The end of the seventh month of martial training at the Martial Hall.
The training ground under the night sky.
Lin Chen was practicing his punches. Gu Fei was off to the side, also throwing punches, but his whole body was unfocused—one punch here, one punch there—clearly not putting his heart into it.
After finishing another round of the Warm Sun Fist, Lin Chen glanced at Gu Fei and didn't say anything.
Gu Fei hadn't gone to work in the dining hall, so he could practice a bit longer at the training ground, while Lin Chen himself was making up training hours.
People get tired. For Gu Fei, he was currently in that state of fatigue.
Lin Chen didn't openly tell Gu Fei that training for five shichen every day would grant an extra point of qi and blood, because he couldn't explain the existence of the panel. He simply dragged Gu Fei along to train with him for the full five shichen every day.
After five shichen of punch training, Lin Chen summoned the panel.
[Name: Lin Chen]
[Profession: Martial Artist]
[Qi and Blood: 1402/3000]
[Fate: [Water Flows, Channel Forms]: In the first realm of martial arts, with perseverance and steady progress, advance like splitting bamboo, free from the troubles of bottlenecks.]
With the help of the leftover beef from the dining hall every day, his qi and blood was still maintaining a daily increase of 10 points.
At this level of qi and blood, he could already lift a 280-jin stone pedestal.
Gu Fei, who was accompanying him at the side, felt puzzled when he saw Lin Chen walk toward the 280-jin stone pedestal.
But when he saw Lin Chen squat down, grip the handles of the stone pedestal, and lift it up, his mouth opened wide enough to stuff in a goose egg.
"Chen… Chenzi, your strength has reached 280 jin?"
"Is there a problem? I already had 220 jin of strength at the end of last month. It's not like you didn't know," Lin Chen said, somewhat confused, not understanding why Gu Fei was so shocked.
"Of course there's a problem. That's sixty jin," Gu Fei explained quickly. "Once strength reaches 200 jin, unless you increase your daily food expenses, strength growth will slow down. Look at me—my strength hit 200 jin three months ago, and even now I've only just gone a bit over 300 jin."
Listening to Gu Fei's explanation, Lin Chen fell into thought.
Previously, all of his attention had been on how to pass the 200-jin assessment. He really hadn't paid close attention to how everyone's strength grew after 200 jin. He had only occasionally heard Gu Fei grumble that his strength growth had slowed, but he hadn't realized it had slowed this much.
"You work in the dining hall? And the dining hall even gives you Nourishing Qi Soup to drink?" Gu Fei thought of this possibility.
Lin Chen didn't answer directly, only reminding him, "Don't tell anyone about my strength growth for now."
"I get it. Instructor Yu treats you so well—if others found out, they'd probably get jealous of you."
Gu Fei wiggled his eyebrows, then added, "How about you talk to Instructor Yu and have him arrange for me to go to the dining hall too? I'll wash vegetables, you wash dishes—brothers joining forces, we'll unify the dining hall."
"Sure. You go talk to Instructor Yu."
"I wouldn't dare. I get scared stiff whenever I see Instructor Yu." Gu Fei shrank his neck and waved his hands repeatedly.
Lin Chen could understand Gu Fei's fear of Instructor Yu. Since ancient times, there had never been students who weren't afraid of teachers. Although Instructor Yu didn't harshly scold the trainees, he also wasn't the kind who was always smiling. In the trainees' hearts, he still carried authority.
"Let's head back to the dormitory."
On the way back to the dormitory, the night concealed the contemplative look on Lin Chen's face.
He felt that he seemed to have overlooked something.
...
...
Thus another month passed.
The end of the eighth month since Lin Chen began learning martial arts at the Martial Hall.
Dawn was just breaking.
At the time of Frost's Descent, a thin layer of cold frost covered the bluestone of the training ground. But as the youth's footsteps continuously shifted, the frost slowly melted away.
Lin Chen stood there, both hands punching out. A full set of Warm Sun Fist flowed as smoothly as drifting clouds and flowing water. He could feel the circulation of qi and blood within his body. Every time he punched, a warm current would rise in his abdomen, but once he retracted his fists, that warm current would dissipate.
"This feeling appeared after my qi and blood reached 1500. So 1500 qi and blood is a threshold. Only after reaching 1500 does physical strength truly begin to pull away from that of ordinary people."
Warm Sun Fist wasn't some combat-oriented boxing technique—it was merely a set of punches that accelerated the circulation of qi and blood. But the increase in qi and blood also boosted all aspects of the body.
In the previous few months, although his qi and blood had been growing, aside from getting taller, the changes in his body weren't very obvious. But after his qi and blood reached 1500, he could genuinely feel the improvement in his physical strength.
The growth of strength wasn't a simple matter of one plus one.
A 300-jin punch landing on the body, and three people each landing 100-jin punches, caused completely different levels of damage.
This involved the issue of the body's limit in bearing damage.
Right now, he should be able to knock down the version of himself from a month ago with a single punch.
Retracting his fists, Lin Chen looked at the panel.
[Name: Lin Chen]
[Profession: Martial Artist]
[Qi and Blood: 1702/3000]
[Fate: [Water Flows, Channel Forms]: In the first realm of martial arts, with perseverance and steady progress, advance like splitting bamboo, free from the troubles of bottlenecks.]
His strength had reached 340 jin, already surpassing Gu Fei.
But what made Lin Chen happiest wasn't that his strength had reached 340 jin—it was that he finally understood the true meaning of the [Water Flows, Channel Forms] fate.
A month ago, when Gu Fei said that after trainees reached 200 jin, their strength growth slowed, Lin Chen had already formed a guess in his mind.
All the trainees in the Martial Hall, after reaching 200 jin of strength, had maintained a habit of eating meat, yet their strength growth still slowed. Only his own remained unchanged.
After verifying it over the course of this month, he confirmed a conjecture: the fate [Water Flows, Channel Forms] wasn't as simple as he had initially thought.
[Water Flows, Channel Forms]: In the first realm of martial arts, with perseverance and steady progress, advance like splitting bamboo, free from the troubles of bottlenecks.
When water first flows across the ground, part of it is absorbed by the earth, and its progress becomes slow. However, as the flow increases, the speed quickens. Eventually, it forms a stream, then a river. Once the momentum of the water is established, it naturally surges forward in vast torrents. Even if the land ahead rises higher, it cannot block it.
This had been his original understanding of [Water Flows, Channel Forms].
Originally, his attention had been focused only on the last sentence. Now he understood that every sentence of the fate represented a distinct state.
Perseverance: these four characters demanded that he practice martial arts continuously, without slackening.
Steady progress: advancing and improving little by little.
Advance like splitting bamboo: rapid leaps forward, pushing through in one breath, without obstruction.
It was precisely because of advancing like splitting bamboo that there could be no bottlenecks.
Lin Chen now had a true understanding of the [Water Flows, Channel Forms] fate.
The [Water Flows, Channel Forms] fate divided his martial training into three stages. The first stage—perseverance—needed no explanation. The second stage—steady progress—ensured that he could continue growing without slowing down like Gu Fei and the others.
If that was the case, then when he reached the later stage of advancing like splitting bamboo, it would mean that his qi and blood growth speed would become even faster.
A burning light filled Lin Chen's eyes. With the support of the [Water Flows, Channel Forms] fate, even if he didn't have as much silver as people like Lu Yongfeng, he could still slowly catch up to them through the help of his fate, rather than only having an advantage at the bottleneck stage.