As a matter of fact, Old Man Mu was well aware of Shangguan Ru’s suspicions, so he quickly explained the acupoint technique that he was about to teach, “Don’t get me wrong. The acupoint technique that I will be teaching you is the Finger of Immobilisation. Other than paralyzing the opponent for 2 to 4 hours, there is no other harm to this Kung Fu.”
“I don’t know how to recognize acupoints.”
Golden Roc Fort had focused more on killing methods and looked down on other types of manuals. Shangguan Ru could only recognize some of the more important acupoints and did not even know the names for the rest of them.
Old Man Mu eyes gleamed, with a satisfied expression, he said, “This is the subtlety of the Finger of Immobilisation, you don’t need to recognize the acupoints so long as you hit within five inches of the Xuanji acupoint on the opponent’s chest. Your strength alone will penetrate the opponent’s body, and it will naturally find the right acupoints and keep them immobilized.”
Although Golden Roc Fort did not focus on acupoints, they did have some general knowledge as required. Shangguan Ru knew a little about it, but it was the first time she ever heard of such an acupoint technique called Finger of Immobilisation. “How is it possible? You just want to trick me into learning Kung Fu that kills people, don’t you?”
Old Man Mu stared back, eyes wide as if he had just been insulted. He said, “How can I be so shameless? Besides, your Kung Fu is much better than me now, if I trick you into killing people and reignite that killing desire within you, won’t you come and kill me next? That’s like bringing trouble onto myself, losing more than I can gain, isn’t it?”
Seeing as the sky was becoming brighter and Shangguan Ru still did not trust him, Old Man Mu had no choice but offered her a solution instead, “I guess there is only one way for you to believe me. I will teach you the acupoint technique and then you can use it on me. Poke me and see if I stop moving or die.”
This seemed feasible, “Okay then.” Shangguan Ru said reluctantly.
Old Man Mu shook his head and muttered in a low voice, “You won’t find such a miserable Master Shifu like me, who volunteer to be the test subject, and even has to humbly plead his student to learn from him.”
“Nonsense, you are not my Master Shifu.”
“Right, right, it’s all my wishful thinking. Good girl wants to be a Buddha, the reason she is learning from me is also to save people…”
Old Man Mu continued to flatter her before explaining the details of the acupoint technique, what she should look out for, which areas were prone to mistakes, etc. Everything was articulated clearly.
The Finger of Immobilisation sounded easy, but it was much more complicated than the Subtle Shadow Lightness Skills. The moment your Qi was channeled wrongly, the effect would be gone and it would, in turn, weaken your defenses and you might fall into the enemies’ hands.
Shangguan Ru managed to remember the key points just before daybreak. At first, she tried poking her fingers in the air to practice before trying a few times on Old Man Mu’s chest, but she kept making mistakes and did not even cause him any pain.
At dawn, as the two of them continued their journey, Old Man Mu wore the luggage over his body and only revealed two feet for walking. He was led by Shangguan Ru as they went deeper into the swamp.
Shangguan Ru practiced the Subtle Shadow Lightness Skills and Finger of Immobilisation as she walked, and when she encountered any problems, she would turn to Old Man Mu for advice. The day passed by quickly in a blink of an eye and the sky soon turned dark again.
Right now, the two of them were faced with an important problem: They had run out of dry food.
“If only we had managed to get that wild boar from last night.” Old Man Mu’s stomach growled with hunger, and he kept swallowing, “Look around, if there was one wild boar, there must be another one around.”
There were not many animals in the swamp. A “second wild boar” did not appear, though there were some birds which flew past them from time to time.
Old Man Mu crawled out from the luggage and looked up at the dark sky, licking his lips. He said, “Normally, I can shoot a few birds down with just a leaf.”
He turned his head and saw Shangguan Ru with her head lowered, apparently pondering about something, her fingers were eager to try out the moves. Old Man Mu was secretly pleased, he knew that the young girl was fascinated by the amazing Kung Fu. But he was unable to suppress his hunger any longer, so he coughed twice to interrupt her thoughts and said, “Lady Buddha, it is time to kill something small to save this old fellow. Find something for us to roast and eat, even a mouse is alright.”
However, Shangguan Ru appeared to not have heard what he said, her brows were slightly furrowed and it was obvious that she had some unaddressed doubts in her heart.
Old Man Mu’s patience was running out. With such an omniscient Master Shifu like himself around, what else did she need to think about? Wanting to rouse her, he stretched out his arm and tapped on Shangguan Ru’s leg.
Shangguan Ru, as if by instinct, jabbed the Xuanji acupoint on Old Man Mu’s chest.
Old Man Mu saw clearly that it was the Finger of Immobilisation and that the Kung Fu was still far from perfect; he could have easily avoided it by leaning slightly to one side, but he had no command over his body since his Internal Strength was weak. He was able to foresee everything but unable to do anything about it.
Old Man Mu really froze there like a block of wood. Except for his eyeballs, his whole body was immobilized, his face turning redder by the minute.
“Oh, did I use it on you?” Shangguan Ru was deeply apologetic. “I’m sorry, but this is what you requested as well.”
Old Man Mu couldn’t open his mouth, so he tried his best to squeeze out his voice, “Yes, I did request for it. Now restore the acupoints for me.”
Old Man Mu had taught her the Kung Fu along with a way to restore the pressed acupoints, but Shangguan Ru had practiced the acupoint technique the whole day, and could only try and learn to restore the acupoints hands on. After more than 10 times of trying, with Old Man Mu’s face almost turning purple did she manage to restore his acupoints and relieve him of the immobilization.
Old Man Mu finally regained his mobility. Sitting on the ground, he panted profusely and was unable to utter a word for half a day.
Shangguan Ru looked at her own finger, “You said the Finger of Immobilisation wouldn’t harm people, but you…”
Old Man Mu regained some color on his complexion, so he smiled wryly and said, “Good girl, I mean, you attacked me when I was caught off guard just now! I wasn’t able to channel my Qi in time and my acupoints were blocked, of course, I would suffocate! Wait till I’m ready then you can strike again, it will just be immobilization of the body with no other harm.”
“Then get ready.”
“Right now?”
“I only tried it once, and there are still many things that I don’t understand.”
Old Man Mu rubbed his belly and said, “Let’s eat first, shall we? The Finger of Immobilisation cannot possibly keep us full, right? I will be so uncomfortable if I am immobilized with an empty stomach.”
“Alright.”
Now that they had reached a consensus, the old and young looked at each other, not understanding why the other continued to stand still.
“Why aren’t you cooking?” The two of them asked at the same time.
“I don’t know how.” Both answered in unison.
Old Man Mu had been the devil who reigned across the regions and had always dismissed trivial matters such as cooking.
On the other hand, as the Tenth Young Master of the Golden Roc Fort, Shangguan Ru had led a life of luxury and privilege and was used to being waited upon. In her imagination, the extremely arduous jianghu life did not include finding food for herself.
“It’s very simple. Just hunt a bird, kill it, pluck its feathers and remove the internal organs, then roast it over the fire.” Old Man Mu replied. After all, he had more jianghu experience and vaguely knew what the process was like.
Just the thought of it made Shangguan Ru sick, so she said, “I will try to catch something, you do the rest.”
“I am already so old, and I’m so small in size, plus my Internal Strength is so weak…”
Old Man Mu gave several excuses but Shangguan Ru was not buying it. “There are many people who don’t know Kung Fu, but they can still cook very well.”
Old Man Mu was so hungry that he could only agree. Over and over again, he told himself to bear with it. In less than a month, he would be the master of the world again once his Kung Fu was restored.
Shangguan Ru went hunting for food and Old Man Mu stayed behind to collect firewood to start a fire.
Starting a fire was a dangerous move since Maid Lotus might be somewhere nearby, but Old Man Mu could not care less about it. Just the thought of eating the greasy roast meat was enough for him to risk his life.
He tried to comfort himself with thoughts like these: The swamp was big and perhaps the lunatic had lost her way trying to track them down. So he daringly lit up a small fire and waited for Shangguan Ru to return.
Shangguan Ru returned with two quails smaller than the size of a palm. Old Man Mu looked at her, dumbfounded, and said, “This, this is not even enough for me to fill up my belly.”
“One each.” Shangguan Ru did not bother explaining and threw her catch to Old Man Mu. Then she walked to a far end and continued to figure out the two new Kung Fu she had just learned.
Shangguan Ru had tried out the Lightness Skills, Subtle Shadow Lightness Skills and gained many insights when she was catching the birds. It was a Kung Fu that went well with the Finger of Immobilisation and she felt that it suited her so well, she did not even want to use the wooden saber.
Here she was, putting her heart and mind into practicing the Kung Fu and soon forgot about her hunger. Old Man Mu, on the other hand, was miserable. He had never once imagined that cleaning up two dead quails were even harder than killing people.
He took an hour to clean up the quails and hurriedly roast them above the fire. Seeing as the quails looked even smaller after removing and trimming away its feathers, he harbored thoughts of devouring the birds by himself. But after thinking it through, he realized that he would still need to rely on Shangguan Ru to hunt for food, so he reluctantly called out, “Good girl, come and taste the old man’s cooking.”
Old Man Mu was too impatient and his method of cooking was wrong as well, the two quails looked cooked on the surface but the meat was still very much raw on the inside. He ate a mouthful and red blood oozed from his mouth.
Seeing this, Shangguan Ru lost her appetite suddenly and said, “You can have it all, I can still endure the hunger.”
Old Man Mu was a straightforward person and did not wish to lose his food by being polite, so he happily nodded his head and devoured the two half-cooked roast quails in a few mouthfuls.
“It doesn’t taste as good as human flesh.” Old Man Mu laid on his back, his burning hunger not quite satiated so he used his imagination to suppress it.
“You ate humans before?” Shangguan Ru asked in surprise.
“Hehe, I was just lying to you. There are so many delicious foods around in the world, why would I eat human flesh? But in some wild areas, there really are tribes who consume human flesh. They have a lot of ways when it comes to eating them…”
“No, I won’t listen, I won’t, you better stop talking.” Shangguan Ru hurriedly curbed Old Man Mu’s enthusiasm.
“The Supreme King is quite the man. He is the only person whom I respect and fear. How did he give birth to a daughter like you? Frankly speaking, are you…”
Shangguan Ru’s facial expression turned cold, “Am I what?”
“Are you sleepy?” Old Man Mu changed his question in the nick of time. But he was also curious, if the Supreme King was able to poison his own children, perhaps it was because they were not his own blood.
Women. Not even the Supreme King could control his own woman, thank goodness his heart belonged to no one, Old Man Mu sighed ruefully. It was better to snatch from others than to take care of your own women . The more he thought about this, the more reasonable it seemed, therefore his desire to restore his Kung Fu as soon as possible grew more urgent than ever.
The jianghu experience for these two people was vastly different; one was lacking in it and the other did not care much for it. So they continued to keep the fire lighted as they slept.
Old Man Mu knew what to expect, so he had a good dream. Countless beauties surrounded him with all kinds of delicacies in their hands. He ate nonstop but his hunger was never satisfied. In the end, even the beautiful women turned into huge portions of chicken, duck, and fish.
He realized that his hunger was still there when he woke up. White smoke rose up into the hazy night, even the fire next to him had extinguished.
Through the white smoke, he saw a distant woman floating towards him like an illusion. The woman was somewhat similar to the beautiful women he had dreamed of, but instead of the mouthwatering delicacies, in her hands was a sharp sword.
“Hey.” Old Man Mu shouted to the tent. “Good girl, someone is here to offer us human flesh.”