"What does bright force mean?"
Chen Jue typed a reply with one hand as he ate. He had only started practicing martial arts a few days ago, and his grasp of the theory was abysmal. With a Tieba Expert kindly answering his questions, he naturally seized the chance to ask more.
"Looks like the OP really is a newbie. You don't even know what bright force is! Haven't you read any Chinese martial arts novels?"
"Guo Yunshen, a renowned martial artist from the late Qing dynasty, wrote the Form-Intention Fist Classic. He broadly divided Form-Intention Fist training into three stages: bright force, hidden strength, and transforming strength."
"As long as you're practicing Internal Fist, once your stance training reaches a certain level, you'll be able to close your pores and make your stamina last longer. Once you can open and close them at will, you've fully mastered bright force."
The expert replying to him was called Half-Step Collapse Fist Rules the World. His avatar was a willow tree, his Tieba level was 20, and he was also a junior moderator of the Internal Fist forum. He appeared frequently on various martial arts forums and was a fairly active member.
Chen Jue's username was Little Expert at Training. He had only recently registered, and his Tieba level was just 3. He was a bona fide newbie, no question about it.
"So how do you train your pores to open and close at will?" Chen Jue hurriedly replied again.
After experiencing that amazing state of closed pores that morning, Chen Jue had become particularly eager to achieve it during training.
"It's simple! Do more anal contractions! Practice your stances more!"
"Ever seen a cat's fur stand on end? Stimulating the area around the tailbone can trigger the arrector pili muscles throughout the body to contract."
"It's the same principle behind getting goosebumps when a cool breeze hits you right after a hot shower. If you can train yourself to close every pore on your body, your martial arts have truly reached a high level."
"Of course, if you reach transforming strength, a surge of intent will let you control all the arrector pili muscles throughout your body at will. You could even crush a mosquito between your wrinkles. [smirk]" Half-Step Collapse Fist Rules the World replied.
"Crush a mosquito between your wrinkles? That's incredible!"
Chen Jue laughed as he read it, then searched online for the theories behind bright force, hidden strength, and transforming strength.
What he found was much the same as the expert's replies, so he decided to try some anal contractions.
Still, the mention of controlling the arrector pili muscles with a surge of intent reminded Chen Jue of getting his hair cut. Whenever the barber used a razor to shave the fine hairs on his face and neck, goosebumps would rise uncontrollably.
That was probably a natural stress response caused by his body sensing an external threat.
After all, those razors were incredibly sharp. The slightest slip could leave a deep cut. When a razor shaved the fine hairs, the stimulation caused the pores to close on their own, which clearly corresponded to the martial principle of closing the pores through bright force.
Hidden strength, however, left Chen Jue rather baffled.
After all, the online descriptions of hidden strength and transforming strength were rather vague. Things like "hidden strength attacks softly," "force like a spray of needles," and "striking someone like hanging a painting" all sounded a little too exaggerated.
Bright force striking the flesh and bones was still understandable. It was simply damage caused by direct physical contact.
But hidden strength wasn't the qigong found in novels, so how could it penetrate someone else's body and injure them from within?
I don't get it!
Chen Jue simply couldn't understand it!
After all, he had only just started training and had yet to develop a complete understanding of martial arts.
While Chen Jue was asking the experts for advice on Tieba as a newbie, at a military base dozens of kilometers away, the curious Commissar Yao sought out one of the regiment's combat instructors. He wanted to ask about the strange sight in the video of white vapor rising all over Chen Jue's body as he finished training.
"Coach Zou, you come from a family with a long martial arts tradition, and you're excellent at combat. Could you help me figure out what's going on in this video?" Commissar Yao found the male instructor in the mess hall. He had dark skin and wasn't particularly tall, but his muscles bulged, and he looked exceptionally lean and formidable.
"Let me take a look!"
The combat instructor, who was shoveling down his meal, was eager to help. He took the phone and glanced at it, then his eyes widened as though he had seen a ghost. It took him a good while to recover. "Commissar, where did you get this footage? This man's Internal Fist practice is clearly approaching an almost supernatural level!"
"Internal Fist?"
"You mean things like Supreme Ultimate Fist and Eight Extremes Fist?" Commissar Yao immediately grew interested.
Instructor Zou nodded. "Besides Supreme Ultimate Fist and Eight Extremes Fist, there are plenty of other Internal Fist styles. I can't tell his background from the video alone. But he ran this fast and this far before opening his pores to release vapor. Clearly, his fist techniques have reached an almost supernatural level. His stamina is extraordinary."
"The military combat techniques we practice are a form of external martial arts that combines many civilian styles. We take a fast-track approach focused on hard, powerful attacks. When it comes to nurturing health, we can't compare with civilian Internal Fist experts like him."
"So how would his martial arts compare with yours, Coach Zou?" Commissar Yao didn't understand all that martial arts terminology. He only knew that if this Instructor Zou thought highly of him, the civilian expert in the video had to be exceptional.
"Well... we'd have to fight to find out!"
"Civilian practitioners generally lack actual combat experience and don't have that ferocity in a fight. No matter how much stamina this man has, it's useless if he gets into the ring and doesn't know how to hit anyone."
"Still, anyone who can bring Internal Fist to this level at such a young age should be a very formidable expert." Coach Zou watched the video several more times and hesitated briefly before replying, careful not to make any absolute claims.
"Then how about inviting this expert over for an exchange?"
"Isn't the whole regiment training together next week? I'm planning to have the regimental commander arrange a combat exchange tournament for everyone, then invite a few experts in taekwondo, sanda, and martial arts forms from Wenzhou to get the soldiers fired up." Commissar Yao narrowed his eyes, feeling that he had heard exactly the answer he wanted.
"A combat exchange tournament? Then I'd better go back and prepare properly! If I lose to those civilian practitioners, I won't be able to show my face in the regiment as an instructor anymore." A sharp glint flashed in Instructor Zou's eyes. He quickly shoveled down a few more mouthfuls, planning to head back and train. Clearly, his interest had been piqued as well.
Meanwhile, after dinner and a short rest, Chen Jue put a pot of Ten-Ingredient Tonic Decoction on the stove to simmer. Only after turning the heat down low did he head out to the reservoir to continue training.
His Eight Immortals Stance was close to leveling up again, and he had accumulated quite a few unallocated attribute points. Chen Jue planned to push through in one go that evening and grind out another level for his Eight Immortals Stance first!
Now that he knew his physical attributes were enough to rival the world's top athletes, Chen Jue no longer had any reservations. He strapped on all twenty jin of the sandbag weights he had bought.
Previously, he had intended to exercise in moderation, progressing gradually and adding weight little by little.
Who could have imagined that this attribute panel would be so absurdly powerful, raising Chen Jue's physical capabilities to such an outrageous level!
With twenty jin of sandbags strapped to his body, he ran and jumped a few times and fully adjusted to them. They didn't feel heavy at all. If anything, they felt a little light.
Glancing at the mountain road, brightly illuminated by the streetlights, Chen Jue drew a deep breath and charged straight uphill with swift strides, making no attempt to conserve his stamina.
The mountain road stretched for over a kilometer and usually took him more than ten minutes to cover. This time, he reached the dam in just over five!
Most importantly, he had done it with twenty jin of sandbags strapped to him. It was downright inhuman!
He glanced toward the campsite and found that the Zhou family, who had still been camping there that morning, had vanished. Clearly, they had enjoyed themselves enough and left.
After all, Chen Village Reservoir wasn't some famous major attraction. A day and a night were enough to explore everything.
Why am I thinking about these strangers?
Train, train!
Grinding attributes is what matters!
Before you continue