Book 3, Chapter 57: Stalking

Chen Chuan didn’t attack as brazenly as when he was fighting against Hongfu. Instead, he was cautious. If he wanted to break through Zheng Tongtong’s defense, he needed strategy and technique.

After a few attacks, he came to realize just how solid Zheng Tongtong’s foundation was. Every time she attacked or parried, she had no openings or flaws.

Chen Chuan felt as if he was facing a metal ball. No matter where he attacked, it was the same; he just couldn’t find any openings.

From the moment the fight started, Zheng Tongtong just kept defending. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t trying to counterattack, though. She was also waiting for the right chance.

Chen Chuan could sense that Zheng Tongtong had realized that he still had some refined force that he hadn’t used. That was why she was waiting for the moment he switched to his other batch of mutated tissue.

After all, when he was switching between two batches of mutated tissue, he needed to chain them together, because even if he could use his mutated tissue separately without worry, the generation of power came from his bones and muscles. If his mutated tissue tugged and yanked at them, he would end up getting hurt, so there was no way to avoid a slight pause during the switch.

If Zheng Tongtong attacked at that point, Chen Chuan would be forced into a highly defensive state.

Even so, he didn’t stop his offense. He was also trying to find the gap in Zheng Tongtong’s refined force chain while their weapons clashed.

But soon, he came to realize that the gap in her refined force chain was incredibly hard to grasp. It was heavily protected, and there was no set rhythm for it. This was due to her using an incredibly advanced breathing technique and refined force. It was something he hadn’t learned yet.

If that was the case, there was only one way for him to win—by waiting for Zheng Tongtong to attack him.

She would reveal an opening then, and he might be able to find his chance.

Half an hour after they started fighting, Zheng Tongtong suddenly sped up. Her broadsword turned into a blur, and she delivered three swift, consecutive slashes.

They came right at the time Chen Chuan switched his mutated tissue. The three slashes weren’t meant to attack him, but to deliver three waves of refined force into him.

The batch of mutated tissue that got hit first instinctively neutralized the refined force. His other batch moved to take over right as the second wave came at him, and he neutralized it again. But when the third wave came, Chen Chuan could not activate the first batch of mutated tissue, because it had yet to recover. They couldn’t catch up to Zheng Tongtong’s rhythm.

At this point, he couldn’t do anything in his normal state. Even if he let all his mutated tissue run free, it wouldn’t be able to generate enough power in such a short amount of time.

Yet even if it seemed like he could not do anything to block the third wave of refined force, he let all his mutated tissue loose. It wasn’t to let his emotions go wild and increase his fighting strength, but to mobilize the mutated tissue that was hidden in deeper parts of his body and harder to reach. He also forcefully brought his saber back a little after it was knocked to the side.

Clang!

That third wave of refined force knocked him several steps back, but he still managed to readjust his posture.

After the three slashes, Zheng Tongtong had a hard time continuing her assault and couldn’t close in on Chen Chuan. In shock, she watched him for a moment before giving him a thumbs up and praised him from the bottom of her heart. “Nice block, Chen Chuan!”

“It was pretty good. Alright, let’s stop here for now,” Mr. Zheng said with a chuckle.

Chen Chuan exhaled slowly. He had only been able to forcefully mobilize the mutated tissue just now in his pre-fusion state because his organs, bones, and fascia had been strengthened recently. Even so, he felt sore and numb all over. Quite a lot of the mutated tissue in the harder-to-reach areas was also torn.

Due to the distribution and their uses, not all mutated tissue was the same. Some were stronger, and some were weaker. Since the mutated tissue in those areas wasn’t strong enough, but Chen Chuan had activated it anyway, it was only a given that it would be torn. But it wasn’t as if there wasn’t a solution to this problem. After this, he was absolutely going to think of ways to make it stronger.

Mr. Zheng walked over and said, “You’ve figured out how to use your mutated tissue in batches. That’s good. When I taught you the two sets of refined force for defense and offense, you were supposed to use different mutated tissue to generate them. It was all to get you ready for this.

“The method you thought of to switch between mutated tissue might suit you, but I can see some weaknesses to it. That’s why I’m going to teach you the refined force and breathing technique I know. Learn it and then think of how to incorporate it in your method. There are a lot of important things in regard to this, so listen carefully.”

This time, Mr. Zheng didn’t just give oral instructions. He used his Realm Pass to pull up all sorts of mutated tissue diagrams before demonstrating how Chen Chuan should use the mutated tissue in different areas to generate power, how he should mobilize them and adjust them, and what sort of breathing technique he should use to switch between different batches of mutated tissue more naturally.

Chen Chuan would only be able to use this method with both the right refined force and breathing technique. Until now, he only had the right refined force. After hearing Mr. Zheng’s explanation, he immediately had a good idea of what he needed to do to master this method, and he was sure that if they fought again, he wouldn’t end up getting injured again.

Aside from that, Mr. Zheng taught him a series of refined force mobilizing techniques like gathering refined force, stacking it, grounding it, and releasing it.

At the end, he said, “I’ve taught you practically everything related to how to use refined force and the breathing technique required for it. If your only goal is to pass the university’s test, you’ll be fine already, but if you’re aiming for something higher, this is far from enough.”

Chen Chuan nodded at that. He knew all too well that it was impossible for him to learn everything related to technique in one go. Right now, he was just gobbling down all the information. If he wanted to turn it into something entirely his own, he would have to train long and hard and fight other people to figure out the essence of those techniques.

It was impossible for him to find a sparring partner as good as Zheng Tongtong outside, so he wasn’t going to miss this once-in-a-blue-moon chance.

When Mr. Zheng saw the determined look in his eyes, he felt pleased. “I can tell that you don’t want to be limited to just this. Good. Your goal for the rest of the semester will be to learn how to use those techniques in real combat and do strengthening training. I won’t give you a set schedule for your lessons. You can come whenever you want, aside from your days off.”

“Got it. Thank you, Mr. Zheng,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

“Alright. Continue with your training.”

“Okay.” Chen Chuan picked up his saber and continued sparring against Zheng Tongtong to get a grasp on how to use the techniques in real fights and digest what he had just learned.

Over the next few days, he traveled back and forth between the Arcane Palace and Mr. Zheng’s house.

Then, it was the end of March.

One day, Qi Gao uploaded a photo to the channel he shared with Wu Bei and Chen Chuan. It was a photo of him with his daughter. In front of them was a birthday cake. While Qi Gao looked pretty listless, the girl was quite cute and even made a funny face for the camera.

Chen Chuan checked the time and found that it was taken the day before. “How have you been, Mr. Qi?”

“Pretty good. I’ve paid a portion of the penalty, and that matter’s considered settled. I can accept missions again. By the way, I heard that not many people have been taking the anomalous-event missions, even after Gold Prawn disappeared.”

“I’m having lessons and am busy training, so I don’t think I’ll have time to take up any missions for the time being,” Chen Chuan replied.

“That’s okay. I’ll follow your lead. Just call me whenever you need me,” Qi Gao said.

“Could you keep a lookout on abnormalities that affect large areas? If you see any, please tell me about them,” Chen Chuan said.

While he wasn’t in a hurry to take up anomalous-event missions, he couldn’t just ignore a supernatural being causing wide-spread damage when he had the ability to take them out.

“Don’t worry. I’m keeping an eye out for you,” Wu Bei answered instead.

“Glad to hear that you’re keeping a lookout, Wu Bei,” Chen Chuan said before recalling something. “Mr. Qi, do you happen to know any place that sells things for children?”

It had been almost two months since he came to Central City, so he wanted to send some things to his family. While he could find everything on his Realm Pass, most of the things it recommended were rather expensive.

“I do know one place. I’ll send you the address. You won’t go wrong buying toys from there,” Qi Gao said.

Soon, Chen Chuan got an address. It led to a place called Treasure Fruits Market, which was at the edge of Glowing Dew District.

He took a look at the sky. It had been raining on and off over the past few days, but the sky was clear now. He might as well do his shopping.

So, he changed out of his clothes and left the Arcane Palace to take the tram to the shop. Just as Qi Gao promised, it had everything and more. It didn’t just have things from Central City, but also goods from rural cities.

That saved Chen Chuan time from running around everywhere to buy stuff. He first bought scarves, gloves, and hats for Nian Fuli and Yu Wan. He also got a Central City-made tobacco pipe, ashtray, and cigarettes Qi Gao recommended for Nian Fuli.

Meanwhile, for Yu Wan, he got a bundle of high-quality fabric, a beautiful porcelain tea set, and food products unique to Central City and the cities around it. For his cousins, he got a few cans of candy, some toys, and some trinkets.

He also saw a beautiful gramophone no one seemed to want, so he bought it, and the shop owner gave him quite a number of vinyl records.

For Cheng Zitong, he got a pair of Central City-made sunglasses with reflective lenses. After paying for everything, he paid to have the items delivered, but for safety’s sake, he didn’t fill out his house’s address. Instead, he had the items sent to Sealed District’s Constabulary.

Once he left the market, the sky was beginning to turn dark, so he hurried to the tram station before it started raining. While waiting for the tram, Wu Bei contacted him on the Realm Pass. “Chen Chuan, someone is observing you through a Realm Node’s domain.”

“Are you sure?” Chen Chuan asked as a flicker of emotion shone in his eyes.

“While they’re being really discreet about it, the same frequency has appeared a few times around you. It can’t be a coincidence,” Wu Bei stated.

“Do you know where they are?” Chen Chuan asked after a hum.

“That person is really cautious. They’re around sometimes, but at other times not. I was worried about alerting them, so I didn’t chase after them,” Wu Bei said.

“Don’t rush it. Do it only if you see a good chance,” Chen Chuan said.

“Got it.”

The first person Chen Chuan thought of was Wei Wusheng. After all, the Resolution Department had concluded that there was a resonator working with him, and he might even have an organization supporting him. Otherwise, he couldn’t have done what he did.

Just then, a tram arrived. He got up and, along with everyone else, entered with the Frost King Saber in hand.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep