Chapter 3: Men Over Twenty-eight Are Like Sixty
Without mentioning the parents discussing outside, after Li Ye arrived in the room, he stood fixed in the center position, first taking a deep breath, feet together, arms sweeping left and right like a roc spreading its wings, pulling the tendons and bones, with breathing becoming deep and powerful.
Five minutes later, Li Ye’s hands hooked like dragon claws and fiercely pulled upward, doing his utmost to stretch the spine section by section, with rhythmic breathing as the extended arms were raised straight to the sky.
Opening the shoulders and pulling the spine, activating the meridians, Qi and Blood rushing upward, spirit invigorated.
After maintaining for a while, Li Ye changed movements again, feet rooted, waist and hips exerting force, shoulders and back slowly and heavily impacting the air, exhaling at that instant, causing the tendons and bones to tremble.
The current movements and breathing were the Guiding Method practiced in Shenzhou from elementary school onward, which could strengthen tendons and bones and enhance Qi and Blood.
There were eighteen sets of movements; those with martial artist talent could directly enter the Dragon Gate Realm with this.
The first realm of the Nine Realms of Martial Artists, Dragon Gate Realm, also known as ‘Fish Leap’.
Nine leaps of Qi and Blood, breaking mortal to become martial.
Each leap was a qualitative leap for Qi and Blood.
It was also the foundation for fighting demonic creatures.
It wasn’t that weapons didn’t work; on the contrary, gunpowder exorcism had records in ancient texts from the Tang Dynasty, so the greater the amount, the greater the effect.
It was just that the pollution of demonic creatures wasn’t something ordinary people could deal with; only those with vigorous Qi and Blood using weapons would achieve twice the result with half the effort.
But crossing the Dragon Gate didn’t mean everything was fine; without thoroughly leaping nine times to consolidate Qi and Blood, it would still decline with age.
People grow old without relying on tendons and bones for ability.
Especially those who had only leaped Qi and Blood once; once age caught up, they were just a bit healthier than ordinary people.
Many gave up martial arts training for this reason; after all, if Qi and Blood were vigorous in youth but couldn’t break through the Dragon Gate to enter the martial way, could they do it when older?
Fail to break through at eighteen, wait until twenty-eight? A man past twenty-eight is like sixty!
Someone like Fu Yan was truly rare.
Although he had given up martial arts training, the Guiding Method could be practiced occasionally, after all, for strengthening the body.
After finishing the full set of movements, Li Ye stood in place, regulating his breath for a few moments, then his left foot suddenly twisted; clearly wearing only socks, but the floor underfoot oddly made a ‘squeak’ friction sound.
Hu!
Right leg straight like a sword, bringing wind sound, fiercely stabbing diagonally into the air.
Immediately after, Li Ye’s upper body pressed down, legs and feet like iron rods swung down, with great force smashing downward, but just before landing gently touching ground, propelling his body high into the air, legs continuously chaining kicks in mid-air.
Hu hu hu!
Legs and feet making breaking air sounds, Li Ye then landed; upon touching ground he tapped three more feet from bottom to top, as if kicking a person’s knee, heart, brain, fierce and heavy, yet tapping like cold stars, precise and powerful!
Training Method · Springing Leg!
The ‘spring’ of bullet!
This was the result of five years of learning from the martial arts school.
If the Guiding Method was building the foundation, the Training Method was further applying this foundation, enhancing Qi and Blood again to reach the leaping stage.
This was the martial arts school’s training method, also a mainstream path for preparatory students practicing martial arts.
Just like tutoring classes in his previous life.
School preparatory at most two years, teaching things to strengthen the physical foundation.
Running laps, climbing, weightlifting, obstacle crossing, punching targets, horse stance, moving stance, etc., solidifying stamina, toughness, flexibility, combined with Guiding Method, a form of enhancement.
After all, enhancing Qi and Blood was unrelated to physical strength, but physical strength was certainly related to Qi and Blood.
While the martial arts school’s Training Method, by previous life’s standards, was equivalent to killing arts.
In some sense, Li Ye was a martial arts expert.
This was the source of his ‘excellent’ in the preparatory physical test.
This source was also the most expensive!
The Jinglei Martial Arts Hall he attended had some fame locally; the Training Method ‘Springing Leg’ was a way relying on leg training to lift Qi and Blood from the soles upward to the whole body.
Tuition one hundred thousand per year.
Not including food, medicinal baths, etc., provided internally by the martial arts school.
Guiding Method and preparatory training, as long as the family timely provided supplements, like the soup drunk today, wouldn’t cause issues, very mild, suitable for the masses.
Martial arts school’s Training Method required matching the martial arts school’s special food and medicinal baths to compensate for the damage left by the Training Method.
Just these supplements and medicinal baths cost Li Ye nearly three hundred thousand over five years, especially this high school preparatory year, tuition plus supplies totaling two hundred thousand.
Even so, plenty of people still failed to break through the Dragon Gate.
His family savings were long emptied; he knew his parents had borrowed debt outside, so he had to stop losses in time.
If practicing another year, probably even two hundred thousand wouldn’t suffice.
The martial way was indeed fascinating; just the Training Method alone let Li Ye experience what a martial arts expert felt like.
For him with experience from two lives, he really wanted to know what scenery lay ahead in the martial way.
But reality made it impossible.
Li Ye kicked a few legs, then ceased and relaxed, standing in place breathing deeply for ten minutes, then pulled out a chair to start doing the papers.
In knowledge, the only difference between Shenzhou and his previous life was that cultural classes were Chinese, math, general knowledge, no foreign languages, that stuff only elective in university.
From now on, he wanted to strengthen scores in this area, aiming to get into a better university in a year.
Another hour later, Li Ye put down his pen, glanced at the time, exactly nine at night.
Time for night run.
Li Ye pulled out a backpack and a box from under the bed, stuffing things from the box into the backpack.
Like salt water bullet gun, peach wood dagger, strong flashlight, small fire extinguisher, etc., and even righteous songs, and two homemade Molotov cocktails.
Salt has suppressive power against some demonic creatures.
Peach wood wards off evil.
Light dispels evil demons.
Filth fears pure wind.
Flames extinguish yin energy.
Righteous aura avoids demons and ghosts.
These ancient methods weren’t uncommon in history; Li Ye brought them every night run, in case encountering demonic creatures there’d be a way to cope.
As for why do this.
Because night running was the only non-gold-sinking training method for ‘Springing Leg’.
After preparing, he shouldered the schoolbag, left home, and started night running.
While running, legs exerted force and trembled according to the Training Method, striving for every step to train from thighs to soles, after one foot stepped over, the other quickly straight-kicked, then trembled on landing.
Doing this for two hours could achieve consolidation effect.
Practicing martial arts is like rowing against the current; not advancing means retreating.
Money spent, can’t waste it; at least maintain current intensity.
At eleven at night, Li Ye ran back to the residential community.
There were no night markets around the old residential area; most people had rested, only a few windows still showed light, the community interior very quiet.
Li Ye adjusted his backpack posture, continued forward, but the faint strange smell in his nose grew more pungent.
Stronger than when he returned from school, making him involuntarily hold his breath.
Tomorrow call property management, make them handle it quickly, otherwise in another day, who knows how pungent the smell would get.
The old residential area interior had no streetlights, only sporadic building lights and moonlight from the sky providing some brightness, making the surroundings vaguely visible.
Li Ye pressed on through the strange smell, nearing his neighboring building when he saw a figure rummaging in front of the garbage bin emitting foul odor.
Closer up, he could see it was a hunched figure with graying hair.
Li Ye knew this person, from the 4th floor of the neighboring building, surnamed Zhao, like ordinary old people, with the hobby of scavenging at night.
But differently, this one was more extreme; others at most picked plastic bottles and cans, this Old Man Zhao picked anything home.
Expired food, leaky dolls, discarded cigarette butts… except swill water, seemed like he wanted everything.
His home was even stinkier; Li Ye had seen neighbors from that building arguing with him several times over this.
But he was childless and alone, the kind no one could do anything about.
No one could deal with his quirk.
Li Ye didn’t want to bother, sped up a bit, but getting closer let him see more clearly.
Old Man Zhao was still wearing filthy clothes, all picked from who knows where, but compared to clothes, his current actions stunned Li Ye.
Around him were rummaged-out garbage, and he himself was half-buried in the garbage bin, reaching in to pick out a clump of food garbage mixed with fish bones and rotten matter, holding it in hand like mud, stuffing straight into his mouth!
He was eating garbage!
Old Man Zhao made no sound, like a puppet, rigid cheeks chewing twice, hand nonstop continuing to dig the garbage bin, like starved for a long time.
The bizarre scene left Li Ye stunned on the spot.
Old Man Zhao seemed to notice something, looked up sideways, letting Li Ye see those gray vacant eyes like a dead man’s, and in the open mouth, among the mud-like food, something still wriggling nonstop.
Something’s wrong.
“Ah!”
Just thinking that, a hoarse grating voice like a broken gong suddenly rang by his ear, startling Li Ye.
Old Man Zhao’s body lunged forward, like a crazily running zombie, clawing wildly at Li Ye!
In the sporadic lights, he could even see the black under Old Man Zhao’s nails, and the moldy green shell growing on the back of his hand!
In an instant, Li Ye thought of many things.
Zombie? Wandering corpse? Puppet corpse? Rotten thing demon? Returning spirit?
Demonic creature!
