"Could more stance training let me control the closing of my pores?"
Chen Jue went up to the reservoir that night, practicing with that question on his mind the whole time.
He practiced Boat Boxing for an hour, then spent another hour practicing the Eight Immortals Stake Skill on the little boat. Both skills improved considerably.
Especially while practicing the Eight Immortals Stake Skill, Chen Jue increasingly felt that those Tieba Experts were masters with genuine skills.
His pores actually opened and closed as he practiced his stance, exactly as the moderator of that Internal Fist forum had described.
The more proficient he became at stance training, the more freely he could control his body.
But he still couldn't maintain the state he had entered while chasing the thief that morning, when his pores had stayed closed throughout.
Chen Jue probably hadn't realized it himself, but after jumping off the bus, his hot-blooded urge to do the right thing had overridden his reason. In that urgent moment, all he wanted was to catch the thief, and his thoughts had influenced his physical state.
It was just as the Tieba Experts had said: when intent surged, force arose naturally, and the pores closed on their own.
Although he still couldn't close his pores at will and unite all the force in his body, his increasing proficiency in the Eight Immortals Stake Skill meant he wasn't far from what they called full mastery of bright force.
After coming down the hill, he glanced at his status panel:
Player: Chen Jue Age: 27 Health index: 98% Strength: 1.01 Agility: 0.98 Intelligence: 1.23 Constitution: 1.58 Skills mastered: [Boat Boxing Level 1 (162/200)] [Twelve Forms of the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic Level 1 (10/200)] [Eight Immortals Stance Level 1 (166/200)] Unallocated attribute points: 0.32
I earned 0.06 attribute points in one evening.
I've been saving up unallocated points for almost three days. I might as well spend some before bed when I get home.
Glancing at his agility, which still hadn't reached 1, Chen Jue felt his compulsion kick in. He added 0.02 to it, bringing it up to the human limit of 1 along the way.
Once home, he turned off the heat beneath the Ten-Ingredient Tonic Decoction, which had been simmering for two hours, then poured all of it into a large enamel mug to cool.
He sat and rested for a while, watching the steam dissipate. When he felt the decoction had cooled enough to drink, Chen Jue spent 0.08 unallocated attribute points to max out his proficiency in both Boat Boxing and the Eight Immortals Stance.
In an instant, a long-missed surge of muscle memory spread throughout his body. Chen Jue's understanding of the boxing style and stance training deepened until there wasn't a single gap or misconception left.
Excitement seized him. Chen Jue leaped onto the Solid Wood Square Table in the living room and gave a sharp cry. In response, every pore on his body automatically contracted and closed.
A warm current spread throughout him. Chen Jue knew this wasn't internal energy or true qi-it was the blood rushing rapidly through his body!
After several days of reading and learning on various boxing, martial arts, and Internal Fist Tieba forums, Chen Jue already knew that real-world martial arts couldn't produce any true qi. The "qi" the experts always talked about actually referred to blood and vital energy.
His martial arts simply hadn't been advanced enough before for him to fully grasp how to circulate it.
But now that his stance training and boxing had improved together, he had automatically mastered this so-called method of circulating "qi"!
"That feels so good!"
"That's the feeling!"
"Just like when I was sprinting this morning!"
Chen Jue's eyes lit up. He practiced his stance and boxing on the Solid Wood Square Table for nearly half an hour, watching his strength, agility, and constitution each rise by 0.05. Only then did that drained, weak feeling come over him.
Fortunately, he had prepared for this. He jumped down from the Solid Wood Square Table, rushed into the kitchen, and drank the entire cooled Ten-Ingredient Tonic Decoction in one go. Then he stood in place and assumed the closing posture of the Eight Immortals Stance.
A warm current spread outward from his stomach and intestines, steadily nourishing his whole body.
Chen Jue relaxed his pores, and a visible wave of heat rushed out of him. White mist rose and heat poured outward; at that moment, he was like a pot of water brought to a rolling boil.
Only after the Ten-Ingredient Tonic Decoction in his stomach had been completely digested did the sweat finally stop pouring out.
Then Chen Jue stepped forward and punched into empty air. A crisp crack, like the snap of a long whip, echoed through the kitchen, and his pores closed on their own the instant he threw the punch.
This is what the Tieba Experts mean by a crack worth more than a fortune!
And I can close my pores at will! Have I reached full mastery of bright force?
Delighted, Chen Jue raised his arm and looked at it. He tensed it with concentrated force, and every fine hair on the back of his arm stood upright. He tested the rest of his body too. Apart from a handful of areas such as his eyelids, he could close the pores across 99% of his skin.
Looks like I really have fully mastered bright force!
Just what I'd expect from Lv2 stance training and boxing!
Chen Jue glanced at his status panel:
Player: Chen Jue Age: 27 Health index: 99% Strength: 1.06 Agility: 1.05 Intelligence: 1.23 Constitution: 1.63 Skills mastered: [Boat Boxing Lv2 (1/500)] [Twelve Forms of the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic Level 1 (10/200)] [Eight Immortals Stance Lv2 (1/500)] Unallocated attribute points: 0.22
The proficiency needed for the next upgrade didn't double to 400-it jumped straight to 500? Looking at the Lv2 upgrade requirement, Chen Jue couldn't help sinking into thought.
In addition, his health index had risen by another 1%, leaving him just 1% short of the maximum.
I wonder how strong I've become now that I've fully mastered bright force. If only I had a punching bag to test it on. Chen Jue looked around at the furnishings in the room.
He had plenty of exercise equipment, but nothing he could use to test his punching power.
His gaze shifted to the white-painted wall. For some reason, an urge to punch it overwhelmed his reason in an instant!
With a muffled thud, Chen Jue lunged forward and punched the white wall in the living room without a second thought. He acted as though he had lost his mind, believing he had perfected his martial arts and become invincible.
The entire old house shook at the impact!
The spot where his fist landed actually caved in. The wall had a hollow cavity inside, with only a thin layer of red brick on the outside coated in white paint.
Chen Jue's powerful punch had broken the red brick outright and driven it inward, cracking a ring of white paint around it as well.
But the moment he finished the punch, Chen Jue regretted it. His fist hurt terribly.
He raised it for a look. The skin over several knuckles had been scraped off, and blood kept seeping out. The bones hadn't broken outright, but the dull ache immediately made Chen Jue realize that he had probably suffered tiny fractures inside.
"Fuck!"
"I got carried away!"
Once he came to his senses, Chen Jue cursed himself for letting his martial arts progress go to his head. He had actually pitted his flesh-and-blood fist against a wall.
Fortunately, the injury wasn't too serious. He hurried to find some white gauze, disinfected the wound with alcohol, sprayed on the Yunnan Baiyao he had bought earlier, and wrapped it in the gauze.
After nearly half an hour of fussing, the stinging pain in his fist finally eased a little.
He checked his health index. Sure enough, the 99% he had just reached had fallen to 94%, dropping a full 5% in one go. That showed just how seriously an injury affected the body.
Covering his injured right hand with a plastic bag, Chen Jue took a shower, then went upstairs and lay in bed browsing his phone for a while.
With his right hand temporarily out of commission, Chen Jue typed with his left and posted a request for advice on Tieba, attaching a photo of his injured right hand.
"Experts, please help! Are there any martial arts that make the body tougher? I practiced some boxing tonight and hurt myself hitting a hard punching bag (see photo)."
It was peak activity time that night, and before long, quite a few people had left comments under his post.
"Head pats for our little newbie! Remember to wear boxing gloves next time you hit a punching bag (head pat)."
"There are lots of martial arts for toughening up. Which part of your body do you want to train?"
"To the guy above: got anything to make me harder down there? (doge)"
"That, uh, never-goes-limp skill (smirk)."
"Hey, you're getting off topic! (I'm calling the police.)"
The experts in the comments were having a great time. After several off-topic replies, someone who seemed more serious steered the discussion back on track: "If you only want to train your hands, I recommend Iron Sand Palm! If you want to train your whole body, you can try the Shaolin Body Conditioning Skill, Golden Bell Shield, or Iron Shirt. Once you master them, blades and spears won't penetrate your body-you can even withstand an electric drill (doge)."
He also attached a GIF of a Shaolin warrior monk pressing a spinning electric drill hard against his temple, his expression fierce and solemn. The GIF had been captioned "I don't want to live anymore," turning a demonstration of an extraordinary skill into a meme for lightening the mood. Chen Jue laughed at the sight and couldn't resist replying with the disgusted "old man looking at his phone on the subway" reaction image before searching for the hard-body skills those experts had mentioned.
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