Forge a path to success.

Chapter 40 Salted Fish Kung Fu
Nine o'clock in the morning, the shrine on the 31st floor of the headquarters.

The lamplight cast two long shadows, one of which leaned forward and then lifted. He was bowing. Ji Qiufeng, receiving the bow, remained expressionless, closed his paper fan, and stepped forward slightly.

“Come here,” he said.

The invitation was like the sound of a gong announcing the start of a new chapter, and the atmosphere inside the temple changed abruptly. A third slender figure darted out from under the lamplight, exuding a chilling aura, and his first move was a silver whip aimed straight for the temple's forehead!
Ji Qiufeng raised his head, narrowly avoiding the surprise attack. Approval flickered in his eyes, for the man opposite him had also held his ground. The man crouched low, bending his knees, and retracted his left foot, shifting his weight backward, employing a clever "drawing the spear" maneuver. This was a common technique in polearm combat, quickly retracting the weapon to handle close-quarters combat. Used here, it transformed a missed whip strike into a diagonal lash; even a slight glancing blow could destabilize the enemy with the force of the rebound.

This time, Ji Qiufeng didn't dodge. With a slight flick of his wrist, he pressed down with his paper fan, striking the middle to rear of the silver whip. This strike severed the whip's power, like striking a snake at its vital point, causing the whip-wielder immense discomfort. His right side was thus exposed, and Ji Qiufeng stepped forward, the opening opening right at his hand. The whip-wielder also stepped forward, using a light step to forcefully retract the whip, then switched to a spinning kick to attack Ji Qiufeng's upper body.

This move was decisive and excellent. The first kick could be a feint or a real strike; if it missed, the momentum from the spin would be used to deliver a double whip strike. But this wasn't enough for the astute Ji Qiufeng. He dodged the first strike to the side, and the second strike barely grazed his hair. He crouched low to avoid the whip strikes, and suddenly his paper fan shot out like a sharp sword, aiming straight for the whip-wielder's throat. At the same time, the whip-wielder's right hand flashed out, slashing like a scimitar towards Ji Qiufeng's profile!
His right hand froze in mid-air, the paper fan having touched his skin first. Ji Qiufeng retracted the fan, opened it, and shook it, saying with a smile, "Almost succeeded!"

"There's a difference of several decades." Chu Hengkong withdrew his fist. "Thank you for your guidance."

The whip-wielder was, of course, Chu Hengkong; the silver whip was his tentacle. His first assignment after the holiday was to learn martial arts techniques, sparring with Ji Qiufeng for fifteen minutes every morning. Success meant hitting Ji Qiufeng even once. That last spar was his most effective one this week; it looked like he was just a centimeter away from winning… but such a victory was meaningless. The other man fought the entire time with one hand behind his back, only wielding a folding fan. That wasn't holding back; it was practically flooding the enemy.

“I’m serious. I made a bet with Huaisu before, guessing what your trump card was. Huaisu guessed it was a fist, I guessed it was a gun, but I didn’t expect it to be a knife.” Ji Qiufeng smiled, “It’s a pity Hengkong, you forgot that you don’t wield a knife.”

Chu Hengkong scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed. Ji Qiufeng was right; the final move was indeed a sword technique. But if one side suddenly unleashes a killing blow while the exchange is going well, it's dishonorable for any school or sect to do so.

He told the truth: "The pressure was too great, and I couldn't control myself."

"That's a good thing. Fewer thoughts will make it easier to overcome life-or-death situations." Ji Qiufeng gestured for him to sit down. "Tell me about your current situation! You have complete control over your new arm and are no longer bound by any particular combat mindset. You've built a very good foundation. What do you think your next step in training should be?"

"Practice moves," Chu Hengkong replied immediately. "We're missing moves."

He retracted his tentacles and gestured as he spoke: "I have learned many skills in my martial arts practice, but in the current battle, I only have two decisive killing moves."

“A single-point breakthrough ‘gun’.” He compressed his tentacles, which then surged and struck the temple wall. “A wide-range strike ‘thunder whip’.” The swirling tentacles slammed into the floor, the impact spreading out in a circle. Chu Hengkong withdrew his attack and sat back down.

"With weapons and concealed weapons, we can handle most situations, but there are still fatal flaws." Chu Hengkong held up two fingers. "First of all, our defenses are too weak. There are too many weapons in the city that are more powerful than bullets, and mind control and poison are also difficult to deal with. If we don't take precautions, I will die from concentrated fire sooner or later."

Ji Qiufeng smiled enigmatically: "Is the only difference in physique?"

Chu Hengkong pressed his temples and admitted with a wry smile, "...I'm too prone to overconfidence."

“Yes, that’s the real problem with the ‘defense’ aspect.” Ji Qiufeng tapped his shoulder with his fan. “You’re so young, yet you have the mentality of a strongman. You’re not afraid of death, pain, or the enemy’s treacherous tricks. This has helped you make rapid progress in martial arts, but it has also cultivated some bad habits. Do you think you would have fought so dangerously if you had truly considered Adali a formidable enemy?”

Chu Hengkong could only smile bitterly: "...No."

"So now, how do you plan to fight?" Ji Qiufeng patiently guided him.

"We must prepare enough medicinal herbs and weapons, and use the whip to safely eliminate the pile of corpses covered in torches. Once we force out his true form, I will go all out and try to kill him with a single strike," Chu Hengkong said.

Ji Qiufeng shook his head: "Heng Kong, you still don't understand! Why don't you use the Blessing Water Cannon to spray it?"

"……what?"

Chu Hengkong stared in disbelief as Ji Qiufeng vividly explained, "Since this firefly is afraid of Xiao An's medicine, then we should treat it accordingly and use a specialized weapon! If you're worried about not having enough medicine and decide to assassinate it alone, you can simply coat yourself with blessings and carry two jars with you as backup. Then you can deal with the firefly as if it were nothing, and what means will Adali have to restrain you?"

Chu Hengkong could easily tell that this was a deliberate insult, and quickly raised his tentacles in surrender: "I've really learned my lesson... I'll definitely use it again next time!"

"That's right. We martial artists can be strong, but not arrogant." Ji Qiufeng shook his fan. "And then? Do you feel like you're lacking anything?"

“I don’t have any special attack methods,” Chu Hengkong said without hesitation. “I can defeat spirits with talismans, and I can defeat fireflies by dispersing the mud that possesses them. But if the next enemy doesn’t have this weakness, then I’m really out of options.”

“Generally speaking, we do not consider such demanding conditions during the first phase of the mass process.”

"The enemy won't spare me just because I'm skilled," Chu Hengkong chuckled. "At this stage, what techniques will Longquan Township teach?"

Having read several appraisal reports on related relics, he already knew that Ji Qiufeng came from a place called "Longquan Township." Longquan Township was famous for its "Longxiang Boxing Technique," and it also had forces like Chenjun Palace and Zhengxuan Palace that resembled "sects," so it must have a strong Xianxia (fantasy martial arts) atmosphere... And immortals probably don't lack methods to deal with demons and monsters, right?
"That's a very good question!" Ji Qiufeng said seriously. "Generally speaking, at this stage we would teach blacksmithing, architecture, calligraphy and painting, pharmacology, and music!"

"Ah...ah?" Chu Hengkong was dumbfounded.

Ji Qiufeng eagerly joined in: "How can you only know how to fight? Our Longquan Township has always advocated holistic education and encouraged well-rounded development. To be honest, I also have a lot of experience in painting. Hengkong, since you're interested in learning, how about we add three more hours of painting lessons every day..." "No! Forget it!"

"You can draw talismans after you learn it," Ji Qiufeng began to tempt him.

Chu Hengkong waved his hands vigorously, as if he had been awakened by painful memories. Back when he first became an assassin, the old men in his family dragged him to countless classes on art appreciation, mysticism, heraldry, and world history. The professors on the podium were passionate and energetic, and he felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, wishing he could transform into a rocket and fly away.

"Without that talent, there's no chance," Chu Hengkong said firmly. "I'll just learn martial arts!"

"With your uneven academic performance, how can you become a martial arts practitioner?" Ji Qiufeng sighed dramatically. "You'll just have to learn some basic moves. Horse stance, retract your tentacles, raise your right arm to defend, and face your fist inward."

Chu Hengkong perked up; this was a stance not covered in any of the three thousand sets of exercises. After he did as instructed, Ji Qiufeng helped him make some minor adjustments before giving the second instruction: "Tense all your muscles."

Chu Hengkong channeled his energy, his muscles contracting to prepare for the blow, making his body harder than steel. But Ji Qiufeng suddenly struck him in the chest with his fan, sending Chu Hengkong crashing backward! Then, like a roly-poly toy, he rose again!
"You were clearly in a defensive stance, how did you fall down?"

"Too tough," Chu Hengkong pondered. "It left no 'room for maneuver'."

Ji Qiufeng's answer was unexpected: "Wrong, not hard enough!"

He picked up his folding fan again and pointed, the fan first striking Chu Hengkong's biceps: "Tighten, right arm muscles rotate 15° to the right."

"…………ah?"

Chu Hengkong tried to do it, and the feeling of muscle rotation was just like a muscle cramp that would wake him up in the middle of the night, but a horizontal one at that. Ji Qiufeng then pointed to his chest: "Rotate the pectoralis major muscle outward by 3°."

How do you rotate your pectoral muscles?

Ji Qiufeng straightened his face and said, "Enough with the nonsense! Turn around! Next up are your abs, then your thighs!"

"My grass..."

In five minutes, Ji Qiufeng examined him from head to toe, and every muscle in his body was tense and twisting in a strange direction. Chu Hengkong felt his whole body cramping, the kind of cramping that felt like he was fleeing from a breakdown. He felt that if this continued, his muscles would probably say "goodbye" and then go on strike and break out of his body to the ends of the earth.

But Ji Qiufeng's torment was not over yet. Satisfied, he put away his fan and said, "Very good. Stand still, until you can't take it anymore."

Chu Hengkong glared, but his tongue was tied and he couldn't speak. Ji Qiufeng laughed three times ruthlessly and strode away.

·
Three hours later.

A small golden head peeked furtively out of the doorway, and Ji Huaisu tiptoed into the temple.

"Hey~ Sorry to interrupt your passionate cultivation, I'm just reminding you it's almost time to switch shifts with me... Chu Hengkong, are you even going to make it to work?"

"…………"

She felt the answer to the question should be "no," because Detective Chu was lying on the ground like a dead fish. It seemed he had recently challenged himself to wring himself dry, as the sweat beneath him had formed small puddles. Ji Huaisu squatted beside the dead fish, took out a baton, and poked him: "Still breathing? Still breathing?"

The moment the baton touched him, Chu Hengkong sprang up from his prone position in an extremely bizarre way! Then, like a cat leaping from a height, he spun around himself! His rotation speed was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, he had spun nearly a hundred times. From the front, he looked like a vortex, with sweat pouring out in all directions like rain!

Ji Huaisu immediately raised a light shield and let out a strange cry: "What kind of dog bathing technique is this?"

Then the spinning stopped, and Chu Hengkong rolled over and lay on the ground, utterly dejected, as if he had transformed from a salted fish into a dried-out one. Ji Huaisu removed his light shield and grinned, "Congratulations on your mastery of divine skills... Salted Fish Detective..."

"I didn't learn it," Chu Hengkong mumbled, "It's too difficult."

"I didn't expect you to use the word 'difficult' too." Ji Huaisu pulled him up. "Alright, that's enough practice. I'll cover your afternoon shift. Do you still have the energy to go to the workshop?"

"What... are you doing...?"

"Take a look at the new 'gashapon machine'." She gestured with a gashapon toy, "and pick up your new equipment while you're at it."

(End of this chapter)