Chapter 15: Shaolin's Divine Techniques!

From a little after nine in the morning, he practiced right up until lunchtime. At last, the proficiency of the “Twelve Forms of Muscle-Tendon Change” was raised to 12 out of 100. The unyielding rule of “half an hour for every +1” made Chen Jue determined to break through by allocating points.

Yet this “Twelve Forms of Muscle-Tendon Change” truly lived up to its reputation as a divine art. After a whole morning of training, much of the soreness in his muscles faded away. His body felt open and limber, his heartbeat slowed, and his breathing grew deeper and steadier.

Most notably, his constitution attribute rose by another 0.01, reaching 1.34. Even his health index jumped from 89% to 90%! It was as if this art had been designed specifically to improve physical fitness.

“I’m not even a beginner yet, and the improvement is already this significant. If I reach Level 1, wouldn’t I be soaring?” Chen Jue began to look forward to it.

However, his free attribute points showed no sign of increasing, so he pinned his hopes on the afternoon’s stance training and weight lifting.

…

After lunch, Chen Jue followed his plan to take a nap. Before lying down, he took a moment to browse on his phone and ordered an electronic wristband that could monitor heart rate and sleep.

Although his attribute panel displayed his health index directly, Chen Jue still wanted to use scientific methods to check his heart rate and other data.

The wristband cost over five hundred yuan—a high-end model. On impulse, he also ordered a standard 7.26-kilogram shot put for athletics, a tape for measuring long jump distances, and a stopwatch for timing sprints.

When he had the time, Chen Jue planned to find a place to test his athletics level across various events.

Training could improve his attributes, but with scientific measurement and comparison, he could gather more useful data, which would help him summarize his experiences later and adjust his training direction in advance.

After all, as far as Chen Jue was concerned, becoming physically stronger manifested in a few obvious ways: running faster, jumping higher and farther, throwing the shot put farther, lifting heavier things, and so on.

All of these could be measured objectively. If he could see consistent improvement in these numbers, Chen Jue could confirm that this awakened attribute panel was indeed effective, and not just his own imagination, thus avoiding the blind spots of training.

As for data like living longer, only time could prove that.

Some advanced medical labs, he supposed, might be able to measure more complex metrics like “vitality” or “cell division limits,” but those were out of his reach for now. He could only rely on simple, makeshift methods.

…

Player: Chen Jue
Age: 27
Health Index: 90%
Strength: 0.95
Agility: 0.88
Intelligence: 1.22
Constitution: 1.34

Mastered Skills: [Boat Fist Lv1 (83/200)] [Twelve Forms of Muscle-Tendon Change Lv0 (12/100)] [Eight Immortals Stance Lv1 (46/200)]
Available Free Attribute Points: 0.07

…

He slept until two in the afternoon, having set an alarm in advance so he only rested for an hour and a half.

Upon waking, he found himself more refreshed than after his old, unrestrained midday naps. Just then, his phone rang—a call from the technician delivering and installing his television. They had originally scheduled for the morning, but the technician seemed busy and changed the time.

After a cold-water face wash and wiping the sleep from his eyes, Chen Jue went out to meet the technician and led him into his home.

The seventy-inch TV was installed in the main hall, not facing the sofa, but specially set up for his training. The technician double-checked several times to be sure, then drilled holes, set up the mount, and connected the cables.

Modern flat-screen TVs have built-in set-top box functions, so as long as you plug them in and connect to Wi-Fi, they’re ready to use. Chen Jue tested it out, streamed his Boat Fist training videos from his tablet onto the big screen, and found the clarity excellent. Satisfied, he signed the delivery slip.

After the two technicians left, Chen Jue made a trip to the village store.

All the packages he’d ordered in recent days had finally arrived, especially the tonic medicines he’d been eyeing eagerly.

Back home, he opened all the boxes. He decided not to try the black-bone chicken and white phoenix pills just yet, but began brewing a pot of “Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup” in a clay pot.

This ancient formula, a high-end product from Tong Ren Tang, filled the whole house with a rich medicinal aroma as soon as it began to simmer.

The instructions stated that the soup needed to be simmered over a gentle flame for at least two hours to bring out its full medicinal effects. He would also need to keep adding water to the pot to prevent the soup from boiling dry and the herbs from burning.

Glancing at the time, he saw it was just right for his afternoon training.

Chen Jue began practicing the Eight Immortals Stance on the solid wood table, occasionally checking on the stove in the kitchen, and also did some weight training to boost his strength and agility attributes.

The afternoon passed this way, the room saturated with the thick scent of medicinal herbs.

His attributes saw notable improvement—strength and agility each increased by 0.03, and free attribute points accumulated to a total of 0.1.

That’s 0.1, not 0.01—a tenfold difference!

This was the largest amount of free attribute points Chen Jue had accumulated since awakening his attribute panel.

As for his proficiency in the Eight Immortals Stance and Boat Fist, both had also made considerable progress over the afternoon’s training.

Seeing that it was nearly six o’clock, he turned off the stove, ladled out a bowl of tonic soup, and prepared to partake.

The instructions stated that the whole pot of soup should be consumed over several sessions. Drinking too much at once could lead to side effects like overheating or the body rejecting excessive nourishment.

Chen Jue first raised the bowl and inhaled the aroma. Compared to traditional Chinese medicine, it was much richer and more appetizing, invigorating him with just one whiff.

“I haven’t even tasted it yet, and the medicinal effect is already this strong?”

“Truly worthy of its ancient heritage!”

When the soup had cooled a bit, Chen Jue downed the whole bowl in one go. After an afternoon of training, his stomach was empty, and the large bowl of tonic soup sent a wave of heat surging through his body.

Seeing his free attribute points had reached 0.1, Chen Jue decided to allocate them all at once, raising the “Twelve Forms of Muscle-Tendon Change” to Level 1.

The proficiency, previously at 12 out of 100, blurred and spun, then, after consuming 0.09 attribute points, the skill bar changed: [Twelve Forms of Muscle-Tendon Change Lv1 (2/200)].

A flood of unfamiliar muscle memory swept through him. All the confusion and awkwardness he’d felt about the art suddenly vanished, replaced by clarity.

After running through the full set of twelve forms, Chen Jue’s body turned as red as a cooked prawn! Wisps of visible heat rose like white smoke from his shoulders, head, back, and limbs.

“I’ve mastered the basics of the Twelve Forms of Muscle-Tendon Change!”

What surprised Chen Jue most was that his constitution attribute jumped by another 0.01 after completing one set of the forms.

Such an exaggerated improvement—it was like he’d activated a cheat!

“No wonder it’s called the Shaolin Divine Art!”

Unable to resist, Chen Jue practiced two more sets, watching his constitution attribute rise by two more increments.

However, the tonic soup he’d just drunk was already exhausted.

Could an entire bowl of medicinal soup really be digested that quickly? He figured the water content had probably evaporated with the intense sweating, and the medicinal power had been converted to nutrition, directly fueling his rapidly rising constitution.

Having experienced the boost from allocating points before, Chen Jue immediately understood what was happening. He dashed to the kitchen, poured the rest of the tonic soup into a large bowl, and gulped it down in one go.

After drinking, he returned to the living room to practice the Twelve Forms again. Whenever the soup’s effects faded, he would drink more, repeating the cycle six times.

The pot of tonic soup, meant to last three days, was consumed in one night, and his constitution attribute soared from 1.34 to 1.56 before finally slowing down!

As for his health index, it jumped from 90% to 98% in one go!