For example, the easiest exercise is sit-ups. Zhang Lei could easily do forty in a minute, but just now, without using his internal energy, he only managed fifteen before feeling his abdominal muscles were about to break, and his heart and lungs protested again.
Of course, the tests weren't limited to just this one. Zhang Lei could only inflate balloons to half their original size, let alone pop them. He could previously throw stones from his balcony all the way to the middle of the river, but now the stones fell back down just after passing the embankment.
Zhang Lei himself was well aware that these phenomena only indicated one problem: he had become weaker and was continuing to weaken, and he could no longer practice that internal skill.
Zhang Lei slammed the third edition of "The Essence of Chinese Martial Arts" to the ground. He originally wanted to tear it to shreds, but then he thought better of it and decided against it. Perhaps the solution could be found in this book.
That night, Zhang Lei decided to use immense willpower to resist the pleasure of practicing martial arts and went straight to bed. Zhang Lei was confident in his willpower; since childhood, no matter what he did, as long as he made up his mind, he usually had the willpower to persevere.
At first, Zhang Lei was just tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep. He thought it was just because he was disrupting his usual biological clock. A while ago, he was still practicing his martial arts at this time, so he definitely wouldn't be able to sleep so early.
More than an hour later, Zhang Lei gradually felt something was wrong. He started to feel a stinging sensation all over his body. At first, he thought it was because he had overexerted himself that day. However, the sensations that followed proved him wrong, because no matter how tired he was from exercising, he shouldn't feel an itching sensation deep inside his bones.
The stinging pain was bearable, but the itching deep within his bones grew stronger and stronger, as if someone were pulling a goose feather around inside Zhang Lei's bones, and his heart felt like it was being scratched by a cat.
Zhang Lei bit the pillow tightly in his mouth, afraid to make a sound. He wanted to bang his head against the wall, but he was worried that if he broke it, his parents would find out. He didn't want his parents to know about this.
Zhang Lei had seen himself looking like this somewhere before. Even though the lights were off, he could still see his bloodshot eyes in the mirror on the wall. It was clearly the poster that was pasted at the entrance of the collective store, with the four large characters "Stay Away from Drugs" written on it.
Thinking back, the feeling now is so different from the feeling of drug addicts going through withdrawal. That's what the promotional video said: stinging pain all over the body, itching inside the bones, and wanting to bang your head against the wall.
Zhang Lei was well aware that he had never used drugs. Apart from taking some tests, the only difference today was that he didn't practice his martial arts.
Although the signs resembled a drug withdrawal episode, Zhang Lei was still quite clear-headed; otherwise, he wouldn't have bitten his pillow to keep quiet, nor would he have stopped himself from banging his head against the wall.
Even knowing that the disadvantages of this qigong practice outweighed the advantages, Zhang Lei had no choice but to continue. Drugs could be quit eventually, but who knew when he could quit this qigong? After all, doctors wouldn't have that kind of experience. He persisted for another ten minutes last night, and finally decided, "Screw it, I'll just practice first." Sure enough, once Zhang Lei started practicing, all the discomfort vanished instantly, and waves of pleasure washed over him as if descending from the heavens.
Many people are unclear about what they can and cannot do. Fortunately, Zhang Lei is not one of them. With self-examination, Zhang Lei knows very well what he can and cannot do. This task of abandoning his practice, which is even more difficult and hopeless than quitting drugs, is not something he can do.
Although life was no different from before, I went to school during the day, went home with my friends, did my homework or went to someone's house with my friends to do it together, watched TV at home, played video games, went to bed early at night, practiced my skills in bed, and then went to sleep.
However, Zhang Lei now felt a sense of guilt, as if he had done something shameful. The feeling of being superior because of his martial arts skills was gone. To outsiders, he appeared to have suddenly become introverted and quiet again.
During this period, Zhang Lei discovered another weakness: he was greatly affected by his emotions. It seemed that when he was in a bad mood, even his luck would turn out badly. When he was in a good mood, he would sometimes get the questions right even without making mistakes. But when he was in a bad mood, he could forget about such good things and would even make mistakes on questions that he was sure to get right.
The entrance exams for junior high school from primary six ended under these circumstances. Given his current state, Zhang Lei naturally wouldn't have achieved very good results. He ranked sixth out of more than twenty candidates. After all, Zhang Lei still had a solid foundation, so even if he wasn't focused on it recently, he wouldn't fall too far behind.
The former homeroom teacher, Jiang Zhiguo, was quite smug. "See? I told you Zhang Lei was just a flash in the pan. The one who's truly promising is Zhao Luwei. Zhang Lei's cleverness was just superficial; Zhao Luwei is the real genius!"
These words were passed on to Zhang Lei by his mother. Jiang Zhiguo's words were spoken to the middle school teacher who came to take over the teaching position, so how could they not reach the ears of Zhang Lei's mother, who was also a colleague? Zhang Lei's mother clearly wanted to provoke his competitive spirit by passing these words on to Zhang Lei, but unfortunately, Zhang Lei's mind was clearly not on that at the time.
Since we can't avoid practicing this skill, we should naturally try to minimize its negative effects. Since the internal energy is forcibly drawn from other parts of the body, causing those parts to gradually weaken, is it possible to forcibly replenish the internal energy?
He acted on his thoughts, believing that nothing could get worse than this. Looking back, Zhang Lei was truly grateful for his initial drive.
Zhang Lei's understanding of internal energy later on was incomparable to what he had as a child. He later realized that this stage was truly necessary to achieve the same results he later attained. Only by continuously drawing innate vital energy from his body and then automatically replenishing it from the outside, constantly refining it, could he achieve the potential for unlimited strengthening later on, even though the functions of his organs declined. However, people like him who acted so recklessly basically couldn't make it through; in other words, they all failed miserably.
First of all, if one's natural body is slightly lacking, or even not good enough, there is absolutely no chance of surviving. Moreover, even if one is exceptionally talented, one cannot persevere without the ability of self-examination. However, on the other hand, without self-examination, it would be impossible to cultivate such an unorthodox internal skill.
From then on, Zhang Lei had one more thing to do after practicing every night: to use the gathered internal energy to evenly fill his muscles, bones, and internal organs, following the guidance of self-examination. Fortunately, he did not extract vital energy from his brain cells; otherwise, even with self-examination, Zhang Lei would not have dared to act recklessly in such a complex area. Zhang Lei knew that if there was even the slightest mistake there, he would be finished.
This kind of filling is different from the usual method of using internal energy to instantly increase explosive power; this kind of filling is permanent.
Take muscle tissue as an example. Zhang Lei deliberately guided this vital energy to nourish the muscle fibers that had atrophied due to the depletion of vital energy, and even regenerated new muscle fibers under the guidance of self-examination. We all know that the number of muscle fibers is fixed, but Zhang Lei didn't know that. All he knew was that the newly created muscle fibers were often more effective than slowly nourishing the original muscle fibers. If it weren't for a strange sense of nostalgia, he would have ignored the original muscle fibers long ago.
Of course, this also requires skill. At the beginning, Zhang Lei would only use up one-third of the energy he absorbed each day. Later, in a little over an hour, Zhang Lei was able to use up almost all the energy he absorbed that day. If it weren't for a strange sense of luck that made Zhang Lei deliberately set aside a little each day to strengthen the vortex in his body.
As Zhang Lei's proficiency in manipulating internal energy increased, his understanding of internal energy also deepened. He discovered that the energy vortex within his body was constantly and slowly operating, even without any manipulation. This meant that it was constantly drawing vital energy from his body and the outside world.
This discovery left Zhang Lei speechless. It meant that his body hadn't weakened to the extent he'd imagined, because the vital energy within those tissues wasn't fully replenished during the test. They should be in better condition under their original, fully-energized state. Even though the tissues had shrunk, that was still good news. Losing twenty yuan and then finding ten more—even though it was still a loss—wasn't that good news?
Logically speaking, Zhang Lei replenished all the vital energy extracted from his body's tissues, and there was also a lot of internal energy that was originally absorbed from the outside world. In fact, his body's tissues would naturally absorb vital energy from the outside world to replenish themselves. So, in terms of total amount, he should have made a profit.
However, this is not actually the case. When internal energy repairs the body's tissues, it is not without loss. On the contrary, this loss is quite significant. Although this loss is decreasing with the progress of self-examination, the degree of reduction is extremely small compared to the total amount.
However, Zhang Lei's study of internal energy was not without effect. He made a special table to record in detail his feelings each day and the amount he detected through self-examination.
Human perception is unreliable over a long period of time. It's like watching a child every day; you can't really feel how tall they're growing until you haven't seen them for a while and then you realize, "Wow, they've grown so much!"
Another method is to record it every day. Although the changes are small, the detailed scale is much more accurate than the feeling of someone gradually adapting to the changes.
Episode 1: Internal Strength Like a Drug, Chapter 6: What's Gone Will Never Return
The things Zhang Lei recorded told him about a slow but real change: the efficiency of his internal energy vortex had increased when he was practicing. If he could absorb 100 units of internal energy in two hours of practice at the beginning of summer vacation, he could now absorb 105 units of internal energy in two hours.
During the day, when it operates on its own, it should absorb more internal energy. This is just a feeling, without a specific number, because it is inconvenient to count. Zhang Lei did not record it either, but he believed that this was not an illusion.
The time it takes to deplete the body's vital energy during each energy-absorbing exercise is getting shorter and shorter. This is not only because the body's airflow and vortex absorption capacity have been strengthened, but also because the body's tissues are becoming more adaptable to vital energy through continuous strengthening, which leads to increased absorption capacity.
Just like a vacuum, it's never a perfect vacuum; there are still some gas molecules inside. Similarly, draining the body's vital energy isn't a complete vacuum; some basic energy remains in the body tissues, albeit in a very small amount, which is equivalent to emptying the body. Now, the amount of this remaining energy has increased, albeit not significantly, but it has given Zhang Lei hope. This means that one day they will turn a profit.
Moreover, since the body's vital energy was depleted earlier in the same amount of time, the body absorbed vital energy from the outside world to a greater extent. Zhang Lei had no psychological burden about this; the more the better. If it weren't for the fact that his meridians felt like they were about to burst after a long time, preventing him from causing any more trouble, Zhang Lei would have loved to spend all his time practicing and using all that internal energy to repair his body, since everything else was free from the outside world anyway.
Secondly, there is another welcome change: the speed at which the body's tissues absorb external vital energy is also accelerating. Zhang Lei specifically used self-examination when he was not practicing. In the past, it would take at least two hours to replenish the energy after it was depleted, but now it takes at least half an hour less. This makes Zhang Lei believe that his method of replenishment is effective.
The reason for using a balanced state instead of replenishing is that the Qi vortex in the lower Dantian is constantly absorbing vital energy from the body, so the body can't actually reach its optimal state and can only form a dynamic balance. In this state, the growth of organs will be affected to some extent, but Zhang Lei has no other choice. Even if the rate of decline is slow, he is grateful.
What people fear most is losing hope. As long as there is hope, people can persevere. Humans are such resilient creatures, and Zhang Lei is no exception. After a busy summer, Zhang Lei finally saw hope. Moreover, Zhang Lei believed that once he broke through this balance from another side, his qigong might really have unexpected effects.
In three days, Zhang Lei will begin his middle school life, so he organized the things he had researched over the summer. During this time, he might have seemed a little strange to his parents. He wasn't as eager to go out and play as usual during the holidays, and instead spent his days holed up in his room with a pen and paper, not really writing anything down. But I guess every student feels a little nervous and excited before starting middle school.
Every former elementary school student looks forward to middle school life, and Zhang Lei is especially so. Although Zhang Lei did not want to rely on his parents' connections, both of them were actually teachers at the middle school he was going to attend.
Zhang Lei's father was the dean of students and a political science teacher. However, if Zhang Lei wanted his father to teach him, he would have to wait until the third year of junior high school. Zhang Lei's father specialized in teaching the third year of junior high school. His political science teaching was famous throughout the county. This junior high school, which was developed from a power plant and had only 5,000 students, had never had its political science scores in the county's high school entrance examination ever fall below the top three. Even people from other counties knew that there was such a person as him here.
Zhang Lei's mother was an English teacher and also a homeroom teacher. Whether a homeroom teacher was good or not depended on the parents' reactions. At least Zhang Lei had heard that some parents had gone out of their way to give gifts to the principal in order to get Zhang Lei's mother to be the homeroom teacher in their child's year. Even the power plant director had made a move, intentionally or unintentionally. That's how Zhang Lei's mother became the homeroom teacher of the previous year's class, because there was a deputy director's daughter in that year's class.
Since school was about to start the next Sunday, many students came to visit their homeroom teacher. One student in particular left a deep impression on Zhang Lei.