Atop the rooftop, spacious and open.
Aside from a pile of neatly stacked red bricks in the corner and some cut tiles...
These were leftover materials from renovations, too precious to throw away, accumulated on the roof and eventually abandoned, unused by anyone.
Now, they had become Lin Yuan's martial arts training tools!
Bang~~~!
A crisp sound.
In the increasingly intense BGM.
Red mist spread throughout.
Lin Yuan had just smashed three bricks stacked together to dust with a single punch...
Before mastering martial techniques, Lin Yuan could also break bricks, but that was merely by wrapping spiritual power around his body to protect himself from injury, then using brute force to break the bricks—not like now, where he could directly project spiritual power out of his body, shattering the bricks to smithereens!
"Spiritual power is indeed formidable!"
Lin Yuan was well aware of his shortcomings...
Lifted to such heights directly, with spiritual power present, martial techniques posed almost no difficulty in his hands.
Especially since he had discovered that while practicing martial techniques, he could judge whether there was room for optimization based on the intensity of the BGM.
It didn't matter that he didn't understand...
As long as he operated his spiritual power, the Remnant Consciousness Whisper would sound in his ears, cursing and complaining, at times even bursting into sudden, furious rage.
It was as if it were saying, 'It's bad enough you're using the cultivation technique I taught you to practice such low-level martial techniques, but you're not even perfecting them. Aren't you embarrassed?'
Then Lin Yuan would know, there was something wrong with his technique.
After all, there were only so many meridians in his body; after several attempts, he would discern the optimal path of circulation.
Thus, the Dragon Subduing Fist Manual Lin Yuan practiced remained the same, but in practice, it had already begun to differ slightly in detail from the true manual.
After some time had passed,
Lin Yuan then turned to start practicing the Sprinting Step.
It was just the most basic of stepping techniques, offering no fancy maneuvers or flips, teaching only how to ensure one's steps were stable and quick during combat.
Rushing forward, diagonal charges, retreats, and other fundamental combinations comprised the basic stepping technique, but with the boost of spiritual power, it was as fast as the wind.
Particularly since Lin Yuan followed the descriptions in the materials to lay out several dozen square bricks at various angles.
Moving quickly back and forth, yet every step landed on the bricks—still, being new to the practice, he would occasionally misstep and fall off the bricks.
According to the materials, one should first practice on flat ground, then at an angle, and finally on vertical surfaces, moving effortlessly across them before the foundation of the Sprinting Step could be considered mastered.
But the Sprinting Step was just the beginning...
Upon mastering the first phase, one could then progress to the higher-level Thundering Rush Step, followed by the even higher-level Thunderbolt Step.
However, at this moment, Lin Yuan felt the uniqueness of a cultivator's body, while not quite reaching the point where his body could follow his heart's desires, he was nevertheless capable of directing it like an extension of his arm.
As opposed to ordinary people who require extensive practice to gradually correct mistakes, Lin Yuan, once he spotted his errors, would ensure they were not repeated.
In such a scenario...
Just after a mere two hours of practice...
Lin Yuan began to set the bricks on their sides.
Then, he started making mistakes frequently.
But the more he practiced, the more excited he became.
Even if the moon had already reached the mid of the night.
With stars scattered across the black canopy of the sky, he remained enthusiastic.
"Letting cultivators practice martial techniques is really like a dimension-reducing strike... With that said, I'm afraid that there are quite a few cultivators like me, secretly hiding among the martial artists... oh, maybe I'm overthinking it."
Lin Yuan suddenly remembered that anyone who became a cultivator could hear the Remnant Consciousness Whisper.
The Remnant Consciousness Whisper was not one of temptation; it spoke of tried and true secrets of the immortals.
Spells, Spirit Mantras, cultivation techniques, and even forbidden techniques...
Why was the Remnant Consciousness Whisper so angry when he practiced the Dragon Subduing Fist Manual?
Maybe in its eyes, I don't learn the high-end stuff you teach me, and instead, I run off to learn that low-end junk...
Probably, other Cultivators feel the same way. Once you become a Cultivator, you are destined to be troubled by the Remnant Consciousness Whisper. Since nightmares are inevitable, a few more lice won't make you itch, and in any case, they would never stoop to practicing Martial Dao, that low-end stuff.
"Probably only someone like me, who doesn't get the BGM, would cherish these things as treasures."
Lin Yuan muttered to himself.
As the difficulty increased, even if he could control his body very skillfully, it was hard for him to master it within a few hours.
But this only increased his interest...
That feeling of pleasure from dopamine release when the spirit is highly concentrated and the body is completely controlled is enough for some people to leave the clutches of women's thighs behind and go running in the cold, bitter wind early in the morning.
He practiced all the way until past one o'clock in the morning.
Only then did Lin Yuan go downstairs contentedly to take a shower and go to sleep.
Even while sleeping, he didn't forget to fumble with the Spiritual Power inside him, trying out other routes of the Dragon Subduing Fist Manual. He tasted the incorrect routes just enough to know them without the risk of harming himself.
The next day was Sunday.
Lin Yuan got up at five in the morning, unusually skipping his daily routine of running, squatting, and push-ups for ten kilometers, and went straight upstairs to continue refining his Sprinting Step.
Even for eating, he made do with instant noodles...
After a whole day of Cultivation, Lin Yuan was able to move freely on the side bricks.
"It's about time, I should give it a try... The worst that can happen is I get beaten up, but then, don't I get beaten up when I train with my classmates? Who doesn't get beaten up in a fight? He wouldn't dare to beat me to death, would he?"
Lin Yuan muttered to himself and went off to take a shower and sleep.
The next day was Monday.
Lin Yuan packed his schoolbag and went off to school.
Although he had been gone for over a month, by just the second day of class, Lin Yuan's presence had once again faded into the crowd.
He had almost completely integrated into the class.
But in the afternoon...
A note was silently placed on Lin Yuan's desk.
Lin Yuan, surprised, looked up and saw Lu Ziyu lying on her desk looking at him. Noticing his gaze, she quickly shifted her eyes away.
Lin Yuan opened the note and glanced at it.
It contained just a simple six characters.
"After school, the usual place."
Lin Yuan casually tossed the note away and continued to listen attentively to the class...
Learning Martial Dao alongside his other studies already made his schedule quite tight, and academic knowledge was just as important to him. Where would he find the spare time to deal with her?
Not to mention he had things to do after school.
Soon, it was time to finish school.
Lin Yuan slung his book bag over his shoulder and hurried in the direction of the Martial Arts Hall.
Excluding holidays and Sundays, coming to class for three days in a row made Lin Yuan almost the most frequent presence at the Descending Dragon Martial Hall, arguably unparalleled by any who came after him.
Those who knew the inside story looked at him with a touch of schadenfreude in their eyes...
But Lin Yuan paid them no mind.
After greeting Lin Rourou, he went to change into his martial arts uniform.
After changing, Lin Yuan didn't immediately head to the training hall; instead, he stayed at the entrance, waiting.
He didn't have to wait long before he saw a familiar figure hurriedly heading towards the restroom.
Fang Zihao!
It seemed he had noticed Lin Yuan.
A hint of an unnatural expression appeared on his face, which he then quickly replaced with indifference.
He turned around and left without a word.
A smile appeared on Lin Yuan's face as he stood up and followed behind him.