Who is cultivating?

Morning.

The neighborhood garden.

Li Changqing's eyes were tightly shut, a dummy weighing 750 kilograms placed before him.

His chest expanded with each breath, a long and heavy inhale-exhale cycle lasting a full thirty seconds.

Now that the Spirit Turtle Breathing Technique had become routine, Li Changqing only needed to breathe twice per minute, his heart rate even slowing to between 20 and 30 beats per minute.

His powerful heart muscle acted like a high-pressure pump, easily circulating blood at high speed throughout Li Changqing's body.

Hoo—

His breath was long and drawn out. With his final inhale, a sound like a sonic boom erupted from Li Changqing's mouth.

Hiss—

His breathing rhythm changed, like a machine starting up. At full speed, his mouth emitted a whistling sound like a wind tunnel.

A rapid drumbeat sounded from his chest, his heart rate soaring.

40, 70, 120… showing no signs of stopping.

In the blink of an eye, it surged to over 200 beats per minute.

Think about it: normally, his heart only needed to beat 20 times per minute and breathe twice to perform normal activities. When his heart rate soared to over 200 beats per minute and his breathing operated like a ventilation fan, what kind of qualitative change would occur?

As Li Changqing entered his state, the Qi and Blood within him surged like a monstrous wave.

His dormant muscle cells were awakened, fully activated.

He embraced the dummy, locking it in place.

Memories began to form in his mind.

First, yellowed paper, then the flow of bold ink lines.

Finally, it was the Hegemon Xiang Yu, who looked down upon the world, his strength capable of uprooting mountains and his aura covering the heavens.

The scroll was complete.

From a thousand years ago, the invincible will of Hegemon Xiang Yu returned.

"Lift!"

Li Changqing's muscles bulged, his roaring Qi and Blood causing his body to expand by a noticeable margin. Muscles protruded, unleashing strength beyond his limits.

Boom—

The dummy rose in response, its liquid metal constantly shifting.

The incredibly rapid movement meant that even Li Changqing, whose Listening to Strength was at the grandmaster level, didn't have time to dissipate all the force.

But for him in this current state, this amount of force was like a mayfly trying to shake a great tree.

He steadily lifted the dummy overhead. His internal Qi and Blood was consumed rapidly, yet Li Changqing maintained the pose.

Under the influence of the Artistic Conception, his body continuously surpassed its limits, and even his breathing began to falter.

Finally, with a slight wobble in his legs, Li Changqing forcefully threw the dummy onto the grass beside him.

And once again, he had broken through his limit.

[Physique +2]

Bang!

The lawn was flattened significantly, dust rising to obscure the dummy.

His previously depleted body was refilled with Qi and Blood. The sudden increase in Physique made him slightly unable to control his strength.

Crack!

His professional sports shoes were literally blown apart by his feet!

On the concrete ground, two clear footprints were left behind.

Li Changqing took a deep breath, feeling the steadily increasing strength.

His fair skin shimmered with a jade-like luster under the sunlight.

"Success!" A faint spark of excitement flickered in his eyes.

He powerfully swung his right fist, memories weaving together, the scroll of Hegemon Xiang Yu lifting a cauldron floating in his consciousness.

Through two days of practice, Li Changqing could now fully and steadily outline the scroll and manifest the Artistic Conception.

He raised his hand and glanced at his timing wristwatch.

"15 seconds?"

That was quite a long time; it was enough for two commercial breaks back-to-back.

Even the protagonists in games wouldn't dare use a special move with such a long wind-up.

This meant he couldn't use his Artistic Conception in combat right now.

But Li Changqing was still excited.

Achieving stability, no matter how slow, meant he had overcome the most difficult hurdle.

From now on, he just needed to steadily refine his painting every day, practicing his Artistic Conception, and he could continuously improve.

Today, he had solved the question of whether it was possible or not. As for increasing speed, that just required constant practice to improve proficiency.

From improving by one second, to two seconds, to three seconds.

Li Changqing believed that it wouldn't be long before he could unleash his Artistic Conception at will during combat.

At that point, in the Lower-Rank domain, he would have no equal.

The invincible aura of Hegemon Xiang Yu was enough to crush any enemy head-on with overwhelming force.

"Let's set a small goal first," Li Changqing said, stroking his clean-shaven chin.

"The Youth Cup. Before my match, I need to compress the time to within two seconds, at least ensuring I can use it in actual combat."

Thinking this, he looked inward again.

[Vitality Concentration: 3%]

[Qi and Blood like mercury, embracing the dan, returning to strength.]

According to Li Changqing's own estimation, Lower-Rank Martial Artists were divided into nine stars.

When his Vitality Concentration reached 10%, he should meet the Qi and Blood standard for a Lower-Rank two-star.

"Qi and Blood, Artistic Conception, and my boxing proficiency. There's still a lot I need to improve before the Youth Cup. I need to hurry."

Li Changqing turned and walked towards the apartment building. He didn't bother with the mannequin; if something was too heavy to steal, it wouldn't be stolen anyway.

Back in his room, after changing his shoes, Li Changqing glanced at the painting hanging above his bed.

His luck was bad this time; the painting still showed no reaction.

Li Changqing didn't mind, treating it as a daily lottery.

If he won, it was pure profit.

After packing his things into his backpack, he went into the kitchen and grabbed a few small jars of seasonings.

Good. Li Changqing planned to continue cultivating at the nature reserve.

Not only was the Psionic Energy abundant there, but the closer martial arts cultivation was to nature, the easier it was to approach the legendary state of "unity of heaven and man."

"Ding ding—"

Li Changqing pulled out his phone and saw the caller ID. It was Kang Tianchen, the martial arts coach who had taught him his first and most important Old Technique, Tai Chi, and had even paid for five vials of medicine for him.

"Hello, Coach Kang."

As soon as he answered, Kang Tianchen's hearty laughter reached his ears.

"Changqing, weren't you talking about the Youth Cup yesterday? I've already made arrangements for you. You can enter the venue with our martial arts school's people and watch up close."

Li Changqing raised an eyebrow.

"Coach Kang, are many people from our Chengtian Martial Arts School participating in this Youth Cup?"

"Of course. This competition is very important," Kang Tianchen's tone on the other end of the line became noticeably more serious.

"This Youth Cup is different from previous years. The city has invested heavily and is offering a spot in the Psionic Research Institute's Seedling Plan as the championship prize."

"Changqing, you might not know this, but the Seedling Plan is a special program by the Psionic Research Institute specifically for young martial arts prodigies from various regions. To put it simply, anyone who enters the Seedling Plan is almost guaranteed to become a Psionic User, and they'll have a huge advantage in their future path."

The Seedling Plan. Li Changqing's pupils flickered.

"What, envious?" Kang Tianchen asked with a self-deprecating laugh.

"We can't compare to these geniuses. Just listen. You need to cultivate your boxing diligently. I haven't seen you in a few days; I don't know how your training is going. Don't forget, you only have one year."

"I know, Coach Kang. Don't worry."

"Yeah, you're not the type of kid who needs constant worrying. I won't say anything else. I'll send you a message before the Youth Cup starts. Opportunities to observe inside are rare, so you need to seize the chance and learn from the talented martial artists in our city."

They chatted a bit more before hanging up.

"The Seedling Plan, huh?"

Li Changqing's pupils flickered. He glanced at his watch.

"I need to pick up the pace. Time is running out."

Qingshan Nature Reserve.

The brown bear incident had been trending on the hot search list for several days.

However, this had not led to a decrease in the number of visitors to the Qingshan Nature Reserve.

On the contrary, the appearance of the handsome and strong Jiang He caused the customer traffic to rise again, with appointments already backed up for an unknown period.

Li Changqing still chose the same spot as last time. The top predators in this area had been scared off by him, so he figured small animals wouldn't bother him for a while.

Pushing aside the trees, he was once again faced with the familiar waterfall.

Li Changqing lightly jumped down from the three-meter-high rock face, about to begin his practice.

"Huh? Why is there a chunk missing from the waterfall?" Li Changqing blinked in surprise and quickly went to check.

The original waterfall had been significantly widened, and the large rock at the gap had disappeared at some point.

And on the ground not far away.

A row of footprints, deeply imprinted in the soil, was particularly striking.

Memories surfaced in Li Changqing's mind as he compared the size of the missing rock from the waterfall.

Then he looked at the deep footprints in the soil.

He touched the gap in the waterfall, his pupils gradually widening.

"This rock weighs at least a ton, possibly more."

There were no rock fragments around, and the traces were very clean.

Based on the footprints in the soil, Li Changqing's eyelids twitched.

"Someone was carrying a ton of rock while doing weighted training?"

Unimaginable!

He himself needed the aid of Artistic Conception just to successfully lift a 750-kilogram dummy.

Carrying a ton of rock for weighted training, even just walking.

This person's strength was definitely far beyond his own.

The thought arose in his mind and couldn't be stopped. Gazing in the direction the footprints disappeared, Li Changqing felt a surge of eagerness.

Should he go take a look?