Terror

"Chu-zai, I'm heading to the film set now. I'm not sure what time I'll be done tonight, so I won't be coming to pick you up."

In front of the Bo'an Road Municipal Building, the loud voice of Fish Head Xu drifted out from a dilapidated Toyota.

Yang Chu stood outside the car and waved gently. After watching Fish Head Xu drive away, he turned and walked briskly toward the Municipal Building.

He climbed the stairs, and the Bo'an Road Library inside the Municipal Building was quite quiet. It was around 1:30 in the afternoon, so there weren't many people reading.

When Yang Chu arrived at the library, he saw several staff members chatting near the entrance from a distance. He had crossed paths with them before but paid them no mind, heading straight for the rows of bookshelves once he entered.

Yang Chu's gaze swept over the various titles on the shelves: The Story of the Human Body, The Meaning of Human Existence, Understanding the Body, I Contain Multitudes, Medical Human Anatomy, Deconstructing the Human Body... He pulled them off the shelves one by one, flipping through them rapidly before moving on to the next.

"Haven't found anything worth reading today?"

Before he knew it, a familiar voice sounded in his ear.

"Not exactly. Most of these books are highly homogenized; a general overview is enough."

Yang Chu didn't even lift his head, continuing to flip through the pages. Just by the sound of the voice, he knew it was Xu Xi.

However, he didn't carry a huge stack of books to the reading area today. Yang Chu had discovered that his reading speed was much faster than before, and lugging books back and forth was a waste of time.

Many books were obscure and difficult for ordinary people to grasp, requiring significant time to fully digest, but Yang Chu encountered almost no obstacles. Whatever he read, he could quickly memorize, digest, and understand.

Furthermore, he could combine the different arguments from various books with his own understanding of the entire human musculoskeletal system, drawing inferences and finding more accurate answers to the speculative theories presented in the texts.

To an outsider, it looked like he was just flipping through a book with a rustling sound before shoving it back, but Yang Chu had already committed the necessary points to memory.

He didn't look up until he had finished the last few pages of Understanding Human Form.

Xu Xi was pushing a small cart, his face still wearing that signature, shy smile.

"What category are you looking at this time?"

Xu Xi's gaze swept over the Understanding Human Form in Yang Chu's hand, a hint of surprise in his eyes. "This is human science. Your reading range is expanding bit by bit!"

"The mysteries of the human body itself are very interesting. There are so many books here, yet there are still many unexplored fields."

Yang Chu looked at the rows of bookshelves and turned to ask Xu Xi, "Do you have any recommendations?"

"Try Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy."

Xu Xi smiled and pulled a copy of Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy from the shelf. "He has a whole series of books. Although they are aimed at art students, they are classics when it comes to human structure and anatomy."

"Many thanks."

Yang Chu took the thick Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy and began to flip through it.

"Take your time reading, then. I have work to do."

Seeing that Yang Chu had become immersed in the world of reading after opening the book, Xu Xi greeted him with a smile, pushed his cart, and headed toward another section of the library.

After Xu Xi left, Yang Chu stood in front of the shelf and began to read Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy immediately.

He read at a high speed. After finishing this book, he went on to browse other books of the same type or related content. Book after book was flipped through rapidly by Yang Chu, forming a comprehensive understanding in his mind—from the whole to the parts, then to the microscopic, and finally back to the whole.

"The human body has a total of 206 bones, which connect to form the human framework—the skeleton. It is divided into three main parts: the skull, the trunk, and the limbs. Among them, there are 29 skull bones, 51 trunk bones, and 126 limb bones..."

"...The human body has a total of 639 muscles, composed of about 6 billion muscle fibers. The longest muscle fiber is 30 centimeters long, while the shortest is only 1 millimeter. The largest muscle weighs two kilograms, and the smallest weighs only a few grams. They are divided into head muscles, trunk muscles, and limb muscles..."

As his reading deepened, many thoughts began to emerge in Yang Chu's mind.

When he was at the park, the few sentences Xiahou Wu said before leaving—"the hand and foot must align, the elbow and knee must align, the shoulder and hip must align"—were understood by Yang Chu from an intuitive perspective as the coordination between human limbs and the body.

In more detail, it was the mobilization of the bones and muscles of various parts to form a combined force, which was "integrated power."

The so-called "unity of waist and horse" was actually the simultaneous explosion of muscle power from the lower body, waist, back, and arms. This method of exerting force allowed the body to unleash power far beyond that of an ordinary person.

In a sense, it was unlocking a portion of the body's limitations without reaching the critical point, thus avoiding excessive load on the body and preventing injury.

Yang Chu could achieve an explosion at the limit of his body's load, but his mobilization and control were not yet that refined.

And that phrase, "the grab is dead, the hold is alive," referred to the skeletal joints—essentially joint locks—using control of a part to control the opponent's whole. Similarly, the manipulation of acupoints in grappling targeted the human nervous system. Once a nerve node was disrupted, the brain lost control over the part of the body connected to that nerve.

Yang Chu flipped through the books while interpreting them in his own way.

This included content he had gained from further mastering his own systems, as well as insights from his few fights, his work as a stuntman, and watching the duel between Xiahou Wu and Shark Yan.

As for the "inner three harmonies"—"heart and intent align, intent and qi align, qi and power align"—Yang Chu only had a vague concept, and with his current understanding of the body, he was still completely in the dark.

Even so, Yang Chu had gained a further understanding of the strikes, force-exertion techniques, footwork, and body movement in "kung fu," and he could even construct scenes in his mind.

Furthermore, he had begun to form some ideas about training methods to improve his own physical fitness.

Of the two hundred-plus bones and six hundred-plus muscles in the human body, the training of certain bones and muscles could produce unimaginable effects.

For example, the gripping strength of the fingers, the clenching strength of the palms, the wrist strength of the arms—when local power was combined with the coordination of the entire skeletal and muscular system, the explosive power could reach a terrifying level.

An afternoon passed in the blink of an eye, and Yang Chu's actions in the library naturally attracted quite a bit of attention.

But this was a public library; as long as he didn't damage the books, even the staff wouldn't come to disturb him.

"It's dark."

When Yang Chu finally closed the last book and narrowed his eyes to digest what he had learned, he realized that the sky outside had darkened; it was already night.

He slid the book back onto the shelf and walked out of the reading area. From a distance, he heard voices at the library entrance. "Checkmate again. Sigh, didn't you say you wouldn't show no mercy?"

"Again! Let's go again!" Xu Xi's voice rang out.

"I'm starving to death, hurry up and clock out, I have to head back to the police station in a bit," another male voice followed.

"Still playing chess!"

Yang Chu walked over and saw that the person playing chess with Xu Xi was none other than Chen Guibin, the Major Crimes Unit detective from the library last time.

"You're finally done reading?" Xu Xi watched Yang Chu emerge, stood up, and said with a smile, "I was just waiting for you to close up shop!"

"I never would have guessed you were such a bookworm!"

Chen Guibin, who was sitting in his seat with his head down tidying the chessboard, also chimed in with a tone of dissatisfaction. After putting the pieces away, he looked up at Yang Chu, intending to say something.

Suddenly, his expression changed drastically. He stumbled back a step and crashed to the floor with a loud thud.

His eyes were fixed intently on Yang Chu, as if he had seen something of immense terror.