Book 4, Chapter 44: Stage

Chen Chuan smiled and gave Jiang Xin a meaningful glance.

When Jiang Xin came in, Chen Chuan had enveloped him with his mental energy and biofield. He could clearly see that while the emotions Jiang Xin expressed were real, there was something else hidden in his heart.

This student wasn’t as naive and shy as he presented himself to be.

But Chen Chuan didn’t mind.

There were plenty of such people in the world. They put on a mask in order to achieve some goal, to get acknowledged, or to protect themselves.

Jiang Xin was just a student with a bit of an ulterior motive.

“Jiang Xin, since you purchased my class, I’ll teach you properly. Please show me what you’ve learned so far,” Chen Chuan requested.

“Alright, Mr. Chen.”

Jiang Xin removed his jacket and went to the center of the training room to show all that he had learned.

The moment Jiang Xin walked over, Chen Chuan could tell that he had trained for at least three years. This meant that he had studied martial arts before entering Martial Valor University and had taken the bold step of practicing his breathing technique early on.

Then, he took a look at the refined force Jiang Xin displayed. Just as he expected, he had a sturdy foundation, a unique mental energy, and was at the Second Limit, which he had only reached less than a month ago. Even so, his growth was astonishing.

It was no wonder why the university had recommended him to come to the main campus. Most likely, the lecturers could no longer teach him anything.

As the two worlds continued getting closer, more of such talented people would come to Central City.

After finishing his demonstration, Jiang Xin stopped and gave Chen Chuan a nervous look. His expression was one of a student who desperately wanted acknowledgement from his lecturer and idol. He wanted to be praised but was also worried that he did a poor showing.

“Again,” Chen Chuan requested with a smile.

“Okay.”

Once he finished another set, Chen Chuan said, “One more time.”

He had no choice but to do it again.

When he was done, Chen Chuan said, “Continue. Keep going until I tell you to stop.”

“Okay,” Jiang Xin said and kept going through his moves. This lasted for an entire hour.

But he didn’t appear to be impatient at all, and he did each move seriously. Every single one was filled with power, and he never showed any signs of slacking or relaxing, which led to him soon being covered in sweat.

“You can stop now,” Chen Chuan said.

Finally, Jiang Xin stopped.

“Were you trained before coming to the university?” Chen Chuan asked.

Jiang Xin wiped off the sweat flowing down his face and smiled shyly. “Yes. Someone in my family taught me. He’s a war veteran, and he said that I was talented, so I trained under him since I was a kid.”

“A teacher can teach you techniques and refined forces, but your hearts, personalities, and thoughts are different, so what you show will be different. Martial arts can sometimes reflect a person’s core,” Chen Chuan said with a smile.

Jiang Xin lowered his head, and his bangs covered his eyes.

“You have a great foundation. The person who taught you was very meticulous, but you didn’t manage to learn everything. I’ve noticed advanced techniques in your moves.

“But you stopped learning them at some point, so you can only keep practicing the basic moves. This means that either your teacher disappeared, or something was missing from what you’ve learned.

“Still, you’ve picked up the basics pretty well, and your progress is reasonable. Your teacher taught you at a certain pace, which means that you ended up in this current state because something happened to your teacher.”

Jiang Xin was standing with his head ducked, but when he heard what was being said, he started trembling minutely. Chen Chuan had pointed out the gist of what he’d learned, and his theories were also correct.

“Your stances and refined forces are quite basic. I can help you with the missing parts. They might not be completely the same as the originals, but they won’t be too far off. If you reach a higher limit in the future and think that what I taught you isn’t suitable, you won’t have a hard time making adjustments,” Chen Chuan said with a smile.

Jiang Xin stood still for a while before bowing to him. “Thank you, Mr. Chen.”

Chen Chuan hummed at that and started explaining to him how he should continue his training. It wasn’t all that hard to deduce the next set of moves of Jiang Xin’s martial arts, because the framework had already been set. Chen Chuan could figure out the creator’s train of thought, so all he needed to do was to continue down that path.

Since the martial art wasn’t something only those beyond the Third Limit could learn, it wasn’t beyond his understanding.

The martial art was pretty interesting as well. It had some semblance with the martial arts used by the wilderness faction martial artist he once saw, but it wasn’t completely the same. Instead, it looked like an ancient martial art mixed with some new things.

Hmm... It feels like some wise person injected new insights into the original training method, which led to new variations and breakthroughs.

Under Chen Chuan’s guidance, Jiang Xin demonstrated the fleshed out refined forces and stances. Before this, his moves were powerful and seemed filled with a teenager’s motivation and liveliness, but now, there was a subtle, discreet, predatorial flair to it, like he was prepared for a hunt. Before he executed a move, he toned down his aura and hostility while being ready to execute a fatal strike at any moment.

During the entire process, he made sure to avoid meeting Chen Chuan’s gaze, like a growing cub avoiding triggering the wrath of the fierce beast beside it.

Chen Chuan taught him for a little over an hour. When Jiang Xin started panting, he knew that his mutated tissue had become exhausted, so he said, “Let’s end the lesson here today.”

Jiang Xin stopped and turned around. Sweat flowed down his face and dropped on the floor. He looked up and regained the sunny smile unique to teenagers.

“Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Chen.”

“You can go now, Jiang Xin,” Chen Chuan said with a smile.

“Thank you again.” Jiang Xin bowed politely and picked up the jacket he had removed earlier. After walking out of the training hall, he exhaled. He could feel the cold sweat on his back and the tremors in his body.

“Mr. Chen is really scary...” He extended his hand to get a better feel for what he had learned today. Delight rose on his face, though he soon squashed down his smile. He put on his jacket, buttoned it up, and schooled his face to the bashful look before leaving.

***

Chen Chuan had managed to teach another student and to flesh out his martial art. This gave him a greater sense of fulfillment than teaching Fan Cheng and Kong Yao, and his second self came even closer to him.

Feeling happy, he left the training hall and returned to his apartment.

After taking some tubes of nutritional paste, he poured food and water for Dawncall before going upstairs to sit down. Then, he took a tube of pure essence and absorbed it while still feeling giddy.

He had become much faster at absorbing pure essence, so there wasn’t much of it left. When it was almost evening, he finished all of it.

At that moment, he felt like he had been reborn.

If his mind had been a bottomless swamp before, it had now been filled with flowing light, while the water had turned crystal clear.

After continuously absorbing pure essence, his potential had grown even further. Even so, he could sense the limit of his body. He was no longer far from it. As for his mental energy, he still had a ways to go before reaching perfection. So, his focus was going to be on mental training next, and he was going to do everything he could to push it to perfection.

Several days later, it was the first day off in September.

Chen Chuan took his limousine to Across the World. A few days ago, he had asked his friends from Yangzhi City to come for a gathering.

When he went into the lounge, he found that Wei Changan’s team, Luo Kaiyuan, Feng Xiaoqi, Wu Han, and Wei Dong were all there. They were excitedly talking amongst themselves. Aside from Lin Xiaodi, who was still studying in Yangzhi City, and Ren Xiaotian, who had other plans, the rest of the team was here.

When they saw him, they got up and greeted him. Then, they went to the dining table. While ordering their food, Ding Liao asked Wei Dong, “Aside from Chen Chuan, you’re the only one with citizenship, right?”

“Yup,” Wei Dong answered and produced his ID.

The moment they saw it, a number of them were filled with longing.

It was only when they were here that they realized just how inconvenient things were without citizenship. They couldn’t go to most public spaces and had a hard time using public facilities. They couldn’t even get on trams traveling the main roads, only some old ones.

If they drove their own car, the City Patrol would often inspect them. Once they realized that they weren’t citizens, they would penalize them, and they would be marked as having broken a rule.

Chen Chuan grinned, tapped on his Realm Pass, and a form appeared in their Realm Passes. “Please fill this out.”

The moment Feng Xiaoqi saw the title of the form, he asked excitedly, “Is this the team slot you mentioned?”

“Yes. Your status in my team in the Resolution Department can stand in for citizenship to a certain degree. You’ll be allowed to use public facilities, enter public spaces, and won’t be inspected again. But it’s only temporary and will only be effective when I assign you missions.”

“Even if it’s temporary, it’s still good. I’ve had enough of this life without citizenship. The agent companies look down on us. If it weren’t for Wu Han, we might still be searching for a place to stay,” Ding Liao exclaimed.

Cai Si sighed with emotion. While Chen Chuan had told them about the situation in Central City, experiencing life here themselves made it even more impactful.

Even so, they earned a lot more money here than what they could get in Yangzhi City. Staying here for one year would get them more savings than working in Yangzhi City for ten years. After coming to Central City, none of them thought about leaving again.

Once they filled out the forms, they sent them back to Chen Chuan. Once he checked and verified them, they heard a notification stating that they had all been temporarily employed at the Resolution Department.

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