Five Styles of Tai Chi

The next morning, Lin Yuan woke from his sleep.

Under the combined effects of the medicinal bath and medicinal wine, his body had returned to normal once more.

The first thing he did after waking was open the system panel.

[Name: Lin Yuan]

[Lifespan: 25/60]

[Strength: 7.5]

[Speed: 9.5]

[Agility: 10]

[Endurance: 10]

[Flexibility: 9]

[Martial Arts: Yang Style Tai Chi (Blue; Mastery), Wu Style Tai Chi (Blue; Beginner)]

[Attribute Points: 5]

Seeing the five Attribute Points displayed, Lin Yuan felt a surge of excitement. This was probably the most Attribute Points he had possessed since obtaining the system.

"How should I allocate them?" Lin Yuan pondered.

Five Attribute Points were neither a lot nor a little.

"Maybe I should first learn the other styles of Tai Chi, then raise them all to Beginner?"

That way, he would still have two Attribute Points left in the end, enough to raise Wu Style Tai Chi to Mastery.

"Or I could focus on one style and spend everything on Yang Style Tai Chi."

After weighing his options carefully, Lin Yuan chose the former plan: first raise all the Tai Chi styles to Beginner.

That offered the best value for him.

Having made his decision, Lin Yuan got dressed and went downstairs into the courtyard.

He opened the compressed files Wu Zihan had sent him on his tablet, containing tutorials for several Tai Chi styles.

Besides videos, every file also contained the corresponding boxing mnemonics. Among them, Chen Style Tai Chi was the most complicated.

After carefully reviewing them several times, Lin Yuan began practicing them one by one.

Wu Style Tai Chi emphasized body movement and footwork. Its movements were rigorous, its postures compact, its motions gentle, and its steps precise.

Sun Style Tai Chi featured nimble movements, flexible offense and defense, with advances and retreats flowing together.

The founder of Sun Style Tai Chi, Sun Lutang, first studied Xing Yi Quan, then Bagua Zhang, and finally combined the strengths of many schools to create Sun Style Tai Chi. As such, this style bore clear traces of Xing Yi Quan and Bagua Zhang.

Chen Style Tai Chi had the most complex forms, but it also grasped the deepest essence of Tai Chi. Its techniques opened and closed in broad sweeps, its presence vast and majestic, blending offense and defense, substance and emptiness, yin within yang and yang within yin. It gave one the feeling of remaining calm while treading on thin ice at the edge of an abyss, and holding boundless wilderness in one's heart while battling through rushing waters.

Though the various schools of Tai Chi had different emphases, their underlying principles were fundamentally interconnected.

Lin Yuan already had a solid foundation in Tai Chi, so learning them was no longer as clumsy as it had been the first time.

Before long, the system panel updated.

[Name: Lin Yuan]

[Lifespan: 25/60]

[Strength: 7.5]

[Speed: 9.5]

[Agility: 10]

[Endurance: 10]

[Flexibility: 9]

[Martial Arts: Yang Style Tai Chi (Blue; Mastery), Wu Style Tai Chi (Blue; Beginner), Chen Style Tai Chi (Blue; Not Yet Initiated), Wu Style Tai Chi (Blue; Not Yet Initiated), Sun Style Tai Chi (Blue; Not Yet Initiated), Hun Yuan Zhuang (Purple; Not Yet Initiated)]

[Attribute Points: 5]

"Huh? Why is there an extra Hun Yuan Zhuang?" Lin Yuan said in surprise.

Hun Yuan Zhuang was also known as Tai Chi Zhuang. Anyone learning Tai Chi basically could not avoid this standing practice.

Every Tai Chi school included this standing practice, but it was integrated into the forms rather than listed separately.

"Did the system detect Hun Yuan Zhuang training within all five Tai Chi styles, then piece them together into a complete Hun Yuan Zhuang training method?"

Other than that, Lin Yuan could think of no other explanation.

In the field of traditional martial arts, standing practice unquestionably occupied an extremely important position.

Before learning to fight, train your stance!

If one had to choose the most important among all martial arts fundamentals, it would undoubtedly be standing practice.

One yin and one yang formed the Way. The key to standing practice lay in grasping yin and yang.

Yin was the body's outward form, while yang was the spirit and intent directing internal qi.

When standing, the external form remained "independent and unchanging," while the internal spirit and intent guided internal qi, allowing it to circulate throughout the body without exhaustion.

The appearance of Hun Yuan Zhuang was undoubtedly an unexpected delight for Lin Yuan.

Though it was only a Purple Grade martial art, this standing practice complemented Tai Chi perfectly. With it, the power of his Tai Chi could increase by at least thirty percent.

"System, add points!" Lin Yuan silently called out.

He assigned Attribute Points to the four newly acquired martial arts.

[Name: Lin Yuan]

[Lifespan: 25/60]

[Strength: 10]

[Speed: 11]

[Agility: 13]

[Endurance: 14]

[Flexibility: 12]

[Martial Arts: Yang Style Tai Chi (Blue; Mastery), Wu Style Tai Chi (Blue; Beginner), Chen Style Tai Chi (Blue; Beginner), Wu Style Tai Chi (Blue; Beginner), Sun Style Tai Chi (Blue; Beginner), Hun Yuan Zhuang (Purple; Beginner)]

[Attribute Points: 1.5]

In that instant, Lin Yuan could clearly feel his physical condition growing stronger.

The system truly was the system. Its improvements were downright domineering!

The three newly learned Tai Chi styles increased his physical attributes by the same amounts.

Strength and speed each rose by 0.5, while the other three attributes each rose by 1.

Hun Yuan Zhuang, however, was different. It only increased strength and endurance, adding 1 to each.

Furthermore, improving this Purple Grade martial art cost only half as many Attribute Points as improving a Blue Grade martial art.

This pattern of consumption immediately made Lin Yuan uneasy.

"Looks like it uses a binary progression."

"Doesn't that mean the Attribute Points needed to improve martial arts later will rise to terrifying numbers?"

Looking at his meager Attribute Points, Lin Yuan suddenly felt incredibly poor.

And judging from the Attribute Points needed to raise Beginner to Mastery earlier, if he wanted to raise a Blue Grade martial art to Minor Accomplishment, it would cost four Attribute Points.

That was only his guess. If the damn system suddenly went haywire and stopped using binary progression, calculating by squares instead, then the Attribute Points required later would be an astronomical figure.

A powerful sense of urgency immediately filled his heart, and he hurriedly rolled out of bed.

Work hard, strive hard, earn Attribute Points!

Lin Yuan got dressed, left his room, and was about to do his morning exercise when his phone suddenly received a message.

His delivery had arrived!

Lin Yuan went to the small shop at the village entrance. It was not only a convenience store, but also a courier pickup point.

At that moment, the courier looked helplessly at the two large packages on his little delivery vehicle.

He had just tried, but he could not move even one of them.

Lin Yuan walked over and gave him the last digits of his phone number.

The courier immediately said, "Brother, what the hell did you order? They're so damn heavy."

"Just some fitness equipment. How about you drive your vehicle straight to my front door?"

"My tire just got punctured." The courier wore a helpless expression.

Lin Yuan glanced at the small tricycle. Sure enough, one of the rear tires had gone flat.

Then he could only carry them himself. It was a good chance to test his strength.

Lin Yuan first unloaded the larger package. It contained two 100-kilogram dumbbells, weighing four hundred jin in total.

This weight seems manageable, Lin Yuan thought.

It still felt quite heavy in his hands, but not to the point where he could not lift it.

The other package contained a 50-kilogram Weighted Vest, 20-kilogram Leg Wraps, and 10-kilogram Hand Wraps, weighing one hundred and sixty jin in total.

Holding that package only gave him a slight sense of weight.

Lin Yuan stacked the package atop the dumbbell package.

Then he bent his knees, gripped both sides with his hands, and took a deep breath. The two stacked packages slowly rose from the ground as he lifted them.

Though Lin Yuan's physical condition had improved greatly, this weight was still extremely taxing for him.

Not daring to linger, he immediately started walking.

The courier beside him was instantly dumbfounded.

When the packages had been loaded onto the vehicle, they had even been weighed specially. Together, they totaled a full five hundred and sixty jin.

As far as he knew, even some of the world's strongest men could at most lift that much from a stationary position. But for someone like the man before him to walk as briskly as flying while carrying it was simply impossible!

He was beginning to wonder whether the packages had been weighed incorrectly in the first place.