As the explosive crack died away,
a searing heat burst across his left cheekbone.
Warm liquid instantly welled out, sliding down his cheek and dripping into the corner of his mouth.
Salty. Rank with blood.
Zhou Kai instinctively retreated half a step and casually wiped at it with his hand.
“Not bad reflexes.”
Chen Ping withdrew his fist and stood still, not the slightest trace of apology on his face—not even a ripple of emotion.
His gaze was calm as a deep pool.
“But you can be faster!”
The moment he finished speaking, Chen Ping assumed his stance again. That dense, solid killing intent once more locked onto Zhou Kai.
“Continue!”
Zhou Kai drew a deep breath, the air mixed with the smell of blood pouring into his lungs.
The stinging pain from the wound on his face was like some valve opening in his adrenal glands.
Here it was… that familiar feeling.
His heartbeat pounded like war drums, and his blood roared through his veins.
A fine tremor ran through his entire body—not from fear, but excitement.
“Good! Continue!”
Zhou Kai bared his teeth and smiled in satisfaction. The tip of his tongue licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, and the clarity in his eyes was replaced by a kind of madness.
The world rapidly faded in his perception until only black and white remained.
Chen Ping was no longer a coach, but an aggregation of countless vital points and weaknesses.
Throat, eye sockets, temples, knee joints…
Boom!
Zhou Kai stomped hard against the floor, his entire body shooting out like a cannonball.
He no longer defended, no longer dodged. Instead, he fused together every skill he had learned over these days—[Mixed Martial Arts], [Light Footwork], [Soraka Swordsmanship]…
All of it was blended into the most primitive, purest form of attack!
A smile likewise appeared at the corners of Chen Ping’s mouth.
Good. That was it!
This was the person I had my eye on!
The dull thuds of fists and palms colliding, the crisp cracks of bones striking bone, echoed madly through the sealed space.
From three in the afternoon to nine at night.
A full six hours.
Zhou Kai could no longer remember how many times he had been knocked down, nor how many times he had been awakened by agony on the verge of passing out.
His left arm had been dislocated three times, each time casually pressed back into place by Chen Ping.
The muscles in his right leg were torn, still burning with pain even now…
At one minute past nine, when Zhou Kai tried once again to climb up from the floor, his body finally could no longer bear the burden.
No amount of adrenaline could make this machine, pushed to the brink of its limits, start up again.
He leaned against the weapon rack, every inch of muscle throughout his body trembling.
Across from him, Chen Ping merely had a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead.
“Coach Chen.” Zhou Kai’s voice was hoarse. “Is this also an effect brought by ancient martial arts?”
“Yes.” Chen Ping casually picked up a single saber and seemed to make a few aimless motions with it. The light of the blade flickered beneath the lamps, cold enough to pierce the bone.
“When you fought me, how much of your strength did you use?”
Chen Ping raised a brow and laughed despite himself. “I don’t want to crush your confidence. I’ll tell you later.”
“Is that so…”
Zhou Kai stopped asking.
It would be pointless even if he did.
The gap in strength had to be measured with fists.
Sooner or later, he would know.
He closed his eyes and looked at the subtitles of his gains.
[Mixed Martial Arts EXP +5]
[Light Footwork EXP +7]
…Worth it.
As he settled his mind and recovered, Chen Ping suddenly spoke. “There is one thing in which you exceeded my expectations. Very few people at your stage can make use of their emotions instead of being controlled by them.”
Zhou Kai opened his eyes. His gaze was still clear—or rather, possessed a unique kind of calm.
Chen Ping put down the single saber, not stingy with his praise. “Learning to make use of hormones, to make use of emotion, to treat the body as a machine that can be overclocked at any moment—that is the prerequisite for becoming a qualified martial fighter. You already possess the key to controlling even greater power.”
Zhou Kai raised a hand and lightly touched the scabbed wound on his cheekbone.
“So that’s how it is. That punch of yours was to help me enter the proper state…”
“No.” Chen Ping shook his head, an innocent smile appearing on his face. “I simply got carried away and failed to control my strength for a moment.”
Zhou Kai: “…”
“Go eat dinner.” Chen Ping turned around. “My promise remains unchanged. If you can still come back, I’ll be here until tomorrow morning.”
Zhou Kai’s eyes flickered, and he nodded. “All right. I need a few hours. I’ll come back in the early morning.”
He planned to return to the Nightmare once and use the fireplace to recover from his full-body fatigue.
…
Downstairs from Falcon Wing Boxing Gym, Lu Yan was carrying her bag and had already been waiting for more than an hour.
When she saw Zhou Kai come downstairs, she immediately trotted over. Keenly noticing the wound on Zhou Kai’s face, her delicate brows shot upright at once.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone? It was that coach again, wasn’t it? What exactly is he trying to do? No, I’m reporting him!”
The fact that someone had actually been waiting for him made the faint tension in Zhou Kai’s heart dissipate considerably, yet because of it, he felt even more exhausted.
Zhou Kai raised his hand and pressed down on the phone she was about to dial with.
“Sis, it’s a misunderstanding. Coach Chen did it for my own good.”
Lu Yan froze under his gaze. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she unnaturally pushed his hand away, rolling her eyes. “Fine. My concern was wasted!”
Zhou Kai smiled, revealing just the right amount of apology. “How about I treat you to dinner today?”
As soon as he said it, he seemed to remember something: Oh, right. The money for the meal was still what you transferred to me yesterday.
Lu Yan looked haughty, planting her hands on her hips and nodding. “Who wants to eat a meal from a poor brat like you!”
And yet, twenty minutes later…
At a food stall, Lu Yan happily snatched away the pan-fried bun in front of Zhou Kai with her chopsticks.
Both of them trained their bodies, and their appetites were decent.
After finishing the first round of dishes, they were barely half full.
So Lu Yan called the waiter over to add more dishes.
During the gap while they were ordering more food, Zhou Kai asked as if casually, “Sister Yan, has my sister recently made a friend named Sui Die?”
Lu Yan was Zhou Qing’s university roommate and close best friend. Their relationship was so intimate they were practically like blood sisters…
So much so that Zhou Kai had almost come to regard her as an actual older sister.
Lu Yan’s movements stiffened. The corners of her mouth twitched, and her gaze dodged to the side. “Ha… She already brought her to meet you?”
Zhou Kai narrowed his eyes. “Who exactly is she?”
Lu Yan seemed to be hiding something. She hemmed and hawed, saying, “Anyway, I don’t really know. I only know that the two of them… met last year.”
Last year?
Zhou Kai felt relieved. His earlier judgment had been confirmed.
As for what Sui Die and his sister were actually up to, it was best not to concern himself with that.
Zhou Kai and Lu Yan’s eyes met, and both of them had the feeling that they knew what the other was thinking.
Lu Yan gave a dry laugh, indicating that some things were better left undiscussed.
“It’s all in the juice!”
Lu Yan raised her orange juice.
Zhou Kai also raised his lychee soda.
…
After they had eaten and drunk their fill.
“I’ll go settle the bill. You stay here.”
Lu Yan had said she was going to quit drinking, but after downing a cup of fruit juice, she became somewhat stifled.
Very quickly, six liang of baijiu went down her stomach, burning her until she sprawled over the table, reduced to a puddle of mush.
To Zhou Kai, this was purely an accident.
Looks like I’ll have to find a way to get Sister Yan home first.
Zhou Kai shook his head and patted Lu Yan on the shoulder, signaling for her not to move around.
He quickly walked toward the front counter.
“Bill, please.”
However, what he had not expected was that the girl at the front desk’s chin was almost about to smash into the counter. Her head bobbed up and down like a roly-poly toy.