It was probably the 0.02 increase to his Spirit Attribute, combined with Fatty Bai’s sudden death stirring up memories of the past, that led Chen Jue to lie in bed thinking for a long time that night.
His thoughts drifted from his thirty years of life to his childhood dreams, and then to the frustrations and hopes of his adult life. Before he knew it, he had fallen into a deep sleep.
The next day, his internal clock woke him as usual. As his consciousness returned, he saw that the horizon outside his window was already veiled in a faint golden light.
The sun still rose over the city’s skyline.
The Earth hadn’t stopped spinning just because one tiny human had passed away.
But as he watched the first orange-red ray of morning sun pierce his eyes, Chen Jue knew it was time for him to make a fundamental change.
...
He put on his tracksuit, went upstairs as usual, and began his daily eye exercises while facing the rising sun.
Having come to a clear understanding of what he truly wanted, Chen Jue found his mind growing increasingly calm, the distracting thoughts that once plagued him now largely gone.
All his previous worries—clocking in for work, rent, daily expenses—were cast to the back of his mind.
In this marvelous state, the thirty-minute session of red-light therapy combined with the Eye Health Exercises felt exceptionally pleasant.
When he slowly opened his eyes, the familiar blue-green afterimage in his vision gradually faded. Bathed in the sunlight, his eyes shone with a crystalline brightness. His sight grew sharper, and his vision had improved significantly.
Most importantly, the lost, weary, and world-worn look typical of a middle-aged man was gone from his eyes. Instead, his gaze had become remarkably lucid. This was perhaps what the ancients meant by the saying, "when the eyes are bright, the heart is clear."
He went downstairs and headed to the park. As he passed the open area near the chess tables, Chen Jue saw Wu Fang and Elder Wu doing their morning practice.
He didn’t want to disturb them, so he simply smiled at the pair from a distance before turning and heading for a small grove deeper inside the park.
Seeing this, Elder Wu started muttering, "Fangfang, what’s with Xiaochen? He seems like a completely different person. He used to sneak a few glances at you every time he passed by! Did you two have a fight?"
"Grandpa! What are you talking about!"
"We’re just regular friends! We didn’t fight!"
Wu Fang’s face flushed beet-red at his words. She lowered the Rope Dart in her hands and glanced back curiously, but she only managed to catch a glimpse of a familiar back. ’What’s gotten into him?’ she wondered.
...
Deeper in the park, Chen Jue found the amateur Tai Chi Class and quietly joined the group at the back.
Pile-standing, practicing Tai Chi—he performed the Thirteen Stances and the Forty-Eight Forms, one after another.
The ever-gentle Zhao Jianguo was slightly stunned when he saw this.
He realized that in the few rainy days he hadn’t seen him, the young man’s movements had become remarkably more proficient and precise!
But beyond his proficiency, Zhao Jianguo also sensed an unusual tranquility in Chen Jue’s clear gaze.
He sucked in a breath of the cool morning air.
’It can’t be, can it?’
’He’s already so talented with the Pile Skills and forms, but to think his mental cultivation has reached this level too? Just how old is he?!’
He was a lay practitioner of a Daoist Sect who cultivated at home. Having studied under Wudang in his early years and learned from a master of the Dragon Gate Sect for several years, he naturally understood that in Tai Chi, intent was more important than form.
In all his years of teaching, Zhao Jianguo had never encountered a student as exceptionally gifted as Chen Jue.
It wasn’t just how quickly he mastered the forms and Pile Skills; the young man was on the verge of grasping the most subtle and essential state of mind for Tai Chi.
A single run-through of the set, and he was already nearly on par with Zhao Jianguo, his own teacher!
If he had a better sense of Chen Jue’s character, Zhao Jianguo would have already recommended him to Wudang Mountain or the Dragon Gate Sect to become an introductory Daoist.
’With talent like that, a few years of study on the mountain would surely lead to great achievements.’
Of course, Zhao Jianguo wasn’t the only one who noticed something unusual. Chen Jue himself felt that something was different!
The parts of his Tai Chi and Pile Skills practice that had always felt awkward were now exceptionally smooth as he trained this morning.
Whether it was the Tai Chi Twelve Forms, Twenty-Four Forms, Forty-Eight Forms, or even Wudang’s Thirteen Forms, Chen Jue could perform them all without being rigidly bound to their structure.
His body rose and fell naturally with the shifting of his center of gravity and the rhythm of his breath. The transitions between his limb movements were fluid and graceful. To put it in modern terms, he had developed a certain "silky-smooth" flow!
This feeling was very familiar to Chen Jue. It was the same silky-smooth sense of control he’d gained over all kinds of Darts after spending 0.10 free attribute points to merge his Stone Skimming and Darts skills for the first time.
Even the Skill Levels for several skills on his panel were shooting up by +4 and +5 during the two-hour practice session that combined motion and stillness. He had even managed to generate another 0.02 free attribute points.
As he concluded his practice and his breathing began to steady, the tautness in his limbs eased and the fine goosebumps covering his skin relaxed. Suddenly, sweat poured from his body as if from a ruptured dam, completely soaking his tracksuit in moments.
On his panel, his Tai Chi Thirteen Stances and the three Tai Chi disciplines had all leveled up to Lv. 2 amidst this astonishing rate of progress. The efficiency was so high that even Chen Jue himself was amazed.
’So this is what an epiphany feels like?’ Chen Jue mused. Before the class ended, he found Zhao Jianguo and asked him about something: "tensing the perineum, tucking the tailbone, and then, after goosebumps appear, feeling a current of heat darting through the body."
The question left Zhao Jianguo even more exasperated. ’So you’re telling me,’ he thought, ’that it took me over half a year of practice on the mountain just to get my foot in the door, but this kid has figured out the secret in less than a week?’