After the darkness!

Back home, Lin Yijue followed his study plan, completing one academic lesson before immediately beginning to practice today's "Eighteen Forms".

After several days of experimentation, he has basically figured out the pattern.

Normally, his "strange illness" can be divided into three levels.

Exhaustion, insect bites, emptiness.

The first level is actually very similar to normal exhaustion. After seriously practicing four sets of the "Eighteen Forms", the body will react with rapid breathing, profuse sweating, and muscle soreness.

The second level is a bit abnormal. It's a pain similar to steel needles piercing the bone marrow, accompanied by an unbearable burning sensation, as if a small fire is slowly simmering inside the bones. Every breath pulls on the tendons in the chest cavity, making a faint "creaking" sound.

The ears may also experience tinnitus, which can be so severe that it affects one's perception of the outside world.

Generally, after practicing more than ten sets, it will look like this.

As for the final emptiness, there is no clear boundary; it arises directly alongside the second level.

It feels strange, similar to the craving for water that comes from walking outdoors for two or three hours in the middle of summer without drinking any water.

I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

The specific number of exercises and the level of pain that he quantified also seemed to be dynamic; in the past few days, the number of exercises had been slowly decreasing, while the pain had been increasing.

If his physical condition didn't automatically refresh, and if he weren't from two different worlds with a mental age of nearly forty, he would never have continued to push himself so hard.

only……

"If you don't endure hardship now, you'll definitely face endless hardship later on."

After Lin Yijue finished the third movement, he felt a strange sensation gradually appearing in his body. As he sat down to rest, he couldn't help but sigh.

Hearing similar things from others is generally ineffective; you have to experience it for yourself.

Like him, two years after graduating from university, he only asks himself this question when he's delivering food in the pouring rain and completely soaked:

If I had worked harder in high school and scored higher, and instead of choosing hotel management, I had chosen computer science, or even engineering such as civil engineering or petroleum engineering, would my life be better now?

After resting, Lin Yijue stopped thinking about it and continued practicing his stance.

When he practiced to the ninth round, he finally held his breath and, in rhythm with his breathing, performed the twelfth move - the Monkey's Breathing and Exhaling. At that moment, the familiar pain reappeared.

pain!

It really hurts!

The pain felt like sparks suddenly exploding from the gap in the coccyx, instantly shooting up the spine to the back of the neck.

He continued to perform the movements crookedly, one by one, finally ending with the Guiwu style.

After finishing, he staggered back two steps and fell onto the bed.

In a daze, all the muscles in my body suddenly contracted as if they were wrung out, and a soft "crack" sound came from my body.

A burning sensation spread from my back, as if a small flame was burning between my ribs. Each breath pulled at the muscles in my chest, making a soft "crunching" sound.

This feeling is somewhat similar to the "Ming Jin" described in "The Foundation of New Human Physical Development"?

"But why are they different in some ways?" Recalling the contents of the book, Lin Yijue, who was in so much pain that he was about to groan, couldn't help but wonder.

Ming Jin (明劲) is the foundation for martial artists to advance to the next level and is also the most obvious sign.

Generally, only those who have mastered the "Eighteen Styles" can achieve breakthroughs.

After all, the official explanation is:

Ming Jin is the initial stage of a martial artist's body training. It is like a bell striking a pestle, with strong and powerful force that is outwardly displayed. It emphasizes that "the force originates from the feet, is controlled by the waist, and manifests in the fingers."

To cultivate Ming Jin (manifest strength), one must master the key points of breathing: When inhaling, focus your mind on the Dantian (lower abdomen), as if a deep abyss were holding the sea, allowing the Qi to flow through the limbs and bones, making the muscles and bones like a bowstring gathering power; when exhaling, the Dantian swells, and the Qi follows the force.

Simply put, it means using reverse abdominal breathing.

The latter is precisely the key to getting started with the "Eighteen Styles".

The thought flashed through his mind, but before he could think about it further, the emptiness of the third level appeared.

It wasn't the hunger of an empty stomach, but a thirst that seeped from the very bones, a thirst that seemed to scream from the very soul.

He could feel his body like a dry sponge yearning for water, and this yearning was accompanied by excruciating pain, which turned into countless fine needles piercing his temples.

I can't hold on any longer.

He reluctantly turned off the light, wrapped himself in the blanket, and chose to rest.

Only sleep can relieve this strange pain.

*

*

"Seventy years ago, without a doubt, our world underwent a dramatic transformation. It's no exaggeration to say that before that, we humans were the undisputed dominant species."

But now, after the darkness, the former concrete jungle has become a wasteland teeming with behemoths. Strange fields have destroyed the very foundations of the technological age, and looking back is nothing but a fleeting dream.

The history teacher stood on the podium, lecturing with a look of emotion in his eyes, occasionally incorporating some rhetorical devices from the language.

In fact, the other party did take on extra teaching duties for a period of time when the Chinese teacher was sick.

In the classroom, Lin Yijue listened attentively to the lecture while constantly flipping through his textbook and taking notes.

Of all the cultural subjects, his favorite was history, and he excelled at it the most.

In these past few after-school tests, his scores have steadily climbed into the top ten of the class.

While the original owner's background certainly played a role, the main reason for this was personal curiosity.

As a time traveler with no computer or mobile phone at hand, books become the only way to understand the surrounding world.

Lin Yijue flipped through the history book, his gaze lingering on a map page.

The left side of the map contains the textbook text, which mainly describes how, in the year 34 of the Gregorian calendar, due to the rapid development of martial arts and the release of new electronic theories, Earth returned to the electrical age, and cities of "hope" and base cities sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

The situation for humanity began to stabilize again.

In the Sichuan-Chongqing region, there are two registered large-scale base cities, more than twenty medium-sized base cities, and even more small settlements.

"The terrain vaguely matches the geographical location of my previous life, but there are also many differences."

Lin Yijue looked at the map. The emerald green layers represented forests and plains, while the interspersed red dots represented alien lands, and the base cities were represented by yellow triangles.

The map is mostly green, covering four-fifths of it, and there are also quite a few red dots, about four or five times the number of triangles.

Besides the abundance of forests and plains, there also seem to be quite a few rivers.

In addition to countless mountains of all sizes, the area surrounding Rongdu Base City also has a river that runs across countless irregularly shaped mountains, marked with the words "Chishui".

Even more outrageous, the river was drawn with dotted lines.

It is quite different from other river boundaries.

"In general, although the current situation is stable, it is only in certain areas where the danger level is lower and these areas can be called safe zones. The distribution of these safe zones also follows a pattern."

Essentially all base cities are built around these secure zones.

Lin Yijue turned to the next page, which contained key points that the original owner had highlighted. He became interested.

Just then, a sound like a tire exploding came from the window, and he instinctively looked out the window to his left.

In the sky, a long black shadow streaked across the horizon, leaving white trails on either side as it moved.

This is?

Just as he was stunned, the dark figure drifted through the clouds and disappeared.

The remaining white lines slowly faded away in the sunlight.

At this moment, most of the students in the class stood up and looked out the window, chatting amongst themselves about things like giant beasts.

Just then, the pleasant school bell rang.

The history teacher seemed to have something to do; he said class was over and then hurriedly left the classroom.