Book 3, Chapter 47: Improvement

At 5 a.m. the next day, Chen Chuan woke up and washed up so that he could begin packing up. After getting dressed, he sensed something and looked toward the door.

Once he straightened his collar, he walked over and opened the door, only to find someone he wasn’t expecting to see waiting outside—Gao Qiu, the wilderness faction martial artist.

“Senior Gao?” he proclaimed in surprise.

Gao Qiu didn’t have any bandages. Aside from his missing arm, he appeared to be no different from when he first stepped on the stage.

“Chen Chuan, I asked the cruise ship management team for your room and came here to thank you. If it weren’t for you yesterday, I would have died,” he said earnestly.

Then, he threw something at him.

Chen Chuan grabbed it and found that it was a polished fang necklace.

“If you’re ever interested in wilderness training, you can come over and show the necklace. The wilderness faction will welcome you.”

Chen Chuan nodded, then cast a glance at Gao Qiu’s missing arm. With one arm gone and the fact that the wilderness faction refused to use any implants, Gao Qiu’s fighting strength was definitely going to plummet.

Despite noticing his gaze, Gao Qiu remained unperturbed. “If I had found the shattered bones, I could have reconnected my arm, but that’s impossible now.

“That’s fine, though. I fought with everything I had, and failure is also something precious. I’ll speak of my failure to the younger generation and pass down the lesson I learned. The wilderness faction isn’t made of a single faction, but everyone in it. Only those who remember their failures can achieve success.”

He then looked to the side. “Looks like someone else is here for you. Goodbye. Let’s meet again if the opportunity ever arises.”

Chen Chuan looked over and saw Lu Shiqi walking over from the other end of the corridor. After a single night, his ruined forearm was completely restored, making Chen Chuan wonder whether he had reconnected it or gotten himself a new one.

That was the advantage of implants. They could get new body parts through surgery.

When Lu Shiqi walked past Gao Qiu, they exchanged nods. Even though they were opponents on stage, they didn’t bear any grudge toward each other.

Once Lu Shiqi arrived in front of Chen Chuan, he said, “I’m not good with words, Chen Chuan, but I’m here to thank you on behalf of the company. In the company’s words, you’ve saved our assets. This is our way of expressing our thanks. We hope you’ll accept it.”

He handed a card to Chen Chuan.

It was a golden card from Grand Prosperity Finance. Were they just handing money to him? Lu Shiqi’s company was really practical in expressing their thanks.

Chen Chuan put the gold card into his pocket and said, “I’ll take it, then.”

Upon seeing him accept the card, Lu Shiqi said nothing else. He just gave him a nod and left.

Chen Chuan then returned to his room to continue packing. At 6:30 a.m., the four left Rhinoceros’ Horn and rode a motorboat back to the port. Even now, Pan Xiaode was eager for a fight and said, “Chen Chuan, we’ve never sparred before. Why don’t we look for a place to fight?”

“Can’t we just get along? Why do we have to fight?” Tan Zhi bemoaned.

Pan Xiaode raised a fist. “Martial artists communicate through fists. It’s only after a friend punches you in the face that you can form a true bond.”

Looks like I’ll have to punch him next time,

Chen Chuan thought.

“Our spar may take longer than expected, and I’ve already made an appointment with my technique lecturer,” Chen Chuan explained sincerely. “I can’t let him wait for too long. Let’s set a later date for our spar.”

Pan Xiaode agreed with that. He believed that he was about the same level as Chen Chuan. If they fought, it was going to end up as a long war of attrition. If neither side gained an upper hand, they might even end up fighting for an entire day, so Chen Chuan was right to say that their fight might take a long time. Also, if he fought against Chen Chuan, Qi Huixin would want to do the same too. They really needed to find a lot of time for their spar.

“We’ll have to do it next time, then,” he said, finding the situation regrettable.

After parting ways with the two, Tan Zhi sent Chen Chuan back to Mr. Zheng’s house instead of going back to the Arcane Palace.

Chen Chuan said goodbye to Tan Zhi in front of the house before heading in. Once he saw Mr. Zheng inside, he greeted him, and Mr. Zheng asked with a grin, “Had a fun day off, didn’t you?”

“There were lots of pleasant surprises,” Chen Chuan offered.

“That’s good. You youngsters should be tense when the situation calls for it and relax when it’s the time for it. Alright, I’ll still have you do defensive training today. Come with me.”

Chen Chuan followed Mr. Zheng to the training ground. After warming up, Zheng Tongtong was already ready.

During the training sessions before, Chen Chuan had to defend against a heavy saber and a light saber, but this time, Zheng Tongtong held two sabers. She told him that one of the sabers was a heavy saber, while the other a light saber. They appeared to be the same, though, so Chen Chuan had a hard time differentiating them.

Logically, when a person held sabers of different weights, their balance and footwork would differ slightly.

Zheng Tongtong showed none of that. This alone proved just how great her control over her refined force was. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to do this. If Chen Chuan could do this too, Xiong Jianyi wouldn’t have been able to observe his movements and predict every single one of his attacks.

“Ready, Chen Chuan?” Zheng Tongtong swung her sabers.

Chen Chuan brought the Frost King Saber up, planted his feet firmly on the floor, and nodded.

Without another word, Zheng Tongtong charged forward and started slashing at him with both sabers.

Since Chen Chuan could only block with one saber, Zheng Tongtong attacked rather slowly in the beginning, but as Chen Chuan got used to her rhythm, she started attacking increasingly faster. For a time, saber flashes flew all over the training ground, and the sound of metal clashing could be heard nonstop.

It was really hard blocking the attacks, because not only did Chen Chuan have to change his refined force, but he also had to generate his refined force faster. Right after he negated the refined force from the heavy saber, the light saber would come swinging at him, or after he had barely managed to block an attack from the light saber, he would have to hurry and change his refined force to block the attack from the heavy saber.

Chen Chuan was forced to adapt his rhythm to two different defensive methods and swiftly react to the different attacks. Since he could only stand in place and not dodge, it made things a lot harder.

This time, he needed two days to get used to the rhythm.

On the third day, Mr. Zheng called him over and taught him a breathing technique to adjust and transform his refined force.

He then told Chen Chuan that he would be clapping by the side to set the rhythm of the attacks. Whenever he clapped, Chen Chuan was to use the defensive refined force against heavy sabers to parry the light saber and vice versa. When he stopped clapping, he was to revert to the usual method of defense. In the meantime, he was not to make a single mistake.

He didn’t have to worry about the backlash that would come from switching the defensive refined force used for heavy and light sabers, because Zheng Tongtong would have changed her refined force beforehand. If he used the right method, then nothing would go wrong.

Honestly, things would have been easier if Chen Chuan only had to adapt to sabers of different weights, but now, he had to switch his refined force according to Mr. Zheng’s claps as well. It upped the difficulty by several degrees, because it destroyed his rhythm.

Sometimes, the claps were rapid. At other times, they were slow. Sometimes, there were long pauses between them. At other times, there were no stops at all. Mr. Zheng kept changing the rhythm of his claps and always picked the moment Chen Chuan had changed his breathing. If Chen Chuan let up his focus for even a little, his rhythm would be thrown out of whack.

Zheng Tongtong did not make a single mistake. She was capable of changing her breathing at any moment. She was amazing, and Chen Chuan was sure that she was already familiar with all the changes.

He took another two days to master the breathing technique, and he was gradually able to keep up with the changes in the rhythm of the fight.

But that was just the beginning. Mr. Zheng then switched things up again and told him that when he struck the table with his fist, he was to use only the defensive refined force for heavy sabers to parry Zheng Tongtong’s attacks. When he used his palm to slap the table, Chen Chuan was to use the defensive refined force for light sabers.

With changes thrown nonstop into his grueling training, Chen Chuan’s defensive technique kept improving, but this was just the basics. Even at this point, Zheng Tongtong’s attacks were limited to just slashes.

On the sixth day, Mr. Zheng asked Zheng Tongtong to start switching up the refined force of her attacks.

It made things much harder than just defending against the heavy saber and light saber at the same time, because before the saber came into contact with the Frost King Saber, Chen Chuan couldn’t tell just what sort of refined force was coursing through it. He could only change his defensive refined force at the moment of contact, but Zheng Tongtong’s saber attacks came at him like the wind, and she kept switching up her attacks. This was a true test of Chen Chuan’s adaptability.

This time, he needed three whole days to finally be able to keep up, though only barely.

After Chen Chuan got used to it in such a short time, Mr. Zheng felt satisfied. “You’re improving quickly and have already mastered the basics of the defensive technique. Let’s end the training for this month here. Next month, we’ll move to the next stage. I’ll teach you how to attack.”

Chen Chuan nodded. Over the past few days, even though his mutated tissue felt sore and tight after he went back, the feeling of improving every day felt great and made him feel like he was making full use of his time.

Chen Chuan had only ever had this feeling of constant improvement when he first started training under Yu Gang. It had been a long while since then.

Mr. Zheng’s meticulous teaching and Zheng Tongtong’s careful execution of each step was the reason for it. Good sparring partners like her were hard to come by.

“Thank you, Mr. Zheng, Senior Zheng,” Chen Chuan said with genuine sincerity.

“You don’t have to thank me. I feel great when my students manage to learn quickly. Reflect on what you’ve learned, though. I can teach you, but it’s only when you come to fully understand it that the technique will become yours,” Mr. Zheng said with a smile.

“Alright,” Chen Chuan said. After saying goodbye to Mr. Zheng and Zheng Tongtong, he left Mr. Zheng’s house and returned to the tram station, but before he got on, he received a message from the Resolution Department, telling him that his Radiant Light session could be set either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. He was to pick a time, and the Resolution Department would make arrangements.

Chen Chuan thought about it. Since it was a day off the day after tomorrow, he decided to go tomorrow. So, he quickly picked his time and sent his application through the Realm Pass.

Five minutes later, he received an audio message from Azure Dragon.

“Hello, Mr. Chen. I’m Yin Fang, Mr. Sun’s assistant. We received an application from the Resolution Department for a Radiant Light session, and we saw your name on it. I’ve received orders from Mr. Sun to let you have an extra three hours every month. We’ve sent a hard copy of your receipt to you, please remember to check it.”