"Master Chen! You've developed hidden strength?" Li Xiangning's face was flushed on the other end of the video call. He was clearly thrilled and excited; he had evidently watched the video Chen Jue had sent him.
In Li Xiangning's eyes, he and Chen Jue were practically fellow disciples. Although he himself could not develop hidden strength and had not even fully mastered bright force, Chen Jue had actually developed hidden strength after returning home, guided by a single training maxim from him. Li Xiangning felt honored to have played a part.
But wasn't this a little too fast?
How had he mastered something as formidable as hidden strength in just two days back home?
Could Chen Jue truly be a martial arts prodigy, one in ten thousand?
And the needle-like jets of hidden strength underwater made its effects so unmistakably clear!
When Li Xiangning had visited Mount Wudang and exchanged insights with the expert Taoist priests there, he had personally experienced the power of hidden strength. Yet he had never seen anyone unleash hidden strength this terrifying!
Could the hidden strength those Wudang masters had practiced for decades really be inferior to the skill Chen Jue had just developed?
With all these questions on his mind, Li Xiangning began talking with Chen Jue over the video call.
"I got lucky!"
"It was all thanks to that maxim of yours, Master Li!" Chen Jue cupped his fist in thanks to Li Xiangning on the screen, then gave him a detailed account of his experiences practicing force underwater, along with his theory that Boat Boxing originated in Quanzhen Dao.
After hearing Chen Jue's account, Li Xiangning was astonished, then looked as though everything had suddenly clicked into place. In the end, however, he could not help shaking his head with a sigh. "So that's what 'enter the water, and force develops naturally' means! Unfortunately, my talent is limited. Developing bright force is already the most I can achieve in this lifetime. I wouldn't even dare hope to master it fully. Still, with you setting a precedent by developing hidden strength, Master Chen, our Boat Boxing lineage now has a master to represent us when we go out into the world."
"I wouldn't dare accept that honor!"
"If you ever need my help promoting Boat Boxing, Master Li, please feel free to get in touch." Chen Jue waved his hand modestly.
He was only an ordinary man whose martial arts happened to be a little more advanced. He did not want fame to become a burden someday, with people dragging him out to be admired.
But because he owed the other man a debt for teaching him and clearing up his doubts, Chen Jue ultimately did not rule it out entirely.
"Heh! I know you're the ascetic type, afraid of hassle! I'm not retired yet, so I won't drag you into promoting Boat Boxing."
"But if someone ever comes knocking to challenge us, I'll definitely have to ask you to come out and help." After several conversations, Li Xiangning had already gotten a good grasp of Chen Jue's temperament.
Though the other man was only in his twenties, his conduct was decidedly old-fashioned. He was sincere, loyal, and outspoken in defense of what was right, to the point that even Li Xiangning, a middle-aged man in his forties, enjoyed making friends with him.
The two talked for over an hour, mostly about hidden strength.
As for Li Xiangning's questions about the power of his hidden strength, Chen Jue could only gloss over them by saying he had abundant stamina and a physique slightly different from that of ordinary people.
After all, the other man had only seen a handful of people unleash hidden strength. Chen Jue's offhand explanation really did convince him.
While Chen Jue and Li Xiangning were on their WeChat video call, an SUV that had hurried out from the city pulled over outside a courtyard residence in the suburbs of a large northern city.
A sturdy young man in his early twenties stepped out. He was tall and powerfully built, well over 190 centimeters, with rough skin, broad shoulders, and long arms. He looked exceptionally steady, yet the moment he got out, he raced into the courtyard in a fluster.
"Auntie Ming! Is Grandpa home?" the young man asked the housekeeper who was sweeping up dust in the courtyard.
"Oh, Xiao Jun, you're here! He is! He just had some ginseng soup and is watching television inside." The housekeeper set down her broom and brushed off her apron.
"Good! Please carry on, Auntie Ming. I need to talk to Grandpa." With that, the young man slipped into a room at the very back of the courtyard residence. The interior was spacious, with a winding layout, clearly an old-style residence built at considerable expense.
He passed through the hall and entered the innermost sitting room, where he saw an old man reclining in a rocking chair, watching television.
The old man's complexion was rosy and his skin wrinkled, making his advanced age obvious. Yet his hair was only half gray and half white, giving him the air of someone well versed in maintaining his health.
Seeing the young man's frantic expression, the old man asked, "My dear grandson! What made you think of visiting these old bones in the middle of the night?"
"Grandpa! I missed you, and I have something I wanted to ask you!" The sturdy young man went over and knelt beside the old man, then took out his phone and played a video.
It was the very video of Chen Jue releasing force underwater that he had posted on Tieba.
"Grandpa! Take a look for me. Is this the hidden strength you told me about?"
"I've practiced martial arts for so many years, but I'm still stuck at bright force. I happened to see someone post this video online today, so I came to ask for your guidance," the sturdy young man said, holding up his phone.
The old man's interest was piqued. He pressed the remote to turn off the television, sat upright, and took the phone to watch the video several times.
Though the video lasted only a few seconds, it made the old man's body shudder. Blood rushed to his face, leaving him even redder than before.
This was a normal stress response to psychological stimulation. Shyness, embarrassment, fear, and fright could all cause it.
But this old man was clearly advanced in years. What storms of life had he not weathered?
Why would a mere video provoke such a reaction?
The sturdy young man beside him could not make sense of it. He remained crouched there for quite some time before hearing the old man sigh softly and finally offer a word of praise. "Excellent martial skill!"
"Grandpa, is this really hidden strength producing needle-like jets? It isn't fake?" the sturdy young man asked.
"You! You've been practicing the wrong way. You haven't grasped the intent behind unleashing hidden strength, so naturally you can't tell whether it's real."
"When I was young, I could just barely release force underwater too, but its power was nowhere near what this master has produced."
"The rim of this glass tank is clearly about three inches high, yet this man's force can shoot two inches through the water inside, remaining concentrated without dispersing. It's simply unheard of!"
"Such physical power! Such force! Perhaps only Sun Lutang, the Martial Sage of the Republican era said to have fought all challengers without defeat, or your founding grandmaster, if he were still alive, could have managed this feat of hidden strength: shooting needle-like jets two inches long underwater." A fiery gleam flashed in the old man's eyes.
"The person in this video is that powerful?" The sturdy young man beside him was startled too.
"A hundred, a thousand times more powerful than you imagine!"
"Where did you find this video?"
"Since this master could devise such a way to demonstrate the release of hidden strength, he must have intended to use the video to inspire his disciples. In the old days, something like this was a closely guarded secret! An outsider who saw it might well have had his martial abilities crippled! Where did an outsider like you get this video?" The old man's tone changed, taking on a note of reproach.
He thought his grandson had been causing trouble outside and had stolen the video from some disciple of a master with a distinguished family tradition.
"Grandpa... I downloaded this video from Tieba!" The young man shuddered under the questioning and hurried to explain.
"Tieba?"
"What on earth is that?"
Before you continue