A vast torrent of information crashed into Li Changqing's mind.
At that moment, Li Changqing lost the ability to think. Washed over by massive amounts of information, his consciousness chose forced hibernation out of instinctive self-preservation.
Countless tangled words drifted about. Li Changqing had no way to absorb them and could only let them echo through the depths of his consciousness, eventually condensing into a perfect Tai Chi Yin-Yang Fish.
"Changqing, Changqing!"
"Hey, how did you fall asleep?"
The urgent calls yanked Li Changqing's consciousness sharply from its slumber.
His body trembled, and the vitality within his dantian surged, pulling his consciousness back into his mind.
Li Changqing opened his eyes to find Kang Tianchen gripping his shoulders and shaking him.
When Kang Tianchen saw Li Changqing open his eyes, his irritation flared.
"You brat, how did you fall asleep while watching?"
"Me? I fell asleep?" Li Changqing pointed at himself, utterly bewildered.
"Who else?" Kang Tianchen grabbed his hair and gave it a shake.
"You were even snoring just now. What did you do yesterday to get so tired?"
Li Changqing shook his head and rose to his feet.
"Coach Kang, how long was I asleep?"
"Half an hour."
"Half an hour!" Li Changqing's mind went blank for a moment. He had thought he had blacked out for, at most, one or two minutes.
How could it have been that long?
Following Kang Tianchen to the entrance of the martial arts gym, Li Changqing saw Huang Xuan holding a tray and chewing away in huge bites. When he spotted the two of them coming out, he waved enthusiastically.
"Coach, how was Junior Brother Li? Did he figure anything out?"
"Alas." Kang Tianchen felt rather helpless at those words. "He didn't figure out much, but he sure got a good nap."
"Sleeping?" Huang Xuan was stunned. But seeing Li Changqing remain silent, he assumed Kang Tianchen had done something to his junior brother, who had not yet formally entered the school, and hurriedly tried to smooth things over.
"Coach, calm down. Junior Brother isn't even a Martial Artist yet, so it's perfectly normal that he couldn't make anything out. Look at me—I didn't see anything either. Don't hold Junior Brother to such high standards."
Kang Tianchen nodded without saying anything further and led Li Changqing out of the martial arts gym.
"All right. It looks like you don't have much affinity with that thing. You heard what Huang Xuan said earlier, didn't you?"
"Even a formal Martial Artist like him couldn't make heads or tails of it. Don't overthink it. Focus on your training and strive to fully perform the fist technique I taught you within a year, then enter the Transformation Stage."
"If there's anything you don't understand, come find me at the martial arts gym anytime. If I'm not here, find Huang Xuan. He used to be my student too. The owner will be back soon, so I won't see you off. Go home and get some proper rest."
Kang Tianchen left, leaving Li Changqing alone in the night wind.
He examined himself internally.
The fist techniques and breathing methods he had mastered remained unchanged. Only at the very top, there was now one more entry.
Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian (Human Immortal Department)
There was no proficiency and no progress bar. It simply lay there all alone.
He stared at it for a long while, but there was still no response whatsoever.
Li Changqing then focused on the profound Yin-Yang Fish circling in the depths of his consciousness, yet he could make nothing of it.
"What exactly is this?" Li Changqing took out his phone.
"Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian... it sounds somewhat like the title of a Taoist scripture."
He tried searching for it, but found nothing.
"And the Human Immortal Department—what does that mean?"
Li Changqing's mind was a tangled mess. Something that looked like Old Technique had actually appeared within the Psionic Stone Tablet.
Besides, why had Psionic Energy failed to react to him and simply dispersed instead?
That shouldn't have happened.
He stepped onto the greenway and exerted a little force through his legs. Even in trackless mountain forests, he could maintain a speed of eighty kilometers per hour and run forty kilometers.
A few kilometers was not even enough to count as a warm-up.
Too lazy to use the main entrance, Li Changqing bent his knees slightly and leaped three meters straight up from level ground. After vaulting over the residential compound's wall, he arrived directly at the open space where he usually trained.
If he couldn't figure it out, then he would stop thinking about it.
Since it was useless for the time being, he would leave it alone.
He had not forgotten that he only had one month.
If he wanted to catch up to Sun Sheng, he could not slack off for even a moment during these thirty days.
One hand was yang, the other yin.
Li Changqing's arms slowly traced arcs, as though he were holding a ball before his chest. Yin and yang inverted between his hands as he performed Tai Chi.
Hoo—
Qi and blood burst from his dantian and flowed into the meridians throughout his body, tempering his bones and sinews through the resonance of his muscles and fascia.
The cultivation of a Lower-Rank Martial Artist was dull.
Nourish vitality, temper the bones and sinews.
Only when vitality permeated the entire body and the physical form reached its peak could one possibly nurture powerful spirit and visualize Artistic Conception.
Old Technique Tai Chi was an Old Technique derived from the Chengtian Tai Chi Fist. It was the foundation of Li Changqing's martial path, and precisely because of that, its improvement had been so slow.
Just as his hands switched positions and vitality completed one circulation through all the meridians in his body—
The profound Tai Chi Yin-Yang Fish in his mind actually stirred for an instant.
Old Technique Tai Chi (Flowing Water True Meaning): 36%
Threads of enlightenment surged into his heart. After comprehending the Dao in the mountain forest and Vast Waves Cleanse Dust, Old Technique Tai Chi—which had only reached 35% proficiency—had unexpectedly risen by 1% just like that.
Li Changqing froze. He did not even need to verify it; the enlightenment surfacing in his mind could not possibly be false.
The increase in proficiency further deepened his mastery of Old Technique Tai Chi.
Carried by the momentum, Li Changqing shifted his legs, and his body's center of gravity moved with them.
Parting the Wild Horse's Mane.
Old Technique Tai Chi (Flowing Water True Meaning): 37%
There was no mistake!
Li Changqing's heart shook. After he completed a Tai Chi form, the Yin-Yang Fish circling in the depths of his consciousness had definitely moved!
Was there some connection between Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian and Old Technique Tai Chi?
Li Changqing's thoughts whirled through countless turns, but that did not stop him from smoothly performing the next move.
Deflect, Parry, and Punch.
Old Technique Tai Chi (Flowing Water True Meaning), Proficiency: 38%
A powerful realization surged into his heart again, and Li Changqing changed his movements according to the newly emerging insights.
The vitality that had originally flowed slowly suddenly accelerated along with his fist technique.
This abrupt sensation was like the first time he had practiced the Chengtian Tai Chi Fist under Kang Tianchen—the exhaustion of having every muscle, bone, and sinew in his body fully mobilized.
Li Changqing's expectations were broken through again and again, and his movements grew faster and faster.
Old Technique Tai Chi was a fist technique whose momentum was not particularly fast; it could even be called slow.
Each stance and movement emphasized completeness and continuity, its purpose being to engage the muscles and fascia throughout the body and refine vitality.
Yet under Li Changqing's constant practice, this fist technique, slow as an old man's movements, actually began to produce whistling gusts of wind.
Before he had even completed the entire Tai Chi Fist set, divine light seemed to spill from Li Changqing's pupils.
Old Technique Tai Chi (Flowing Water True Meaning): 50%
In such a short time, he had actually pushed his Tai Chi proficiency halfway.
At this moment, Li Changqing was truly certain that he had picked up an immense treasure!
Even though he still could not cultivate Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian at all, its help to him had already surpassed every other cultivation method.
Continue!
His movements became faster and smoother. Within a few breaths—
The vitality, heavy as mercury, completely vanished from within his dantian.
At the realm of Embracing the Core and Returning Strength, the more condensed one's vitality became, the more difficult it was to mobilize.
Before this, he had only been able to fully mobilize all his vitality when he was about to break past his limits. Yet at such times, his vitality was nearly withered, utterly incomparable to his peak condition.
Having the vitality throughout his body flow with his fist technique, tempering his entire body, increased the effects by nearly several times.
Physique +2 Vitality Concentration: 17%
He had not even broken through his limits.
When Li Changqing completed the fist technique for the second time, the stimulation of the vitality throughout his body upon his muscles, bones, and sinews—
His physique improved once more, and an intense warm current rushed through his limbs and bones.
Every time was equivalent to Marrow Cleansing.
His skin became increasingly crystalline. Washed by vitality, the density and structure of his bones gradually advanced beyond human limits, while his muscle tissue grew denser and denser.
If there had been an electronic scale beneath Li Changqing's feet at that moment, it would surely have revealed that his weight had abruptly changed from one hundred and twenty kilograms to one hundred and fifty kilograms.
There was almost no difference in his physique. What had changed was the density of his body.
Hoo—
Howling wind swept through the residential compound.
The fallen leaves on the ground were actually caught up by the violent wind generated from Li Changqing's fist practice.
Two meters, five meters... ten meters.
Li Changqing's hands evolved yin and yang, and he clenched the gale tightly within his palms, leaving it unable to escape the Five Finger Mountain.
Leaves danced through the air, blanketing the space within ten meters around him.
Above and below, the fallen leaves moved with his fists.
The man in the wind resembled an ancient Earthly Immortal.
Again and again.
Gradually, Li Changqing's movements actually changed once more.
Old Technique Tai Chi (Flowing Water True Meaning): 100%
The Tai Chi derived from the Chengtian Tai Chi Fist, mixed with his Flowing Water True Meaning and supported by the profound Tai Chi Yin-Yang Fish in his mind—
Its proficiency had reached perfection once again.
The wind continued to scatter with Li Changqing's thoughts, while his powerful Listening to Strength gave him the foundation to perceive all things.
What should he do next?
The improvement of a cultivation method could perfect itself through breakthroughs in proficiency.
But he had to provide the direction.
Just as he had the first time, he needed to comprehend Flowing Water True Meaning in order to obtain the transformation of Old Technique Tai Chi.
The pitch-black night sky was thick with dark clouds.
Azure lightning tore through the night, illuminating the dark open space.
Li Changqing controlled the gale with his fist technique. On the building beside him, the lightning rod slowly gleamed.
Boom!
Thunderous lightning transformed into a long serpent and struck the rooftop.
Lightning collided with metal, scattering splendid flashes of thunderfire and golden light.
Li Changqing's pupils were illuminated by the lightning.
Within his mind, the final string snapped completely as the Tai Chi Yin-Yang Fish turned.
Heaven was supreme yang, and earth was supreme yin.
Man stood upon the earth and was thus ultimate yin.
Where yin and yang complemented one another, there was naturally Heaven-Man Resonance.
Tai Shang Gan Ying.
The Tai Chi Yin-Yang Fish turned in Li Changqing's mind, pouring forth an infinitesimal trace of profound knowledge.
Yet when it fell into Li Changqing's heart, it was no less than a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
Within the dark clouds, yin and yang churned, giving rise to lightning.
Torrential rain poured down.
Yet Li Changqing continued practicing his fist technique between heaven and earth. His movements were sometimes gentle and yielding, sometimes forceful and fierce, yet their transitions were as natural as flowers blooming and withering.
The rain poured down, yet it could not knock down the fallen leaves drifting with the wind.
At last, Li Changqing completed his fist technique.
As he closed the Tai Chi stance, he raised his hand to his brow and slowly pressed downward.
Hoo—
He opened his mouth slightly, and dense white vapor burst forth fiercely, rolling into a vast white mist above his head.
Even the falling raindrops were swept into the white mist and could not descend.
Exhaling breath like clouds.
The gale ceased its madness along with his movements.
Where Li Changqing stood, the rainwater was blocked by the white mist, and every speck of dust scattered away.
The leaves floating in the air slowly drifted down, layering upon the ground.
At last, they outlined a perfect Tai Chi Yin-Yang Fish around him.
Tai Chi (Heaven-Man Resonance): 10%
Old Technique Tai Chi had undergone another transformation today with the aid of Tai Shang Gan Ying Pian.
The breakthrough of his cultivation method granted Li Changqing another increase in agility and willpower points.
Agility +3 Willpower +2
In an instant, heaven and earth seemed to slow down. Every falling raindrop was distinct in Li Changqing's eyes, and he understood perfectly the direction in which the wind howled through the air.
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