367: Chapter 364 Lightness Skill!

"It's true that I've never tried it from such a distance, but I don't think it'll be much of a problem. Watch closely."

As soon as Li Changsheng finished speaking, he took a deep breath, lightly stamped his foot, and leaped over the railing, immediately beginning a straight descent.

Seeing this, everyone couldn't help but cry out in alarm. Why was he just falling straight down?

Boss Ma and the others hurriedly leaned over the railing to look down.

They saw Li Changsheng falling rapidly, and just as he was less than half a meter from the sea's surface—Pa! Pa!—

His legs crossed as he fiercely kicked back against the ship's hull. Immediately after, his body lunged forward several meters like a wild goose while simultaneously rising into the air. His legs moved rapidly in mid-air, as if he were dancing in the sky.

Everyone also noticed a detail: at the moment he took flight, Li Changsheng's hand flicked quickly, and an object in his hand shot forward, nearly skimming the surface of the sea.

Relying on the force of the kick against the ship and the explosion of Hidden Jin, Li Changsheng lunged forward at an extremely high speed.

His body was nearly parallel to the straw, which was still shooting forward across the water despite the resistance. By the time he had covered nearly ten meters, Li Changsheng's body showed a clear downward trend.

At the very instant he was about to hit the water, his toes rapidly tapped the surface, his feet precisely treading upon the water.

Amazingly, the moment his foot lifted after treading, it seemed to create a 'dragon sucking water' effect; a thin stream of water was pulled up over a meter long with his leg before gravity dragged it back down.

The scene of Li Changsheng borrowing force to take flight again for the first time was like a dolphin leaping out of the water, creating ripples in its wake.

Seeing this scene, everyone's eyes lit up. Boss Ma, in particular, slapped the handrail and couldn't help but cheer.

Even if Li Changsheng failed today, he felt that perhaps Lightness Skill really did exist in this world!

Was Crossing the River on a Reed miraculous?

Of course it was, but there were already people who could do it. Boss Ma had seen a documentary about it.

It told the story of a martial artist who had practiced for many years, painstakingly researching Lightness Skill in an attempt to replicate Crossing the River on a Reed, but was unsuccessful at first.

But later, he began to lose weight and practice leg techniques. After years of hard training, he was finally able to cross a river with the help of a single bamboo pole.

And now, crossing the sea with a plastic straw.

Especially that first move—a single fierce stomp allowed him to glide ten meters through the air, and he was even holding an iron rod.

This feat alone was more impressive than the person on Mou Yin who used a running start to tap across several buckets on the water and fly several meters.

That person was ultimately borrowing force. Treading water seemed to offer no leverage, yet if one's legs alternated rapidly and the power of the strides from the waist and abdomen was trained to the extreme, a single breath combined with even a slight object to borrow force from could allow one to rise again.

This often happened with some long jumpers, known as the 'hitch-kick' style of jumping.

It might seem exaggerated, but it was actually a common mid-air secondary exertion of force seen in sports like long jump, basketball, and gymnastics.

Li Changsheng's stomp was the same, but his breath was longer; beyond the secondary exertion, he completed a third and fourth exertion of force.

However, Li Changsheng wasn't finished yet. Everyone grew increasingly expectant—there were still over eighty meters to go. How was he going to get across?

Zhou Sheng was slightly panicked, but he remained very calm on the surface.

For this hundred-meter distance, the beginning was easy, but the end was the real challenge, especially the last twenty or thirty meters.

The first ten-plus meters he covered in one breath mostly relied on that initial stomp, but what about after that?

By now, many people were attracted by this amazing feat, and more and more onlookers were gathering.

"Isn't that Grandmaster Li?"

"It seems so. Is he trying to get to the other side?"

"No way, that's at least a hundred meters. Even Bodhidharma reincarnated couldn't do that."

"Holy crap!"

At this moment, Masters Ye and Guo couldn't help but cry out, their eyes wide with shock.

They saw that after borrowing force from the first straw, Li Changsheng didn't throw the other straw. Instead, he leaped another two or three meters through the air.

Just before his body made contact with the sea, he twisted his waist while holding the iron rod and executed a very subtle Springing Power.

It is difficult to exert force while in mid-air, but when this Springing Power was released, Li Changsheng's entire body seemed to snap like a bowstring. The swing of his legs drove his waist and shoulders, and the power quickly surged through to his arm.

With a 'whoosh,' the iron rod in his hand slid forward rapidly, hugging the water's surface.

But at this point, Li Changsheng's body had already begun to fall. It seemed impossible for him to catch up with the iron rod that was rushing forward so quickly.

Seeing this, both those who knew the craft and those who didn't could tell that, barring any accidents, he would surely fall into the water.

Unless someone behind him happened to shoot a wooden stick under Li Changsheng's feet, allowing him to continue borrowing force while catching up to the iron rod that had already surged nearly a meter ahead.

Gulu~!

Suddenly, at that moment, everyone seemed to hear a distant cry like that of a toad.

In the next instant, the joints all over Li Changsheng's body crackled, and his chest and abdomen began to heave and contract violently, just like a toad when it croaks.

The hips and spine are the pivots of the body. At this moment, Li Changsheng's hips moved and his spine followed; they twisted and compressed like a spring.

Like a dragon, his body rotated slightly. In the next instant, the drum-like roar exploded again, his voice like 'Spring Thunder.' His curled-up body suddenly snapped forward in mid-air.

It looked like a fish flopping and thrashing on dry land—not very elegant—but the dynamic movement of his spine was like a dragon's body coiling.

One leg was in an inward-rotating posture while the other kicked out rapidly. After being stepped on, the foot of that leg flicked quickly to complete a discharge of force, but it was limited to the leg and didn't transmit to the rest of his body at all.

By stepping on his own left foot with his right, his body surged forward and upward with incredible speed.

Completely defying common sense, his form at that moment was like a great swallow.

His legs slid rapidly in the air, completing a second and third mid-air exertion. When his body fell again, he just happened to catch up with the rapidly rushing iron rod.

Splash~

The sole of his shoe trod on the iron rod, causing it to sink slightly. His body rose again, leaping forward through the air.

This time, by borrowing force from his left and right legs in mid-air, plus the iron rod, and leaping from both sides, he actually covered another ten-plus meters. A total of nearly thirty meters had been passed.

However, it wasn't over. As his body fell again, the iron rod, which should have sunk into the sea after the last time he borrowed force, was actually still moving forward.

Moreover, its speed weirdly showed a secondary acceleration. Generally speaking, when sliding on water with resistance, the starting speed is the fastest and decreases as it moves forward.

Yet the iron rod Li Changsheng had thrown possessed a strange power; it actually exerted force midway.

This was the key to why he could catch up to the iron rod in time with a single light mid-air leap.

Splash~

Tapping the iron rod a second time, his body rose and surged forward once more.

This time, Li Changsheng used full strength. One could see that at the moment his foot landed, it was as if a torpedo had exploded beneath him.

Looking closely, there wasn't much spray on the surface, but a bubble of air exploded ten centimeters deep under the sea where he stepped.

The iron rod was pushed by this force like a sharp arrow, shooting backward and deep into the sea.

Li Changsheng's forward momentum this time was extremely fast. His legs alternated rapidly in mid-air, and this time he actually flew further than he had when he first borrowed force from the ship.

He completed six mid-air secondary exertions, covering nearly twenty meters. Every time his legs slid, they would lightly touch the water's surface, a perfect replica of the Lightness Skill 'Dragonfly Touching Water' from Wuxia novels.