231: Chapter 231 Running Techniques, Misty Forest

Chapter 231 Running Technique, Mist Forest

As the sky grew faintly bright, Yulong Lake seemed to have just awakened from its sleep, its surface shrouded in a layer of hazy mist.

By the banks, weeping willows swayed gracefully, and figures flickered as quite a few early-rising exercisers had already appeared.

Fang Cheng wore a newly bought blue sportswear outfit and stepped into professional shock-absorbing Running shoes, beginning to engage in Running along the lake-encircling road.

The neat and crisp complete outfit made his posture appear even more vigorous and agile.

Every step he crossed was light and powerful, as if wind was born beneath his feet, and the stirred-up air currents gently brushed against the tender green grass by the roadside.

The stray hairs on his forehead also fluttered slightly with the frequency of his pace.

Fang Cheng's Running speed was not fast at all.

At least it was similar to those people ahead of and behind him who were also participating in the morning run; he did not deliberately try to compete or pull away a gap.

The stride length of his legs was neither too big nor too small, and his body movements were natural and coordinated.

He maintained even greater Focus on how power was transmitted more smoothly and efficiently among his muscles, joints, and bones.

Every arm swing and shoulder shake adjusted his center of gravity just right.

Cooperatng with the rise and fall of his footsteps, it was like the gears of a precision instrument interlocking with each other, extremely rich in rhythm.

This allowed him to always maintain absolute balance during the Running process, and also saved a lot of physical energy consumption.

Then, he ran leisurely and unhurriedly just like that.

Slowly, the followers behind fell further and further away, and the pacesetters ahead were also surpassed one by one.

More than half an hour later.

Inadvertently turning his head back, he found that the figures of other morning exercisers could no longer be seen on the road.

There was only an old man sitting by the lake fishing, whose gaze carried a hint of astonishment as he looked at the young man passing by here.

Fang Cheng therefore slowed down his speed and switched to walking.

At this moment, he was still calm and composed, his breathing was even, and almost no sweat oozed from his forehead.

Only his face was slightly flushed, and his body felt somewhat warm, just like having just completed a very low-intensity warm-up exercise.

Looking around, the trees were lush and extremely luxuriant.

There were no residential buildings nearby; it should be located at the foot of some mountain.

The lingering mist had not yet dispersed, and the winding road was hidden within it, seemingly leading to some mysterious world.

Obviously, he had run much farther than last time, arriving at a more remote place.

Yulong Lake had a very large area; not only was its water expanse vast, but its shoreline was also tortuous and continuous.

It was unknown how many morning exercisers like Fang Cheng ran around the lake, yet it was difficult to measure its full picture.

The faint morning light penetrated through the branches, leaves, and mist, shining into this tree-lined path bordering the lakeside.

Fang Cheng raised his wrist and glanced at the screen of his sports watch.

7:39, 10.24 kilometers.

At this time point and this distance, it was almost enough.

Fang Cheng decided not to continue Running forward and prepared to return.

Recently, apart from days with scheduled sparring lessons, he basically stayed here in Wanghu Town, helping to take care of his maternal grandfather and supervising the house decoration progress.

Every day at five in the morning, as soon as the alarm clock rang, he would get up on time, rushing from the hotel to the park for self-disciplined exercise.

Then, he would run a circle around this lake-encircling road, kicking off a day full of vitality.

At this moment, looking at the prompt information emerging on the panel.

There was the experience value gained from practicing skills according to the daily training plan, as well as attribute growth.

There was also the improvement progress of the newly mastered skills.

[Running Experience + 9]

[Running Lv0 (18/100)]

The effect was not bad.

After several Running practices, Fang Cheng discovered that casually Running like usual basically would not increase skill experience points.

Only by trying his best to demand himself with the standards of a professional athlete and paying more attention to posture and technique would there be an exercise effect.

Therefore, today he specially conducted his first ultra-long-distance long run.

Speaking of which, long-distance Running and sprinting had huge differences in techniques.

Long-distance Running focused more on endurance and the control of rhythm, with moderate stride length and stable frequency, using the entire sole to land to cushion joint stress, with the Focus on maintaining a long-term state of balance.

Sprinting had a larger stride length and extremely high frequency, adopting the forefoot landing method so as to better utilize the elasticity of the ankles and calves, quickly kicking off the ground with force to catapult the body out.

In terms of Breathing Technique, the two formed an even sharper contrast.

Long-distance Running required deep and even breathing to provide sufficient oxygen for the body, whereas during sprinting, the breathing frequency was fast and shallow, mainly to regulate the body's rhythm and balance.

These were all knowledge Fang Cheng obtained by going to the library to borrow related sports science books.

Even though he didn't need to consider too much and could rely on physical fitness far exceeding ordinary people to achieve results that professional athletes could only look up to and despair of.

However, wasn't the meaning of practicing skills precisely to be able to run faster and farther on top of attribute bonuses, touching and surpassing limits?

After reading the panel information, Fang Cheng nodded slightly and withdrew his gaze.

Then he turned around, walked slowly for a few steps, and continued Running back.

At this time, the runway loomed faintly in the mist, birds chirped, and leaves rustled.

The surroundings were incomparably quiet, seeming to leave only the soft and rhythmic sound of Running.

Just in this atmosphere that seemed to belong exclusively to one person, suddenly a strange sound was mixed in, coming abruptly and breaking the serenity.

"What is that sound?"

Fang Cheng's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help stopping his footsteps, looking in the direction of the sound towards the thin-mist-shrouded mountain forest behind him.

Swoosh— —

Only to see a flock of birds fly up, circling in the sky above, and not landing for a long time.

As if startled by some unknown fierce beast, they flapped their wings flurriedly, eagerly searching for a safe place.

Fang Cheng frowned slightly and gazed intently.

The place where the sound came from and where the birds were startled was a stretch of undulating hills.

It didn't look very high, but the bushes were so dense they were like a dark green barrier, almost completely blocking the line of sight.

Coupled with the pervading mist swirling within it.

Even though it was currently daytime, the depths of the mountain forest appeared rather eerie because of this hazy filter.

Inadvertently, Fang Cheng's gaze swept across a warning sign erected by the roadside.

"There are geological hazards in the mountain forest, do not trespass!"

On the mottled paint surface, the red characters were eye-catching, adding even more to a bizarre aura.

Making Fang Cheng's originally curious and exploratory footsteps couldn't help but pull back.

"Young man, stop looking around, you must not wander blindly into dangerous areas."

At this time, the fishing old man who had previously sat by the lake walked over with leisurely steps.

He seemed to see through Fang Cheng's doubts and grinned as he said:

"That mountain collapsed a few years ago, and the geology is unstable. After going in, the path is also hard to find, and people get lost especially easily."

"Besides, there are wild animals haunting inside from time to time. If you really run into them, whether you can come out is hard to say. Those of us who fish by the lake year-round only dare to wander around the outside."

Fang Cheng turned around to look at the overly familiar chatting old fisherman, and immediately asked a question:

"Did you also hear a sound just now?"

"Sound? No, are you talking about those bird chirps?"

The old fisherman shook his head, seeing Fang Cheng with a pensive look, and then continued:

"However, this place is indeed quite eerie; weird things often happen here."

Hearing this, Fang Cheng couldn't help slightly frowning:

"Did anything happen in the past?"

"Of course, this mountain is called Miwu Mountain, and it is foggy year-round, especially around dusk and early morning, when it is so thick it cannot dissolve, just like milk. Once a person goes in, their vision is completely blocked, and they can't see anything, so it's very easy to lose direction."

The old fisherman seemed to get interested, pulled a crumpled cigarette case from his pocket, and handed over one.

Seeing Fang Cheng wave his hand, he bit one in his mouth himself, skillfully lit it with a lighter, took a deep breath, and slowly said with a nostalgic look in his eyes:

"The earliest weird thing that happened was probably over a dozen years ago. A few kids in the village were playful and sneaked into the woods to play hide-and-seek, and as a result, one of the kids inexplicably went missing."

"At that time, the village committee organized a lot of people, carrying flashlights and hunting rifles, searching all over the mountains overnight, and because of this almost got several other adults lost as well."

"Everyone said that the child was captured by a mountain goblin monster and hidden secretly. The child's family cried their hearts out, but so much time has passed without any news at all. Don't you think it's scary?"

He exhaled a smoke ring, which drifted lingeringly in the chilly air, telling the story in a storytelling tone.

"Later on, there were a few tourists from out of town who relied on being bold and rushed inside without listening to persuasion. What happened as a result? They likewise got lost inside for several days, and in the end, the municipal rescue team had to be deployed, spending a lot of effort to find them in a mountain col."

"When found, they were starved out of shape, their eyes full of terror, probably having experienced some terrifying things, but fortunately they were still relatively lucky."

The old fisherman gestured with his cigarette butt while speaking, as if he had been at the scene back then.

"In my opinion, the mist inside is heavy, and the terrain winds around like a maze. Compasses don't work well once they get inside."

Hearing him tell it so bizarrely, Fang Cheng looked again at the mist-shrouded mountain forest and muttered to himself:

"This place seems relatively close to Xishan?"

"Yeah, walk another ten kilometers or so in the northwest direction, and that's Xidong Town."

The old fisherman had sharp ears and casually replied with a sentence.

He brought the cigarette in his hand to his mouth, took a fierce drag, the cigarette butt instantly glowed fiery red, and then he continued:

"Young man, there is even more bizarre stuff, I'm afraid telling it will scare you!"

"Oh?"

Fang Cheng raised his eyebrows, his gaze falling on the old man's slightly mysterious face.

The old fisherman immediately leaned forward and lowered his voice to say:

"As soon as night falls in this mountain, it exudes an eerie vibe, especially around the Qingming Festival. Passing by here at night, from time to time you can catch sight of little specks of bright light swaying in the woods, like Will-o'-the-wisps, drifting and flickering, appearing and disappearing."

"We have lived here for most of our lives, and we all know there is nobody in that mountain at all, so where would lights come from? But that thing flashes right there openly, don't you think it's eerie?"

"I don't know how this matter was spread, but they say the Feng Shui here is good, located in some special boundary where Yin and Yang intersect. If someone ends their life here, their Soul can immediately transcend."

"Believe it or not, there actually are people who believe it and simply run into the mountain to commit suicide. Meddling media even gave it the moniker 'suicide forest'. Just because of this, the village's tourism business plummeted."

"In the past, whenever holidays arrived, people from outside loved to come here to sightsee, and farmhouse lodgings were packed to the brim. Now it's great, as soon as people hear about this kind of thing, they find it inauspicious and don't dare to come at all. Hotels and restaurants have all gone out of business."

"Therefore, I advise you not to wander blindly. Who knows someone might have hanged themselves on which tree!"

The old fisherman instinctively glanced around, as if some eerie and terrifying thing was close at hand, ready to pop out at any moment, making people's spines chill.

After saying these things, he held the cigarette between his fingers and flicked the ash, as if wanting to flick away this chill together with it.

Then his expression became a bit more relaxed:

"Fortunately, a few years ago this entire Miwu Mountain was bought by the Lu family, and a special patrol team was established, so the weird things calmed down. Anyway, in the past two years, I haven't heard of anyone going missing."

"The Lu family?"

Fang Cheng asked with doubt.

"You don't even know the Lu family?"

The old fisherman felt slightly surprised, and then nodded: "Hmm, you shouldn't be a person from Wanghu Town."

He continued smoking and took the initiative to introduce:

"In the past, the Lu family could be considered the number one big landlord in our Wanghu Town. Their ancestors were mighty and majestic, having served as officials, grand generals, and even conferred titles of marquis and prime minister; their family fortune was extremely thick."

"After the establishment of the Republic of China, it was even more remarkable. Their business flourished, opening factories, hotels, doing finance, engaging in real estate, with several large companies in the urban area, and assets worth at least tens of billions."

"I heard they bought this mountain, firstly to help suppress the evil Qi in the mountain and accumulate good deeds and virtues, and secondly to see if they could develop some projects, but until now I haven't seen much movement."

"If they can really develop something famous, the villages around us can also share a bit of the glory, and everyone's lives can be a bit better, instead of staring blankly while guarding the mountain like now."

The old fisherman held the cigarette between his fingers, exhaled a puff of smoke from his mouth, and said leisurely:

"In short, the eerie things in the mountain are spread too fiercely, and everyone is afraid of getting into trouble. On ordinary days, nobody dares to easily step inside a single step."

"As for me, I'm someone who has stayed by the Yulong Lake for most of my life, braving wind and rain, what haven't I seen? Before wanting to enter this mountain, one must first weigh their abilities. If it were those outsiders who don't listen to persuasion, they're guaranteed to encounter a ghost hitting a wall, entering without a way out..."

Before he finished speaking, the bushes not far away suddenly emitted a rustling sound, quite loud in movement.

The old fisherman was like being acupunctured, his words came to an abrupt halt, and his face turned pale white in a flash.

The finger holding the cigarette couldn't help trembling, and the cigarette ash fell down in a rustle.

He widened his eyes, staring fixedly at the direction of the bushes where there was fundamentally no path.

Seeing this, Fang Cheng's whole body muscles also instinctively tightened up, preparing to cope with sudden situations.

In the blink of an eye, several figures abruptly drilled out from the bushes, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, jumping onto the runway one after another like wild boars.

They were three men wearing windbreakers and camouflage uniforms.

Their clothes were disheveled, hair messy, and their faces and clothes were stained with mud and grass clippings, looking extremely disheveled.

It seemed there were also bloodstains...

No, they held guns in their hands and tucked daggers at their waists.

When they raised their heads to look over, their cold gazes made people shudder.

The more carefully the old fisherman looked, the more terrified he became.

Where did these guys pop out from? Could they not have stayed inside the mountain last night? Could they be wanted criminals hiding here?

Both sides looked at each other, and the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became exceptionally tense.

The old fisherman quietly retreated a few steps, glanced at the seemingly stunned Fang Cheng, and turned around wanting to slip away and make himself scarce.

Suddenly, a low roar sounded:

"Stop right there, run one more time, and I'll shoot!"