Chen Martial Arts Academy

Heavenly Stems Province, Jinning Commandery.

Rainwater fell, dripping onto the plaque inscribed with [Chen Martial Arts Academy], leaving faint water streaks behind.

Chen Xu curled up in his bed, his vision turning dark as he gasped heavily for air, feeling as though no matter how he breathed, he could not get enough oxygen.

He felt as though his internal organs were placed inside a furnace, about to be burned alive.

His previous self had died just dozens of seconds ago, and he figured that before another minute passed, he, a time-traveler of less than half a minute, would follow right after.

This body was already too weak to cry out, and he could only forcefully gather his spirit, forcing himself not to lose consciousness.

Chen Xu had an inexplicable premonition that if he truly passed out, he would likely never wake up again.

In a trance, he seemed to see a transparent object with a vague impression floating before his eyes, with a few lines of small text on top, but in his current state, he truly could not see it clearly.

Whether it was an illusion or not, after the transparent object appeared, the pain and burning sensation all over his body slowly receded, followed by an undeniable fatigue and exhaustion.

Under the dual torment of spirit and flesh, this young body had already reached the limit of what it could bear.

In his deep slumber, Chen Xu always felt as though something was blocking his line of sight, but no matter how closely he observed, he could not see it clearly.

His tightly closed eyes snapped open, and waking up, the sun was already high in the sky.

Supporting himself with both hands on the edge of the bed to sit up, Chen Xu instinctively swept his gaze toward the area of the obstruction he could not see in his dream.

A few lines of small text appeared in the corner of his vision, with the two characters for [Tianwu] inscribed in a flying, calligraphic style above.

Host: Chen Xu

Strength: 0.6

Constitution: 0.7

Agility: 0.5

Spiritual Energy: 5.2

Martial Path: None

Martial Art: Chen-style Tiger Roar Fist (Not Yet Initiated)

His gaze lingered on the transparent panel, and Chen Xu's expression was quite peculiar.

No wonder he had felt this thing looked familiar before; wasn't it the character attribute panel of the game [Tianwu] he was developing before he died of overwork?

In his past life, he privately ran a studio dedicated to creating small-scale games, serving as both studio boss and game developer.

Right before dying of overwork, he was preparing to test the text game [Tianwu] he had created.

Although Chen Xu could not understand why the attribute panel followed him to this world, he knew in his heart that without this panel, there was absolutely no possibility of surviving.

The culprit that caused his feeling of being burned by fierce fire was converted into psychotronic energy, saving him inadvertently.

You caused my death in the previous life, and only because of you can I welcome a new birth in this one. Chen Xu sighed silently in his heart, perhaps this was fate.

In his design, psychotronic energy was the core of panel attribute enhancement; as long as the psychotronic energy was sufficient, there was no martial art or technique he could not learn.

If it had not undergone any mutation due to time travel, the functions should have remained unchanged.

His gaze focused on Chen-Style Tiger Roar Fist for about three seconds, and the uninitiated mark on the panel gradually changed to the first tier.

His clean hands clenched tightly, and Chen Xu could clearly perceive the enhancement in his strength.

He opened the panel to check:

Host: Chen Xu

Strength: 0.8

Constitution: 0.8

Agility: 0.5

Spiritual Energy: 4.2

Martial Path: None

Martial Art: Chen-style Tiger Roar Fist (First Layer)

"My strength increased by 0.2, my constitution increased by 0.1, and correspondingly, my psychotronic energy was also consumed by 1 point," Chen Xu summarized.

This Tiger Roar Fist was the martial art passed down by his previous self's family martial arts academy; if there were disciples in the martial arts academy, they would all learn this set of fist techniques after laying the foundation.

Unfortunately, in the current era, martial arts academies showed signs of decline.

There was a saying in Great Abyss: "Ten years of bitter cultivation is no match for a single pistol," which was precisely the view most ordinary people held toward martial arts.

As for the main reason leading martial arts step by step toward decline, Chen Xu had already learned from his predecessor's memories.

Seventy years ago, the fourth emperor of the Great Abyss Dynasty, Yuan Huan Emperor, promulgated the Martial Restriction Decree.

Simultaneously with the promulgation, he vigorously developed industry and technology, and within just a few decades, it had already become a top-tier powerful nation in the world.

To this day, countless scholars still debated why the Yuan Huan Emperor had suddenly made a hostile move back then, and after issuing the Martial Restriction Decree, he wasted no time in denouncing the state religion as an evil cult and eradicating it with the power of the entire nation.

He gently pinched the space between his eyebrows with his fingers. His energy had recovered quite a bit, and it was just the right time to sort through his predecessor's fragmented memories, relying on these memories so that he could integrate into the new world more easily.

At least compared to his memories of other matters, Chen Xu had to find the cause of the burning, agonizing pain in his internal organs.

He would not have known if he had not sorted through them, but his predecessor was not actually a child of the Chen family, but rather an orphan picked up by the old master. Because there were no items to indicate his identity, the old master simply had the orphan share his surname.

His single-character given name was Xu, meant to express the hope that after inheriting the mantle, his development would be like the rising morning sun and lead the martial arts academy to glory.

Pity that his predecessor wanted to revitalize the martial arts academy, but because of poor talent, after finishing the basics and bitterly practicing Tiger Howl Fist for nearly ten years, he still failed to achieve mastery.

The old master passing away half a month ago was like a blow to the head, forcing his predecessor to take desperate risks and search everywhere for various folk remedies in order to quickly master Tiger Howl Fist.

This was because if he could not master Tiger Howl Fist before the administrative authorities arrived, his qualification to run a martial arts academy would be revoked by the Dayuan administrative authorities, and if even the martial arts academy was gone, there was no speaking of revitalization.

In order to be able to inherit the martial arts academy, he used a folk remedy obtained from the black market, wanting medicine strength to stimulate his body and quickly learn Tiger Howl Fist.

The final result went without saying; on a night of pouring rain, his predecessor quietly left without causing a single ripple.

In any case, I must preserve the existence of the martial arts academy.

Chen Xu set a small goal for himself. He had only this single property upon coming to this world, and if it got revoked, he would not receive any compensation.

After the Martial Restriction Decree was issued, Dayuan intervened in the originally chaotic jianghu and established an official force named the Dayuan Martial Pavilion. Everything related to martial arts, as long as it was within Dayuan's territory, fell under their jurisdiction.

To this day, as long as it was a city at the county level or above, a Martial Pavilion branch would be stationed there.

County, prefecture, commandery, province, and capital were the urban divisions designated by Dayuan. Villages, townships, and the like below the county level were not assigned Martial Pavilion branches; if any incident occurred, the higher-level county Martial Pavilion above would handle it.

The Martial Pavilion's criteria for judging whether a martial arts academy should exist were very simple.

One: the master must be able to last thirty seconds against a Martial Pavilion inspector.

Two: possess at least one non-basic martial art that can be taught.

As long as these two conditions were met, even if you did not have any students or disciples under your banner, you could still hang the name of a martial arts academy and pass it on.

If the disciples you nurtured were able to achieve good results in the martial examination and ultimately gain entry into Great Abyss National University, you could even receive corresponding funding subsidies.

The Martial Restriction Decree had always restricted wild martial artists; if one joined the official forces, Dayuan was willing to spend resources to cultivate them.

Chen Xu organized his memories and was just planning to go to the kitchen to make some food when a round of knocking came from the door.

Thump, thump, thump.

"Is young master Chen in? I am a coach from Zhicheng Martial Arts Academy. Might I be graced with your presence for a meeting?"

A rough, bold voice filtered through the old iron door and into Chen Xu's ears.

"Zhicheng Martial Arts Academy?" Chen Xu raised a brow. His predecessor only occasionally had some interactions with this martial arts academy when the old master was still alive, and coming here today, he had no idea what it was for.