The Term Begins

Chen Chuan checked on his boundary credential and found that both the major financial conglomerates and the banks offered safe deposit box services. However, the services provided by the large conglomerates were exorbitantly expensive. The minimum rental term was one year, the fees started in five digits, and a deposit several times that amount was required upfront, enough to deter anyone. As for the smaller storage companies, their security was unreliable. Setting aside the risk of outside robberies, there was no guarantee against internal theft. So he contacted Wu Bei via his boundary credential and asked, "Brother Wu, do you know of a suitable place where I could temporarily store some things?" Wu Bei thought for a moment and said, "Brother Chen, if you trust me, why not keep them at my place? I have a storage room here that I usually just use for clutter. My apartment building has twenty-four-hour security patrols, so it shouldn't be a problem." Chen Chuan considered it and thought it sounded fine. "Alright, I'll leave them with you for now. I'll move them once I find a better place." With that settled, he began organizing the items. Because there was quite a lot, he couldn't take everything in a single trip, so he contacted Old Qi to drive over with the car. They loaded everything in and transported it to the storage room Wu Bei had prepared. He packed the medicines usable for the Second Limit into a satchel and took them with him. These drugs, combined with the urban legend he had previously contained, should be enough to support his martial training for a considerable period. He also kept the stack of documents, planning to read through them slowly once he was back. Instructor Wu had left behind his personal cultivation records from both the Second and Third Limits. This was a treasure trove of immense value, in some ways even more precious than the medicine. Medicines could be bought, but a martial artist's personal archival records were not something money could readily acquire. Had Instructor Wu not originally harbored the intention of teaching students in the future, these notes would never have existed at all. After all, if they were ever leaked, he would have no secrets left from anyone else. After returning to the academy, Chen Chuan spent the following days secluded in his dorm room, training and poring over the materials. When it came to martial theory, he was actually somewhat deficient, knowing only a few key pieces of information. In truth, that was unavoidable. Due to the deliberate control of information by the higher authorities, students at Yangzhi Wuyi didn't even know about mutated tissue in their early stages, let alone understand these deeper concepts. Moreover, the study period at Yangzhi Wuyi was very brief. By their second year, students were already out training in the field. Early on, most of their energy had to be spent on martial conditioning. Many might never even reach the Second Limit, so trying to comprehend such things at the start was entirely useless and a waste of time. Even after graduating, unless one went into teaching or actively pursued higher tiers of martial arts, there was simply no need to understand them. Now, with this notebook, he was able to make up for that deficiency. He Xiaoxing had once told him that the First Limit through the Third Limit were essentially a single whole. Looking through Instructor Wu's materials, that indeed proved to be the case. There were no obvious bottlenecks between them; it all came down to whether one's mutated tissue could grow to that stage. Innate talent was far more important than commonly imagined. From a martial artist's perspective alone, the moment a person was born, their future ceiling seemed already determined. Therefore, this stage was not about how to break through one's ceiling, but rather how to better arrange and utilize one's mutated tissue. Yet the matters involved here were quite complex; knowing how to properly guide the growth of mutated tissue was an art in itself. Instructor Wu was very professional, delving deeply into both technique and theory. Every so often, he had also supplemented his earliest writings with new notes, evidently reflecting fresh insights gained over time. When Chen Chuan had studied under He Xiaoxing, He Xiaoxing would usually have him do something first, and then let him figure out for himself why it was done that way. The approach was highly targeted, and many of the demands felt like things an ordinary person could never accomplish. Instructor Wu was different. He explained the key training points entirely from the perspective of an ordinary person. If one person could make use of his method, then most people could as well. They were two entirely different styles. Chen Chuan cross-referenced what he read with what he had already learned and found the insights immensely rewarding. In fact, there were some concepts he had already grasped instinctively, but he had never been able to articulate them as thoroughly as Instructor Wu. Whenever he saw the notes clearly and precisely expressing what he had felt in his heart, a wave of clarity and satisfaction washed over him. After carefully reviewing the section from the First Limit to the Second Limit, he focused on the changes and key points from the Second Limit to the Third Limit. Comparing his own state against the descriptions, he realized that he had previously been somewhere in the latter half of the Second Limit. Now that his Second Self had fused with him, his physical constitution had doubled, and the robustness and growth of his mutated tissue had doubled as well. Naturally, none of this manifested outwardly; neither his body nor his mutated tissue showed any physical changes, appearing identical to how they looked before the fusion. Instructor Wu had provided detailed training plans for students at each stage. Through these, Chen Chuan learned what he needed to pay attention to right now and which areas of training he should reinforce. None of these training regimens required additional drugs or equipment. They relied solely on technical exercises to help students self-correct and strengthen their own mutated tissue, making them about as accessible to ordinary people as could be. Perhaps it was precisely through such long years of teaching and experimental feedback that Instructor Wu had accumulated such rich experience, eventually enabling him to establish the system known as Void Training. It was just a pity that he had never been able to complete it. After examining these technical movements, Chen Chuan found them deeply inspiring. Unless someone practiced a discipline like the Zhouyuan Jin technique, a student usually developed only a single part of mutated tissue, and most instructional methods were designed to exploit those specific areas. Instructor Wu did not approve of that approach. He believed that training that way merely overdrew a student's potential prematurely, chasing combat effectiveness in a one-sided manner. The higher one went, the harder it became to advance. He believed that overall coordination was the most important factor. According to the data he had compiled, although students trained through traditional intensive methods were stronger in the short term and quickly developed combat capability, unless they were born with exceptional talent, virtually all of them stalled once they reached a certain threshold. Afterward, they could only rely on implants to compensate for their shortcomings. In contrast, students taught using Instructor Wu's summarized methods possessed far greater room for growth, and the recorded data supported his theory. Reading this, Chen Chuan agreed completely. Coordination and the body as a unified whole were principles he had always valued, and these exercises were methods he could adopt himself. The notebook also detailed the noticeable reactions and characteristics of mutated tissue at various stages of training. This would allow him to clearly gauge his progress and recognize any anomalies, which was exceptionally useful. What remained was to familiarize himself with and master these techniques as quickly as possible. Ten days flew by in a flash. After passing the final rest day of January, the date arrived at February 1, the official start of the semester at the Main Academy. Around eight in the morning on that day, Chen Chuan noticed that many previously unavailable course offerings had suddenly appeared on the academy platform of his boundary credential. He checked them and found that all the newly added listings were public lectures. Moreover, the instructors giving these lectures were not from the Jibei Circuit Wuyi Main Academy, but from the Supreme Main Academy. Reading the introductory materials, he learned that the Supreme Main Academy in the capital dispatched a cohort of outstanding lecturers every year to conduct courses at main academies across the country. These courses were open to attend free of charge, though they lacked the meticulous depth of one-on-one instruction. Because these were public courses, they were not displayed on the platform before the start of the term. Instructor Wu had previously exploited that information gap to manufacture anxiety. Just then, a notification popped up on his boundary credential: "Student Chen Chuan, welcome to the start of this semester. As you have a mandatory examination subject this term, please select an instructor in this field within three days. If you wish to waive it, please attach an explanation. Failure to choose will result in a deduction of evaluation points." Chen Chuan looked into it and saw that every student in the academy had evaluation points, which were tied to exam scores, semester performance assessments, and academy commissions. Students with high scores enjoyed greater educational resources, but if their score dropped below a certain threshold, they would be expelled. No wonder Tan Zhi had gone out of his way that day to serve as his guide just for a single point. As he was browsing, another voice sounded from his boundary credential: "Is this Student Chen Chuan?" Chen Chuan could not see the caller's identity, only that the transmission came from the school administration. He replied, "It's me." "If you are not busy right now, please come to the Floor 72 Special Assigned Office." Chen Chuan agreed. After a moment of thought, he packed up briefly, walked out, and took the elevator up to the seventy-second floor. As soon as the elevator doors slid open, a man approached from the other side. He was a man in his forties, his temples lightly dusted with frost, carrying an air of mature elegance. At the moment, he appeared to be preparing to take the elevator. As he passed Chen Chuan, he cast a glance his way and said with a smile, "You must be Student Chen Chuan?" Chen Chuan replied, "Yes, I am. And you are, sir?" The man smiled. "I am Ling Jianxing, assistant from the Principal's Office. You may call me Assistant Ling. The Main Academy warmly welcomes outstanding students like you." Hearing the name, Chen Chuan felt a slight stir inside. "Thank you, Teacher Ling." Assistant Ling looked into his eyes. "Hm? Have you seen me before, Student Chen?" Chen Chuan nodded. "I believe I saw you on the platform while searching, Teacher Ling, including recordings of your past speeches. I just wasn't sure a moment ago." Assistant Ling smiled. "Is that so? Student Chen, if you have any suggestions, be sure to bring them to me. Well then, I wish you success in your studies." With that, he stepped into the elevator. At that moment, a voice sounded from his boundary credential: "Wu Ruo hasn't contacted us for over ten days. We've checked, and the last person to meet him was this Student Chen. He seemed to have targeted the boy, but now he's vanished. Could it have something to do with this student?" Assistant Ling said with a faint, amused smile, "Perhaps." "Perhaps?" Assistant Ling turned around as the elevator doors slowly shut before him. Watching Chen Chuan's receding figure walk forward, he said, "I'll keep an eye on him."