I Might As Well Quit This Lousy Wizard Profession

Chapter 50 - 50 050 Witch-hunting Knights Training Steps

?Chapter 50: 050 Witch-hunting Knight’s Training Steps Chapter 50: 050 Witch-hunting Knight’s Training Steps “Subduing the Heart Demon, our Antler Knight Brigade in Shenhou City follows the path of the Lu Jiao,” Professor Cao casually picked up the stethoscope from the table and knocked on his own antlers, producing a sound of metallic clashing.

He put down the stethoscope and shook his neck, causing the antlers, which were even wider than his shoulders, to shrink back.

“No matter what your Heart Demon is or what desires you have, subdue them all into the form of antlers!”

“The practice of cultivating Lu Jiao originated from the Deer Play in ‘The Eight Animal Plays,’ which is also the foundation that knight apprentices must master. Once you have thoroughly mastered the framework and Breathing Skill of the Deer Play, you can move on to the next step.”

“We call this the ‘Furnace.’ Since Heaven and the Spirit Realm are no longer reliable, we abandon Heaven. We don’t need the Heaven and Earth Furnace anymore. We build the Furnace within our own bodies, refining our hearts and the essence of our bloodlines.”

“What should it be refined into?”

Professor Cao narrated slowly, “Deer Play, everything starts with our foundation. The deer, agile, elegant, noble, friendly, wealthy, powerful…”

“The Furnace of the Deer Play will condense and discipline everything into antlers, becoming the source of our strength.”

“Remember that!”

“Learn the Deer Play, and you are a standard knight apprentice. Cultivate the Furnace, and you’re qualified to become a Witch-hunting Knight. With the Furnace, condense the antlers, and you will be a Witch-hunting Knight.”

Professor Cao’s thick fingers tapped vigorously on the desktop, “I think I’ve been very clear and concise in explaining each step to you. Every step here is full of intricate details, linked to each other in a chain.”

“I know you are very talented, but I don’t want you groping in the dark on your own anymore. It’s fine to practice the Spirit Cat Spinal Stretching Technique, but don’t dabble with anything else. If you practice wrongly, I’ll have to correct you all over again, and I simply don’t have that much energy anymore.”

“Understand?”

Lin An nodded obediently, his eyes filled with eager anticipation as he looked at Professor Cao, “Then when do we start learning?”

Professor Cao was silent for a moment, then pointed to the jars behind him, “Because of the last operation, Mr. Zhang said it will take another month.”

Ah, this…

Another month?

“What? You can’t even wait a month?” Professor Cao teased, waving his hand, “Those books I gave you, you might not even be able to read them thoroughly in one month!”

You’re kind of looking down on me, huh.

With the aid of my spiritual nature, I can memorize several books in a day, even grasp the meanings within!

But that can’t be said.

Lin An just nodded obediently, “Okay.”

Seeing that Professor Cao was about to send him away after finishing his talk, Lin An thought quickly and hurriedly said, “Professor, I’ve actually been really fond of ancient martial arts since I was little, and my favorite weapon is the whip. Can I self-study that?”

“The whip?” Professor Cao was taken aback for a moment and frowned, “The whip is powerful, but it’s the hardest to control among all weapons. Don’t casually swing it in daily life; an accidental hit could cause serious injury.”

“Generally, we in the Antler Knight Brigade wouldn’t recommend beginners to start with the whip.”

A trace of disappointment appeared on Lin An’s face, as if he really did have a special fondness for the whip, “I won’t carry a whip with me when I go out.”

After thinking for a moment, Professor Cao nodded, “The Antler Witch-Hunting Knight Order has a technique called ‘Thirteen Roping Skills.’ If you’re interested, I’ll ask Mr. Zhang to give you a USB stick later, but remember not to leak it online.”

As he said this, he emphasized again, “Martial arts are just the minor details, Deer Play is the foundation, don’t confuse them!”

Lin An nodded obediently, but he asked with some confusion, “USB stick?”

“Nonsense. If the video isn’t stored on a USB stick, how else should I save it for you to watch? Does your home have an old-fashioned VCR or something?”

“Uh… actually, no.”

Show off~
Videos? USB sticks?

The Witch Hunter Knights really do keep up with the times.

As Lin An looked at the imposing figure of Professor Cao, who stood at an impressive two meters and thirty centimeters, and remembered the man’s oversized motorcycle and heavy armor, he couldn’t help but momentarily forget that the man was a retired professor from a top academic institution.

Professor Cao’s teachings couldn’t last too long; he hadn’t said much before Doctor Zhang was already standing at the door looking at them. Seeing that their conversation was nearly done, he hurriedly urged, “Rest, you need rest! A month after month, you’re driving me as crazy as yourself. You old coot, because of taking care of you, I don’t even have time for mahjong anymore.”

Lin An quickly stood up to leave.

Professor Cao waved his hand and gave a nod to Doctor Zhang, then closed his eyes and placed his hands on his legs. Even sitting on a cracked pink plastic chair, this huge man still exuded the aura of a solid tower.

After Lin An went out, Doctor Zhang fiddled around in the back room for a while and came out with a USB stick, instructing carefully, “The Spirit Cat Spinal Stretching Technique is for health preservation; you can freely teach it to others, the more people learn it, the better. It’s an act of immeasurable merit.”

“But the ‘Thirteen Roping Skills’ are techniques of warfare, and you absolutely must not spread them! Moreover, this is an internal skill of the Antler Witch-Hunting Knight Order, we don’t want other Witch-hunting Knights analyzing and devising countermeasures.”

Lin An assured earnestly.

But Doctor Zhang still looked a bit apprehensive, “It’s best to buy a new computer, install a new operating system, don’t connect to the internet, delete the video right after watching, and reinstall the system on the computer again. I’m telling you, hackers these days…”

“Hahaha…” The young boss laughed, slinging an arm around Lin An’s shoulder and looking at Doctor Zhang, “An is a hacker!”

“Cool!” Doctor Zhang was stunned for a moment, then raised his hand and made a ‘6’ gesture, exclaiming in admiration.

Lin An tugged at the corner of his mouth, “Boss, don’t talk nonsense, I’m just an ordinary programmer, not every programmer is a hacker.”

But the young boss just chuckled, “Don’t think I haven’t seen your HR file, your strongest skill is network technology, and your career plan was in the field of algorithms. Are you telling me you don’t know this?”

“I am a law-abiding citizen!” Lin An said with all seriousness.

Instantly, everyone shared an unspoken joy, and laughter filled the air for a while.

But this was actually no joke.

Working folks had their own circles, where they shared what they had; there was a consensus among colleagues, which was to avoid getting involved with the company’s hacking business, otherwise you’d be the one to suffer in the end.

The young boss gave Lin An a ride back to the residential area again.

“You should buy a car too, it’s much more convenient,” he suggested casually before hurrying off again in his car.

After all, he had a company to run and couldn’t afford to spend too much time at Professor Cao’s villa. Now he was rushing to meet with the renovation company to go over design plans, then straight off to his company.

Lin An had the day off and therefore had more time to himself.

Once he got home, he couldn’t wait to start watching the videos.

The blood of the Dark Gold Statue from Chen Xinmi and the leech secretion from Zhou Xiaoxiao were both nearly used up, leaving only a small blob remaining. The blood of the Dark Gold Statue from Chen Shuyun was replenished deep within him, rippling through some profound place.

However, Lin An didn’t use Chen Shuyun’s dark gold spiritual energy.

When he was alone at home, he had a better option: he sat in front of the computer hugging that ugly head and started watching seriously.

Thirteen Roping Skills, the unique art of the Antler Witch-Hunting Knight Order.

The video featured a tanned, lean middle-aged man clad in standard loose silk martial arts attire, standing perfectly straight and speaking loudly.

“Thirteen Roping Skills originated as monkey-tricking stunts used by street performers. Over time, it assimilated a great number of whip techniques from various sects, further refined by the combat experience of the Witch Hunter Knights, eventually resulting in these thirteen techniques for using whips, ropes, and other flexible weapons.”

“The thirteen skills are as follows: Continuous, Twining, Wrapping, Snapping…”

“Now, let me give a brief demonstration.”

This all started off quite ordinary, akin to a martial arts tutorial video produced by the Empire’s sports department, but Lin An was soon completely astounded.

The lean and tanned middle-aged man walked over to a weapons rack and picked up a ring-pommel saber, then threaded a 5-meter steel rope through the iron ring on the saber’s handle and tied it securely. Taking hold of the other end of the steel rope, he started swinging it.

A flash of silver, and the ring-pommel saber spun through the air, darting left and right, the heavy blade fluttering around the middle-aged man like a nimble butterfly.

“Damn, is this sword control technique?” Lin An couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement, watching the video in disbelief.

But obviously, this was just the beginning.

The middle-aged man picked up another steel rope tied to a ring-pommel saber, and suddenly, there were two large sabers dancing in the air.

The events in the video became more and more absurd. The man began to wear a simple set of leather armor with many buttons, each fastened with a steel rope using a slipknot.

Then, Lin An felt as though he was witnessing a terrifying tentacle monster, each tentacle grasping a sharp saber.

The sabers crashed forward wave after wave, like the sea.

The crux of these saber attacks was not that they were straightforward frontal assaults; sometimes they would even circle to the back, some plunging abruptly from the sky, some skimming the ground before sweeping upwards violently.

With the saber lights fleeting and flickering, it looked like a fearsome meat grinder!

The middle-aged man twisted his body amidst the myriad saber lights as if dancing, with more than a dozen sabers whirling around him.

“The first of the Thirteen Roping Skills, Continuous, means an unending flow. The more ropes we use, the more it signifies our strong control over our bodies.”

“The rope is an extension of every bit of our body’s force.”

“At the same time, due to the delay of the rope’s movement, we need to anticipate our next attack, the coordination of multiple ropes requires a good understanding of tactics, strategy, and rhythm.”

Lin An watched this video called ‘Introduction’ with almost a dumbfounded state of mind.

Besides this video in the USB drive, there were a total of 13 folders; Lin An opened the one at the forefront named ‘Thirteen Roping Skills: Continuous,’ and instantly numerous files appeared before him.

Even the scrollbar on the right side of the folder window had shrunk to a tiny fraction, filled with thousands of files.

What was more outrageous was that many of the files were actually folders, which upon being clicked revealed a dense array of more videos.

And some of these files were even e-books, each with a size of 7 or 8 MB.

“Muscles, Bones, Flesh, and Skin: The Dissection Studies of the Human Body”
“Theory of Offense and Defense, Advance and Retreat”
“Essentials for the Utilization of Multiple Ropes ‘Continuous’ in Constrained Spaces”
…

“Good lord…”

Lin An swallowed hard, was this the true depth of the Witch Hunter Knights?

He thought Doctor Zhang had copied a simple tutorial video for him, but this was completely off the charts!

Was this something meant to be learned in a lifetime?