Dawn of a New Era

Chapter 16: Battle Practice

Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire
During the night, in Dongning Grand Hotel.

This was the most expensive place in Dongning City. In order to celebrate his younger sister passing the Martial Apprentice Test, the usual frugal Mother Chen truly went all out and spent large amounts of money this time around.

Chen Shouyi’s eldest uncle Chen Dalong and his family, excluding his female older cousin who was currently in school, were all here now. The atmosphere was extremely bustling.

Chen Shouyi’s close relatives were not that many. Ever since he was born, he had never met his grandfather and grandmother before. In his father’s generation, his father only had one elder brother which was his eldest uncle. As for his mother’s side, she had a few siblings, but because of some secretive matters, they usually didn’t hang around much.

“Our Old Chen Clan has finally produced a martial apprentice. She is definitely going to have a bright future.” When his eldest uncle Chen Dalong came, he brought over a wooden box of superior quality.

“Many thanks, uncle!” Chen Xingyue had a joyful look on her face as she accepted the wooden box. When she opened it up, she shouted in happiness, “Ah, this is the alloy sword from the weapon workshop!”

Chen Shouyi felt somewhat envious when he saw this. The price of cold weapons was widely different. The cheap ones would cost about a thousand dollars or two, and the expensive ones could cost over several hundred thousands or even millions of dollars. And the weapon workshop was a high-grade company that manufactured cold weapons.

Even for the cheapest sword, it would still cost over ten thousand dollars.

In Daxia Country, the control of weapons was extremely strict. For weapons such as sabers and swords, one could only keep them as a collection. But this rule didn’t apply to martial apprentices. As long as one had registered themselves as a martial apprentice, they would have the special right to carry weapons with them.

“This is simply spending too much!” Chen Dawei hurriedly spoke.

“What do you mean by spending too much? Xingyue being able to pass the Martial Apprentice Test isn’t a matter of just your family alone,” said a woman with light makeup on while hugging Chen Xingyue. She was the wife of his eldest uncle. After that, she pointed the spearhead at Chen Shouyi, “Shouyi, you have to work harder. Your college entrance examination is this year, right?”

Chen Shouyi was lying low, yet he was also hit by a shot. He dryly laughed, “I’m working hard.”

…

This time, Chen Shouyi still saw his younger sister becoming the focal point of everyone, shining in resplendent glory. However, he was of no interest to everyone. With regard to this, he didn’t feel any trace of jealousy at all. He was really happy for his younger sister.

He felt like he had truly matured and was more confident in himself.

….

On Sunday, in the youth martial training center’s classroom.

Simple wooden dummies were neatly arranged in a row. The students were moving around them one by one in an ‘S’ shape using the basic steps.

“Next, Lin Feng.”

“Next, Chen Shouyi.”

When speaking of Chen Shouyi, the voice of the beautiful teacher paused for a moment as she involuntarily glanced at him.

Chen Shouyi waited for awhile as Lin Feng was moving clumsily with the basic steps. When he was about to reach the endpoint, only then did Shouyi begin to move forward. His steps were extremely ghostly. His body was drifting about, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right.

The entire moving process was extremely natural and smooth, akin to the curved beam of light.

After he was done, Chen Shouyi was immediately surrounded by a group of students.

“Brother Chen is so awesome. I feel that you are only slightly weaker compared to Teacher,” said a young man with a pimply face in admiration.

“That’s right, it’s basically like watching a teaching video.”

“I’m still far from her.” Chen Shouyi smiled and shook his head.

He wasn’t being humble as this was the truth. Maybe, others couldn’t tell, but for him, someone who used his consciousness to enter the body of the beautiful teacher every day, he could clearly feel the difference between them.

His body was still lacking in tempering, and the circulation of force between his muscles was also not considered fully proficient. He still needed repeated practice and training.

Lin Feng, who was watching Chen Shouyi from the side, silently clenched his fists.

During this month, Guo Qianqian acted more and more passionate toward Chen Shouyi. In the past, he hadn’t really felt anything about this. His girlfriend’s personality was just like this, able to chat with anyone easily. But the key point to his confidence was that he was more handsome and cooler compared to Chen Shouyi.

Even for this girlfriend of his, Guo Qianqian, she was the one that had taken the initiative to pursue him.

But he gradually felt the pressure. Even though he viewed Chen Shouyi with hostility, he had no choice but to admit that Chen Shouyi had a terrifying martial talent.

Many times when the teacher taught them new moves, Chen Shouyi would also bumble about and was extremely clumsy when learning them. But during the next lesson, he would always be able to achieve a certain level of mastery in them. His movements would be so proficient that it felt like he had practiced the moves countless times before.

Such a person truly caused people to feel helpless in their hearts.

“Pak, pak, pak!”

The tuition teacher clapped. “Everyone has practiced very well. It shows that you all have a certain degree of control over the basic steps. Now, we can attempt real combat.”

A commotion rose among the students, and their expressions were filled with excitement.

Chen Shouyi felt the same way. He learned sword techniques precisely to use them in combat. Today, it could finally be considered that he would come in contact with his purpose.

“Alright, everyone come and take a set of protective attire and safety sword first!”

The protective attire included a face mask, jacket, chest armor, armguards, pants, and gloves. And not only were they thick, but it was also pretty troublesome to wear them.

But there was no other choice. Real combat was something extremely dangerous. Even if they were not martial apprentices, as long as they had learned sword techniques before, they would all be able to unleash unimaginable strength.

The force exertion methods allowed the human body that was as weak and soft as tofu to easily kill an ordinary person. There was basically no need to use a real sword. A chopstick, a wooden twig, a tree branch—anything would work.

After exerting a huge effort, Chen Shouyi finally finished wearing his protective attire. After that, he took his safety sword, a type of sword made from plastic. The sword body was slim and it was pretty soft. Even if it stabbed into an unprotected body, it wouldn’t have too much destructive power.

On the other side, the beautiful teacher also changed into the protective attire as though she was preparing to enter the fray personally. “Now, I will split you all up into groups. Guo Wenlong vs. Chen Hailiang.”

“Wen Ya vs. Cao Yunyun.”

“Lin Feng vs. Xie Xiangqing.”

…

“As for Chen Shouyi, you will practice with me.”

“Yes, teacher!” Chen Shouyi immediately spoke. His heart pounded, but it wasn’t because he had some intention toward this beautiful teacher.

In the memory space, he had already seen her many times. If one was to speak about the degree of understanding of her body, his own understanding wouldn’t be too far off from hers.

He only felt excitement, excitement toward a real battle. This caused hot blood to surge through his body.

“Please provide me with guidance,” said Chen Shouyi, copying the words he saw in television programs.

After that, he seemingly saw through the teacher’s face mask; there was an ineffable smile on her face. However, even before he could react, he only felt his vision blurred. The beautiful teacher moved near him instantly by gliding on the ground’s surface. Her long sword directly stabbed out with lightning speed.

“Pak, pak, pak.”

His heart, chest, and face area seemed to suffer the impact of an explosion from a string of firecrackers. He trembled slightly and involuntarily retreated a step.

“You speak too much. If this was a real battle, you would have already died,” said the teacher with her lips slightly curled up.

Sometimes, for this type of student who was overflowing with talent, they wouldn’t cause others to like them. In fact, a person like this would cause her teaching to become valueless; she might even start to doubt her life.

It was better if the standard of her students was at the ordinary level.

Upon facing the beautiful teacher’s resentment, Chen Shouyi didn’t sense anything. He hurriedly corrected his attitude. “Yes, teacher!”

This time, he did his best to pick himself up. His eyes shone with spirit, but sadly, it was useless. Regardless of him attempting to attack or evade, the beautiful teacher’s attacks followed after his actions relentlessly, as if she had already foreseen them.

Chen Shouyi was devastated for over a minute. The impact caused his body to be numb. He almost suspected whether he had offended the beautiful teacher for some reason before this.

She finally stopped and exhaled a long stream of white air.

“Do you know why I can hit you?”

“Teacher, because you are a martial apprentice. Your reaction is faster than mine, and your strength is higher.” Chen Shouyi bootlicked without batting an eyelid.

“That’s only one aspect. You should know what type of person is the most welcomed on the mahjong table?”

“A rich fool!” Chen Shouyi replied after thinking about it. A thought suddenly floated up in his mind, could it be that his teacher liked to play mahjong?

“Wrong. The answer is a newbie.” The beautiful teacher spoke, “This type of person would often show their joy or anger on their faces. When their tiles are good, they would be in high spirits. But when their tiles are bad, they would be depressed. This type of person would be easily seen through by others and would lose ten out of ten times.”

Chen Shouyi reacted, “You are saying that before I attacked, my intentions were already revealed?”

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“Your eyes are too focused on the target you want to attack. As long as you are fighting against someone experienced, they would be able to easily see through your thoughts and lines of attack. To put it simply, this habit of yours will allow your opponents to evade in advance or seize the opportunity to counter-attack.”

So this was the case, Chen Shouyi suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment.

“In that case, what would be the correct method to do it?”

“To you, it is simple. The correct method is for you to look ahead and observe using your peripheral vision. By doing so, you can hide your thoughts and will not reveal your intentions easily.”

“Come again!”