352: Chapter 352 Leg Raise Skill Upgrade, Dragon Flag

In a patch of silent darkness, Fang Cheng opened his eyes.

Deep within his pupils, a faint shimmer seemed to flow, casting the outlines of this slightly unfamiliar bedroom into clear relief.

He was wearing only a pair of shorts, lying on the soft mattress, yet his body felt no sleepiness at all.

Yesterday was the day of his grandfather's housewarming, and the family gathered to celebrate with great liveliness.

When evening came, everyone didn't go back to stay at the hotel, instead all staying overnight in this new residence located in Wanghu Town.

The two-story small building had plenty of rooms, more than enough for two families to live in.

His uncle had specially reserved exclusive bedrooms for both him and his mother, complete with all necessary furniture and daily necessities.

Fang Cheng had originally planned to take advantage of this rare leisure to shamelessly slack off for a day, sleeping until the sun hit his bottom before getting up.

But his body's conventional biological clock woke him precisely from deep sleep at four in the morning.

Raising his wrist, a circle of light blue fluorescence glowed faintly.

On the sports watch screen, the numbers were clearly projected: 4:02.

Fang Cheng lay down for a little while and yawned.

Then he sat up, stepped barefoot on the cold wooden floor, and walked to the window.

With a "whoosh", the heavy curtains were pulled open.

A rush of crisp air instantly poured in, carrying Wanghu Town's unique moisture and the fragrance of grass and trees, refreshing one's spirit.

Outside the window, the night was thick.

The antique streets were completely empty, and the entire world seemed immersed in the deepest darkness.

Only a faint crescent of the moon remained, barely outlining the flying eaves and corners of those old-fashioned buildings across the street.

His gaze crossed the ancient town and cast towards a more distant place.

He could vaguely see the blurry outlines of continuous mountain ranges and the vast body of water at the foot of the mountain.

A thin layer of mist lingered over the lake surface, adding a bit more mystery to that vast expanse of water.

Like a dormant giant beast, quiet yet magnificent.

That was Yulong Lake.

Fang Cheng looked at the early morning scenery, took a deep breath, and slowly stretched his limbs.

Snap, crackle, pop —

A series of fine, crisp popping sounds came from deep within his joints.

This was the signal that his body had completely awakened.

"What lovely weather, let's go out for a run and move around..."

Fang Cheng muttered to himself.

During the past few days staying at home, he hadn't formally trained at full capacity.

An impulse originating from instinct surged within his chest.

It seemed to urge him to embrace this silent night and squeeze out every drop of sweat from his body in the most extreme way.

Fang Cheng no longer hesitated, turned around to pick up the clothes and pants folded beside the bed, and quickly changed into them.

Creak —

The heavy courtyard door was gently pushed open a crack.

A figure wearing blue sportswear flashed out, and then quietly pulled the door shut.

The sky was pitch black, and the streets were silent.

Fang Cheng was full of spirit with bright eyes, his sports shoes stepping on the damp stone slab road as he began to jog slowly.

Today's morning exercise plan officially began!

...

The lake-encircling highway at four in the morning, like a sleeping black dragon, wound and coiled between the lake and the mountains.

The streetlights were sparse and the light was dim, only able to illuminate a small area, while more road sections were completely submerged in darkness.

A blue figure passed through the darkness, practicing long-distance Running along the highway at a steady rhythm.

His figure was stretched and his pace was light.

Every arm swing and every breath was full of rhythm, as if merging into one with this silent night.

As his body gradually warmed up, his Running speed began to unconsciously accelerate.

Suddenly.

His body leaned forward slightly, the muscle fibers of his legs seemed to be ignited in an instant, and his quadriceps and gluteus maximus erupted with astonishing power.

Every step pushing off the ground was like detonating a micro-explosive, and the powerful propulsion made his whole body almost leave the ground in Flight.

It was like abruptly switching from cruise mode to extreme sprint mode.

Whoosh!

A gust of fierce wind swept by without warning.

That blue figure tore through the night curtain, instantly passing through the halo of a streetlight, and charged into the next darkness within fractions of a second, so fast it seemed like mere visual persistence.

A late-night freight van was slowly Driving out from a fork in the road.

The driver had a cigarette in his mouth and was yawning when his peripheral vision suddenly caught a blurry shadow flashing past the front of the car.

That shadow didn't even make a clear sound of footsteps.

Only a violent airstream rushed toward him, blowing the peace amulet in his cab to sway wildly.

"Damn it!"

The driver slammed on the brakes, and the tires let out a harsh screech on the silent highway.

Still shaken, he poked his head out to look at the rearview mirror, but only saw the empty road and the swaying tree shadows in the distance.

"Did my eyes play tricks on me?"

He rubbed his eyes, his heart still pounding.

In the end, he could only attribute it to being too fatigued and having hallucinations.

The driver muttered and stepped on the accelerator again.

Completely unaware that he had just brushed past what kind of inhuman monster.

At this moment, Fang Cheng had long left that van far behind.

He ran to his heart's content, enjoying the wind roaring violently in his ears, his leg muscle groups alternately stretching and contracting at an astonishing frequency.

The scenery on both sides seemed to have turned into flowing dashed lines.

Fang Cheng felt as if he had melted into the wind, melted into the darkness, becoming the most swift existence in this night.

Unknowingly, the highway came to an end.

Ahead was a deep path leading to the mountain forest.

He stopped his footsteps, and the light blue screen quietly emerged before his eyes.

[ Running experience + 15 ]

[ Running lv1 (39/250) ]

Looking at the prompt information on the panel, Fang Cheng took a deep breath, adjusting his slightly disordered internal breath after the high-speed run.

Then he lowered his head and glanced at the time displayed on his watch.

4:29.

Starting from home, Running a full circle around the huge Yulong Lake took less than half an hour.

Moreover, his physical strength hadn't been consumed as much as he expected.

At this moment, his body was just a little warm, and sweat hadn't even had time to ooze from his forehead.

Fang Cheng even felt that he could still sprint at full force for another dozen kilometers at the previous speed.

Obviously, the buff effects brought by the Physique attribute increasing to 50 points and the strength attribute increasing to 48 points had already begun to show.

A surge of heroic spirit could not help rising in Fang Cheng's heart.

Given time, when both the Running skill and bodily attributes broke through the next Bottleneck, perhaps he could really use his feet to challenge the sound barrier.

Thinking of this, Fang Cheng's gaze fell on his feet, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching.

That pair of brand-new white sneakers was now a terrible sight.

The rubber on the soles was worn away by a thick layer, almost completely trampled to pieces.

Especially on the forefoot area where force was exerted, several toes were startlingly exposed.

"This training method is efficient, it's just that it consumes shoes too fast, and it's too shocking..."

Fang Cheng muttered helplessly.

It seemed that in the future, if he wanted to carry out this kind of extreme Running training, he could only choose to go barefoot.

The surroundings were pitch black, and the lights were sparse.

There was still at least an hour or more until dawn.

Fang Cheng blew in the cool wind by the lake and rested for a moment.

Then he cast his gaze toward the pitch-black mountain forest, the corners of his mouth slightly rising:

"Let's go to the park and continue exercising..."

His figure started again, rushing into the forest along the winding path.

The mountain forest was shrouded in a layer of water mist, and the air was exceptionally fresh.

Breathing here was like pouring high-concentration negative ions directly into his lungs, washing away the fatigue of body and mind.

Fang Cheng walked through the darkness for a moment, and a familiar outline appeared before his eyes.

It was precisely that small park hidden in the forest, along with the long-lost fitness facilities.

Fang Cheng took off his coat, revealing his muscular upper body.

He neatly hung his clothes on the horizontal bar of the Pull-up bar, and then, as usual, first performed a set of Squat exercises.

Activating the testosterone in his body to prepare for the subsequent high-intensity training.

In the darkness, a well-defined human figure continuously rose and fell.

The fitness movements were as standard as a textbook, steady and rhythmic.

Single-leg Squat, single-finger Pull-up, single-finger Push-up, single-hand Handstand Push-up, single-leg Back Bridge.

The five ace movements among the Prisoners Six Arts were completed one by one by him in a nearly inhuman manner.

For each item, one set was done for each of the left and right hands or feet, and the number of times in each set ranged from one hundred to five hundred.

Due to the lack of weighted equipment, Fang Cheng could only rely on increasing the number of repetitions to ensure the training intensity, and the efficiency was truly rather low.

Until the panel prompted that 1 point of experience value was gained, a set of training was considered complete.

When all five items were practiced, he stopped.

After all, this was not the professional training room of Haitian Garden; practicing here makeshiftly could be considered satisfying that unwavering self-discipline and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Life could not remain unchanged, but the habit of exercising must be maintained.

This was a matter of mindset.

Next came the focus of this morning exercise.

Fang Cheng's gaze fell on the panel.

[ Leg Raise lv2 (441/500) ]

He rested slightly, then walked under the single bar and leaped up.

His right index finger steadily hooked onto the cold horizontal bar, and his entire body hung downward.

The next moment, his core muscle groups contracted sharply, his legs pressed together, and they lifted straight up until his toes touched the single bar.

Throughout the process, except for a slight swing of the arms to maintain balance, his upper body remained almost motionless.

"1, 2, 3..."

He completed 300 single-finger Hanging Leg Raises in one breath.

Switching to his left hand, he did another 300 times similarly.

"Hoo."

Jumping down from the single bar, Fang Cheng shook his arms and let out a long breath.

Having run for half an hour and exercised here for nearly another half an hour, his body was only a little warm, with just a slight sweat.

"The training intensity is still not enough..."

Fang Cheng sighed softly and looked at the panel.

[ Leg Raise lv2 (445/500) ]

Six hundred single-finger Hanging Leg Raises only increased 4 points of experience.

Fang Cheng moved his fingers, and his joints emitted a "crack, crack" crisp sound.

His eyes slightly narrowed, making an estimation in his heart.

Ever since mastering the skill special effect "Absolute Control", whether practicing Push-ups, Pull-ups, or Hanging Leg Raises, the stimulation efficiency of single-finger training on the core muscle groups had indeed decreased.

On second thought, this was also very normal.

The biggest difference between single-finger training and single-hand training lay in the extreme squeezing of finger strength.

When finger strength became the short board, in order to complete the movement, other muscle groups of the body would be forced to compensate, thereby getting more adequate exercise.

But now, under the blessing of "Absolute Control", his finger strength was no longer a short board.

Hooking the single bar with one finger, even training with a half-ton load was effortless for him.

This naturally led to a decline in the stimulation degree of the core muscle groups.

According to previous performance and harvested experience values, the training efficiency had decreased by about thirty percent.

While pondering, Fang Cheng raised his head.

At the top of the distant mountains, a trace of extremely pale gray-white had already emerged.

It was estimated that before long, passersby exercising early in the morning would pass by here.

Should he end it here, return to Haitian Garden, and use professional equipment to break through the skill upper limit?

Or... right here, in one go?

Fang Cheng twisted his neck, and a picture from his memory suddenly flashed in his mind.

The way he currently practiced Hanging Leg Raises was mainly dynamic training of the abdominal muscles.

Could he then choose a static way to train his abdominal muscles?

A thought flashed by like lightning and flint.

Fang Cheng decided to give it a try and change to a special training method — Dragon Flag.

That's right.

This training method was a Cultivation Technique created by Bruce Lee, a generation of Martial Saint in his past life, hailed as the ultimate abdominal training movement, a static core challenge close to a divine skill.

The reason he thought of Dragon Flag was because Dragon Flag and Hanging Leg Raises had a deep internal connection in training goals.

The core of both was to strengthen the rectus abdominis and hip flexors.

But Hanging Leg Raises were a dynamic, concentric, and eccentric contraction process.

While Dragon Flag was a terrifying full-body isometric contraction exercise.

It not only required the abdominal core to have steel-like rigidity, but also needed powerful latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus, erector spinae, and even arm strength to work together to resist the huge gravitational torque generated by the body as an ultra-long lever.

It could be said that Hanging Leg Raises were the prerequisite foundation for Dragon Flag, while Dragon Flag was its ultimate advanced form.

"It's time to challenge higher difficulty movements!"

Fang Cheng's eyes congealed, and he immediately made a decision.

He didn't start from the most basic lying posture.

He walked straight to a vertical pole supporting the single bar that was over two meters high, turned his back to the column, and leaned against it.

Then, his hands reversed and gripped the cold metal bar backward, his arms tensing like two steel cables.

The next moment, his waist and abdomen exerted force, his legs suddenly swung upward, and his entire body instantly soared into the air, passing over his head until perpendicular to the ground.

Following that, the most crucial step came.

Under the strong support of the latissimus dorsi and arms, he controlled his body, using his shoulder blades as the fulcrum, and lowered it extremely slowly.

Legs together, waist and back straight, his entire body from shoulders to ankles tightened into a straight, rigid line.

Hovering like this in mid-air, maintaining a nearly parallel angle with the ground.

At this moment, time seemed to stand still.

His whole person was like a flag rebelling against gravity, fluttering defiantly in the breeze before dawn!

Just maintaining this posture, Fang Cheng felt a huge load far exceeding Hanging Leg Raises.

He could clearly feel that every muscle fiber in his abdomen, lower back, and buttocks was instantly tightened and activated, together forming a tough kinetic chain.

In Dragon Flag, the body was a long lever; the farther the center of gravity was from the fulcrum, the greater the torque exerted by gravity.

Being able to maintain it for a long time meant that your core muscle groups were stronger, and the more you could generate and maintain sufficient tension to resist this huge torque.

For the first few seconds, Fang Cheng's body still had slight discomfort.

But he quickly adjusted and found that feeling of exerting force to perfectly contend with gravity.

Normal people practicing Dragon Flag usually had to put it down after maintaining it for a few seconds, relaxing their muscles before they could lift it again.

Fang Cheng, however, always maintained this posture, motionless against the oppression exerted by gravity.

From dynamic explosion to static confrontation, it was like a qualitative leap.

Not only could it stimulate deeper muscle groups, but it also extremely tested the control over one's own body.

Time passed unconsciously, and the sky changed from gray-white to dawn.

On the distant path, slight footsteps came.

Successive morning runners passed by, their gazes inadvertently attracted by the figure in the park.

I saw that man with well-defined muscle lines, merely holding the column with his hands reversed, and his whole body soared into the air like anti-gravity.

Looking like a flag "fluttering" in the air, the posture was exaggerated enough to make one gasp.

"An expert! Just how strong must this waist and abdominal strength be?"

Someone couldn't help whispering in admiration, stopped to watch for a while, and then shook their head to continue their morning run.

They thought this was just an instantaneous movement.

But they didn't know that this high-difficulty posture, which was a fleeting glimpse in their eyes, this man had maintained for a very long time.

Long enough to exceed their imagination.

Time ticked away second by second.

The first ray of morning light passed through the treetops, illuminating the steaming white heat rising from Fang Cheng's body.

Crystal-clear sweat beads like beans continuously dripped from Fang Cheng's forehead, chin, and chest, smashing small wet marks on the ground.

On his sculpture-like muscles, every single fiber was trembling slightly, as if countless electric currents were darting beneath the skin.

That "flag" fluttering against the wind also began to shake slightly from its initial stillness, as if it would fall at any moment.

Fang Cheng clenched his teeth, his eyes wide open, fighting against that terrifying gravitational force trying to pull him back to the ground, his will and flesh engaging in the most cruel contest.

Just when he felt he was about to reach his limit —

Hum!

Before his eyes, the light blue panel suddenly lit up, flashing with an unprecedented and even somewhat dazzling brilliant radiance.

(End of chapter)