Morning Exercise and "Demonstrating the Dao"

Chapter Forty-One: Morning Exercise and "Demonstrating the Dao"

The first light of dawn was faint, and a thin mist hung over the Small Courtyard like gauze.

Chen An pushed open the wooden door of the stone house and drew in a deep breath of crisp air.

The tender seedlings in the Vegetable Plot were beaded with dew, reflecting the first rays of sunlight in crystalline glimmers.

He stretched his muscles and bones, his joints giving off faint popping sounds—this was a habit he had developed after transmigrating. Every morning, he would exercise for a while, both to dispel the chill of the long Primordial Wilderness night and to cope with the pressure of survival.

He walked to an open space in the courtyard and stood with his feet shoulder-width apart.

He slowly raised both arms, palms facing upward as though lifting the rising sun. Then his left arm swept forward in an arc while his right arm extended backward, his body turning sideways with the motion. His movements were relaxed and fluid. This was the first section of the broadcast calisthenics—Stretching Exercise.

"One, two, three, four..." Chen An counted silently, performing each movement with rigid precision.

This calisthenics routine, ingrained in his bones since his school days, had now become his only connection to his former world—a connection filled with the warmth of everyday life. He performed it with complete concentration, unaware of the pair of eyes quietly opening on the straw mat.

Ji Meng (Little Black) lay on the straw mat, his brown-black pupils suddenly contracting!

The instant Chen An raised his arms, he keenly sensed that the gentle spiritual energy circulating within the Safe Zone had somehow been stirred by an invisible hand!

In the direction of Chen An's palms, spiritual energy gathered into a vortex too faint for the naked eye to discern. When he turned sideways with his arms extended, the airflow swirled along with him, causing the leaves of the vegetable seedlings in the corner of the courtyard to move despite the absence of wind!

What shook Ji Meng's mind and spirit even more was that every seemingly ordinary stretching movement Chen An made seemed to accord with some profound trajectory!

Both arms raised overhead: In Ji Meng's eyes, this was clearly the opening posture of Star Power Infusion!

Where Chen An pressed his palms against empty space, spiritual energy poured down like the Heaven's River flowing backward, surging from his Baihui Acupoint into every limb and bone.

Turning sideways: His spine twisted like a dragon, and as his shoulder blades opened and closed, they actually stirred a resonance among the acupoints throughout his body!

Ji Meng's spirit trembled faintly, as if he could see the Myriad Stars Array flickering in and out of existence with each movement.

Stepping and finishing the routine: The tips of his feet tapped the ground, sending ripples of spiritual energy across the earth. Like Earth Vein Return to Origin, they gathered all the dissipated energy back into his dantian!

"An unparalleled Body Refining Technique!" A storm raged through Ji Meng's heart.

This was no mundane calisthenics routine. It was the supreme method by which a sage, in the form of Returning to Simplicity, demonstrated the tempering of the physical body and communication with Heaven and Earth!

Every movement pointed directly toward the source of power. They seemed simple, yet contained the ultimate profundity of The Great Tao is Simplest!

The "Profundity" Behind the Movement Names

After Chen An finished the Stretching Exercise, he paused briefly and began the next section. "Chest Expansion Exercise, one, two, three, four..."

"Chest expansion?" Ji Meng pricked up his ears, his heart trembling violently. "Expansion" meant opening new frontiers, while the "chest" was where the middle dantian and Tanzhong Acupoint were located—this clearly meant "opening the central abode and accepting Heaven and Earth"!

He focused his attention and watched as Chen An extended both arms and pulled them back. His chest expanded, actually drawing the spiritual energy within the Safe Zone into two pale-golden vortices. They poured in from the Mingmen Acupoint on his back and shot straight toward the Tanzhong Acupoint! Wherever the vortices passed, the pores throughout Chen An's body opened, and a faint golden radiance seeped out!

"The sage is actually using a mortal body to trigger Golden Essence Body Tempering!" Ji Meng nearly prostrated himself on the ground.

He had seen such an extraordinary Body Refining phenomenon only once before—when the Demon Emperor, Eastern Emperor Tai Yi, had tempered his body with Solar True Fire!

Imitation and "Enlightenment"

A powerful impulse drove Ji Meng onward. He struggled to stand up from the straw mat, his bandage-wrapped body still swaying somewhat unsteadily.

He imitated Chen An, slightly raising his forepaws and straightening his hind legs as he tried to copy the posture of Star Power Infusion.

His movements were clumsy and contorted. Raising his forepaws tugged at the injury on his neck, making him bare his teeth in pain. When he straightened his hind legs, he lost his balance and nearly toppled over. But he gritted his teeth and persisted, near-fanatical determination burning in his brown-black pupils.

"The sage is demonstrating the Dao! Such an opportunity is rare!" he shouted inwardly.

Even copying only the form would be far superior to the countless body-tempering secret arts of the Demon Court!

Chen An finished the final section, Cool-Down Movement, then settled into position and exhaled.

Turning his head, he saw Little Black awkwardly raising his paws and kicking out his legs. He looked both comical and earnest, and Chen An could not help laughing. "Little Black, you want to exercise too?"

He walked over and rubbed Little Black's head. "Come on, follow me."

He slowed his movements and began the Stretching Exercise again. "Like this. Raise your paw... That's right, take it slowly."

Ji Meng's entire body stiffened. The sage was personally instructing him! He forcibly suppressed his excitement and concentrated on following along. When Chen An gently lifted his forepaw and helped adjust its angle, a warm, peaceful energy flowed from Chen An's palm. It instantly soothed the stabbing pain in his injuries and even stirred the dormant Chaos Qi deep within his demon core!

Boom—!

A thunderclap seemed to explode inside Ji Meng's mind!

How could the force transmitted from the sage's palm be the strength of an ordinary human?

It was clearly using the body as a bridge to convey the Great Dao to him!

In the morning light, one man and one dog stood in the courtyard. Chen An patiently helped Little Black "correct" his movements, treating it merely as a way to amuse himself by playing with his pet. But in Ji Meng's heart, a monstrous storm had already erupted—this morning exercise was the moment in his demon life that had brought him closest to the Great Dao!

(Chapter Forty-One End)