Li Changqing's body suddenly swayed. He braced both hands against the table as a powerful wave of dizziness crashed over him.
Drowsiness surged in like a rising tide.
The vitality flowing through his body continuously nourished his mind through his flesh, but that tiny bit of recovery was utterly a drop in the bucket compared to what he had just expended.
This was, after all, something personally written by a High-Rank Martial Artist, meant for Mid-Rank Martial Artists to visualize, temper their wills, and refine their Artistic Conception.
If Li Changqing had not gained a few points of willpower enhancement when he broke through his limits earlier, he would never have withstood the mental impact of this painting.
The intense dizziness battered Li Changqing's will. Just as he was about to collapse—
Willpower +1
Like sweet rain after a long drought, the exhaustion from visualizing the Overlord Lifting Cauldron Diagram was instantly replenished. The surplus strength flowed into Li Changqing's still-untempered will, steadily strengthening the foundation of his Mental Power.
"Kid, what's wrong with you?" Chen Danqing beside him noticed that something was off.
"I'm fine, Grandpa." As his awareness returned, Li Changqing hurriedly stepped back and waved at the worried-looking Chen Danqing.
"It's just that this painting was too good. I got completely absorbed in it."
"Really?" Chen Danqing was somewhat suspicious.
"Come, let me see your eyes."
"I'm really fine, Grandpa." Li Changqing turned his head toward him. His eyes were clear.
The eyes were the windows to the soul. Just like someone who often stayed up late—their pupils would be cloudy, obvious at a glance.
Seeing that Li Changqing truly seemed fine, Chen Danqing finally relaxed and reached for the painting on the table to put it away.
He tugged at it, but it would not move.
Chen Danqing's mouth twitched. He looked up to find Li Changqing gazing at him with utter sincerity, his right hand firmly pinning down one corner of the painting.
"What are you trying to do?" A bad feeling abruptly rose in Chen Danqing's heart.
"Grandpa, if I said I'm an artist, would you believe me?"
Chen Danqing: ...
After mooching another meal at Grandpa Chen's home, Li Changqing finally left in satisfaction.
The moon hung above the treetops.
With an ancient painting cradled in his arms, he swayed his way into the apartment building entrance.
When he got home, the first thing Li Changqing did was return to his bedroom, take out his toolbox, and hammer a nail above the head of his bed.
Then, wearing an extremely solemn expression, he unwrapped the bundle and hung the scroll from his arms above the bed.
Bold ink lines flowed across the paper, outlining the mighty body of Hegemon Xiang Yu.
Strength that uprooted mountains, might that overshadowed the world.
Sheer power and invincible bearing seemed ready to burst through the paper itself.
Li Changqing looked inward.
Artistic Conception (Overlord Lifts Cauldron): 0%
He stared at the painting for several minutes, but this time he was not so lucky. The Overlord Lifting Cauldron Diagram never resonated with him again.
That was also why Chen Danqing had agreed to lend him the painting. The personal work of a High-Rank Martial Artist was not so easily visualized. Without sufficient Mental Power, one could not even cross the threshold.
I'll try again tomorrow.
Li Changqing turned and returned to the living room, looking at the 500-pound training dummy standing on the floor.
He stepped forward, gently supported the bottom of the dummy with his right arm, and exerted force with both arms. Powerful vitality burst forth from his dantian.
Embracing the Core and Returning Strength.
It gathered all his vitality into one point, then explosively twisted the strength of his entire body into a single rope.
He did not even need to use Tai Chi Soft Strength. Li Changqing effortlessly lifted the dummy straight over his head.
The instant it left the ground, the Liquid Metal inside the dummy sloshed.
Listening to Strength, mastery.
Before the metal could even sway, Li Changqing unleashed a burst of deft force and held the dummy aloft with one arm. Its top remained perfectly steady, without the slightest movement.
The training dummy meant for Martial Arts Apprentices was far too light for him now.
"It needs more weight."
The moment he released his hand, the dummy plummeted. In the instant before it hit the ground, Li Changqing hooked it with his left foot.
Tai Chi Soft Strength, turning motion into stillness.
The dummy landed without a sound.
Li Changqing turned and went back to his room, pushing out a small cart filled with counterweights.
This was the supporting equipment that came with the dummy when he bought it.
He opened the hidden latch in the dummy's middle and poured a large amount of Liquid Metal inside. After thinking for a moment, Li Changqing added several standard weights as well.
The latch locked shut.
Considering that he could now throw around a brown bear weighing 500 kilograms, Li Changqing crazily adjusted the dummy's weight to 750 kilograms.
And that was on top of the unstable Liquid Metal.
The difficulty soared exponentially.
After putting away the last quarter of the components, Li Changqing reattached the dummy's wheels.
He could not train with this kind of weight at home.
Disturbing the neighbors would be the least of his worries. If he smashed through the floor, he did not have the money to pay for it.
The residential garden.
In an empty patch of ground with no one around, Li Changqing removed the wheels beneath the dummy. His vitality, gathered through Embracing the Core, dispersed and flowed through his entire body.
It made his strength layer upon layer like surging tides, endless and unceasing.
Li Changqing wrapped both arms around the dummy.
He did not exert force right away. Instead, he slowly rocked the dummy first, and his mastered Listening to Strength instantly grasped the dummy's center of gravity.
The next second.
"Up!"
Tai Chi Soft Strength erupted.
Li Changqing planted his feet like roots. Strength rose from the ground, while his wave-like vitality layered power upon power, gathering from every part of his body into his waist, abdomen, and arms.
Crack, crack—
A brittle groan came from his overburdened shoe soles. The dummy swayed slightly, yet it did not leave the ground.
Huff—
Li Changqing's chest expanded. Spirit Turtle Breathing Technique!
Air rushed into his lungs at tremendous speed. As his vitality flowed, it was like flowing water, endlessly renewing itself. It not only gathered all the strength in his body, but also delivered oxygen to every muscle fiber throughout Li Changqing's body.
Inside the dummy, the Liquid Metal flowed, trying to disrupt Li Changqing's exertion of force. Yet under his mastered Listening to Strength, every sway was strangled before it could even happen.
Flowing Water True Meaning.
A rolling Long River continuously surfaced in Li Changqing's mind. Before the old strength faded, new strength was already born.
At last, the dummy slowly left the ground. Yet after rising only an inch, Li Changqing could not advance another fraction.
That was his limit.
Boom!
The dummy hit the ground. Nearly a ton of weight crashed down onto that tiny patch of earth, directly smashing several cracks into the park's pavement.
"Huff—huff—"
Li Changqing's breathing was long and steady, and the flush on his face from condensing his vitality quickly faded.
"This weight is suitable."
Any heavier and he could not lift it at all. Any lighter and the training effect would be poor.
"With my current vitality and physique alone, there's definitely no way to go any further."
His eyes slowly closed. In his mind, an incomparably blurry painting gradually emerged.
With Li Changqing's current Mental Power, this was the only level he could visualize.
According to Grandpa Chen, only at the absolute peak of his younger years had he been able to visualize this painting perfectly.
Achieving that meant the visualizer's Mental Power had reached the pinnacle of a Mid-Rank Martial Artist.
But such a realm was still far too distant for Li Changqing.
He was only a one-star Low-Rank Martial Artist. Li Changqing merely wanted to see whether he could borrow even a little of this painting's true meaning.
He embraced the dummy again and shut his eyes tightly.
Li Changqing's Mental Power was not yet strong enough for him to perceive directly, so he decided to use a clumsy method.
Memory!
He continuously recalled the memory of resonating with the Overlord Lifting Cauldron Diagram earlier.
He forced and squeezed his brain, commanding it to operate beyond its limits.
Li Changqing was not worried about overworking his mind. As long as he broke through his limits, all expenditure could be replenished.
Yellowed paper, rough and bold brushstrokes of ink.
He filled in the details from that moment bit by bit, his Mental Power draining at a furious pace.
He had only just begun recalling the brushstrokes when cold sweat slowly seeped from Li Changqing's forehead.
Yet his vitality remained abundant.
What was exhausted was his mind.
It was like being locked in a tiny dark room and made to solve advanced math problems without sleep or rest for over a month.
His poor brain was about to overload.
He lightly bit the tip of his tongue, forcing himself to stay awake.
Rough lines wandered through his memories, sketching a man's muscles piled like granite, his outstretched limbs, and the massive bronze cauldron raised high overhead.
The painting was complete.
But it was merely an ordinary painting.
Something was wrong.
Something was missing.
Li Changqing reminded himself again and again.
The man lifting the cauldron was imposing and mighty, but with one glance, Li Changqing knew that he was not the Overlord.
He was merely a strongman.
What was missing?
Li Changqing thought with all his might, yet he could not find a single clue.
The night wind howled as he stood alone in the center of the park.
Lonely. Cold and desolate.
"Since I followed my king through eastern campaigns and western battles, enduring wind, frost, toil, year after year..."
A mournful female voice, too indistinct to make out clearly, drifted into Li Changqing's ears with the night wind. It was unmistakably Peking opera.
The noisy lyrics carried the characteristic static of an old-fashioned radio.
It was an old residential complex, after all, so Li Changqing paid it no mind.
He was about to continue reconstructing his memories.
Vitality flowed through his ears, and instantly, he heard every sound from the apartment buildings in all directions.
All manner of noise swirled around his ears, though most of it was music of every kind.
Li Changqing recalled subconsciously, only to discover—
Mixed among them was an ancient tune from his homeland.
The night wind was cold and desolate. Songs of Chu from All Sides.
Boom!
The mournful melody instantly tore apart the last thin layer of paper blocking him.
Riding the night wind, listening to Songs of Chu from All Sides at Gaixia.
The proud and unrestrained Overlord, who looked down upon the world, broke through the encirclement and trampled a hundred thousand Han soldiers beneath his horse's hooves.
Like a silver flask shattering as water splashed forth; like iron cavalry charging out as blades and spears rang!
Inspiration swept through Li Changqing's heart.
He understood.
No, it was not that he had understood the Overlord.
Rather, the Overlord had crossed a thousand years, stepping through Songs of Chu from All Sides and tearing apart the Ambush from Ten Sides.
He performed the majestic bearing of his strength that uprooted mountains and might that overshadowed the world within Li Changqing's heart.
The Overlord!
Li Changqing finally realized what he had forgotten.
Did it matter whether he lifted a cauldron?
It did not!
A thousand-pound cauldron could not compare to an excavator or a dump truck.
Then why did he not visualize a dump truck crashing into a bridge?
Because...
What mattered in this painting was the Overlord!
It was that Overlord whose strength uprooted mountains, whose might overshadowed the world, who was invincible among men!
In Overlord Lifts Cauldron, what mattered was not the cauldron, but the man lifting it!
Ying Dang had lifted a cauldron too, but could he stand shoulder to shoulder with the Overlord?
Boom!
Artistic Conception enveloped Li Changqing's heart as his condensed vitality broke through its limits without obstruction.
"Hah!"
Qi erupted from his body.
Li Changqing's shirt was torn apart by his muscles, his lean, powerful physique gleaming with strength as his vitality boiled.
The 750-kilogram, nearly one-ton dummy rose from the ground.
Li Changqing hoisted it high above his head.
His movement was swift, his bearing magnificent, as though what he held aloft in his palms was nothing more than a feather.
With strength enough to uproot mountains, with spirit to overshadow the world!
```