28: Chapter 28 This young man is quite fierce.

"It is our tradition."

Li Changsheng adjusted his internal Qi again before smiling and explaining.

"Are you from the nearby martial arts team?" The old man was clearly in a talkative mood.

"Not that kind. Theirs are for performance. Mine is just something I practice for health."

Li Changsheng waved his hand with a smile. For some reason, he always felt a mental rejection toward equating the Traditional Martial Arts of the past with the martial arts of today.

"What kind of health practice is that? You're steaming from the exercise."

The old man shook his head, thinking this young man was lying through his teeth.

"Old Li, what do you know!"

Just then, the thin, dry old man who was with the old man snorted.

"Old He, what's the matter? Do you know what this young man is practicing?" Elder Zhang felt his old friend was challenging his Face and said unhappily.

"I don't know what the young man is practicing, but when I was young, I saw an old Daoist priest on Wudang Mountain in Hubei Province. When he practiced, he was exactly like this young man—steaming all over."

The old man named Old He clearly had seen more of the world.

Li Changsheng thought about it for a moment and realized that the old Daoist priest must have reached the level of using intent to guide Qi, and using Qi to guide the body.

But then, Old He continued, shaking his head, "However, there is a difference. The Qi that old Daoist priest exhaled had a much greater momentum than yours. When he exhaled, his hair and pores stood up. He looked just like a cat with its fur standing on end."

Hearing this, Li Changsheng frowned. He didn't know about this.

Can you really make your fur stand on end while practicing?

Li Changsheng's time spent cultivating was, after all, too short. Currently, the only thing he could truly claim to have mastered was the Eight Brocades, while the Taiji Stance and Marrow Cleansing Classic were still only at the entry-level.

As for Plucking Flowers and Flying Leaves, strictly speaking, it was more like an independent branch. Although it required many Traditional Martial Arts power-generating techniques, it was generally just a method of exerting force.

And what this Elder He spoke of was likely another high-level manifestation within Traditional Martial Arts.

"I'll ask Elder Zhang when I have the time."

Li Changsheng shook his head, chatted with the two old men for a while longer, and then prepared to head home.

Upon returning to the entrance of the residential complex, he discovered that many police officers were going in and out of houses in the alleyway to the side.

"The incident location is quite far from my home, and there are very few cameras nearby, so they shouldn't find me."

Li Changsheng shook his head; he had been very careful at the time.

He didn't rush upstairs immediately but instead went to the nearby courier station.

The pair of dumbbells he had bought a few days ago had arrived.

Li Changsheng felt that he also needed to train his strength, and at the same time, he could see how successful his training had been, the boost in strength from his stamina, and so on.

"Mr. Li, right? Your package is here."

After stating his name, the person in charge of the courier station hurriedly pointed to a large package in the corner.

"Thanks."

"By the way, do you want delivery to your door? This thing is really heavy. I can arrange for someone to deliver it for only twenty yuan."

The person in charge of the courier station smiled hurriedly. He knew very well that this thing weighed at least one or two hundred kilograms.

Not to mention one person, even two people would have a hard time carrying it upstairs. He was just kindly reminding him.

Hearing this, Li Changsheng did not answer immediately but walked up to the package.

He had bought solid steel ones, so the dumbbells would be much smaller in volume, but they were also very expensive. This pair alone had cost four thousand yuan.

There were cheaper ones, plastic on the outside and cement on the inside, but that kind would look very bulky, and increasing the weight later would also be a problem.

Let me try to see if I can lift it with both hands.

Li Changsheng decided to test the results of his training himself.

Although he had been cultivating the Eight Brocades, a health-preserving practice, it involved the cultivation of Qi, and coupled with the fact that the Taiji Stance involved some power-generating techniques.

"Mr. Li, why don't you just spend the money? Or I can make it cheaper. This thing is really not easy..."

The uncle at the courier station was halfway through his sentence when he saw Li Changsheng assume a Standing Stake posture, hook his hands onto each side of the package, and with a low shout, saw the nearly two-hundred-kilogram package quickly dragged up.

There was not a single pause in the middle, and the moment the package was lifted, it quickly plummeted, but the uncle saw the young man's waist and elbows sway slightly in a very even rhythm, quickly stabilizing his stance.

It looked quite like he was using "four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds," which made the uncle click his tongue in wonder.

"Young man, your strength is not small! Looking at your physique, you don't seem to be someone who specifically works out!"

Li Changsheng was currently too thin, and it didn't look like he had much muscle mass, so it was no wonder the uncle was surprised.

"Uncle, I can't sign for it right now. I'll come back in a moment."

Li Changsheng said in a very low voice. It wasn't that he didn't want to speak loudly, but he couldn't let this breath of Qi escape.

At this moment, he inhaled to gather strength in his Dantian; when exerting force, he used the exhalation to urge it, exploding the internally accumulated Qi sensation and power outward.

His waist and hands, which were supporting the dumbbells, were constantly using the omnidirectional spiral force of the Taiji Stance to evenly distribute and unload this weight.

"Although the Eight Brocades has miraculous effects in terms of health preservation, in practical application, the force-generating techniques of Taiji, which lay the foundation for martial arts, are more practical."

The Taiji Stance contains the power-generating techniques of Taiji. At the same time, a part of the Eight Brocades shares the same goal as Taiji through different methods.

For instance, regarding using intent to guide Qi and using Qi to guide the body, the Taiji Stance practiced while moving contains this principle. At this moment, his breathing was much more rapid than usual, but it also erupted with a more substantial sense of power.

What Li Changsheng did not know was that his current power-generating technique was the Visible Power used in Chinese Martial Arts. Both adopted the reverse abdominal breathing method, first using Qi to store power, then using Qi to urge power.

And because his cultivation of the Eight Brocades was higher, his consciousness was more focused; otherwise, if he only knew a little bit of Visible Power technique, it would be tough to achieve such a feat of using four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds.

Now you could say Li Changsheng was at the level of Visible Power, but in terms of actual combat power-generating techniques, he was extremely weak—a typical case of severe lopsided development.

Consequently, after leaving the courier station, passersby noticed a young man in the residential complex walking strangely.

His legs constantly formed semi-circles, and his waist swayed from left to right, but it wasn't the kind of stumbling wobble; it was a rhythmic swaying accompanied by an up-and-down motion, like a warhorse pacing, or like a spiral constantly rotating.

It took a full ten minutes for Li Changsheng to carry this two-hundred-kilogram heavy object back home.

Bang!

Li Changsheng lay directly on the bed, panting heavily. His own strength was still too poor. Techniques were important, but the body itself also needed to be strong.

After resting for a while, Li Changsheng began to boil the Bazhen Soup. After consuming it, he felt his body heating up.

Li Changsheng did not dare to be negligent. He turned on the livestream while starting his training. However, this time, the viewers in the livestream room discovered that the host was holding a small dumbbell in each hand while doing the Standing Stake.

At the same time, his feet were each standing on one end of an iron basin, maintaining a very balanced posture.

Yes, this was Li Changsheng's training method.

Fortunately, he had considered it beforehand and had the seller include two ten-jin small dumbbells.

The large dumbbells were for training muscles and explosive power, while the small dumbbells were for training small muscle groups.

The iron basin was used to continue deepening the practice of the omnidirectional spiral force in the Taiji Stance; this was Elder Zhang's suggestion.

He started with an iron basin, and later he would use iron balls.