Start with push-ups to gain experience

At dawn, the sky was still dark.

The shores of Yulong Lake were shrouded in a thick layer of bluish-gray morning mist, resembling a splashed-ink landscape painting.

The early summer mornings still carried a refreshing coolness.

The lake was shrouded in mist, and a gentle morning breeze carried the fishy smell of aquatic plants deep into the woods on the shore.

A few early birds fluttered their wings on the branches, uttering a few clear chirps, but quickly disappeared into the quiet forest.

Fang Cheng stood quietly on a flat clearing in the woods.

He stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, his back straight as a pine tree, as if he were one with the surrounding grass, trees, and morning mist.

At the same time, the breathing is long and deep, and the chest and abdomen rise and fall slowly and rhythmically with the breathing.

With each inhale, the surrounding mist would subtly gather around his mouth and nose, transforming into two faint white streaks that entered his nasal cavity.

With each exhale, a visible stream of stale air is expelled, piercing several meters like a sharp sword before slowly dissipating.

Since the end of military training, the special search team has given the new recruits a three-day holiday.

Fang Cheng then stayed in Wanghu Town to keep his grandfather and mother company and enjoy this rare leisure time.

Today's routine is the same as usual; I got up at four o'clock sharp in the morning.

First, I completed a high-intensity physical training session in the forest park by Yulong Lake, and then I jogged around the lakeside road.

Only now, in this secluded grove, can he calm down and focus on studying palm techniques and Tai Chi.

Fang Cheng slowly raised his hands and placed them in front of his chest.

With a thought, the true energy within his dantian, like a dormant dragon awakening, surged and flowed along his meridians, instantly permeating his limbs and bones.

A circle of transparent ripples slowly spread outwards from him into the surrounding air.

The withered leaves on the ground were not blown by the wind, but seemed to float up slightly by half an inch as if they had lost their weight, and then fell silently down.

The temperature on the body surface rose sharply, causing the surrounding morning mist to evaporate and be forced back three meters away, creating an absolute vacuum zone.

When I first mastered the ability to project true qi, the energy could only extend a few centimeters beyond the body's surface, resembling a thin film.

Now, with his physical attributes breaking through the 80-point mark, his Qigong skills have also entered the Grandmaster realm, and the distance and quality of his true Qi release have undergone a complete transformation.

"Where the mind goes, the spirit follows."

Fang Cheng's eyes narrowed, and he took a half step forward with his right foot, stepping on the grass leaves covered with dew.

The soles of my feet were not damp at all, as if I were standing on thin air, just inches off the ground.

An invisible force supported his body, giving him an ethereal and otherworldly aura.

Fang Cheng pushed out with his right palm, the movement seemingly slow and calm, but in fact it contained a hidden secret.

A very subtle distortion appeared in the air, like the heat waves rising from the asphalt road in the height of summer.

His palms were concave, his knuckles slightly bent, seemingly weak and powerless as he reached forward, yet his wrists twisted with a deep, hidden strength.

True energy bursts forth from the Laogong acupoint, forming a tiny high-pressure vortex in the palm.

He then transformed his palm into a blade and slashed out horizontally, the palm blade cutting through the moist air and leaving a trail of translucent white air.

The seemingly calm and even alternation of moves conceals a deadly intent in the rhythm of every muscle.

A morning breeze rustled through the leaves of an old locust tree overhead.

A venomous snake, over a meter long and covered in bluish scales, was hanging upside down on a drooping branch.

Its cold, vertical pupils stared intently at Fang Cheng, who was practicing his punches below, its bright red forked tongue flicking in and out, capturing the heat emanating from the air.

Fang Cheng kept his eyes closed, slowly moving his palms, seemingly unaware of the deadly threat lurking above him.

Just as his palm strike paused, the green snake suddenly released its grip on the branch, and like a sharp green arrow released from a bow, it bared its fangs and pounced straight at Fang Cheng's nape from mid-air.

However, when the green snake was less than half a meter away from the neck, it suddenly stopped and hovered in the air.

Fang Cheng didn't even turn his head; he simply thrust his right hand out from under his ribs and slightly flipped his wrist.

The true energy emanating from the body instantly transformed into hundreds of fine threads in the void, invisible to the naked eye.

These energies, like silkworms spinning silk, were dense and resilient, flowing through the air and tightly binding the green snake that pounced from the sky.

He slightly bent his five fingers and gently pulled them inward.

The energy threads in the void tightened accordingly.

Without making a sound, the supple and sturdy venomous snake was instantly sliced ​​into dozens of pieces in mid-air.

The cut was as smooth as a mirror, as if the bone and flesh had been severed by the sharpest blade in the world.

The broken pieces of the snake's body, now without support, fell softly onto the soil at their feet.

This is the power of the "silk-reeling force" released outward from the body's internal energy.

Its energy transforms into silk threads, penetrating everywhere, capable of binding powerful enemies and also slowly destroying all things.

Fang Cheng remained calm, seemingly oblivious to the stench of blood behind him.

Then, he alternated between drawing circles with both palms, and his body turned accordingly, naturally switching to the orthodox routine of Tai Chi.

The movement begins with a continuous, flowing motion, with both hands supporting the sky, as light and graceful as embracing a sparrow's tail.

Immediately afterwards, the single whip is pulled out, the center of gravity sinks, and in the transition between emptiness and fullness, the blood and qi in the whole body surge like a river with the intent of the fist.

Taiji originates from Wuji, representing the mechanism of movement and stillness, and is the mother of Yin and Yang.

His arms seemed to be holding an invisible giant ball, his waist and hips slumped, causing his bones to make a series of dense, crisp sounds.

The surrounding morning mist seemed to be drawn by some powerful force, and began to slowly rotate as he moved his hands.

The fog thickened and thickened, eventually forming a yin-yang vortex about ten feet in diameter around Fang Cheng.

At this moment, his movements were extremely gentle, like flowing clouds and water, ethereal and otherworldly.

He stepped on the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) directions, his figure moving swiftly through the forest.

Wherever he went, the fallen leaves on the ground were not crushed, but were instead lifted up by a gentle upward airflow, hovering around his ankles, rising and falling with his steps.

In the realm of ultimate gentleness, all things can blend and coexist harmoniously.

A hundred meters away from this forest, on the lakeshore, a sanitation worker wearing an orange vest is sweeping up fallen leaves with a large broom.

Suddenly, he felt a strange breeze blowing from the woods.

The wind wasn't cold, but it carried an indescribable feeling.

A gentle breeze swept by, and the fallen leaves on the ground rolled automatically into the dustpan by the roadside, like soldiers lined up in formation.

The sanitation worker stood there, rubbing his eyes, thinking he was still half asleep.

He stared in astonishment at the grove shrouded in thick fog, but could see nothing at all.

In the forest, Fang Cheng's fist intent suddenly changed at this moment.

The extreme of softness is the beginning of extreme hardness.

His forward momentum suddenly stopped, and he lightly stomped his right foot on the ground.

This step was not taken with force.

But with the infusion of true energy, a powerful and unparalleled hidden force surged from the soles of his feet straight into the ground.

The ground within a radius of several meters trembled slightly, and the dewdrops on the grass were instantly shaken off and floated in mid-air.

Immediately afterwards, Fang Cheng's spine, like a trembling dragon, stretched upwards from the coccyx, segment by segment.

The force is quickly transferred to the right shoulder, then swung from the right shoulder to the arm, and finally reaches the fingertips.

His entire right arm instantly transformed into a soft whip, lashing outwards with a sudden, sharp movement.

A crisp sonic boom erupted in the air, like a clap of thunder in a clear sky. A violent burst of energy shot out from his fingertips, like a transparent whip formed from high-pressure air, lashing fiercely at a thick metasequoia tree several meters away.

"Snapped!"

The trunk of the dawn redwood tree shook violently, and large leaves fell like raindrops.

With a loud crack, sawdust flew everywhere from the tree trunk.

A sturdy tree trunk, about half a meter in diameter, was somehow ripped open with a terrifying crack seven centimeters deep.

The edges of the crack even showed signs of charring and carbonization due to the high-speed friction caused by the air force, and emitted pungent blue smoke.

The surrounding suspended dewdrops were instantly transformed into powdery water mist by this burst of energy, which then spread outwards in a ring-like pattern.

A single blow shattered a tree, its residual power still reverberating.

Such destructive power, if it were to strike flesh and blood, would be enough to instantly break an enemy's spine, or even cut a person in half at the waist.

Fang Cheng withdrew his right arm, took a deep breath, his chest bulged, and then slowly calmed down.

He turned around and faced the vast and empty Yulong Lake.

The previous drills were just a warm-up.

The highlight of today's morning exercise was testing the current limit of my ability to project my inner energy.

Now, his three basic attributes—physical fitness, strength, and agility—have all broken through the limit of eighty points, and his physical body has long since transformed into a container capable of holding even more terrifying energy.

Fang Cheng slightly bent his knees, landing in a stable horse stance.

He clenched his fists at his waist, and his eyes instantly became as sharp as an eagle's.

The true energy within the dantian was pushed to its limit.

A visible white stream of energy flowed out from his pores and wrapped around his right arm as if it were a tangible substance.

Fang Cheng's right fist slowly extended forward half an inch.

With that half-inch movement, the white aura wrapped around the arm began to rotate at high speed.

The air was violently churned, producing a chilling buzzing sound, like an aircraft turbine engine running at full speed.

The surrounding morning mist was forcibly pulled in by this powerful suction, converging into a sharp spiral cone of air in front of Fang Cheng's right fist.

"drink!"

Fang Cheng let out a low shout, and his right fist shot out like a cannonball.

The rapidly spinning spiral of energy shot out, tearing through the air in front of it and leaving a long, distorted trail.

This cyclone, like an indestructible electric drill or an armor-piercing shell, hurtled straight towards the lake with overwhelming force.

The force swept across the reeds by the lake, instantly shredding the waist-high reeds into countless green dust particles flying everywhere.

Immediately afterwards, the spiraling airflow swept across the calm lake surface in a nearly parallel manner.

"boom!"

A muffled, loud bang exploded over the lake.

The lake water was torn apart by the violent spiraling energy, and pushed to both sides.

A ditch, several feet deep and about half a meter wide, stretches rapidly forward across the lake.

Three meters, five meters, ten meters, twenty meters...

The cyclone surged across the water at high speed, creating a spray of water everywhere.

It wasn't until it was about 29 meters from the shore that the compressed energy inside the cyclone finally ran out, and it exploded with a bang.

A huge column of water shot into the sky, rising several meters high, scattering in mid-air like a torrential downpour before crashing back into the lake.

Layer upon layer of waves spread outwards, crashing against the rocks on the shore, making a series of splashing and cracking sounds.

Fang Cheng remained in his punching stance, quietly watching the ripples on the water's surface gradually subside.

Twenty-nine meters!

Without the aid of any weapons, relying solely on physical strength and the burst of true energy, he could unleash an effective killing range of nearly thirty meters from a distance.

This data brought a satisfied smile to his lips.

Fang Cheng slowly withdrew his stance, pressed down with both palms, and returned the surging true energy to his dantian.

The surrounding air also stopped its commotion.

The remaining morning mist gradually flowed back under the gentle breeze.

By this time, the sky was already beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn.

The first rays of dawn pierced through the clouds, shining obliquely on the surface of Yulong Lake, gilding the rippling water with a layer of light, scattered gold.

As the sun rose, several rows of pale blue notification messages appeared before Fang Cheng's eyes:

[Palm Technique Experience +5]

【Palm Technique Lv1 (219/250)】

[Tai Chi Experience +4]

Tai Chi Level 2 (71/500)

[Qigong Experience +3]

Qigong lv3 (215/1000)

Fang Cheng looked at the data displayed on the screen, nodded in satisfaction, and then, with a thought, hid the panel.

Since "Jiu-Jitsu" and "Muay Thai" have both successfully advanced to the Grandmaster level, the experience gained from practicing these fighting skills has decreased significantly.

He simply adjusted the focus of his daily air-to-air combat training, concentrating his main efforts on "palm techniques" and "Tai Chi," which were still at a relatively low level.

Especially the "Palm Technique," the skill progress bar is gradually approaching its full value.

After a period of dedicated practice, he has become increasingly proficient in using various forms of internal energy.

Whether it's the gentle and flowing coiling force, the powerful and explosive springing force, or the destructive spiraling force, it can be used at will, as if it were an extension of one's own arm.

As long as you continue to maintain the intensity of your daily practice, I believe that it won't be long before you can successfully break through to the next level with your "palm technique".

Fang Cheng stretched his arms and legs on the spot, shaking off a few bits of grass that were stuck to his trouser legs.

A conversation drifted on the wind through the morning mist from afar.

"Old Li, did you hear that? There was a loud 'bang' from the other side of the lake, and water splashed really high. Could someone be fishing with explosives?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? The patrol team has been cracking down hard lately, fining and detaining anyone they catch. Who would dare to fish with explosives in this dangerous situation? It's probably just the sound of some big blue carp leaping out of the water and splashing around."

"Let's go, let's finish this run quickly so we can go back and have breakfast..."

Along the lakeside path not far away, some elderly people who were doing their morning exercises and sanitation workers pushing garbage carts have begun to appear one after another.

The quiet town begins to awaken in the morning light.

Fang Cheng turned his head and glanced in the direction from which the voices came, knowing that this place was no longer suitable for continuing the drills.

He walked to a clean wooden stump under the tree, picked up the sports jacket draped over it, and casually put it on his shoulders.

My morning exercise has come to a successful end, and every cell in my body feels refreshed and invigorated.

Next, we'll go back and have a hot breakfast to replenish the energy we just used up.

Fang Cheng strode forward, following the forest path toward the town.

Today is the end of my holiday, and I still need to go to the Xishan Sanatorium to check in this morning.

The transfer order to the Special Investigations Unit has been issued, and he will officially begin his new job. (End of Chapter)