You've Mastered It

Chen Chong left the private room with the list and saw Yu Feng waiting nearby.

Yu Feng took the list and looked it over. He didn't seem surprised. But as he led Chen Chong to find Manager Guo, he glanced at him twice before suddenly saying:

"You don't seem to think you just escaped a close call."

"Am I not still here?"

Chen Chong replied calmly:

"If you mean what just happened, I hadn't heard Second Boss had a wife. Zhang Yao is dead, so I suppose I still count as a valuable asset."

Yu Feng nodded.

"That's right."

They soon found Manager Guo in his office, a middle-aged bald man with glasses.

He was busy dealing with the aftermath and urgently arranging a replacement fighter, so he was completely swamped. But when he saw Chen Chong, the man responsible for it all, his face lit up. His eyes practically gleamed—the way a miser might look at a money tree.

He took Chen Chong's right hand in both of his and slowly rubbed it, making Chen Chong shudder with disgust and even wonder about his orientation.

"Chen Chong, you're a genius! That thing of yours, that move—could you do it every time from now on? No, doing it every time wouldn't be good either... I'll have to plan this out.

"First, we need a catchy name. A sight to behold? The explosive slam? Heaven-shattering and earth-splitting? Oh, what should we call it? Chen Chong, how about making it your signature finishing move?

"Word of tonight's match is bound to get out. The next one... three days? Good. I'll plan it properly. I'll make sure the Thunder Dragon Bar is packed and steals the spotlight from the place next door!"

As Manager Guo rambled on, Chen Chong pulled his hand away woodenly and soon left the office.

Feeling the eager gazes on his back, he was uncomfortable.

He'd heard Zhang Yao had been fairly popular. They must have treated him well before, too, right?

But now, his blood had turned into their longing for money.

Zhang San or Chen Si, it seemed, were nothing but blood-spattered gold coins to them.

Outside, Chen Chong spotted a man he didn't recognize who seemed to be waiting for him.

The man was tall and thin, with an unusual expression. A faint air of danger clung to him.

It was far stronger than Zhang Yao's. Chen Chong immediately stopped and tensed, watching him closely. The man studied Chen Chong in turn, looking him up and down for a moment before speaking slowly.

"If it weren't for you, I'd have coasted through today, lost a match, and gone home with a big pile of cash."

Chen Chong frowned, but the next moment, the man gave him a strange smile.

"Thanks. You can come to me if you need anything, but I might not be able to help."

He patted Chen Chong on the shoulder, nodded to Yu Feng, and walked off.

Chen Chong watched him thoughtfully. Beside him, Yu Feng said calmly:

"Gao Lei. He was supposed to fight in the last match tonight."

"So it was him."

Chen Chong nodded and continued following Yu Feng downstairs.

There was nothing else for him to do here, so Yu Feng took him back to the Waiting Room, picked up Wang Li and Liu Hetao, and led them out through the back exit of the passageway to the business van.

All the way back, Chen Chong sat silently by the window, watching the neon-lit bustle gradually give way to muted quiet.

Wang Li and Liu Hetao kept glancing at him. They'd made it through the day without having to fight, so naturally they felt lucky and grateful to Chen Chong. But as his training partners, they also looked at him with a mix of unease, awe, and hesitation.

Chen Chong had always seemed somewhat distant. Of the four of them, Li Xiaoguang, with his sunny disposition and similar background, had been the closest to him. Li Xiaoguang got along well with the others, too; when he was around, the four of them had an easier time together. But now... as they looked at Chen Chong, they felt not only that he was farther away, but also a deep sense of unfamiliarity.

They'd trained together for so long, and Chen Chong had always stood out. But no matter how impressive he'd been in training, it was nothing like the shock he'd delivered in the ring tonight. Even now, they were still bewildered. Could the Chen Chong they knew and the man they'd watched fight tonight really be the same person?

The business van returned to the Park and pulled up in front of the two-story building.

Chen Chong and the others got out, and Yu Feng took him to the second-floor dining hall.

"Let's get something to eat."

Yu Feng asked the cafeteria cook to whip up a few stir-fried dishes. The fleshy-faced woman had been dozing off, but she didn't dare argue with Yu Feng. She hurriedly fired up the stove.

Stir-fried dishes!

Although Wang Li was still caught up in a jumble of grief and relief, his throat moved involuntarily. Liu Hetao could barely keep the corners of his mouth from lifting.

But Yu Feng turned around and looked at them.

"You two didn't fight, so you shouldn't be hungry."

The two of them froze. Wang Li stammered before saying awkwardly:

"Right, right. I'll head upstairs first—"

"I'm a little hungry too..." Liu Hetao said, conflicted.

Wang Li rolled his eyes and dragged Liu Hetao away.

Their footsteps gradually faded, while the sizzling of the food filled the dining hall.

Chen Chong and Yu Feng sat facing each other at a long plastic table with a blue edge and a white top in the middle of the dining hall.

From the side, both men sat with their backs straight, but Yu Feng was more than a head taller than Chen Chong. When he sat down, he nearly bent the blue bench beneath him.

Yet Chen Chong remained perfectly calm across from the imposing Yu Feng. He might not have the same presence, but his bearing was impossible to overlook.

"That was your first time killing someone," Yu Feng said matter-of-factly, then asked, "How did it feel?"

The smell of the stir-fried food had begun to drift over. Sitting in the dining hall, Chen Chong seemed to have finally come down from some distant, unreal emotion and returned to the real world.

He thought for a moment, then answered:

"Great."

His feelings were complicated and heavy, but he was calm. He felt none of the discomfort he'd imagined, much less any urge to vomit or loss of appetite. In fact, he was already a little hungry.

Yu Feng's brow twitched.

He was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"The match in three days won't be easy. I know Zhou Hu. If he wants to test you, he'll put some thought into the arrangements."

"Will it be a Contracted Fighter?"

Chen Chong immediately thought of Gao Lei, whom he'd just met, and grew serious.

He'd thought he wasn't far from reaching that level, but after meeting a fighter who had truly entered the realm, he'd sensed the difference almost immediately.

Besides, Gao Lei had been lined up as a stepping stone for Zhang Yao. He probably wasn't very far along in that realm, either. If even he could make Chen Chong feel pressured, things looked grim if they actually fought.

Yu Feng shook his head.

"You wouldn't stand a chance against a true Contracted Fighter yet. They'll find a top fighter from among the Official Fighters. There are only a few of them."

Chen Chong raised an eyebrow.

"Stronger than Zhang Yao?"

Yu Feng glanced at him.

"Zhang Yao's strength only counts as upper-tier here. He's not among the best."

Chen Chong considered this.

So Zhang Yao's bullying ways in this building were mainly thanks to having a well-connected sister.

Although tonight showed that Zhou Hu could tell what mattered, that connection still gave Zhang Yao preferential treatment, and people were afraid to cross him.

Besides, Zhang Yao was probably a typical "showman" fighter—the kind most popular at bar fight clubs.

That might have been the main reason Zhou Hu wanted to promote him. He'd certainly made the Thunder Dragon Bar a lot of money.

But on the other hand, if he hadn't enjoyed being the center of attention in the ring so much, tonight would have gone very differently.

That was fate.

Chen Chong spoke slowly.

"Will my opponent in three days be a lot stronger than Zhang Yao?"

"He'll probably be a fighter who's just shy of becoming a Contracted Fighter. I don't know when you figured out how to use the Breathing Method in combat, or where you learned your defensive technique for redirecting force..."

Yu Feng paused there. Seeing Chen Chong's expression shift slightly, he said calmly:

"I'm not saying this because I'm curious. I don't care about it at all. As for Zhou Hu... he won't do anything about it for now.

"But from now on, you'd better not tell anyone about these talents of yours, or how long you've been training. Make sure Wang Li and Liu Hetao keep their mouths shut, too. Being known as a combat genius isn't necessarily a good thing here. Of course, I'm just saying. Do what you want."

After a brief silence, Chen Chong nodded.

"I understand."

He understood that his performance tonight had drawn plenty of attention. Anyone with a trained eye could tell he'd mastered the Breathing Method completely.

The Breathing Method could generally be divided into three levels.

The first was getting the hang of it: practicing in a stationary state without issues, enough to improve one's overall physical fitness.

The second was mastering it: being able to use the Breathing Method during dynamic training, such as stance training and Combat Drill, without interrupting it. One could even use it during less intense sparring to make training more efficient.

The third was the highest level, what people meant when they said you'd mastered it completely. You could use it naturally at any time, even in an intense fight to the death, just like ordinary breathing. It greatly increased the power of your attacks, transforming it from a training method into a genuine combat technique.

Chen Chong had reached the second level after only a few days of practicing the Breathing Method, and had remained just a little short of the third.

That was also the level Zhang Yao and most Official Fighters were at. Before entering the realm, few could reach the third level.

That was already quick progress. After all, he'd practiced for less than half a month, yet his mastery of the Breathing Method had already caught up with fighters who'd trained for months or even years.

But when he stepped into the ring just now, he'd naturally used the Breathing Method while fighting Zhang Yao.

Without it, swinging Zhang Yao around one-handed wouldn't have been so easy.

That ferocious fighting style had actually strained the muscles all over his body, doing far more damage than Zhang Yao had managed to inflict on him. In fact, Zhang Yao hadn't managed to hurt him at all. The Devour Form was even stronger than he'd expected.

But he didn't care anymore. Injury, abilities, the Breathing Method—none of it mattered to him.

At the time, he'd only wanted to smash Zhang Yao's ugly head to pieces.

"Still, even at your current level, you'll need to be careful about your opponent in three days. You'll probably lose," Yu Feng said calmly.

"The gap between your levels is too great. Unless you come up with something else in these three days that leaves everyone baffled... Anyway, prepare well. If you lose, Zhou Hu won't let you off easy."

"Understood."

Chen Chong nodded.

He saw Yu Feng's lips move. The usually taciturn, cold coach seemed uncharacteristically hesitant, but just then, the cafeteria cook pushed over a cart loaded with several huge metal basins of stir-fried food. So Yu Feng said:

"Let's eat."