Book 4, Chapter 15: Exchange

Once she got closer, Chen Chuan found that Talu was only slightly shorter than he was. She moved with smooth, perfectly unified motions, and once Chen Chuan remembered the skills she showed just now, he knew that she was an outstanding martial artist.

“Sir, did Mr. Zhuan send you here?” Talu asked with a spirited, lively voice. Clearly, she was a straightforward, cheerful person.

“Yes, I’m Chen Chuan. Hello, Madam Talu,” Chen Chuan said.

Talu laughed at that. “Just call me Talu. Mr. Zhuan recommended you to come here to enter the gap to train, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

“I need to say one thing first, then. The gap is a dangerous place. That’s why I need to make sure you’re strong enough before letting you go,” Talu said seriously.

Gan Guo added by the side, “It’s not that we don’t trust you. We’ve never actually stopped anyone from going into the gap to train, but something happened during the era of the previous Talu.

“One of the students went inside on their own. He said that he had recommendations, and we trust our students fully, so we never doubted his words. But because he wasn’t strong enough, he got into an accident. In the end, this student left the school, and even the recommender went into seclusion.

“This accident had a great impact, and the former Talu blamed himself greatly for it. That’s why he set the rules later.”

Chen Chuan turned to Talu and said, “I understand. Shall we start now?”

Talu was a straightforward person and didn’t like dragging things out, so she agreed to it immediately. She grabbed a glass of coconut milk by the side, took a few gulps, wiped her mouth, and walked to the middle of the clearing.

Once she was there, she tightened her martial arts uniform and took up a stance. Then, she stretched her arms, and as she moved, afterimages of her fingers and palms appeared with clear, explosive pops.

Since she was going to fight against someone whom a martial arts master had recommended, she wasn’t going to be careless. She was going to treat the fight seriously.

Chen Chuan set the Frost King Saber down and walked out from the shaded corridor. Once he reached the clearing, he also moved around a bit to warm up.

Talu wasn’t weak, but he could tell that while she had begun mental training, she hadn’t learned the Heartborn Force. This made it obvious who was going to win the fight.

Even so, Talu was really impressive.

After all, even in Central City with its abundant resources, many powerful martial artists could not start mental training when they were at Talu’s age, while she lived on an island, which made getting resources difficult. She also seldom had chances for friendly exchanges. She had to have relied on her own talents to reach her current stage.

Since it was obvious that they were going to spar, the children and teenagers who had left the clearing didn’t go far. They surrounded the area excitedly and looked forward to their fight.

Strangely enough, while all of them were biased toward Talu and hoped that she would win, they had a feeling that Chen Chuan was going to end up the winner. This awkward feeling made them squirm.

Talu herself didn’t seem to be affected. Once Chen Chuan stepped into the clearing, she showed him respect in Single Flow School’s way before settling into her stance and entering a state of extreme concentration.

Chen Chuan gave her a fist-and-palm salute before settling into Principal Sanshou’s stance.

They faced off against each other for a while before Talu shouted, moved, and instantly travelled more than twenty meters to reach Chen Chuan. Then, she kicked at him.

This kick came swiftly and was full of power.

Chen Chuan brought his hand up to block it and felt a powerful wave of refined force charging at him. Right after, he felt another wave enter his body.

A two-tier refined force, huh?

Usually, a martial artist would only use a two-tier refined force during critical moments, because if they used too many techniques at once, it would end up slowing down their attack rhythm. They would only do such a thing when they saw a good chance, so it was uncommon to do it at the start of a fight.

Soon, Chen Chuan realized that the refined forces weren’t as simple as they seemed. After they entered his body, he could feel his mutated tissue stagnating a bit.

The refined forces weren’t aimed to inflict damage, but to cripple his mutated tissue. If he couldn’t use it smoothly, every move and technique he used would become stiff and awkward.

The first wave of refined force should have formed a bridge between their mutated tissue rather than attacked him. Then, the second wave of refined force would make their mutated tissue resonate with each other and force the opponent into a passive situation.

This was an ingenious way of using refined force, though it wasn’t based purely on technique. Chen Chuan could feel the strength of Talu’s kick. Once she used the Heartborn Force with this refined force, those who didn’t know anything about her skill would lose the moment the fight started. If they couldn’t think of a way to counterattack, the fight would be over there and then.

Since Chen Chuan was at the stage of figuring out his own Heartborn Force, this gave him some ideas.

Talu delivered a second kick. The specialty of Single Flow School was letting its practitioners continue their offense without any pauses. Even so, Chen Chuan managed to block the kick, and he showed no signs of slowing down.

When Talu realized that her offense hadn’t been effective, she didn’t feel disheartened. Instead, she let out a loud shout, spun on her feet with her arms moving with the motion, and struck with her palm. The power of this attack was stronger than her kicks. She had actually used a secret technique and given herself a boost in power.

Chen Chuan nodded at that. This was the right strategy. Many people chose to use the same method of attack after failing to land a successful hit with their preferred method of attacking. One of the reasons was because they had grown dependent on it, and the other was because their confidence wouldn’t let them give up.

Unbeknownst to them, experienced martial artists could get even better results the next time if their opponent’s attack rhythm and technique did not change. Something had to be different, and increasing one’s speed and strength was the best strategy to take.

Talu did well in this regard. An average person wouldn’t have been as decisive as she was.

Her palm came swinging at Chen Chuan’s left temple. Even though her speed had increased, it was still slow to Chen Chuan. With just a lift of his arm, he blocked the attack.

Due to the increase in her strength, though, she wasn’t able to perfectly control her refined force. Talu’s sleeve blasted apart because of it and revealed her tanned and toned arm.

This time, after she failed her attack, she didn’t continue. An impressed look appeared on her face. Talu took a few steps back before bowing to Chen Chuan.

“Mr. Chen, you’re far stronger than I am. You can, without a doubt, enter the gap to train.”

Chen Chuan gave her a fist-and-palm salute once more. Talu could have continued fighting, since on the surface, the victor hadn’t actually been decided. Talu was the successor of the school and was fighting in front of her students, so Chen Chuan would have shown her some dignity, since he was her guest.

But Talu was a simple and straightforward person. Once something was clear to her, it became a fact in her mind. She didn’t have any more unnecessary thoughts. Hence, the moment she found that she couldn’t win against Chen Chuan, she backed down. To her, it was something absolutely normal.

Gan Guo walked forward. “Mr. Chen, since you traveled from afar, would you like to rest before entering the gap?”

“That won’t be necessary. I’ve rested for two days on Luowang Island and would like to start training as soon as possible,” Chen Chuan answered.

“Okay, then. Please come with me, Mr. Chen,” Talu said without hesitation.

Gan Guo bowed and said, “I’ll take good care of the place while you’re gone, Talu.”

Chen Chuan went to grab the Frost King Saber, gave Gan Guo a nod, and followed Talu.

Once they left the clearing, the trees ahead grew sparse. They walked along a narrow corridor to a cliff. The sea raged underneath, and waves kept crashing against the cliff wall.

Talu stood by the edge and let the breeze blow her hair backward as she said, “You’ll reach the gap once you jump down here, but recently, the gap has become quite unsteady. It’s even showing signs of expanding. I’ve never seen anything like this before, and my teacher never told me anything about the gap expanding either, so you should be careful when you’re inside.”

“Unstable, huh?” Chen Chuan remembered something. “Mind telling me when it started?”

“It’s not as if I can’t tell you. It happened around the end of last year,” Talu answered.

Chen Chuan nodded. That was very close to the time when the gap appeared in the World Ring. This gap might have become unsteady due to the gap in the World Ring.

However, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing to Chen Chuan. It meant that his mind could get connected to the other world, just like it did when the Gate to Heaven opened.

“The gap being unstable can affect the ocean region around it. Over the past two years, many martial artists and martial arts practitioners have appeared on our island and around Luowang Island. They’ve been active in the ocean region around the area. Perhaps someone discovered the anomaly here and sent people to search for the gap. After all, Single Flow School has been here since the old era, and everyone knows that we once had a gap,” Talu explained.

Chen Chuan remembered the raging ocean on his way here, along with the people looking for the ring in the ocean. Perhaps they weren’t actually looking for a ring. It could just be an excuse for finding the truth behind the anomaly.

“Honestly, I’m not worried about those people. The gap is located in a really secluded area. No matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to find it. Even if they come to the island, I can take them down. The only one I’m worried about is Serene Radiance School,” Talu continued.

“Serene Radiance School?” Recognition appeared in Chen Chuan’s eyes. “One of the three major schools in the island nations?”

“That’s them. Single Flow School and Serene Radiance School had the same master. Serene Radiance School was built by the master’s second disciple, Hemi Yue, while Single Flow School was built by the master’s eldest disciple, Zhuan Tuo.

“Both of them inherited part of Master Hongfa’s secret technique. Each of them can make up for the other’s weaknesses, so both schools started eying up the other’s legacy. In a fight more than a hundred years ago, our last fistmaster died to Serene Radiance School’s sabermaster. From that moment on, we were never able to recover.”

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