Chapter 25: Confrontation

After Chen Chuan got the information about his potential opponents in the follow-up exam, he went straight to the Domain of Fists. He told Yu Gang all about it.

“So, you refused the aid?” Yu Gang asked.

“Yes, Mr. Yu. I don’t want to have my freedom restricted by the Mutual Aid Group,” Chen Chuan answered frankly.

“It’s your decision to make. Let me see the students’ information,” Yu Gang said.

Chen Chuan took out the pages from his bag, and Yu Gang flipped through them. “I wouldn’t say that there’s too little information. It’s just very vague. It’s hard to come up with a targeted training plan with this.”

Chen Chuan nodded. Aside from his potential opponents’ ages, heights, weights, and specialties, he had received no other specifics.

“If you don’t accept the aid, you won’t be able to get an upper hand in terms of information. You’ll have to rely on your own strength to fight head-on against your opponent.”

Chen Chuan gave a nonchalant smile at that. “I’ll do that, then.”

After he learned and managed to pull off the Soul Jolting Strike, he had the confidence to fight against any upperclassman who had learned refined force. He had been somewhat reserved and guarded about it mentally before, but after the fight in the alley, the reverence he held toward upperclassmen seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

Yu Gang noticed the change in his mental state. “Did you run into someone on your way back yesterday?”

Yu Gang’s keen observation surprised Chen Chuan somewhat, but he had nothing to hide. “I got ambushed by some people I suspect to be gang members.”

“Looks like you’ve been through your first real fight. That’s good,” Yu Gang said after observing him for a moment.

He did not ask for details, because it was not abnormal to run into an ambush by gang members in this area. The people who lived in the western part of the city had to interact with gang members almost every day. Besides, Chen Chuan was Nian Fuli’s nephew, so Yu Gang did not need to ask for details. Nian Fuli would take care of it.

Instead, he said, “Let’s go back to the follow-up exam. You can fight based on the information you gleaned about the upperclassmen, but you can also fight without it. Here’s my suggestion: over the next month, experience more real fights. Fight against different people with different styles. Lu Ke won’t be enough as your sparring partner anymore.

“So, you need to go to some martial arts schools and fight their students or instructors with the excuse of sparring with them. Some martial artists don’t reject the idea of fighting against a good opponent. But you have to pick the right martial arts school for that. Not all of them think that way. If you don’t have a powerful family, they will only want to cripple you.”

There was actually another way, which was to go to the underground fighting ring opened by the two biggest gangs in the city. One was bound to run into all sorts of different opponents there, but again, Chen Chuan was Nian Fuli’s nephew, so Yu Gang did not mention it.

Chen Chuan nodded. The first place he thought about was the Heroic General School he had visited before. It had given him a good impression, and it was close to the Domain of Fists. He should look for sparring partners there first.

In the afternoon, Chen Chuan continued with the day’s basic training before he left early to run to the Heroic General School in West Post District.

It was still rather early, so the lights outside the door were not lit yet. Only a few students were inside. The rest were all martial artists of the martial arts school.

Liang Fang was using a resistance band to practice his techniques. When he saw Chen Chuan, he was taken aback, then he remembered something: Mr. Gu had mentioned that if Chen Chuan came again, Liang Fang was to tell him. But after seeing him again, Liang Fang wondered whether he had gotten the wrong person. Chen Chuan looked pretty handsome and did not have the ferocity of someone seasoned by years of fighting.

He went up and greeted him with a smile. “It’s been a while since you came here, kid. Do you want to practice first?”

Chen Chuan went straight to the point. “I heard that I can spar with the martial artists here. Would it be possible?”

Liang Fang stiffened. He said tentatively, “Um... Do you mind waiting for a while? Our instructor just went out...”

“You don’t need an instructor for that. I can spar with you,” someone said from the back.

A huge man stood up from a cushion and walked over.

He was around twenty-seven years old, had a strong, angular face, and tough muscles. He even had a white towel over his neck. When he came over, he was staring at Chen Chuan.

“Kid, this is one of our veteran martial artists, Senior Brother Yan,” Liang Fang quickly introduced.

Senior Brother Yan arrived in front of Chen Chuan. He had been thinking that Chen Chuan was the type who thought of himself as a hot shot after learning a few moves and was imitating the troublemakers who liked challenging other martial arts schools, so he came over to put pressure on him, but Chen Chuan remained calm and didn’t try to act tough. “You’re pretty interesting. What do you say about fighting me?”

Chen Chuan was not picky about his opponents. He wanted to see just how strong was a veteran martial artist from the Heroic General School. “Sure.”

“Do you want protective gear?”

“No need,” Chen Chuan replied.

Senior Brother Yan grinned. “You’ve got guts. Don’t come crying about how much it hurts later.”

“I doubt that will happen.” Chen Chuan smiled.

“Oh, you’re tough. I like people like you.” Senior Brother Yan gave him a thumbs-up, removed his towel, and went to the side to warm-up.

Chen Chuan removed his jacket and started exercising his limbs as well.

He warmed up according to the booklet Yu Gang had given him. It was no longer solely for the students from Martial Valor University. The booklet had been published for more than a decade and had circulated among the public for a long time. Plenty of people used it, so anyone watching him to figure out what school of martial arts he used would not be able to read anything from his warm-up routine. They would only be able to figure it out after he got into the ring.

It was not the time for the daily scheduled spars yet, but people loved watching entertaining things. They had also been watching the same few people for a while, so when a new face showed up, it immediately caught their interest.

Everyone in the school came over. Even the ones who had been training got up to watch the spar. Some people even grabbed watermelons, cut them into slices, and distributed them to all the spectators.

Someone started heckling Senior Brother Yan. “Yan, be nice! Don’t scare the kid!”

“Exactly! We don’t want a repeat of last time! That one peed all over the floor!”

“I’m eating a watermelon here. Could you not talk about something so disgusting? Scram.”

“Hahaha!”

They laughed. Training was hard and boring, so all of them let loose when they had something entertaining to watch.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Senior Brother Yan sneered. “He won’t get the chance.”

Once they finished warming up, they got into the ring.

This was the first time Chen Chuan stepped into a boxing ring. The floor underneath was quite bouncy, and it made it hard for him to control his center of gravity.

Senior Brother Yan could tell, but he just narrowed his eyes at that and said nothing.

Since this was not an official match, they did not need a judge. Chen Chuan and Senior Brother Yan would decide just how far the fight would go.

Liang Fang remembered the punching bag from the other day and suddenly felt quite worried. He shouted, “Please don’t go too hard on him!”

Senior Brother Yan could not tell that those words were actually directed at Chen Chuan. He snapped at Liang Fang impatiently, “I know what I’m doing.”

Someone eagerly tugged on the rope attached to the boxing bell, and it rang.

Senior Brother Yan immediately pressed forward with one hand positioned in front of the other, just like Chen Chuan, but the hand he positioned in front was lower than the one at the back. He kept lifting his lead leg and setting it down again, as if he was going to execute a kick at any time.

As always, Chen Chuan took up the stance of Major Sanshou and lowered his center of gravity slightly. Even though it looked nothing special and seemed like something anyone could do, he gave off a sense that he knew what he was doing.

Non-martial art practitioners would not be able to tell the difference between the stance used by a real martial artist and a rookie, but most people in the school could. They stopped laughing and became more serious.

Senior Brother Yan also stopped taking Chen Chuan lightly. Since Chen Chuan had a steady footing, Senior Brother Yan also went still before bringing his front leg up to fake a kick, only to spin around and deliver a back sweep.

Right when Senior Brother Yan made his move, Chen Chuan’s gaze sharpened. He charged forward and executed Major Sanshou’s Circling Push. His palms landed on Senior Brother Yan’s waist. Before Senior Brother Yan could finish executing the back sweep, he was pushed down with a thud.

Unless he ran into a powerful opponent or was in actual danger, Chen Chuan did not overlap with his second self for a long time. Instead, he only did it when he was using a technique. That way, he could hide his secret and catch his opponents off guard. It also saved up the time he could overlap with his second self.

When Senior Brother Yan hit the floor pathetically, someone let out a low whistle and said, “Yan underestimated the kid. He didn’t even test the waters and just attacked recklessly without even knowing what the kid is capable of.”

“That’s right. If this were a proper spar, he would have thrown the fight by being pushed down.”

In reality, they were just running their mouths. Martial arts schools were set up to do business and needed to attract people’s attention. The martial artists had to be good fighters but also be able to execute their techniques beautifully. If anyone else were in Senior Brother Yan’s shoes, they would also show off their moves, or they would not be able to call themselves martial artists.

After Chen Chuan succeeded in pushing Senior Brother Yan down, he did not continue attacking him. Instead, he immediately retreated.

This was a sparring match, not a fight to the death. He was also in foreign territory. Besides, he was still hoping to spar against the school’s instructor, so he had to be respectful.

Senior Brother Yan swiftly climbed to his feet. He did not seem to mind that he had been pushed down, since getting hit during a spar was a normal occurrence. If he could not even control his emotions, there would not be any need for him to fight.

He could tell, however, that Chen Chuan was going easy on him. He did not thank him for that, because the best way to repay that courtesy was to show his true strength and throw him off his feet as well.