"Hoo!" Chen Shouyi awoke from the dream with a start.
"Why is it different from the descriptions of those practitioners online?" Recalling everything from the dream, a hint of doubt flashed through his heart.
On entering tranquility and refining oneself for the first time, isn't the perception of muscles supposed to be "chaotic" and "a mixture of light and dark"? How come, after optimization, you can clearly see the muscle outline?
The thought flashed through his mind, regardless, it was best to try first.
He couldn't wait and sat cross-legged, and as soon as he sat down, his mind calmed down, as if he was already extremely proficient in entering tranquility.
About half an hour later, Chen Shouyi opened his eyes, feeling exhausted and filled with disbelief.
"How is this possible?"
It's just the first practice, and his sensing range had already expanded below the chest and abdomen, to the entire lower body.
According to the experience shared by online practitioners, an ordinary person sensing their body for the first time can only sense the muscles of the toes or fingers at most, and even those born with strong spiritual power can sense only one foot at most.
If someone claimed his spiritual power was extraordinarily gifted, Chen Shouyi would never believe it. If he truly had remarkable talent, he wouldn't have struggled to master entering tranquility for self-refinement.
The attributes on the Book of Knowledge most probably represent the legendary spiritual power, which involves perception and will. His will might be slightly stronger than average, but as for perception, it is rather ordinary and unremarkable.
At this moment, he suddenly recalled the difference in his perception image compared to others.
"Could it be because the amount of information I perceive is smaller?"
The more Chen Shouyi thought about it, the more likely it seemed. It was like painting a watercolor portrait, where the optimized self-refinement sketched the human outline first and then filled in colors. In contrast, the ordinary self-refinement filled in colors directly with the first stroke.
With the same number of pixels, the former can quickly outline the desired image, while the latter might not even be able to complete a single stroke.
He got out of bed, picked up a wooden sword, practiced a few lunges and thrusts, carefully sensing any difference, only to find it was no different than usual.
Then he chuckled at himself. After all, it was the first practice; how could there possibly be a noticeable effect?
Refining oneself through entering tranquility consumes a lot of spiritual energy. At this point, he felt a slight swelling in his temples, making it difficult to concentrate. So, doing homework afterwards was out of the question.
Luckily, tomorrow was the weekend, so he didn't need to rush with homework. But next time, he would only practice before sleep.
He picked up the wooden sword again and continued practicing lunges and thrusts.
The next morning, Chen Shouyi walked into the Youth Martial Arts Training Center.
Even before entering the lobby, a handful of flyers were thrust into his hands. He glanced at them; the flyers boasted of splendid offers, about authentic martial artist guidance and expertise accumulated over twenty years.
One of them was from the Martial Arts refresher class he took during summer vacation.
Recalling the effectiveness of the summer tutoring, his expression twisted slightly.
"Bullshit!"
Seeing a trash can ahead, he crammed all the flyers into it.
Before coming here, he had gathered a lot of information online and already had a target in mind. However, before enrolling, he had to conduct some field investigation.
He quickly took the elevator to the fifth floor.
Before reaching the door, a melodious female voice reached his ears:
"Do you know why martial artist apprentice assessments have such high requirements for swordsmanship? Everyone knows the gravity in the other world is three times that of Earth, causing even a random barbarian's physical attributes to surpass those of human martial artists.
We lack the innate physical talent of barbarians, so we can only compensate with skills.
The 5.0 version of swordsmanship we are learning now was developed using supercomputers for modeling and analysis of human muscles. Every muscle movement is precisely calculated, considering biomechanics and aerodynamics, maximizing speed and strength without injury.
An apprentice martial artist can explode with three times their strength, while a martial artist can reach five times, and even greater power for those above..."
Chen Shouyi found it hard to believe but recalled his amazing performance yesterday when he stabbed chopsticks into the wall. Suddenly, it seemed true. When practicing lunges, every thrust was incredibly fast.
If the sword is likened to a bullet, then the power amplified and transferred from each muscle in the body through various biomechanical levers is its powerful driving force.
This enables an ordinary portion of strength to have multiple times of amplification.
The training room door was half open, and Chen Shouyi peered through the gap, spotting a woman wearing shorts with a striking figure.
"The online posts aren't false. This training teacher is indeed a beauty. I heard she recently graduated from the Martial Arts Academy, just a step away from being a martial artist, and she is gentle and patient."
"What's the matter, student?" The beauty perceived his presence just seconds after, swiftly turning to look at him.
Her words carried a smile, and her tone was gentle, as serene as a blooming lily.
This quickly relieved Chen Shouyi's tension from being caught peeping, and he hastily replied, "I...I came to sign up for the swordsmanship refresher class."
"Oh, I'm teaching right now. Could you wait a moment?" she said with a smile.
"Sure, no problem!" Chen Shouyi waved his hands repeatedly.
"I wonder if I could come in and listen?"
The beauty was slightly taken aback, glanced at him, then nodded, "Hmm, okay!"
Chen Shouyi immediately took off his shoes and walked in quickly.
The refresher class had ten students, six males and four females, mostly around the same age as Chen Shouyi, and an obvious middle schooler.
They gave Chen Shouyi a brief glance before losing interest.
Chen Shouyi noticed several benches for resting and went over to sit down.
Soon, the tutor continued with the lesson.
"Today, I'm teaching the 'slash' in swordsmanship. 'Slash' can be further divided into Static Slash, Small Step Slash, and Big Step Slash. With different grips, they can also be single-handed or double-handed slashes."
"Static Slash involves no significant movement of the feet, yet the legs still exert force. Everyone, look at my legs!"
As she held the wooden sword, ready to slash, the previously smooth and fair thighs immediately revealed numerous well-defined muscles, which began rhythmically tensing, as if a force originated from the ground, traveled through the legs to the spine, and then to the arms.
In the next moment, her body sprung like a spring, delivering an elegant and satisfying slash, full of strong aesthetics.
During the following time, she demonstrated Small Step Slash, Big Step Slash, and moves with both hands holding the sword.
Especially during the Big Step Slash, it seemed unintentional, as if a simple step leaped nearly three meters, with the slash almost resembling the legendary art of condensing the earth beneath one's feet.
Chen Shouyi had watched many videos of martial artists and knew this was a basic step—a unique footwork for martial artists and apprentices in combat, contrasting typical walking where the toes exert little force.
In basic stepping, the soles perform a clear 'gripping' or 'digging' motion, and the spine sways gently with this force, balancing the body's center of gravity and providing propulsion.
It is quite strenuous and difficult to master.
Using basic steps appears to outsiders like slightly floating or traversing space magically.
It allows for explosive speed in an instant, replacing ordinary stepping in combat situations.
Her performance was simple, fluid, and unhurried, every move precise, giving a sense of massive power.
Chen Shouyi felt that even if she cut with a wooden sword, if hit, his body might truly be split open.
He felt a burning excitement in his heart, knowing today was well worth it, just this move alone was worth the price of admission.
PS: Requesting recommendations.