353: Chapter 353 Skill Points and Limits, Unexpected Skills

It's a success!

Brilliant light flashed before his eyes, and a powerful sense of strength surged from his core abdomen, instantly sweeping through his entire body.

It felt like a warm torrent was washing away all the fatigue and soreness previously accumulated in his muscles.

Fang Cheng slowly lowered his body, which had been as straight as a flag, and his feet touched the ground.

Leaning his entire body against the cold metal pillar, his chest rose and fell as he took deep breaths of the morning air.

Yet the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward.

He didn't feel very tired at all; instead, he felt a lingering sense of exhilaration.

If it weren't to avoid excessive tearing of the muscle fibers and disrupting tomorrow's training plan,

he definitely would have wanted to challenge where his true physical limits really lay.

Fang Cheng shook his arms and twisted his slightly sore and swollen waist, producing a series of crisp crack, crack popping sounds.

Then he raised his wrist and glanced at his sports watch.

6:52.

Unawares, it was almost seven o'clock.

From when he started practicing the Dragon Flag until now, this static core confrontation challenging gravity had actually lasted for nearly an hour and a half.

This was still because the high-speed running and other workouts in the earlier stage had already consumed a lot of physical energy.

Fang Cheng felt that if he were in his prime state, he should be able to extend this time to at least over two hours.

Of course, the closer it was to physical limits, the stronger the deep stimulation of the muscle groups by the movement would be, and naturally, the better the workout effect.

Pulling back his emotional thoughts, Fang Cheng focused his attention on the prompt information emerging before his eyes.

[Congratulations, through efforts and persistence far exceeding ordinary people, your skill has reached the Grandmaster Rank]

[Leg Raise Lv3 (0/1000)]

[Obtained skill enhancement reward, 12 free attributes]

[Congratulations, in the process of fighting gravity, you have initially comprehended the mystery of gravitational field balance, your basic airborne time increases by 1 second]

[Please keep up the good work and continue forging ahead on this path; when your airborne time in a stationary state exceeds 9 seconds, you might unlock unexpected abilities]

Fang Cheng's gaze swept over them and finally fixed on the last two newly added prompt messages.

Aside from the conventional enhancement rewards for skill upgrades, there were actually unexpected surprises.

"Airborne time increased?"

"Unlock unexpected abilities... Could it be a Flight skill?"

Fang Cheng muttered to himself, a trace of surprise showing in his eyes.

This should be the first time that after upgrading a skill and obtaining related enhancement rewards, he could also comprehend a new ability.

Although during the novice period when he first started exercising, similar double rewards had appeared before.

But that was just rewarding a small amount of limited attribute points plus a related skill special effect.

And as the skill Rank increased, this situation never appeared again.

Anyway, never like this before, where an extra line of congratulations was listed to explain the origin of the ability and even point out the feasibility of unlocking new skills.

Fang Cheng moved his somewhat sore lower back and spine, stretching his body while savoring the lingering aftertaste of the recent Breakthrough.

A crisp bird song sounded in the woods, and human voices could still be heard intermittently from a distance.

A few wisps of golden sunlight pierced through the morning fog and scattered down, casting a warm hue over this mountain forest.

At this time, the people doing morning exercises had obviously increased.

On the originally quiet path, figures shuttled back and forth from time to time.

In the park, several robust young men who were also shirtless appeared, all fitness enthusiasts who came here specifically to exercise.

Their gazes occasionally glanced toward Fang Cheng's side.

Their eyes were filled with admiration and curiosity, seemingly wanting to step forward to ask for guidance.

Obviously, they had also just seen the breathtaking scene when this street workout master practiced the Dragon Flag.

Sensing that someone wanted to strike up a conversation, Fang Cheng immediately took his coat down from the horizontal bar and put it on.

Without a moment's pause, he turned around and walked quickly down the mountain along the stone-paved path.

As for the pair of sneakers on his feet whose soles had been worn through during running,

when passing by the lake on his way down the mountain, he casually threw them into the trash can.

Then, just like that, barefoot, he crossed the road and streets, running in the direction of home.

When he returned to the new residence in Wanghu Town, his grandfather had already gotten up.

He was wearing a white silk martial arts uniform and practicing Tai Chi in the courtyard.

Every move and style was performed quite decently.

Fang Cheng had taught him this set of Twenty-Four Style Ma Family Tai Chi hand-in-hand back then, and now his posture was proficient and possessed considerable charm.

At this moment, seeing his grandson covered in sweat, he was not very surprised; he just slowly withdrew his boxing posture and nodded with satisfaction:

"Mm, your essence, Qi, and spirit are very full. Young people should be like this; bones and muscles need to be exercised every day so they won't rust."

Li Biyun was wiping the new furniture in the living room, and upon hearing the sound, she walked out.

"Chengcheng, look at all this sweat on you, why are you like you were fished out of water?"

As she spoke, her gaze fell on Fang Cheng's bare feet, and she immediately asked in alarm:

"Where are your shoes?"

Fang Cheng explained with an unchanged expression:

"I went to the lake just now, couldn't resist going down for a swim, and accidentally dropped my shoes in the water."

"You child, you're really careless."

Li Biyun reproached him, put down the rag, and urged:

"Go take a shower quickly, I'll go make breakfast, and we can eat right away."

"Mm."

Fang Cheng responded and walked quickly up to the second floor.

His uncle's room was still quiet, obviously sleeping soundly in dreamland.

Fang Cheng returned to his room, took change of clothes, then came to the bathroom and locked the door from the inside.

Stripping off his sweat-stained clothes and pants, he stood naked in front of the washbasin mirror.

The body in the mirror was athletic and tall, and the lines of every muscle almost reached the perfect standard of the golden ratio.

Paired with Yingjun's appearance, it was simply a walking hormone, the most vivid embodiment of a peerless handsome man.

Except for the bald head that hadn't yet recovered its lush hair...

Fang Cheng admired himself for a moment, then with a slight movement of his mind, he began to tally the gains after this skill upgrade.

A light blue light screen emerged before his eyes.

[Strength: 48]

[Agility: 40]

[Physique: 50]

[Spirit: 50]

[Free Attribute Points: 12]

Looking at the values of each attribute, Fang Cheng thought for a moment and made a decision.

First raise Strength to 50 points to see how the effect is.

As his mind issued the command, the number representing free attribute points instantly jumped from 12 to 10.

Correspondingly, 2 attribute points also silently merged into the Strength attribute, making it jump from 48 to 50.

A solid and heavy warm current surged from within his body.

He could clearly feel that the muscle fibers all over his body swelled slightly at the same time.

Much like a sponge being instantly soaked, injecting new energy.

Fang Cheng clenched his fists, took several steps back, and waved casually forward.

Boom!

A muffled explosion sounded in the air.

Feeling it, his strength was indeed more abundant.

However, after adding points, the appearance of the body in the mirror didn't change too obviously.

It seemed... just that the contours of his pectoral muscles were fuller, and his abdominal muscles went from six packs to eight packs.

Fang Cheng's eyes narrowed slightly, and he reached out to pinch his own abdominal muscles, feeling the steel-like tight muscle fibers.

Sure enough, it was about the same as the performance when the Physique attribute was raised to 50 points.

It was effective, but not significant enough.

The process of adding points was also relatively smooth, far from the earth-shattering and violent commotion when breaking through 40 points.

It seemed that 50 points was indeed not an important checkpoint for the human body's limits.

At most, it was a small threshold for quantitative accumulation, far from reaching the degree of qualitative change.

Fang Cheng restrained his thoughts, and his gaze fell back on the panel.

There are still 10 free attribute points left, how should he choose to distribute them?

Considering the current situation and the possible dangers he might face, the primary thing should be to enhance the most direct combat power.

According to past patterns, every integer multiple of 20 points in attribute value was a major hurdle for breaking through the limits of the human body.

If he continued to add these 10 points to Strength to make it reach 60 points, it would undoubtedly be another huge leap in Physique.

But Fang Cheng immediately remembered the terrifying body shape comparable to a muscle monster when he last reached 40 points of Strength attribute.

If he rushed to 60 points this time, the changes would inevitably be even more pronounced.

Even if he turned into a bear-like figure like Ma Donghe, it wouldn't be strange.

By then, let alone going out to see people, his mother would probably be scared half to death if she saw him.

"That would be too eye-catching and would instead bring more trouble..."

Fang Cheng muttered to himself.

Furthermore, he now possessed the two Qigong Mind-Cultivation Techniques, Water Breathing and Flame Breathing.

The destructive power of his fists no longer relied purely on the basic Strength attribute.

At the combat level, the demand for physical strength was actually not that urgent.

At least for now, he hadn't encountered an opponent who could crush him at the strength level.

Thinking of this, Fang Cheng moved his gaze to the Agility column.

If these 10 attribute points were added to Agility to make it also reach 50 points,

thereby allowing Strength and Agility to develop in a balanced manner, the body's comprehensive abilities would undoubtedly be more balanced.

Whether dodging enemy moves, taking the initiative to attack, or choosing to escape, he would be even more at ease.

Especially when combined with the skill special effect Infinite Combo, it would further enhance fist speed and combo count.

The enhancement to combat power was not much inferior to purely stacking Strength.

Fang Cheng rubbed his chin, his thoughts spinning rapidly.

Actually, if there were enough attribute points, the best way was to first raise Agility to 60 points.

After letting the body's control and muscle fiber density reach a new height, then charge towards the major hurdle of the Strength attribute.

That way, he might be able to compress his body shape more freely and avoid excessive swelling.

Of course, there was a third choice: adding everything to Physique.

Once Physique crossed the 60-point hurdle, the body's recovery, defense, and True Qi reserves would all be enhanced.

This meant he could endure heavier injuries, recover faster, and have longer combat endurance.

Fang Cheng looked at the panel and fell into deep thought.

Should he continue in one go to rush Strength or Physique to 60 points to challenge the next major hurdle?

Or...

Suddenly, Fang Cheng thought of something, his gaze flickered slightly, and then he switched the interface to the skill column.

[Handstand Push-up Lv2 (421/500)]

Looking at the experience progress bar of this fitness skill, it was also almost full.

Sticking to about a week of exercise, he should be able to break through to the Grandmaster Rank.

A safer plan took shape in Fang Cheng's mind.

He decided to keep these 10 free attribute points for now.

Wait for the next skill upgrade, see what the enhancement reward is, and then make a decision.

By then, if free attribute points were rewarded again, they could be allocated comprehensively.

First rush Agility to the 60-point major hurdle to obtain stronger body control.

Afterwards, when raising the Strength attribute, there would be no need to worry too much about body shape issues.

Of course, there was another possibility.

If the enhancement reward only had skill special effects, then simply add all 10 points to Physique.

First let Physique break through the human body limit hurdle, so that he could at least have guaranteed defense and recovery, enough to cope with most dangerous situations.

After thinking over and over again, the point-allocation problem was temporarily resolved.

The attribute values on the panel were updated:

[Strength: 50]

[Agility: 40]

[Physique: 50]

[Spirit: 50]

[Free Attribute Points: 10]

After glancing at them, Fang Cheng turned his attention to the biggest surprise of this upgrade.

"Basic airborne time increased by 1 second."

Fang Cheng was originally a bit puzzled by the appearance of this ability, but quickly figured out the crux of it.

The core of Dragon Flag training lies precisely in the coordination of whole-body muscles to fight gravity in a static way.

In this process of ultimate polishing of body control, even if a new skill to extend airborne time was comprehended, it was completely reasonable.

And for Fang Cheng, the enhancement of airborne ability was not rare either.

When the two skills Leg Raise and Handstand Push-up were upgraded to Great Master Rank, they had each previously obtained two skill enhancement special effects.

[Ape Waist, possesses a flexible waist like a monkey, increases jumping ability and airborne time by 80%]

[Air Walk, makes body and mind fully adapt to the feeling of weightlessness, increases balance ability and airborne time by 100%]

The former increases airborne time by 80%, and the latter increases it by 100%.

However, both special effects were percentage increases based on the inherently possessed basic airborne ability.

And this time's reward directly increased this basic value.

Don't look at it as just a mere 1 second.

After the joint amplification of the two skill special effects, the final effect was very likely to be explosive.

Fang Cheng calculated quickly in his heart.

After Agility broke through 40 points, he had once done an experiment: in a free-fall state, the pure stationary airborne time was about 3.5 seconds.

This time was the primitive airborne time plus the time amplified by the two major special effects, the sum of both.

Through simple equation back-calculation, Fang Cheng could calculate that the primitive airborne time was about 1.25 seconds.

And now that Leg Raise skill upgraded, after he comprehended gravitational field balance, this basic value impressively increased by 1 second, reaching 2.25 seconds!

After the superimposed amplification of Ape Waist 80% and Air Walk 100%,

the new total airborne time reached an astonishing 6.3 seconds.

The final enhancement effect was almost double the original.

If he further utilized techniques such as leaping into the air and gliding using terrain airflow,

it should easily exceed 10 seconds, which could almost be called a brief Flight.

Of course, whether the specific situation was as he deduced still needed to be verified personally.

Fang Cheng glanced at the somewhat narrow environment of the bathroom; this was clearly not a good place for testing.

He withdrew his thoughts, opened the glass door, stepped into the shower room, and turned on the shower head.

The warm water flowed over his body, washing away fatigue and sweat.

Better take a satisfying shower first and finish breakfast.

Afterwards, find a suitable venue to properly experience this quasi-Flight feeling.