"Boss! Boss, here."
In the dead of night, Mani suddenly snuck into Bellamy's room, holding up a book with both hands.
"For me? What is it?" Bellamy was baffled. What kind of trouble was this little brat stirring up now?
Taking the manual, he flipped through a few pages, and understanding instantly dawned.
So, the Fierce Tiger Dojo's legacy was a complete system.
He had only obtained the body conditioning part, but he'd been missing this component—the Savage Tiger Stance. No wonder his training had always felt slightly… off.
This crafty little brat certainly had a lot going on upstairs.
The Spring-Spring Fruit's abilities meshed extremely well with fist-based martial arts. He wouldn't mind learning several established fist styles like this one. Besides, his foundation was already solid after extended periods of high-intensity training; picking up this Savage Tiger Stance would be easy.
"Kid, how many other things have you been hiding from me?"
"Absolutely nothing else, Boss!" Mani had snapped ramrod straight the moment she entered the room, looking extremely tense. Hearing Bellamy's question, she quickly responded loudly.
"Is that so? Good."
Bellamy didn't dwell on such trivial matters. This fist style was an unexpected bonus, but hardly something worth making a fuss over.
"Alright, go get some rest."
After shooing the kid away, Bellamy lit an oil lamp and sat on his bed, rapidly flipping through the manual. It totaled just over twenty pages. He gave it a quick first pass.
Bellamy realized he might have underestimated this fallen dojo.
By the dim lamplight, he turned back to the first page of the Savage Tiger Stance and began a second, more careful reading.
Depicted on this page was a practitioner who looked neither fully human nor fully tiger. The image reminded Bellamy somewhat of the Mink Tribe from this world. The artist seemed intent on conveying an aura of primitive savagery; the entire illustration had a dark, almost sinister tone. Stare at it long enough, and one could almost feel the ferocious tiger within the drawing about to pounce.
After carefully studying the first form, Bellamy felt something wasn't quite right.
He stood up, mimicking the posture in the drawing, crouching low to the ground in the "Savage Tiger Descends the Mountain" stance. He focused his mind on the image of the fierce tiger, and slowly, his body began to resonate with it.
In a trance-like state, Bellamy seemed to hear a deeply suppressed roar echoing from the depths of his soul.
A surge of frenzied, primal impulse suddenly erupted from within his mind.
Instantly, Bellamy's eyes were stained crimson.
"ROAR!" A bestial snarl ripped from his throat.
Awakening his inner beast so easily was largely related to Bellamy's own fierce and violent temperament. However, Bellamy wasn't inherently bloodthirsty. Even if a large crowd stood before him now, he wouldn't slaughter them simply for the sake of killing.
If I can't even control mere bestial instincts, how am I any different from an animal?
His pride as a human being allowed him to forcibly suppress the burgeoning frenzy within.
Before long, Bellamy gradually regained his composure.
No wonder it's called the Savage Tiger Stance. It really is savage.
Logically, such a potent, almost wicked fist style shouldn't be so obscure. Yet he'd never heard of any famous martial artists from the North Blue. Not just the North Blue—there were hardly any renowned fist fighters across the entire Four Blues.
Tossing the manual into a drawer, Bellamy decided to pause his study for now. He'd ask Mani for more details tomorrow.
The next morning, Bellamy singled out Mani while she was eating breakfast in the galley and pulled her into a corner.
"Kid, this fist style from your family… has anyone actually ever mastered it?"
What does he mean by that? Hearing Bellamy's question, Mani immediately bristled. This was her family's true legacy, an old treasure.
"Of course, someone mastered it! Otherwise, how would it have been passed down?"
"If you don't want it, give it back!" She assumed Bellamy looked down on the technique.
Seeing her reaction, Bellamy understood immediately. It seemed she didn't really know the full situation either. Looking at it this way, including her, at least three generations of her family likely hadn't mastered the Savage Tiger Stance. The dojo's decline was probably related to this.
Since he couldn't get any more information out of her, Bellamy didn't keep her any longer.
He could practice this fist style. And he was absolutely certain he could master it. Mere primal savagery and killing intent weren't enough to make him back down.
"Alright, go back and eat."
He gave her head a firm pat, deciding not to tell her about the technique's sinister nature.
A kid like Mani wasn't suited for these seas. She had a bit of low cunning, but she was too soft. If she went out to sea, she'd die quickly. Staying an ordinary civilian, living a peaceful life—that was good enough for her.
Mani couldn't quite figure Bellamy out. He pulled her aside just to ask one strange question. She thought about it carefully but didn't dare ask further. Though she acted somewhat boldly in front of Bellamy, deep down, Mani knew better than anyone that he simply didn't regard her at all.
Like an elephant ignoring an ant's provocations, Bellamy's attitude towards her was the same.
Although she felt indignant about it, she had no intention of trying to change things. Being disregarded meant not being kept in mind.
That made her safer.
Pure ostrich logic—and precisely the main reason Bellamy looked down on her.
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