"Beginner Martial Artist" Shen Qian

Shen Qian's eyes were tightly shut, but his body was undergoing intense changes.

Veins bulged from time to time, and his muscles continuously rippled. Driven by the medicinal effects and with "Shen Qian's" cooperation, quite a bit of dark gray fat and impurities gradually seeped from the surface of his body.

The flowing water steadily washed Shen Qian's body, yet black impurities continued to seep out, over and over again.

Several hours later, the medicine's effects finally began to slow, but Shen Qian still did not open his eyes. Naked, he walked toward the body-training equipment in the cultivation room.

The high-frequency treadmill worked Shen Qian's waist, abdomen, and spine while strengthening his heart and lungs.

The ring resistance trainer exercised the muscles throughout his body, making his meridians tougher.

Ab rollers, grip strengtheners, even finger exercisers meant solely to toughen his fingers... Shen Qian seemed as though he had taken some miracle strength pill, madly using every piece of equipment in the cultivation room.

A small electronic display in the center of the room monitored real-time physical data. At that moment, the figures on it kept jumping, remaining in an extremely unstable state.

During this process, the medicinal effects that had already settled and were waiting for Shen Qian to slowly absorb them were stimulated once more, subtly tempering his body.

Another two hours passed.

"Phew..."

Shen Qian let out a long breath as he lay face-down on a massage bed in the lounge. Beside him, a young woman in a vintage cheongsam and white stockings was giving him a full-body massage using an ancient Chinese meridian technique.

This was downright decadent!

Shen Qian sincerely sighed to himself.

The massage service had been a free gift for spending over a thousand in a single visit. Of course, Shen Qian swore on his conscience that he definitely had not noticed beforehand that the dog-eared brochure at the street corner advertised that Jiuzhou Martial Arts Hall offered this sort of service.

Still, after such intense body training, a full-body muscle relaxation session truly was incredibly comfortable, and it relieved fatigue to the greatest extent possible.

Just now, Shen Qian had used the simple Simulation Machine in the room to test his strength again.

His Burst Strength had already reached 138 kg, while his Instantaneous Speed had reached 10.5 seconds.

In terms of strength alone, he had improved by 18 kg when he first took a Stamina Potion. This time, he had only improved by 12 kg, but Shen Qian was already very satisfied.

The effects of Stamina Potions would continue to diminish. By Shen Qian's estimate, he could take it at most one more time before it basically lost its effectiveness.

But three bowls of Stamina Potion should be enough for him to break through to Beginner Martial Artist.

"There's still medicinal power left in my body. It'll probably take around ten more days to digest it all. By then, my strength will definitely break through 140..."

Shen Qian was very satisfied with the results of today's hard training.

After the tall cheongsam-clad young woman swayed her hips and left, Shen Qian rested briefly. Once he judged that it was about time, he tidied himself up and left Jiuzhou Martial Arts Hall, leisurely making his way toward school.

Not long after Shen Qian left, a man in a suit and white gloves entered the cultivation room with several employees.

The others were responsible for cleaning, while the man in the suit inspected the equipment for damage and malfunctions.

The man in the suit went straight to the high-frequency treadmill. He first checked its exterior, then tested whether it could still operate properly. The final step was clearing its stored data.

"4.8 kilometers in ten minutes. What an incredible physique..."

The man in the suit logged in with an administrator ID and could not help but praise the historical data he saw.

Anyone could be fast over one hundred meters, but someone who remained fast over five kilometers was a true powerhouse.

He instinctively pressed the delete button, but when the confirmation dialog appeared, the man in the suit suddenly froze.

"Brother Zhao, what's wrong?"

Seeing that the man in the suit had gone still, someone else asked curiously.

Zhao Li snapped out of his daze. Ignoring the questioner, he took out the walkie-talkie at his waist. "Front desk, help me look up the information on the member who just used Room 308."

"What happened?" A sweet but slightly nervous voice answered. "Was anything in the room damaged?"

"No. Just tell me quickly. This is important," Zhao Li urged.

"Oh, Brother Zhao, I was the one who brought the member for 308 in. His name is Shen Qian, a senior at No.7 High School in Jing City. Didn't I tell you about him earlier...?"

"Wait!" Zhao Li abruptly raised his voice and cut Xiao Xuan off. "Are you sure he's only a high school senior?"

"Yes. The information says he's seventeen. He even made the rankings—he's ranked thirty-sixth on our hall's list. I heard him say he's a native of South City. That's so rare, hehe. Unlike most of the people on the list, who came from other districts... Brother Zhao, what exactly is wrong?"

As Xiao Xuan spoke, Zhao Li stopped responding. Only somewhat hurried breathing came through the walkie-talkie, leaving her puzzled.

"A high school senior, seventeen years old, only seventeen..."

Zhao Li switched off the walkie-talkie and muttered the words repeatedly.

Today was not the weekend, so there were not many people using the cultivation rooms late at night. Earlier, the employees on the night shift at the martial arts hall had been having a late-night meal together. Since Xiao Xuan had signed up her first client, she had excitedly mentioned him to everyone, so Zhao Li vaguely remembered.

When he saw the data just now, Zhao Li recalled the matter. With his experience, he instantly recognized the problem.

4.8 kilometers in ten minutes meant an average pace of 12.5 seconds per hundred meters over a long-distance run. That was simply not something anyone below Beginner Martial Artist could achieve...

The explosive power and endurance required for that were astonishing.

Zhao Li began checking every piece of equipment in turn, or more precisely, verifying the historical data on every machine.

He needed to confirm whether the treadmill had malfunctioned.

The others watched in confusion as Zhao Li crawled around among the equipment, while his expression grew more and more excited.

"Brother Zhao, what exactly happened?" Seeing Zhao Li finally stop, someone could not help asking again.

"Don't touch anything. None of you touch the equipment in this room. I'm going to find Director Zhu right now!" Zhao Li said, clenching his fist with an excited expression.

"Why are you looking for Director Zhu?" Everyone grew even more confused.

"The frontman Director Zhu needs has finally been found!" Zhao Li burst into laughter. "Let's see what Sihai Martial Arts Hall can use to compete with us this time!"

As he spoke, Zhao Li rushed out impatiently, leaving behind several people staring at one another.

"Could there have been a mistake?"

Outside Gold Cultivation Room 308, Xiao Xuan stood at the door in a daze.

She had been called up by Zhu Deyong, the general manager of the South City branch. At that moment, in addition to Zhu Deyong, Zhao Li, and the others, all the other management staff from the South City branch had gathered in Cultivation Room 308.

They were listening to Zhao Li's explanation, while two others beside them recorded data and calculated something.

Though she still did not understand what was going on, Xiao Xuan had gathered from Zhao Li's tone that Shen Qian seemed to be some kind of extraordinary genius...

But a Potential Index of 70 could only be considered fairly decent, right?

At that moment, the two people responsible for recording stood up.

"Director Zhu, we have the results," one of them said.

"How is it?" Zhu Deyong impatiently stepped forward.

"Based on the residual data from this body-training equipment, this member's Burst Strength should be between 155 and 170 kg. His estimated explosive speed over one hundred meters is between 8.1 and 9.8 seconds..."

"Good! A seventeen-year-old Beginner Martial Artist, excellent... Haha, my South City branch finally has a truly talented student!" With the confirmation, Zhu Deyong swept away the gloom that had weighed on him for days and could not help laughing loudly.

Xiao Xuan's mouth fell slightly open, her delicate face full of shock. Those were absolutely figures that only a true martial artist could achieve!

He... he was actually a Beginner Martial Artist?