"W-What in the world is this?" Duan Li exclaimed, shocked over the bizarre phenomena!

This was because when he closed his eyes initially trying to recall on everything that he had read in the book before, his vision that was supposed to be normally dark when one's eyelid closed had instead enabled him to see his body in a third perspective!

It was as if he was granted the legendary Third Eye to see himself from the outside!

Not only that, this vision had stripped his body naked! Exposing every single bones and skeletal muscles inside his body, making him look extremely grotesque, as if being skinned alive!

"Holy-moly..." he said in bewilderment and disgust.

So that's how I look like inside...

Lifting his right arm, he could see what elements in his body made it moves in detail. The forearm muscles, biceps, triceps and all other sorts of muscles worked simultaneously while others alternately.

"What a strange feeling..."

As he was tranced by this phenomena, he then subconsciously thought, "I wonder if I can see the muscles behind this part?" and to his surprise, the muscles that were blocking his view just now got filtered out and disappeared!

"W-What the...!"

Duan Li panicked thinking that he had lost a portion of his muscles just like that, but heaved a breath of relief as that was not the case at all. Those muscles just simply disappeared or reappeared in view inside that perspective according to his thoughts!

"Haha! This is fun!"

Feeling excited, he experimented on this new ability that he discovered for a while.

"Let me see if I can bring out the blood vessels too.." a thought came to his mind. However, even after waiting for a while, the blood vessels didn't appear in his view.

Throwing a side glance at the stack of books on his bed, he smiled when he saw the title on the book that was numbered '2'.

'Foundation: Human blood vessels'

"Maybe..." Wasting no more time, he began to flip the pages to study its contents.

Flip!

"The blood vessels are part of the bodily circulatory system that transports blood throughout the human body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the arteries, which carries the blood away from the heart; the capillaries, which enables the actual exchange of minerals between the blood and the flesh; the veins, which carries blood from the capillaries back towards the heart..."

Flip!

"According to experts, the human blood vessels could stretch out for a total of 100,000 km. The blood vessels are essential for both martial artists and cultivators to understand as it is..."

Flip! Flip! Flip!

...

Approximately two hours later, he finally finished flipping through all 112 pages as he read them word by word like before, as well as studying the illustrated drawn images carefully so as not to miss out even a single tiny detail as they could prove to be crucial!

He then closed his eyes and thought about the blood vessels.

Shing!

"I knew it!" Duan Li clenched his fist in agitation, excitement filled his body.

Previously, he had a theory that anything he learned involving the human body structure and anatomy could be visualized if he closed his eyes. Thus, when his conjecture was proven to be true, he couldn't help but to feel proud!

Now, he could see all the relevant blood vessels coiling behind the skin, around the nerves and muscles in his body, although it was a bit eerie to look at. After all, he could see his blood being transported to the rest of his body in real-time.

Opening his eyes, his vision turned normal again.

"Well, now that I've mastered the human anatomy and blood vessels, I could roughly understand the reason why my body collapsed and was then assaulted by muscle pain after using the ability to slow down time before.." Duan Li cupped his chin as he made a conclusion.

It turns out that his physical body was quite unfit!

Time might have slowed down for him, but in reality, that was only from his perception and reaction. The natural law still applied to him all the same!

Thus, him moving faster than what he possibly could in a normal situation had put a strain on his muscles that his body couldn't handle after a long duration of usage!

Thankfully, all he did during the spar previously was just dodging with as little movements and effort as he could due to his natural talent of being a lazy bum.

Had he used the ability to do a more strenuous body movements like counter-attacking, he might've been in an even worse condition right now.

Perhaps his muscles could even explode!

"Eh..." Duan Li shuddered at the mere thought of it.

"Hais! From now on, I have to train my physical body so that my bones and muscles are stronger, and my stamina better..." he sighed feeling helpless.

As a proud lazy bum, physical exercise is one of the thing that he hated the most. But now that he wants to make full use of his ability in the future without the side effects, he had no other choice.

Knock! Knock!

"Son, have you finished packing? Come out already!" his mother called out to him after a while.

"Put that Gi robes on! Your mother here is going to give you a crash course so that you don't end up humiliating yourself too badly against your juniors!" she said, handing him a set of combat attire suitable for practicing martial arts.

"Ah... so my misery begins now..." Duan Li received his funeral attire with a shed of tear.

He no longer have a valid excuse to not train.

...

After sometime, the two of them stepped out to their front yard.

"Today, I am going to impart on you one of the most foundational basics of martial arts, stances!" said his mother with a strict tone.

Meng Yue then lowered her body a little as she raised both of her arms together and spread her legs a little apart to shift her center of gravity.

"This here is a defensive stance! Every martial arts technique varies, but the essence of it remains the same! Now, watch closely!" she leaned her body slightly to the front and moved her arms into the opposite position from before.

"Observe! My legs are now stretched out a bit further so that I could spread my balance either to the front, center or to the back! I've also lowered down my body like this so that the area where my opponent can strike me becomes limited. Furthermore, in this stance, you could switch to a counter-ready stance just like this..."

Meng Yue continued to demonstrate some defensive stances one after another according to their necessities. Meanwhile, Duan Li at the side was mimicking the movements of his mother.

"This kid..." Meng Yue was in a state of disbelief!

To her surprise, her lazy bum son was able to follow along her various move set pretty well after only about two or three repetitions!

Even if a once in a million years genius was to be born, he or she would still have to repeat the move set for a dozen or so before they could become familiar!

This was because Meng Yue was convinced that she was one of them, and it took her that long to learn a single move set!

How did he manage to do this?

"Son, did you somehow secretly practiced martial arts without me knowing?" she asked with furrowed brows.

After all, Duan Li had completely showed no interest in practicing before, and if he did it secretly to the point where he could master it to such a degree, it would only be possible if her son had the guidance of a teacher!

She believes that there are no free lunch in the world, and those who taught her son must've had some ulterior motives!

"That's not it mother. Honestly, I am not too sure as well. I just followed your movements carefully... or maybe... I am a super talented genius?"

That must be it!

Duan Li laughed out loud feeling proud and satisfied to himself. To think that he was actually the real sleeping dragon just like in the novels he read, no wonder he was too lazy to even bother practicing when he could master them just by trying it out a few times!

Martial arts are so overrated!

Meng Yue wanted to beat her son up seeing his smug face, but then Duan Li jolted suddenly and scared her.

"Oh yeah mother, I've discovered a new ability!"

Duan Li began to tell his mother about the new ability of being able to see through his body in a third perspective which he called it, 'The All-Seeing Eye'.

...

"That's... interesting?" his mother stared at him in a daze and shock.

"Yes! Therefore, if I read more books about the human body, I could visualize all the other aspects of my body too..." Duan Li nodded with a grin as if he had won the jackpot.

Giving the matter some further contemplation, Meng Yue then suddenly exclaimed in an excited voice, "That's great! Now, it should be easier for you to cultivate spiritual Qi in your dantian and quickly become a powerful cultivator in the future!"

Although she had to admit that her son's ability had truly become a cheat, as long as he could get stronger, what does it matter?

"Uh mother, what's the difference between martial artists and cultivators by the way? Are they not the same thing?" Duan Li finally asked the question that was lingering in his mind since yesterday.

Meng Yue swiftly answered, "You are only half correct. While cultivators are martial artists in nature as well, martial artists are not necessarily cultivators!"

She then explained to her son that every aspiring warriors had always started with martial arts as their foundation. They then became martial artists and learns internal body techniques through circulating spiritual Qi inside their body to strengthen their overall prowess.

However, cultivators took this step even further. Their latent talent alone enabled them to store huge amounts of spiritual Qi inside their dantian, and as their realm increases, so will be its density.

Eventually, cultivators will be many times stronger than martial artists to the point where they could be considered as walking disasters waiting to happen. Their every strike could induce the force of nature itself!

In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to state that the top experts could even shape the world through their sheer will alone!

"I see! So that means, the foundation of your martial arts will decide how strong you will be as a cultivator!" Duan Li nodded in comprehension.

"Exactly!" Meng Yue felt a little proud that her son was not a total lost cause.

"However, the movements that you displayed from mimicking me earlier, at best I could say that they are only at the adept level!" she continued with a snort.

"Adept level?" Duan Li tilted his head hearing this new foreign term.

"Martial arts mastery starts with the lowest mastery we called as the beginner level. Then the novice and after that is adept level, which is where you are at now. Beyond that is the master level which only a few could do and the highest is the pinnacle level!" Meng Yue explained passionately.

"I see, I am truly a genius then!" Duan Li laughed out loud once more, feeling sky high.

His mother snorted and then looked at him in a slight contempt, "What genius? Your mother here have mastered some martial arts to the pinnacle level when I was your age!"

Duan Li's pride as a genius crumbled in an instant.

"You are a demon, so its different..." he unconsciously said in a low voice.

"What was that?" his mother stared at him menacingly as if she had heard something offensive.

"N-Nothing!" Duan Li quickly went into action and continued practicing stances.

That was a close call!

...