This Inner Cultivation Seems a Bit Improper

Chen Jue pulled out his phone and searched for the ID "Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand" on both Douyin and Bilibili.

The follower count wasn't high, just over 200,000.

Compared to those big martial arts influencers who practiced choreographed routines, showed off flashy tricks, and played to the camera, he was far behind.

However, this man clearly possessed genuine skill and true ability, because as Chen Jue scrolled through his video history, he saw that the man could not only inflate his hands as if they were filled with air, but also retract them with ease.

Even the few disciples he brought along could achieve the same feat.

Although he couldn't grasp the underlying principles for the time being, Chen Jue felt incredibly excited after seeing such high-impact footage for the first time.

Traditional martial arts—only what is passed down can be called true martial arts.

As long as the lineage isn't broken, there is hope!

After finishing the videos, Chen Jue looked up at Old Master Wu again.

The old man looked at the influencer in the video with a hint of envy, clutching his thermos as he asked mysteriously, "Young man, guess how old I am?"

"You... you must be in your 60s or 70s!" Chen Jue sized him up.

With graying hair, skin covered in wrinkles, and plenty of age spots on his face, he clearly looked advanced in years.

"I'm 75 this year! I've been retired for 15 years, and Xiaofang is my youngest granddaughter."

Old Master Wu revealed a mysterious smile, then pointed at the Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand in the video: "Guess how old he is?"

"This... 50-something?"

Chen Jue looked at the video, thinking that this tough guy who could smash reinforced concrete with his bare hands—wearing a practice uniform, sporting medium-length ramen-style hair with a touch of gray, a ruddy complexion, and a mustache—looked like a man in his 50s based on appearance alone.

"He's the same age as me, just two months younger!"

"I used some connections to look up his information before."

Old Master Wu closed his thermos and glanced with a smile at the stunned Chen Jue.

Upon hearing this, Chen Jue was instantly filled with confusion.

He compared the images of Old Master Wu and the Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand again, feeling as if he had seen a ghost!

The two men's physical appearances were simply not on the same level of aging!

Judging purely by sight, there was at least a 20-year gap!

"No beauty filters, all videos recorded with the original camera."

"Does practicing internal energy really make such a big difference?" Chen Jue was dumbfounded.

The visual impact was too strong; he couldn't even wrap his head around it.

"There's definitely a difference; you can tell just by looking at this man's appearance and temperament."

"My father practiced internal energy and lived to be 102; he was quite long-lived."

"At my age, I've only learned a bit of the superficial family techniques, and I practiced external martial arts without understanding any health-preserving methods. Nine times out of ten, I won't live to that age!" Old Master Wu said half-jokingly.

Seeing that Chen Jue was still immersed in the shock to his worldview caused by internal energy, Old Master Wu didn't disturb him. He happily picked up his red-tasseled spear and thermos and headed toward the chess tables to find someone for a game.

Regardless, he had said what needed to be said and completed the task his granddaughter had entrusted to him; whether Chen Jue believed it or not was his own business.

However, seeing that the young man's external conditions were quite ordinary, even with a formidable skill in Darts, Old Master Wu felt that he wasn't yet worthy of his granddaughter.

After all, in this day and age, knowing how to throw Darts wasn't exactly a rare talent.

There were plenty of people practicing Darts online, but very few actually made a fortune or lived a life of luxury from it.

As for Chen Jue, after digesting the shock brought by the Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand, he felt a sense of longing and yearning for this type of internal energy he had never touched before.

Since someone had succeeded in practicing it, it meant he certainly could too.

Seeing the man inflate his hands like Luffy using Gear Third—not only increasing the impact resistance of his hands but seemingly enhancing his strength as well—Chen Jue was deeply tempted.

If he could learn this and adjust any organ to inflate like that, wouldn't that be incredible?

"I just don't know how to contact him..."

Chen Jue flipped through the history of videos and the influencer's bio, but he couldn't find a specific address.

It seemed this Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand was simply online to earn traffic revenue and hadn't transitioned to selling goods; even private messages were set to be rejected.

He was clearly an outlier among the crowd of video influencers.

After finishing the videos from start to finish, he realized it was already nearly noon.

When he looked up, Old Master Wu was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it! I didn't even say goodbye!"

Chen Jue slapped his forehead, feeling annoyed at his own lack of manners.

After all, he had come seeking true martial arts; although he hadn't obtained them from the old man, the man had at least pointed him toward a promising path.

"I'll have to thank the old master properly next time we meet." Chen Jue muttered to himself, grabbing his large bag of gear as he left the park.

He found a fast-food joint to grab a quick meal, sitting down to continue scrolling through videos.

He intended to find some leads in the comment section.

As it turned out, after flipping through the whole thing, it was nothing but jokesters and trolls—not a single shred of useful information.

"Can the creator make a video on the process of getting bigger? Also, can this be applied to other limbs? I'm talking about the feet (doge)."

"I'm almost embarrassed to point this out, but (doge) you're talking about the third leg, aren't you? (funny)"

"Can this technique be practiced anywhere? (tongue out)"

"To the guy above, where exactly are you trying to practice? (eating melon)"

"So it turns out the 'sandbag-sized fist' Master Xing mentioned is real! (shocked)"

"Mister, did you eat the Rubber Devil Fruit? (spectating)"

"..."

Seeing that he couldn't find any contact information, Chen Jue had to put his phone away for the time being, shelving the idea of seeking an apprenticeship.

As long as this expert kept uploading videos, there would eventually be a chance to reach him; there was no need to rush.

After finishing lunch, he went upstairs for a 90-minute nap.

He headed back to the park in the afternoon.

However, this time he didn't rush into exercising to grind stats, but instead set up his camera tripod.

Finding a tree trunk to use as a target, he put on his face mask and practiced a few throws at the lens, swish, swish.

After being mocked by netizens for his stone skipping video on his Master of Unique Skills account, Chen Jue had decided to win back some face.

Since stone skipping wasn't impressive enough, surely these master-level dart skills would catch some eyes?

To increase the difficulty, Chen Jue deliberately backed away, only releasing his darts once he was nearly 20 meters out.

He spent over an hour practicing with all the various styles of throwing weapons he had bought.

After collecting the footage, Chen Jue sat down and edited it directly on his phone, adding a classical martial arts-style BGM before uploading it with the title [Unique Skill: Darts].

Why was the title spaced out and elongated?

Because it was an essential skill for any meme-loving creator, and it fit the ultra-long distance of Chen Jue's darts perfectly.

He had used the same trick for his [Stone Skipping] video, but unfortunately, he'd been overshadowed by that world record holder.

After uploading the video, Chen Jue saw it was still early and continued practicing the Twelve Taiji Forms by the lake.

Since this skill had already reached (Perfect), further practice would no longer increase his proficiency.

However, Taiji was considered aerobic exercise, so practicing it would still boost his attribute points.

Spending the rest of the afternoon, Chen Jue managed to grind out a total of 0.02 free attribute points.

After a moment's thought, he added them directly to [Constitution].

His Constitution attribute rose to 1.05.

Ever since his Constitution had increased, Chen Jue had noticed his energy levels were significantly better than before!

In the past, he would feel drowsy after sitting in front of a computer for a few hours at work.

Now, waking up early and training every day didn't make him feel exhausted at all.

Even when he trained intensely and his muscles felt sore and fatigued, he could recover after just a night or two of rest—all thanks to this [Constitution] attribute he had pushed past 1.0.

I wonder if, when my Constitution hits 2 or 3, it'll be able to eliminate these bad habits of mine. Chen Jue felt a comfortable wave of heat wash through his body, and while lost in thought, he grabbed his backpack and headed back to the talent apartment.

He didn't use the grip trainer that night.

Because the muscle groups in his hands hadn't fully recovered, Chen Jue estimated he needed one more night of rest to fully metabolize the lactic acid buildup.

According to Li Chaoqun, the fitness coach, the muscles in the arms were small muscle groups and recovered faster than the larger ones.

However, for an average person to train like Chen Jue, it would take at least five days or even a week to recover (Note).

The only reason Chen Jue recovered so quickly was the support of his attribute panel.

Of course, even without training that night, Chen Jue didn't stay idle.

Recently, he had become passionate about exercise, training, and improving his physical condition, so he spent his free time online reading materials related to human anatomy, sports, and fitness to "recharge" and avoid injuring himself through improper training.

As for Wu Fang, Chen Jue tried sending her a message, saying he was very grateful for Old Master Wu's guidance and had learned a lot from their meeting that morning.

Whether it was because the buzz from the weekend news about the dog rescue had died down or the netizens had simply moved on, he didn't know.

Surprisingly, Wu Fang was online, and she replied: "Glad I could help! (grin) My grandpa said your dart skills are really impressive—you could even enter a competition!"

"Not at all, just a little hobby I picked up on my own (well-behaved)."

Seeing that the beautiful and kind-hearted teacher replied to his messages instantly, Chen Jue began chatting with her.

Time spent chatting with a girl always flies by.

Once 10 o'clock hit, there was no more movement on the other end of WeChat.

Chen Jue had no choice but to put down his phone, turn off the lights, and close his eyes, intending to get to sleep early.

However, after closing his eyes, his mind was filled with those large hands that seemed to be inflated like balloons. Clearly, the impression left during the day was so profound that his brain was still in an excited state.

Tossing and turning, he finally managed to fall asleep close to 11 o'clock.

By the next morning, he had slightly overslept, so he went upstairs to the roof around 7 o'clock to do his [Eye Health Exercises].

This daily 30-minute routine of closed-eye sun exposure and eye care had gradually become a habit for Chen Jue.

Those who have never suffered from nearsightedness probably cannot understand the discomfort and inconvenience of wearing glasses.

The first thing to do upon waking up is to grope for one's glasses; if you forget where you put them, you have to squint and search everywhere because everything a few meters away is a blur, as if your eyes were covered in a layer of mosaic.

Now that he had this method to improve and restore his vision, Chen Jue naturally practiced it vigorously.

Fortunately, after practicing for these past few days, the results were very significant. Not only was his vision becoming clearer, but the skill [Eye Health Exercises] had also been "grinded" by Chen Jue to the point of leveling up again.

[Ding~]

[Current proficiency has reached 100%, skill level increased.]

[Eye Health Exercises Lv1 (200/200) → Lv2 (1/500)]

[After a period of exploration, you have gained certain insights into eye care and massage. You are no longer unfamiliar with the blood vessels, meridians, and muscle nerve points around the eye sockets. Massage pressure has improved, blood flow velocity in the eyeballs has accelerated, metabolic capacity of visual cells has become vigorous, and massage techniques and therapeutic effects have been slightly enhanced.]

A strange sense of muscle memory washed over him, and Chen Jue felt his hands become a bit more dexterous.

Raising his hands to press the acupoints around his eye sockets again, he could basically hit the right spots in one go, no longer needing to watch tutorial videos and grope around to find the pathways like before.

"This is truly magical!"

"It's like inputting fixed code into my muscles!"

Chen Jue tested the effects of the upgrade a few times, feeling moved as he went downstairs to pack his things.

Because today was Monday, his first day reporting for work at Hengtong Group.

Although it wasn't far—only a 20-minute drive—he still had to prepare early.

He took a large bag and packed a business suit; this was the standard attire for financial firms, and any large company with regulations required this stuff.

However, Chen Jue planned to change once he reached his desk; there was plenty of time anyway.

Don't look at how he had acquired a system panel and could get returns by grinding skills through hard work.

But until he could earn enough money from these special skills to secure his livelihood, Chen Jue wouldn't quit his job so early to go back to his hometown and slack off.

After all, he worked in risk control and knew there were too many uncertainties in quitting without a backup plan.

He packed a pair of leather shoes into his bag, stuffed a grip strengthener into his pocket, and Chen Jue headed downstairs dressed in sportswear.

He didn't go to the park for his morning workout because there wasn't enough time.

He drove to the building where Hengtong Group was located. Due to the morning rush hour traffic, it was already past 8:40 by the time he parked his car.

Chen Jue saw a sea of office workers and young white-collar employees rushing into the nearby large office buildings.

The building housing Hengtong Group was no exception; it was filled with crowds and traffic.

However, Chen Jue wasn't in a hurry. Regarding this new job, he was simply coming with the mindset of "fishing" (slacking off).

Didn't you see the grip strengthener in his pocket?

Secretly grinding his stats while collecting a high salary—he was a true master of time management!

But just after clocking in on DingTalk and walking to the elevator lobby, Chen Jue was dumbfounded!

There were simply too many employees in this new building, and all 8 elevator entrances were packed solid.

Even the fire escape around the corner was crowded with people, all scrambling to take the freight elevator, fearing they wouldn't make it to work on time.

Seeing this, Chen Jue turned his brain and looked at the empty staircase: "It's only climbing 17 floors, it shouldn't be that difficult, right?"

Chen Jue felt a stir in his heart. Already half a man of action, he lifted his foot and stepped onto the stairs.

Unexpectedly, he had only climbed half a flight of stairs, not even reaching the landing, when the panel suddenly popped up a notification:

[Ding~]

[Completed a series of physical movements meeting the requirements]

[Climbing skill proficiency +1]

Second update~

This chapter is another two-in-one; I got a bit overexcited writing through the night.

My throat had been inflamed and painful all afternoon, so I didn't expect to hit such a good flow late at night.

While I'm at it, I'd like to humbly ask everyone for your votes, especially those recommendation votes. Since I update every day, they'll just go to waste if you leave them sitting there, so you might as well cast them for Pianfeng!

Thank you, my lords (thump, thump, kowtowing).