Chapter 9: The Useless 72-Style

Aside from being possessed, the second possibility Cao Kun considered was that this was a side effect of his rebirth. After all, besides possession and rebirth, nothing particularly unusual had happened to him. Between the two, Cao Kun desperately hoped it was possession. If these were the aftereffects of being reborn, he dared not even imagine what his future would look like.

Three pounds of cooked beef, eaten until he was stuffed, only for him to be starving again in half an hour! Did this mean he would have to eat a meal every thirty minutes from now on? Twenty-four hours a day, forty-eight meals a day? He would have no time for anything else; his entire life would be spent eating. The thought alone was terrifying. What would be the point of a life spent doing nothing but eating? He would rather be possessed than suffer through such a fate.

With these thoughts weighing on him, Cao Kun gloomily opened the room’s cupboard and pulled out two cups of instant noodles and two sausages. Regardless of the cause, he had to fill his stomach; he was truly hungry. Five minutes later, the noodles were ready. Feeling irritable, he had no heart for savoring the meal and devoured the two cups like a whirlwind. After finishing, he didn’t practice those nameless movements again. Instead, he lay on the bed, timing himself and waiting quietly. Vexing as it was, he had to face the situation head-on. He intended to experiment and see exactly how long it took for him to get hungry after a full meal.

Time ticked by, and half an hour passed.

"Huh?" Cao Kun sat up in surprise. The half-hour mark had passed, yet he still felt quite full; there was no sign of hunger. A look of suspicion crossed his face as he muttered, "Could I have been overthinking this? Maybe it’s not a side effect of the rebirth after all?"

After talking to himself, he continued to wait. Finally, another half-hour passed, reaching the one-hour mark, and Cao Kun let out a sigh of relief. An hour had gone by with no sign of hunger; it seemed his previous appetite wasn't caused by the rebirth. But if that wasn't it, what had caused him to get hungry so quickly earlier? Three pounds of beef and hunger in thirty minutes—that was definitely abnormal. Could he... really be possessed? Although possession was one of the answers he had considered, as an atheist, he found it hard to accept.

Just then, his peripheral vision caught the nameless book lying nearby. In an instant, it was as if an electric current had surged through his brain; an incredible hypothesis suddenly occurred to him. He stared blankly at the book, his face full of disbelief. "Holy crap, could it be caused by these movements?"

Cao Kun clearly remembered how his body reacted after completing the full set of 72 movements. It felt warm, as if he were soaking in a hot spring. His skin, muscles, bones, and internal organs were like parched earth, greedily absorbing that warmth. He had thought his own description was a bit strange earlier, but now he realized he probably wasn't wrong. The true effect of these movements was likely to force the body to rapidly digest the food he consumed, converting it into a special type of energy that his body could absorb directly. If that were the case, it perfectly matched his sensations.

Of course, he needed to experiment to verify it. With that thought, Cao Kun immediately struck a starting pose and practiced the movements again. Ten minutes later, as he finished the set, the corners of his mouth curled up involuntarily. It was indeed the movements! Having felt no hunger just moments ago, he now felt a distinct, gnawing emptiness in his stomach.

"So, this is the true way to utilize these movements." Convert food into energy, have the body absorb that energy, and thereby enhance his physique! This was incredible! It meant that from now on, he didn't need to engage in tedious physical training; as long as he had enough food, he would grow stronger.

Grinning, Cao Kun picked up the room's landline and called the front desk. "Hello, does the hotel have any food available right now?"

"Oh, the chef is on duty, but we can only prepare some simple dishes."

"That’s fine... give me 300 eggs. 200 boiled, 100 fried."

"Yes, 300. You heard me correctly. Tell the kitchen to get started immediately and send them up as soon as they're done."

After hanging up, Cao Kun excitedly picked up the nameless book. "I never expected these 72 seemingly ordinary movements to produce such a miraculous effect when combined. If that's the case, then the 36 positions for men and women described later surely aren't just about carnal pleasure."

"It’s a pity Li Tingting isn't here; otherwise, she would certainly be more than willing to let me experiment on her."

...

At ten o'clock the next morning, Cao Kun left the hotel and hailed a taxi to the airport. He felt that he wouldn't want to see an egg for a very long time. Consuming 300 eggs had been more than enough. By the time he reached the last twenty, he had been on the verge of vomiting. It was a strange feeling—his stomach was physically hungry, yet he couldn't force down another bite; his body simply rejected it. He never imagined that his appetite, suppressed by ten years of prison life, would become so picky just days after his release.

Still, the results were positive. After a night of binge-eating, his body was clearly stronger than before. Previously, carrying 54.7 kilograms of gold had been quite a struggle, but now, he had tested himself with objects of similar or even greater weight and felt no pressure at all. He could clearly feel his physique had improved significantly.

Moreover, his physique had become more refined. While he wasn't in bad shape before, this night of transformation had sculpted him further. His muscle definition was sharper, and he looked more masculine and powerful than before. And this was the result of just one night!

He also realized that different foods provided different amounts of energy. Taking beef, instant noodles, and eggs as examples: eating his fill of beef allowed him to practice the set three times. Eating his fill of noodles only allowed for one, and by the end of the final movement, he was already famished. Eggs allowed him to practice a little over twice; he could complete two sets, but couldn't make it through the third—he would grow too hungry around the 20th movement and be forced to stop. Consequently, when relying on eggs, he had to pause after every two sets to eat a few more to replenish his energy.

For this reason, he gave the set of movements a very fitting name: The Glutton’s 72 Forms.