Wang Tianyu was curious about how strong he was, too, so he got up and followed Chen Yongguo.
The Martial Arts Hall had equipment for testing strength, which could accurately measure a person's power.
A black Punch Strength Tester stood in the corner of the hall's third floor.
At its center was a sandbag, with a black display screen above it.
At that moment, the screen showed "00000kg."
Punching power was the most straightforward measure of a person's strength, and the Martial Arts Class entrance exam tested the force of one's punches.
The Punch Strength Tester in front of Wang Tianyu wasn't free to use.
At least, not for Wang Tianyu and Chen Yongguo.
After handing the staff the usage coupons they'd exchanged at the front desk, Wang Tianyu and Chen Yongguo stood in front of the machine.
"This thing's seriously expensive. Tianyu, you go first. Let me see how strong your punches are now."
Chen Yongguo stepped back a few paces and gestured for Wang Tianyu to start the test.
"Mm."
Wang Tianyu nodded, then moved into the optimal striking position.
"Inhale, exhale!"
He took a deep breath and summoned all the strength in his body.
Wang Tianyu's spine instantly tensed like a drawn bowstring.
Then his legs drove forward, channeling the strength of his entire body through his spine and into his right hand.
Bang!
Wang Tianyu's right fist slammed into the machine's sandbag.
The display immediately flashed a red number.
"Holy crap, 285 kg? That's insanely high!"
Chen Yongguo read the number that had appeared on the screen.
"Last year's Martial Arts Class admission requirement was 200 kg. Tianyu, you're not just safe—you're a sure thing."
"I've still got two more tries. Let's talk after I've finished."
The usage coupon Wang Tianyu and Chen Yongguo had bought came with three attempts, but they couldn't be used separately.
More importantly, the Martial Arts Hall only sold these three-attempt coupons. It didn't sell single-use trial coupons at all.
"What a rip-off!"
Wang Tianyu wasn't happy with the racket the Martial Arts Hall was running.
But he had no power to fight the condition, so he could only put up with it.
Actually, if he thought about it, having three attempts was pretty good.
Three chances meant he could avoid the possibility of underperforming.
You could say the first attempt hadn't gone well, or that you'd slipped on the second.
But surely your foot couldn't go wrong on the third, too?
Wang Tianyu knew that his first punch had already unleashed all the strength in his body.
Even if he tried twice more, the difference in power wouldn't be much.
Still, since he'd paid for the attempts, he might as well use them. Wang Tianyu threw two more punches at the machine.
"283 kg"
"281 kg"
Just as Wang Tianyu had expected, his scores on the next two attempts were lower than the first.
"All right, your turn."
Wang Tianyu had finished his three punches, so he stepped away from the machine and stood to the side, signaling for Chen Yongguo to begin.
"Okay, I'll give it a try."
Chen Yongguo rolled his shoulders, then stood in front of the Punch Strength Tester.
He took a deep breath, dropped into a horse stance, and clenched his right fist.
He drove power through his waist, straightened his right arm, and gathered all his strength into his fist before smashing it into the sandbag.
Bang!
The same sound and scene played out, but the number on the screen was different.
"207 kg"
Chen Yongguo glanced at the number and shook his head without saying a word.
After seeing Wang Tianyu's result, he was very dissatisfied with his own score.
Clenching his fist, Chen Yongguo didn't stop. He threw a second punch.
"211 kg"
Chen Yongguo's second punch was a little stronger than his first, which gave him a bit of encouragement.
His eyes lit up, and his furrowed brows relaxed somewhat.
He didn't linger. After catching his breath, Chen Yongguo immediately threw a third punch.
"201 kg"
Not only did Chen Yongguo's third punch fail to continue the upward trend of the second, its power dropped sharply.
Chen Yongguo was much more solidly built than Wang Tianyu. Under normal circumstances, he should have been stronger, too.
But this was a world of martial cultivation, where a person's strength wasn't determined by their build alone.
"Tianyu, with your strength, getting into the Martial Arts Class shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm not so sure about myself—it's not safe at all. What if they raise the admission cutoff this year..."
After finishing the test and seeing his results, Chen Yongguo didn't look too happy.
He wasn't jealous of Wang Tianyu. He was just afraid he wouldn't get into the Martial Arts Class.
Chen Yongguo's family situation was much like Wang Tianyu's. Getting into the Martial Arts Class and then entering Martial Arts University was the hope of both him and his whole family.
Seeing Chen Yongguo's worried expression, Wang Tianyu reassured him. "The requirement was only 200 kg last year. Relax, you've already cleared it. And there's still a week left. You should be able to build up quite a bit more strength."
"How can I relax? My parents have already sacrificed so much to give me the chance to cultivate martial arts. If I can't get into the Martial Arts Class, they won't know what to..."
"You'll make it for sure. Our situations are pretty much the same, so we've got to work even harder."
Wang Tianyu gave Chen Yongguo's shoulder a friendly punch and tried to encourage him again.
"Enough. Let's get back to training. We'll both become martial artists, for sure."
Chen Yongguo's melancholy passed quickly. At least on the surface, he seemed fine again.
After training in the practice room until nine that evening, Wang Tianyu and Chen Yongguo left the Martial Arts Hall.
It wasn't that they were slacking off by ending their training at nine.
The past few hours of training had already drained every last bit of their strength.
"Driver, take me to East City Imperial View Residential Community."
After getting into the taxi and giving the driver his destination, Wang Tianyu leaned back in the rear seat and dozed with his eyes closed.
The driver could tell how exhausted Wang Tianyu was.
The taxi driver turned down the radio, then drove toward the destination without saying a word.
The car rolled along the road as the buildings on either side grew shorter and more dilapidated.
The city Wang Tianyu lived in was called Qingjiang City, a small city with a permanent population of just over two million.
Qingjiang City had developed unevenly, with the saying that the east was poor and the west was rich.
The city's east side was the old district, where the buildings had been standing for quite some time.
On top of that, the government had spent recent years concentrating its resources on developing the new city in the west. Put the two sides together, and the gap between them was enormous.
Wang Tianyu's home was in an old residential community in the east of the city.
Twenty minutes later, the taxi stopped at the entrance to an old residential community.
The old community's buildings were twelve stories tall. Not far away stood a small, undeveloped hill, with a broad stretch of wasteland around it.
Wang Tianyu lived on the eleventh floor. Fortunately, though the community was old, it still had an elevator.
Without an elevator, Wang Tianyu doubted he could have climbed the stairs to the eleventh floor in his current state.
He stepped out of the elevator and stood quietly in front of his door for a few seconds.
After a full day of settling in, Wang Tianyu had completely adjusted to his new identity.
He took the key from his pocket and opened the door.
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