Returning to the Mysterious Era

While Cassius fixed the wall early the next morning, an old, wrinkled face suddenly popped up in the the hole in the wall.

"My dear grand-disciple, did you succeed on your first try?!" It was none other than Lisa’s teacher, Master Oumai.

"Yes," Cassius replied. There was no point in hiding it. Since Master Oumai had asked, Instructor Lisa must have already told him.

"Good, good, good!" Immediately, the old face outside the hole beamed like a blooming chrysanthemum. His wrinkles and age spots bunched together when he smiled. "Good boy! You truly have good fortune!" Oumai said, feeling rather emotional.

Breaking through the bottleneck of the Wind Elephant Covert Martial Arts was half effort and talent, and the other half luck. Decades ago, it had taken Oumai four attempts to break through the bottleneck. Lisa had failed twice in succession before she saw success.

If a breakthrough attempt failed, the internal disruption of blood and energy required at least two to three months of recuperation before another attempt could be made. Generally, a martial artist had, at most, seven chances to attempt a breakthrough. By the eighth time, the probability of success was next to zero. Additionally, not many had succeeded on their first try. Cassius and First Senior Brother Hykal were the only ones in the Wind Elephant Sect to achieve this feat in the past forty years.

As he stood in the private room, brick in hand, Cassius smiled. He tended not to think of luck as a talent or strength. To him, luck was simply an unpredictable element that he had to be cognizant of.

Oumai sighed. "Luck is also a part of one's strength. Come on, hand me that brick, let me give you a hand."

With Master Oumai's help, Cassius took only half an hour to repair the white wall of the private room. Though it looked a bit ugly now, as long as he applied whitewash on it later, it would look as good as new.

He looked at the smooth wall and nodded in satisfaction. Beside him, Master Oumai pulled out a silver rectangular snuff box that was decorated with floral carvings and inlaid with a few opal stones that had a colorful and warm luster.

"Want some snuff?" he asked.

The box did not contain cigarettes but snuff, which was made from high-quality tobacco leaves, borneol, and mint. The three ingredients were grounded together into powder, sealed, and then aged. The box itself was a masterpiece of exquisite craftsmanship. There were times that people treated it more as a collectible rather than for its actual use.

"No, I'm not used to it." Cassius shook his head. His sharp eyes noticed a line of small characters engraved on the metal of the snuff box: "To my dear Oumai McKinsey."

"Is this a gift from a friend?"

"No, my wife." Oumai smiled. There was a far-off look in his eyes. "She gave it to me forty years ago. Back then, I took her all around the Hongli Federation. Sometimes we even traveled abroad, and we managed to taste cuisines and experienced customs of more than ten countries. Aiya, why am I telling you all this? I'm off now!" Oumai took a snuff and quickly dusted the powder off his hands before walking out of the newly repaired private room.

Almost as soon as Oumai left, Lisa arrived. She wore a pure white outfit, and her complexion seemed much better than before. At the very least, her cheeks seemed rosier.

Lisa glanced at the newly repaired wall on the right. "That was some quick work; you took less than an hour to get it done."

"Hehe." Cassius scratched his head and smiled.

"Good, let's finish it off then." Lisa lifted the wooden bucket in her right hand, which contained whitewash.

"Teacher, let me do it." Cassius jogged over, grabbed the bucket, and applied an even coating of the whitewash over the all too conspicious patch on the wall.

Master Oumai had helped him with the bricks, and Instructor Lisa with mixing the whitewash. That was quite nice. Fueled by this thought, he applied the whitewash with renewed enthusiasm.

The birds chirped crisply as the morning sunlight streamed through the windows, casting long golden rays on the floor where Cassius was on his knees and applying the whitewash. Lisa quietly watched beside him, leaning against the wall with her head slightly tilted.

Time passed slowly in silence.

"Teacher, what's Master Oumai's wife's name?" Cassius asked.

"My master's wife? You should call her lady grand-master."

"No, no, that's not what I meant. I was asking for her name." Cassius applied two more layers of whitewash as he spoke.

"Her name? Isabel Cassini." Lisa thought for a moment. "Technically, your Master Oumai doesn't have a formal wife. Your lady grand-master died when she was twenty-six so she never had the chance to marry Master Oumai." She paused. "From that day on, Master Oumai swore never to marry."

So Master Oumai is also someone with a story... Cassius thought. He didn't say anything more and focused on applying the whitewash.

The newly repaired private room still had a strong smell by the time it was the afternoon so Lisa and Cassius went to the training room for their lesson. They both sat cross-legged on the spacious floor.

Lisa pondered for a moment and then spoke slowly, "Every martial art has its own framework. For instance, the Basic Combat Arts form the foundation for the Wind Elephant Sect. Any kind of Wind Elephant martial arts, whether it’s the Wind Elephant Fist's first stage, Gale, or the second stage, Elephant Herd, evolve from this foundation. Like a branch growing into a lush tree, this progression from simplicity to complexity is the proper path!"

"In addition to this proper path, there are auxiliary techniques that, at a certain point, suddenly spread out. These techniques are like thorny vines wrapped around the tree’s branches. The upside is that they increase the tree's lethality and resistance to enemies. However, these vines will compete for nutrients with the tree and if one were to focus too much on the vines, the tree would wither."

Lisa glanced at Cassius, who was listening intently. "The Azure Wind Flow I am about to teach you is such a vine. You must stick to your true path and tread cautiously when mastering this double-edged sword. Do not delve too deeply! You should only get a small taste of it before you're forty. It won't be too late to attempt it again when you advance to the stage of a combat artist. A year of effort at that stage will be more effective than ten years of hard work right now."

Cassius nodded so Lisa would know that he had taken her words to heart. He had actually been exposed to the techniques of the Azure Wind Flow for a long time but he had been limited to only practicing the basics. He had not been qualified to truly practice the Azure Wind Flow because he had not yet reached the stage of a pugilist.

"Cough, cough."Lisa coughed twice and took a sip of water.

"I've spoken to you about this before, but the Azure Wind Flow is a technique I derived from the main principles of the Wind Elephant Fist's Gale stage. It follows the principle, 'When your mind becomes as clear as a stream, the wind becomes unstoppable.' Since this technique is still incomplete, it won't follow the step-by-step progression of the Wind Elephant Fist. You won't be able to tell whether you are on the right track, but once you do succeed, you will instantly master the Azure Wind Flow. So, you still need to be patient moving forward..."

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