Tears of Blood and Heavy Loss

About 10 minutes after the duty manager called the police, officers from the Binjiang University Town local station arrived.

The officer in charge was a middle-aged man named Liu, followed by a young auxiliary officer named Li.

Upon arriving at the waste processing plant and seeing the row of rat carcasses, both men were momentarily stunned.

With over 20 rats all skewered by nails, the scene looked wrong no matter how you sliced it.

"Master, this... killing rats isn't illegal, so why call us out for a midnight shift?" the young auxiliary officer muttered quietly on the side.

"Little Li, that's where you're wrong!"

"Killing rats isn't illegal, but intentionally releasing rats carrying the plague is a serious criminal offense."

Officer Liu crouched down to inspect them, immediately realizing this might be a significant case, and began conducting inquiries and a preliminary investigation at the plant with his apprentice.

A few minutes later, the white-coated staff from the epidemic prevention station arrived. They packed up all the rats to take back for laboratory testing.

After waiting two hours, the test results came out, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

None of the tested subjects carried plague or similar infectious diseases; it was just a false alarm.

"At least it's not the plague!"

"With such a large-scale, targeted release, if they had actually been carrying a virus, the spread would have been massive." Officer Liu received the results at the station and felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

These police officers were adept at dealing with criminals, but they were truly helpless when it came to infectious diseases and viruses.

After all, everyone has their own specialty; preventing epidemics and curing diseases were not their duties.

"Master, since it's not the plague, are we still going to open a case and investigate?" Little Li asked from the side.

"Investigate! Why wouldn't we?"

"I'm always teaching you to look at things from multiple perspectives! Look at these nails in the rats; you can tell at a glance they weren't fired from a nail gun."

"The power is too great! To pierce a rat with a single nail like that, it's likely a homemade crossbow or a pneumatic gun specifically designed to fire nails." Officer Liu lectured his apprentice again.

Several nearby universities had mechanical engineering and manufacturing majors, and he suspected it was likely some college student playing around, having privately fabricated these prohibited launching devices.

After all, lethal items like crossbows and pneumatic guns were classified as controlled weapons in China, strictly forbidden from private possession or use—just like sharpened darts—and would be dealt with severely if discovered.

"Understood, Master! I'll go pull the surveillance footage and compare suspects right away!" Realizing the case was significant, Little Li immediately perked up and went off to cross-reference the Sky Eye surveillance footage overnight.

The next morning, Chen Jue woke up automatically just past 5:00 AM.

He noticed his wake-up time had been getting earlier and his biological clock more regular lately, his mind consistently beginning to stir from deep sleep exactly 10 minutes before sunrise.

After washing up and putting on a jacket, he slowly climbed the stairs to the roof of the talent apartment.

Seeing only a hint of white in the sky and the sun not yet fully risen, Chen Jue stretched his body on the rooftop.

After waiting about three or four minutes, the silhouette of the sun appeared on the city skyline.

As the fiery red sunlight shone directly into his eyes, Chen Jue closed them and began performing the [Eye Health Exercises].

"At sunrise, the angle of the sunlight is low, and scattering occurs upon contact with the atmosphere. The blue light in the sunlight is more dispersed, so the human eye sees mostly orange-red light."

"Furthermore, getting out early and exposing yourself to low-angle sunlight can more effectively regulate your circadian rhythm." Chen Jue recalled the information he had gathered online over the past few days while performing the exercises.

Over the years of working in risk control data, Chen Jue had developed a rather peculiar habit.

Whenever a matter fell into his hands, he would try to analyze and research the source of the phenomenon.

Take the fact that red light promotes the activity and growth of retinal mitochondria, thereby improving and enhancing vision; as soon as Chen Jue learned of it, he went online to collect a large amount of literature.

For instance, why sunlight only leans toward orange-red at sunrise and sunset.

Why prolonged exposure to sunrise sunlight effectively regulates the human biological rhythm, or what is known as the biological clock.

The answers to these questions were supported by relevant scientific research and could be found in authoritative literature online; they were not things Chen Jue had guessed randomly based on his attribute panel.

"The pre-Qin Song of Hitting the Earth contains records of 'working at sunrise and resting at sunset'."

"A simple line of poetry summarized the laws of the human biological clock. I wonder if the Qi practitioners before the pre-Qin era could live longer and healthier lives like modern people." Chen Jue mused while performing the eye exercises.

After about half an hour, the panel popped up with a notification again.

[Ding~]

[Completed one standard session of red light therapy and eye massage. Your vision has slightly improved.]

[Constitution +0.01]

[Ding~]

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

[Eye Health Exercises Lv2 (500/500) → Lv3 (1/2000)]

[Your understanding of this eye-care massage technique has deepened. You have gained a more profound grasp of the blood vessel paths, acupoints, and muscle contours around the eyes, and the effectiveness of the massage will steadily improve.]

"Leveled up!"

A strange surge of muscle memory flooded into the fingers Chen Jianguo was using to massage his eye sockets. To his surprise, pressing the acupoints around his eyes felt even more soothing than before.

He slowly opened his eyes, and the surrounding scenery appeared bathed in a comfortable, cyan-green glow.

He blinked, waiting a moment for his vision to stabilize, and realized the world had become significantly sharper in his sight.

Chen Jianguo looked around; of all the benefits he had gained from his recent training, the improvement in his eyesight was the most exhilarating.

If he kept massaging like this, he reckoned it wouldn't be long before he could ditch his glasses entirely.

He put his glasses back on to take a look and found things were indeed clearer than before, though he now felt a sense of disdain for the square-framed glasses that had accompanied him for years: "The prescription seems to have weakened again."

"I probably shouldn't wear these for much longer; they'll start giving me headaches."

This was a normal phenomenon when a prescription no longer matched one's eyes, and usually, one had to head to an optical shop to get a new, suitable pair as soon as possible.

However, since it was so early, the nearby commercial street hadn't opened for business yet, so Chen Jianguo had to put the matter of replacing his glasses on the back burner for now.

After finishing his eye exercises and grinding out 0.1 points of Constitution, it was only just past 6:00 AM.

At this hour, most office workers were still curled up in their blankets, sleeping in.

Chen Jianguo, however, was already heading to the park for the next phase of his planned training.

"I have plenty of time to get to the office by 8:30."

"I can still get in about two hours of training."

Chen Jianguo calculated in his heart; this was the benefit of waking up early—being able to utilize more time than those who slept in.

Once he arrived at the park, he didn't go to the lakeside to practice Taiji, but instead headed toward the Taiji training class he had seen earlier.

Since his [Twelve Taiji Forms] had already been maxed out, if he wanted to continue deepening his Taiji practice according to the panel's prompts, he would have to learn more Taiji frameworks.

Online tutorials were, after all, learned through a screen, and many nuances of the movements weren't as effective as having a real person provide guidance and demonstrations, which was why Chen Jianguo had considered signing up for a class.

After circling the park, he found that this interest group started quite early; not even 6:00 AM, and a group of elderly men and women were already practicing along.

There were a few middle-aged people in the ranks, but no sign of any young people like Chen Jianguo.

After all, young people today were under immense pressure, spending their time either working or staying up late to party; those who could wake up at 6:00 AM for a morning run were few and far between, let alone signing up for a Taiji class at the crack of dawn.

He walked up to the lead instructor, chatted for a few moments, and explained his intentions.

Upon learning that a young man like Chen Jianguo wanted to sign up, the instructor, Zhao, who had a gentle and peaceful demeanor, was very enthusiastic.

He first introduced the origins of his Taiji, explaining that he practiced the 33-Form Taiji passed down from Wudang, a secret transmission from the Quanzhen Longmen Sect that differed from the common varieties found on the market.

To learn that, paying money wasn't enough; one had to follow the path of a Daoist.

This instructor, Zhao Jianguo, was a lay practitioner; although he hadn't fully renounced the world, he had received the transmission of this 33-Form Taiji from Wudang in his younger years.

Of course, one could still learn from him without becoming a Daoist.

However, what he taught were the 24 Forms and 48 Forms promulgated by the General Administration of Sport, as well as the Wudang 13-Form Taiji. These were very common Taiji frameworks, widely available on the internet, and there were no restrictions on teaching them.

As for the tuition, it was collected on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, and as long as there wasn't a typhoon or heavy rain, he would basically be in the park leading the practice.

Chen Jianguo thought about it and decided to sign up for a month first.

He added Zhao Jianguo on WeChat, transferred the 1,000 yuan tuition, and began joining the ranks of the practitioners.

"Let me first see what your Taiji foundation is like."

Zhao Jianguo asked a few questions about Chen Jianguo's background, and upon learning that he had practiced the simplified 12-Form version, he stepped aside and asked Chen Jianguo to run through it once.

Seeing this, Chen Jianguo nodded slightly, set his stance, and performed the (Perfected) [Twelve Taiji Forms] from start to finish.

But the moment he demonstrated it, Zhao Jianguo's eyes nearly popped out of his head!

The movements were fluid and seasoned, the posture light and possessing a touch of an expert's aura—this was not the kind of form a beginner should have!

"Student Chen, are you sure you've only been practicing for a short while?" Zhao Jianguo asked curiously.

Because he discovered that Chen Jianguo's 12 Forms were practiced so perfectly that there wasn't a single flaw or error in the movements; they were as standard as a textbook.

Even he, as the lead instructor, couldn't necessarily perform the forms with such standard precision.

"Counting it up, I've only been practicing for a little over a week," Chen Jianguo nodded.

"A little over a week? Then you truly have a gift!"

Zhao Jianguo exclaimed in wonder, then pondered for a moment and said, "How about this: I can see your 12 Forms are already very solid; the only thing you're lacking is stance training."

"I'll teach you all the movements I can first, and once you've mastered them over the next few days, I'll slowly teach you the accompanying 13 Wudang Taiji Stance Techniques."

"Once your stance training deepens, it will significantly improve your physical fitness!"

Hearing that there were so many Taiji routines to learn, Chen Jianguo felt the 1,000 yuan tuition was well spent.

Moreover, when he had practiced the 12 Forms with the elderly in his residential complex, he hadn't learned any stance techniques, and he didn't know if this stance training was as magical as the internet claimed, so he felt a fair amount of anticipation.

He followed Zhao Jianguo, starting with the 24 Forms from the General Administration of Sport, moving on to the 48 Forms, and finally the 13-Form Taiji publicly released by Wudang.

Perhaps it was due to the foundation laid by practicing the simplified Twelve Taiji Forms earlier, but as the saying goes, "master one method and you master them all." Chen Jue only spent two hours getting these boxing routines into his muscle memory, even successfully activating them all as panel skills, which in turn granted him 0.01 free attribute points.

Just then, the panel popped up with a brand-new notification:

[Ding~]

[Four skills with highly overlapping movement postures detected.]

[Would you like to merge Twelve Taiji Forms, Twenty-Four Taiji Forms, Forty-Eight Taiji Forms, and Wudang Thirteen Taiji Forms?]

[This merge requires a consumption of 0.20 free attribute points.]

"The merge cost is so high!"

"How long will I have to save up for this?"

Seeing the merge prompt triggered by the panel, Chen Jue felt a headache coming on.

Previously, to merge Stone Skipping and Darts, he had spent an entire week saving up free attribute points.

To merge four Taiji styles this time, he feared it might take him ten days or half a month.

"Forget it, I'll take it slow."

"If I can merge them, I will; if not, I'll just grind them all to max level first."

"It just looks a bit long, but it doesn't hinder their use," Chen Jue grumbled to himself.

Glancing at the time and seeing it was 8:30, Chen Jue bid Zhao Jianguo farewell and left the park.

However, after he left, Zhao Jianguo, who had been suppressing the shock in his heart, couldn't help but take a deep breath while watching Chen Jue's retreating figure, muttering, "A genius!"

Because just now, during their two hours of one-on-one instruction, Zhao Jianguo had discovered that this young man's learning ability and memory were absolutely outrageous!

Often, after he demonstrated a move once, Chen Jue would follow along twice and grasp the knack, even correcting his own improper form.

He had been teaching Taiji in this park for over a decade and had brought up at least a thousand students, yet not one had been able to learn as quickly or as well as Chen Jue!

"Other students take several months to learn this; no wonder he only signed up for the one-month basic course!"

"At this rate, he'll probably learn all my skills in less than a week, won't he?"

Thinking of this, Zhao Jianguo's face twitched. He suddenly felt that the 1,000 yuan tuition he had charged was definitely too little—he had lost out big time.

First update~

A fish bone got stuck in my throat while eating dinner, and I was uncomfortable for a long time, which delayed the update.

I couldn't get it out at a nearby clinic, and while it doesn't hurt right now, I plan to go to the hospital to have it checked tomorrow.