Extraordinary Realm from Persuasion System

Zhang Beixing's previous practice was certainly regular. But he only moved his body. There wasn't a bit of reaction from the Qi inside him. In other words, he only knew the form, not the meaning.

If he could still get results practicing this way, then Yue Fei would have to crawl out of his coffin and change the creator of the Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade from himself to Zhang Beixing overnight!

Even traditional Chinese medicine wouldn't be spared. Because the meridians and acupoints left by the ancient ancestors would be utterly overthrown by Zhang Beixing! And after they were overthrown, the things that relied on them to exist would, naturally, also become false!

Once he figured out the practice method of Internal Boxing, Zhang Beixing stood up from the ground and began to cultivate the Eight Pieces of Brocade.

After nurturing a breath of Qi inside him, Zhang Beixing closed his mouth to prevent this breath of Qi from being exhaled. Then he adjusted the force of his nasal breathing. Carefully, he guided this Qi towards the area below his abdomen.

Feeling that place becoming warm, Zhang Beixing understood that he had successfully guided it there.

Then, carefully exhaling and adjusting, he gradually brought this breath of Qi upward.

After passing the Qi above his navel, he entered the middle burner. Circulating Qi in the middle burner is much more difficult than in the lower burner because most of the organs in the middle burner are extremely active, unlike the kidneys, liver, and bladder in the lower burner. Therefore, when circulating Qi in the middle burner, one must be cautious. The slightest disturbance could lead to Qi deviation, causing Zhang Beixing to lose all his previous efforts.

Thus, it took Zhang Beixing a full three minutes to bring this breath of Qi up to the upper burner.

After the upper burner came the hardest part. Because the upper burner governs the primal Qi and is close to the nose and mouth, Zhang Beixing could expel this breath of Qi with the slightest carelessness in his respiration.

After slowly circulating this breath of Qi to the top of his head and dispersing it,

"HAAAH—"

Zhang Beixing took a long breath and opened his eyes.

Touching his forehead, he found that he had broken out in a light sweat simply from performing the first move of the Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade.

Feeling the warmth and the frenzied circulation of blood inside him, Zhang Beixing knew he had practiced correctly. So he pressed his advantage, took another deep breath, and continued practicing.

...

Using Qi to practice the Eight Pieces of Brocade is difficult because Zhang Beixing had to constantly adjust his breathing. As his limbs moved, he had to express Qi and ensure it flowed through the meridians. It was a meticulous task.

After several failures, at ten o'clock in the evening, the night was dark, the wind was high, and it was pitch-black, so dark he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.

Zhang Beixing stood in the small woods, eyes closed, breathing deep and long.

A breeze blew through the trees, leaves RUSTLING against each other, the sound rising and falling.

Listening to the chirping of insects and the murmur of water nearby, feeling the touch of the breeze on his skin, Zhang Beixing took a breath, exhaling the stale air from his body. Then he inhaled a clear breath, nurturing it in his lungs, and assumed the starting posture of the Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade, casually beginning to perform it.

Unlike the fierce and lethal moves he used when previously practicing the Yue Family's Connected Boxing, this Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade, though also fierce, had a touch of softness amid the fierceness. It wasn't as gentle as Tai Chi and Bagua, but when performed, it also had its own unique charm.

"Lift from the earth and drag from the heavens to regulate the Three Burners; draw the bow left and right as if shooting eagles."

"To regulate spleen and stomach, lift one arm at a time; for the five strains and seven injuries, gaze behind."

"Clench fists and glare fiercely to build power; shake the head and sway the hips to strengthen waist and kidneys."

"Grasp the feet with both hands to clear Heart-fire; seven jolts in quick succession, all illnesses will disappear!"

Murmuring the verses of the Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade in his mind, Zhang Beixing's body kept changing with the chant.

Finally, after half an hour,

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He mobilized his body with Qi. Zhang Beixing squatted in a high Horse Stance, then suddenly pinched and grabbed nine times in front of him.

Finishing the moves, sweat ran down his forehead like rain. He took a long breath, expelling all the stale and turbid air in his lungs.

Feeling the Qi and Blood throughout his body becoming active under the effects of the Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade, with a thought, he summoned the Personal Panel.

[Master: Zhang Beixing]

[Status: Moderately Fatigued, Spiritually Exuberant, Qi and Blood Deficiency, Qi and Blood Flourishing....]

[Power: 85.0]

[Constitution: 85.0]

[Spirit: 105]

[Ability Points: 6.4]

[Skills: Yue Family's Connected Boxing (Integration) +10; Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade (Proficiency): 5/100]

Finally, a skill appeared.

Seeing the [Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade] added in the Skill Bar, Zhang Beixing was invigorated. My idea was indeed correct, he thought. This Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade is all about cultivating that breath of Qi within one's core.

"It's just... what do the Qi and Blood Deficiency and Qi and Blood Flourishing statuses in my Status Bar mean?" he muttered. "How can these two statuses coexist?"

Zhang Beixing frowned slightly; he couldn't understand.

But soon, he knew. Because not long after the Qi and Blood Flourishing status appeared, his stomach started RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

The food he had consumed that evening had been completely digested.

"Damn it!"

Noticing this, Zhang Beixing's complexion changed. He recalled the experience of adding ten points to his attributes a while ago. His heart immediately started pounding.

So he quickly took out his phone, opened the food delivery app, found the nearest reputable restaurant, and ordered several meals to calm his nerves.

But fortunately, the change in his body this time was only because the flow rate of Qi and Blood had changed, accelerating gastrointestinal motility, which sped up digestion. It wasn't like last time when the problem was due to a lack of nutrition. At least it didn't make Zhang Beixing's Qi and Blood Deficiency status more severe.

Back in the dormitory, the food delivery arrived shortly after.

He shared it with his three good buddies, and after they had eaten their fill, Zhang Beixing sprawled in his chair picking his teeth, utterly satisfied.

Just as he was getting ready to digest a bit more before going to bed, Zheng Jituo, who was engrossed in his phone, suddenly looked up and asked, "Guys, what should I do if someone suddenly stops replying to me while we're chatting?"

Hearing this, Zhang Beixing raised his eyebrows. "Someone suddenly stopped replying to you? What happened?"

"I have no idea," Zheng Jituo said, scratching his head with an innocent face. "Remember, during the May Day holiday, I didn't go home but helped my little nephew with his studies, right? Well, today, his teacher added me and said she wanted to have a chat."

"And then what?" Jin Linyu, drawn into the conversation, turned around, resting his arm on the back of his chair as he looked over.

Zheng Jituo scratched his head again. "And then there was no 'then.' I just sent 'Hello, teacher,' and she told me not to be so formal. She said she's only in her twenties, so there's no need to be so reserved, and told me to chat with her the way I normally chat with girls."

"She's got a point," Dong Guoning said, putting down his phone. "So how did you chat with her afterward?"

Zheng Jituo didn't say anything. He just silently forwarded the chat history with the female teacher to their dormitory group chat.

Looking at Zheng Jituo's message in the chat history—a blunt "Hook up?"—Room 203 fell into a solemn silence.

Zhang Beixing looked at his phone and then at Zheng Jituo's innocent face. A violent twitch started at the corner of his mouth.

"To have an uncle like you is a blessing your nephew couldn't have earned in eight lifetimes!"

"Does our sister know about this?" Zhang Beixing asked.

"She doesn't know yet. What's up?" Zheng Jituo shook his head, somewhat puzzled about how his sister had suddenly come into the picture.

Zhang Beixing's mouth twitched. "It's fine as long as she doesn't know. Oh, right, Jituo, don't go home for a while… not even during this summer vacation. Otherwise, if we buddies want to see you again, we'll have to wait a few decades!"

Zheng Jituo: "???"

...

「The next day, early in the morning.」

Zhang Beixing stirred and sat up in bed. As usual, he checked his status. He found that last night's Qi and Blood Flourishing status had disappeared. The originally dark Qi and Blood Deficiency status had lightened considerably overnight.

It seems the two have neutralized each other. The nutrients taken in for Qi and Blood Flourishing were used to compensate for the Qi and Blood Deficiency.

Understanding this, Zhang Beixing rolled out of bed and walked to the balcony.

Before he could go to the restroom, he saw a meatball squatting in the corner of the balcony, holding a smartphone, and looking utterly dejected.

Zhang Beixing approached to take a look. He saw that Zheng Jituo was on a VX call. The person on the other end was none other than his sister.

Looking at the call duration: seven hours!

Seeing the situation clearly, Zhang Beixing was amused. "Goodness," he asked, "has our sister been scolding you all night and she's still not cooled down?"

Hearing this, Zheng Jituo numbly nodded at him. Then, clutching his phone, he shifted his position and continued his dejected vigil.

At this, Zhang Beixing didn't say much more. He went into the bathroom to wash his face and changed into a fresh set of clothes.

He stuffed a big bag of red bean bread he'd bought from the supermarket the other day into his backpack, slung the bag over his shoulder, and went off to the small woods to practice boxing.

Last night's Eight Pieces of Brocade had left him wanting more. Effective as it was, going through the routine once was too slow. It was even slower than his usual Yue Family's Connected Boxing practice. Zhang Beixing figured it was due to lack of proficiency. So he decided to repeat it several times and quickly increase the proficiency of the Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade to Entry Level.

Otherwise, when will I be able to produce Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound?

With this in mind, Zhang Beixing arrived at the small woods and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. Invigorated, he then began to activate his Qi and started his exercise.

This session lasted more than two hours.

After increasing the proficiency of the Northern Sect's Eight Pieces of Brocade from the prior 5/100 to 33/100, he felt his Qi and Blood had reached the limit his body could bear. Any more and he'd be overfilled and thus deficient.

Zhang Beixing ended his forms and wiped the fine sweat from his forehead.

He opened his bag and took out the red bean bread he'd prepared earlier. He sat on the ground and wolfed it down.

After he finished all the prepared food, the hunger in Zhang Beixing's belly was finally suppressed.

He looked at his skin that had turned red from boxing, and at the full backpack of plastic packaging bags.

Zhang Beixing gave a wry smile.

"Why do I feel like I'm increasingly becoming a bottomless pit for food?"

Now, eating what another person would in a day was no longer enough for Zhang Beixing. He needed to add an extra dish and two more bowls of rice as well.

It was also thanks to their school canteen's affordable, plentiful food and unlimited rice refills, plus the fact that he was selling snacks on the sports ground in his spare time. Otherwise, with his appetite, he'd probably blow through a month's living expenses from his parents in just a few days!

"No wonder there's an old saying, 'The poor pursue literature, the rich pursue martial arts.'"

"Just the appetite of a martial artist—you really can't support it without some wealth at home!"

"But then again, with my current appetite, I should be able to eat my money's worth at a buffet, right?"

"Maybe I should try it out one day, teach those young buffet owners a lesson?"

After resting on the spot for a while and recovering the energy he had spent, Zhang Beixing looked at his slightly reddened body.

This Northern Sect Eight Pieces of Brocade is truly formidable, he thought. Just a bit of practice has brought such a huge change to my body. What more when I manage to master the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound? Won't that be even more incredible?

It's just... "Why am I feeling so hot?" he wondered, taking a sip of water and making a soft sound of surprise.

I've been resting for quite a while. By common sense, I should have cooled down by now. But instead, there's no relief; I feel like there's a furnace inside me, making me unbearably hot.

"Could it be that I practiced too intensely?"

Zhang Beixing's mouth twitched. So, even Qi and Blood flowing too smoothly can be a problem.

Feeling the heat inside him growing more intense, Zhang Beixing recalled the previous suggestion about "Punching like a tiger, Dragon-Subduing Hidden Force."

Practicing it now would be just perfect!