Lifting a Five or Six Hundred-Pound Boulder!

"Alright," Chen Juanjuan said with a mischievous grin, turning on her heel toward her own house. "I’m not driving the car tonight, so when you’re practicing later, don’t you dare touch my car, or I won’t let you off easily!"

With that, her figure gradually melted into the darkness of night.

Watching her leave, Chen Anquan began his walk home as well.

Women truly are the greatest obstacles to one’s training!

Suddenly, fifty or sixty meters ahead, Chen Juanjuan stopped in her tracks. She turned to look back and saw that Chen Anquan was already gone from beneath the basketball court’s lamp post. She shook her head. "That Chen Anquan, he didn’t even offer to walk me home. Is he not afraid that I might get—" She cut herself off. In truth, she didn’t believe she’d be unlucky enough to meet trouble twice in one night.

Returning home, Chen Anquan felt a wave of fatigue. He walked to the cupboard where he kept his medicinal herbs, pulled open a drawer, and took out two taels of prepared Rehmannia and one tael of Polygonatum.

He gulped down the herbs in large mouthfuls, followed by a full bottle of warm water, and then changed into a white Tai Chi uniform.

The old peachwood he’d cut from Aobei Mountain had been crafted by his second uncle into a handsome peachwood sword. It was eighty centimeters long, eleven and a half centimeters wide, and two centimeters thick. Not only was the workmanship exquisite, but it had also been coated with a glossy varnish. The scabbard was carved with lifelike landscapes and soaring white cranes—much more beautiful than the peachwood swords sold online.

His second uncle truly was a master carpenter!

Sword in hand, Chen Anquan stepped outside. Standing on the basketball court, his gaze rested on Chen Juanjuan’s red SUV.

Under the white light of the lamppost and the moon, her car looked like a vibrant orange-red tiger crouched on the ground, ready to pounce at any moment.

He tore his gaze away and kept a respectful distance from the vehicle.

In Aobei Village, many families owned cars, but even more had their own courtyards, so most vehicles were parked at home. Only outsiders liked to leave their cars on the basketball court.

Clang!

Standing with legs apart, Chen Anquan drew his peachwood sword with a sudden motion, producing a metallic sound.

"Why does this sound nothing like wood? It’s almost like drawing a steel sword," he mused.

He didn’t dwell on it, instead putting on his favorite Tai Chi sword music and beginning his practice.

No longer a novice, Chen Anquan had moved beyond imitating his teacher; he now had his own understanding of the Tai Chi sword.

There were many movements in swordplay: chop, thrust, point, snap, lift, lead, smear, block, strike, hang, support, pierce, and draw.

All these actions were woven into the forty-nine forms of the Wudang Tai Chi sword. Practicing these forty-nine movements over and over was the path to mastery!

T-step and point, turn and point, low sweep...

"That Chen Anquan is really practicing swordplay!" Lying in bed, Chen Juanjuan watched the live feed from the camera near her car on her phone. "What’s this sword style called? Six Veins Divine Sword? Nine Swords of Dugu? Evil-Dispelling Swordplay?"

She shook her head in confusion. As an utter novice in martial arts, there was no way she could recognize the Tai Chi sword.

Two hours passed. Chen Anquan, flushed and heated, finally stopped. The sword made another metallic "clang" as he sheathed it and placed it on the ground to practice his basic skills.

Anyone who’d read martial arts or fantasy novels knew that martial arts were divided into external and internal disciplines.

Chen Anquan still didn’t know if inner strength truly existed in this world; all he knew was that, for now, he could only work on external skills.

External skills included exercises for building sinews and bones—stances, horse stance, frog jumps, carrying bricks, harvesting rice—as well as martial arts like Tai Chi boxing, the Tai Chi sword, and the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms.

Suddenly, a bold idea struck him.

He already possessed enormous strength; lifting several hundred pounds was nothing to him now. Why not try moving Chen Juanjuan’s red tiger?

He walked slowly up to her car, rolled up his sleeves, and reached out with both hands.

"What’s that Chen Anquan doing?" Juanjuan stared in bewilderment as she watched him walk up to her car and roll up his sleeves. What was he planning?

"Forget it, I promised not to touch her car," Chen Anquan thought, turning away toward the edge of the basketball court instead.

He was searching for an appropriate heavy object.

He circled the court but found nothing suitable. Then his gaze landed on the foot of the nearby hill.

Why not?

Decision made, he turned on the flashlight app on his phone.

The dim roadside offered poor visibility, especially in the complex terrain of the countryside. One had to tread carefully, or risk a nasty fall.

Most of the village's fracture patients had suffered their injuries by falling in the fields or vegetable gardens.

But Chen Anquan’s night vision was like that of a leopard. Even in the faintest light, he could see clearly for over ten meters.

Like a leopard prowling in the night, he slipped through the rural paths, soon vanishing entirely into the darkness.

"Did he run off?" Chen Juanjuan muttered, confused. He’d looked like he was about to mess with her car, and now he’d vanished.

"Ugh, he’s infuriating!" She angrily closed her phone’s surveillance feed and burrowed under her soft quilt.

Chen Anquan, breathing heavily, arrived at the foot of the hill where he usually trained in just ten minutes. Glancing at the time, he was startled.

"My speed has improved a lot!"

Just days before, it had taken him twenty minutes to reach this spot. Now he’d cut the time in half!

Part of the reason was his improved attributes, but he also knew the terrain like the back of his hand.

He looked toward a massive stone nearby, as tall as his hip.

"This must weigh five or six hundred pounds!"

Previously, his best was four hundred pounds. Now, faced with this boulder, he was eager to test himself.

He squatted down, arms wide, attempting to encircle the stone, only to discover he couldn’t even clasp his fingers on the other side.

"Up!"

With a roar that echoed through the night, his muscles swelled as if pumped with air. Gritting his teeth and holding his breath, he planted his legs and heaved.

Boom!

The ground emitted a muffled thud, as if a multi-ton elephant had crashed to earth.

In the distance, flocks of birds startled and took flight, their wings beating through the air and lending the silent night an eerie quality.

By now, Chen Anquan was exerting his full strength, arms wrapped tight as he finally lifted the massive stone from the earth.