CHAPTER 53: CHAPTER 53: RESOLVE TO START PRACTICING TRANSCENDENCE TODAY! (FOUR UPDATES)

During these days of training, Zhang Beixing’s understanding of the Yue Family’s Combination Fist had become increasingly refined. Although it wasn’t as impactful as directly adding Ability Points, this practice helped him discover many of his own issues. Among these, the most significant was the weakness in his lower body.

The core of the Yue Family’s Combination Fist lies in its ’combination.’ Regardless of how fierce, ruthless, and swift the techniques are, the ultimate goal is to chain them together, achieving the objective: ’Do not strike unless certain, but once you strike, ensure capture!’ This is also why the Yue Family’s Combination Fist was a battlefield art in ancient times. It’s a set of connected moves intended to neutralize an opponent completely, even fatally, without giving them a chance to fight back—no fancy tricks involved.

To achieve this, skill with the hands alone is far from enough. The strength and technique of the lower body are even more crucial. Previously, Zhang Beixing had focused his practice on his upper body: arms, shoulders, elbows, fingers, and fists. His lower body training had been minimal. This caused him to feel a tearing sensation when practicing his punches recently. His upper body would strike out, but his lower body was either half a beat slow or unstable.

That was a fatal weakness. Just as the netizen who pointed out his problem had said, if someone knowledgeable noticed this, no matter how great an advantage Zhang Beixing held, he could instantly be put at a disadvantage. It wouldn’t be an issue during casual sparring. But, for example, if he encountered a desperado and engaged in a life-and-death struggle, this weakness could determine his fate!

Zhang Beixing looked at the other party’s ID: Smile. Then he glanced at the profile picture: Lelouch.

Tsk, what can I say? The guy’s pretty trendy, huh!

"Thank you for the advice, senior," Zhang Beixing typed. "May I ask, how should I train my lower body to make up for its deficiencies?" Holding his phone, he opened Smile’s comment and humbly sought advice, even flattering the other party a bit—after all, saying nice things never hurt.

When netizens saw that Zhang Beixing had actually come to ask for advice, the already lively comment section became even more boisterous. Smile hadn’t even replied yet, but others were already scrambling to comment:

"Training your lower body is simple, isn’t it? Ever heard of holding the Horse Stance? Hold it for a day, and the effects will be amazing!"

"Horse Stance? Please. In my opinion, if you want a strong lower body, you need to work on balance and leg strength, my boy. Listen to your bro’s advice: go straight for Steel Wire Walking. That’s much better than the Horse Stance!"

"The bro upstairs is right. The Horse Stance serves two main purposes: first, to strengthen leg power, and second, to enhance lower body stability. Steel Wire Walking can achieve this as well. In fact, it can even help develop better control over lower body strength. If you master it, you’ll have a fallback skill even if you stop practicing Martial Arts in the future!"

"Nice one, buddy. By ’fallback,’ don’t tell me you mean the circus? Damn, you really are a genius. Make sure to let us know on Douyin when you join the circus; I’ll definitely come to support the show!"

"Are you guys serious? The host is asking a genuine question, and all you do is give him a hard time with these ridiculous suggestions! That’s too much. In my opinion, just Steel Wire Walking isn’t that useful. Why not walk on the wire and practice punches simultaneously? Once you can complete a full set of the Yue Family’s Combination Fist on a steel wire, your lower body will be virtually invincible!"

"Dude, I actually thought you were being serious in the first half, but it turns out you’re even more ridiculous! Are you all just here to clown around? Damn it, then I won’t pretend either! Host, I’ve got a strategy that could bring glorious light back to the Martial Arts of China..."

"..."

The comment section exploded. And with it, Zhang Beixing’s System nearly blew up as well.

[Multiple suggestions detected, suggestions recorded]

[Suggestion: Horse Stance. Difficulty: S+. Maintain the Horse Stance for one day. Reward: 10 Ability Points.]

[Suggestion: Steel Wire Walking. Difficulty: C. Stand on a suspended steel wire. Reward: 0.5 Ability Points for every thirty minutes maintained.]

[Suggestion: Steel Wire Martial Arts Training, Stride like a Dragon! Difficulty: A. While standing on a suspended steel wire, successfully execute the Yue Family’s Combination Fist. Reward: 2 Ability Points per execution.]

[Suggestion: Crossing the River with a Reed ten thousand times. Difficulty: S+. Stand on water atop a single reed continuously for one minute. Reward: 10 Ability Points.]

[Suggestion: Lightness Technique over water. Difficulty: S+. Walk on water without any tools. Reward: 10 Ability Points for every hundred meters walked.]

[Suggestion: .....]

You know about bombers, right? Zhang Beixing felt like he had one of those in his head right now. Thankfully, he could mute the System’s voice; otherwise, he feared he’d be annoyed to death by it. He turned on the mute function.

The world returned to peace.

With a thought, Zhang Beixing opened the suggestion panel. Around thirty suggestions appeared before his eyes. He looked at them one by one and discovered that there were as many as fifteen S+ difficulty suggestions. Seven were A-difficulty. The rest were either C or D-difficulty, with even some E-difficulty ones.

After some deep contemplation, Zhang Beixing ultimately only kept the suggestions for "Steel Wire Martial Arts Training" and "Steel Wire Walking." The reason was simple: they could synergize. Completing one was like completing both, killing two birds with one stone. Additionally, although both suggestions were difficult overall, they were at least not as outrageous as "Crossing the River with a Reed." They were just within the realm of possibility if Zhang Beixing put in enough effort. Not like "Crossing the River with a Reed" or "Lightness Technique over water"—those requirements sounded ludicrous just by hearing them.

"But now, I’m quite ludicrous myself," Zhang Beixing muttered in a voice only he could hear, his thoughts drifting. "Rebirth, System, and Martial Arts... Tsk, at this rate of improvement, it probably won’t take many years before I can transition from practicing Martial Arts to becoming Transcendent!"

Although it sounds a bit outrageous, if I really follow the netizens’ suggestions step by step, continuously adding points to get stronger, maybe in the future I really can complete those incredibly ridiculous suggestions and become Transcendent...

Seeing him like this, Lin Siqi raised her eyebrows, shook Zhang Beixing’s arm, and asked with puzzlement, "Lao Zhang, what are you muttering about with your head down?"

"Oh, nothing, just thinking about some things," Zhang Beixing replied. "Thanks, Sister Qi. If it weren’t for you today, I wouldn’t have been able to post this video. I owe you one!"

Zhang Beixing came back to his senses. I was getting ahead of myself. My foundation isn’t even solid yet; what am I doing dreaming of becoming Transcendent? I need to take this one step at a time. With the System, there’s no telling how strong I might become in the future...

Lin Siqi didn’t think much of it, simply saying, "Don’t worry about owing me. Just like you said before, we’re classmates, so it’s natural to help each other out. If you really feel bad about it, how about you go shopping with me sometime when you’re free?"

"Go shopping... Sure, that’d be great! Then I’ll wait for your message!" Zhang Beixing said cheerily. Then, he continued to look at comments on his phone.

In the process, he received more suggestions. However, those suggestions were either too conventional, with nothing outstanding, or they were particularly ludicrous, and with his current attributes, he simply couldn’t complete them.

Meanwhile, ’Smile,’ the user Zhang Beixing had addressed as ’senior,’ finally chimed in. He suggested that Zhang Beixing practice some standing training. But because he didn’t specify what kind of standing training it was, it didn’t trigger the System’s evaluation. However, Zhang Beixing mentally noted this down. After all, the only Martial Arts Cultivation Technique he knew now was the Yue Family’s Combination Fist.

But that was all for later. For now, Zhang Beixing had decided to focus on the "Steel Wire Martial Arts Training, Stride like a Dragon" suggestion.