Terrifying Talent (Thanks to Youyitaoya for the Reward)

Over the next stretch of time, Jia Qingshan finally experienced firsthand what a true genius was.

Every fist technique he taught, Wu Ming memorized after watching it once. After practicing it a few times, he had mastered every movement.

In the end, Wu Ming needed only half an hour to grasp the essence of the Five Elements Fist. He could coordinate his force smoothly, unite strength and power as one, and had effectively reached mastery in the technique.

At this point in internal martial arts, one had to begin comprehending force. The force of Xingyi Quan was divided into three stages: Bright Strength, Hidden Strength, and Transforming Strength!

Bright Strength meant integrating the strength of the entire body. With a single punch, one could unleash one hundred percent of the power allowed by their current physical condition.

This happened to be Wu Ming's weakness. Before, he had never learned any techniques. Though his physical attributes were extremely high, he found it difficult to fully bring them out.

When he threw a full-force punch, it usually reached only seventy or eighty percent of his panel attributes, wasting several hundred kilograms of power for nothing.

But once he mastered the techniques of Bright Strength, he would be able to perfectly unleash the limit of his panel data.

Thus, after Wu Ming mastered the Five Elements Fist, Jia Qingshan naturally began teaching him the next stage of stance techniques: the Hunyuan Stake.

Unlike the Three-Body Stance's sideways combat posture, the Hunyuan Stake required one to stand facing forward, feet shoulder-width apart, arms rounded before the chest as though embracing a large tree.

Through this posture, Wu Ming could sense the changes in the muscles and tendons throughout his body and experience the unity of Hunyuan. It was a foundational stance required for mastering force.

Naturally, fine control over stance techniques was his specialty.

He had barely listened to Jia Qingshan explain the key points once before he was already standing with convincing form. After a few minor adjustments to his posture, it became an utterly flawless stance.

Even so, Wu Ming stood in the stance for a full hour before he finally sensed the changes in his muscles and tendons and understood the feeling of Hunyuan unity.

He felt that his progress had slowed, unaware that Jia Qingshan beside him had been completely startled. He had grasped the essence of the Hunyuan Stake in one hour? What kind of monster was this kid?!

Back then, Jia Qingshan had stood in stances for half a year before sensing the meaning of Hunyuan. He was simply incomparable to Wu Ming.

At this point, the Hunyuan Stake could be considered mastered, bringing him another step closer to mastering Bright Strength.

After witnessing Wu Ming's progress, Jia Qingshan took a deep breath and began teaching him the subsequent advanced stance techniques: the Dragon-Surrendering Stake and Tiger-Subduing Stake!

The Dragon-Surrendering Stake emphasized twisting and turning like a dragon. It trained explosive spiral force, with its core lying in the spine's extreme twisting. Its essence was the same as the Drilling Fist in the Five Elements Fist, except the movement extended from the arms to the torso itself.

As for the Tiger-Subduing Stake, its essence was sinking and stability. Its core was the utmost lowering of one's center of gravity, like a crouching tiger gathering strength to strike. When still, it remained motionless; when it moved, mountains collapsed and the earth split.

One of these two stance techniques moved, while the other remained still. They tempered the spine, waist, hips, and limbs to the utmost limit. Once both were mastered, they could connect with the Hunyuan Stake, and with the Three-Body Stance as the core, integrate the body's entire strength.

At that time, the realm of Bright Strength would naturally follow.

Of course, these two advanced stance techniques were far more difficult than the foundational ones before them, at least in Wu Ming's view.

For the entire morning, he focused intently on sensing the force generated when his spine twisted.

Yet even after several hours, despite every movement of the stance already being flawless, Wu Ming still could not understand the secret of the Dragon-Surrendering Stake, much less the Tiger-Subduing Stake.

It was not until nine that evening, shortly before the lesson ended, that he finally comprehended the power of spirals.

"Ha!"

Wu Ming sank his waist and settled his hips. His arms and spine coordinated perfectly as he twisted like a dragon and threw a powerful punch.

A crisp crack came from his arm, startling Jia Qingshan, who had been about to turn and leave. He instantly spun around, his face full of shock.

"Mastered the Dragon-Surrendering Stake in one day??"

His mind was filled with disbelief. He had spent a full three years practicing the Dragon-Surrendering Stake before reaching mastery!

Jia Qingshan realized that he was understanding Wu Ming less and less. He could not help thinking, Just how great is this kid's potential?

"Even if all your meridians were naturally open, you shouldn't have reached mastery in stance techniques this quickly."

He even suspected that, even if he truly comprehended cosmic energy and underwent a full-body Gene Evolution, he might not achieve such a terrifying cultivation speed.

But no matter what, Wu Ming's rapid cultivation was not solely due to his talent. The improvement brought by Gene Evolution was also real.

At that thought, Jia Qingshan's heart stirred. After saying goodbye to Wu Ming, he immediately returned to his dorm room and hurriedly practiced Five Hearts Toward Heaven.

Meanwhile, after mastering the Dragon-Surrendering Stake, Wu Ming did not stay to continue practicing. He also returned to his room to rest.

By coincidence, Jia Yi returned to the dorm at the same time. After the two exchanged a few words, Wu Ming learned that Ruan Qingzhu and the other person had practiced their stances smoothly today, and he nodded slightly.

Jia Yi, on the other hand, nearly had his eyes pop out after learning what Wu Ming had studied today.

He had guessed that his uncle had taken Wu Ming away to give him private instruction, but he had not expected him to teach so much!

Those were the Dragon-Surrendering and Tiger-Subduing Stances! Even among the younger generation of the Jia Family, few students learned those two stance techniques.

Anyone who mastered them would almost certainly enter the Bright Strength realm. They could then graduate and join the military, where they were bound to become elite soldiers with limitless futures.

That was only because Wu Ming had not revealed that he had already mastered the Dragon-Surrendering Stake. Otherwise, Jia Yi would have been even more shocked.

As things stood... Jia Yi could only congratulate him with a complicated expression and did not press for further details.

After washing up, the two went to bed. As usual, Wu Ming practiced Genetic Energy and Spiritual Force before sleeping.

Once his body's cells reached saturation, he opened his eyes again, a trace of delight appearing on his face.

"One hour and twenty minutes! It increased by another twenty minutes this time!"

Wu Ming was delighted. Because I practiced the Hunyuan Stake and Dragon-Surrendering Stake today, my absorption limit rose from twice to around 2.6 times.

Once I learn the Tiger-Subduing Stake and combine the four major stance techniques with the Three-Body Stance, perhaps I can raise my cultivation limit to three times or even higher.

Sure enough, stance techniques are guiding arts. A guiding art formed by combining Xingyi Quan's five major stance techniques should be called the Xingyi Guiding Art.

As for whether the stance techniques of other internal martial arts schools also possessed the effects of guiding arts, he would need to explore that gradually in the future.

He glanced at his panel and found that his strength had increased by 141 kilograms, matching the pattern of linear growth. Wu Ming nodded to himself, then switched to the Spiritual-Martial Dual Cultivation Set and began today's Spiritual Force training.

The next day arrived. As usual, Wu Ming did not go to the training ground to assemble. Instead, he went alone to the back mountain and began practicing the Tiger-Subduing Stake.

Jia Qingshan had practiced Five Hearts Toward Heaven for the entire night, yet gained no insights.

He was not in a hurry. After assigning Jia Yi and the other two their daily lessons that morning, he also headed to the back mountain to check on Wu Ming's progress.

The morning quietly passed, and Wu Ming's understanding of the Tiger-Subduing Stake improved bit by bit.

By noon, he had finally comprehended the last crucial point.

The instant he mastered the stance technique, Wu Ming seemed to receive sudden inspiration and instinctively shifted his stance into the Three-Body Stance.

But unlike usual, he did not remain still in the stance. Instead, following the movements of the Three-Body Stance, his entire body began to move.

As his movements changed, the Three-Body Stance gradually transitioned into the Hunyuan Stake, then the Dragon-Surrendering Stake, and finally the Tiger-Subduing Stake he had just comprehended.

After completing all four stance techniques, Wu Ming returned to the posture of the Three-Body Stance. Yet he was not concluding his practice. Instead, he twisted his waist and hips, flipped out his right fist, and tore through the air with a crisp ring.

Then came the second punch, the third punch... Every strike detonated through the air, even twisting the surrounding atmosphere into wisps of breeze.

Only after throwing thirteen consecutive punches did he return to the Three-Body Stance and slowly conclude his practice.

Beside him, Jia Qingshan had unknowingly opened his mouth wide. As a Xingyi master, he understood all too well what state Wu Ming had just entered.

The first realm of Xingyi Quan—Bright Strength!