In this world, martial arts emphasize the cultivation of both internal and external skills. Internal strength and external techniques are equally important. Practicing internal strength is a process that works from the inside out, while practicing external techniques is the opposite—a process that moves from the outside in. Both are indispensable.

If you practice only external techniques without internal strength, you’re merely training the surface. If you practice only internal strength without external techniques, the end result is just cultivating some shallow internal energy, with no other practical application.

Internal energy and external techniques must be honed together; neither can be neglected.

To cultivate internal energy, you use internal skills, such as the Mighty Vajra Qi Technique. To practice external techniques, you use martial arts forms, like the Bear Demon Fist. Both the Bear Demon Fist and the Mighty Vajra Qi Technique are standard martial arts of the Great Jin Empire’s army.

Of course, internal skills and martial arts forms are just the basics. In reality, true cultivation is much more complex.

Take external techniques, for example. Besides martial arts forms, if you want to achieve even a modest level of mastery, you also need a large amount of medicinal herbs to temper your muscles and bones. These herbs are extremely rare and precious—ordinary people simply cannot obtain them. Even if they could, they wouldn’t know the recipes for the various tempering decoctions. All of this is tightly held by the great clans and powerful sects, kept as secrets.

Aside from these great clans and powerful sects, there are also countless small and medium-sized sects in this world. They, too, possess some martial arts forms, internal skills, and medicinal recipes, but what they have are all common goods. Practicing them is enough to roam the martial world, but truly entering the inner circles is not easy.

However, for him at the moment, it was already enough.

His little brother-in-law, as small as a bean, had an enthusiasm for martial arts that completely exceeded Tyler Walker’s expectations. Still, he didn’t think much of it—who would suspect a three- or four-year-old little kid?

Moreover, in order to please his new wife, he spared no effort in teaching this little brother-in-law, pouring out everything he knew to show his generosity. In fact, he thought, what could a three-year-old kid possibly accomplish? How could he possibly learn everything he was taught?

Danny Goodwin learned it all.

After a month of practicing martial arts and cultivating with Tyler Walker, he developed a sense of qi and could feel the meridians within his body. You have to understand, he was only just three years old—so young, the perfect age to lay a foundation and cultivate internal breath. At his age, the trace of innate qi brought from the womb had not yet fully dissipated, and his sensitivity to the world’s vital energy was at its peak. Plus, he carried the soul and memories of a previous life from another world, so it was easy for him to cross the first threshold of internal cultivation—condensing qi and developing qi sense.

Once past the first threshold, the rest of the cultivation was just a matter of following the steps.

That’s right. However, he couldn’t train recklessly, because he was still too young and his body hadn’t fully developed. Generally, children from great clans would start cultivating internal strength at two or three years old to lay a foundation, and only begin practicing martial arts forms at seven or eight. They would start with skin-tempering forms, then move on to bone-forging and tendon-changing forms. During this process, they would also use medicinal decoctions to cleanse the body. Tyler Walker had vaguely mentioned this, and Danny Goodwin remembered it well.

Of course, aside from the most basic skin-tempering forms, bone-forging and tendon-changing techniques are all closely guarded secrets of various sects. Ordinary people could never hope to learn them. For someone of Danny Goodwin’s background, without extraordinary luck, there was no chance of mastering them.

However, he still had Tai Chi.

Danny Goodwin was born in the new era, raised under the red flag. In his previous life, he was a proud member of the civil service. As the saying goes, when those above have a hobby, those below will follow. Back then, his Director was over fifty, almost sixty, and after a lifetime of work, had few hobbies. In his later years, he developed an interest in Tai Chi.

But Tai Chi isn’t something you can just pick up and practice well. To really learn it, you need a coach, and that costs money. But since he was the Director, he had his ways. He managed to persuade the Chief to hire a coach in the name of the office and set up a Tai Chi interest class, even giving everyone a set of sportswear.

Although not many people in the office were interested, quite a few still joined. If for nothing else, getting a set of Adidas wasn’t bad.

Brian Walker, who was Danny Goodwin in his previous life, was one of them. Unlike those who practiced sporadically, he went every day. Not only did he attend daily, but he also studied diligently. In just a few months, he not only mastered the basic Tai Chi forms, but also memorized all the formulas, key points, various precautions, and even the different Tai Chi schools and their pros and cons—he knew them all by heart!

It wasn’t that he was truly interested in Tai Chi; he was just trying to curry favor.

Chapter 5: Tai Chi, Also Considered a Cheat

Now, having suddenly arrived in this world, he could no longer curry favor with his superiors, but he hadn’t forgotten Tai Chi.

Tai Chi, known as an internal martial art, hadn’t amounted to much in his previous life as Brian Walker. But in this life, as Danny Goodwin, he was starting to appreciate its true essence.