Chenfeng Martial Hall

Qingjian City.

In April, the fine rain sounded like silkworms nibbling mulberry leaves, turning the glass curtain walls of the surrounding buildings into a frosted texture.

The accumulated water on the asphalt road reflected a cold, leaden light, and the red and green of the traffic lights bled into colorful swamps on the slick surface. Busy pedestrians hurried past under umbrellas on the bustling street.

Fang Qingyu stood beneath the Jinggong Road sign.

His gaze, pressed down to his brow bone under the pure black umbrella, swept over the white characters floating above the heads of the passersby, passing the time.

"DiDi driver moonlighting as a late-night bar host."

"Legal consultant moonlighting as a streamer."

"Blockchain developer, moonlighting as a kidney broker."

". Gigolo."

In this day and age, it was truly hard to survive without one or two side jobs.

It was just that you could never imagine what kind of side jobs others were doing.

Rumble~

Thunder rumbled from the sky. Fang Qingyu looked up. The weather had been a bit strange these past few days.

Fortunately, the person he was waiting for had arrived.

"Qingzi, sorry, sorry, I'm late."

A young man with a tight-fitting vest accentuating his muscular physique jogged over from a distance.

"It's fine, I just got here too."

Fang Qingyu turned around, a smile on his face.

The young man's name was Qi Hao.

He was Fang Qingyu's high school classmate. The only thing they had in common was that neither of them chose to go to college after graduating high school.

However, one became a formal trainee at a martial arts hall, while the other drifted into society.

In fact, Fang Qingyu had many reasons he could have given.

For instance, his natural memory was worse than that of his peers; he might forget what he memorized the next day, or he might occasionally suffer from sudden, severe headaches.

But as an orphan, there was no point in saying such things. He didn't get into college, and that was that.

Qi Hao had recently learned of Fang Qingyu's desire to get in shape, so he had arranged to bring him to the martial arts hall where he usually trained.

"Come on, let's go inside. I'll show you around first."

Qi Hao enthusiastically beckoned.

Fang Qingyu followed behind him, looking up at the sign above.

Chenfeng Martial Hall.

Carved in ancient script on a large plaque, it hung at the very top, exuding an impressive aura.

What was most remarkable was the absence of various recruitment advertisements around it.

It gave a very clean impression.

"What do you think? Pretty imposing, right?"

At the entrance of the martial arts hall, it resembled the gate of an ancient manor. Anyone standing there would first see a massive screen inside.

A single character, "Martial," was carved upon it.

Fang Qingyu nodded in agreement.

The martial arts halls in this world were indeed very different from what he had imagined.

Passing beyond the screen, the sound of the sudden downpour outside was abruptly cut off.

The space that unfolded before them was as large as two football fields. The seven-meter-high ceiling was embedded with a honeycomb-like LED matrix, and the cold white light cascaded down evenly like moonlight.

Dozens of punching posts were arranged in formation, with a trainee in a black practice uniform standing before each one.

Following the coach's commands, the trainees stood in a horse stance with slightly bent knees, striking the punching posts before them with all their might.

They let out shouts of encouragement and exertion.

It looked quite lively.

"This is where they build the foundation. If you just signed up, you'd train here with them, starting with Stance Training."

"What do you think? Pretty good, huh?"

Qi Hao said, a hint of pride on his face.

The trainees who had just joined the martial arts hall had this kind of spirit and demeanor, which was quite commendable.

Fang Qingyu listened, his expression unreadable. He first looked at the white characters floating above everyone's heads.

[Students],[Programmers],[Bank Tellers].

They were all ordinary people.

Including that coach.

The professional title above their head was merely [Stance Coach].

The facilities here were indeed quite good, but... it seemed to be just an ordinary martial arts hall.

Fang Qingyu felt a bit disappointed.

After all, the enrollment fee here was ten thousand yuan, equivalent to all his savings at the moment.

If it were just an ordinary martial arts hall, he might as well have stayed home and worked out.

"It's okay, let's take another look."

Seeing Fang Qingyu remain silent, Qi Hao suddenly felt anxious and pulled him along to look around.

He was one of the few people who knew and believed that Fang Qingyu's memory had issues and that he had a brain condition.

This was because he had previously tried to teach Fang Qingyu some moves and some basic power generation techniques.

And Fang Qingyu's learning speed was astonishing.

Although he sometimes forgot the next day, if such martial arts were practiced for a long time, they would form subconscious reactions etched into the muscles.

This had nothing to do with his memory in his mind.

This was why he was so eager to bring Fang Qingyu here to register.

"This is the weapons area. After you've built a foundation, you can choose to learn fist techniques or various weapons. I'm learning fist techniques."

Walking to another area.

The metal racks in the weapons area spread out in a fan shape, and hundreds of unsharpened steel weapons glinted coldly under the white light.

Here, a female coach was swinging a nine-section whip, instructing students.

"How many times have I told you! You can only dissipate force by gripping with three fingers and leaving two fingers loose!"

"She's Coach Zheng from our martial hall's formal class. She's very formidable; she teaches both weapons and fist techniques. I can't beat her at all."

After hearing this, Fang Qingyu glanced at their physiques with slight surprise.

If Qi Hao wasn't deliberately bragging, Then this coach might actually have some real skill.

But not much.

Whether it was the weapons area or the students and coaches in the boxing area, their professional titles were also quite ordinary.

A weapons coach, a combat coach.

They could probably be considered masters in martial arts.

But it wasn't to the extent that he needed to spend all his current savings to learn here.

"I'll consider it."

Although the area here was large, there weren't many people. Fang Qingyu, having seen everything at a glance, planned to leave.

"Alright, Qingzi, think about it carefully. I think you're really talented."

Having not seen any sign of interest from Fang Qingyu the entire time, Qi Hao knew he probably wouldn't register.

After all, he also understood Fang Qingyu's situation.

This fee was indeed a burden for Qingzi.

"I will consider it."

Fang Qingyu nodded seriously.

However, that was for a future situation where he had more financial flexibility.

Qi Hao saw Fang Qingyu to the door. A mother and son were standing outside, seemingly also intending to register.

"How about it, son, want to go in and take a look? Don't you love wuxia novels the most? Practicing martial arts here can also strengthen your body..."

Fang Qingyu glanced at them and was about to say goodbye to Qi Hao.

Another middle-aged man walked up to the door.

Seeing him, Qi Hao quickly bowed and greeted him.

"Hello, Coach Lin."

Coach Lin nodded with an "Mm" sound and then entered the martial hall on his own.

However, before entering, he glanced at Fang Qingyu, who had been staring at him.

In that instant, Fang Qingyu felt goosebumps erupt all over his body!

It was as if he was standing at the edge of an abyss with his back to it.

As long as the other party wished it, he could fall into an abyss at any moment.

"Who is he?"

After a long pause, Fang Qingyu finally came back to his senses and looked at Qi Hao.

"We all call him Coach Lin. He's a coach for the elite class at the martial hall. He's super strong!"

"I personally saw him kick a 200-pound training post seven or eight meters away with one kick before."

Qi Hao hadn't held out much hope, but when he heard Fang Qingyu's voice, he quickly came over to explain.

Coincidentally, the mother and son next to them were also arguing.

"Martial arts?? Even dogs wouldn't..."

"Train!!"

Fang Qingyu suddenly grabbed Qi Hao and walked back into the martial hall.

"What we're training is martial arts. Take me to sign up."

Qi Hao was a bit confused at first.

But even though he didn't understand why Qingzi had suddenly changed his mind, he was happy that he was willing to sign up.

"You definitely won't regret this, Qingzi."

With that, he took Fang Qingyu to the front desk to pay.

Eighteen thousand was almost all the money Fang Qingyu had saved over the years.

Only 652 was left.

However, Fang Qingyu truly wouldn't regret it.

There were two types of strong individuals.

One type needed to constantly climb upwards to prove themselves.

But there was another type...

They were enough just by standing there.

The middle-aged man just now was like that.

Not to mention his professional title...

This was the first time Fang Qingyu had ever seen it!!!

[Martial Practitioner]!

And the color was red!