Chen Village Reservoir was as picturesque as ever in the early morning. The summer sun had yet to rise, aquatic plants grew lushly, and occasional wisps of cooking smoke curled up from Huang Family Village in the distance.
After switching to eight-jin sandbags, Chen Jue found the climb noticeably more strenuous.
Fortunately, his constitution attribute had soared the day before, and he jogged the entire uphill route in just under ten minutes without stopping once.
Once he reached the reservoir dam, Chen Jue only needed a few slightly heavy breaths. He felt that his endurance had improved enormously.
His agility and strength attributes were still below the benchmark, however. One glance at his pudgy belly told him that his body fat was too high and his muscles had yet to grow strong.
Taking off the weights, he practiced Boat Boxing on the dam for an hour, raising his skill proficiency to (100/200). At this rate, he reckoned it wouldn't be long before his Boat Boxing skill leveled up again.
After all, Boat Boxing wasn't some complicated ancient boxing style. It consisted of the same handful of moves repeated over and over, so its rapid progression was only natural.
He had also earned another 0.03 free attribute points, which left Chen Jue brimming with motivation.
He hadn't expected the increase in his constitution to improve the efficiency of earning attribute points so much as well.
Previously, an hour of boxing practice had yielded only one or two hundredths of a point at most.
Sure enough, the better your natural aptitude, the more efficiently you learned martial arts!
Descending from the dam, Chen Jue jumped onto the little boat moored at the shore. This time, instead of practicing his stance where he was, he boldly untied the rope looped around an iron railing on the bank, took up the oar, and rowed toward the middle of the reservoir.
Although the boat was on the water even beside the shore, that was still a far cry from the moving water at the center of the reservoir.
Fortunately, Chen Village Reservoir wasn't very large. After a little over ten minutes of rowing, the boat slowly reached its center.
Feeling the boat pitch and sway more strongly, Chen Jue put away the oar, settled into the Eight Immortals Stance, and resumed his morning practice amid the harmonious scenery of mountain and water.
About an hour and a half passed this way. As the sun rose in the east and hot sweat poured from his body, Chen Jue finally let out a long breath, finished his practice, and rowed back to shore.
"Practicing in the middle of the water really does make it much more efficient!"
He glanced at his attribute panel and found that he had gained another 0.04 free attribute points. Including the points left unused the previous night, his available free attribute points had now accumulated to a full 0.1.
As for the Eight Immortals Stance, the morning's practice had raised its proficiency by 30 points, bringing it to (76/200).
Compared with the snail-paced Twelve Forms of the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic, this boxing style and stance training were far easier to pick up.
But the moment he stepped ashore, Chen Jue spotted Old Mr. Huang strolling cheerfully toward him with his hands behind his back, along another path on the dam that led straight to Huang Family Village.
"Young man! We meet again!"
"I saw you rowing back to shore from a long way off. What was it? Did you go out to the middle of the reservoir to practice Boat Boxing?" Old Mr. Huang looked Chen Jue up and down curiously.
"Yes! Grandpa Huang, are you out for your morning exercise too?" Chen Jue didn't hide it. Since he came up to the reservoir to practice every morning, people were bound to see him.
Anyone who didn't know the details would probably assume that he was simply exercising like anyone else.
But Old Mr. Huang was the teacher who had introduced him to Boat Boxing, and he had also learned the Eight Immortals Stance from Chen Jue in return. He could probably tell at a glance why Chen Jue came to the reservoir.
"I'm getting old! If I don't stretch these old bones every day, I probably won't make it through the winter," Old Mr. Huang said kindly, before asking about Chen Jue's background.
Previously, he had assumed Chen Jue was a visitor from the city who had come to fish, and had casually taught him Boat Boxing.
Yet after watching him over the past few days, he had discovered that the young man came up to the reservoir to practice every single day without fail. Clearly, he lived nearby and wasn't traveling out from the city.
"Grandpa Huang, I'm from Chen Village down below. My name's Chen Jue, and I'm twenty-seven." It was only on their third meeting that Chen Jue finally introduced himself properly.
Still, Old Mr. Huang hadn't asked about it before, so Chen Jue hadn't deliberately kept anything from him.
"From Chen Village, eh? Who's your grandfather? I might know him." Old Mr. Huang nodded at his answer.
"My grandfather's name was Chen Yan. The fields on that little hill over there all belong to my family. Does that ring a bell, Grandpa Huang?" Chen Jue pointed to a small hill beside the reservoir covered in green bayberry trees.
That was his family's private plot, though it consisted entirely of hillside fields. His grandfather had planted quite a few bayberry trees there, but their fruit was small and sour. No one had picked it in recent years, and the land was nearly abandoned.
"Oh, oh! You're Chen Yan's grandson!"
"I remember! Your grandfather was very capable. He planted crops everywhere. Those bayberry trees were his work. Loquats, sweet potatoes, watermelons too. He was far better at it than I was when I was young." Recognition dawned on Old Mr. Huang's face. Clearly, he had spoken with Chen Jue's grandfather before.
After all, Huang Family Village and Chen Family Village were separated by only a narrow stretch of water, and many of their fields lay right beside each other. It was perfectly normal for their residents to run into one another and exchange a few words.
Besides, Chen Jue's family was well known in Chen Village for having fallen on hard times-the sort of family whose fortunes had collapsed and whose members had died. Naturally, plenty of people knew about them.
"Young man, I see you coming up here every day and practicing until this hour. Don't you need to go to work?" Old Mr. Huang asked with concern.
"Grandpa Huang, I just quit my job. I've got some savings, so I'm not planning to work for the time being. Practicing martial arts and getting some exercise is pretty nice too." Chatting with the old man, Chen Jue didn't conceal anything and answered honestly.
"It's hard to get anywhere by practicing martial arts!"
"There used to be an old teacher in our village who practiced martial arts. Like you, he often took a boat out to practice on the water. I heard he even went off to fight the Japanese invaders, but he lived a hard life. He never even found a wife, stayed a bachelor all his life, and passed away in his sixties."
"You're still young. You should get out there and make something of yourself instead of staying trapped here. Everyone in these mountains farms for a living. What prospects could you possibly have?" Old Mr. Huang shook his head, offering his earnest advice.
"You're right, Grandpa Huang. I'm only taking a little break. Maybe I'll head out to look for work in a few days." Knowing that the old man was concerned for him, Chen Jue smiled faintly and told a little white lie.
As Chen Jue saw it, even the greatest worldly success amounted to no more than a fortune worth hundreds of millions. How could that compare with the joy of growing stronger through training?
Although they lived in peaceful times and no longer needed to wield blades or guns, who wouldn't want a healthier, stronger body?
So, after chatting with Grandpa Huang a little longer, Chen Jue said goodbye and headed downhill. Wearing his weights, he jogged straight to Lin Village for breakfast.
During that run, his agility finally rose by another hundredth on its own, reaching 0.89.
"Looks like carrying eight jin is more effective than four!"
"I'm almost out of vegetables at home anyway. Let's try power-walking to the market!"
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