I know this little trick, but when I was truly faced with a pile of rough red bricks, I still didn't dare to start. Firstly, I was afraid the rough surface of the bricks would cut my hands, and secondly, I worried that if I used too much force, my hand bones would fracture.
"Actually, brick-breaking tests a person's courage. For a martial artist, courage is more important than skill," Chu Qi said. "Don't you also know how to read qi? When you see someone whose qi is much higher than yours, do you dare to fight them? This is essentially courage. A person's martial power can fluctuate, rising and falling with their courage. Sometimes, being too cautious can significantly lower your fighting ability."
"It sounds plausible, but if you asked me to challenge a super expert of the Purple Qi realm like Long Yue, where would I find the guts? That would be suicide!" I retorted, rolling my eyes. Wasn't this being too cautious?
"If you have enough courage, I'll teach you some combat techniques. You might not be at a disadvantage against Long Yue," Chu Qi said confidently. She then glanced at Yao Yao in the passenger seat, "Of course, if the enemy attacks with magic right from the start, then there's nothing we can do."
I remained noncommittal. Coincidentally, we passed by a construction site that was unguarded. The blue sheet metal fence seemed to have been broken by a shepherd, and we could see piles of bricks inside. I stopped at the breach and smiled back at Chu Qi, "If you can make me break a brick without using internal energy or cheating, I'll believe your theory."
"One brick?" Chu Qi pursed her lips. "Even women can easily break one brick, you know."
"...Then how many do I need to break to pass?"
"At least five. Come on, let's get out, I'll teach you."
The three of us got out of the car, entered the construction site through the breach, and approached a pile of red bricks. Nearby, there were also some stacked long stones that could serve as a chopping block for breaking bricks. The height was just right, so we wouldn't have to squat down to break them. For masters of their level, making them squat down to break bricks would be somewhat incongruous.
"Yao Yao, how about you demonstrate first?" Chu Qi suggested.
Yao Yao pouted. "If I wanted to, I could break this whole pile of bricks with one palm strike."
She truly possessed that ability. She could dismantle a whole temple, let alone a pile of loosely stacked bricks.
"No magic, no internal energy, just pure physical strength," Chu Qi instructed.
It seemed there was a difference between internal energy and brute strength. I only had a vague understanding of this, not a very deep one.
"Alright then, I'll give it a try." Yao Yao picked up a brick and placed it on the stone block. She held it with her left hand, took a deep breath, raised her right hand, then thought for a moment. She extended her sleeve to cover her palm, took another deep breath, and chopped down at the brick.
The result, however, astonished me!
She was the top expert of the first tier! She couldn't even break a single brick? Not only that, she yelped in pain and kept shaking her hand!
"Are you faking it?" I asked with a frown.
"No way! Look at my hand!" Yao Yao extended her right hand. The edge of her palm was red and had a slight scrape from the rough surface of the brick.
"Actually," Chu Qi said with a smile, "Yao Yao could break this brick with her physical strength alone, without using internal energy. The reason she failed was a lack of courage. She was afraid of not breaking it and hurting her hand. The result was that she really couldn't break it, and her hand got hurt. If she had been resolute, believing the brick would break with one strike, her hand wouldn't have hurt or been injured. Like this—"
With that, Chu Qi raised her hand and lightly chopped at the edge of the brick. With a crisp sound, half the brick broke off and fell to the ground.
After breaking the brick, Chu Qi extended her hand to show me. I blew away the brick dust from her hand. Her skin was indeed undamaged, with no signs of redness or swelling.
I mused, "As long as there's enough force, the brick breaks and the hand remains unharmed. If the force is insufficient, the brick doesn't break, and the force rebounds, injuring the hand."
This seemed to be related to physics – the law of action and reaction. However, when applied to breaking bricks, it became somewhat complex, not easily represented by physics equations or diagrams. But I understood the basic principle, the relationship between force, inertia, speed, and kinetic energy.