Defense

Chen Shouyi was a bit annoyed and shot her a glare.

But the Shell Girl was completely unafraid, hands on her hips, shouting nonstop: "Beiqi, Beiqi, Beiqi..."

Chen Shouyi was so irritated his teeth itched. This Shell Girl had been getting more and more cheeky lately. Why was it so hard to just get a straight answer out of her?

He thought about scaring her a little, but after a moment, he let it go. She'd been running around all day, helping him earn a hundred and ten thousand yuan—that was hard work. And she'd been tied up for most of the day too. Might as well let her relax.

It wasn't urgent anyway.

He sighed, grabbed the remote, and turned the TV back on.

"Beiqi!" The Shell Girl saw the familiar scene appear on the screen and immediately quieted down, returning to her spot.

Chen Shouyi went back to reading. His intelligence was now at 123—well within the genius range. He was a different person from before. In just over an hour, he'd silently memorized over a hundred vocabulary words and learned several short sentences for basic conversation.

In between, he called his mom and exchanged a few texts with Zhang Xiaoyue.

Lately, because he came and went unpredictably and often disappeared for long stretches, their relationship hadn't heated up as expected. It was still lukewarm.

Just then, the landline on the bed rang.

Chen Shouyi picked it up and, before the other person could speak, said quickly:

"I don't need any services, thanks."

Then he hung up. Every night he stayed in this room, he got calls like this. At first, he thought it was room service and asked a follow-up question. The answer left him dry-mouthed and wide-eyed.

He really was still too young.

Chen Shouyi kept reading until eleven, then practiced the Thirty-Six Body Tempering Forms over a dozen times. After showering, he noticed the Shell Girl was still watching TV—she'd even moved spots once.

He grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. The Shell Girl jumped up in anger, trying to turn it back on, but the moment she saw the rope in his hand, her face fell.

He crooked a finger at her. She understood, tears welling up as she stretched out her leg.

Soon, Chen Shouyi tied one end of the rope around her leg and the other around his arm.

He went over and turned off the light.

Click. The room went dark.

The Shell Girl lay still for a while, listening to the giant's breathing like a gale beside her.

Then she slowly stood up, carefully climbed onto the pillow, and stared at that infuriating big face. She shook her tiny fist—smaller than a mung bean—bared her teeth, and silently cursed.

After venting, she looked at the rope on her foot, sighed in defeat, and crawled back to her corner of the bed. Soon, drowsiness hit, and her faint snoring began.

Chen Shouyi wasn't asleep. He had entered a deep state of tranquility.

In his mind, countless lines spread across his body like a network, the image monotonous, with no extra detail.

Ever since Entering Tranquility to Refine the Self had trained "all body muscles" about eight days ago, this image hadn't changed. But today, something shifted.

As time passed, the lines began to show variations in light and shadow, gaining texture—like a flat drawing turning three-dimensional.

The next morning, just as he was drifting between sleep and waking, he felt a strange sensation arise.

He didn't open his eyes. He just quietly experienced it.

He realized he could sense the objects around him in some intangible way. No images, no light—just a strong intuition of what was nearby and a rough sense of their shape.

He could feel the Shell Girl half a meter to his right, curled up in a ball under the blanket, still fast asleep.

He could sense a one-yuan coin wedged in the gap behind the bed's headboard.

The only downside was the range—only about a meter. Beyond that, his perception quickly blurred.

Chen Shouyi opened his eyes in surprise, all drowsiness gone.

He glanced at the Shell Girl beside him—her sleeping position matched his perception exactly. He lifted the mattress pad and sure enough, found a one-yuan coin in the crack.

He swore he had no idea that coin was there.

He opened his

Status Panel

.

He saw that Entering Tranquility to Refine the Self had jumped from (Proficient 2) to (Proficient 10).

Perception had also increased by 0.1, bringing it to 1.1, including the 0.1 gain from two days ago.

Ever since the Book of Knowledge had remodeled his body—perhaps because he'd grown stronger—perception had been improving faster. In just three days, he'd gained 0.2.

Among all the changes, perception was the most puzzling.

From what he understood, perception was similar to the legendary spiritual power, also tied to intuition or a sixth sense.

But before this, the stat had shown no obvious effect—or rather, its effect was subtle and hard to notice.

"So 1.1 is the threshold for perception?" he thought, staring at the number.

He got dressed and headed to the bathroom.

On the way, he keenly noticed a newfound control over his body. Even just walking casually, his muscles moved like interlocking gears—tightly coordinated, smooth, and effortless. No need to force it; everything came naturally.

It felt wonderful. Every fiber of his body seemed under his command, as if he'd been completely renewed. He had a strong intuition that today, his sword speed would be at least half a percent faster than yesterday.

Youth Martial Arts Training Center.

"Wow, Chen Shouyi, you've changed so much!" Guo Qianqian, still accompanying her boyfriend, saw Chen Shouyi and a flicker of surprise crossed her face. If not for the fact that his face was still the same, she would have thought he was a different person.

She could no longer find any trace of that shy image in her memory. Now, his gaze was sharp, his demeanor steady, standing out from the crowd like a crane among chickens. Even her handsome boyfriend beside him paled in comparison, ordinary as a passerby.

"Have I? Maybe it's because of the clothes," Chen Shouyi said with a smile, deftly changing the subject. "Didn't go out for National Day?"

"I was planning to go out with my parents the day before yesterday, but halfway through the drive, the highway was closed. Heard it was for a military deployment, needed to seal the road for half a day, so we came back."

"That's really bad luck!" Chen Shouyi remarked, not thinking much of it.

"Yeah, yeah. By the way, do you still remember Zhu Shaoqiang from our class? The tall one."

"The sports monitor, of course I do. What about him?" Chen Shouyi thought for a moment and recalled.

"He joined the army."

Chen Shouyi paused for a moment, but wasn't too surprised. Lately, the recruitment propaganda had started up again.

On the big screen at the nearby cross street, before he came over, he'd seen it playing a recruitment ad.

Ever since the fusion with the Otherworld began twenty years ago, the shadow of war had hung over humanity. The military forces of countries around the world had maintained a massive scale for a long time, and for a big nation like China, the army size was staggering.

Its standing forces alone reached six million. Even in a small city like Dongning, a regiment of soldiers was stationed nearby.

Actually, this was the number left after years of gradual reductions. Back in the early days of the Otherworld fusion, China's total military strength once peaked at ten million, nearly entering a state of combat readiness.

Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm, and the war between the two worlds remained confined to a small scale.

Perhaps a bit excited, Guo Qianqian couldn't stop talking once she started. Seeing nothing else to do, Chen Shouyi had to chat idly with her.

Lin Feng, who had been sitting in his seat looking at his phone, grew darker and darker, his fists clenching tighter. Finally, he stood up with a bang, his shin hitting the chair and letting out a harsh scraping sound.

Chen Shouyi immediately looked over.

For some reason, at that moment, Lin Feng felt an immense pressure, like a basin of icy water. His slightly heated mind quickly cooled down. Remembering the gap in their strength, his accumulated momentum drained away like a burst dam.

"What's wrong?" Guo Qianqian asked.

He avoided Chen Shouyi's gaze, affectionately pulled Guo Qianqian close, and said, "I just spotted a pair of platinum couple rings. They're really beautiful. Got a bit too excited. Let's take a look together later. If you like them, we'll buy them."

Guo Qianqian was indeed drawn in, and the two huddled together, starting to chat quietly.

Just then, the tutor finally arrived.

"During the long National Day holiday, I wonder if everyone has been practicing hard. If you aspire to walk the path of martial arts, diligence is indispensable.

Enough small talk. Today, we're going to learn something new: how to defend.

Defense can generally be divided into three types: distance defense, body dodge defense, and weapon defense.

Distance defense, as the name implies, means retreating beyond the attack range, and the defense is naturally complete.

It sounds simple, but doing it well is actually quite difficult, because the opponent's sword speed is often far faster than your retreat speed. This not only requires flexible Basic Footwork, but also the need to make advance predictions, demanding extremely sharp eyesight."

At this point, the Beautiful Teacher looked at Chen Shouyi and said, "Chen Shouyi, go put on the Protective Suit and demonstrate with me."