That afternoon, Instructor Jiang Nian took Yun He to enjoy a feast with some martial artists at Headquarters. It was evening before the two of them returned to Yi'an District in Yangzhou City.
Naturally, Yun He chose Mingyue Residential Area as his martial artist residential community. Building 158 stood in the neighboring row across from Building 199, where Luo Feng would live in the future. Only a pedestrian path and a strip of greenery separated the two villas, so he was effectively living opposite Luo Feng.
Since Yun He lived alone, he packed a few changes of clothes that evening, left everything else behind, and moved into Mingyue Residential Area that very night.
Sitting in his new home, Yun He still felt a little dazed.
A three-story detached villa, a basement, a courtyard, and an enormous terrace-over 800 square meters altogether!
This house would be mine from now on?
He went up to the enormous third-floor terrace and gazed at the quiet community beneath the night sky: ornamental rockeries and pools, green trees and flower beds, lush lawns, and detached villas surrounded by little bridges and flowing streams.
Forget the era of Base Cities, where every inch of land cost a fortune-even in the peaceful 21st Century of his previous life, a luxurious villa like this would have been far beyond his reach!
Yun He thought about how he had struggled in society for over a decade in his previous life, yet had still been renting. He could not even afford the down payment on a 105-square-meter apartment, including its share of communal space. Tears streamed down his face.
It truly felt like a lifetime ago!
Early the next morning, Yun He got up, grabbed a quick bite, and went to the Limit Hall in the center of the community. He chose a corner of the second-floor training hall and began training.
His body's previous owner had been average in all the fundamentals-ordinary, really. He had only become an advanced student at twenty.
After Yun He arrived, perhaps because their souls had merged, he discovered that his mind was much sharper than before, and this body's aptitude had improved considerably as well.
Perhaps dying once had unlocked all the body's potential.
Otherwise, Yun He could never have met the Quasi-Warrior Assessment standards in less than a month, much less increased his punching force by 1,100 kg during his first session of cultivating genetic origin energy, reaching the standard of a genius.
Now Yun He intended to practice every fundamental from scratch. Basic Movement Technique, fist techniques, and Basic Swordsmanship, which his body's previous owner had practiced for a while-all of these were fundamentals he needed to establish firmly.
After practicing his movement and fist techniques ten times each, Yun He rested for a while, then selected a longsword from the equipment rack and began practicing Basic Swordsmanship.
It was a replica sword, identical to the real thing in appearance, center of gravity, and weight, though its material was worlds apart.
The Rui Feng Series 3 Battle Sword had a slender blade two fingers wide and 95 centimeters long, with a 20-centimeter hilt. The whole sword weighed 89 kg and looked slim and nimble.
With the longsword in hand, Yun He casually performed a few flourishes. It felt comfortable, and he nodded in satisfaction. Then he took a diamond-shaped shield and strapped it to his left arm.
Swish, swish~
The longsword sliced swiftly through the air, its friction producing a trembling hum.
In the corner of the training hall, Yun He wore the diamond-shaped shield on his left forearm and held the Rui Feng Battle Sword in his right hand.
Swish!
Coordinating his footwork with the longsword, Yun He moved within a five-meter radius, executing the moves of Basic Swordsmanship with precise form.
Thrust, slice, sweep upward, cleave, parry...
He performed every move meticulously, adhering strictly to the standard. With each thrust, his feet moved in coordination, and he kept practicing like that.
The fundamentals mattered more than anything. I had to master them. Otherwise, I could forget about reaching the microscopic, perfect, or intent realms later.
Yun He understood the importance of the fundamentals. Though he had absorbed some memories from his body's previous owner, that person's foundation had been mediocre. Yun He himself had been a shut-in without any combat experience. Hard training was his only option now.
There were still two months until the Martial Artist Combat Assessment. He had to make good use of that time to improve.
Otherwise, he feared he might end up among the few percent who died.
After all, as a shut-in from the 21st Century, he had barely ever been in a fight. Now that he had come to this world and would soon have to hunt monsters in the Wilderness Zone, it would have been a lie to say he was not scared.
All he could do now was grit his teeth and train hard to build a little more confidence.
When he grew tired, he sat down to absorb cosmic energy and recover. When he was hungry, he went to the first-floor restaurant to eat. Yun He spent all day at the hall. Apart from returning home at night to shower and sleep, he spent all his time in the training hall.
As time passed, many martial artists in the community came to know of Yun He.
His talent had earned him early admission to the martial arts school before he even took the Combat Assessment.
Every day, aside from eating and sleeping, he spent all his time training in the training hall, like a man possessed.
Many people could not help but sigh. Geniuses were not frightening; geniuses who worked harder than you were.
On the evening of June 30, after finishing his day's training, Yun He tested his various stats to see what a month of hard work had achieved.
His final results were:
Punching force: 2,600 kg. Speed: 49.2 m/s. Nerve reaction speed: excellent for an Intermediate Warrior.
Because he had been training his movement technique so hard, aided by his improved comprehension, his nerve reaction speed had actually improved the most. His movement technique was already close to reaching the micro-level.
After returning home and taking a shower, Yun He sprawled on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
To be honest, after a month of such desperate training, these results left Yun He feeling somewhat disappointed.
His punching force had only increased by around 550 kg...
Based on those numbers, a year of hard training would increase his punching force by a little over 6,000 kg. Added to his current 2,600 kg, that would put him at over 8,000.
Things might improve somewhat after he passed the Combat Assessment and bought a Guidance Technique.
In other words, a year from now, Yun He's physical strength would at most correspond to a punching force of a little over 10,000 kg.
That was a relatively conservative estimate.
But what difference would even more make?
Anything from 8,000 to 16,000 kg was still in the Junior War General range.
Luo Feng would already be an Invincible War God a year from now!
This...
At this rate, Yun He felt he probably would not even qualify to leave Earth in the future, let alone participate in the Peak Genius Tournament held by the Virtual Universe Company.
Even Hong and Thunder God had ultimately been defeated there.
Why was I even thinking about that? By then, I probably wouldn't even qualify to enter. There were still ten-odd years, right? I'd be lucky to reach Planetary Level by then. Star Level was out of the question.
Yun He smiled bitterly to himself.
Part of him wanted to give up and coast through life.
What was all this desperate effort for?
In the end, I was destined to fall so far behind Luo Feng that I wouldn't even see his back.
Yet he had been lucky enough to come to this world. If he could not follow Luo Feng's footsteps into the universe, embark on adventures, and witness that dazzling starry sky and the myriad races of the cosmos-if he could only watch quietly from Earth-he simply could not accept it!
The next day, July 1.
A little after nine in the morning.
He had gotten up somewhat late that day.
Yun He made his way to the hall in a daze.
The blow dealt by reality had left him dispirited. But he was used to coming here to train every day, so his feet had carried him over of their own accord.
A few martial artists greeted him along the way, and he merely forced a smile in response.
He stepped into the first-floor lobby.
"Brother Yun."
"Yun He."
Hearing the greetings, Yun He turned to look. By the little bar nearby, a boy with short black hair and a young man with a fierce-looking scar on his face were standing up to greet him.
"Luo Feng, Yang Wu?"
Yun He froze for a moment, then remembered. Today was July 1-the very day Luo Feng and Yang Wu had come to take the Quasi-Warrior Assessment.
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