Over the next few days, one could occasionally see Lu Hongti sitting on the steps in deep thought.

"...Joint manipulation techniques mainly aim to attack people's joints in certain situations, dislocating them and making them lose combat ability. Some use leverage, others forcefully destroy. I know your martial arts surely include many grappling techniques, so for specific methods, someone as skilled as you would see through my amateur attempts... What I want to discuss are more direct concepts—working directly on fingers, ankles, elbows, knees. The purpose might be clearer..."

"Quick eyes, fast hands—crack, break it. When someone kicks at you, instead of dodging or attacking elsewhere, catch it and apply direct force at the ankle. Whichever way they go, you follow that direction. It's extremely fragile there—just one move usually means permanent disability... I feel many martial arts don't seem thorough and direct enough in this area, though of course it might not be so useful on the battlefield, heh..."

"These are basic concepts, should be simple to explain. Then we can analyze more specifically—stress points on fingers, elbows, knees, ankles. The human body has many vital points we can list. For instance, the hand area... here, uh, should be here—just one cut usually causes unstoppable bleeding. Behind the ear here will..."

At first she'd listened as if to interesting boasting. Someone forged on the battlefield followed practical paths in all techniques. Talk of breaking fingers and attacking joints—martial arts actually included many such concepts. Lu Hongti knew the body's vital points perfectly well. This Ning Yi spoke simply: you throw a palm strike, I break your finger, or I catch it and strike your elbow the opposite way—what was there to discuss?

But as the detailed explanations progressed step by step, something began to feel different.

Too detailed, too clear, too systematic. Those explanations analyzed every bit of the human body with "because, therefore" structures. Some vital points she'd truly never carefully considered before—even if she knew them, she wouldn't think to achieve such goals immediately when fighting.

"Who... taught you all this?"

"Uh?"

"It's almost like... practicing martial arts with your investigation of things method..."

Ning Yi thought about it and nodded with a smile. What he spoke of was actually a synthesis of many modern combat techniques, mainly for self-defense. He'd learned and dabbled in his previous life—jujitsu, aikido, Muay Thai. He couldn't have studied them systematically later on. But besides the fitness aspect, what he'd encountered were all high-damage techniques for self-defense, even military boxing and many special forces techniques. He didn't need to tell Lu Hongti exactly what to do—she was too familiar with these areas. So he spoke of broad conceptual analysis, making purposes clearer.

"...For experts there might be different adaptations, but at the ordinary person's level—quick eyes, fast hands, repeated practice, targeting the destruction of certain body points in the shortest time, combined with these second-rate experts' internal energy... Becoming a true expert might be demanding, but in specific environments against enemy soldiers, it might be more efficient... Not pursuing comprehensiveness or complexity or confusion—see the purpose clearly, do specialized training, cut in like a scalpel... Well, scalpel is a term from investigating things..."

"For instance, consider groups of five or several people specializing in infiltration, mutual support, silent killing, combined with long-range observation... You're not the only one who can consider assassination. With systematic cooperation, assassination or disruption efficiency increases, but you must research deeply, find patterns, seek weaknesses... Well, these ideas are for the next aspect. Let's discuss that in a few days, first let's talk about martial arts..."

"I have several boxing sets. I'm not clear how useful they are, but you're the master—you judge if they're useful. If not, just treat it as watching... The first set specifically targets these weak points. Unfortunately one of my hands isn't working well, so my demonstration might not be perfect..."

Eight or nine days had passed, and Ning Yi's left hand could basically move a bit. Of course, full recovery would take about half a year of continuous treatment according to Lu Hongti, and shouldn't leave major aftereffects. The first set was naturally military boxing—killing techniques purely for practicality and lethal vital points. Of course, learning it didn't guarantee effectiveness. Like joint manipulation, extensive practice was essential, and even with practice, ordinary people might not defeat opponents like the Yang brothers with Ning Yi's build. Ning Yi wouldn't necessarily spend lots of time training this. But Lu Hongti naturally saw at a glance what it contained.

"This... should be boxing purely pursuing speed and power. Below a certain level, it's indeed... terrifying."

"At the ultimate speed and power, could it compete with first-rate experts?"

Ning Yi was curious about this. Lu Hongti sat there and smiled, then walked in front of him: "Try hitting me."

"I'm injured, and I don't hit women..."

Ning Yi spread his hands, but before finishing his words, his right hand prepared to punch out. However, as the thought moved and his fist just formed to strike, it suddenly lost all power. Lu Hongti's two fingers silently pressed against his elbow, then withdrew. His right fist tried to strike again. Then ignoring his injured left hand, he prepared to use force simultaneously. Lu Hongti's fingers casually tapped his hands and also tapped his leg. Her skirt hem rose slightly as her toe subtly touched his ankle. Then when Ning Yi tried to open his mouth to headbutt or bite, his forehead was gently pushed, his mouth barely opened a crack before snapping shut—he'd eaten a bean.

From start to finish, Ning Yi couldn't even lift his hands and feet, looking like his body just swayed a few times. Now he covered his mouth with a dejected face: "That's not right..."

Lu Hongti smiled happily: "The autumn wind hasn't moved but the cicada senses it first. Your investigation seeks simple purposes, but if before you even raise your hand, your blood and qi already tell me what you'll do, what use is greater speed or power? When you learn martial arts routines later, a master will tell you those moves aren't for playing around. If our levels were similar, the moment your shoulder moved just now, I'd start raising my hand. You see my fingers move, your form must immediately change, then I know this move is useless and must change too..."

She thought about it: "But if you only seek quick results, this boxing set is actually enough..."

"Fine, I can only be a second-rate expert anyway..." Ning Yi ate a bean, still speaking unclearly. That afternoon they researched military boxing and talked about Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. The next day, Ning Yi demonstrated a set of Taijiquan for her, chanting solemnly.

"Taijiquan, born from the infinite, the mechanism of movement and stillness, mother of yin and yang..."

He only remembered this little bit, but it didn't matter—it already sounded mysteriously profound. After speaking he quickly shut up, demonstrating with an air of unfathomable depth. Actually what he practiced wasn't any formidable Taiji routine, just old men's and women's park boxing, from beginning stance to grasping the sparrow's tail to single whip. It was morning, and Lu Hongti sat on the steps eating small red berries picked from the forest while laughing.

"You're joking—what kind of boxing is this? How can it be so slow? How do you hit people..."

Ning Yi's left hand wasn't smooth anyway, so he stopped: "Shut up! Watch carefully and think properly, no laughing... Shallow!"

Embarrassed and angry, Lu Hongti put a small berry in her mouth, nodding seriously though her eyes still laughed, then started over. Around the time of white crane spreads wings, Lu Hongti chewed, nodded, and murmured: "This is sword-and-shield soldiers' boxing, just the boxing intent is somewhat scattered..."

Step forward with deflection, parry and punch, apparent closure, cross hands, right single whip, elbow strike... Ning Yi actually performed it limply with imprecise postures. Philosophically he naturally followed pure rationality and logic—data-flow military boxing and vital point analysis suited his taste better. He just wanted to see if this boxing might be useful to Lu Hongti. Halfway through, Lu Hongti just frowned watching. When finished, she sat there pursing her lips: "That's all?"

"Mm, that's all I know." Ning Yi spread his hands. "How is it?"

"Can't figure it out..." Lu Hongti's tone lowered, then she looked aside as if talking to herself. "Your boxing is too strange—it's broken, shouldn't be like this. This is Daoist... My master was a Daoist nun, she..."

Her master was already dead, who knew what she'd taught before. But Taijiquan definitely didn't exist in this era. Ning Yi knew this kind of Taiji had changed—if boxing divided into practice methods and combat methods, this wasn't even a practice method, closer to dance. Since Lu Hongti had insights, he naturally didn't interfere much. At noon when he took a gourd to fetch water, returning he saw Lu Hongti repeating that Taijiquan in front of the broken temple, though she'd stopped three times from beginning stance to grasping the sparrow's tail.

Stop once, start over, change the form. Sometimes shaking her head and thinking, changing the form and trying again. One complete round took over an hour, with some places changed so much Ning Yi couldn't recognize them. She continuously completed one round, speed varying fast and slow, but having shed many dance movements. It looked iron-blooded and deadly, yet as her skirt hem danced, it carried its own heroic spirit and beauty. One deflection, parry and punch even broke a small tree nearby, breaking wind sounds sharp between strikes. After completing this round, she began modifying and changing move by move, this time slowing down again but with even more variations.

By dusk the boxing hadn't stopped. Sunset pierced through tree gaps as white steam rose from Lu Hongti's head. She'd changed the boxing fast and slow several times—to Ning Yi each version looked frightening. Then he lit a fire to cook. When the rice was ready it was already night. Ning Yi wondered whether to call her to stop when Lu Hongti gathered her qi and came over herself, sitting beside him.

"Comprehended it?"

"Can't figure it out. Some of your boxing is for battlefields—that's easy to understand. But other parts aren't... Overcoming hardness with softness, like Daoist ideas about yin and yang. This doesn't seem like it's from investigating things... Where exactly did you learn all this..."

"Uh, when I was young a Daoist priest passed by my door..."

Lu Hongti laughed: "He recited two poems... Don't try fooling me. I've asked around—if you don't want to say then don't. If you said you thought of it yourself, I'd just think this world has naturally gifted geniuses..."

Asking about someone's skills was taboo after all. Lu Hongti took this seriously. Ning Yi shook his head: "If such a person really existed, I'd truly want to introduce them to you, but there really isn't... Mm, it is about overcoming hardness with softness. There are some powerful theories—want to hear them?"

So that night he spouted various theories about Taijiquan—things he'd occasionally encountered or seen on TV, plus business philosophy. Some was nonsense, some too mystical, business organization aspects too practical. Ning Yi could produce his own theoretical system and write papers without pressure, but it meant little for martial arts after all.

Lu Hongti recreating Taiji probably wasn't something achievable in a day or two. Two more days passed as he force-fed concepts like inch-force boxing, Wing Chun, half-step collapsing fist, Jeet Kune Do—Ning Yi had never practiced them, only knowing bits and pieces. For instance, he knew roughly how to stand in the two-character clamping goat stance but left it to Lu Hongti to figure out how to use it. Close-combat techniques like inch-force boxing he spouted randomly—there's a kind of boxing you can strike like this to achieve that effect. How to achieve it? That's your problem. He also discussed spirit-focused Japanese kendo, bushido, or Muay Thai's momentum.

Partly because discussing these had no pressure, partly because for Ning Yi this wasn't just showing off—he was very interested in these things. Martial arts would develop for another thousand years, with transformations, progress, and regression. In the end, combining a martial arts master's experience and temperament, when he delivered a thousand years of concepts all at once, what would it become? This greatly interested him.

His current feeling about Lu Hongti had roughly three aspects: One, they were friends. Two, trading partners—perhaps he could ask other favors later, making this a hidden resource. Three, this was an investment—he really wanted to see what this would become. Of course, no need to think so meticulously about everything, but since they were friends, he was willing to provide what he could, especially since these things were effortless for him.

Originally he'd planned to trade things with Lu Hongti for martial arts secrets, so the past few days he'd been thinking and combining information, considering what suited her. Like casually managing someone's company and providing various proposals—he first needed to understand the company's internal situation.

So on a morning several days later, Ning Yi said to Lu Hongti: "Next I want to discuss Lüliang Mountains' situation with you—discuss the annual Liao army grass-cutting raids or invasions, discuss your mountain villages' situations. I already have a rough outline but don't completely understand the specifics yet. Then... I'll help you formulate a complete set of plans and proposals, map out some prospects and development blueprints. Of course it'll be based on your actual situation—something usable."

Lu Hongti took a while to understand before glancing at him: "I roughly understand what you're saying, but... you understand this too?"

Ning Yi smiled: "This is what I'm truly skilled at. It should help."