Comprehending Passive Skill: Skillful Force!

Ye Xiao stared at the old man, half-understanding.

Just then.

The old man walked up to Ye Xiao and stood in front of a wooden training dummy.

He raised his right hand, made a simple fist, and tapped it lightly against the dummy.

The next moment.

The entire wooden training dummy exploded!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The commotion was so great.

It even reached the third floor of the Gravity Training Tower!

It drew the attention of countless students who were in the middle of their training.

Yet, the old man acted as if nothing had happened at all.

He said, "The quality of this training dummy is poor. Go get another one to practice with."

With that said.

The old man left the spot.

He left Ye Xiao standing there, dumbfounded.

What had he just seen?

An old man, making a simple fist with his right hand, then tapping it lightly against the training dummy.

He had seen almost no signs of exertion.

Yet the training dummy had simply exploded?

Ye Xiao was stunned.

He had to keep in mind.

He had personally used these training dummies to practice!

He knew full well how solidly built these things were!

When Ye Xiao punched them, the training dummies wouldn't even budge!

And yet, the old man had just touched it casually.

The thing had been smashed to pieces!

This isn't a matter of poor quality, is it? This is clearly a hidden master-level existence! Ye Xiao muttered frantically in his heart.

He watched the old man's back as he returned to the entrance.

Ye Xiao calmed himself down completely.

He closed his eyes and began to contemplate the entire process of the old man's strike.

He replicated every image, every detail, every movement, and every angle in his mind.

Five minutes later.

Ye Xiao opened his eyes, his gaze filled with a sharp, confident edge!

He threw a punch, and the training dummy swayed slightly.

However, the degree of swaying was an improvement over before.

Furthermore.

Ye Xiao had used much less force, yet the results achieved were significant!

[You have completed a punch. The force of this punch was: 25%!]

[Realm advancement failed.]

"Not bad!"

A smile appeared on the corner of Ye Xiao's mouth.

At the same time.

The old man, who was outside the entrance of the Gravity Training Tower.

Suddenly sighed with emotion.

"A child worth teaching."

Ye Xiao pondered every move the old man had made during his strike.

He thought about how he could utilize this Skillful Force.

Time flew by in a flash.

Ye Xiao practiced the punching method using "Skillful Force" incessantly.

The wooden stake was covered in new, shallow indentations, some even stained with blood.

Ye Xiao's fists were already soaked through with sweat and blood.

Every punch he threw carried a dull, explosive thud.

This was pure brute force—the punch was fierce, yet seven or eight parts were wasted on the recoil, with less than thirty percent actually penetrating the stake.

"Not quite."

He stopped, gasping for air, and looked at his swollen knuckles.

"Still not right!"

"It's always just a little bit off!"

"Again!"

He knew he was just brute-forcing it.

A true martial arts master could throw a punch where the force was like a needle entering cotton; the surface remained unscathed, while the interior was shattered completely.

But he couldn't do it.

Every time he threw a punch, his power was like spilled water, scattering everywhere.

Yet Ye Xiao was not discouraged.

Because he firmly believed that he would be able to do it.

Ye Xiao closed his eyes, recalling the trajectory of his punches one after another.

Generating force from the soles of his feet, twisting the waist, turning the hips, thrusting the shoulder, throwing the punch... every link was consuming power.

It was like a water pipe full of leaks; by the time the water reached the end, there wasn't much left.

In contrast, the old man's punches clearly didn't involve large movements.

Yet the efficiency of his body's power transmission far exceeded his imagination!

He began to slow down his movements.

He wasn't punching; he was feeling.

He felt the power surge from the soles of his feet, sensing how it traveled upward, joint by joint, along his skeleton.

Ankles, knees, lumbar vertebrae, spine, shoulder blades... every joint was a bottleneck where power was lost, deflected, and dissipated.

"What if..." he muttered to himself, "what if these joints weren't bottlenecks, but conduits?"

He set his stance once more.

This time, he didn't pursue speed or power, but "flow."

He let the power move like water, starting from the soles of his feet, flowing through every joint without resistance or obstruction, surging forward naturally.

The first punch was still scattered.

The second punch showed slight improvement.

The third punch—

"Snap!"

The sound was different!

It wasn't the dull impact of the past, but a crisp, short sound, like the crack of a whip.

He froze.

The surface of the wooden stake remained intact, yet on the wall behind it, there was a fist-sized crater.

The force had penetrated.

He looked down at his fist; there wasn't even a red mark on his knuckles.

"This is... Skillful Force."

In that moment, he finally understood that true power didn't lie in how much force you could exert, but in how much of that force could actually reach its intended destination.

[Ding!]

[You have completed a punch; the force of this punch was: 45%!]

[Gained 3 Martial Value!]

[Your realm has improved!]

[Current realm: Mud Embryo Realm, 26th Layer!]

[Current realm: Mud Embryo Realm, 27th Layer!]

[Current realm: Mud Embryo Realm, 28th Layer!]

"It's here! A triple leap in realm!"

Ye Xiao's entire body was drenched in sweat, the backs of his hands covered in a mixture of blood and perspiration.

His body ached with intense soreness and swelling.

Yet, he felt an irrepressible, exhilarating sense of satisfaction!

After nearly an hour of grueling training.

The moment he successfully mastered Skillful Force!

Ye Xiao felt that every bit of effort had been worth it!

[Ding!]

[Congratulations on successfully mastering the passive skill: Skillful Force!]

[Skillful Force (Passive): When you throw a punch, the amount of strength required is reduced!]

Not only that.

Ye Xiao had also taken the opportunity to master a passive skill!

It was also his very first passive skill!

The appearance of Skillful Force.

Was undoubtedly a passive that would significantly accelerate the efficiency of Ye Xiao's realm advancement!

Ye Xiao had initially grasped the fundamentals of Skillful Force.

Next, he needed to practice Skillful Force continuously to take its effects to the next level.

"A genius!"

The old man outside the Gravity Training Tower.

Glanced at the time; only a single hour had passed.

He had only offered a simple pointer.

Yet Ye Xiao had already fully comprehended the application of Skillful Force.

"It is just a pity that he is a Martialist, the weakest profession."

"With such cultivation talent, had he chosen any other profession, he could have attained the rank of Transcendent in the future!"

"But he just had to be a Martialist!"

The old man let out a long sigh, feeling quite regretful.

Meanwhile.

Ye Xiao was immersed in a rapid surge of his realm, unable to pull himself away!

He threw a punch, consuming twenty percent of his strength.

[Realm +3!]

"It seems I can reduce the strength usage even further."

He threw another punch, consuming ten percent of his strength.

[Realm +3!]

"It feels like entering an energy-saving mode," Ye Xiao said, the corners of his mouth curling upward. "As long as the conditions for advancement are met, there is no need to waste my strength unnecessarily."

"It seems that learning how to maximize the efficiency of my strength usage is also something that requires repeated practice."

He followed up with a punch, consuming nine percent of his strength.

[Realm advancement failed!]

Then he threw another punch, consuming ten percent of his strength.

[Realm +3!]

Through slow exploration, Ye Xiao finally found where that threshold lay.