0042: This Inner Power Doesn't Seem Entirely Proper

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

The account didn't have many followers—just over 200,000.

That was nothing compared to the big martial arts influencers who practiced routines, showed off flashy tricks, and posed for the camera.

But this man clearly had real skills and genuine ability. Chen Jue browsed through his older videos and saw that the blogger wasn't the only one who could make his hands swell up as if they were filled with air, then shrink them back at will.

Several of his disciples could do it too.

Chen Jue still couldn't understand how it worked, but seeing a video like that for the first time left him thrilled.

Traditional martial arts lived on through its students. As long as the lineage survived, that was what mattered!

After watching the video, Chen Jue looked up at Old Master Wu again.

The old man watched the blogger with a trace of envy in his eyes. Holding a thermos, he put on a mysterious air and asked, "Young man, how old do you think I am?"

"Sir... you must be in your sixties or seventies, right?" Chen Jue studied him.

His hair was white, his skin was covered in wrinkles, and age spots dotted his face. He was clearly no spring chicken.

"I'm seventy-five this year! I've been retired for fifteen years. Fang is my youngest granddaughter."

Old Master Wu gave a mysterious smile, then pointed at Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand on the screen. "How old do you think he is?"

"Uh... in his fifties?"

Chen Jue looked at the video. The man was a tough guy who could slap reinforced concrete with his bare hands. He wore a martial arts uniform and had medium-length, permed hair with a touch of gray. His complexion was ruddy, and he had a ring of facial hair around his lips. Going by his looks alone, he seemed like a middle-aged man in his fifties.

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

"I had someone look up his background for me."

Old Master Wu closed his thermos and smiled at Chen Jue, who was staring at him in shock.

Chen Jue was left completely dumbfounded.

He compared Old Master Wu's appearance with that of Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand. It was like seeing a ghost!

They didn't look remotely close in age.

By appearances alone, they seemed at least twenty years apart!

"No beauty filters. Those videos were all filmed with the original camera."

"Can practicing inner power really make that much of a difference?" Chen Jue asked, utterly baffled.

The sight was so shocking that he couldn't even begin to imagine it.

"There's definitely a difference. You can tell just from the man's appearance and bearing."

"My father practiced inner power and lived to be 102. He was quite long-lived."

"At my age, I've only learned a little of my family's teachings. I practice external martial arts and don't know much about health-preserving techniques. Chances are, I won't live that long!" Old Master Wu said with a half-joking smile.

Seeing that Chen Jue was still reeling from the blow inner power had dealt to his worldview, Old Master Wu left him alone. Chuckling, he took a Red Tassel Spear and his thermos over to the chess tables to find someone for a game.

He'd said what he needed to say, and completed his granddaughter's assignment. Whether Chen Jue believed it was up to him.

Still, given the young man's rather ordinary looks, Old Master Wu felt he wasn't quite good enough for his granddaughter yet, even if he did have an impressive knack for Darts.

After all, Darts wasn't exactly a rare skill these days.

There were plenty of people practicing Darts online, but few had made good money or built a comfortable life from it.

As for Chen Jue, after absorbing the shock brought on by Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand, he felt a stronger longing for the unfamiliar inner power.

If someone else had mastered it, then surely he could too.

Watching the man swell his hands was like seeing Luffy use Third Gear. It didn't just improve his hands' resistance to blows; it seemed to boost his strength as well. Chen Jue wanted to learn it badly.

If he could learn to make any organ swell up like that, just by adjusting it, then who knew what he could do?

"I just don't know how to get in touch with him..."

Chen Jue went through the blogger's old videos and profile, but couldn't find an address.

It seemed Old Urchin of Hunyuan Hand was simply uploading videos to make money from the traffic. He hadn't branched out into selling products, and he even rejected private messages.

He was clearly an odd one out among video bloggers.

By the time Chen Jue had watched every video from beginning to end, it was nearly noon.

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

"Oh no! I didn't even say goodbye!"

Chen Jue smacked his forehead, annoyed with himself for being so rude.

He'd come hoping to learn some real skills. Although he hadn't learned anything from the old man himself, Old Master Wu had at least pointed him in the right direction.

"I'll have to thank him properly next time I see him," Chen Jue muttered to himself as he carried a large bag out of the park.

He grabbed a quick meal at a fast-food place, then sat down and kept watching videos.

He planned to look for a lead in the comments.

But after scrolling through them, all he found were jokesters and people looking for a laugh. There wasn't a single useful bit of information.

"Could you make a video showing the whole process of making them bigger? Also, can you do it to other body parts? I mean your feet (doge)."

"I'm not even going to call you out (doge). You mean your third leg, right? (grin)"

"Can you practice this skill anywhere? (tongue out)"

"Hey, where do you want to practice it? (eating melon)"

"So what Master Xing said about fists as big as sandbags was true! (shocked)"

"Uncle, did you eat the Rubber Devil Fruit? (watching)"

"..."

Since he couldn't find any contact information, Chen Jue had no choice but to put his phone away and set aside the idea of apprenticing himself to the man for now.

As long as the expert kept uploading videos, Chen Jue would eventually get a chance to contact him. There was no need to rush.

After lunch, he went upstairs and took a ninety-minute nap.

In the afternoon, he went back to the park.

This time, though, he didn't rush to exercise and raise his attributes. Instead, he set up his phone stand to film.

He picked a tree trunk for a target, put on his face guard, and threw a few darts at it in front of the camera.

After the mockery he'd gotten from netizens for posting a Stone Skipping video on Master of Unique Skills' account, Chen Jue had decided to win back some face.

If Stone Skipping wasn't exciting enough, then surely his master-level Darts skills with hidden weapons would get people's attention.

To make it more challenging, he even moved farther away, throwing from a distance of about twenty meters.

He spent over an hour practicing with all the different styles of darts and hidden weapons he'd bought.

Once he'd gathered enough footage, Chen Jue used a phone app to edit it on the spot, added a classical wuxia-style BGM, and uploaded it under the title "[Unique Skill: Darts]."

Why add spaces to stretch the title out?

Because it was a must-have trick for meme-making uploaders, and it fit perfectly with the extreme distance of Chen Jue's throws.

He'd used the same trick in his earlier "[Stone Skipping]" video, but the world-record holder had stolen the spotlight.

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

He'd already raised the skill to (Mastered), so further practice wouldn't increase his proficiency.

But since Taiji was an aerobic exercise, he could still gain attribute points by doing more of it.

He spent the better part of the afternoon practicing and gained a total of 0.02 free attribute points.

After thinking it over, he added them directly to [Constitution].

His Constitution rose to 1.05.

Since raising his Constitution, Chen Jue had noticed that he had a lot more energy than before!

He used to get drowsy after sitting in front of a computer for a few hours at work.

Now, even though he got up early and practiced every day, he didn't feel tired.

Even if he pushed himself too hard and his muscles grew fatigued and sore, one or two nights of rest were enough for him to recover. It was all thanks to the [Constitution] attribute he'd raised above 1.

"I wonder if raising my Constitution to 2 or 3 could get rid of some of these problems I have." Chen Jue felt a comfortable warmth pass through his body. Still thinking about it, he picked up his backpack and headed back to the talent apartment.

That night, he didn't use the Grip Strengthener.

The muscles in both hands hadn't fully recovered yet. Chen Jue figured he needed one more night's rest for the lactic acid that had built up in them to be completely metabolized.

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

But an ordinary person who trained as hard as Chen Jue would need at least five days, or even a week, to recover (note).

Chen Jue had recovered quickly entirely because the Attribute Panel was helping him.

Of course, even though he didn't train that night, he still kept himself busy.

Lately, he'd been keen on exercising, working out, and improving his condition. Whenever he had time, he went online to read about the human body, exercise, and fitness to broaden his knowledge and avoid accidentally training his body the wrong way.

He also tried sending Wu Fang a message. He thanked her for Old Master Wu's guidance and said he'd learned a lot from meeting him that morning.

He didn't know if the news about the dog rescue over the weekend had died down, or if netizens had simply stopped making a fuss.

Wu Fang happened to be online for once and replied, "As long as I could help (grinning). My grandpa said you're really good at Darts. You could even enter a competition!"

"Not really. It's just a little something I taught myself (well-behaved)."

Seeing the kind and beautiful teacher reply so quickly, Chen Jue started chatting with her.

Time always flew by when he was chatting with a girl.

When ten o'clock came and the other end of WeChat went quiet, Chen Jue put down his phone, turned off the light, and closed his eyes, planning to get to sleep early.

But once he closed his eyes, all he could think about were those huge hands that looked like they'd been inflated. The impression they'd left that day was clearly so strong that his brain was still in an excited state.

He tossed and turned, but eventually fell asleep just before eleven.

The next morning, he overslept a little. It was nearly seven when he went up to the roof to do the [Eye Health Exercises].

The daily thirty minutes of closed-eye sunlight exposure and eye exercises had gradually become part of Chen Jue's routine.

Anyone who'd never been nearsighted probably couldn't understand how uncomfortable and inconvenient it was to wear glasses.

The first thing you did after waking up was reach for your glasses. If you couldn't remember where you'd put them, you had to squint and search all over, because everything a few meters away was a blur, as if your eyes had been covered with a layer of mosaic.

Now that he had a way to improve and restore his eyesight, Chen Jue naturally practiced it with all his might.

Fortunately, after a few days of practice, the results were remarkable. His vision was getting clearer, and he'd even ground his [Eye Health Exercises] skill up to the point where it was ready to level up again.

[Ping~]

[Current proficiency reached 100%. Skill level increased.]

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

[After a period of experimentation, you've gained some insight into eye-care massage. You're now familiar with the blood vessels, meridians, and muscular and nerve pressure points around the eye sockets. Your massage pressure has improved, increasing blood flow to the eyeballs and boosting the metabolism of your visual cells. Your massage technique and its therapeutic effects have both improved slightly.]

A strange muscle memory came to him, and Chen Jue felt his hands had become a little more nimble.

He raised his hands and pressed the acupuncture points around his eye sockets again. This time, he could find them almost instantly, no longer needing to follow a tutorial and search around for the right spots little by little.

"That's amazing!"

"It's like someone's entered a set of fixed code into my muscles!"

Chen Jue tested the upgraded effect a few times, marveling to himself as he went downstairs to get his things ready.

It was Monday, his first day reporting to work at Hengtong Group.

It wasn't far away—only around twenty minutes by car—but he still needed to get ready early.

He packed a set of business clothes into a large tote bag. They were standard attire at financial companies; any major firm with a dress code required them.

Still, Chen Jue planned to change once he got to his desk. He had plenty of time.

Though he'd acquired the Attribute Panel and could earn rewards by grinding skills through hard work, Chen Jue wouldn't quit his job and move back to his hometown to take it easy until he'd made enough money from his special skills to support himself.

After all, he worked in risk control. He knew that quitting without a backup plan involved too many uncertainties.

He also packed a pair of leather shoes, stuffed a Grip Strengthener in his pocket, and headed downstairs in his exercise clothes.

He didn't go to the park for a morning workout because he was running out of time.

He drove to the building where Hengtong Group was located. Traffic was heavy during the morning rush hour, and it was already past 8:40 by the time he found a parking spot.

Chen Jue saw crowds of office workers hurrying toward the nearby high-rises.

The building that housed Hengtong Group was no exception. People and cars packed the area.

But Chen Jue wasn't in a hurry. He'd taken this new job with the sole intention of slacking off.

Didn't he have a Grip Strengthener in his pocket?

He could quietly raise his attributes while collecting a high salary. A true master of time management!

But after clocking in on DingTalk and walking over to the elevators, Chen Jue was stunned!

There were too many employees in this new building. All eight elevator entrances were jammed.

Even the fire exit around the corner was crowded with people trying to squeeze into the service elevator. They were afraid they wouldn't make it to work on time and would be late.

Seeing this, Chen Jue quickly thought it over and looked toward the empty stairwell. "It's only seventeen floors. It shouldn't be too hard to climb, right?"

Chen Jue felt a stir of motivation. He was already something of a man of action, so he immediately started up the stairs.

But he'd barely climbed half a flight and hadn't even reached the landing when the panel popped up with a notification:

[Ping~]

[Completed a series of qualifying physical movements]

[Climbing skill proficiency +1]

Second update~

This chapter was another two-in-one. Staying up late to write had gotten me all fired up.

My throat had been sore and inflamed all afternoon, so I hadn't expected to hit my stride late at night.

While I'm at it, I'll timidly ask you all for a vote, especially a recommendation ticket. They refresh every day, and they'd go to waste just sitting there, so why not cast them all for Pianfeng?

Thank you, everyone! (Bows repeatedly.)