A Springboard to the Truth of Martial Arts

A Springboard to the Truth of Martial Arts

The setting sun dipped low, and drifting clouds gradually scattered.

Only the senior-year students remained in the entire academy. Green Vine Academy encouraged its students to study "independently," and those about to take the college entrance exams were especially required to "voluntarily" attend evening classes.

The students in the key classes, in particular, had to "voluntarily" study until ten at night. But after what had just happened, Su Tu had no mood to keep studying. After asking the teacher for leave, he left the academy.

When he returned home, the clean living room was empty.

Su Tu's family life in this life was a happy one. His mother worked for an Interstellar Company, while his father was an Exploration Scientist. However, both of them spent most of the year away on business trips, so Su Tu was usually home alone.

He tossed his backpack onto the sofa, and then the System Panel appeared before his eyes.

Combat (Low Grade): 100/300

Body Strengthening (Low Grade): 160/300

Cooking (Low Grade): 200/300

Spiritual Wisdom (Mid Grade): 140/1000

Dao Gathering (Low Grade): 10/300

Skill Points: 6

Every time Su Tu gained a new skill or a skill advanced in grade, he received one Skill Point. Yet those points could not be added to his existing skills, so he had not paid much attention to the point he had just obtained.

Most of his attention was focused on the new skill he had just acquired.

"How am I supposed to raise Dao Gathering Proficiency?" Su Tu pondered.

The System Panel's definitions of skills were very objective. For instance, he had activated Combat by learning the Straight Punch, but the Straight Punch itself had not been classified as a skill. It was merely a method and technique of combat, much like knowledge such as mathematics or physics.

They were all ways to raise skill proficiency, yet Dao Gathering had no apparent method for increasing its proficiency.

After all, he had activated this skill merely by seeing a painting. He had not gained any techniques from it.

As a result, he had no way to raise Dao Contemplation Proficiency either.

"Dao Gathering must be an extremely important skill. It might even be the springboard that lets me touch the 'truth' of martial arts. It can also raise both Spiritual Wisdom and Body Strengthening, so its value for the effort is incredibly high. I have to figure out how to increase its proficiency as soon as possible."

Su Tu had long noticed that proficiency gains were not singular. Like his Straight Punch training during the day—it raised Combat Proficiency while also raising Body Strengthening Proficiency. That was because combat itself required physical movement; the two skills complemented each other.

Dao Gathering, meanwhile, could raise the proficiency of two skills at once. Its value for the effort was simply absurd.

"Could it be that painting from earlier?" Su Tu suddenly thought of the scroll that had activated Dao Gathering.

"Wait, there didn't seem to be anything on that painting!!"

He recalled that memory again, only to discover in shock that, in his memories, the painting hanging on the wall was nothing but a blank sheet of paper!!

But... what he had seen then—

Before Su Tu could think any further, waves of hazy treasure-light rose from the blank painting in his memories, like the first light of dawn.

The next moment!

He actually appeared within that strange sight once again. Black Mountain trembled beneath his feet, a green snake hissed atop the peak, a Fierce Tiger crouched low in wait to kill, and the Twin Moons hung in the same desolate sky.

As he watched everything around him, an indescribable insight continuously rose in his heart. He breathed in a peculiar rhythm, power surged within him, and streaks of rosy light appeared around his body.

This time, he lasted longer than he had during the day—around half a minute. Then his breath caught, the rhythm of his breathing broke, and everything around him dispersed with it.

When he came to again, he was drenched in sweat. His body felt sticky and uncomfortable. He wiped himself with one hand, only to find some black substance clinging to it, carrying a faint fishy stench.

"Ugh, what is this stuff?" Unable to stand the feeling, Su Tu hurried into the bathroom to shower.

You have completed one Dao Gathering. Dao Gathering Proficiency +10

Dao Gathering (Low Grade): 20/300

As Su Tu showered, he looked at the notification before him, his brows slightly furrowed.

"This time, Spiritual Wisdom and Body Strengthening didn't rise along with it. Was that first increase some kind of beginner's benefit?"

Su Tu's thoughts were a mess. This Dao Gathering had not raised Spiritual Wisdom or Body Strengthening, but it had expelled some extra black grime from his body.

Moreover, Su Tu felt that his five senses had become sharper. Even his eyes, which had previously shown signs of nearsightedness, had become clear.

He looked out the window and could even see a green caterpillar wriggling on the pine tree downstairs.

"My body has transformed." Su Tu felt the changes within himself.

"Could Dao Gathering's effect be to continuously transform and strengthen my body?"

Su Tu thought of the black substance expelled from his body just now. It looked exactly like the impurities expelled from a protagonist's body in the novels from his previous life.

If that was the case, then this skill was truly extraordinary!

After going through all this, Su Tu had grasped the method of Dao Gathering. As long as he imagined the scene in that painting, he could enter it—but it consumed an enormous amount of mental energy.

As for that peculiar breathing method, he tried it in reality, but he simply could not maintain that rhythm. He could only sustain it within the illusion.

Su Tu had just wanted to try entering Dao Contemplation again, but he could no longer imagine the scene within the scroll. Clearly, his mental energy was not enough to support another session of Dao Contemplation.

"I thought I could slack off and use Dao Gathering to raise Body Strengthening and Spiritual Wisdom. Looks like I still have to take things one step at a time."

"My grades in the academic subjects are already good enough. I'll set a small goal for this next stretch of time: first grind Body Strengthening and Combat up to Mid Grade. That way, even if martial arts is added to the college entrance exams, I'll have a few cards up my sleeve!"

After thinking it over briefly, Su Tu set his goal.

He changed into a black tracksuit and headed out.

Putting on his earphones and turning on shuffle, Su Tu stretched a little, picked a direction, and started running.

Moonlight lay hazy over the streets, the night breeze slowly rose, and the Youth ran beneath the moon as though chasing the Heavenly Palace.

At the same time.

A woman who had just gotten off her night shift was walking with exhaustion written all over her face.

She had worked an extra half-day today and had nearly been taken advantage of by some idiot client, only to end up signing a small contract.

It was a contract worth one hundred and thirty thousand, yet she could only get three hundred in commission. Even an ox-horse would weep at such a miserable state of affairs.

"I really don't want to live anymore. I've had enough!" the woman complained. She had no idea how many times she had said such things, but they were only complaints. Life was a millstone that never stopped; if they slowed by even one step, Beans like them would be ground into powder.

Her parents were already old, and she still had a Younger Brother at home waiting for her to support him. It was not that she feared death, but she did not dare die.

The night breeze had turned somewhat chilly. The woman unconsciously hugged her shoulders and quickened her pace. For some reason, she had felt as though needles were pricking her back since earlier.

"Really?" A voice rang out abruptly. It sounded like Cat's Claw scraping across a blackboard, hoarse and piercing.

"Who... who's there!!" the woman cried in terror, Goosebumps rising all over her body.

She looked around, but did not see a single figure.

"The pressure's been too much lately. I'm even having Auditory Hallucinations." The woman rubbed her temples and quickened her pace again.

But the next moment!!!

A slick sensation suddenly spread across her entire body. A pitch-black figure appeared behind her and instantly wrapped her in its embrace. Huge clumps of mud fell onto the ground, while a pair of damp hands clamped tightly over her mouth, leaving her unable to make a sound. She could only widen her eyes in helpless terror.

Her handbag dropped limply to the ground, Cosmetics scattering everywhere. The hoarse voice rose beside her ear.

"If you've really had enough of living, then lend me... your life."

The dim yellow streetlamp flickered. Every bone in the woman's body was crushed by unimaginable Monstrous Strength. In the end, her entire body became like a puddle of rotten mud, forcibly kneaded into that figure's body.

A spine-chilling Chewing Sound crackled through the shadows, making one's blood run cold.

"Hairless Monkeys really do taste nauseating. If coming to this planet hadn't drained so much of my qi and blood, I wouldn't even spare a glance at such weak food."

The twisted figure gradually condensed beneath the lamplight into a tall silhouette. Its face bore fish-like Gills, and muddy fluid seeped from its crimson eyes.

It suddenly looked toward the street corner in the distance. The red light in its eyes intensified, and a few drops of saliva unconsciously seeped from the corner of its mouth.

"Such abundant qi and blood. I never thought the Ancestral Star of the Hairless Monkeys would have such delicious food."

The saliva dripped onto the ground, producing a sizzling corrosive sound as it ate several small pits into the Cement Floor.

The streetlamp flickered between brightness and darkness, and at some point, that twisted figure had vanished without a trace. Only a small Makeup Bag remained on the ground, as though someone had left it behind.

At that very moment, the Youth in black sportswear turned around the street corner. Under the night sky, his figure looked somewhat hazy.