Progress

At five the following morning, Chen Chuan got up, washed, and packed his things, preparing to leave. After putting on his clothes, a faint premonition stirred in him, and he glanced toward the door. Straightening his collar, he walked over and opened the door. To his surprise, an unexpected visitor was waiting outside—Gao Qiu, the fighter from the Wilderness faction. "Senior Gao?" Chen Chuan said. Gao Qiu wore no bandages or dressings. Aside from missing an arm, his condition looked no different from when he had stepped onto the stage yesterday. He said solemnly, "Trainee Chen, I learned of your quarters from the cruise management. I came specifically to thank you. If not for you yesterday, I would have certainly died in that arena." With that, he tossed an object over. Chen Chuan caught it in one hand. Opening his palm, he saw a smoothly polished fang pendant. "If you are ever interested in Wilderness cultivation, you can seek us out with this. Anyone of the Wilderness faction will welcome you." Chen Chuan nodded. He glanced at Gao Qiu's empty right sleeve. Having lost an arm, and with the Wilderness faction refusing to use any implants, his future fighting strength would likely suffer a massive blow. Gao Qiu noticed his gaze. Quite untroubled, he said, "Originally, if the shattered bones could have been recovered and reattached, it could have grown back, but it seems that won't be possible now. "Still, it doesn't matter. I fought with everything I had. The experience of defeat is also a treasure. I will teach it to the younger generation and let them pass it down. The Wilderness faction is not any single person, but all of us together. Those who remember failure will find their way to success." He glanced to the side. "Looks like someone else is looking for you. I'll take my leave. Until next time." Chen Chuan turned to look and saw Lu Shiqi walking toward them from the end of the cabin corridor. Unlike Gao Qiu, after just one night, Lu Shiqi's severed arm was completely restored. It was hard to tell whether the original had been reattached or replaced with a new one entirely. Such was the advantage of implants: parts in certain areas could readily be replaced or implanted through surgery. As he passed Gao Qiu, the two nodded to each other. Although they had been rivals in the arena, there was no deep enmity between them. Lu Shiqi came up to Chen Chuan and said, "Trainee Chen, I'm not good with words. I'm here on behalf of the company to express our gratitude. In the company's words, you preserved company assets." He handed over a card. "This is the company's token of thanks. I hope you will accept it." Chen Chuan accepted it and looked down. It was a gold card from the Wansheng Financial Group. Pure cash this time? The gratitude from Lu Shiqi's company was certainly practical. He slipped the gold card into his pocket and said, "Then I will accept it." Seeing him take it, Lu Shiqi said nothing more. With a nod, he turned and left. Chen Chuan returned to his room and finished packing. At six-thirty in the morning, the four of them departed the Rhino Horn cruise ship and took a speedboat back to the harbor. Before they split up, Pan Xiaode eagerly suggested, "Classmate Chen, we haven't sparred yet. Why don't we find a place and have a match right now?" Tan Zhi said, "Isn't getting along peacefully good enough? Why must you fight?" Pan Xiaode held out a fist. "We fighters communicate with our fists. True friendship only exists between those who have taken each other's punches!" Chen Chuan thought to himself: *Next time, it looks like I'll have to use my fists.* With an earnest expression, he said, "If Classmate Pan and I get into it, time might be hard to control. I already have an appointment with my teacher and can't keep him waiting. Let's arrange another day." Pan Xiaode thoroughly agreed. He felt his skill level was about on par with Chen Chuan's, so a fight between them would surely drag on for an hour or an hour and a half of grinding attrition. If it stayed a draw, they might well fight for an entire day, making the time truly difficult to manage. Besides, if he sparred with Chen Chuan, he couldn't leave Qi Huixin out, could he? Indeed, they had to find a better time. He said with regret, "Next time it is, then." After parting ways with the two, Chen Chuan rode back in Tan Zhi's car. This time, instead of heading back to Xuan Palace Building, he had Tan Zhi drop him off directly at Instructor Zheng's residence. He said goodbye to Tan Zhi in front of the residence and stepped inside. Meeting Instructor Zheng within and greeting him, Instructor Zheng smiled and asked, "Had a good rest day, didn't you?" Chen Chuan replied, "Plenty of surprises." Instructor Zheng said, "That's good. You young people should be tense when it's time to be tense, and unwind when it's time to relax. Well then, today's training is still defense. Follow me." Chen Chuan followed him into the training room. After warming up a bit, he saw that Zheng Tongtong was already prepared on her side. The previous two training sessions had covered parrying heavy blades and light blades separately. This time, however, Zheng Tongtong held two blades, one in each hand. Only when she pointed it out did he learn that one was light and one was heavy. Outwardly, they looked identical, making it nearly impossible to tell them apart even when warned in advance. Normally, when someone wielded two blades of different weights, their center of gravity and footwork would show slight variances, yet Zheng Tongtong betrayed not the slightest sign of it in motion. This feat alone demonstrated her exceptionally high mastery of jin; otherwise, she could never have achieved such seamlessness. If Chen Chuan could reach this level, Xiong Jianyi would never have been able to predict his next move by observing his movement cadence back then. Zheng Tongtong twirled both blades. "Junior brother, ready?" Chen Chuan raised his blade, set his stance firmly, and nodded. Without another word, Zheng Tongtong lunged forward, wielding both blades to slash at him in rapid alternation. Because Chen Chuan had only one blade to defend with, Zheng Tongtong initially kept a slower tempo. But as he adapted, her pace quickened, until blade light danced across the room in a dazzling flurry, accompanied by an endless succession of clangs. Before long, he realized just how brutally difficult this defense was. Not only did he have to alter his jin, but he also had to crank up his speed. Often, the instant he neutralized a heavy strike, the light blade would slash in with a swish; or having barely parried the light blade, he had to scramble to shift his jin to block an incoming heavy cleave. He had to smoothly modulate his rhythm between two completely different defensive responses while reacting swiftly and promptly. The fact that he had to stand his ground without dodging made it all the more challenging. This time, it took him two full days just to adapt. On the third day, Instructor Zheng called him over and taught him the breathing technique for regulating and shifting jin. He then told Chen Chuan that he would be clapping out a rhythm from the side. Whenever he clapped, Chen Chuan had to respond to the light blade as if it were heavy, and to the heavy blade as if it were light. Once the clapping stopped, he had to revert to the normal method, without the slightest error in between. As for the clash produced by inverting his force, there was no need to worry—Zheng Tongtong would shift her jin one step ahead of time. So long as his method was correct, nothing would go wrong. Merely dealing with the shifting blade strikes would have been manageable, but coordinating with Instructor Zheng's handclaps made it exceedingly difficult, as it constantly disrupted his rhythm. The claps were sometimes rapid, sometimes slow, sometimes sporadic single taps, and sometimes sudden bursts in unbroken succession. They varied constantly, deliberately timed to strike right as his breathing transitioned. A single slip would send the entire rhythm into disarray. Yet through it all, Zheng Tongtong did not make a single mistake. Her breathing could shift at will with uncanny skill; evidently, she was already thoroughly proficient in these variations. It took another two days before Chen Chuan grasped the knack of this breathing technique and gradually managed to keep pace with the shifting rhythm. Yet this was only the beginning. Instructor Zheng changed his method once again, instructing him that whenever he struck the tabletop with a fist, Chen Chuan had to parry using the heavy-blade response, and when he struck it with a palm, he had to parry using the light-blade response. Through the relentless tempering of these alternating drills, Chen Chuan's defensive skill steadily improved. Yet this was still only the fundamentals, for up to this point, all the attacks were mere straight slashes. Thus, on the sixth day, Instructor Zheng told Zheng Tongtong to incorporate jin variations into her strikes. This was even harder than countering heavy and light blades. Before blade met blade, there was no way to tell what kind of jin was loaded into the attack; he could only adjust at the exact moment of impact. Furthermore, Zheng Tongtong's dual blades whipped and danced with ever-shifting blade forms, testing his reflexes and adaptability to the extreme. This time, it took a full three days before he could barely keep up. Seeing that he had adapted and in not too much time, Instructor Zheng was quite pleased. "You've made rapid progress. You can be considered to have grasped the basics of defensive technique. That will be all for this month's training. Next month, we'll begin the next phase, where I'll teach you how to attack." Chen Chuan nodded. Over these past few days, although his mutated tissues felt sore, tight, and exhausted every evening after returning home, the feeling of growing every single day was wonderful and immensely fulfilling. In the past, he had only experienced this sensation of continuous advancement when he had first begun learning fighting skills under Yu Gang. It truly felt like a long-awaited reunion with that feeling. Beyond Instructor Zheng's dedicated teaching, Zheng Tongtong had also taken every single step as a sparring partner with utmost seriousness. Such an exceptional training partner was truly hard to come by. He thanked them sincerely: "Thank you, Instructor Zheng. Thank you, Senior Sister Zheng." Instructor Zheng smiled. "No need for thanks. When a student learns well, it's a pleasure for me as a teacher. Make sure to ponder and practice on your own as well. What a teacher passes on is only knowledge imparted; only when you grasp it yourself does it truly become yours." Chen Chuan agreed. After bidding farewell to Instructor Zheng and his daughter, he walked out of the residence and headed to the station. Before he could even board the tram, a message came through on his boundary credential from the Disposal Bureau. It notified him that his radiant light irradiation sessions were scheduled for tomorrow or the day after, allowing him to pick a preferred time for the bureau to finalize. He considered it. The day after tomorrow was a rest day, so tomorrow would be better. Quickly confirming a time slot, he submitted it directly through his boundary credential. Barely five minutes later, another voice message arrived, displaying its sender as Canglong Company. Connecting to it, a voice sounded in his ear: "Hello, Mr. Chen. I am Yin Fang, assistant to Section Chief Sun at Canglong Company. We have received an application for radiant light irradiation from the Disposal Bureau bearing your name. In accordance with Section Chief Sun's instructions, we will grant you an additional quota of three hours each month. The physical vouchers have already been dispatched, so please look out for them."