Book 3, Chapter 250: Training Center

When Chen Chuan arrived downstairs, he saw an ordinary-looking Common Glory sedan heading toward him. The door opened once it was near him, and Chen Chuan saw Advisor Pei sitting at the back. The moment their eyes met, Advisor Pei gave him a nod and a wave.

Chen Chuan returned it before going in. Once the door closed, they drove onto the flyover.

Advisor Pei grabbed his briefcase and handed Chen Chuan a stack of documents.

“This is the newest information about Chen Bitong. He has decided upon the location of his training class, and it’s in its pilot test phase. Only those whom he invited can join. Classes will open to the public only next month.

“Captain Chen, if you’re free, why don’t you go and show your face? Aside from you, there should be a few other students there. They’ll be helpful for getting closer to Chen Bitong. If you can, you should befriend them.”

Then, he handed a few tickets to Chen Chuan. “Also, there’s going to be a theater production at the end of the month that Chen Bitong has been confirmed to be attending. Many important government officials will also be there. You should go as well.”

Chen Chuan took a look at the tickets and found that they were, just as he expected, to the same production Tan Zhi had mentioned. Even though Tan Zhi had already invited him there, Chen Chuan saw no harm in getting a few more tickets. He put them away and said, “I’ll go.”

“I’m going to say this again: You don’t need to do anything special. Just join their circle and get close to Chen Bitong. If he does anything unusual, tell us as soon as possible. If the people in his circle give you another invitation to join their group, just ignore it,” Advisor Pei said with a smile.

“Hypothetically, wouldn’t it be easier for me to enter his circle if I pretended to join their group?” Chen Chuan asked.

“You need to go through a strict vetting procedure to join. Regardless of whether you do it for real or not, once you’re in there, that will permanently be on your record, so I suggest staying far away from them,” Advisor Pei rejected the idea with a shake of his head.

Chen Chuan nodded in understanding.

The sedan drove up and down the flyover once before the driver sent him back to the university.

Once Chen Chuan was back in his room, he read through the information Advisor Pei had given him. After he got a good idea what to expect, he browsed through the niche channel for a bit and went to bed.

The next morning, he woke up at the usual time and went through his daily training before heading out at 9 a.m..

The training class was located at Martial Order District, but close to Majestic Light District—the downtown of Central City. Chen Chuan had to drive for half an hour to reach the place.

From this, he could tell that Chen Bitong had good connections. The training center was located on the top ten floors of a fifty-story office building.

The weather was great, and the dark blue curtain wall reflected the scenery. The building was also the only one among the tons of others that had no light show. It also played no advertisements, which made it truly unique.

Chen Chuan smoothed out his cuffs and headed inside. At the checkpoint, he showed his ID card, and a voice appeared in his Realm Pass. “Identity verified. Good morning, Captain Chen. The training center is currently in its pilot phase. If you’d like to observe and understand it, please head to the forty-second floor.”

Chen Chuan entered the elevator and went to the forty-second floor. Then, he walked down the corridor and entered the training hall in the south through the wide-open door.

Perhaps it was because the training center wasn’t officially open to the public yet and because Chen Chuan had arrived relatively early, there was nothing inside aside from some essential training equipment and one teenager. He was hitting a puppet’s joints and other vital parts of its body. Occasionally, he moved his feet and shifted to another spot or exhaled and shouted.

The boy was around fifteen years old. Even though he was young, Chen Chuan could tell that he had begun breathing training, which was a year or two earlier than most. One had to meet all the conditions and have an excellent foundation for that.

Since there was no one else around and the boy wasn’t using a top-secret technique, Chen Chuan went over and watched him for a bit. Almost immediately, he could see that while the boy worked hard, he was not doing it correctly.

“You’re doing it wrong,” he pointed out.

The boy stopped.

“You’re training for grappling-type refined forces, but with your size and distribution of mutated fascia, you’re more suited for Sanshou-type refined forces,” Chen Chuan continued.

The boy paused for a moment before ignoring him and continuing his training.

Chen Chuan smiled when he saw that the boy wasn’t listening. He didn’t say anything more and examined the rest of the training center.

“Really?” the boy asked after Chen Chuan turned away.

Chen Chuan turned back to the boy and found that he was watching him skeptically. “Did you come here for his training class too?”

“Are you talking about Mr. Chen? He invited me to join,” Chen Chuan offered.

“But I’ve never seen you before.”

“That’s because this is my first time here,” Chen Chuan pointed out.

The boy scrutinized him a little longer before asking hesitantly, “What should I do?”

Chen Chuan turned to the side and headed to a puppet about the same size as he was. He grabbed it and dragged it over, then punched it in the chest. The area caved in instantly. Then, he followed with a side kick, and the puppet’s arm broke.

After that, he rammed his knee into the puppet’s stomach, causing it to bend over, and slammed his palm at the head. It let out a loud snap and fell backward. In the end, he grabbed the puppet’s face, and with a slight squeeze, the head shattered with a bang.

As he wiggled his fingers, the powder on them fell off. Chen Chuan turned around and said to the boy staring at him with wide eyes, “You just need to practice these moves, and you’ll be good to go.”

The boy was momentarily stunned, then excitement shone in his eyes.

The puppets were custom-made to be incredibly tough and heavy. No matter how the average person hit them, they couldn’t damage them even in the slightest, but with just a few attacks, Chen Chuan had completely wrecked the puppet. This level of destruction was much more convincing than any lecture.

The boy was eager to start.

Chen Chuan stepped aside and encouraged him, “Try it.”

The boy went forward and stood in front of the puppet to attack it the way Chen Chuan had done. It took him some time to remember the exact moves, but after a few rounds, he became familiar with them.

As he punched, he let out a shout, and with a loud bang, the heavy puppet swayed.

Excitement filled the stunned boy. Before this, no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to make the puppet budge. It had changed now, so he started attacking the puppet the way he had just learned.

Chen Chuan watched him for a while. The boy had a good foundation and memory, so he was a quick study. Of course, the moves Chen Chuan showed him weren’t hard to remember. If he had shown any more, the boy would have had a hard time picking up Sanshou.

Chen Chuan hadn’t attacked the puppet superficially. He had also shown which mutated tissue one was supposed to use to generate power.

In the past, he couldn’t do this, but after he began mental training, he could do the necessary adjustments to every minor part of his body.

This was going to give him a huge boost in fights. He could now generate stronger and more intricate refined forces.

The boy was attacking the puppet with gusto, and it was swaying much more than before. This was because he was generating power correctly and utilizing more mutated tissue in his attacks.

After hitting the puppet for two minutes, the boy stepped away while panting and observed himself curiously. In the past, he didn’t feel tired even after fighting for up to twenty minutes, but today, he felt tired after just a bit of training.

Chen Chuan explained it to him. “Your mutated fascia is still underdeveloped. You did not use it in your attacks before because of how you generated power. Most of the time, you used your muscles and regular fascia. Just now, though, you used your mutated fascia. That’s why your mutated fascia is feeling exhausted. It’s not your body that’s tired.

“Once the mutated fascia rests, it’ll become stronger than before and more suited for how you generate power. You can take medicine to help with recovery, and if you have the money, you can hire a masseuse.”

The boy listened attentively, and Chen Chuan could tell he took his advice to heart. Then, he looked up and asked, “If I… If I stop practicing grappling, how should I train?”

“The simplest way is to learn Major Sanshou. Not only will this increase your fighting power, but it’ll also smooth over and correct the mutated fascia that have shifted from their original positions because you were practicing grappling. Once you’ve pushed them back to their correct positions, you can try learning Principle Sanshou. When your mutated fascia gets used to it and becomes stronger, you can try practicing Sanshou-type refined forces,” Chen Chuan suggested.

“Thank you,” the boy said sincerely.

No one had ever told him this in the past, so he had practiced according to textbooks and bits of information he gathered around. But he didn’t know how to link all the information together or how to train.

“It’s just a few suggestions. It’s nothing,” Chen Chuan waved off his thanks.

Just then, the elevator door opened, and people came out while chatting. The group headed over to them.

Chen Chuan looked over and saw more than ten people. Some of them were dressed in military uniforms, but most were in casual clothes.

The group also saw Chen Chuan when they walked in. A burly man sized up Chen Chuan. Then, he said a few things to the person beside him, gave him a nod, and walked over. “Are you Captain Chen?”

“That’s me,” Chen Chuan answered.

The boy stared at him and remembered his title.

The burly man stood still in front of Chen Chuan. Since he was more than two meters tall, he gave off an imposing aura. He grinned and said, “The name’s Ding Mai, and I’m currently serving in the merged space. I lead a small unit myself. Of course, I’m not getting promoted as fast as you are.

“I’ve heard of your achievements, Captain Chen. You killed the Iron Monster. Honestly, I was sent to the front lines on a defensive mission, or I would have been sent to face off against him instead of you.”

“Is that so?” Chen Chuan said.

“I have a ten-day break in Central City, so I came to learn some things from Instructor Chen, but now that I saw you, I’d like to spar with you. I don’t really care who wins here. I’m just curious as to how strong the person who defeated the Iron Monster and who got a personal invitation from Instructor Chen is,” Ding Mai said as he stared at Chen Chuan.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep