Do wuxia martial artists get "rusty" without practice?

[Ken Cheng]

In wuxia stories, it's not unusual for characters to find themselves in seclusion for long, long periods of time. During this time, they certainly don't get into fights. Some use this time to train in the martial arts and thus improve their skills; others avoid martial arts altogether during seclusion. If a wuxia martial artist does not fight or practice for many years, however, does he/she become "rusty", or do the skills remain intact despite lack of use/exercise?

[rabadi]

Well, one thing is for sure, my memory is getting rusty So, please remind me, did XLN mention she did not practice at all during those 16 years in the No-Love Valley? If so, then no, I don't think she became "rusty" afterwards.

(Note to self: I really need to go back to my hometown to retrieve all those wuxia novels sometime in the future)

[Guo Xiang]

Originally posted by rabadi
Well, one thing is for sure, my memory is getting rusty So, please remind me, did XLN mention she did not practice at all during those 16 years in the No-Love Valley? If so, then no, I don't think she became "rusty" afterwards.

(Note to self: I really need to go back to my hometown to retrieve all those wuxia novels sometime in the future)

Well, not really. She just went back to being what was used to be her life in the Ancient Tomb and so she mediates on her sect's 'xinfa' or something. @.@;

[Mojo Jojo]

The skills probably remain intact, but the effect is as if the character regresses, because all his contemporaries are improving in the meantime. ZCS spent 10 years on the island but when he returned, all his other Wudang brothers improved immensely during that time period while his skills remained as of 10 years ago. So relatively speaking, it's as if he lost ground.

[Laviathan]

Originally posted by rabadi
So, please remind me, did XLN mention she did not practice at all during those 16 years in the No-Love Valley? If so, then no, I don't think she became "rusty" afterwards.

It was said by Dragon Girl that she did not make any improvements during those 16 years. It was never stated that she did not train. She just merely remained at the level of 16 years before (more or less), which was already very good.

[SkineePanda]

Originally posted by Laviathan
It was said by Dragon Girl that she did not make any improvements during those 16 years. It was never stated that she did not train. She just merely remained at the level of 16 years before (more or less), which was already very good.

she's such a under-achiever.

[Laviathan]

Originally posted by SkineePanda
she's such a under-achiever.

Yeah rite...

She was ill and poisoned, and it took 10 years for her to heal. Give the girl some slag...

[rabadi]

Even if she did not improve at all, it still shows that she did not become rusty. That's quite good.

[JigSta]

Originally posted by Laviathan
Yeah rite...

She was ill and poisoned, and it took 10 years for her to heal. Give the girl some slag...

Did you mean 'cut the girl some slack"?

[Laviathan]

Originally posted by JigSta
Did you mean 'cut the girl some slack"?

Yeah rite, that's what I was trying to say. Thanks.

My American slang is not very good...

[Ardor]

Originally posted by Laviathan
Yeah rite...

She was ill and poisoned, and it took 10 years for her to heal. Give the girl some slag...

Isn't YG in an almost the same maybe a lil worse condition than her?

[stt76]

Originally posted by Ardor
Isn't YG in an almost the same maybe a lil worse condition than her?

Not even close. Yang Guo was only suffering from the passion flower poison, for which a cure was already found. Admittedly the cure was supposed to be somewhat rough on his intestines, but if I recall correctly he was fine within six months of Xiao Long Nu's dissapearance.

Xiao Long Nu on the other hand literally sucked Li mo chou's poison into her internal organs (or something like that do not know quite how to translate that) as a result of being attacked while utilising reverse chi to cure her previous internal damage. With the death of Yi Deng's martial brother, and with Yi Deng unable to use Yi Yang Zhi, there was no known cure for her condition. As far as I can make out, she was not even expected to last a week.

[qiaofeng]

i may be wrong, but didnt gu gu create shang xin duan chang jian (sorrowful broken intestine sword stance ) when she was stuck in jue qin valley during the 18 years ?

[Ken Cheng]

Originally posted by qiaofeng
i may be wrong, but didnt gu gu create shang xin duan chang jian (sorrowful broken intestine sword stance ) when she was stuck in jue qin valley during the 18 years ?

That was a creation of HKTVB for ROCH '83. Little Dragon Girl invented no martial arts during her sixteen years at the bottom of Passionless Valley.

[superboy]

Makes me wonder who love who more. YG was in depression for 16 years waiting for XLN and even invented the Sad Palms because of her. But she didn't really do much...

[Ken Cheng]

Originally posted by superboy
Makes me wonder who love who more. YG was in depression for 16 years waiting for XLN and even invented the Sad Palms because of her. But she didn't really do much...

It took about eight to ten years for Little Dragon Girl to fully recover from her injury. After she recovered, she didn't have much hope of ever getting out of the valley floor (although she tried by stitching messages onto those bees, which eventually paid off, of course), so practicing/inventing martial arts would have been pretty futile.