"Keep practicing your punches."
Meng Yongzhi patted Meng Chuan on the shoulder, then returned to the living room. He turned on the TV and lowered the volume to a whisper.
--Yong'an City Publicity Department:
"Once again, a reminder to all residents: a Level Four Demon Nest has recently appeared outside Yong'an City. The principal of Huayan Martial University, [Dragon-Riding Guanyin · Zheng Yulan], is currently leading the team suppressing it.
"During this period, the city government urges everyone to avoid going out at night unless absolutely necessary! Life comes first; safety is most important!"
"What a troubled time... The traces of Heavenly Demons found in Qindu District probably came from this Demon Nest. Tsk, and it's a Level Four one at that."
Meng Yongzhi was deeply troubled. A Demon Nest appearing near Yong'an City was no good news, especially since Level Four Demon Nests had appeared only a handful of times in history.
The previous Level Four Demon Nest had appeared in Guiyun Province. At the time, Great Chu had only just been founded, and the ruler wanted to make an example of it, so he sent an unprecedented force to eradicate demons in Guiyun.
Even so, winning that battle had been an incredibly arduous task. It had lasted a full two months.
Guiyun was originally a mountainous region. When the lockdown was lifted, the locals returned to find, to their astonishment, that their homeland had been battered into a basin.
Heavenly Demons were also creatures born from Demon Nests.
Their origins could be traced back a thousand years. Back then, tales of demons, monsters, ghosts, and spirits were common: some demons built temples, disguised themselves as monks, and ate people, while some ghosts bewitched scholars and stole their Essence Qi.
Three hundred years after Great Chu was founded, the nation's strength had reached unprecedented heights. Taizu devoted the resources of the entire country to research, and after a long time, discovered an unknown world that no one had ever known about.
"An enemy from beyond the heavens, demonic thoughts that beguile the living."
Taizu named it the "Heavenly Demon Realm."
People could not actively explore the Heavenly Demon Realm. They could only come into contact with it passively, because it existed on the Dark Side of the World.
When the earth's veins shifted and the magnetic field reversed, it meant that parts of the Heavenly Demon Realm had intersected and collided with the Reality World.
The part that appeared in the Reality World was named the Demon Nest.
The creatures from the Heavenly Demon Realm that escaped from Demon Nests were naturally called "Heavenly Demons."
Regardless of their strength, they all possessed a bizarre, distorting force field that interfered with the Reality World while protecting them.
It could only be broken by surpassing the First Great Limit, becoming a Martial Dao practitioner, and mastering the power of will—or by using the latest demon-subduing technology.
So when ordinary people encountered a Heavenly Demon, their best hope was that it couldn't run fast enough—or that they could run faster than everyone else...
"That's why Chuan must become a Martial Dao practitioner."
Even a Martial Dao practitioner at the First Great Limit could protect their little family. Thinking of this, Meng Yongzhi decided to increase his investment.
At five o'clock on Monday morning, Meng Chuan stood in a stance in his bedroom.
With the window wide open, the first breath of morning vitality slipped into the room. After two and a half days, Meng Chuan had successfully learned the Sancai Stance.
The panel had changed.
[Martial Dao Limit-Breaking Panel] [Martial Arts] [National Compulsory Basic Fist Technique: Mastery (99%), Awaiting Limit Break] [Limit-Breaking Trait: One Proof Eternal Proof (Super)] [Stake Technique] [Taiyi Three Talents Stance: Human Stance (1%), Awaiting Limit Break] [Limit-Breaking Trait: Morning and Evening Hearing the Dao (Beginner)]
Unlike the progress display for martial arts, Meng Chuan had seen the Illustrated Guide and knew that Xingyi Taiyi Three Talents Stance had four levels, from low to high.
[Human Stance]—[Earth Stance]—[Heaven Stance]—[Three Talents Unity]
Stake Technique was a painstaking practice that demanded steady effort. Even Luo Guanyun, as powerful as he was at the Third Great Limit, had yet to advance his Stake Technique to the [Heaven Stance] level.
The appearance of a new trait made Meng Chuan happy, but his focus was still on [One Proof Eternal Proof]. After learning the stance, he had gained some new insights. He could feel that his limit break was just around the corner!
Once he had calmed down, Meng Chuan practiced the Guoyi Fist a few times, but the panel didn't change. His body felt a little tired.
After learning the stance, each circulation of a full cycle consumed a great deal of mental and physical energy. The first time Meng Chuan tried it, he had stood for less than half an hour before his whole body was weak and sore.
After resting for a while, Meng Chuan drank a bottle of Tendon and Bone Liquid. It tasted a little bitter, so he picked up a peach from the table and munched on it as he headed to school.
By noon, Meng Chuan felt that his body had mostly recovered. It was probably thanks to the Tendon and Bone Liquid his uncle had bought him.
According to Liu Ru, beginners like him could only stand for one or two full cycles a day, depending on their physical fitness. Any more, and they'd end up weak all over, as if they'd been drained.
Sure enough, you had to spend money to get results. Now he could practice the Guoyi Fist alongside his stance and get a better feel for both.
He got right to it. Leaving his half-finished homework aside, he stood in the hallway and practiced the stance during lunch break.
Just then, his homeroom teacher happened to walk by.
Great Chu was governed through martial arts. Even at a school that taught both academic and martial subjects, a homeroom teacher had to have at least three levels of Qi and Blood.
"Oh, Meng Chuan, you're learning a stance?"
Meng Chuan replied, "Yeah, I just learned the basics."
The homeroom teacher rubbed the side of his nose and watched for a moment.
"Just learned it? Your form's pretty good. Where'd you learn?"
Ping'an High School wasn't a specialized Martial Arts School. It only taught stances to martial students after they were separated from the academic track in their second year.
Some students had congenital physical deficiencies, while others didn't want to practice martial arts for personal reasons and preferred academic subjects.
They could manage a few punches, but making them endure the painful practice of standing in a stance was asking too much.
"It's that Infinite Martial Arts Hall at Greenland Plaza. I think they teach really well."
"Your uncle's something else. Infinite Martial Arts Hall isn't cheap. I've heard your hall master is incredibly skilled.
"You should make an effort to get on his good side. Don't slack off. If you can become his apprentice or something, you'll have made it for life, kid."
Meng Chuan had only just started his first year of high school, but the homeroom teacher already had a strong impression of him. He had good natural talent, but was stubborn as a mule and wouldn't listen to advice.
The teacher didn't expect him to take the advice to heart. He was simply doing his duty as a teacher. Now that the kid had started practicing a stance, perhaps this was a good change—a prodigal son finally turning over a new leaf?
The homeroom teacher's throat had gone dry. He lowered his head to sip from the teacup in his hand. When he looked up again, Meng Chuan had started practicing the National Compulsory Basic Fist Technique.
"..."
In the blink of an eye, Saturday arrived.
For the past five days, Meng Chuan had spent around ten hours a day comprehending the Guoyi Fist. He'd even stopped attending class and spent every day practicing punches on the school field.
His academic teachers couldn't do anything about it, so they reported him to the homeroom teacher, who called his uncle.
"Officer Meng, Meng Chuan's been skipping class every day lately."
"Really, Teacher?"
In Meng Yongzhi's mind, Chuan wasn't that kind of person.
"He's on the field practicing punches instead of attending academic classes."
"Okay, thank you, Teacher. Hey! Don't run! Stay right there! Sorry, Teacher, I'm in the middle of a callout and pretty busy. I'll have to hang up for now. I'll make sure to give Meng Chuan a good talking-to when he gets back..."
Homeroom teacher: "Beep, beep, beep..."
Meng Chuan took supplements as he practiced his stance, never neglecting it even while he worked on his punches. Unfortunately, his progress was slow. After five days, the panel hadn't changed at all.
[Taiyi Three Talents Stance: Human Stance (1%)]
His progress with the stance was painfully slow, but Meng Chuan knew that without the panel and One Proof Eternal Proof, he was just an ordinary person. There was no point in feeling discouraged.
If he persevered, everything would change once he broke the limit of the Guoyi Fist. Only by keeping his spirits up and working hard could he do justice to this extraordinary opportunity.
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