Progress

Time passed.

A few days flew by in the blink of an eye.

Hu Long's daily life was simple.

It was a straight line between his home and the Tongbei Club, with no unnecessary socializing or entertainment.

While an ordinary person might find such a lifestyle dull and tedious after a while, Hu Long relished this state of being.

With his food and drink secured, he had no need to worry about money.

He could watch himself grow stronger every single day; it was quite literally the life he had dreamed of.

Of course, it would be even better if he weren't occasionally harassed by that freak.

Thanks to the combined buffs of his Master-level Comprehensive Combat Arts, Innate Divine Strength, and High-Efficiency Absorption and Metabolism, his rate of progress was nothing short of a thousand miles a day.

While others were still struggling to refine their stance postures, he could already clearly feel his Integrated Force becoming increasingly refined and moving with ease within his body.

Besides that.

There was one small interlude.

Over the past few days.

Sun Yi, whom he had met once before, had come looking for him again.

It was hard to tell if this woman was truly oblivious or just not right in the head.

The first time.

She had opened by demanding an apology from Hu Long, insisting he take the initiative to find Hu Chengwen to clear things up and repair the relationship between their two families.

Seeing he had no reaction, he had kicked her out.

The second time she came.

Because of the previous experience, Hu Long had spoken to the property manager beforehand, so she wasn't allowed into the residential complex.

However, she didn't give up and chose to block him at the entrance instead.

When he returned from the Tongbei Club, he was intercepted by her.

Sun Yi actually put on an expression as if she had suffered a great injustice.

She said something even more outrageous: "Fine, you win. I'll break up with him and we can try to be together, but the child in my belly must be born, and you have to raise it."

Hu Long naturally refused.

The third time?

There was no third time.

At that moment, the instant she uttered those absurd words, Hu Long felt his blood pressure skyrocket.

Her delusional, sub-human speech was more than he could tolerate.

He punched her straight in the face.

A few teeth were knocked out.

Hu Long didn't have any hang-ups about not hitting women.

Besides, she was clearly a sub-human with no sense of shame or morality.

He used to think people like this only existed in novels and trashy dramas, but reality was often more ironic.

Now that he had actually encountered one, you had to admit that sometimes you run into people in real life far more ridiculous than anything in fiction.

Novels and bad dramas at least follow some logic of cause and effect, but when some people in reality have an episode, they don't need any reason at all.

Some people look normal, but in reality, they are just human-like creatures; they look like people on the outside.

They behave no differently from normal people in daily life and perform normally in their studies.

But when they encounter certain things, they perform actions that are difficult for normal people to understand.

This exposes the fact that they have developmental defects in their intelligence.

However.

Hu Long had still pulled his punch, only swelling up her face; the child in her belly was completely fine.

After all, he wasn't a doctor; if she needed a professional procedure like an abortion, she could go to a hospital.

Ever since she was hit, this person had completely quieted down.

She didn't come to harass Hu Long again.

This incident made Hu Long even more convinced that, at times, fists are more useful than reasoning.

To Hu Long, this was just a minor matter.

He quickly cast it to the back of his mind.

Inside the room.

Hu Long stood shirtless, eyes half-closed, feet spread apart.

He held his arms in a circle as if embracing the void, one hand fisted and the other palm-open, one high and one low, forming a peculiar posture.

As his mouth and nose opened and closed rhythmically, his breath sank, causing his lower abdomen to rise and fall in tandem.

At this moment, he was practicing the Mountain Standing Stake.

Look closely.

One would notice his muscles trembling in a rhythmic pattern.

Suddenly.

Hu Long snapped his eyes open.

His stance shifted, transforming from a static stake into a dynamic one.

However, the movement was not fast; it resembled the health-preserving boxing exercises practiced by old men in the park.

Yet.

Strangely, Hu Long looked as if he had just engaged in strenuous exercise.

His skin flushed red, and sweat streamed down his body.

Wisps of white steam even seeped out from the pores all over his frame.

The next second.

He halted his movements.

He raised his hand and threw a punch.

Pa!

A sharp, crisp sound suddenly exploded.

"Stand like an ape with hanging arms, let the force circulate around the body."

"Force rises from the ground, originates in the waist and hips, travels through the spine, and culminates at the fingertips—so that is how it works."

A glimmer of realization flashed in Hu Long's eyes.

He looked at the line of text on his panel.

[Mountain Standing Stake (Level 4)]

During this period.

The training of the stake technique, combined with Hu Qitian's explanations, had deepened his understanding of the path of the Secret Martial Artist.

Ordinary people, and even those experts in the Tendon-Changing Realm who practiced combat arts, fundamentally relied on Dead Force.

This type of power, which relied on the rigid contraction of localized muscles, was stiff, sluggish, and energy-consuming.

To become a Secret Martial Artist.

One must cultivate Living Force.

In contrast to Dead Force, Living Force refers to a holistic power that is coordinated throughout the entire body, agile, adaptable, and controllable.

Integrated Force is the preliminary stage of Living Force.

The Body Casting Realm itself is the process of mastering Integrated Force.

The Body Casting Realm is further divided into three minor stages: Clumsy Force, Force-Through, and Unified Whole.

The Mountain Standing Stake is divided into nine levels, with every three levels corresponding to one minor stage of the Body Casting Realm.

Clumsy Force.

Localized power, rigid and scattered; this is the watershed between ordinary people and Body Casting Realm Secret Martial Artists.

At this stage, one begins to consciously strengthen and smooth out the power of the arms and legs, but the source of the power remains singular.

However, when exerting force, the whole body becomes stiff, there are many redundant movements, and power is severely lost during transmission.

The saying "having hands but no body, force cannot reach the tip" refers to this.

Previously, his assessment of himself had been slightly off.

In truth, he had already stepped one foot into Clumsy Force.

He only lacked the application and mastery of that force.

After these few days of practice, combined with the transformation from his Innate Divine Strength.

He had not only completely entered the stage of Clumsy Force, but had also surprisingly broken through directly to the second minor stage of the Body Casting Realm: Force-Through.

Force-Through, as the name implies.

Through the training of the body via various techniques, one adapts the physique to different methods of force exertion, allowing power to be transmitted instantaneously throughout the entire body, truly achieving the ability to strike with a highly penetrating "Integrated Force."

That was the very force he had just unleashed.

With this, he had succeeded.

If others were to learn of this speed, they would surely be shocked into speechlessness.

According to Hu Qitian.

The Body Casting Realm, as the starting stage for a Secret Martial Artist, is not actually considered difficult.

Generally, given the same amount of cultivation time.

Those with Grade A Bone Aptitude can reach the first level of the Standing Post Technique in about a month, becoming a Body Casting Realm Secret Martial Artist.

Those with Grade B Bone Aptitude require one and a half to two months.

Those with Grade C require at least three months.

Such is the gap created by bone aptitude.

Yet Hu Long has used less than ten days thus far.

He has not only entered the Body Casting Realm but has already reached its second stage, Force-Through.

This has already far surpassed the standard of an ordinary Grade A Bone Aptitude.

"However, with the support of my two physical talents and the Comprehensive Combat Arts at the perfection level, coupled with my peerless cultivation talent.

Reaching this stage is only to be expected."

Hu Long whispered to himself.

"At this current speed, reaching the third stage, Unified Whole, where strength becomes smooth and integrated, is only a matter of time."