Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1548 1520. Master [Zanxin]

"【Zanshin】. This is the foundation of all martial arts."

Tsukahara Bokuden first frowned and sorted out his thoughts before speaking to Lan En.

Obviously, this experience of explaining martial arts from the very bottom was also unfamiliar to him.

After all, even for the most mediocre samurai disciples, these are things that are only taught during their enlightenment stage.

"As long as you are a martial artist, there is no reason why you don't know this skill. At least in the Japanese archipelago."

"Based on [Zanshin], we will switch stances, recover physical strength, prepare martial arts, etc."

"Whether it's a sword, a double sword, an Odachi, or a rare and unique weapon like the naginata sickle, each school has its own martial arts skills, but the foundation of weapon techniques is still [Zanshin]."

"It can be said that if there is no [Zanshin], then the samurai will not be able to fight against monsters and demons, and this world will not be a world for humans."

"As for [Zanshin], it is to use a specific posture and breathing to allow the physical strength that has been consumed to resonate with the life energy and return most of it."

"In each school, performing Zanshin with different stances will have different additional effects besides the return of physical strength. For example, the most powerful stance, Daijodan, will increase your strength in the blink of an eye."

"The most flexible [lower section] stance will make your steps so light that you won't even feel the effort when you dodge."

"And on this basis, allowing the performance of [Zanshin] to be free from the restrictions of stance and to operate smoothly even in an evasive posture is called [Liushui]."

"And if during the resonance of life energy, the [Eternal World] happens to be purified through resonance, then this resonance will become even more vigorous because of the removal of the power of the underworld, and will give additional feedback to the warrior with a short-term benefit."

"Although I don't know exactly what skills you have mastered, Lord Lan En, but if we only talk about [Zanxin] and its development, our system is already very complete."

Lan nodded in agreement.

If we only talk about the precise control of physical strength, this world's martial arts system is undoubtedly the pinnacle that Lan En has ever seen.

They used their martial arts to fight against monsters and ghosts, which carried the filthy power of the underworld, and exerted their physical strength to the fullest.

Physical strength is not only the basis for performing actions and martial arts, but can also resonate with vitality during the recovery process to produce more additional effects.

And these skills are what Lan En is very interested in the martial arts techniques of this world.

"So, I have almost figured out your teaching principles." Tsukahara Bokuden nodded, as if to confirm his own thoughts, "Those precious secret martial arts techniques of various schools on the market are probably not as important to you as the basic [Zanshin]."

"If you have learned these basics and have enough energy left after further study, I can certainly teach you my Tenshin Shinden Katori Shinto-ryu."

Lan En had no objection to the arrangement made by this terrifyingly experienced old warrior.

"In other words, the learning speed and amount of content depend mainly on my own learning ability and energy, right?"

Lan En smiled harmlessly and stroked the blade of the wooden sword in his hand, making a sound of friction between his palm and the wood.

"Oh, then I feel a little relieved."

"Rest assured?" Tsukahara Bokuden showed a malicious smile, "If you are someone who really wants to learn skills, you won't feel what 'rest assured' means every day you work under me, Lord Lan En!"

Lan's smile was not affected by the old warrior's malicious smile at all: "That's great, Lord Tsukahara. To be honest, I might want to learn a little more than you planned. So I would tend to catch up on the progress and make some improvements while I'm learning."

"What?" Tsukahara Bokuden's malicious smile froze on his face.

"That's right." Lan En completely ignored his frozen expression and waved the large wooden sword in his hand, making a sharp sound of breaking through the air even though the blade was not sharpened.

The cat eyes looked at the old man subtly and calmly: "If you want to teach students in accordance with their aptitude, do you really not need to spar with me to see my level?"

The stiffness on Tsukahara Bokuden's face slowly disappeared under Lan En's cat eyes, becoming as calm and subtle as he was.

"Hey~" He lowered his head and let out a long sigh, "I didn't expect that you are actually a Sword Ghost obsessed with sword fighting?"

But when he raised his head again, a fierce aura filled the entire dojo in an instant!

Even the hatamoto warriors who were already far away in the courtyard suddenly felt a chill on the back of their necks and subconsciously reached out to cover and touch them.

At this time, Tsukahara Bokuden's face was also raised straight up, facing Lan En.

There was a dangerous and unsatisfied smile on that old face.

"But if I fight you with this old body, neither of us will feel good, right? How about we make a deal?"

"Agreement?" Lan En showed great interest in this.

"After I die." The old Sword Saint spoke of the matter of life and death without reservation, even with an implicit expectation, "Although I am not lucky enough to be blessed by the guardian spirit and keep my soul pure in the underworld."

"But if we rely solely on obsession, we may be able to stay on the edge of hell for a while without passing away. And when that happens, why don't you use the Yin-Yang technique and the protection of the guardian spirit to go to hell, and then we can kill each other to our heart's content! How do you think?"

Invite people to go to hell together and fight each other.

This would be considered a curse anywhere.

But Lan En laughed out loud after hearing this "curse". "Ha, you say others are Sword Ghosts, aren't you the same old guy?"

Lan En nonchalantly pointed his finger at his neck and made a knife-like cut with a smile.

"Are you thinking of chopping it down right now?"
-
The next morning, the dojo of the castle tower was bathed in the gray morning light of the hour of Mao. The small pond in the courtyard was filled with the sound of flowing water, and the frightened deer filled with water tilted down, making a "dong" sound, and then returned to its original position, regular and empty.

Tsukahara Bokuden was still the same, standing on the lecturer's podium in the dojo with his hand on the wooden sword, looking with scrutiny at the tall and majestic figure on the shiny wooden floor below the stage.

But what surprised him was that no matter how discerning his vision was, he really couldn't find any fault with the man in front of him from a single technical level!

"Bah!"

A sharp sound so sharp that it made people's hair stand on end suddenly exploded!

Lan En was wearing a casual uniform, which was a kendo uniform hastily made by the maids in the castle tower.

He was so big that before this, he had actually been wearing clothes that he had brought with him.

I happened to have some business and a meeting today, so I changed into a set of clothes with local characteristics.

Lan En is already familiar with the theory of where and how to integrate into the social environment more easily.

Just like when he attended Pericles' banquet in Athens in ancient Greece, he would change into a toga. This is a useful method.

The wooden Odachi is structurally fragile because of its length.

And in Lan's hands, which could easily crush rocks, it looked even more fragile.

However, through the control of strength and terrifyingly sophisticated techniques, this wooden sword used for practice can now not only cut through ordinary armor with wood, but also maintain its structural integrity.

Lan En's swordsmanship skills almost made Tsukahara Bokuden intoxicated.

I wish I could put my skin and muscles under the blade to feel this "beauty".

But what made him more awake now was...
"Hoo~breath~"

A quick but rhythmic breath blended with the sound of Lan En's sword breaking through the air before it dissipated.

Except for Tsukahara Bokuden who was specifically looking for this sound, ordinary people would definitely not be able to hear it or find it.

【Zanshin】!
Swinging the sword once did not consume much physical strength for Lan En.

But there is a difference between swinging the sword and swinging it again.

Lan En's hand can swing out with a knife to kill the materialized Moon Goddess, and he can also swing out with a knife to just cut off a pig leg for barbecue. The physical strength consumed by these two knives is obviously not at the same level.

But what surprised Lan En the most about the [Zanshin] technique was that it proportionally restored the physical strength consumed in the previous moment!

In just a moment, a unique feeling emerged from deep within the body.

Lan En was aware of the "afterimage" of his physical strength consumed by the previous slash with an extremely clear sense, and then he began to control the extremely strong vitality of this body according to the technique of [Zanshin], resonating with the "afterimage".

In just a moment, the abundant physical strength from the vitality deep in the body filled the 'afterimage' just now!
This is not an illusion, nor is it power gained by exploiting and destroying the body.

On the contrary, this power is full of vitality! Even if it is used to suppress the filth of the underworld, there is no problem!
[Zanxin] has been mastered, which is equivalent to Lan En having mastered the underlying foundation for the development of prosperous martial arts in this world!
All the remaining fruits of martial arts will be picked by him naturally and according to the map!

And Tsukahara Bokuden also felt his scalp tingling because of the scene before him!
He supported his wooden sword with one hand and held a strip of meat with the other to feed the sparrowhawk on his shoulder.

But Tsukahara Bokuden didn't react until the strip of meat was eaten and the well-trained sparrowhawk began to peck his fingers gently with its beak.

Really, when Lan En said yesterday that he was a little confident in his "learning ability and energy", Tsukahara Bokuden didn't care much.

What a genius.

He has seen a lot. Isn’t Kamiizumi Nobunaga also a genius?
Although Tsukahara Bokuden could see that Lan En's approach was different from his, by analogy, his achievements in kendo were probably higher than his own.

But the higher the achievement, the deeper the work in that unfamiliar path. It will become an obstacle to absorbing and learning new technologies.

As the saying goes, one can draw inferences from one instance by analogy, but Lan En's martial arts are not even based on the same foundation as theirs, so how can he draw inferences?

But early in the morning of the second day of teaching, he saw with his own eyes the skills that he had taught him just yesterday.

This guy got started today!

The movements are perfect and the timing is perfect!
Apart from the fact that he had not experienced the changing environment and enemy interference of a real battlefield, he could not raise any more questions.

This is a perfect [Zanshin]!
At this moment, a chaotic sound of footsteps could be heard faintly outside the dojo.

The sound of footsteps approaching from afar woke up Tsukahara Bokuden.

(End of this chapter)