In the cultivation room, dressed in black training garments, Xue Jing was assuming a posture, his Power channeling throughout his body, stimulating his nodes as he practiced the Coiling Dragon Art Posture Skills.
At Level 2 Channeling Energy, his use of Power had reached a new level, allowing for even finer and more detailed stimulation of the critical nodes within his body.
His body temperature rose slightly, and sweat seeped out from the pores all over his body, drop by drop falling to the floor, gradually forming a puddle on the solid wood flooring beneath his feet.
This time, Xue Jing persisted for nearly an hour before he couldn't help but collapse to the ground, ending his practice of the Coiling Dragon Art.
[You have completed a session of Coiling Dragon Art Posture Skills practice, Fitness Experience Points +198]
[You have completed a session of Coiling Dragon Art Posture Skills practice, Channeling Energy Experience Points +187]
The results were quite gratifying, almost twice the gain from his last session of practicing the Coiling Dragon Art.
"Gradually adapting..."
Xue Jing felt the aching in various parts of his body.
Although the duration of this cultivation session was longer than the last, the feeling of swelling and pain was more bearable. This was not only due to the upgraded Channeling Energy but also because his body was gradually adapting to the Coiling Dragon Art.
Xue Jing picked up the remaining Sleeping Dragon Salve from yesterday that was in the cultivation room and began to apply and massage it onto himself.
"With this, and the recovery capabilities from 'Health Cultivation', I feel like I could train again today."
Xue Jing thought to himself.
Applying the salve on his own was somewhat inconvenient, so after struggling for more than ten minutes to get it done, he sighed with relief, lying on the floor resting.
"Junior Brother, are you there?"
Chen Fuguang's voice suddenly came from outside the cultivation room.
Xue Jing paused slightly, sat up, and said, "Yes, Senior Brother Chen, please come in."
The door opened, and Chen Fuguang, dressed in casual clothing and with hands clasped behind his back, walked in. Seeing Xue Jing's sweaty appearance, he smiled and said,
"Oh, practicing?"
Xue Jing smiled and nodded, "Just finished."
"I heard from Master, you persisted for more than half an hour the first time you practiced the Coiling Dragon Art."
Chen Fuguang said with admiration,
"I thought our eldest senior brother with his monstrous muscles was already outrageous, but I didn't expect you to be even more so."
"It's rather embarrassing to admit, but when I first practiced, it hurt so much after three minutes I didn't want to continue, which really irritated Master," said Chen Fuguang, shaking his head.
"Although the Coiling Dragon Art is much simpler and easier to practice than the Armor Shaking Skill, it's still far from what ordinary people can endure. Only you, junior brother, and our eldest senior brother seem to relish it."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a person suddenly leapt into the cultivation room through an open window.
It was a middle-aged man with a clear, handsome face and long hair reaching his waist. He must have been around two meters tall, with an extremely burly and robust physique. His oversized training garment was stretched taut, with the sleeves rolled up to reveal muscles that gleamed almost like metal, imposing a powerful sense of strength.
After leaping in through the window, the man landed as lightly as a cat, his toes touching the solid wood floor nearly without sound, a stark contrast to his imposing build.
...
If it were simply someone climbing in through a window, that wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary.
The problem was... the Hidden Dragon Dojo was located on the seventeenth floor of an office building.
"Eldest senior brother."
Chen Fuguang, seemingly used to such an entrance, casually greeted the middle-aged man.
Xue Jing also snapped back to reality amidst his shock, quickly saying, "Senior Brother!"
Senior Brother Meng Boshang did not speak but nodded at Xue Jing with a barely discernible curl of his lips, as though he had smiled but also as though he had not.
Xue Jing was quite puzzled and didn't quite understand Senior Brother's attitude towards him.
Meng Boshang still did not speak and silently walked out of the training room, his destination unknown.
"Senior Brother always takes the road less traveled, eh? Every time he takes a stroll around the Hidden Dragon Dojo and just enters through whichever window he finds open."
Chen Fuguang exclaimed.
Xue Jing walked over to the window and glanced out, confirming that he was indeed ten stories high.
"Seventeenth floor... that must be over seventy or eighty meters, right? How did Senior Brother get in?"
Xue Jing wondered aloud.
Chen Fuguang chuckled: "For us martial artists, the limitations of terrain have never been an issue."
"Especially for someone like Senior Brother, leaping directly to the seventeenth floor dojo from the ground is hardly a difficult feat."
"Directly to the seventeenth floor?"
Leaping more than seventy meters from the ground, how much power would that require?
Two words surfaced in Xue Jing's mind.
Superhuman.
"Senior Brother is a master who has almost reached Perfection in the Five Major Practices and is about to Leap Through the Dragon Gate. Even the Public Security Bureau has to seek Senior Brother's help for matters they can't handle," Chen Fuguang said, his face beaming with pride.
"Five Major Practices? Leaping Through the Dragon Gate?"
Xue Jing asked curiously.
"Right, you've just started, little brother, so your understanding of martial arts cultivation must still be superficial. Let me tell you about it," Chen Fuguang said, sitting down cross-legged on the solid wood floor.
"In our martial artist's cultivation, there are Five Major Practices concerning the body which consist of skin, flesh, tendons, bones, and blood."
"These five elements are interconnected; there is no strict sequence in their cultivation. They can be trained simultaneously or with particular emphasis on certain aspects."
"As for our Hidden Dragon School, we progress evenly in all Five Major Practices, which makes us extremely versatile. However, this also means that those who do not cultivate well lack any remarkable characteristics and become mediocre," he continued.
"Those who have Completed the Five Major Practices have reached the theoretical pinnacle of human physique. At that moment, if one can go even further and break through the body's limits, it is akin to Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate, shedding the mundane, undergoing a complete transformation, and continuing the climb to even greater pinnacles.
It's said that our master had reached this level over twenty years ago."
Chen Fuguang talked with enthusiasm.
"Five Major Practices, Leaping Through the Dragon Gate..."
"So is 'Leaping Through the Dragon Gate' the highest realm in martial arts?" Xue Jing asked with curiosity.
Chen Fuguang shook his head. "I've asked the master about this, and his reply was that there is no end to the martial arts."
This sounded like an empty platitude, but Xue Jing could only nod in agreement, after all, it was what the master had said.
"However... the master did mention some ancient legends to me."
Chen Fuguang suddenly continued.
"It is said that there is a legendary ultimate state of the body passed down among ancient martial artists, known as the 'Treasured Body'."
...