Practical Combat

Some time ago, Xia Luo had a sudden whim. While training, he consumed energy to strengthen his physique and discovered that the results were unexpectedly good!

Xia Luo shook his head helplessly. "I should've thought of this sooner, but it's not too late to realize it now..."

He returned to base in the morning. After lunch, Xia Luo hurried straight to the training grounds, where he remained cultivating.

He began with basic warm-up exercises, followed by martial arts training—mainly fighting techniques, muscle control, and so on, all taught to him by Colonel Whiteman. Only after that did he practice with his staff.

This continued until late at night, when Xia Luo finally returned to rest.

In truth, with Xia Luo's stamina, he would have been fine even if he went several days and nights without sleep. But he was still a child, and this was the age when he needed to grow. Sleeping helped him grow taller—probably.

At twelve years old, he was not even two meters tall. Truly shameful. Xia Luo's goal was to exceed three and a half meters. Four or five meters was unnecessary, six or seven was too much to hope for, and eight or nine was out of the question.

Being too tall or too short made finding a wife difficult. Speaking of which, that man had to be mentioned—Gaban. He was truly a real man!

A tiny needle driving a huge cart—utterly admirable!

The next day.

Xia Luo rose early, ate breakfast, and began a new day of training.

Unlike the other Marines, Xia Luo did not need to attend group drills. He could train by himself, and whenever he encountered something he did not understand, he could ask Colonel Whiteman for guidance.

Naturally, the other Marines did not dare object. Xia Luo's strength was plain for all to see. Training alongside them would not only waste Xia Luo's time, but also deeply crush their fragile hearts.

Thus, three days passed.

That day, Xia Luo found Colonel Whiteman and asked, "Colonel, what was the name of that move you used when you fought Blood Axe that day? The one where you suddenly appeared beside him—your speed..."

Upon hearing this, Colonel Whiteman looked at Xia Luo with an amused smile and said:

"You've been holding that in for days, haven't you? What, you want to learn it?"

"I do!"

Colonel Whiteman burst into laughter. "Hahaha, I was looking for a chance to tell you about it. Didn't expect you'd be the one unable to hold back first. Come on, spar with me first."

Xia Luo asked, "A test?"

Colonel Whiteman neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply nodded. "Something like that."

Before long, the two arrived at the training grounds. When the others saw them, they all cast curious looks their way.

On the training grounds, Colonel Whiteman and Xia Luo stopped one in front of the other, less than ten meters apart.

Colonel Whiteman rolled his neck, and his muscles crackled. He beckoned to Xia Luo. "Come on."

"Wait."

As he spoke, Xia Luo took off his coat, revealing the weighted training suit beneath.

Clack, clack, clack...

He undid the buckles one by one, then casually tossed the weighted suit, which weighed as much as five hundred jin, onto the ground with a dull thud.

Colonel Whiteman asked with interest, "You've been wearing weights the whole time? Judging by that, it must be at least five hundred jin, right?"

Xia Luo nodded. "Yep. I don't even take it off to bathe or sleep."

"You're insane!"

Colonel Whiteman could not help but admire him. Wearing it during training was one thing, but not taking it off even to bathe or sleep? This kid was ruthless.

Their conversation reached the ears of everyone nearby, and their faces immediately filled with shock.

"Five hundred jin of weights? Is he crazy?"

"Is five hundred jin even the point? The point is that he wears them every day and acts like it's nothing! From morning to night, he never stops training!"

"To be honest, if you made me wear five hundred jin, I probably couldn't even finish one lap..."

"Take out the 'probably.'"

"What a coincidence, same here."

"..."

Xia Luo grinned. "It's for getting stronger. Nothing embarrassing about that."

The smile gradually faded from his face.

Only solemnity remained on Colonel Whiteman's face. "Then let me see just how strong you've become."

The moment he finished speaking, Xia Luo shot forward like an arrow, whistling through the air as his fist smashed toward Colonel Whiteman's face.

"Not bad speed."

Colonel Whiteman's voice remained unhurried. As he turned aside to evade the punch, his shoulder slammed viciously into Xia Luo's chest and sent him flying.

Xia Luo grunted and staggered back several steps.

Colonel Whiteman shouted, "Keep going! Unless I tell you to stop, don't stop!"

Xia Luo closed in again. He lowered his stance, raised his left palm in a feint, and drove his right fist straight toward the other man's chest.

Colonel Whiteman neither dodged nor retreated. He dropped his shoulder to disperse the force, twisted his wrist, and smoothly caught Xia Luo's forearm.

Xia Luo spun with the momentum, his elbow brushing past Colonel Whiteman's ribs as his other hand chopped toward the man's shoulder and neck.

Colonel Whiteman sidestepped, his fist grazing past Xia Luo's ear. Then he lowered his center of gravity and lightly pressed his knee against Xia Luo's calf, forcing him to withdraw and retreat.

The two fought in close quarters, trading blow after blow, but there were only dull impacts and no malice.

Before Colonel Whiteman, Xia Luo's fighting skills appeared especially immature. Every attack he made was easily defused.

He could not match the man in strength, and his combat experience was lacking as well. Colonel Whiteman suppressed him throughout the entire fight, but Xia Luo had no intention of admitting defeat. He clenched his teeth, enduring the blows while drawing experience from actual combat.

Gradually, Xia Luo seemed to grow accustomed to Colonel Whiteman's attacks, and the number of times he was hit steadily decreased.

At the same time, Colonel Whiteman's gaze became increasingly grave. At first, he had only needed to use half his strength to keep Xia Luo suppressed. But as time passed, Xia Luo's combat experience was improving at an astonishing rate.

By the end, Colonel Whiteman could only use his full strength to ensure that Xia Luo did not injure him.

He was supposed to be guiding Xia Luo. If Xia Luo accidentally hurt him, where would he put his dignity?

Several hours later,

By this point, Colonel Whiteman's expression had changed from grave to shocked.

What kind of monster was this brat? Did he not get tired?

Whiteman felt that his own strength was nearly giving out, yet Xia Luo still looked full of life. He did not seem remotely close to exhaustion. Instead, he fought more fiercely and grew more excited with every exchange.

A few minutes later, Colonel Whiteman forced Xia Luo back with a strike and hurriedly said, "That's enough, Xia Luo. Stop for now. We'll call it here today. I still have some official business to handle."

"Then we continue tomorrow?" Xia Luo's eyes shone brightly. He suddenly felt that the Six Powers could wait. First, he needed to build up his actual combat experience.

"Uh..."

Colonel Whiteman stared at him in astonishment. "How about we learn the Six Powers instead? Which one do you want to learn? At the moment, I can teach you Soru, Shigan, and Tekkai."

On the way to the training grounds, he had already introduced the Navy's Six Powers to Xia Luo.

Xia Luo was completely unmoved. "No rush. Compared to the Six Powers, I want to fight you more right now, Colonel. I feel that I'm seriously lacking in combat experience."

Colonel Whiteman quickly said, "Ahem, ahem. There's no need to rush that. You're still young. Combat experience can be accumulated slowly. Once you fight more enemies, your actual combat experience will improve even faster when your life is on the line."

"Trust me!"