Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Talent

Chen Shouyi couldn’t help but put himself in the place of the assessors. He wasn’t sure if he could pass, but he realized he could actually perform even better. His body was more agile than those being assessed, and his basic steps were becoming increasingly at his command.

The robot’s reactions always had slight pauses, making it not completely flawless.

As long as one kept their body in constant high-speed motion and didn’t linger too long at any moment, approaching the robot was entirely feasible.

“Next, No. 102, Chen Xingyue, for the assessment.”

Chen Xingyue immediately stood up.

“Don’t be nervous, you got this,” Chen Shouyi reassured her.

“Go for it!” Lu Shuyuan and Zhang Qianru also encouraged.

“Mm!” Chen Xingyue nodded heavily and walked to the ring.

Without hesitation, she took a deep breath and stepped into the sensing area.

“Assessment begins.”

Chen Xingyue picked up a wooden sword and moved slowly along the edge of the opponent’s attack zone. As she kept moving, the two mechanical arms also moved slowly along with her.

Chen Shouyi watched his sister intently; it was his first time seeing her fight, and he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous for her.

Then Chen Xingyue made a move; her steps were light as she advanced a step into the robot’s attack range.

The next moment, the mechanical arm instantly moved, and the long spear thrust rapidly toward her, piercing the air with a hissing sound.

Fortunately, she seemed to be prepared. She slightly tilted her body, easily dodging the spear, then suddenly accelerated, following the direction of the spear, her body crouched low, and started sprinting rapidly.

Her petite figure, leaning close to the ground as she ran, was like a swift, agile cat in a sprint.

The spear was retracting, and Chen Xingyue was advancing!

At this moment, another wooden sword of the robot quickly lunged forward.

Chen Xingyue, in high-speed motion, seemed to have a sixth sense, rolling her body to the left and narrowly dodged the wooden sword.

Chen Shouyi broke out in a cold sweat watching, but soon realized her movements were all completely planned and even simulated countless times in her mind. This direction was heading toward the mechanical arm holding the spear, and as the spear retracted preparing for the next attack, it was precisely this robot’s blind spot.

With just a clean and efficient roll, her body transitioned from movement to stillness, standing up again, while simultaneously thrusting the wooden sword out like lightning.

“Pa!” A sound rang out.

The wooden sword shattered, and the robot instantly stopped moving.

“Assessment passed!”

“Yay!” Hearing the result, the two girls immediately jumped up with excitement.

Chen Xingyue exhaled a breath, dropped the wooden sword, and turned to walk off the ring.

As she passed Chen Shouyi, she still wore a calm face, trying hard to act as if nothing had happened.

However, she was, after all, just a fifteen-year-old girl, and faced with her classmates, she couldn’t hold her joy any longer. Her smile grew wider, and then she and her classmates hugged, bouncing and jumping, releasing the excitement in her heart.

……

After sharing the good news with her parents, a group of them quickly found a relatively upscale restaurant to celebrate.

“Brother Shouyi, what’s your WeChat number? Let me add you,” Zhang Qianru, sitting next to him, asked during the wait for the food.

“Add me too, then we can chat together,” Lu Shuyuan said, her face slightly reddening.

“I don’t use WeChat,” Chen Shouyi said.

He found his sister’s two friends too enthusiastic, which made him, someone not used to interacting with girls, a bit uncomfortable.

The two seemed incredulous; in this day and age, there are still people who don’t use WeChat.

“My brother uses an old phone that doesn’t support the new version of WeChat,” Chen Xingyue explained on the side, “My mom is very strict.”

“Then why is your phone new?” Zhang Qianru asked, a bit puzzled.

Chen Xingyue’s face paused slightly, thinking: This is my reward for being specially recruited by the first school, my brother didn’t perform well before, so of course, he didn’t get one, but this fact can’t be mentioned outright, she needed to come up with another excuse.

Before she could figure out what to say, Chen Shouyi smiled and said,

“I don’t have much need for it, I’m usually focused on studying. For me, being able to make a call is enough.”

Chen Xingyue gave him a complex glance, perhaps she had grown too used to her brother’s ordinariness and hadn’t noticed his changes over this period. He seemed to become more confident, no longer blushing easily when faced with other girls, making things awkward for her!

After lunch, everyone went back home.

After the cab arrived at their doorstep, Chen Shouyi was about to get out when Chen Xingyue called out to him.

“Brother, wait, I have something to ask you.”

“What is it?” Chen Shouyi turned back, somewhat surprised to find Chen Xingyue seemed hesitant to speak.

This was unlike her usual self.

“Brother, have you… have you already become a Martial Artist Apprentice?”

At his sister’s question, Chen Shouyi felt it was somewhat inexplicable and said, “You’re talking in your sleep, how could I possibly be a Martial Artist Apprentice?”

“Then have you completed the total refinement of your muscles in your meditative cultivation?”

Chen Shouyi was taken aback for a moment, then immediately asked in confusion, “How did you know?”

He indeed had completed the refinement of all his muscles, but it was only a makeshift version, far short of achieving true refinement. However, even so, it benefited him greatly, making practicing swordsmanship easier, and mastering basic steps simpler. At times, he didn’t even need to think; the movements came naturally.

At the same time, it also allowed him to increase his awareness by 0.5 points, reaching 10.8.

Then, Chen Shouyi listened to Chen Xingyue’s explanation.

Realizing the actual reason, he realized that it wasn’t the effect of his meditative cultivation, or rather, his improvised version didn’t have such a significant effect.

The real reason was the aftereffect of frequently entering the mind of his remedial teacher; over time, his muscles subconsciously mimicked the gestures and movements.

But naturally, this wasn’t something he could explain to his sister, so Chen Shouyi hesitated for a moment, looking around, and whispered, “It’s a bit different from what you’re thinking. This isn’t the place to talk, let’s discuss it at home.”

After returning home, they found their parents were busy and, after asking a few excited questions, gave them some privacy.

Quickly, the two were in the living room.

“There’s a secret I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while, just could never find the chance,” Chen Shouyi began, organizing his thoughts silently.

He certainly wouldn’t reveal anything about the Book of Knowledge to Chen Xingyue; after all, such a thing was extraordinary, and the fewer people knew, the better.

“What secret?” Chen Xingyue’s curiosity was piqued by her brother’s mysterious demeanor, and she quickly leaned closer.

“I discovered a trick to the meditative cultivation of refining oneself. It’s because of this trick that I can easily refine all my muscles.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Xingyue’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Chen Shouyi was taken aback; he had never seen his sister with such an expression before.

But he quickly gathered his thoughts and described the optimized version of the meditative cultivation method.

If it were the optimized 36 Forms of Body Refinement, he would never dare to bring it out, given the drastic changes that had been made. It wasn’t something that could be dismissed as a hidden ancient manual found in some corner.

The 36 Forms of Body Refinement were backed by the Martial Arts Bureau, and were the result of the combined wisdom of hundreds of related labs, even thousands globally, with tens of thousands of related researchers.

No matter how wise an individual, even if they spent their entire life, they couldn’t create a more optimized version, let alone someone like him.

However, meditative cultivation was entirely different; in terms of specific actions, the optimized version was virtually unchanged. It still began with meditation, followed by muscle refinement. What changed was the subconscious thought during meditation and refinement, concepts that were more metaphysical.

“Is it that simple!” Chen Xingyue said, her mouth agape after hearing it.

“Simple? No, it’s not simple!” Chen Shouyi quickly denied, having looked up plenty of relevant information about meditative self-cultivation and had read up on some brain subconsciousness concepts online. Even a fool would understand how significantly the Book of Knowledge had changed meditative cultivation for him.

Its optimization was by no means as simple as it appeared.

“First, your meditation must be very deep, and you must control your subconscious, knowing what you’re going to refine next.”

“It’s like learning swordsmanship…” Chen Shouyi suddenly didn’t know how to describe it.

“Changing a person’s natural habits!” Chen Xingyue thought for a moment and said.

“Yes, exactly that. Normally, sensing the body, one feels it as a whole subconsciously. This method, however, forcibly overturns the natural instincts of sensing, making it perceive outlines instead,” Chen Shouyi realized.

Chen Xingyue was astonished, realizing this was much harder than changing one’s physical habits. After all, the former is intuitive and, while difficult, can be mastered with effort. But the latter is exceedingly abstract, utterly elusive.

Soon, a huge doubt floated to the surface of her mind, and she asked directly, “Then, brother, how did you learn it?”

Listening to her question made Chen Shouyi’s face flush slightly, but he immediately composed himself and said, “It might be my talent. I’m naturally able to control the subconscious.”

Watching his skeptical sister leave, Chen Shouyi breathed a sigh of relief.

Facing the scrutiny of a smart sister is truly an immense pressure.

If only she were a bit dimmer, it would be better.

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