Chapter 11: Interlude

After Yu Gang pointed out all the mistakes, Chen Chuan also replayed the blunders he made in his head. Even though he won, he had done so by pure luck.

Before the match, he had come up with a plan on how to attack, fight, and defend. Everything had been planned out to the last detail, but when the fight started, he found out that things did not happen as he expected. He also executed his techniques imperfectly, was unable to seize the perfect chance, and ran into other such problems.

He might have hit Lu Ke at one point, but that was purely because a chance popped up, and everything that happened after the Coiling Palm Lift was a spur-of-the-moment reaction. If Lu Ke had grabbed Chen Chuan’s head and pushed it down mid-hop, Chen Chuan might not have been able to execute his attack so smoothly. He would have ended up losing.

Chen Chuan gained a lot from the fight, and he came to understand that no matter how skilled and familiar he was with a technique, he might not be able to use it properly in a real fight. True fights were much more complicated than basic spars.

“Master, you didn’t let me use throws, so I couldn’t fight freely. When I was about to pull off a technique, I remembered that I can’t use it. I’m not used to it…” Lu Ke grumbled.

“Every place has its rules,” Yu Gang said gravely. “When we’re here, I give you rules. Once you go somewhere else, others will impose different rules on you. If you don’t obey them, do you think you’ll have room to argue about it? You’ll only be ostracized and eliminated. If you’re not used to it, think of a way to get used to it.”

Lu Ke felt miffed, but that feeling was largely due to Chen Chuan. He usually listened to Yu Gang, so he just ducked his head and said, “Got it, Master. I’m sorry.”

“Rest now. Use the method I taught you. You’ll fight again in five minutes.”

Chen Chuan went to the side but did not sit down. He grabbed a glass and took a few sips. With the help of the breathing technique, his depleted stamina quickly returned. He thought about how to fight the second round and what sort of moves Lu Ke would use.

If two people of similar strength fought, their fight would not be a contest of physical strength. It would, in fact, be a contest of the mind, so predictions and analysis were necessary.

Five minutes soon passed, and the second round began.

Chen Chuan didn’t switch to a defensive style because he won the last round. He continued taking the initiative. Lu Ke had also learned his lesson from the last fight. He used a lot of attacks made of a mix of feints and real moves. But he was still wary of Chen Chuan’s attacks, and overall, he remained on the defensive side.

This time, neither of them was able to get the upper hand against the other until the round ended, so Yu Gang decided to not give them any points.

Chen Chuan believed that Lu Ke was keeping his trump card for the third round, so this round was just a test, but Chen Chuan did not think that this was bad in any sense. Instead, he looked forward to it.

Yu Gang stood by the side quietly and observed their performances and reactions.

Five minutes later, the two walked to the center again to begin the final round of the day.

Lu Ke immediately charged forward. He had finally gotten used to the rules, and since this was the last round, he did not need to save his stamina anymore. He could launch a preemptive attack without caring about the risks. If he did not defeat Chen Chuan this round, he would lose the match. So, he was no longer wary of any attacks.

In any case, he was stronger than Chen Chuan. Once he let go of his inhibitions, he instantly overpowered him.

In the face of Lu Ke’s fierce attacks, swift movements, and unrelenting offense, Chen Chuan could only be on the defensive without using his second self. He could not launch any effective counterattacks.

His saving grace was the breathing technique, which provided him with enough stamina and durability to handle the lightning-fast offense. He was even starting to get used to it. Meanwhile, he never gave up on looking for a chance to counterattack. Sometimes, he could even launch a rather threatening attack, forcing Lu Ke to end his barrage of attacks for a moment.

Hence, up to the very end, Lu Ke did not manage to defeat him.

The third round ended. Due to Lu Ke’s obvious advantage, Yu Gang gave him one point. Once the scores were tallied, Chen Chuan won, so Lu Ke was the one who took care of the cleaning.

After Chen Chuan stepped away from the sparring grounds, he felt really hungry. He knew that this was because the breathing technique had burned away his energy, so he went to sit down and eat three tubes of nutritional paste to recover some of his alertness and energy.

Lu Ke could not recover as fast as Chen Chuan could. He gasped for breath while drenched in sweat. When he went for some water, he kept tapping and kneading various parts of his body to relieve the pain from the bruises sustained during the fight and to ease his anxiety.

“This is just the first day. You’re going to fight every day from now on. I’m going to increase the frequency as time passes, so get used to it as soon as possible,” Yu Gang said.

Lu Ke gulped some water down and said, “Master, I don’t think Mr. Chen is used to the chores here. They’re very tiring, so I’ll do them in the future. You don’t have to give us points to decide who wins.”

“You’re too kind, Lu Ke. A win’s a win, and a loss is a loss. With the breathing technique, I won’t feel tired from chores,” Chen Chuan said.

Lu Ke instantly fell silent and continued drinking his water.

Yu Gang structured their daily training focused on fighting. Whenever they finished a round, he would analyze the fight so that they knew their mistakes, how to fix them, and what they should have done.

After the fights, Yu Gang also taught Chen Chuan some slightly more complicated Major Sanshou techniques, which included elbow strikes, knee strikes, grabs, holds, throws, chokes, and others. As Chen Chuan improved, Yu Gang also lessened the restrictions he placed on Lu Ke during the fights. This was advantageous to him, since he was more familiar with the new techniques Chen Chuan learned, and his chances of winning became higher because of it.

Chen Chuan did not back down because of the difficulty. Instead, he welcomed this sort of fighting, because it allowed him to get used to the various new techniques and get more experience.

Honestly, Lu Ke was perfect as an opponent. He was not too strong, and there was a possibility for Chen Chuan to catch up to him. That was why he could sense himself getting stronger practically every day, and it was a great feeling. The amount of time he could overlap with his second self also increased slowly.

The only thing Chen Chuan found regretful was that Yu Gang only let them fight three times a day: once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening. Chen Chuan felt that with his and Lu Ke’s stamina, Yu Gang could let them fight a few more times, which was why he suggested it, but Yu Gang never gave him an answer.

Chen Chuan continued asking for more rounds until one time, when another fight ended, he noticed Lu Ke gasping for breath and running to a corner as if to take something. Chen Chuan never asked for extra rounds after that.

Since fighting used up a lot of energy, he needed to take in a sufficient amount of nutrients and had his meals at Yu Gang’s place every day. Aside from the nutritional paste, the black rat pumpkin porridge also became a fixed meal.

Based on what Yu Gang knew, the damage caused by the breathing technique lurked deep in the body and might torment a martial artist for life. Hence, while Chen Chuan was still young, he had to repair as much of that damage as possible. If he ate the black rat pumpkin porridge two months straight, he would heal most of it. Yet even so, some of the damaged parts could never be repaired.

This was something that could not be helped, and it was the price to be paid for taking a shortcut. After all, martial artists of humble backgrounds only had limited funds and resources, so the only thing they could afford to burn through were their bodies.

Chen Chuan could not tell Yu Gang that his second self could take all the damage done to him by the breathing technique, but he was not against eating the black rat pumpkin porridge. Every day, after training, he suffered muscle damage, and he could heal with the medicinal food.

Any other person would get sick of eating the same type of food every day for two months, but Chen Chuan had no complaints. Lu Ke was sincerely impressed by it.

The end of June approached as Chen Chuan continued his training. One day, after the morning fight, Yu Gang called Chen Chuan over and told him, “I need to tell you something: it’s time for you to pay again.”

Chen Chuan nodded. He had paid Yu Gang fifty devs at the start, then another fifty in the middle of the month, and now he needed to pay again.

But this was a necessary expense. After all, that money was being spent on him. Honestly, Yu Gang did not even ask for much. Chen Chuan was sure that the tubes of nutritional paste, meals, equipment, training grounds, sparring fees and other expenses were far more than fifty devs.

“I’ll bring the money tomorrow.”

Yu Gang was about to say something when rushed footsteps came from outside, and their conversation came to a forced stop.

Chen Chuan looked out. Two long alleys were connected to the Domain of Fists. Over the month or so since he had started training, no one besides the three of them had ever come through the area.

For the first time, someone came to disturb their peace.

Chen Chuan cast a glance at Yu Gang. When the man motioned for him to go, Chen Chuan immediately put down his water bottle and belongings before running out. Soon, he heard the sounds of people talking. Lu Ke was talking to their visitors, and judging from their tone of voice, they were quite polite. After a while, Lu Ke ran back in and said, “Master, it’s the Chain—”

“Got it,” Yu Gang interrupted him. He stood up and turned to Chen Chuan. “Continue training. I need to take care of some business.”

He then went outside.

Chen Chuan didn’t listen. He followed right behind him.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep