All My Past and Present Lives Were Me

All My Past and Present Lives Were Me

Though Dan Xiong had poor character, his year at Wuyi Academy had not been wasted. His kick came up stealthily and swiftly, and by the time everyone reacted, it had landed solidly against Chen Chuan's ear root.

The Teaching Assistants, seeing this, were ready to have someone carry him away.

With a kick like that landing cleanly, let alone an ordinary examinee with no training at all, even a Wu University Student who had undergone rigorous impact-resistance training would be left lying on the ground. In severe cases, it could even be fatal.

Yet what happened next came as a great surprise. Though Chen Chuan had been struck, his head merely tilted to one side, and his foot only stepped half a pace outward. Then he slowly turned his head back and straightened up once more.

Where no one could see, at the very instant he suffered the kick, the head of the youth identical to him blurred into translucency for a moment.

Dan Xiong froze. He knew exactly how heavy that kick had been, yet Chen Chuan's eyes were clear, and he looked as though nothing had happened at all.

Seated in the middle of the long table was a middle-aged teacher with thick arms, his muscles nearly bursting through his shirt. He had remained silent until now, but suddenly spoke. "Name?"

"Huh? Oh!" The Teaching Assistant beside him came back to his senses, picked up the roster on the desk, glanced at it, and looked up. "Chen Chuan."

"What's his background?"

"A local from Yangzhi City. Just graduated from junior secondary school. There's no record of his joining any boxing clubs or receiving any training..."

The teacher looked at Chen Chuan. "Understood."

Dan Xiong had failed to knock Chen Chuan down with that kick, but he could hear quiet discussions around the training ground, mixed with quite a few soft laughs. Feeling that they were mocking him, his blood rushed to his head. With a vicious roar, he spun around and unleashed another powerful spinning back kick!

Chen Chuan had never been in the habit of taking a beating without fighting back, nor did he become timid just because the other party was a Wu University Student. Without yielding in the slightest, he snapped a kick at Dan Xiong as well! The move somewhat resembled Dan Xiong's earlier whip kick. Anyone could tell he was simply imitating it, for his posture for generating force was not standard enough, leaving both its speed and power lacking.

The two kicked out almost simultaneously, yet none of the observing Teaching Assistants or students doubted that Chen Chuan would be the first to get hit! And the result was just as they expected. Dan Xiong's kick struck Chen Chuan's head first, yet the outcome was still the same as before: he failed to knock Chen Chuan down. This time, the latter's body did not even sway.

As for Chen Chuan's kick, it struck Dan Xiong on the side of the neck at that very moment!

Almost at the same instant, the phantom behind him suddenly came to occupy the spot where he stood, and the two figures overlapped in an instant! At that moment, his speed and strength surged explosively! Bang! A muffled boom burst across the training ground, followed by a faint echo. One could imagine just how much force that kick contained.

Dan Xiong's eyes lost focus, and his body toppled to one side. Then, with a rolling thud, he sprawled flat on the ground, limbs flung wide.

Liu Cai's mouth fell slightly open as he stared at the scene in disbelief.

The other students present also stared blankly, their minds in a mess. What was going on? Dan Xiong was a second-year Wu University Student, yet he had been kicked unconscious by an examinee who clearly had barely trained? Then, one after another, they began to take delight in his misfortune. Dan Xiong was a troublemaker at the academy and had few friends. Seeing him suffer a setback and lose face made them cheer inwardly.

The teacher seated at the long table took the application form from the Teaching Assistant, picked up a pen, swiftly signed his name on it, and stamped it. "This student has passed."

Hearing those words, Chen Chuan could not help looking at the teacher, wanting to make sure he meant him.

The middle-aged teacher said, "Student, your ability to withstand blows is quite good. I am Lecturer Bian Feng. You have now passed the assessment. But let me remind you: you have only passed the entrance examination. Whether you can gain a firm foothold at Wuyi Academy in the future will depend on the entrance re-examination in a little over two months."

A delighted smile appeared on Chen Chuan's face. He bowed to Bian Feng. "Thank you, Teacher!"

"Clap, clap..."

The Teaching Assistants and students around them began applauding softly. Such an interesting examination was truly rare. They looked forward to seeing how this student would perform going forward, and they remembered his name. As for Dan Xiong, who lay off to one side still dazed, he seemed to have been deliberately or inadvertently ignored.

As Chen Chuan walked out of the training ground, he faced the dazzling sunlight outside and looked at the road stretching away from beneath his feet. A rush of excitement and joy welled up in his heart.

"Student Chen." A crisp voice came from behind him.

Chen Chuan turned around and saw that it was the senior female student he had met while filling out the form. He politely walked over and asked, "Senior Sister, is something the matter?"

The female student walked up and generously extended her hand. "Student Chen, congratulations on passing the examination. Let's formally introduce ourselves. My name is Zhen Ping, and I'm currently a second-year student at Wu University."

Chen Chuan extended his hand as well and shook hers. "Chen Chuan. Hello, Senior Sister."

He found that Zhen Ping's hand was exceptionally soft and smooth, without a trace of callus. Yet beneath her skin, he seemed to sense a kind of resilience. It gave him the illusion that if she merely clenched her five fingers, she could crush his palm.

Zhen Ping said, "Student Chen, you need to be careful. Dan Xiong is extremely petty, and he knows some shady people outside. Academy rules restrain him here, so he would not dare do anything, but outside the academy, that's harder to say. Watch yourself."

After giving it some thought, Chen Chuan realized Dan Xiong must be the name of that tall student from earlier. He did not know why that man had targeted him as though they had some grudge, but many things in this world needed no reason at all. People caused trouble for others every day simply because they did not like the look of them.

He thanked her sincerely. "Thank you, Senior Sister. I'll be careful..."

"Zhenzhen!"

As they spoke, a girl in the distance waved in their direction. Zhen Ping waved back, then said, "Student Chen, I hope you can enroll successfully. Work hard. Goodbye." With that, she waved at Chen Chuan and ran off with light steps.

Chen Chuan said goodbye as well. After standing there for a moment, he turned and left the old teaching building. This time, instead of taking the same route back, he followed the signs and circled out along another path, avoiding the stream of applicants still arriving one after another.

When he reached the bike shed to retrieve his bicycle, he found quite a few advertising flyers stuffed into the rear rack. Looking through them, he saw advertisements for various boxing clubs, arenas, and training halls. After thinking it over, he did not throw them away. He folded them simply and tucked them into his shoulder bag. Then he pushed his bicycle briskly out through the school gates, mounted it once he reached the main road, and pedaled home.

As he rode, he thought about how Wuyi Academy provided official students with free meals and lodging. That way, after moving out from Aunt's family home, his food and housing problems would be temporarily solved.

And so long as he achieved outstanding enough results, part of his tuition could be waived. He might even receive a scholarship. The latter was hard to say, but he was confident he could manage the former, because...

He looked toward the street corner ahead. The figure identical to himself stood there at that moment, silently meeting his gaze. After he had gone several dozen meters farther and reached the next intersection, the figure appeared again not far away, as though it were a ghost he could never shake off.

But if he had to describe it himself, aside from lacking self-awareness, that figure was like another self of his dwelling within illusion. Thus, he named it the "Second Self."

The "Second Self" had appeared when he took possession of this body. Interestingly, his original name had also been Chen Chuan. Apart from their age and life experiences, the two of them looked almost identical as well. Therefore, he guessed that the appearance of the "Second Self" was likely caused by a connection opening between "parallel selves" or "selves sharing one body across different worlds."

The "Second Self" could, according to his needs, actively or passively bear part or all of the injuries he suffered. Thus, Dan Xiong's kicks earlier had not been useless; they had merely been borne by the "Second Self."

Under normal circumstances, the "Second Self" remained separate from him. But once the two overlapped, his strength, reaction speed, endurance, and more would all rise dramatically, as though at that very moment, another "self" had truly been stacked onto him.

However, he believed that if the "Second Self" was himself, then all of this was actually quite reasonable. After all, whether it was enduring damage or supplying force, was it not ultimately still himself?

It was precisely because the "Second Self" existed that, despite never having undergone combat training, he still had enough confidence to apply to Wu University.

But the "Second Self" also had flaws that could not be ignored. First, it could not be used without limit.

At present, the longest he could overlap with the "Second Self" each day was no more than thirty seconds. Of course, he could divide that time up and use it separately, but once the total limit was exceeded, he could no longer borrow the "Second Self's" power.

Furthermore, although the "Second Self" could bear injuries in his place, it also had a limit to what it could endure. Once that limit was exceeded, it would need time to slowly recover. The usual sign of it bearing damage was that parts of it would become translucent. If the damage reached an unbearable level, it would vanish like dispersing mist and would not appear again for two or three days.

Based on his previous experience, after taking two such heavy kicks today, it would probably need...

Huh? He suddenly noticed that there was not the slightest sign of translucency on the "Second Self." The damage it had suffered this time seemed to have already recovered, and its connection with him also seemed to have grown closer? Amid his surprise, he thought back and a guess surfaced in his mind. Could this have been because he had knocked Dan Xiong down earlier?

No, not the act of defeating his opponent itself, but the pleasure and satisfaction he had felt after knocking Dan Xiong down. Satisfying himself was the same as satisfying the "Second Self." This resonance born from the spirit had deepened the connection between them, bringing the "Second Self" one step closer to becoming real.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became.

If that was the case, perhaps the daily time limit for their overlap would increase as well. He could test it after returning home. At this thought, he could not help feeling invigorated, and his pedaling sped up.

The journey home was smooth, and he arrived in less than half an hour. No one was home at this time. Yu Wan had probably taken his Younger Male Cousin and Younger Female Cousin to the Patrol Bureau's children's care center.

He washed his face outside and tidied himself up a little before returning to his room. After hanging up his shoulder bag and changing out of his coat, he sat on the edge of the bed, brought over an alarm clock, checked the time, closed his eyes, overlapped with the Second Self, and began counting.

Not long after, he opened his eyes and looked at the alarm clock, delight and excitement shining in his gaze.

Just as he had guessed, the time he could overlap with the "Second Self" had increased. It had risen by about twelve seconds beyond the original limit. That was an enormous improvement.

But could the time increase simply by defeating an opponent? Thinking it over carefully, perhaps it was also because Dan Xiong had been much stronger than him. If he defeated an opponent of the same level, perhaps the satisfaction he gained would not be as great, and the improvement would not be as significant.

Of course, whether that was truly the case could be slowly verified later.

He calmed himself, went outside to pour a glass of water, took a few drinks, and set it down. Then he rolled up his shirt sleeves, bent over, felt around, and dragged a brown suitcase out from beneath the bed.

He carried the suitcase to the table, entered the combination, pressed the latch at last, and slowly opened it. Inside were several notebooks, their pages filled with various documents, a bundle of wrapped photographs, and a black metal card resembling an invitation.

He picked up the metal card. The items in this suitcase had been left behind by the parents of his former self. Originally, he had not known what this item in his hand was, but after visiting Wu University today, he discovered that its appearance was very similar to the enrollment Recommendation Certificates he had seen, except for its different color.

If so, should he take it out? There was still an entrance re-examination ahead, and its importance was no less than the entrance examination. Aside from allowing one to skip the test, might the Recommendation Certificate have other benefits as well? But after thinking it over again, he decided to wait for now.

His aunt and uncle's family had always kept silent as a cicada regarding the cause of his former self's parents' deaths. Thus, while this might bring convenience, it might also bring trouble. Moreover, this Recommendation Certificate was black rather than the silver ones he had seen before, so it might serve some other purpose. If he truly wanted to use it, he would first need to understand the exact situation.

He had no choice but to be more careful, because this world was not as safe as it appeared on the surface.

He set down the metal card, then felt around beneath the contents of the suitcase and pulled out a smooth, lustrous pebble. As he looked at it, his gaze grew deep and distant.

The parents of his former self had owned an old house on the outskirts of the city. That day, his former self had gone there to sort through some things. On his way back, he saw a blue luxury sedan pass by, then lost consciousness.

Afterward, he was able to confirm that his former self had been struck accurately in the heart by this tiny pebble and died on the spot. When he awoke again, the body was occupied by his current self, and the "Second Self" had appeared at that same time.

But who was the murderer, and why had they targeted his former self?

"Ring, ring, ring..."

Just as he was lost in thought, the telephone in the living room suddenly began to ring.