Eight Sections and Nine Joints, Grasping Qi Sensation

Old Liang felt around in his pocket, pulled out a crumpled cigarette pack, and gave it two shakes, only to find it empty.

He shook his head and handed Qin Shi a few loose bills.

"Run an errand for me and buy a pack of Limin. The soft-pack kind."

Qin Shi was quick-witted too. He took the money and sprinted off.

Back when he got his driver's license in his previous life, he had often bought water and cigarettes for his instructor, so he had plenty of experience.

"Teacher Liang, your cigarettes."

"Hm? You sure have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, kid."

Old Liang raised his Eyebrows when he saw the soft-pack Hanhua Qin Shi had brought back.

A pack of Limin cost just over fifteen yuan, while Hanhua cost at least seventy.

The kid sure knew how to handle people. Far sharper than those little brats he taught!

"Yesterday, I didn't hold back when I twisted your muscles. I wanted you to suffer enough to back off when things got hard.

"I didn't expect you to be so tough. Not only did you endure it, you've even got a body built to take punishment."

Old Liang did not refuse. He accepted the "Hua Zi" favored by veteran smokers, opened it in front of Qin Shi, put one between his lips, and puffed out clouds of smoke.

"From now on, come by once a day whenever you have time. Twist your muscles after you finish training. The more you work those major tendons, the tougher they become, and your strength and stamina will improve too."

Qin Shi secretly let out a breath of relief. Old Liang had finally accepted him.

This PE teacher from No. 9 Vocational Middle School had real skills hidden up his sleeve.

If Old Liang thought highly of him, it would definitely be more useful than spending a fortune at a gym in the Tai'an Metropolitan Area!

"Where were we?"

"Emptiness and Fullness."

Old Liang had the other students run laps to warm up, then led Qin Shi into a school building.

As they walked, he explained.

"So-called 'emptiness' is the qi within your body. It grows amid flesh and blood, and is nurtured in the Bone Marrow.

"In Old Martial Arts, Muscle Twisting and Back Stretching are methods for reshaping the human body. In the even earlier Old Era, they were secret formulas never passed down to outsiders.

"Nowadays, almost everyone practices martial arts, so there's no longer such fuss over it. To truly begin training, the First Step is called 'Grasping Qi Sensation.'

"You must firmly grasp that qi, guide it, and make it circulate along a set route before you can be considered initiated."

Old Liang stubbed out his cigarette and took out a key to open the training room.

The empty room was around a hundred square meters, its floor covered in soft mats. Several redwood stakes as tall as a person stood in the corner, while an anatomical chart hung on the wall, marked with densely packed red dots and text.

"Emptiness is qi. Then let me test you: what is fullness?"

Qin Shi thought carefully upon hearing that. His gaze swept over the incredibly detailed chart of the human body, and he blurted out.

"It's the torso. It's the limbs!"

Old Liang could not help sighing. No wonder the Cadre School on Old Factory Street could not recruit any promising students.

Anyone even slightly outstanding had tested into the Tai'an Metropolitan Area.

Those left behind were rarely good material.

Qin Shi was one such case.

At No. 9 Vocational Middle School, he would have been a top student without question, in the Top Ten of the entire grade.

But if he were thrown into New No. 1 Middle School, how could he compete with the wealthy kids backed by abundant resources?

He would only be buried there, his talent wasted for nothing.

"That's right. Grasping Qi Sensation, opening the joints, and forming a circulation of your own—back in the Martial Arts World, this was called the 'Lesser Heavenly Cycle.'

"If you can complete twenty full Lesser Heavenly Cycles, your Life Force will definitely break through ten points, enough for you to pass the Rank-Placement Exam."

Old Liang folded his arms, his eyes carrying a probing look.

Muscle Twisting and Back Stretching, Grasping Qi Sensation, opening the joints, forming a cycle.

He had run tutoring classes for several years, yet very few students had successfully passed all four stages.

The First Step and the second step alone had an elimination rate as high as eighty percent.

Muscle Twisting and Back Stretching were far too painful, while Grasping Qi Sensation was even more elusive and difficult to comprehend.

Besides, Worker's Children had hard lives these days and too many worries, leaving them restless and impatient.

When they saw no results after ten days or half a month, they naturally could not be bothered to persist. They slackened and gave up.

Qin Shi said in a low voice.

"Teacher Liang, I want to try."

This Old Martial Arts method might have already been cast aside by the times.

But right now, it was the only path of Life Force Development he could access!

He had to seize this opportunity tightly!

"Good."

Old Liang nodded. Since he had opened classes and set up a program, he would not hide anything or put on airs.

This was no longer the Old Era, when martial arts schools taught disciples while always holding something back.

Now, it was simply a matter of taking money and getting things done.

"Same as yesterday. Spread into a horse stance and stand firm. I'll teach you how to open your limbs.

"The human body has Eight Sections and Nine Joints. The former are the calves, thighs, forearms, upper arms, waist, back, shoulders, and palms.

"When you exert force, its root lies in the feet, passes through the legs, is governed by the waist, and manifests in the five fingers. When the Eight Sections unite, your force becomes mighty and heavy!"

Old Liang demonstrated in person. Suddenly, he raised his hand, and his arm lashed out like a whip, forming a straight line and exploding with a crisp crack!

It was so fast that it nearly left an afterimage!

"Hiss, so fast!"

Qin Shi felt the skin on his face tighten as a fierce gust rushed toward him, leaving him numb as though shocked by electricity.

His eyelids twitched wildly, and for a moment, he had the illusion that his head was about to be smashed apart!

"That punch carried roughly Twenty Years of skill. If your Life Force hasn't passed fifteen points, getting struck in a vital spot means instant death!

"That's how Old Martial Arts are. Drawing blood when you strike, crippling or killing people—it's perfectly ordinary."

Old Liang withdrew his stance and continued.

"As for the Nine Joints, they are divided into the Three Hand Passes, Three Foot Passes, and Three Back Passes. In order, it's wrist, elbow, then shoulder; hip, knee, then ankle..."

Qin Shi listened attentively. Fortunately, he was a decent learner, and he remembered it all after hearing it once.

"I've told you everything that needs to be said. From now on, this training room is yours to use. Everything inside is school property, so don't damage anything. Otherwise, you'll have to compensate at full price."

Old Liang left with his hands behind his back, limping as he went.

This Kid had a body built for hard training and could endure Muscle Twisting. He just did not know how his comprehension was.

If he could not grasp Qi Sensation within five days, then he could only train his physical fitness like the students outside and raise his Life Force that way.

"Heh, Old Martial Arts can feed a hundred people, yet may not produce two or three promising sprouts. No wonder they deserve to die out!"

Old Liang walked out into the corridor, lowered his head, and mocked himself, a trace of melancholy rising in his heart.

He thought back to the glorious days when the First Generation Ten Prodigies had dominated the era. Every Martial Artist had been like a blazing sun illuminating the world, inspiring awe, admiration, longing, and dreams.

"A training method passed down through countless generations is going to end in my hands. What a pity."

"Grasping Qi Sensation, Eight Sections and Nine Joints. Compared with the basic material taught in school combat classes, these Old Martial Arts concepts really are obscure and difficult to understand."

Facing the wall, Qin Shi held a horse stance and stared fixedly at the anatomical chart filling his vision.

"What exactly is Qi Sensation? Old Liang said the tendons and muscles must be taut, the breath must be loose; guide qi with the heart, move the body with qi..."

He carefully pondered the meaning. The purpose of Muscle Twisting and Back Stretching was to make the body stop being stiff and become flexible.

Only once the body became "alive" could that qi emerge.

"Yesterday, I replicated the Muscle Twisting techniques through Muscle Memory. That sensation of hot currents gathering and surging like a spring—could that have been Qi Sensation?"

Qin Shi thought for a long time. Although his Life Force of just over eight points allowed him to quickly catch wisps of faint, drifting qi, it remained intermittent and impossible to connect, like a trickle of water that he could not grasp at all.

"I wanted to rely on my own effort and talent. Why are you forcing me to do this!"

Qin Shi sighed helplessly.

Since that was the case, he would stop pretending.

Time to lay his cards on the table. I'm a cheater!

Monument, activate!

Huff!

Inhale!

In an instant, as Muscle Memory replicated the movements with perfect precision, Qin Shi's body seemed to awaken.

Every major tendon, every bone, every bundle of muscle seemed to come alive and began to contract and stretch!

They intertwined tightly, fitting together flawlessly, forming a unified whole!

Fine, dense streams of heat flowed in from all directions, gathering around his chest and abdomen, rising and falling with the rhythm of his breathing.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

"Succeeded!"

Nearly twenty minutes passed. Just as Qin Shi's stamina was about to run dry,

his eyes lit up, and the Vein on Forehead throbbed fiercely.

Huff!

It was as though inspiration flashed through his mind. At last, he caught that faint thread of qi!

It was like pinching Threads between his fingers and passing them through one tiny needle eye after another.

The process twisted and turned, complicated and laborious.

It required extraordinarily sharp perception and astonishing patience to accomplish!

"Don't rush! Remember this feeling! Remember it with your heart!"

Qin Shi calmed himself. His breathing was even, his body steady, his feet rooted to the ground without the slightest Shake Head.

That thread of qi grew clearer and clearer. The initial burning sting, soreness, itchiness, and numbness gradually softened.

Like water nourishing taut major tendons and swollen muscles.

Comfortable!

He had never expected training to feel this good!

"So that's what Qi Sensation does. Qi can cultivate the body and ease the fatigue of overtraining. It's similar to the state of Deep Sleep."

Qin Shi suddenly understood as information flickered across the Monument Panel on his retina—

[Completed one set of Exhaustion Training]

[Growth Value +50]

"Exhaustion?"

Before Qin Shi could react, his legs began shaking violently. His stance instantly collapsed, and he fell backward onto the ground.

At the same time, Old Liang pushed open the door and looked at the bedraggled youth, drenched in sweat with reddened skin.

His brows rose. Clearly, he had noticed a change in Qin Shi's breathing rhythm.

After staring blankly for several seconds, the PE teacher finally revealed an expression of utter disbelief.

"You... you grasped Qi Sensation?"

"Yeah."

Old Liang's throat bobbed, and he hesitated before asking again.

"What does it feel like?"

Qin Shi braced himself on the ground with both hands.

"Hungry. Really hungry. Starving!"

Old Liang stood blankly in the doorway, limping on one foot.

He stared at Qin Shi for a moment, then suddenly burst into hearty laughter.

"I've had rotten luck for half my life, and I actually managed to pick up a bargain this time! What was your name again?"

"Qin Shi."

"Qin Shi... a good name!"

With a Hanhua cigarette in his mouth, Old Liang's back, once slightly hunched because of his limp, seemed to straighten a little.

"Haha, come with me. Teacher's treating you to a meal!"