With the Eight Immortals Stance now at Lv2, Chen Jue felt a warm current coursing through his body during this session of stance training, even more pleasant than before.
As the pores all over his body closed, the warm current traveled through him in time with Chen Jue's stance movements. It felt wonderfully soothing, as though he had taken some powerful tonic.
The more comfortable training feels, the more certain you can be that you're doing it right! Recalling the debates he had read among the experts on Tieba, Chen Jue knew he was on the right track.
The Lv2 stance training also increased his attributes far more efficiently than before. After just over an hour of practice, his free attribute points had risen by a full 0.05.
Of course, that was largely thanks to the miraculous state in which all his pores closed, combined with Chen Jue's superhuman constitution attribute. He could actually keep his pores sealed for half an hour at a stretch.
During more than an hour of stance training, he had only relaxed his pores twice to release the trapped air!
If other masters of Internal Fist learned that he could maintain it for such an incredible length of time, their jaws would drop!
After all, a person's stamina was limited. Keeping every pore closed for even a few minutes was already pushing the limits.
The longer someone could maintain it, the greater their stamina!
It was like sprinting at full speed. Two or three hundred meters was already the limit. If someone tried to run a marathon at their hundred-meter sprinting speed, wouldn't they collapse on the spot?
But thanks to practicing the Twelve Forms of the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic, along with his constitution attribute of 1.63, Chen Jue possessed stamina far beyond that of an ordinary person. He had actually managed the impossible.
To put it plainly, the gains Chen Jue made from one hour of stance training were comparable to twenty days of practice for someone else. His progress really was advancing by leaps and bounds.
Of course, the clearest scientific evidence came from the measurements taken by the newly purchased digital watch on Chen Jue's wrist.
He discovered that after fully mastering Bright Force the previous night, his resting heart rate had dropped straight to just thirty to forty beats per minute.
What was more, every beat was exceptionally strong, sending the readings on the monitoring app all the way to the top of the scale!
No wonder the elderly practitioner at Ye Tong Ren Tang had said he was healthy to an excessive degree. If he kept training like this, Chen Jue might soon be comparing heart rates with turtles, which were famous for their longevity. (Note: a turtle's heart beats twenty to thirty times per minute.)
By the time he finished his morning training, the light rain outside had stopped. He opened the door to a cool, pleasant breeze. The temperature had dropped considerably since yesterday.
After wiping off his sweat and changing into a long-sleeved tracksuit, Chen Jue walked leisurely to Lin Family Village.
He ate breakfast, then skipped the market in Panlong Town. Instead, he bought a meaty bone and some fresh vegetables at the little market in Lin Family Village, planning to make bone broth when he got home.
With his hand injured, Chen Jue had no intention of continuing his boxing exercises today. To balance training with rest, he planned to recuperate at home for a couple of days and practice stationary exercises, then wait until his injury had fully healed before doing anything else.
Back home, he put the bone broth on to simmer and found a popular TV series to watch while practicing the Twelve Forms of the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic.
The morning passed like that. After lunch, he took a nap. When he woke at two in the afternoon, he discovered a missed call from an unfamiliar number on his phone.
He got up, washed his face with warm water, wiped the yellow crust from the corners of his eyes, and Chen Jue called the number back.
"Hello! Is this Comrade Chen Jue from Chen Family Village?" A stranger's booming male voice came from the other end.
"Yes, I'm Chen Jue. Who is this? What can I do for you?"
Chen Jue felt suspicious. Scam calls were everywhere these days. Whenever he received a call from an unknown number, he usually asked a few questions. Unless it concerned a delivery or some other legitimate matter, he would hang up immediately. He couldn't be bothered talking to scammers.
"Hello, Comrade Chen Jue. My surname is Yao, and I'm the political commissar of the XX Regiment stationed nearby. Yesterday, you stepped in to help three of our young soldiers catch a thief, didn't you?"
"I watched the video of you chasing the thief, and I think you must be a genuine martial arts expert outside the military. We'd like to invite you to the combat and fighting exchange competition our regiment is holding next week. We'll also be inviting some local sanda coaches and martial arts experts to spar and offer guidance. Think of it as a special event to promote interaction between the military and civilians."
"Would you have time, Comrade Chen Jue? Of course, we wouldn't ask you to come for nothing. Everyone invited will receive an appearance fee. If you take first place, our regiment also intends to appoint you as a special martial arts instructor, with a monthly allowance. Would that interest you?" Commissar Yao explained over the phone.
"Oh! A martial arts exchange competition? Sure, sure. I'll come and take part."
"Great! I'll add you on WeChat and send you the address. You can just follow the directions when the time comes."
Chen Jue remained utterly bewildered throughout the conversation, right up until he hung up.
He hadn't expected that casually showing a little of his skill would catch the eye of a senior figure in the nearby military unit.
But the thought of getting paid to attend the competition immediately sparked Chen Jue's interest.
He was currently unemployed, and his training expenses were substantial. Every day, he was either eating generous servings of meat and fish or taking medicinal supplements. Since coming home, he had also bought plenty of training equipment. He had spent at least ten thousand yuan.
Although he still had over two hundred thousand yuan in savings, there was nothing coming in to replenish it. Sooner or later, he would burn through the lot.
An additional source of income would give him more support for his training.
Besides, this competition would let him exchange ideas and spar with other martial arts experts. That sounded far more interesting than Chen Jue training alone behind closed doors.
What was more, now that Chen Jue had fully mastered Bright Force, he was eager to find someone to test his skills against and gain some real combat experience.
The Tieba Experts had said it too: if you trained without ever fighting, you were training for nothing.
He glanced again at the broken brick recessed into the white wall of his house and felt that Chen Jue wouldn't be easily defeated.
Still, to be safe, he needed to ask the experts on Tieba what precautions he should take when competing and sparring.
If possible, learning a few quick-to-master martial arts moves would improve his chances of winning too!
Little Expert at Training: "Experts! Emergency! This total beginner is entering a local fighting exchange competition next week. Are there any martial arts I can master in a week?"
Half-Step Collapse Fist Rules the World: "Giving the newbie a bump! OP, you again? Didn't you only just start learning martial arts? How are you entering a competition already? (wide-eyed)"
Sun-Style Taiji Successor: "A level-three newbie is entering a competition? We old Tieba veterans are trembling in fear. (doge)"
Eagle Strikes the Sky: "There are plenty of martial arts you can learn quickly. For a competition, I'd recommend picking up a few sanda and jeet kune do moves. (side-eye)"
Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms: "OP could try training in water. Yang Guo learned to use the Heavy Dark-Iron Sword in a waterfall, and it was a crash course too. A few days of training and you'll have boundless strength. (troll face)"
Happy Chubby Fist: "Why doesn't the guy above recommend the Nine Yang Divine Skill? Once you master that, you can learn any martial art quickly. You'll master the Heaven and Earth Great Shift in just a few hours. (laughing)"
Shaolin Lay Disciple: "OP, are you a virgin? If you are, you could try learning the Shaolin Child Prodigy Skill. Guaranteed quick and effective results. Highly recommended! (troll face)"
Little Expert at Training: "..."
In short, the thread had gone so far off topic that Chen Jue didn't quite know what to say. Even martial arts from wuxia novels had made an appearance.
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