On Saturday morning, while the sky was still dim, Chen Mochuan had already arrived at school.
Two weeks had passed since he first went to Mingxin Martial Arts Hall with Li Biao.
During that time, aside from Sundays when school was closed, he spent the entire day at the martial arts hall.
On school nights, he went to Mingxin every evening to mooch free massages and late-night snacks.
To his relief, even with him making such frequent use of his Gold Member benefits, Mingxin had never shown the slightest displeasure.
He had even noticed that over the past few days, the massage therapists had been using an ointment better than Shuluo Powder.
It made him feel that his Blood-Qi had recently started growing a little faster again.
He had once asked the massage therapist why, and the other had only said that since he came to Mingxin every night despite being so exhausted, he was an exceptionally high-quality member, so they were giving him this extra perk.
Chen Mochuan knew it was a prepared line, but since the other party meant no harm, he accepted the bargain without hesitation.
After his massage, if he wasn't especially tired, he would also use the martial arts hall's Virtual Pod to log into Heaven Martial Battle Net and play a few ranked matches before heading home.
This directly cut into his sleep, but perhaps because his constitution had changed after awakening his Spirit Talent, he actually felt more energetic than before despite sleeping less. Even his recovery had noticeably improved.
With Mingxin Martial Arts Hall's help, he had made great strides in every martial art he practiced.
Although the Tiger Fiend Fist had improved the most on the first day, his progress afterward was still swift. It took only ten days to advance from Initiation to Proficiency, though his progress slowed a little after that;
the Foundation Building Fist, meanwhile, had improved rapidly, spurred on by both his daily hard practice and ranked matches;
the Root-Solidifying Stance couldn't improve through combat like the two fist techniques. He could only hone it slowly through hard work and by digesting the insights absorbed with Spirit Devourer. Progress was slower, but Chen Mochuan had still advanced further and begun focusing his practice on the sixteenth stance form.
The Golden Light Screen faithfully recorded every bit of his progress:
[Spirit Master: Chen Mochuan] [Status: Blood-Qi Abundant] [Spirit Talent: Spirit Devourer (can devour the Spiritual Essence of all things and strengthen the self)] [Blood-Qi Value: 3.66] [Martial Arts:] [Root-Solidifying Stance: Great Completion (28%)] [Foundation Building Fist: Great Completion (43%)] [Tiger Fiend Fist: Proficiency (16%)]
And so, Chen Mochuan lived a life that revolved around home, school, and Mingxin Martial Arts Hall, tirelessly working to improve his strength. Mingxin had become the steadfast base of his cultivation.
Still, Chen Mochuan felt that Mingxin was excellent in every way save one: it wasn't open twenty-four hours a day. It opened at seven in the morning and closed at eleven at night. Otherwise, he might have chosen to live at the hall.
After entering the teaching building, Chen Mochuan hurried upstairs, verified his identity, and entered the Martial Arts Arena for the advanced class.
Unlike usual, he was the third person to arrive that day.
At five thirty in the morning, Jiang Hao and Su Zhining, the top two students in their year, had already started training in the arena.
Chen Mochuan wasn't late. Rather, over the past two weeks, his breakthroughs in both the Root-Solidifying Stance and Foundation Building Fist to Great Completion had spurred many classmates to imitate his schedule. Some even arrived earlier and left later.
But most of them couldn't keep it up, and gradually gave up.
It wasn't that they lacked willpower. They simply didn't have a tool like the Golden Light Screen to monitor their physical condition in real time, making sustained high-intensity training extremely risky.
Sure enough, a little over a week into following his routine, one student suffered an overuse injury, which directly affected his subsequent martial arts practice.
After all, there were only a little over two hundred days left until the College Entrance Exam. They had entered the final stretch of their preparations, and every day was precious.
So most of the students, wary of risking injury, chose to drop out.
At present, only Jiang Hao and Su Zhining were still keeping at it.
Although their Blood-Qi Values topped the school and had reached the level of seven-stage Martial Warriors, Chen Mochuan felt that their current, unscientifically intense training couldn't last.
But they were both fiercely competitive, like a pair of natural-born rivals who refused to yield. Neither was willing to give up first, and they had reached a stalemate. They even competed over who could arrive at school earlier each day, to the point that both of them now showed up before Chen Mochuan.
The two had even separately asked him in private what his secret was for maintaining such intense training over the long term while keeping to that schedule.
Chen Mochuan naturally couldn't tell them about the Golden Light Screen, so he gave them a more practical answer instead: "Don't push yourself too hard. When you feel tired, rest. Once you've recovered, start training again. Remember to eat plenty to replenish your strength. That's all."
But the two refused to accept such plain advice, believing he was keeping something to himself.
Chen Mochuan could only laugh helplessly and say no more. The arena was big enough for all three of them to train separately without disturbing one another, so it didn't really matter.
Chen Mochuan walked to a corner far from the other two and quietly activated Spirit Devourer, precisely absorbing two firefly-sized traces of martial arts insight related to the Root-Solidifying Stance from the arena.
[You activated "Spirit Devourer" and absorbed 2 fragments of martial arts insight, gaining a deeper understanding of the Root-Solidifying Stance]
Recently, some of the martial arts insights he had previously absorbed had been digested, freeing up room for him to take in new ones.
However, the slightly smaller Light Seed of Tiger Fiend Fist he'd absorbed at Mingxin was already enough to keep him busy digesting for quite some time. The larger one wasn't going anywhere, either; he could absorb it sooner or later, so there was no need to rush.
The insights into the Foundation Building Fist from Han Hao's Martial Arts Notes would also last him for a while.
So he turned his attention to the Root-Solidifying Stance, the martial art he understood less well, and the class's Martial Arts Arena was the best place he could find to absorb its insights for now.
Lately, he had been using Spirit Devourer frequently, and his control over the Spirit Talent had grown ever more adept.
He could now distinguish which martial art each trace of Spiritual Essence corresponded to and absorb the ones he wanted with precision.
However, the teaching building had only been renovated and rebuilt two years ago, so the arena held only fragmented insights from his classmates in the Root-Solidifying Stance and Foundation Building Fist.
Fortunately, though his classmates hadn't reached his level in the Root-Solidifying Stance, they had at least attained Mastery, and their insights could still help him draw connections and gain new understanding.
After sorting through, combining, and sifting out the dross, Chen Mochuan blended their insights with his own understanding. These insights still helped him practice the Root-Solidifying Stance.
Now, absorbing two fragments of incomplete insight each time was just enough to meet his daily training needs for the Root-Solidifying Stance. It improved him effectively while avoiding the mental shock he'd suffered after absorbing too many fragments at the residential complex's plaza.
Just as Chen Mochuan finished absorbing that day's insights and settled into training, his homeroom teacher, Han Zhen, arrived at school early as well.
He first called Jiang Hao and Su Zhining away. Not long afterward, he returned to the arena and summoned Chen Mochuan to his office alone.
As soon as Chen Mochuan stepped inside, Han Zhen asked him bluntly, "You've already awakened your Spirit Talent, haven't you?"
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