Chapter 57

Outside the city of Kunming, in a small town, there was a small drill ground of a certain logistics battalion of the Yunnan Army.

Under the scorching sun, the once bustling drill ground in the early morning was now almost deserted, with hardly a soul in sight.

After years of peace, the management of the military camp was not as strict. Unless on duty, most soldiers would either take a nap in their tents at noon or go out to the nearby town for entertainment, of course, on the condition that they did not disturb the locals!

However, at this moment, a series of sharp explosions echoed on the small ground outside the main tent!

Lin Sha stood in a horse stance, his upper body bare, revealing a well-built and muscular physique. He held a four-meter-long white waxwood spear, his entire body trembling with the movement.

Without any visible wrist movement, the four-meter-long, highly elastic white waxwood spear danced like a snake, thrusting left and right. The heavy iron spearhead, gleaming coldly, moved rapidly, creating a series of whistling sounds in the air, forming points of cold light, as if several winter plum blossoms had suddenly bloomed under the scorching summer sun.

Soon, he was drenched in sweat, his upper body glistening under the summer sun, looking dazzling and eye-catching.

Huff!

After about fifteen minutes, he suddenly stopped, retracted the spear, and exhaled a long, deep breath.

"Indeed, internal martial arts are not that simple!"

Taking the towel handed by a subordinate, Lin Sha wiped the sweat from his forehead while gently rubbing his numb, almost senseless wrists, inwardly sighing.

He had been too eager for quick results before!

It took him a good while to walk back and forth in the main tent to calm down the surging blood in his body.

Sitting in a bamboo chair, he picked up a glass of cold water from the table and took a big gulp, finally soothing his parched throat. Only then could he calm down and carefully ponder the issues he had noticed while practicing the spear stance.

At the beginning, he relied on his strong bones and muscles and didn't put much effort into the practice.

After all, he was already a mid-level Mingjing (manifest strength) expert, and his realm had even reached the Anjing (hidden strength) level. He didn't have much enthusiasm for starting over with basic training.

However, after a few days of practice, he realized something was amiss.

What was wrong? He found that his bones and muscles were slowly strengthening again.

This meant that his foundation was not solid enough before!

It's important to note that in the early stages of martial arts, there is probably no better method for rapidly strengthening bones and muscles than practicing the spear. This was not only written in the boxing manual and taught by his master but also his personal experience.

A four-meter-long spear is difficult for an ordinary person to hold horizontally for even ten seconds, let alone make it vibrate!

When holding a spear, a person forms a lever with one end in their hand. To move the other end of the lever, the body's bone and muscle structure must work together. In this process, the hand holding the spear is a short fulcrum. The closer the fulcrum is to the point of force application, the greater the force required at the point of force application. At the same time, the force application mode of the spear makes the feet and the hand holding the spear form the two ends of the lever, with the body serving as the fulcrum.

In reality, a lever requires a stronger force to move, which demands a more stable fulcrum. During this process, the body's bone and muscle structure quickly adapts and adjusts, becoming more stable and solid, facilitating the transmission of force from the feet to the hands.

After practicing the spear stance for a while, he found that his control over force had become more proficient.

The spear stance, besides helping beginners practice listening to force, also aids practitioners of internal martial arts in developing whole-body force!

Whole-body force is a crucial skill for reaching the higher levels of Anjing and even breaking through to Huajing (transformed strength)!

In this aspect, he was still far behind!

While practicing the spear stance, he followed the instructions in the boxing manual, trying to use the spear to move the body, transforming raw force into skill, and re-experiencing the generation and use of force on the spear.

However, the results were not entirely satisfactory...

The so-called "using the spear to move the body" means that when a beginner starts to vibrate the spear, they cannot control the direction and frequency of the vibrations for a considerable period. This is because the spear has a high elasticity and will vibrate uncontrollably once moved.

The boxing manual states that if you cannot control it, you should feel it!

Let the spear vibrate on its own. During this process, the practitioner should carefully feel its frequency and direction, and follow the movement of the spear.

The so-called "using the spear to move the body" is actually using the spear to train the body. In this process, the stiff force in the body is naturally corrected, and a flexible, instinctive force that adapts to changes is generated.

When this flexible force is generated, the raw force for vibrating the spear is also produced, and the practitioner enters the third stage of spear practice: using the body to move the spear. At this point, the person is truly using the spear.

Through the process of vibrating the spear, he re-experienced the entire process of sensing, generating, and controlling force, feeling a significant improvement in his Mingjing skills, which made him even more uneasy.

He was already at the mid-level of Mingjing, and his techniques for generating and using force had reached a certain level. Re-experiencing the process of generating force should not have brought much improvement.

However, his current situation was the opposite, indicating that he had been too eager for quick progress and had neglected to build a solid foundation.

This fact naturally made him highly vigilant, repeatedly reminding himself: build a solid foundation, build a solid foundation!

Since he had identified the problem, Lin Sha put aside his desire for quick results and slowly felt the details of practicing the spear stance, gradually solidifying the foundation he had previously neglected!

As time passed, he was surprised to find that his endurance was getting stronger, and his techniques for generating and using force were improving. Although he had not yet broken through to the late stage of Mingjing, he felt that if he were to compete with his former self, he would have a more than 90% chance of winning!

In fact, this was quite normal. The boxing manual and his master had clearly explained this.

The "spear stance" trains the integration of the person and the spear. Holding the spear for half an hour is impossible with brute strength alone. Only when the body's yin and yang are harmonized and integrated with the spear can one sustain it for more than half an hour.

In simple terms, it means that the entire body, including the joints and bones, should vibrate slightly along with the white waxwood spear, becoming one with it. The muscles should contract and relax in turn, allowing for sustained use.

When holding the "spear stance," the spearhead should vibrate slightly, and the iron balls inside the spearhead should make a fine sound. If practiced well, the spear can be moved without visible hand movement.

"Vibrating the spear is used to practice listening to force." The grip on the spear is "not showing the handle," meaning the hand should grip the very end of the spear, with no part of the wood exposed. This grip prevents the spear from hitting oneself when retracting and ensures that the force path between the spear and the arm is connected, allowing one to feel the force at the tip of the spear.

After more than half a month of intensive practice, Lin Sha felt a significant improvement, and his spear skills had reached a certain level...