Chapter 43 - 38: Don’t Blindly Follow and Practice

"It actually works!"

’Was I doing the Eye Health Exercises wrong before?’

’Does only the original version get recognized by the panel?’

Chen Jue stared at the new notification on the panel, a thrill of excitement coursing through him.

He’d always thought this Attribute panel would only trigger Skill options for more obscure exercises.

He never expected that even the [Eye Health Exercises], which were more like a form of acupressure massage, could be activated.

By that logic, could the online Martial Arts techniques, National Martial Arts’ Pile Skills, the much-hyped Qi Gong, or even immortal cultivation manuals work as well?

’Other people can’t see their training progress, but I can!’

’Turning a seemingly useless skill into a real ability... this might be the greatest function of the Attribute panel!’ With his mind racing, Chen Jue’s focus expanded beyond just the [Eye Health Exercises].

He went out of his way to search for tutorial videos of other legendary techniques circulating online, like the "Eight Vajra Skills", "Eight Pieces of Brocade for Inner Strength and Divine Power", "Five Animals Qigong", and "Muscle Strengthening Scripture", and tried practicing along with them.

But after all that effort, which left him drenched in sweat, Chen Jue was once again stumped.

’I still can’t activate any Skills...’

’Is it because the online versions aren’t correct?’

Feeling parched, Chen Jue grabbed a cup, filled it with water, and chugged a few mouthfuls before sitting down to think.

The reason he’d succeeded with the [Eye Health Exercises] was that he had found the original Liu’s 8-section version online.

This Liu’s 8-section version was the source of all [Eye Health Exercises] on the market today. It was a routine developed by Director Liu of the Physical Education Department at the Imperial Capital Medical College. He had based it on traditional Chinese massage techniques, conducted personal and clinical trials to address his own and his children’s nearsightedness, and compiled the results.

It had a total of 8 sections with movements that were incredibly simple and easy to learn, just like the [Tai Chi Twelve Forms] Chen Jue had learned before.

The information he found online included corresponding massage techniques, diagrams of the eye’s acupressure points, and even a charmingly pixelated, retro-style demonstration video starring Director Liu himself.

It was thanks to this original creator’s tutorial that Chen Jue was able to learn the [Eye Health Exercises] correctly on his own.

As for these high-level techniques derived from Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian traditions, they had been so widely circulated, modified, abridged, and simplified online that finding the original versions was nearly impossible.

The tutorials’ descriptions of the so-called "qi sensation" were all vague and confusing, making them incredibly difficult to understand.

Realizing this, Chen Jue grew wary.

He suspected that the instructions in many of the tutorials available online had to be taken with a grain of salt.

If he ran into one made by someone with ill intentions, it was entirely possible they had slipped in some of their own self-serving modifications.

After all, in the old days, masters would intentionally hold back a few techniques when teaching their apprentices, out of fear that "to teach the apprentice is to starve the master."

As these arts were passed down from one generation to the next, very few people received the complete, authentic teachings.

Some apprentices who went astray in their training, eager to make a name for themselves and a living in the Jianghu, would even fabricate things, adding their own fantasies and inventions to the mix.

As a result, people who knew true kung fu nowadays were as rare as phoenix feathers.

Once these versions reached the internet, where verification was impossible, scores of curious netizens would just practice them blindly.

Sure enough, after browsing online Qi Gong forums and Martial Arts discussion boards, Chen Jue found many old posts from experienced users advising beginners to find a master with real skills to guide them.

As the saying goes, "A master can lead you to the door, but the path is yours to walk."

Without a good master to show you the way, you could easily go astray and end up injuring yourself the more you practiced.

Chen Jue’s current situation was exactly that: he had a powerful Attribute panel but no good master to lead him through the door.

Unless he was willing to sift through the sea of online manuals and tutorials, testing them one by one until he found a Skill the panel would accept and could use for form correction.

Doing so would be like finding a needle in a haystack; the effort would far outweigh the reward.

It would be better to just find a local master with real skills!

’Where would I find an old master around here?’

’Wait a minute... finding a young, pretty master... wouldn’t she be a much better option?’

As the thought crossed his mind, Chen Jue chuckled mischievously, then opened WeChat and sent a message to Wu Fang, asking for her guidance.

He planned to start with Wu Fang, the martial arts practitioner and high school P.E. teacher, to see if he could find a way in.

...

Wu Fang didn’t reply immediately, probably having had enough of being pestered during the day.

Chen Jue figured her daily routine was quite disciplined: practice in the park early in the morning, teach classes during the day. By now, she had most likely turned off her phone and gone to bed.

A glance at the clock showed it wasn’t even 10 p.m. yet.

Chen Jue started practicing the [Eye Health Exercises] he had just added to his panel.

These Eye Health Exercises had a total of 8 sections, and the original version took nearly 10 minutes to complete one set.

It was nothing like the simplified 5-minute, 4-section version Chen Jue had learned as a child.

After finishing a set, Chen Jue felt a warmth around his eye sockets, while inside his eyeballs there was a cool, refreshing sensation.

’So our entire generation has been doing it wrong all this time!’ Chen Jue complained internally as he started another set.

He practiced for about 30 minutes, completing three cycles in total. His Skill Level jumped frantically, +1, +1.

Then, another notification popped up on the panel:

——————

[Ding~]

[You have completed one qualifying session of eye health exercises. The internal carotid artery, ophthalmic artery, and optic nerve near your eye sockets have been stimulated, accelerating blood flow to the eyeball and promoting photoreceptor metabolism. Your visual ability has been minutely improved.]

[Constitution Attribute +0.01]

[Friendly Reminder: This set of exercises puts pressure on the blood vessels of the eye. Frequent use can lead to vascular damage. Please schedule your practice time reasonably.]

——————

’Is the limit about 30 minutes?’

Chen Jue muttered to himself, recalling the tips he’d picked up from technicians like Nana and Xiaomo during his hydrotherapy session at the Jingtang Club.

Massage wasn’t the kind of recreational activity where longer was always better.

Everyone’s body is different, with different levels of sensitivity and tolerance, so the ideal duration would naturally vary from person to person.

The typical clubs... *cough, cough*... and bathhouses usually schedule sessions in 45-minute or 1-hour blocks, with longer full-body massages lasting 90 minutes.

Going beyond that time wouldn’t produce much additional effect. It might even cause muscle fatigue or injury.

Since the [Eye Health Exercises] were a form of acupressure massage, and the blood vessels and muscles around the eyes are much more fragile, it was only natural that the same principle applied and there was a time limit.

...

Chen Jue spent that night in a state of elation and had a very meaningful dream.

He didn’t go to the park when he woke up the next day.

Instead, he took the elevator to the top floor of his apartment building. Watching the time, he waited until 6 a.m., when a sun of orange-red, tinged with a blue halo, slowly rose above the eastern city skyline.

He tried staring at it for about three minutes, until his eyes couldn’t take it anymore. He then closed them and, facing the rising sun, began to perform the [Eye Health Exercises].

As the saying goes, the morning sets the tone for the day.

Thirty minutes of the closed-eye massage made Chen Jue’s eye sockets grow warm. His vision, even behind his eyelids, was tinged with a red glow as the sunlight penetrated them. He felt a sense of relaxation in his eyeballs that he had never experienced before.

The sensation was magical, like being back in elementary school, closing his eyes on the playground, doing morning exercises while basking in the sun.

It was both novel and incredibly comfortable.

Not only did his whole body feel warm and fuzzy, but his eyes also felt relaxed and relieved.

By the time the 30-minute session of [Eye Health Exercises] was over, a series of notifications had already popped up on the panel.

Not only had his [Constitution] increased by 0.01, but he had also gained a small amount of Free Attribute points.

’It’s at 0.07. Just a few more points and I can merge the Skill Bar!’ Chen Jue grinned.

When he opened his eyes again, the world was awash in a sea of green.

This was a normal aftereffect of facing the sun with closed eyes; because his eyes had been under red light for so long, his retinas had formed an afterimage.

He blinked a few times, and after a few seconds, his vision returned to normal.

Putting his glasses back on, Chen Jue was overjoyed!

He discovered that his vision through his glasses—which he hadn’t updated the prescription for in two years and had become blurry and insufficient—was suddenly sharp and clear again.

While his vision hadn’t reached a perfect 20/20, things in the distance were no longer as blurry or shadowed.

’It’s only been two days, and my prescription has already dropped by at least 50 degrees!’

’Even my astigmatism has improved a bit!’

’These [Eye Health Exercises] are the GOAT!’