After the dull thud, Lei Long stole a glance at the twisted, ruined punching post and shuddered.
He didn't dare say anything. He shrank back, his previous swaggering instructor's air nowhere to be seen.
The trainees standing in a row also twitched at the corners of their eyes. They couldn't help grimacing, but under the terrifying pressure Lin Fei exerted, they didn't dare move.
"Is that thing made of iron? She wrecked it with one punch?"
"That had to be at least a thousand pounds of force, right? Is the head coach even human?"
As the group furiously debated in their heads, Lin Fei's gaze swept over them.
In an instant, they straightened up and stood ramrod straight, eyes wide and gazes resolute.
"Lei Long's teaching was no good, but don't blame him."
"He said there wasn't much to teach, but really, he just couldn't explain it himself."
"He's simply not the brightest. He's not a bad person."
"To make it up to you, each of you can have one medicinal bath. The cost will be deducted from Lei Long's salary."
After she finished speaking, the pressure Lin Fei exuded eased slightly.
When Lei Long heard his salary would be docked, he opened his mouth, but after glancing at Lin Fei, he silently shut it again.
The trainees relaxed as well and began murmuring among themselves.
"What's a medicinal bath?" Lin Ye asked Yan Yi.
Yan Yi glanced furtively at Lin Fei and spoke in a low voice. "You soak in a tub of medicinal water. It helps treat injuries to the body."
"They're not cheap. One session costs three thousand yuan, almost as much as tuition. They'll dock Coach Lei's wages for the next six months."
"But don't use yours yet. Wait until you've learned the fist technique. That's when you'll get the most out of it."
Lin Ye nodded in understanding. "Coach Lei's generous."
"Clatter—"
Lin Fei dragged over the huge wheeled blackboard and drew a large diagram of the human body in chalk.
Lin Ye looked over. The head coach was an excellent artist; even a professional might not have been able to make the diagram so clear and easy to understand.
Inside the outline of the body, she drew vertebrae, with fine lines branching outward and connecting to every part of the body.
"Knock, knock."
Lin Fei tapped the board lightly with her pointer, and the trainees turned their attention to her.
"Today's lesson has two parts. First, I'll go over the levels of fist technique again."
"Second, I'll help you work through the force of the fist. Consider it compensation from Lei Long."
As she spoke, the black pointer touched the spine in the diagram.
"The first level of Soul Whale Fist is marked by Qi-Sensation Like Rope."
"As the name suggests, when the Heat Line transforms into qi-sensation, you can feel not only that it has turned cool, but also that it rotates around the spine, tightening the meridians throughout your body."
"That feeling of tension throughout your body is the clearest indication that you've mastered the first level."
Wei Qian, standing at the front of the trainee line, nodded to himself.
In fact, his physical fitness had already met the standard. He'd experienced that feeling of tension throughout his body.
But he hadn't developed qi-sensation. It wasn't something that came naturally—not for him, at least.
After pausing for a few seconds, Lin Fei continued tracing the lines extending from the spine with her pointer.
"At first, this rope-like qi-sensation can only affect your back."
"Training at the first level means guiding this qi-sensation along your meridians and into your limbs, until you can channel it all the way to your fingertips."
"When your force follows your qi, and you can channel it to your fingertips, you've fully developed your force."
"Once you strike, the force reaches your fingertips. A poke can pierce an ordinary plank."
As she spoke, Lin Fei pressed her index finger lightly against the stone blackboard. A small hole appeared in it.
"Once you can channel qi to your fingertips, you've reached the second level of Soul Whale Fist."
"Training at the second level is actually quite simple: Python-Forming Qi Refining."
"The first level's qi-sensation is like a rope: it's tight. But if it gets too tight, it can snap."
"So you have to train the qi-sensation until it's both tight and tough, so it won't break. It should be like a giant python coiled inside you."
"This step takes time and steady effort. Every day of training brings progress; there's no achieving it without hard work."
"When you clearly feel a fullness rising from within your body, it means your physical potential has been released. That also marks your mastery of the third level of Soul Whale Fist."
Lin Ye stood quietly in the back, puzzled.
A feeling of fullness?
He remembered feeling something like that when he'd added points to his Strength attribute.
Did that mean Potential Points improved his physical aptitude as they increased his attributes? Or perhaps they awakened his potential?
"Knock, knock."
The pointer tapped the blackboard. Lin Fei adjusted her glasses.
"Once you've mastered the third level of Soul Whale Fist, your physical abilities will be close to the peak of human potential in every respect."
"Training at the third level is about pushing yourself all the way to the human limit."
"But the specific training methods for the third level involve certain secrets, so I can't discuss them here."
After she finished, she looked around. Wei Qian raised his hand.
"Head coach, isn't the human limit different for everyone?"
Lin Fei didn't deny it. "That's right."
"Under normal circumstances, anyone who reaches the third level can punch with a force of at least three hundred kilograms."
"But the upper limit of the third level is harder to say. Some may not even reach four hundred kilograms, while someone as exceptionally talented as Lei Long can approach or even exceed five hundred."
Wei Qian's pupils trembled. Three hundred kilograms was the standard for a gold-certified boxing coach recognized by the Federation!
Fewer than three hundred boxers in the entire Boxing League could reach that level!
At the level of a gold-certified coach, you were already in a realm beyond the reach of ordinary people. Even the gap between them and a champion boxer wasn't that large.
As for five hundred kilograms, there were no official records, but even among the league's active champions, few could likely reach that level.
Though he'd already witnessed Lin Fei's terrifying strength with his own eyes, he still found it hard to accept.
After all, this completely challenged—even shattered—the understanding he'd built over more than twenty years.
But he soon recovered, and even began to feel a little excited.
Ancient Fist Technique—this was an entirely different field from boxing and modern combat sports!
That was why he'd left the Modern Combat Martial Arts Gym in the first place!
Now that he'd found what he'd been looking for, he should be happy!
In a daze, he felt as if he'd touched upon the truth of the world.
A truth entirely unlike the world on its surface.
Lin Ye, standing at the back, was excited too.
His physical abilities had once been close to the peak of human potential in every respect. Having nearly completed the Ozaki Eight, he knew better than anyone how absurdly strong someone like that could be.
Because he'd once been one of them.
Being close to the peak of human potential in every respect didn't mean matching world records across the board.
It meant reaching a level in every physical discipline that ordinary people could hardly achieve through conventional training. That was what made it the pinnacle.
The closest comparison was a decathlete. Their result in any one event might seem "ordinary" beside the world record.
But when all those "ordinary" results belonged to the same person, they became a crushing wall of superiority.
Beside him, Yan Yi looked calm.
She knew exactly how formidable the third level of Ancient Fist Technique was. Her father was a master at that level.
He could fight a Mountain Tiger alone with a knife. Against an unarmed opponent, one punch would break bones and snap tendons; even seven or eight ordinary people armed with weapons would struggle to beat him.
But that was as far as it went. Her family's Spirit Thread Fist was inferior to Soul Whale Fist.
Not only was its body-tempering effect weaker, but the third level of Spirit Thread Fist was incomplete, missing a crucial component.
So even if she mastered it, she couldn't reach the human limit—not even come close.
She'd enrolled at the Whale-Kill Boxing Hall to obtain the complete training method for the third level of the fist technique, and to break through to the fourth level or even higher!
She lightly touched her neck. The centipede-shaped scar extended down to below her collarbone, aching faintly.
"Ahem."
"Boss, the confidentiality rules."
Lei Long coughed twice and reminded her.
Telling the trainees that the third level of the fist technique could produce a punching force of five hundred kilograms was already a breach of the rules.
Lin Fei pinched her earlobe. "It's fine. That's all borderline information. So what if they know?"
She looked at everyone. "Don't repeat what I said today. It won't do you any good."
Besides, even if they did tell someone, who would believe them? Who had actually seen it with their own eyes?
The third level? It wasn't easy to reach.
After the age of thirty, your body's functions started to decline.
If you hadn't reached the third level before then, you could pretty much forget about ever getting there.
In truth, the third level was a threshold that 99 percent of people could never cross, even if they trained their whole lives.
Even some of the Federation's top boxers, despite enjoying access to the best resources, could only match third-level martial artists in punching force alone.
"All right, that's enough about the levels."
"If you reach the third level, you'll learn what comes after it once you sign a contract with the gym."
Lin Fei took off her glasses, her whole demeanor changing as she grew wilder.
"That's enough of the boring lecture."
"Next, I'll personally help you work through the force of your fists."
With that, she took off her shirt and grinned, baring two rows of white teeth.
"Take yours off, too. You'll get hot soon."
She casually tossed aside her black coach's jacket. Lin Fei's tan upper body came into view.
She wasn't bulky, but her muscles were exceptionally toned—lean and defined, with a taut, almost stringy quality.
A slender gold chain circled her neck, holding a silver oval pendant that looked like a locket.
"Coach... you're so flat," a round-faced female trainee blurted out.
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