The Wronged Chen Gu

After warming up, Luo Zhe stood before the punch target. Starting from his legs, he exerted force abruptly; his body twisted slightly, and a powerful force erupted from his waist and hips, instantly chaining through his body and into his arm. Luo Zhe's fist shot out like an arrow released from a fully drawn bow, leaving a faint afterimage in its wake.

With a "thud," his fist slammed heavily into the target.

Before the result even appeared, a hint of joy flickered in Luo Zhe's eyes: That punch felt great; I managed to release all the tension in my body.

He turned to look at the display screen—"6853kg"!

"Haha!" Looking at the numbers on the screen, Luo Zhe felt a surge of exhilaration.

It had been little more than half a month since his last test. Even with the auxiliary training from the Dimensional Space, he hadn't even obtained a technique manual yet, and he had already gained nearly eight hundred kilograms of punch strength.

It seemed the auxiliary effects of the Dimensional Space on his cultivation were even better than Luo Zhe had imagined.

If he could wait until after the Martial Artist Combat Assessment in a month to purchase the Nine-Fold Thunder Blade, then with the added help of a Guidance Technique, his strength would surely leap forward once again.

The rapid progress in his punch strength filled Luo Zhe with joy. With the speed test still waiting, he wanted to see how much his speed had improved as well.

After calming his emotions slightly, he walked onto the track, adjusted his breathing, and bounced lightly on the spot.

Whoosh!

Once he exerted force, his entire body shot out like a leopard. He was incredibly fast, carrying a gust of wind as he streaked across the speed test zone. If any outsiders were present, they would likely have gasped in surprise at the "afterimage."

The afterimage phenomenon is a visual effect where light persists on the retina for a short time after it stops acting upon it. It is caused by the reaction speed of the optic nerve, with a duration of one twenty-fourth of a second.

For a normal person, the process of seeing an image involves the eye's lens focusing, the photoreceptor cells sensing light, and the conversion of light signals into neural currents transmitted back to the brain to create human vision.

Generally, if an object's speed reaches forty-one meters per second, it can create an afterimage visible to the average person.

However, a martial artist's neural reaction speed far exceeds that of a normal person, especially for those who specialize in thermal weapons. Their neural reactions are even faster than those of ordinary martial artists, and only when an object moves at an extremely high speed is it possible for an afterimage to appear in their eyes.

When Luo Zhe walked over to the Speed Tester and looked, the screen displayed—"90.1m/s"!

"Yes!" Luo Zhe jumped for joy on the spot!

In terms of speed alone, Luo Zhe had already reached the standard of a Warrior Level.

Generally, 60 meters per second is the baseline for physical fitness at the Advanced Warrior Level. Meanwhile, 90 meters per second is considered the baseline for the Junior Warrior Level.

He hadn't expected that while his punch strength was still quite far from the Junior Warrior Level, his speed had already far surpassed his punch strength, reaching the baseline for a Junior Warrior. It seemed his talent for speed was even greater than his talent for punch strength.

After calming down, he stood in place, reached out, and stroked the sparse stubble on his chin, thinking silently: The Nine-Fold Thunder Blade is difficult to learn precisely because it has extremely high requirements for body strength and muscle sensitivity. Now that my talent for punch strength is not weak, and my talent for speed is even better, does that mean I am perfectly suited to cultivate this manual?

Haha, looking at it this way, I really am a genius!

Facing a genius like me, I wonder where those two brothers, Yang Shu and Yang Lin, get the confidence to belittle me. Who gave them the courage?

The test ended, and Luo Zhe was very satisfied with his current strength. At his current rate of progress, in another month—by the Martial Artist Combat Assessment on August 1st—even if he hadn't broken through to the Warrior Level by then, he would likely be very close.

After turning off the punch strength tester and other instruments, Luo Zhe lifted his watch and glanced at it: 9:15. Yang Shu had mentioned earlier that today was the day of the Quasi-Martial Artist assessment. Since it was still early, going upstairs to join the excitement wouldn't be a bad idea.

He entered the elevator and went up to the sixth floor.

Whoosh!

After the elevator doors opened, the first thing that came into view was the familiar, massive Martial Arts Training Hall, where seven or eight people were gathered in a dense crowd.

In the hall, Wu Tong, with his long hair draped over his shoulders, was whispering to a silver-haired man in a black robe at the edge of the crowd. Chen Gu, standing not far from Wu Tong, was standing alone in a daze, as if he hadn't fully woken up yet.

As the elevator doors opened, the dazed Chen Gu was the first to spot Luo Zhe inside, and he immediately beamed and walked over.

"Oh my, Luo Zhe, why are you only just arriving? I went to your house first thing this morning, but your mother told me you had already left. I rushed to the hall, but I couldn't find you anywhere. I've been waiting here for ages."

"I was just warming up downstairs. Besides, what's the rush? It hasn't even started yet."

Luo Zhe replied cheerfully, looking Chen Gu up and down. "What about you, Brother Chen? Why haven't you gone out to the Wilderness Zone to hunt monsters lately? I've seen you resting for over half a month now; you're starting to put on weight. Can you still even lift your blade?"

Chen Gu rolled his eyes at Luo Zhe. "Your Brother Chen here goes by the nickname 'Cannon.' I'm an expert at using thermal weapons; I don't need to engage in close-quarters combat, so what if I put on a little weight?"

"Besides, have you ever seen a martial artist squad that didn't need to rest for a month or two after returning from the Wilderness Zone?" Chen Gu spread his hands and said helplessly, "You don't know how grueling life in the Wilderness Zone is. You have to know how to balance work and rest, understand? You'll realize it once you've experienced life in the Wilderness Zone yourself."

"Speaking of which, have you thought about that matter I mentioned to you last time?"

Luo Zhe glanced at Chen Gu but didn't respond.

He knew Chen Gu was referring to the suggestion he made during the last martial artist gathering: to join the Fire Hammer Squad.

Although the captain of the Fire Hammer Squad, 'Double Wind Hammer' Gao Feng, was a fairly well-known Warrior Level expert in Jiangnan Base City, the overall strength of the Fire Hammer Squad was still lacking.

After all, apart from Gao Feng and Chen Gu, everyone else in the Fire Hammer Squad was still at the Advanced Warrior Level, and Chen Gu himself was a Warrior Level martial artist who relied primarily on thermal weapons.

As for Luo Zhe, once he finished the Martial Artist Combat Assessment, obtained his official martial artist status, and used the startup funds provided by the Extreme Martial Arts Hall to buy the blade technique manual, he would begin cultivating the Nine-Fold Thunder Blade. With the auxiliary training from the Guidance Technique and the Dimensional Space, it wouldn't be long before he possessed solid Warrior Level combat power!

With such strength, even if he joined a squad composed entirely of Warrior Level martial artists, Luo Zhe was confident he wouldn't be the one holding them back.

Most importantly, he was a blade user.

The members of the Fire Hammer Squad who were stronger than him, like Gao Feng, used hammers, and those weaker than him couldn't provide much help. The Fire Hammer Squad really didn't offer him much value.

Chen Gu wasn't oblivious to Luo Zhe's thoughts; it was clear he looked down on the Fire Hammer Squad's strength. After all, a Warrior-level squad like the Fire Hammer Squad was better than the worst but worse than the best. The strong didn't want to join, and the weak couldn't get in, so when recruiting, they could only gamble on talent like buying a lottery ticket.

But Chen Gu was in a tough spot too!

Zhang Ke, a member of the squad, had been thinking about retiring for two years now. If it weren't for his concern that his retirement would cause the entire squad to fall apart, he probably would have left already.

Captain Gao Feng, while a capable Warrior, was not someone skilled at social dealings, so the task of recruitment fell entirely to the vice-captain, Chen Gu.

However, the reality was that even though many people wanted to join the Fire Hammer Squad, Gao Feng and the others had such high standards that they simply didn't care for the average person.

In particular, many martial artists who wanted to join the Fire Hammer Squad were only using it as a stepping stone, planning to jump to other powerful squads after a few years, which made Gao Feng look down on them even more.

What could Chen Gu do? He was desperate too!

It was only after hearing Wu Tong mention that a new martial artist had recently arrived in the residential area—a genius at that—that Chen Gu personally went to talk to him. He felt the other party was a decent prospect, possessing solid Advanced Warrior Level strength, and was tactful in his conduct, unlike typical genius martial artists who acted as if they were the center of the universe.

Consequently, Chen Gu tactfully brought up the idea of inviting him to join the Fire Hammer Squad, but the other party just hemmed and hawed, clearly trying to dodge the offer.

This infuriated Chen Gu; if he hadn't been unable to find a suitable candidate, would he have had to lower himself like this?

Everyone has a temper! Don't treat the vice-captain like he's not an official!

But anger aside, life had to go on, and he still had to keep extending invitations; who knew, maybe the other party would suddenly lose their mind and agree?