A Different Tai Chi Fist

"Such a good person."

"This is practically spoon-feeding me and thoughtfully wiping my mouth afterward."

Seeing Zhao Kai's expression, Ye Xingchen found him strangely adorable and could not help wanting to kiss him.

Zhao Kai's scalp tingled under that gaze. He instinctively took half a step back. "Why does that look seem so weird..."

At that moment, Elder Ye Zhiyu spoke. "Alright, free cultivation begins now. If you have any questions, ask them promptly..."

Hmph...

Zhao Kai flicked his sleeve and left.

Ye Xingchen did not say much either. He found a secluded corner and sat down cross-legged.

As everyone entered meditation, the spiritual energy fluctuations within the training ground instantly grew violent, heat waves rolling through the air.

Only around Ye Xingchen was there silence, as though he were an outsider.

He had no intention of cultivating the Origin Heaven Art. Training that incomplete version would only waste time.

"Then I'll loosen up a little."

Ye Xingchen rose to his feet, took a deep breath, and spread his feet shoulder-width apart.

Opening stance.

His hands slowly rose, palms facing down, knees slightly bent.

Slow.

Slow to the extreme.

"What is he doing?"

"Is this the accompanying martial art of the Origin Heaven Art? Why does it look like an old granny feeling around for fish?"

"Pfft, I think he knows he has no hope of passing the assessment, so he has given up on himself. Is he doing a spirit dance and praying for the patriarch's blessing?"

Mockery rose and fell all around.

Zhao Kai stood in the distance with his arms folded, a cold sneer on his lips. "Grandstanding. A clown hopping about on a beam."

Ye Xingchen turned a deaf ear.

He had already entered a mysterious state.

Parting the Wild Horse's Mane, White Crane Spreads Its Wings.

Every movement was smooth and natural. Though there was no spiritual energy fluctuation at all, they carried an indescribable rhythm.

Just then.

[Ding!]

[Detected that the host is practicing an unknown body technique.]

[Recording... Recording successful.]

[Name: Tai Chi Fist.]

[Detected that this fist art contains the supreme Dao rhythm of "yin and yang giving rise to each other, softness overcoming hardness"...]

Boom!

An enigmatic warm current appeared out of nowhere within Ye Xingchen's limbs and bones.

The movements that had originally been nothing more than fancy posturing instantly took on a different flavor.

Ye Xingchen felt as though his body had turned into an enormous vortex.

The scattered motes of spiritual energy in the surrounding air no longer drifted aimlessly. Drawn by some force, they began slowly rotating along with his arms.

His left hand was yang, his right hand yin.

The airflow compressed, spun, and collapsed between his palms.

The wind rose.

The fallen leaves on the training ground, which had been lying quietly on the ground, now seemed to be lifted by an invisible giant hand, beginning to trace circles around Ye Xingchen.

"Hm?"

Ye Zhiyu, the elder currently instructing the disciples, suddenly frowned.

She spun around sharply, her gaze locking firmly onto the young man.

What kind of fist art is this? Why have I never seen it before? Ye Zhiyu was astonished.

Even top-grade Profound-rank martial skills of the inner sect could not achieve such a method of stirring the grand momentum of heaven and earth!

Meanwhile, Ye Xingchen had no idea of the commotion outside.

He simply felt incredible, more exhilarated than ever before.

The spiritual energy within him moved as easily as his own limbs. Layering upon itself with every motion, it was like water gathering behind a dam—the water level rising higher and higher, the pressure growing greater and greater.

Brush Knee and Twist Step, Strum the Lute.

His movements remained slow, but the pressure they gave off increased by geometric multiples.

The laughter around him gradually faded away.

Though the disciples could not discern its intricacies, they instinctively felt their hearts tremble.

The cold smile on Zhao Kai's face froze, and every hair on his back stood on end.

"This... this looks even fiercer than my cultivation art!"

"What kind of damned fist art is this?!"

At last.

Ye Xingchen reached that move.

Parry, Block, and Punch.

The power accumulated for so long finally found an outlet.

The punch looked light and drifting, yet it weighed a thousand jun.

Ye Xingchen did not use much spiritual energy. He merely followed that "momentum" and gave a gentle push forward.

Bang!

A dull explosion abruptly burst above the training ground.

Boom—!

A visible, translucent shockwave erupted from Ye Xingchen's fist, surging forward in a fan-shaped spread.

Crack.

Fine fissures spread across the ground. This place had been reinforced by formations, yet cracks had actually appeared.

Across the vast training ground, among several hundred disciples, not a sound could be heard.

"Whew..."

Ye Xingchen slowly withdrew his stance, pressing both hands downward as his qi sank into his dantian.

The wild currents around him instantly settled, as if nothing had happened.

He opened his eyes and looked at the dumbstruck crowd around him in confusion.

"What's wrong? Why are you all staring at me?"

Ye Xingchen muttered inwardly, I only did a set of health-preserving exercises. Is there any need to look like you've seen a ghost?

He had been too absorbed in the form just now to notice the power of that punch at all.

But he did see the faint cracks in the ground.

"Holy shit..." Ye Xingchen's eyelid twitched. "They're not going to make me pay for damaging public property, are they?"

Thinking of that, Ye Xingchen immediately put on an innocent expression and turned to look at the equally shocked Ye Zhiyu nearby.

"Um... Elder."

Ye Xingchen scratched his head and asked with a "shy" look, "This disciple was bored just now and casually practiced a crude bit of martial arts from my hometown. I wonder where I went wrong? I ask Elder to correct me."

Crude martial arts?

Ye Zhiyu's mouth twitched violently.

She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in her heart as she struggled to maintain an elder's dignity.

"Ahem."

Ye Zhiyu stepped forward, looking at Ye Xingchen with a complicated expression before glancing at the cracks in the ground.

She desperately wanted to ask what kind of cultivation art this was.

But as the elder responsible for teaching cultivation, if she could not even recognize a disciple's cultivation art, would that not make her seem terribly ignorant?

Thus, she assumed an unfathomable air and said flatly, "The great Dao is simplest; returning to simplicity is truth. Though your fist art appears slow, it secretly accords with the heavenly Dao of yin and yang. Not bad."

As soon as she said this, the surrounding disciples' gazes toward Ye Xingchen became solemn.

Even Elder Ye, renowned for her severity, had given such high praise!

"I told you! How could someone who dared cultivate the Origin Heaven Art possibly be an idiot?"

"So this was his trump card all along! Playing the pig to eat the tiger—how sinister!"

"Accords with the heavenly Dao? My heavens, isn't that the kind of cultivation art only core disciples of the inner sect can come into contact with?"

Zhao Kai's face looked as awful as if he had swallowed a fly.

He recalled calling Ye Xingchen a "charlatan" and a "clown hopping about on a beam." Every word felt like a slap viciously striking back across his own face.

Ye Xingchen blinked.

He keenly caught the fleeting confusion in Ye Zhiyu's eyes.

This elder... is quite good at putting on an act.

Ye Xingchen found it amusing inwardly, but he wore an overwhelmed expression. "Thank you for Elder's guidance. This disciple has learned much."

Just when everyone thought Ye Xingchen would strike while the iron was hot and continue displaying his divine might.

Ye Xingchen merely patted his sleeve and turned to walk outside.

"Where is he going?" someone asked in confusion.

"That direction... seems to be the Artifact Refining Hall?"

"The Artifact Refining Hall? What is he going there for??"

"Could he really be going to the Artifact Refining Hall to watch the furnaces?"

Zhao Kai watched Ye Xingchen's departing figure, his fists clenched tightly.

"Ye Xingchen... don't get smug too soon. When the assessment comes, I'll make you regret it!"