The next day, while the sky was still dim, Chen Shouyi was already awake.
The muscle memory of the Lunging Straight Sword from the previous night remained vivid in his mind. As soon as he got up, he eagerly picked up the Wooden Sword and started practicing, thinking he would master the fundamentals of the Forward Lunge Stab with ease.
But once he actually began practicing, he discovered it was nothing like he'd imagined.
Memory was only memory, after all.
His muscles felt stiff and awkward, and were extremely difficult to control.
This was different from practicing the optimized Thirty-Six Body Tempering Forms. Compared with the original, the optimized forms had changed very little, with only a few minor differences in the details. And the force was still applied in a way that followed a normal person's habits.
After practicing them just a few times, Chen Shouyi had adapted quickly and could even perform them with ease.
But the lunge-and-stab technique was like taking a crude, low-powered machine and forcibly transforming it into a high-powered one, with every part running in perfect synchrony. Not only did each muscle require precise control, they also had to work together smoothly, unleashing the full force of his body without losing any power.
Fortunately, unlike everyone else, he had the Martial Arts Teacher's muscle memory for the Forward Lunge Stab. That was an enormous advantage, like someone who already knew how to do something having to practice it again in a new body.
It meant he didn't have to take any detours.
The days passed, and for Chen Shouyi, life was peaceful yet fulfilling.
His appetite grew, and his body grew stronger by the day. His thin, bony chest gradually began to fill out.
After three days, his physique and willpower attributes each increased by 0.1. After the fourth day, his strength also increased by 0.1, and then came agility...
It might not seem like much for an attribute to increase by just 0.1. With the average attribute at 10, it seemed insignificant.
But in fact, every whole-point increase in the Book of Knowledge's attributes multiplied the value by one and a half.
Ten points of strength meant roughly one hundred kilograms of force; eleven points meant one hundred and fifty kilograms, and twelve points meant two hundred and twenty-five kilograms.
An increase of 0.1 from a base of 10 amounted to roughly five kilograms.
And that was in just a few days.
What's more, almost all his attributes were increasing. With each one reinforcing the others, his overall fighting strength could increase by several tenths or more.
It was another day of Martial Arts class.
The Martial Arts Teacher paced among the students. When he saw Chen Shouyi practicing, his eyes lit up. He clapped his hands and called out,
"Chen Shouyi's Forward Lunge Stab has reached a high level. Come over and demonstrate it for everyone."
At the Martial Arts Teacher's loud praise, countless gazes turned toward him.
Those gazes felt like sunlight focused into a burning beam. Chen Shouyi's face flushed, and he didn't know what to do with himself. The curious looks of several pretty girls made his chest tighten and his breath grow shallow.
He'd been timid and insecure since childhood, and dreaded being exposed to everyone's gaze. Even answering questions made his face redden and his words stumble, let alone this.
"Chen Shouyi, you're a little shy, huh?" the Martial Arts Teacher said with a kind smile. "How can you learn martial arts if you don't have the guts?"
A burst of laughter rose at once.
His classmates' laughter was like a barrage of sharp swords, stabbing into his fragile heart.
Chen Shouyi lowered his head and clenched his fists in secret, his sharp nails digging deep into his palms. He roared inside:
What are you afraid of? Chen Shouyi, what are you afraid of?
They're all classmates. What's there to be afraid of?
Even if you embarrass yourself and mess up, what can they do to you?
No one has ever really cared about you, and no one has ever thought highly of you. Even if you make a fool of yourself, they'll forget it in a moment!
As he kept trying to talk himself into it, a powerful thought seemed to charge wildly through his mind. Chen Shouyi suddenly said, "Yes, Teacher!"
The moment the words left his mouth, it was as if he'd broken free of his own restraints. Everything before him seemed different.
The air in the indoor basketball court felt fresher.
The afternoon sunlight filtered through the leaves outside and passed through the glass windows, scattering patches of light across the floor.
Chen Shouyi walked forward step by step. At first, his head was still slightly bowed, his chest caved in and his shoulders hunched, his face flushed red. But as he continued walking, he slowly raised his head. His steps grew firm, his body straighter, and the flush gradually faded from his face.
"I never realized Chen Shouyi was so tall!" one girl whispered, as if she'd discovered a new continent.
"Me neither. I'd never noticed before!" Another girl quietly agreed, as if they'd found common ground.
I guarantee he's going to burst into tears in a minute, his best friend, Zhao Yifeng, thought to himself.
Watching Chen Shouyi, who seemed almost like a stranger now, he felt instinctively uncomfortable.
They'd all been a puddle of mud before, so none of them had any right to laugh at the others. But now that someone was trying to climb out of that mire, intense jealousy and insecurity made him instinctively want to stop it.
Sun Xin said nothing, only pursed his lips. As Chen Shouyi's deskmate, he could clearly sense the change in him.
These past few days, Chen Shouyi had studied hard every day, more diligently than anyone else. Sometimes Sun Xin even wondered if something had happened to him.
Chen Shouyi stopped in front of the model the teacher had used for the demonstration.
"You can start," the Martial Arts Teacher said.
"All right, Teacher," Chen Shouyi replied respectfully.
He gripped his sword. Under the watchful eyes of all fifty-three students in the class, his mind was utterly calm, and his gaze was sharp and confident.
His swordsmanship had finally reached the entry level six days ago.
For him, the hardest part of swordsmanship was mastering the basics. Once he'd taken that first step, with the Martial Arts Teacher's muscle memory from the school to draw on, he made rapid progress. In just a few days, the Forward Lunge Stab had become more and more familiar; he was nearly able to perform a perfect thrust without even thinking.
In the next instant, he moved. His body flowed like water, drifting like mist, while his Long Sword seemed like a swift sea swallow piercing through a storm.
Bang! A thunderous impact rang out!
The sword tip struck the model squarely between the eyebrows. The impact tilted it at a thirty-degree angle to the ground, and its base slid nearly half a meter.
The surroundings fell silent, followed by a wave of gasps.
There were fifty-four students in the class, including him. No more than five had reached the entry level in swordsmanship, and not one could perform it so perfectly while also sending the model sliding nearly half a meter.
On his way back from the demonstration, he realized something had changed. He'd gone from an unknown nobody, a background figure as invisible as air, to someone who seemed to have become the focus of everyone's attention.
Many people were sneaking glances at him, including quite a few girls.
Whenever he looked toward them, their eyes immediately darted away.
Hmph. Women are nothing special, after all.
A strange thought crossed his mind. The tension he'd felt at first slowly ebbed away.
"I didn't know you were so good at martial arts!" A classmate punched him lightly in the chest and said with a grin.
He remembered the other boy's name was Huang Kai. His grades had always been in the top ten in their class, and he'd belonged to a completely different social tier. Huang Kai had never spoken to him before, yet now he acted as if they were close friends.
Chen Shouyi was taken aback, then hurriedly replied, "I've just been practicing a lot lately."
He'd thought he would be overwhelmed with joy, but in the end, he'd answered with surprising calm.
I really am different now!
On the way out after Martial Arts class, Chen Shouyi instinctively wanted to catch up with the other three in their group.
But he was soon surrounded by a crowd.
"Chen Shouyi, how did you train? Do you have any tricks?"
Many people might never pass the Martial Apprentice examination in their lives, but how many teenagers didn't like martial arts?
Of course there's a trick, but you wouldn't be able to use it. Chen Shouyi thought to himself. Out loud, he shared some martial arts advice he'd read online: "First, break the movements down into smaller steps and practice them one by one. Once you're comfortable with every step, put them together and practice the whole sequence."
"I train like that too, but it doesn't help much," one classmate said skeptically.
"This method varies from person to person. What works best is what suits you. But you have to be patient first. Without patience, you can't master anything," Chen Shouyi said without batting an eye.
"Patience really is the most important thing. I just can't settle down and focus," the skeptical classmate said with a nod.
Chen Shouyi realized that his mind was sharp and his speech quick today. Whatever he said, people listened—and agreed with him.
He was filled with excitement. He was starting to like being noticed and taken seriously, instead of being an insignificant nobody whom everyone casually ignored.
Back in the classroom, Chen Shouyi walked to his seat.
Sun Xin threw an arm around him and said with a look of envy,
"Did you take some kind of aphrodisiac today? You were incredible!"
"I told you a long time ago that I'd get into the Martial Arts Academy!" Chen Shouyi said smugly in a low voice.
Chen Shouyi had expected to hear the usual mockery and put-downs.
He was still a long way from becoming a Martial Apprentice, separated from it by a deep chasm. Even he wasn't confident he could pass the exam with just a year to prepare.
But that wasn't what happened.
"Don't forget me when you make it big," Sun Xin said with a sheepish grin.
Sun Xin had heard Chen Shouyi say something similar at the start of the school year. Back then, it had sounded like the usual bragging between friends—believing it would only make a fool of you. But after Chen Shouyi's eye-catching performance in Martial Arts class that day, Sun Xin couldn't help believing he might actually make it.
"You really believe me? I'm not even confident myself," Chen Shouyi said in surprise, his mouth half-open.
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