Chapter 23 (1/2)

Chapter 23: Killing Style, One

Even though he had suffered before at the beginning, the degree of difficulty of this fist style still completely exceeded Yue Qiang’s expectations.

He had practiced it for almost three months straight!

This was just unbelievably difficult.

At first it seemed average, but the more he trained the more he felt that this set of fist fighting techniques… made zero sense.

It was only all too easy to make a single move, but the moment he transited to the links that connected them it became so difficult that it was nearly impossible to complete. Moreover, she said that this fist style was supposed to be powerful? He couldn’t see how.

If he supposed that could use this set of fist fighting technique in-game after learning it in real life, then the skill that corresponded with this technique would probably be a big fat zero.

It was just incomparable. It was far lousier than the skill that he had seen on that Zhao Soldier, much less the skills of the enemies that would appear in later quests such as the mini-boss Zhao Officer.

The only a.s.sessment Yue Qiang could give to this fist style was that it looked beautiful. When Luqiu Duanyi danced it was as if an angel was scattering flowers across the land. During this period, she had checked in on him and even demonstrated it again a couple of times and corrected some of his moves. Her movements were beautiful and standard, but she did not provide any guidance whatsoever to Yue Qiang’s main problem – the interlinking points of the fist style.

She did not even provide verbal guidance.

But even then, Yue Qiang could see the worry and urgency forming between her eyebrows.

Later on, he had also suspected that this was a method to train one’s const.i.tution through external exercise. Perhaps he could train his body’s flexibility, balance and control through these high level connecting movements. That was why, on the fourth day of his practice, he had purposely cleared up some time to go back to his rented house, log into the Game, check his stats and verify his suspicions.

There were no changes in his stats whatsoever.

With that, he completely gave up and began seriously practicing this fist style without cutting any corners.

The good news was that the saying, ‘diligence can compensate for lack of natural talent’ was still applicable.

After over two months of hard work, he had finally completely master the fist style.

On the same late afternoon he mastered the fist style, Luqiu Duanyi saw him off at the entrance of the fitness club while holding a soft and brand new martial arts uniform. She eyed him for quite some time, as if contemplating the right words to use before she finally said,

“There are a few things I need to remind you of.” She said, “The limit of the human body will increase whenever it reaches a certain fold. The approximation of this fold is 1.6. When you’ve surpa.s.sed your limits three times and arrived at the fourth fold, then you will be met with the true bottleneck and limit of the human body.”

Yue Qiang memorized her words carefully while thinking, is this your way of telling me how the in-game level division works?

She continued, “The second thing I need to remind you is: Pay attention to the color of the sea. It means how much time you have left.”

The color of the sea is blue, so that meant the color blue was how much time he had left. But what did it all mean?

Luqiu Duanyi was silent for a very long time. She walked beside Yue Qiang and leaned really closely to him. She thoughtfully straightened all the wrinkles on his clothes before finally saying, “And finally, take care of yourself. Don’t die.”

The moment she finished speaking, she then left Yue Qiang and swiftly walked back towards the top-cla.s.s fitness club. Standing at the center of the reception hall and bearing a huge smile, she said loudly, “Our work is done! Time to go home!”

It was late afternoon; just the time when the customers were slowly starting to increase. However, following her shout, the people inside began to leave the machines and walked out of the fitness club one after another. In no time at all, all the customers had left. After that, the front desk receptionists, the janitor and even the female manager he had met that day left as well.

Yue Qiang was already on his way, but he witnessed all of this when he was going down the escalator.

Suddenly, as if recalling something very important, he swiftly ran back to the club.

Luqiu Duanyi was still at the hall. It was as if going off work at late afternoon was a very normal matter.

Yue Qiang walked beside her and said, “Can you give me your number?”

“Come on, you’re still so straightforward even when you’re asking for a girl’s number. You’re not gentleman enough.” Luqiu Duanyi teased with a smile before writing down her number at the back of his hand.

“Can I reach you?” Yue Qiang asked.

“It can.” She continued to say joyfully.

“Can I really reach you?” Yue Qiang asked again.

This time Luqiu Duanyi withdrew her smile gradually, and after a moment of careful thought she nodded resolutely. Then she added, “You definitely can. But please, be quick.”