[Collapse Mountain Fist, Heart Like Mountain: Each punch lands as if a towering mountain were collapsing.] [First Glimpse of the Door: +3 Strength] [Mastery Through Practice: +6 Strength] [Perfected Skill: +9 Strength] [Entering the Hall and Room: +12 Strength] [Supernatural Skill: +20 Strength]
"So Martial Skills have five stages..."
Yang Ling instinctively glanced at his Attribute Panel.
Character: Yang Ling Class: Martial Artist Level: 8 Strength: 11 Agility: 5 Spirit: 10 Martial Arts: Vajra Mingwang Technique (First-rate Cultivation Method, Beginner) Experience Points: 10/100 Collapse Mountain Fist (Beginner) Proficiency: 0/100 Health Points: 110
"Cultivation methods use Experience Points, while Martial Skills use Proficiency. But at the beginning, both only need 100 points."
"Wu Que's Black Tiger Fist had already reached Entering the Hall and Room, and so had Zhang Hao's Zhang Family Leg Technique."
"And Huineng's Tablet Breaking Hand and Gale Step had both reached Entering the Hall and Room."
"Judging by the bonuses, the first four stages should be reasonably attainable. But that last stage, Supernatural Skill, must be incredibly difficult to reach. That's probably why it grants a whopping 20 Strength."
"Never mind all that. Time to train!"
Yang Ling closed his eyes and kept recalling the techniques for practicing Collapse Mountain Fist.
The next moment, he suddenly assumed a stance and began practicing methodically.
Time passed minute by minute.
About an hour went by.
A sheen of sweat had formed on Yang Ling's forehead.
Just then, a warm current flowed through him.
"Something's happening!"
He glanced at his Attribute Panel.
[Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 1/100]
"Vajra Mingwang Technique gains 1 Experience Point in about fifteen minutes. Why does an ordinary Martial Skill take a whole hour to gain 1 Proficiency?"
A trace of doubt flashed in Yang Ling's eyes.
By rights, Collapse Mountain Fist should have been faster to practice than Vajra Mingwang Technique.
After all, it was just an ordinary boxing technique.
"Never mind. I'll just keep at it."
Yang Ling didn't bother dwelling on it and continued practicing with full concentration.
Whenever he got tired, he took a short break.
Before he knew it, the chickens outside were crowing.
Yang Ling snapped out of it and checked his Attribute Panel again.
[Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 6/100]
"Six Proficiency? It doesn't have a cap like Vajra Mingwang Technique?"
Yang Ling was pleasantly surprised.
To test this, he decided not to rest and continued practicing Collapse Mountain Fist.
An hour later, his Proficiency increased by another point.
Before he knew it, noon had arrived.
[Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 12/100]
"Just as I thought..."
Yang Ling murmured to himself.
"So practicing a boxing technique has no daily cap. That means..."
A gleam flashed in his eyes as he instinctively clenched his fist.
"If I train hard every day, I can reach 100 Proficiency in seven or eight days. Then I'll have achieved First Glimpse of the Door?"
Yang Ling was suddenly filled with energy.
But after staying up all night, he was tired.
"Practicing Vajra Mingwang Technique seems to restore my energy quickly. If I could use it instead of sleeping, I could spend all twenty-four hours leveling up..."
Yang Ling put the idea into action and began practicing Vajra Mingwang Technique.
A little over an hour later, he had gained another 5 Experience Points.
[Vajra Mingwang Technique, Experience Points: 15/100]
Yang Ling slowly opened his eyes, feeling completely refreshed, as if he'd slept for ten hours.
"That's the feeling!"
Yang Ling was a little excited.
He hurriedly wolfed down two pieces of flatbread, then went back to practicing Collapse Mountain Fist.
He couldn't enter the mine for the next few days anyway, so he might as well use the time to improve his Proficiency in Collapse Mountain Fist.
For the next four whole days, Yang Ling didn't leave his home.
"Phew!"
After finishing a set of punches, Yang Ling felt thirsty. He picked up his cup and gulped down a few mouthfuls of water.
He glanced at his Attribute Panel.
[Vajra Mingwang Technique, Experience Points: 35/100] [Collapse Mountain Fist, Proficiency: 99/100]
"Just one more Proficiency."
Yang Ling wiped the water from the corner of his mouth and continued practicing.
Before he knew it, an hour had passed.
Collapse Mountain Fist's Proficiency had quietly reached 100.
Whoosh!
Yang Ling's fist suddenly felt more powerful. When he threw a punch, even the sound of it cutting through the air grew louder!
"I broke through!"
Yang Ling immediately checked his attributes.
Character: Yang Ling Class: Martial Artist Level: 8 Strength: 14 (3) Agility: 5 Spirit: 10 Martial Arts: Vajra Mingwang Technique (First-rate Cultivation Method, Beginner) Experience Points: 35/100 Collapse Mountain Fist (First Glimpse of the Door) Proficiency: 0/1000 Health Points: 110
"That extra 3 Strength came from Collapse Mountain Fist."
"I reached First Glimpse of the Door in just four or five days. But..."
Yang Ling noticed that Collapse Mountain Fist's Proficiency requirement had increased to 1,000.
"So to reach Mastery Through Practice, I'll have to grind day and night for forty or fifty days?"
"Will Perfected Skill require 10,000 Proficiency? That would take more than a year..."
"And if I want to reach Entering the Hall and Room, wouldn't that take more than a decade, even if I trained day and night?"
Yang Ling's enthusiasm was suddenly doused with cold water.
He finally understood why Wu Que and the others had only trained their Martial Skills to Entering the Hall and Room.
Those guys must have been practicing for well over a decade.
As for reaching Supernatural Skill, that would probably take more than a hundred years.
He'd be dead of old age before he got there, unless...
"Unless I have exceptional talent. If I can gain 10 Proficiency an hour, my progress will be ten times faster..."
"Collapse Mountain Fist isn't the main thing. Judging by this... Experience Points for Vajra Mingwang Technique might correspond to Proficiency."
"Though it only has four layers, there's a daily cap on practice. I can only gain 5 Experience Points a day."
"The first layer alone takes twenty days."
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