Chapter 2: The Breakthrough in Pillar Technique (Please continue reading)

Tianhai City Second High School was one of the city’s key secondary schools.

It gathered a great many martial arts prodigies.

The campus was vast, built in red and white, and surrounded by towering metal walls that cut off the world inside from the world outside.

Rows of teaching buildings rose within, while countless students in blue-and-white uniforms crowded the entrance and entered in orderly lines.

A row of burly security guards stood at the gate, each with a sharp, keen gaze, patrolling like bears.

“So this is Second High? Sure enough, it’s full of genius honors students.”

“Son, study hard. Our family is counting on you!”

“…”

The new students, just stepping into their first year of high school, entered the campus one after another with curiosity.

Looking at the fresh-faced newcomers brimming with vitality, Lin Qi felt a faint nostalgia. Two years ago, he had entered Second High through a lucky break, just as youthful and untested as they were.

Lost in that nostalgia, he followed the crowd into the school.

After parking his bicycle, he made his way familiarly to the sports field, found his class’s position, and prepared for the opening ceremony.

An hour later.

The dull opening ceremony ended, and everyone returned to their classes. But it was not an ordinary classroom they went back to.

It was a vast, empty training hall of more than a thousand square meters, with walls mounted with all manner of common weapons—sabers, spears, swords, and more.

At the corners stood dozens of punching posts more than two meters high and thick as tree trunks, planted on cushioned mats.

Once the students of Class 3 in Grade 12 entered, they naturally went to the changing room, changed into loose martial training clothes, and began practice.

Some stood rooted in place; others began boxing routines.

Some moved like tigers descending a mountain, some spread their wings like cranes, some swung their arms like apes striking the air, and others coiled like snakes…

A few struck the punching posts, producing sharp crackling sounds.

Some even grabbed sabers, spears, and swords and swung them at will.

While training, they chatted idly, recounting the joys of their holidays, the air filled with an easy, cheerful atmosphere.

Lin Qi did not join the chatter. Instead, he hid alone in a corner, swallowed a capsule of vitality, and then loosened up his body.

Only after fully awakening the body should one begin training, to avoid injury.

“My muscles are tired and sore all over, and it’s been like this for several days. Why hasn’t it recovered yet?”

Lin Qi twisted his body, feeling the abnormality in silence.

“Look at you all—stiff muscles, weak punches. How long has it been since you last trained?”

“You’ve wasted an entire summer vacation, and you still have the nerve to grin in here.”

A booming voice of reprimand rang out through the crowd, drowning out every other sound.

Lin Qi looked over and saw a middle-aged man nearly six feet tall, muscular and lean, with an ordinary face and a distinct scar. He wore a white tracksuit and moved through the crowd with brisk, purposeful steps.

A fierce aura radiated from him, and the entire training hall fell instantly silent, as if all had been struck dumb.

He was their martial arts teacher for Class 3, Wu Kang.

He was responsible for martial arts instruction, and he was a Third Realm martial artist.

Wu Kang’s gaze was sharp, like a blade slicing across everyone’s faces, and he sneered.

“Some of you haven’t even mastered boxing, and you already dare to practice weapons. You haven’t learned to walk and you want to run? Do you think that makes you look cool?”

Those being scolded immediately lowered their weapons in shame, while only two or three acted as though they heard nothing, straightened their chests, and gripped their weapons more tightly.

With his hands clasped behind his back, Wu Kang swept his eyes over the room and spoke again, his voice booming like a great bell.

Why do you practice martial arts?

Because martial artists are the most promising profession in this world, and they possess superhuman strength.

And in this world invaded by disaster beasts, strength means safety, money, and status.

According to the latest social survey report, the martial artist profession has the highest average income in the world, far surpassing the second-ranked profession.

This is an age of universal martial cultivation. From birth, everyone must strive to become a martial artist. Countless boats race forward, and ten thousand soldiers crowd a single bridge.

Only a small number are destined to become martial artists.

And now is your golden age, the period when you improve the fastest.

With the attitude you have now, how are you supposed to compete with others?

After Wu Kang finished, the training hall fell utterly silent. The relaxed mood vanished completely, replaced by a heavy pressure.

“Begin class!”

Seeing the effect he wanted, Wu Kang continued.

“In the year 1999 of the Martial Arts Era, another world invaded, and disaster beasts descended.”

“Our Blue Star opened countless spatial rifts. Disaster beasts surged out from those rifts, and along with them came a transcendent power: source energy!”

“This was something our Blue Star had never possessed before.”

“Scientists discovered that after the human body absorbs source energy, it can unlock the shackles of the genes, allowing the body to transform and evolve.”

“Humans can also possess powers like the superhumans in comics, novels, and films.”

“The ancient martial path rose once more, unleashing a frenzy of human life evolution.”

“After joint research by all nations of Blue Star, the nine major gates of martial arts, the nine shackles, were summarized.”

“Thus the martial realm was divided into nine levels.”

“Each time you break through a gate, your strength changes dramatically.”

“Source energy is overbearing. Ordinary human organs cannot absorb it directly; it can only be taken in through food, or slowly, little by little, over years of accumulation.”

“In order for us martial artists to improve our strength more scientifically and efficiently…”

“Our nation, following ancient health-preserving arts, cultivation methods, and traditional boxing techniques, derived the round-form stance and the Five-Form Fist.”

“For the first lesson of the new term, you will all stand the round-form stance and fully loosen up those slack bodies.”

Wu Kang barked an order, and the fifty students quickly dispersed to begin their stances.

“The round-form stance was derived by our nation from countless ancient stance practices. It has the best universality and the strongest effect.”

“The first gate of martial arts is training the flesh!”

“We need to strengthen the major muscles of the body and improve physical fitness in every aspect.”

“And the round-form stance can fully mobilize the body’s vital blood, tempering every muscle without omission.”

Lin Qi devoted himself completely to the stance.

“Standing stance links form, intention, qi, and force.”

“It emphasizes virtual and alert crown force, sinking the shoulders and dropping the elbows, hollowing the chest and lifting the back, lowering the breath, raising the buttocks and contracting the anus, clawing the ground with the five fingers, sinking the qi into the dantian…”

“It not only tempers the body, but also stretches the sinews and bones…”

As Wu Kang explained, Lin Qi also entered the proper state.

He had practiced stance work for more than ten years and had long since made the round-form stance second nature.

His breathing became natural, his muscles relaxed, his arms encircled an invisible circle, his body unified into one whole as he felt the changes in his spine.

After only a short while, heat began to rise through his body, followed by a numbness, and his body started trembling involuntarily.

Drip.

Sweat seeped out and fell continuously onto the cushioned mat.

It felt as though his body had come to life, with all his blood and vitality fully awakened.

His spinal column bulged up along his back, like a great sinew lifting it.

This was the dragon spine, something that only appeared when the round-form stance had been practiced to its essence.

At that moment, Lin Qi also felt a large hand press onto his back.

“Some people have been learning stance work for more than ten years and still haven’t grasped the essence; their lower body is unstable.”

“Take another look at Lin Qi’s stance work. His is the best in your class.”

Wu Kang’s voice rose again, and he looked at Lin Qi with approval.

His words immediately drew the attention of many. They crowded around and started discussing.

“As expected of a master of fundamentals. He’s the person in our class with the best basics—his stance work is truly textbook.”

“Every time I look at it, it feels so complete and round, so perfect.”

Some marveled, while others scoffed.

“No matter how strong your basics are, no matter how pretty your stance looks, it’s useless. Without enough vitality capsules, vitality medicine, and other resources, your vitality score won’t rise.”

“For a martial artist, vitality score is what matters most.”

By then, Lin Qi was fully immersed in the stance.

His whole body was hot, sweat streamed down him, and vitality surged from his feet, rapidly coursing through every corner of his body.

From a single point, it moved the whole body, linking top and bottom into one mass. An invisible force roamed through him; apart from a slight hindrance, it flowed without obstruction.

He suddenly widened his eyes and exhaled forcefully, and a burst of strength surged forth.

A wave of heat billowed up.

You have made a new breakthrough in your round-form stance. Your vitality score has increased. Vitality +0.1!

Vitality: 5.2 -> 5.3

Lin Qi’s expression lit up, and he rose from the floor.

His hands clenched, and waves of heat spread through every joint in his body, while his muscles rose and fell with restrained power.

At last, he had broken through again.

The higher the stance technique level, the more efficient the tempering of the body.

Looking at the 5.3 vitality score on the panel, Lin Qi felt uplifted, his whole body like a furnace radiating heat.

The so-called vitality score represented the strength and abundance of a person’s vital blood, and it also reflected one’s realm.

The nine major gates of martial arts divided martial artists into nine levels, while the vitality score provided a finer-grained measure.

It allowed one to see, at a glance, the progress of physical tempering.

Every bit of advancement could be seen.