Danny Goodwin really managed to do it. Of course, the reason he was able to do so wasn’t because Danny Goodwin was some kind of genius, but entirely due to the effects of Tai Chi. Tai Chi seemed to have a refining and transforming effect on internal energy. After practicing the Great Vajra Qi Gong, performing a simplified set of Tai Chi not only made the internal force from the Qi Gong tougher, but also smoothed out its sharp edges, changing some of its properties and thus forming an internal energy that was extremely similar to, yet fundamentally different from, the Great Vajra Qi Gong.

Of course, in essence, this internal energy was still the Great Vajra Qi Gong, just optimized by the power of Tai Chi—a greatly enhanced version of the Great Vajra Qi Gong.

Gently shifting his body, Danny Goodwin slowly moved away from the wall. The sun in the sky was warm and comfortable, but if he just basked in it all day doing nothing, he always felt a sense of emptiness inside. Sometimes, after becoming more diligent than before, he found it impossible to be lazy even if he wanted to.

Old Johnson's house was at the west end of the village, backed by a small hillside. Further west, there were a few scattered households, quite far apart. These few families were the westernmost in the village. Over the hill was a steep cliff, several hundred meters high, with no footholds. Apart from some crawling animals and monkeys, it would take a lot of effort to climb up. The cliff was bare rock, with no herbs or game, so very few people ever went up there. Even if someone did, no one would climb up from the steep cliff on the west side of the village. Between the cliff and the hillside was a small hollow, about a hundred square meters in area, filled with dense shrubs. Some of these shrubs were taller than a person, the shorter ones nearly a meter high. For a little kid like Danny Goodwin, only three or four years old, once he slipped inside, it would be really hard to find him unless you looked carefully. And since hardly anyone ever came here, once he crawled in, he was basically impossible to discover.

This was where Danny Goodwin practiced every day.

Standing in the clearing among the shrubs, Danny Goodwin sat cross-legged on the ground. After practicing the Great Vajra Qi Gong for two hours, he awoke from his meditation to find the warm sun already drifting westward. Danny Goodwin stood up and slowly performed a set of Tai Chi. His routine had only eight forms; in his previous life, it would have taken at most two minutes to finish, but now, just getting from the opening move to the fifth form, “Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane,” took him nearly half an hour. By the time he reached the fifth form, “Cloud Hands,” his arms intertwined, opening and closing as one, as if he were holding a huge stone ball weighing over a thousand pounds between his hands. Halfway through, his forehead was already covered in fine beads of sweat, each one glistening like pearls in the setting sun. His hands crossed as he slowly transitioned to the sixth form, “Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg,” then sped up, and finally, at the “Cross Hands” form, his whole body entered a state of perfect balance between tension and relaxation, drenched in a layer of hot sweat from head to toe.

“Sigh, who knows if there’ll be any food again today. Damn, I’m definitely in for a scolding!”

Letting out a long breath, he glanced at the sky—it was already getting dark. Danny Goodwin couldn’t help but mutter to himself. In this mountain village, people only had two meals a day. The second meal was usually right after he finished practicing the Great Vajra Qi Gong. At that time, his battle energy had just been cultivated and needed to be consolidated with Tai Chi while it was still fresh; otherwise, if he waited too long, the effect would be much worse.

“Sigh, it’s all because of that girl Emma. She’s just a little kid, but all she does is chase after the boys. If she hadn’t wasted so much time, none of this would have happened!”

Cultivating internal energy required timing. In theory, the best results came at sunrise, but that was only true for advanced internal arts. For something as basic as the Great Vajra Qi Gong, even if you practiced in the afternoon when the world’s energy was most chaotic, it was the same.

Because this kind of basic internal art didn’t require especially pure energy from nature. Even if you absorbed the purest energy, once it entered your body, it would only be slightly refined before merging with your original internal energy, becoming mixed and impure.

When Danny Goodwin crossed over the little hill, he could already hear his mother’s scolding. He could only smile wryly and jog home.

“Danny Goodwin, you’re running around again, not even coming home for meals... How many times has this happened now... If you do this again, don’t bother coming back... You’re getting more and more out of hand. If you keep running around and get snatched by a wild dog or wolf, no one will save you...”

With his mother’s nagging ringing in his ears, Danny Goodwin stood at the gate of his yard, head bowed, nodding repeatedly as he accepted the lecture. When she finished scolding, she waved her broom and gave Danny Goodwin a few hard whacks on the butt, venting her anger, then pointed at the kitchen and said, “Go eat, now!”

Danny Goodwin, as if granted amnesty, chuckled sheepishly, then dashed off toward the kitchen.