Chen Chuan noticed that Coach Gu’s breathing had remained completely steady from the moment he stepped onto the ring. That meant he could likely sustain his breathing technique over prolonged periods. Moreover, as a coach, it was highly probable that he possessed jin; Chen Chuan would need to stay vigilant.
Coach Gu clasped his fists in a salute.
Chen Chuan returned the gesture.
Lowering his hands, Coach Gu offered a word of caution: "Careful now, young man."
As he spoke, he swept his hands forward as if parting tall grass, dipped his head low, and darted forward. Every movement was plain for all to see, yet in the blink of an eye, he had closed the distance to Chen Chuan. This opening move did not look like standard Xiujiang Fist, catching Chen Chuan entirely off guard.
Chen Chuan saw Gu's hands shifting unpredictably between feints and real strikes, his body swaying left while looking right, offering no hint of where the attack would land. Chen Chuan could only settle firmly into his stance, meeting all changes with stillness.
Coach Gu’s hands flickered between feints before he suddenly lunged into a bow stance, driving a straight punch right down the centerline. Sinking his center of gravity, Chen Chuan met it with the Piercing-Covering Hand from Greater Sanshou—a move designed to blend offense with defense, deflecting the blow while setting up an immediate counterattack.
To his surprise, the instant their hands collided, an intensely explosive force surged from Coach Gu's fist. In that fraction of a second, the impact jarred Chen Chuan's heels clean off the canvas.
Knowing things looked bad, Chen Chuan tried to recover, but Coach Gu didn't hesitate. Exploiting his unrooted footing, Gu leaped into a spinning kick right on the spot!
Chen Chuan crossed his forearms and braced his core. Though he managed to block the kick, the sheer force sent him flying horizontally across the ring until he crashed into the ropes behind him.
Landing smoothly, Coach Gu held his side-kick pose for a brief moment before slowly lowering his leg. A sudden burst of cheers and applause erupted from the crowd around them.
Truth be told, it had been a long time since they had seen Coach Gu fight so seriously. Ordinarily, challengers coming in for sparring were swept aside in a couple of moves by the senior boxers, rarely requiring Coach Gu to step in at all.
Chen Chuan pushed off the ropes with his hips and straightened back up. Though he had been knocked back right from the start, his spirits surged—because he could feel it. That was jin!
He had found the right person!
This was exactly the kind of opponent he wanted to face.
And yet...
He glanced at the Second Self beside him. A large portion of its form had turned translucent. He hadn't expected a single kick to inflict so much damage. Originally, his synchronization duration was just over a minute, but judging from past experience, this single strike had knocked it down to forty or fifty seconds at most.
If he took a few more blows like that, continuing the fight would be out of the question, not to mention the risk of genuine injury. To deal with this opponent, he had to end the fight as quickly as possible.
Seeing Chen Chuan straighten up so effortlessly, Coach Gu kept his expression neutral, but his inner thoughts were far from tranquil.
Right off the bat, he had unleashed the secret Dispersing Jin of the Xiujiang Fist. Anyone uninitiated taking that hit would immediately feel numb all over, their muscles and bones going limp. As for the subsequent kick, it appeared to merely knock the opponent back, but it was actually meant to condense the jin and deliver a secondary blow.
He had assumed Chen Chuan would lose most of his fighting capability after that, yet the boy looked completely unharmed. It didn't look like he had resisted it with jin, but rather endured it through sheer physical toughness.
Tricky.
He hated running into opponents with freakish physical conditioning. Jin was not only a weapon but also an instrument of martial cultivation; though potent, overusing it put a real strain on the body.
Worse still, now that the kid knew about his jin, he would definitely be on guard. Landing another clean hit wouldn't be easy, and missing strikes would just waste stamina pointlessly.
He inhaled deeply and exhaled, his chest rising and falling. Tapping the canvas with the ball of his front foot, he settled into a stance—and in that instant, the ring floor visibly sank slightly under his weight.
Chen Chuan didn't wait around. If Gu wouldn't come to him, he would go to Gu. Stepping forward with purposeful strides under the guidance of his breathing technique, he closed in rapidly.
Seeing Chen Chuan advance swiftly, Coach Gu raised a knee as if aiming for his face. Prepared, Chen Chuan raised one hand slightly while staying ready to shift direction at any moment. But right then, Coach Gu suddenly stomped his raised foot heavily onto the canvas. As the sole slammed down, ripples actually radiated across the surface of the ring.
Chen Chuan felt the floor buckle beneath his feet, throwing his balance into momentary disarray.
Senior Brother Yan had noticed the issue with Chen Chuan's center of gravity on this floor, and Coach Gu had spotted it just as easily. This time, Gu had channeled his Dispersing Jin directly into the ring floor.
Leaning forward, Gu surged ahead and seized Chen Chuan above his right elbow. With a pivot of his feet, his back pressed almost flush against Chen Chuan's chest. All it would take now was a bend of the waist and a thrust of his hips to execute a textbook shoulder throw!
Sensing danger, Chen Chuan snapped his left hand out to shove Gu's waist, trying to pull his trapped right arm free. But at that moment, Coach Gu suddenly shifted his center of gravity, falling backward along with the pulling force of Chen Chuan's withdrawal.
If Chen Chuan were dragged to the ground and Gu rolled over him, the crushing weight could easily snap an ordinary person's tendons and bones. Detecting the intention, Chen Chuan tightened his trapped arm around Coach Gu, twisting his waist with all his might in an attempt to throw Gu beneath him before he could complete the takedown.
Yet Coach Gu reacted just as swiftly. Spinning in the direction of Chen Chuan's arm force, he quickly stepped back, breaking contact in an instant.
Pushed by the redirected momentum at the end, Chen Chuan stumbled back several paces, and the two fighters reset into a standoff.
The rapid exchanges had demanded split-second reactions—counters and counter-counters where a single slip would have meant hitting the canvas. Watching from below, the spectators burst into enthusiastic applause, cheering and marveling at the thrilling display.
Coach Gu was equally impressed inwardly. The strength and reaction time Chen Chuan had displayed were far beyond what someone his age should possess; he had managed to wrest control out of an unfavorable situation through sheer force and will.
Chen Chuan, however, knew his own limits. Just now, he had relied entirely on the Second Self's across-the-board physical enhancement. Otherwise, he would have been slammed to the floor from the start. Once on the ground, grappling and submission holds ruled supreme, not to mention that Coach Gu possessed jin; even with the Second Self, the outcome would have been hard to predict.
Competing in technique, there was no way he could match the veteran's seasoned experience. So why bother trading intricate moves? What he should really be doing was pressing forward aggressively, making full use of the Second Self's immunity to real injury.
At that moment, understanding seemed to dawn on him. "I realize I made a mistake," he said.
"What?" Coach Gu asked, bewildered.
Chen Chuan banished all stray thoughts from his mind and offered a faint smile. For reasons he couldn't fathom, Coach Gu suddenly felt a sharp premonition of danger.
The floor screeched beneath Chen Chuan's shoes as he darted forward. Simultaneously, the Second Self synchronized with him in an instant. To the onlookers below, it looked as though an afterimage was sweeping across the ring.
"This—!"
Coach Gu was startled. *Such speed?!* He knew he couldn't retreat now; Chen Chuan would close the half-step distance in a heartbeat, and retreating would compromise his own stance, leaving him vulnerable to the enemy's mercy. With no time to kick, he could only thrust a palm forward.
Chen Chuan charged straight in without dodging, extending an arm to parry and shove aside the obstructing palm. The instant they met, however, he felt the exact same force surge upward—the coach had unleashed his jin just in time.
This time, however, Chen Chuan flipped his wrist and locked on with a Hook-and-Grasp Hand, gripping Coach Gu's arm with an iron grasp. He let the surging jin wash over his body without retreating half a step.
Coach Gu's pupils contracted.
In the very next moment, leveraging his superior raw strength, Chen Chuan yanked Coach Gu's arm outward, took a lateral step forward, and drove a horizontal elbow toward Gu's chest—fueling the strike with Limit-Breaking force in the Greater Sanshou technique: Door-Opening Elbow!
Sensing imminent peril, Coach Gu let out a sharp cry of "Hai!" at the crucial moment. Rather than retreating, he pulled his trapped arm backward in a counter-tug, using his arm as a handle and his body as a hammer. Channeling his jin, he threw his chest forward to meet the impact!
A dull boom echoed across the ring, and both men shuddered violently at the same time.
The spectators below watched with bated breath, but both fighters remained frozen in place, making no further move.
"Let's stop here," Coach Gu said calmly, looking at Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan nodded.
Both lowered their arms simultaneously, straightening up and facing each other.
"Bravo!"
A lone cheer broke out from below, quickly followed by a storm of enthusiastic applause.
Chen Chuan cupped his fist toward Coach Gu and said sincerely, "I gained a great deal today. Thank you, Coach Gu."
He felt a slight twinge of regret that even using a Limit-Breaking Strike hadn't defeated Coach Gu; the man was truly formidable.
Still, after clashing head-on with such an opponent, he now had a general idea of what someone possessing jin was capable of. He would need to keep ramping up his training once he got back.
Returning the salute, Coach Gu smiled. "You're too kind. The Xiujiang Boxing Club welcomes all guests. An exceptional young man like you is always welcome to drop by."
Chen Chuan's eyes lit up. "Will do," he said happily.
Seeing how cheerfully Chen Chuan agreed, the corner of Coach Gu's mouth twitched slightly.
As Chen Chuan stepped down from the ring, he discovered that a large crowd had gathered around them at some point, packing most of the gym. Seeing him descend, they parted automatically to clear a path.
Right then, someone in the crowd waved at him. "Hey! Classmate!"
Chen Chuan looked over and immediately recognized Liang Tong, the classmate from the adjacent class who had handed him a flyer before. He smiled and nodded at him, then continued straight ahead and walked out of the boxing club.
After Chen Chuan left, Coach Gu said, "All right, disperse. Back to training, everyone."
Hearing his words, the crowd broke into small groups and dispersed, though their excitement hadn't cooled as they continued their animated discussions.
As Coach Gu was about to step down from the ring, Liang Tong ran up eagerly and said, "Coach Gu, Coach Gu! That guy was my classmate! I think he got accepted into Wuyi College!"
Coach Gu looked at him, let out an "Oh," and said, "Look around on your own for a bit." Leaving a baffled Liang Tong behind, he returned to his private break room alone.
Once the door was shut, the solemnity vanished from his face at last. Clutching his chest, he grimaced in pain. Stripping off his shirt, he revealed a dark, bruised mass across his chest.
Taking down a bottle of medicinal liniment from the cabinet, he began rubbing it in, hissing in pain with every stroke.
"Kid hits like a truck... Broke at least two ribs. No, three..."
He knew very well that if he hadn't used his jin to counter the force at the last second and prevented Chen Chuan from delivering the full blow, his internal organs might have suffered serious trauma.
"Still, that strike didn't feel like jin. It seemed to be pure, raw power combined with some specialized technique..."
"Hiss... Thank god he doesn't have jin. If someone with that much strength learns jin on top of it, what then? Wouldn't I have been pounded to death today?"
As he thought it over, he muttered to himself, "Wuyi College, huh? Wonder how many years he's been studying there. Those academy students really are something... Come again? You'd better never come back."
By now, Chen Chuan had walked outside the boxing club. He saw that the Second Self was almost entirely translucent. That final clash had not only subjected it to two consecutive impacts of jin, but his own Limit-Breaking attack had also caused a certain amount of backlash damage. There were fewer than ten seconds of synchronization time remaining at most.
Reflecting on the match, he thought that Coach Gu truly lived up to being a club coach—his responses were seasoned and veteran. If given the opportunity, Chen Chuan would definitely come back for another lesson or two.
The bustling day was drawing to a close. Cars and pedestrians filled the streets, everything bathed in the golden-red hue of the setting sun. He let out a breath and strode forward with light, brisk steps, melting into the bustling crowd in no time.
Chapter 27