fly. Without ‘customers’ tonight, you’re not getting paid. You know what that means?”
She bit her lips hard, thought it over, and said in a slightly rough voice, “Got it; I’ll be there soon.”