Swords, magic, and martial arts

"He should be a man, right?" Rod asked after seeing Miles go upstairs.

"Definitely. Last time you were unconscious, he was drinking with me and got drunk. He went crazy and wanted to vent his frustrations. The next day, I found him at a place near the castle that was a 'coughing, coughing' establishment. When I paid for him, the beautiful woman serving him kept saying he was useless," Baron said after thinking for a moment. He didn't mention the exact name of the place because he saw Messiah was there, but everyone understood.

"I'm going up first too," Misell said, her expression changing as she stood up.

After Messiah left, Baron seemed to remember something and asked Rhodes, "What did you just give Miles? What is martial arts?"

Rhodes had already prepared his explanation, and since Messiah wasn't present, "Last time Messiah and I spent an afternoon strolling around the commercial district, didn't we? I found this in a general store. Do you want a copy? I still remember what it says on it."

"Give me a copy to take a look. I'll check if there's any danger in practicing this," Baron said.

Rod finished the grilled fish on his plate, put down his knife and fork, and said, "I'm done eating. I'm going upstairs to rest."

Rhodes breathed a sigh of relief after going upstairs. Luckily, Messiah had just come upstairs, so Baron definitely wouldn't ask her for confirmation, otherwise explaining would have been quite troublesome. However, how to get these martial arts manuals out was still a problem. But if I left them for a while and came back, I could just take out these manuals and say that I obtained an ancient inheritance from a tomb, wouldn't that be enough?

Back in his room, Rod sat on the bed and circulated his internal energy according to the internal energy circulation route recorded in the Iron Head Kung Fu manual. He had tried it before, but the effect was not very obvious. However, he had only been able to circulate it for less than half a night. Every night, crew members who got up to use the night would ask him why he was sitting there strangely without moving, which would disrupt his state of mind. They would then be unable to calm down for a long time. Fearing that they would suffer from qi deviation, they would eventually choose to go to sleep.

Rhodes sat in the quiet room, concentrating on circulating his inner energy. He had to admit that the soundproofing of this hotel was better than any of the places he had stayed before.

The internal energy circulated faster and faster in the meridians of his head, as if impurities in his meridians were being gradually expelled from his body. He felt the pores of his entire head opening up, just like a highly skilled masseur was massaging his head.

After receiving a notification from the system, Rod stopped practicing.

He opened the system and found Iron Head Kung Fu in the system's mastery section.

Iron Head Kung Fu [Beginner's Guide]

Passive effect: Greatly increases the rigidity of the head and neck, and improves energy and spirit.

It seems that learning martial arts through reading manuals is a direct way to grasp its essence, which Rhode feels is better than the system teaching him martial arts before. Although he can use it directly, increasing its power requires tedious practice, just like practicing Iron Shirt requires getting beaten up to improve proficiency.

However, there are also downsides. To increase the power of martial arts, one must rely on comprehension, not on grinding for proficiency.

Iron Head Kung Fu is a martial art that cultivates both internal and external strength. It can not only improve the hardness and defense of the head and neck, but also enhance one's spirit and energy. Rod tapped his head with his hand to feel its hardness.

Well, my head isn't made of dough anymore.

After tapping his head, he felt some oil on his hands. He touched them again and found his hands were covered in a black, oily substance. This must be impurities from his meridians, but what is it composed of—oil or protein?

Sunlight streamed in through the window, and Rod saw the sun rise. He quickly climbed out of bed, wanting to wash his hair before everyone else woke up. He ran downstairs and found that many people were still awake. He rushed out and washed his hair with the cool well water.

After washing his hair, he still felt it was very oily. Without shampooing, it was difficult to remove the oil with water alone. So he ran back to the hotel and bought a bottle of wine from the owner. He then used the wine to wash his hair again before rinsing it clean with water. After drying it, he touched his hair and finally felt it was clean.

This involved some high school chemistry knowledge, the principle of "like dissolves like," though he didn't know how scientists explained or named this principle more professionally. Alcohol is an organic solvent, capable of dissolving organic substances like oils and fats better than water, an inorganic solvent. This involves microscopic chemical bonds and functional groups, which Rhodes wasn't entirely clear on.

After washing his hair this way, Rod felt even more puzzled by the world. Why were some macroscopic phenomena similar to those on Earth?

Let others handle the pursuit of truth; I'll focus on practicing martial arts.

A thought suddenly popped into Rhodes' mind: if liquids can mix together, then can my inner strength and magic power be fused together?

With that in mind, Rhodes began to experiment. He was afraid that mixing his internal energy and magic might cause an explosion. To be on the safe side, he slowly transferred a very small amount of internal energy and magic to the very tip of his finger. If an explosion occurred, it would at most only blow off a section of his finger.

Rhodes felt that after his internal energy and magic energy were mixed together, they were like water and oil mixed together, with only a very small part fused together and the rest clearly separated.

Seeing that no explosion had occurred, Rhodes slowly increased the amount of magic and internal energy, finding that the phenomenon was similar to before. He then tried to keep the magic level constant and continued to circulate his internal energy to his fingers, finding that the degree of integration seemed to have increased slightly.

He felt that the degree of fusion between magic and internal energy was related to their ratio. He tried to reduce internal energy and increase magic, but found that the degree of fusion decreased slightly.

It seems that internal force needs to be used as the main component to fuse with magic. Rhode sensed the energy generated after the magic and internal force were fused together and felt that its strength was higher than that of magic and internal force alone.

However, the internal energy in my body is still too little compared to the magic power. It would be better if I used magic power as the main source of energy.

Rhodes stopped trying and used the One-Finger Divine Skill to exhaust all the magic and internal energy gathered on his fingers. He discovered that this time, the One-Finger Divine Skill was launched from a distance like the Six Meridians Divine Sword, chipping off a piece of bark from a tree not far away.

Rhodes was somewhat surprised, not expecting it to be so powerful. He had only achieved a similar effect when his fingers directly touched the tree.

I must study this carefully when I get back today, and see what the most suitable ratio is. Mixing internal energy and magical energy together when using martial arts not only allows me to use the fused portion, but also a small portion of the magical energy is used along with it.

He had tried using magic to power his martial arts before, but found that nothing changed. The magic was not consumed by the martial arts moves, and the martial arts did not become stronger. It was like using water as gasoline.

Rhodes tried out the Taizu Long Fist, which he was most familiar with. The Taizu Long Fist, which was powered by a mixture of magic and internal energy, could not attack from a distance like the One-Finger Divine Skill, but its power was greatly increased. One punch almost broke the tree. If such a punch were to hit an ordinary person, they would probably be half dead if not killed.

After practicing a few sets of Taizu Changquan (a style of Chinese martial arts) in the open space, Rod returned to the hotel. After a quick wash, he asked the hotel owner for breakfast.

Halfway through the meal, Baron and Hammer also came downstairs.

"It's rare to see you up so early," Baron said in surprise when he saw Rhodes already eating breakfast.

He thought for a moment and then asked, "Or did you not sleep all night again?"

After mastering the Iron Head Technique, Rod's energy and spirit improved significantly. Even though he hadn't slept all night, he didn't feel sleepy.

"I'm a little excited," Rod explained.

"What's the big deal? It's just a competition," Baron said nonchalantly.

What excited Rhodes was his previous discovery; he was eager to return and study it further. Although many fundamental scientific principles differed from those of this world, the research methods were certainly universal, such as the controlled variable method.

After seeing that Rod had finished eating, Baron said, "Go and wake the two of them up. I don't know how young people like you manage to sleep in so late in the morning."

Rhodes had originally planned to remain seated and continue experiencing the other enhancements Iron Head Technique had given him—if it increased his vitality, he wondered if his mental strength and magic power had also increased. After hearing Baron's words, he could only helplessly climb the stairs.

He knocked on Messil's door, and it opened quickly. Messil seemed to have been up for a while and had been inside doing something like praying. After exchanging a few words with her, Rod ran to Miles's door.

Even in a room with such good soundproofing, Rod could still hear snoring coming from inside.

Rod banged on the door a few times, and the snoring inside stopped. After a while, the door was opened.

"What?" Miles asked sleepily.

"Time to get up and register," Rod said.

"What time is it?" Miles asked.

"It's almost eight o'clock," Rod replied.

"It's still early, I'm going to sleep a little longer." Miles walked towards the bed, lay down, and started snoring again.

Rhodes was exasperated; he wanted to finish registering as soon as possible and return to continue the experiment. Suddenly, he had a good idea. He used a Wizard Ball to help Miles wash up, but Miles was still not awake, so he used the Wizard Ball to pull him downstairs.

After going downstairs, Baron and the others had already finished breakfast. Misell ate very little, so she also finished her meal.

"What's wrong with him?" Baron asked curiously.

"He's not awake yet, but we can go register directly," Rhodes replied. He found that his mental strength and magic power had really increased a lot compared to before he learned Iron Head Technique. Now he could easily lift an ordinary adult man like Miles with a magic ball, but it was also possible that he was asleep and unconscious.

"Let's go then." Baron nodded.

Rhode got two loaves of bread for Miles from the table, then used a magic ball to guide Miles and Baron, who were still in a dream, towards the gates of Gulfstream City...

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