Dawn of a New Era

Chen Shouyi excitedly returned to his bedroom, took the Shell Lady out from the inner pocket of his coat, and placed it on the bed. He casually grabbed a handful of glass beads from the drawer and said:

"Play by yourself!"

"I'm missing gems!" Shell Lady glanced at the glass beads and said expressionlessly.

"I didn't steal yours!" Chen Shouyi said helplessly.

I just wanted to take a little break, and it's not allowed. I really owe her!

He had no choice but to take out all sizes of glass, one by one for her. Some glass beads were only as small as mung beans, making them hard to pick up by hand. After a lot of effort, he finally placed all the glass beads on the bed for her.

Seeing Shell Lady still counting them one by one with suspicion, Chen Shouyi simply ignored it.

After washing his hands in the bathroom, he eagerly sat at his desk, took off his mask, picked up a book called Qi Gong, and began to read.

This is a method of training through special breathing and resistance training, which further enhances the pain tolerance and cell density strength of the trained area. It's quite simple.

As for whether it's effective, Chen Shouyi didn't know.

He looked at the publication date and publisher at the back of the book and found it was printed in 1998, published by the Military Defense Publishing House.

1998 was the third year after the war with the other world. The first edition of the Thirty-six Styles of Body Refinement should have been released. Coupled with the fact that the publisher had a military background, it should have some effect.

The whole book only had over twenty pages and was finished in less than five minutes.

...

Chen Shouyi went through book after book, finding some effects to be quite practical. With his rational thinking combined with his Martial Arts experience, he felt that there was some feasibility.

While some were exaggerated, claiming that with deep practice, one would be invulnerable to swords and spears. Chen Shouyi could understand to some extent, for ordinary people, he could even be considered invulnerable to swords and spears, though this 'spear' did not refer to a gun that fires bullets.

As for being immune to water and fire, moving as fast as lightning, walking on water without leaving a trace, that was sheer exaggeration. If these cultivation techniques were truly useful, then countries would just promote these instead of developing Martial Arts.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door:

"Mom's calling you for dinner." Chen Xingyue said coldly.

"I'm not coming down. Bring it up for me." Chen Shouyi snapped back to reality from the book and said. In his current state, how could he go down for dinner? It would all be exposed at once.

"I won't help you. If you don't want to eat, just starve." Chen Xingyue said coldly, still not over yesterday's anger. It's already nice of her to call him for dinner, let alone bring it for him. He was dreaming.

"A thousand!" Chen Shouyi immediately said, "I'll give you a thousand pocket money then."

"Really, you're that kind-hearted?" Chen Xingyue, behind the door, asked suspiciously, her eyes brightening.

"When have I ever lied to you? If you don't want it, forget it."

"I want it! I want it! You're the best, big brother. I'll bring the food right away." Chen Xingyue said excitedly.

Soon, Chen Shouyi heard the sound of his sister's footsteps moving away quickly.

After easily settling his sister, he continued to go through those books.

...

After eating the meal his sister brought, he planned to try one of the cultivation techniques.

After much consideration, he finally chose the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training, because it combined physical resistance training, breathing techniques, and visualization methods. From the perspective of optimization by the Book of Knowledge, having multiple directions meant there was bound to be a breakthrough point.

Chen Shouyi immediately began to stand as required by the technique, relaxing his body and slightly closing his eyes.

His breathing became slow and long, with his abdomen and chest rising high, making his whole person seem to inflate like a balloon, then slowly shrink as he exhaled.

After breathing hundreds of times, he felt proficient and began to visualize, as described in the book, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi continuously surging toward his Dantian, forming a fireball, and then imagined this fireball spreading to every part of his body.

For Chen Shouyi, who has already mastered deep meditation and can enter a profound meditative state at any time, this visualization was no effort at all.

In just one breath, he completely fell into a state without thoughts, a state of complete forgetfulness.

Gradually, it was as if there really was a fireball burning fiercely in his Dantian, making his whole body feel hot and scorching.

After more than ten minutes, he opened his eyes and touched his skin, finding it genuinely warm.

However, this should be self-hypnosis. If there was indeed Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, it should be the Mysterious Power drifting from the other world, but he didn't feel even a hint of Mysterious Power being drawn.

He opened the attribute panel, and a hint of joy flashed across his face.

"It really worked!"

The last entry in the knowledge skills section now read Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training.

"Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training (Not yet proficient)"

Before practicing cultivation, he didn't dare to hold out much hope and never expected it to be so easy.

"Could it be that the Book of Knowledge can somehow act according to my will? I wanted to form the Thirteen Guardian Horizontal Training cultivation technique, and the Book of Knowledge began to respond," he pondered inwardly.

He stopped thinking about it and focused again on the newly formed cultivation technique.

"Should I waste an energy point to optimize it!"

Chen Shouyi felt a bit tempted in his heart.

Regarding whether the original cultivation technique had any effect, he thought that since it was published by a legitimate publisher and included in Jiangnan University, it should have some effect. But to actually achieve what the book described: invulnerability and immense strength, he found it hard to believe.

For ordinary people, even practicing for a lifetime might not even equate to a Martial Artist Apprentice.

Do not underestimate a Martial Artist Apprentice, whose physical attributes nearly reach the limits of what humans could achieve twenty years ago. If they participated in the Olympics, they could sweep all the gold medals in track and field events.

The unoptimized Thirteen Guardian Horizontal Training is nothing but dispensable.

Thinking about spending a bit of energy and delaying it for another six or seven days, Chen Shouyi gritted his teeth and went to lie on the bed, choosing to optimize.

The energy points he had accumulated dropped rapidly from 7.85 to 6.85.

In the next moment, a wave of dizziness ensued, and a dream came over him.

In the dream, he visualized his breathing repeatedly. Soon, someone used a wooden stick to strike him forcefully. The person was just a shadow, and their features were entirely unclear.

As time passed, his movements began to change.

His breathing rhythm gradually altered, possessing a certain rhythm. Then his body, which had been originally motionless, began practicing the Thirty-Six Body Refining Forms. In deep contemplation, strands of mysterious power gathered in his dantian.

No longer was it a flame, but a green, counterclockwise spinning tornado, a gust of wind, fitting with his innate ability.

...

Chen Shouyi suddenly opened his eyes and immediately opened the attribute panel.

The Thirty-Six Body Refining Forms and the Thirteen Guardian Horizontal Training had both vanished, replaced by an unnamed cultivation technique.

"Unnamed (Uninitiated)"

"I didn't expect the two skills to completely fuse. It seems that as long as the knowledge is obtained, it's universal," he thought.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of a question: what about the next optimization? Is it the second or third optimization?

Upon testing, he found he was overthinking it; there was no loophole to exploit.

Looking at the unnamed label, with a thought, it changed to "Horizontal Training Thirty-Six Forms."

...

He got up from the bed, walked to an open space, and began his first practice.

A few minutes later, after clumsily completing an extremely complex set of movements, he felt a much denser mysterious power than the previous plain Thirty-Six Body Refining Forms integrating into his dantian.

Whereas previously, this mysterious power was like a drizzle, now it turned into a gentle rain. Under his contemplation, this mysterious power transformed into a wildly spinning tornado, then swept across muscles, organs, bones, and throughout every part of his body.

As this wind blew, the muscles seemed to tighten more, the bones itched faintly, and the skin felt somewhat taut.

"The effect is unexpectedly obvious!"

A touch of joy flashed across his heart, and he continued to practice repeatedly.

After practicing a full fifteen times, he finally felt exhausted and stopped, his entire body already flushed and burning like fire.

Chen Shouyi guessed his body temperature was likely over forty degrees.

Yet he didn't feel any discomfort, rather, it felt like bathing in a hot spring, his whole body was comfortable.

He opened the attribute panel, and the previously uninitiated Horizontal Training Thirty-Six Forms leapt to "Proficient: 15".

After all, a significant part of this skill was originally the already mastered Thirty-Six Body Refining Forms. Although the visualization was slightly different from entering a static state, it was largely similar, and not difficult. He quickly adapted to it, with the most challenging aspect being the breath control he had never encountered before.

If it weren't for this aspect holding him back, his proficiency might have jumped straight to mastery.

Chen Shouyi rolled up his sleeve, aimed his fingernail at his arm, and scratched hard.

With a 'screech' sound!

It felt like an ordinary person scratching a car tire, producing a tooth-gritting sound, and simultaneously, five deep blood marks appeared on his arm, causing him to gasp in pain.

"It seems I've been a bit too impatient."