Book 3, Chapter 252: Oceanland

Two more minutes passed before Ding Mai pushed the crowd gathered around him away and stood up before turning to Chen Chuan.

Even though Chen Chuan had defeated him, he didn’t show any frustration. Instead, he appeared impressed. Once he stood in front of Chen Chuan, he declared loudly, “You’re amazing, Captain Chen. I accept defeat!”

Losing to an opponent wasn’t a shameful thing. Not being able to face his opponent after losing and looking for all sorts of excuses to justify the loss was. If he couldn’t get over a defeat, how could he ever hope to win against someone? That was impossible.

Everyone in the training hall thought that Chen Chuan had won in style. He had managed to withstand Ding Mai’s charge head-on, which was something those who had sparred against Ding Mai before or had watched him fight had never seen. Hence, Ding Mai wasn’t the only one impressed.

The boy had run over to the puppet to inspect it. After that, he occasionally looked at Chen Chuan with sparkling eyes.

Fang Zhixin received a message and gave a nod to Chen Chuan before going to the side to say some things into his Realm Pass. A moment passed before he came back and said to the people, “Sorry, everyone, but Instructor Chen has been asked to visit the Speaker of the House of Representatives. He won’t be able to come today.”

The crowd wasn’t too disappointed by this, as if they had been expecting it, but the boy did appear dejected.

“Instructor Chen might not be able to make it today, but you’re all talented martial artists who have been invited to join the training center. There’s a bar downstairs. Why don’t we go there for a drink? My treat.”

They cheered.

Chen Chuan looked around. While he was fighting against Ding Mai, another ten or so people had come into the hall. At that moment, there were about thirty people in the hall, and most of them were young military officers. Some of them also seemed to have come from rich families.

Even though he wasn’t going to be able to meet Chen Bitong, Chen Chuan had no intention of leaving. After all, he was bound to need to associate himself with the people from this group in the future, so he might as well use the chance to befriend them.

Fang Zhixin walked over to extend an invitation to him too. “Captain Chen, you don’t have anything to do, do you? Want to join us?”

“Yeah. I really admire you, Captain Chen, so let me treat you to a drink,” Ding Mai said after coming over. He then turned to Fang Zhixin. “Don’t try to pay for him.”

Fang Zhixin laughed at that and led the crowd downstairs.

Before leaving, Chen Chuan cast a glance at the boy and found him returning to a puppet with slumped shoulders. He started training again.

Chen Chuan looked away and left with the others.

They went to the tenth floor and found a huge, elegant bar there. Since it was only 10 a.m., it did not have many customers. The whole group only occupied a small corner for themselves. Chen Chuan noticed that they had their own small circles, since they immediately split off into groups of threes or twos.

Chen Chuan sat down with Ding Mai and Fang Zhixin.

The attendants immediately served them alcohol. While the martial artists who graduated from Martial Valor University didn’t drink alcohol, there was no such restriction for those who came from military backgrounds. They were only not allowed to drink while on duty.

With familiar ease, some of them paid for the songs. Music started playing on the dance floor. More than ten dancers and singers with implants walked into the bar and started singing and dancing to the upbeat music.

The military officers clapped, but none of them whistled and cheered. They were all sitting straight, which made it clear that most of them came from good backgrounds and were pretty conservative.

Chen Chuan ordered a non-alcoholic drink for himself. After one song ended, he clapped with the others before turning to Ding Mai. “Was the refined force you used something from abroad?”

Fang Zhixin laughed at that.

Ding Mai, too, laughed. He took a large gulp of beer before saying, “Everyone asks me that after seeing my refined force. In Oceanland, it’s called Al-Taier. If you translate it, it means Steel Breath.”

“Oceanland? You mean the Linacrox Union?” Chen Chuan asked.

Oceanland was the name of the area before the Linacrox Union was formed. It had diplomatic exchanges with the former empire, and on paper, they were known as Oceanlanders, though the people there claimed to be the natives.”

Ding Mai took another gulp of beer before setting his pint down. “You’ve heard of the Day of Clay Cups, haven’t you?”

Chen Chuan dug through his memories. “I think I’ve heard about it before. When the Linacrox Union was formed, they invited the Oceanlanders to lift their clay cups to drink light and water together, right? From then on, they swore to share the land together. Now, it’s a famous celebration.”

“That’s what the Linacrox Union says.” Ding Mai sneered. “The truth is, when the Linacrox Union was formed, they invited the natives who taught them the ancient secret techniques to form the nation together, but they were rejected. Still, out of respect, some respected senior religious figures attended the founding ceremony.

“According to the ancient traditions of the natives, both parties were to lift clay cups made of soil from the earth, water from a snow mountain, stones from a hill, and light from the sun in order to represent reconciliation and collaboration.

“But when one of the senior religious figures lifted his cup, it shattered, and the Linacrox Union immediately accused the natives of insulting them. They turned against them and arrested the religious figures before declaring war.

“In order to save the religious figures and to avoid war, the natives had to negotiate with the Linacrox Union. In the end, the union demanded them to hand over twenty ancient legacies.

“The sovereigns of the natives discussed it for a while before finally agreeing to the terms.”

Ding Mai’s voice turned grim, with a hint of resignation and anger in it, as if he was furious at the sovereigns for not fighting.

“This concerns their legacies, though. Did the Oceanlanders really agree to it?” Chen Chuan asked.

“That’s because the Linacrox Union fought against the Oceanlanders in a long war before the union was established. The natives’ countries were practically all destroyed. If it weren’t for the former royal family occasionally supporting them, they wouldn’t have lasted that long.

Ding Mai took another gulp of beer before slamming his pint down. After wiping his mouth, he said, “When the last emperor took the throne, he fought in a few wars in the west, but never cast his gaze on Oceanland, even though it was just across the ocean. In the end, the natives had to hand over the Sun, Mountain, and Raging River legacies to the Linacrox Union. They were the most advanced ones.

“The natives with the Earth legacy refused to hand over theirs, and they sailed across the ocean to hand it over to the royal family instead. The royal family then kept it in their records.

“After the Linacrox Union got the legacies, they gave the natives a pair of leather boots, a clay bowl, and a magnifying glass as thanks to show that they didn’t get the legacies for free. They also announced that they would be eternal allies.

“But after just twenty years, the Linacrox Union broke their promise. They said that the natives didn’t hand over all of their secret techniques and lied to them. They invaded the natives’ last territories and destroyed their religious altars before killing all the religious figures. After massacring many of them, they enslaved the rest.

“It was the forty-ninth year, and there was a rebellion here. The princes were busy seizing the throne for themselves while making the others disappear, so they didn’t have the time nor interest to be involved in another land’s business.

“The empire had its own legacy as well, so they were busy trying to master it instead of paying any attention to the Earth legacy. In the end, they forgot all about it. Later on, after the old era was toppled over, the government found the complete legacy, and the descendants of the natives promoted it.

“I learned Steel Breath because I have Oceanlander blood in me. My great-grandmother was once a high priestess of the Earth tribe. In her time, she didn’t have the complete legacy. Someone in the army found me and taught me instead.

“My dream is to find all the stolen legacies. Maybe you think it’s too high of a goal for me, but that’s what I truly want.” He laughed.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s too high for you, but that you should keep striving toward it. Fulfill your dream step by step. Regardless of whether you can accomplish it or not, your dedication and hard work deserve praise. Besides, no one can tell for sure what’s going to happen in the future. Maybe you’ll be able to fulfill your dreams,” Chen Chuan encouraged him.

Fang Zhixin smiled and lifted his pint before saying, “A toast to you both, Ding Mai and Captain Chen. Here’s to hoping you get to fulfill your dreams.”

“Cheers!”

They toasted each other and drank.

“By the way, were you teaching Xiaojin when he came in?” Fang Zhixin asked with a smile after he finished his drink.

“Are you talking about the boy in the training hall?” Chen Chuan asked for clarification.

“Yes. That’s Xiaojin. Instructor Chen’s youngest,” Fang Zhixin said with a nod.

Chen Chuan was quite surprised. Chen Bitong was a respected instructor because he had brought up many outstanding students, so why did it look like his son had never received formal martial arts guidance before?

Fang Zhixin sighed and said, “Instructor Chen has been defending the World Ring for more than twenty years, and both his son and daughter lost their lives at the front lines. Do you know about this?”

“I’ve heard about it.” Chen Chuan nodded. He had read up on Chen Bitong. Setting aside whether Chen Bitong was really a traitor, this alone was worthy of respect and sympathy.

“Is it because of this that Instructor Chen doesn’t want his youngest to become a martial artist?”

“That’s not the case. Instructor Chen isn’t selfish like that. He treats everyone the same, whether they’re his children or students.

“If he had shown more care toward senior brother and sister instead of letting them carry out dangerous missions, the results might have been different.” Fang Zhixin sighed.

Another song started playing on the dance floor. This time, the music was quite relaxing. Some of the military officers went on the dance floor and politely asked the dancers for a dance.

Fang Zhixin cast Ding Mai and Chen Chuan a look. When he saw that neither of them had any intention of dancing, he continued, “It’s because Xiaojin isn’t as talented as his siblings.”

“Is that so? But I think that he is pretty good,” Chen Chuan said languidly.