Chapter 511: Practice
The football field-sized venue was densely packed with people.
Only a small open space was left in the middle, where a large homemade stove made of iron sheets was placed, with a pile of wood and other miscellaneous flammable materials burning inside for heating.
However, the heating facilities were obviously not enough for such a large space. The room was still extremely cold, and the closed windows were covered with large pieces of frost.
But the people in the room seemed not to be affected by the temperature at all, and they still stood there quietly and neatly.
They were seen standing on one right leg, with their left knee bent and their left foot placed on the inside of their right thigh. They raised their hands high and put their hands together above their heads, standing there in a difficult and strange posture.
Even though everyone was shivering from the cold, no one changed their body movements.
At first glance it looks quite spectacular due to the large number of people.
On the high platform at the front, there stood seven women in white robes, facing the believers below the platform, doing the same thing.
The woman in the middle was wearing a little bee speaker that teachers use when giving lectures. She gave instructions in a gentle voice:
"Come with us, breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in again..."
"Don't bend your knees inward. Feel the energy in your body flowing from the top of your head back to your Dantian..."
What is this for? Yoga?
Annan watched and marveled inwardly - how were these people able to stand steadily on one leg and perform such difficult movements while wearing such bulky clothes?
Moreover, when the three of them came in and opened and closed the door, no one turned around to look. Not even a subconscious move. This is really not in line with the Chinese people's love of watching excitement.
Although Annan felt strange in his heart, he did not show his emotion on his face. He walked inside with Gu Zhiyu, who looked calm.
Unlike Annan and Gu Zhiyu who were calm, Niu Gandang looked at the scene in front of him and subconsciously took a step back.
Then he gently pulled Gu Zhiyu's sleeve, leaned close to his ear, and whispered: "Brother, I think this place is so weird. How about we..."
Before he could finish his words, Annan turned his head and gave him a cold look, then put his index finger in front of his lips and made a gesture of silence.
Niu Gandang shrank his neck, stood quietly behind them and said nothing.
Since these two are around, he just hides behind them.
They didn't even bring the ferocious guardian mines, which showed they didn't think highly of this place.
The two gatekeeper girls led the three people to the back row of empty spaces, then handed them three square pieces of thick cloth and motioned them to sit down.
Annan looked at the cloth they handed over. It was actually a small piece of curtain cloth folded in half several times and then fixed with thread.
Everyone else has one at their feet. Judging from their size, they are probably used as seat cushions.
The ground was so cold in this weather that it was almost like ice. It would be unbearable to sit on the ground without a cushion.
Especially for a girl like Annan, getting a cold butt is no joke.
But looking at the various dirty marks on the seat cushion, Annan felt a little disgusted.
Logically, there should be no shortage of benches in the church. Did they chop up the chairs and burn them as firewood? They took the chairs away and sat on the floor.
Of course, it could also be to make it easier to stand up and do those strange movements.
In just a short while, the people in front, led by the woman in white robes on the stage, had changed into two more difficult postures.
Annan looked down at the cushion in the girl's hand.
In this situation, she couldn't use the space, and it wasn't appropriate for her to take out two thick cushions from her backpack, so she had to take the dirty cushions and put them on the ground.
Then, using the backpack as a cover, he took out two unwanted towels from the space, and sat on the floor with Gu Zhiyu, one of them lying on the mat.
Niu Gandang was a rough man, so he naturally didn't mind the dirt. He followed the example of Annan and Gu Zhiyu and sat down cross-legged obediently.
When the two girls in white robes saw that the three people were settled, they quietly reminded them:
"Since this is your first time here, you don't have to practice the Light Arts. Just sit here and wait for the leader to give you a lecture."
Having said that, he left and went back to guard the door.
The Divine Art of Light?
Annan raised her eyebrows and looked around. She had thought these people were doing yoga to keep fit.
After all, the pose they start with really looks like the tree pose in yoga.
She had heard from the saleswoman that the Church of Light had been guiding them to be good and helping people develop a positive mindset, so she thought that this exercise was also a way to cultivate both the inside and the outside.
She actually overestimated this religion.
They plagiarize yoga techniques to practice kung fu. They even guide followers to adjust their qi and breath. They are so messy and they are not afraid of harming people.
Although she does not believe in any religion, she is a great believer in traditional Chinese medicine and she usually exercises with Ba Duan Jin and Ba Bu Jingang Gong.
Specific movements combined with breathing can indeed harmonize Qi and blood, strengthen bones, dredge meridians, and play a role in strengthening the body.
But these are the wisdom researched and passed down by our ancestors, and they cannot be effective by simply making up a few random movements.
If you practice randomly, it can easily backfire and do more harm than good to your body.
As expected, so be it. Annan was complaining about this weird yoga in his mind, when he suddenly saw these people stop their movements and switch from static to dynamic movements.
The voice of the woman in white robe is still gentle:
“Cross your arms and raise them above your head, palms facing up, and push up. Breathe in and out quickly.”
“Hold your breath, open your hands, palms down, and slowly lower them down the sides of your body.”
"Take three deep breaths. Feel the heat in your abdomen..."
Annan looked at them with a frown on his face. Wasn't this action imitating the "Hands Lifting the Sky to Regulate the Three Burners" in Ba Duan Jin?
But what the hell is this breathing? It is completely different from the Baduanjin promoted by the State Sports General Administration.
Other people's breathing is even and natural, how can their inhalation and exhalation be so neurotic?
He even took three deep breaths, not afraid of getting a stitch in the side...
Gu Zhiyu, who was standing next to her, noticed her speechlessness and patted her hands, signaling her to calm down.
Annan nodded slightly. She didn't know these people, so what did it have to do with her whether they did well or badly? It was all her own will.
If she was foolish enough to stand up and point out the mistakes, she would definitely be beaten out by this group of crazy men and women.
Just when she was sitting on the ground bored, wondering if the next move would be "shooting the eagle with both hands", she saw them change their tactics and perform a few modified versions of Tai Chi.
Ten minutes later, the woman in white robes with a loudspeaker on the stage finally stopped and said slowly:
"Today's practice is over. Please take a seat!"