Just as Chen Jue shot seven meters up along the cliff, his upward momentum stalled, and gravity began pulling him down. Suddenly, a dark bluish tint spread over his hands. His ten fingers clawed out, locking firmly into a crack in the rock face only one or two centimeters deep. With the gripping strength of his fingertips, he suspended his body against the cliff, looking as though he were floating in midair.
Skilled rock climbers could perform pull-ups using protrusions only one or two centimeters wide.
But developing such powerful fingers took prolonged training, and they needed to prepare beforehand to unleash enough force for large movements on such tiny holds.
Chen Jue, however, was in the middle of extremely vigorous movement, with only a fleeting instant to act. Catching a crack in the rock face in that instant was an immense test of his vision and reflexes.
Only after spotting a place where he felt he could get a grip, then using his ten fingers trained through the Golden Needle Finger Skill, closing his pores, and unleashing Bright Force, together with his Strength attribute of 2.87, could he suspend his roughly ninety-kilogram body against the cliff.
The difficulty was more than ten times that of outdoor free climbing with its stop-and-start rhythm!
Moreover, when tackling a nearly ninety-degree vertical cliff like the one Chen Jue faced, many outdoor climbing experts would prepare safety ropes beforehand to prevent accidents along the way.
Chen Jue had no protective equipment whatsoever. He was forcing his way up through the abilities gained from his training and his body's conditioning through external hardening practice alone!
Of course, ordinary people could forget about suspending themselves from protrusions one or two centimeters wide. Without exercise, even hanging from the monkey bars among a park's fitness equipment