Chapter 21: A Strange Fist

The bedroom door opened with a ‘Pak!’.

Luqiu Duanyi walked inside. She wore boxing gloves on both her hands, and there were two more sandwiched between her armpits. She looked at Yue Qiang and threw the boxing gloves right in front of him.

Yue Qiang was obviously still suffering from deep shock. He stared straight at Luqiu Duanyi and the focus in his eyes did not change whatsoever.

The two boxing gloves were thrown in front of his body before falling to the ground.

There were two m.u.f.fled noises ‘Pak!’.

Suddenly, he asked loudly towards Luqiu Duanyi, “Do you like me?”

Luqiu Duanyi did not say anything. She walked up and punched him right away.

It was a very heavy punch.

Yue Qiang’s body twisted and was thrown back far, far away. But when he stood up once more, he had recovered himself a little.

He rubbed his temples hard and forced himself to calm down. It was almost a certain fact that there was definitely something wrong Rao Xiao Ting; it was just that he still could not completely confirm that she had completely turned into an NPC. For now, he did not notice anything akin to that even crazier notion that he had imagined in his mind.

Luqiu Duanyi’s heavy punch was a most definitive proof.

At the very least, this voluptuous female fitness coach before him was definitely a real person.

Luqiu Duanyi’s expression was very serious. She said, “Pick up that boxing gloves from the ground and follow me.”

Yue Qiang followed her wordlessly; walking out of the bedroom and arriving at the study; then walked out of the study and arrived at an incredibly luxurious training room. Three days ago, Yue Qiang had only used the treadmill, and the training was all done inside the study. This was the first time he had seen that there were other training rooms inside this fitness club.

Its style was just as luxurious.

Luqiu Duanyi held the door open for him, and when Yue Qiang had walked inside she then closed the door and locked it carefully.

Now the two of them were the only ones left in this huge and luxurious house.

“Pay close attention to what I’m about to say next.” She said her opening speech, “Your time is very short, and that is why you must use every moment you have left to increase your abilities. Only by increasing your own strength, will you be able to understand everything and come to a solution.”

Looking into Yue Qiang’s eyes while saying the above words, Luqiu Duanyi repeated the last sentence again with great emphasis on every word, “Only by increasing your own strength, will you be able to understand everything and come to a solution!”

She waited for a moment until she confirmed that Yue Qiang had completely remembered these words. Only then she continued, “If you have no other questions, then we will begin the next stage of training.”

“There is one last question.” Yue Qiang pressed his lips, and the words leaped out from between his teeth, “What happens… after death?”

These four words were incredibly abrupt, and if it was any other ordinary person they might not have understood at all. But the woman had without a doubt understood his meaning. Her answer was also four words,

“You must not die.”

Yue Qiang had also understood. He picked up the boxing gloves from the floor, wore it carefully onto his hands and said, “Let us begin the training then.”

He quietly a.s.sumed a pose and watched the woman standing not too far away.

At this point, he had basically put his trust in her. First, she was definitely not one to be seduced by his so-called 16 points of Charisma. Next, she probably did not plan to hurt him, because with her help his const.i.tution had been enhanced in all aspects. Finally; also the most crucial point of the matter, was that, to this moment, she had not said any term that was even remotely related to the ‘Game’, yet she had continuously hinted at Yue Qiang through all kinds of ways about something. Even when Yue Qiang had asked the question, ‘What happens after death’ which was obviously referring towards the game, she had also provided a slightly clearer answer.

Yue Qiang speculated that she might be suffering from some kind of limitation that prevented her from saying any Chinese words (T/N: This may be confusing but just a.s.sume that the ‘Chinese’ part doesn’t exist. I’m keeping it in the translation because that is what was written by the author) relating to the ‘Game’. However, she herself had wished that he could unravel the truth on the entire matter as soon as possible.

Therefore, Yue Qiang believed that the sentence that could make her repeat twice – to increase his own strength, must be a matter of critical importance. Not to mention that he had come to the fitness club to increase his strength in the first place.

“Let us begin then.” Yue Qiang had regained his calm completely and said solemnly, “How will our next training proceed? Or is it the same as before; fitness training, eating and jogging?”

Luqiu Duanyi said, “No. I will teach you a fist style.”

She spread her legs to stand at the same width as her shoulders; a.s.suming the pose of a Zhan Zhuang (T/N: or Standing Post. A Chinese martial training method which involves standing in a certain way). Once she a.s.sumed the pose, her temperament changed immediately. Her entire person had grown dignified and mature; it was as if a focused aura was about to burst out from inside her body.

Then she struck out in a set of fist fighting techniques. The technique was so quick that it had reached an inconceivable level. Yue Qiang felt as if there were still leftover fist trajectories on his retina, and that his eyes were filled with shiny white fist shadows. Suddenly the set of fists had already been completed.

Yue Qiang was a little surprised by this. It could not have exceeded 2 seconds.

“So fast? And so little?”

When he said fast he meant her action speed. When he said little, it was because Yue Qiang felt that the time taken to complete this set of technique was way too short. It wasn’t even two seconds. Forget about real life Tai Ji Quan (T/N: Taiji Fist) )or Xing Yi Quan (T/N: Form-Intention Fist), even Iori Yagami’s Down, Right, Down, Left, A’s animation would probably take three to four seconds, wouldn’t it?

Luqiu Duanyi did not explain and instead repeated the technique two more times. The first time her speed was just as quick as before, and the second time it was slowed down many times – the whole set took around tens of seconds.

Once finishing the three sets of actions, Luqiu Duanyi withdrew her stance and stood straight, saying, “You will copy my moves just now. The ultimate level you need to attain is perfect imitation.”

Seeing that Yue Qiang’s confused expression, she asked, “What, do you think this is useless?”

Yue Qiang did think that it was useless.

It was pretty obvious too. How could this fancy so-called fist fighting technique possibly be useful in increasing his strength? Other than it was slightly faster than norm and that its movements were rather… aesthetic, what other actual use could it have?

Yue Qiang did not voice his doubts, but his expression fully ill.u.s.trated this point.

Luqiu Duanyi suddenly said, “Do you still remember your food menu and work-rest schedule?”

He didn’t know why she suddenly bring this up and nodded subconsciously.

Luqiu Duanyi sat down cross-legged on where she stood and actually started explaining in detail under his doubtful gaze, “Let’s talk about your menu first. Every meal in your menu contained potato and yogurt. The reason behind this was that potato and yogurt complemented each other, and they could fulfill all of the human body’s need towards nutrition. Do you hear me? All of them. As for the rest of the food – be it the ones you recognized or not, or the ones that tastes good or bad – the goal is to specifically supplement the rest of the nutrients needed by your body. The most important reason is that you’ve eaten too many ‘hermit meals’ that it is a necessity to target your specific situation and remove saturated fatty acids; increase the nutrients for amino acids, vitamins, and trace elements.”

“Now let’s talk about your sleep practice.” Luqiu Duanyi’s tone did not have much ups and downs, and yet the content she spoke of made Yue Qiang’s eyes lit up, “The sleep practice that I’ve arranged for you has a scientific name called ‘polyphasic sleep’. It’s quite complicated to explain; you can basically understand this simply as splitting the entire sleeping period into 4 or 5 cycles. Da Vinci, who is a very famous artist, scientist and mathematician in history has the habit of sleeping polyphasically.”

“The basis of polyphasic sleep is the theory of sleep cycles. In fact you do not need to learn these; all you need to know is that the human physiology is very suited for polyphasic sleep. Moreover, from the moment a person is born they had slept polyphasically; it’s just that as they grow up they are slowly affected by the environment around them and eventually switched to sleeping at night. This is a very suitable training method for you, and I had even prepared that bottle of mineral water for you in case you couldn’t fall asleep.”

Listening to her narration, Yue Qiang had the basest of knowledge regarding the incredible change his const.i.tution had undergone in the short amount of time. Although Luqiu Duanyi’s words could not be fully trusted, it was at least a slightly more reasonable explanation to the phenomenon where his const.i.tution had increased in a short amount of time.

“I hadn’t told you all of these to make you understand the abstruse theory behind human health. I just want to tell you that all the things I made you do have a solid principle behind them. You simply need to do as I say.”

And yet Yue Qiang wasn’t the good student who would accept the ‘I’ll learn whatever you teach me’ kind of spoon-fed education, and so he asked, “I can understand some of the eating and sleeping methods you said, and it is true they may have their scientific basis. However, if you’re telling me that practicing this slightly longer than two seconds set of fist fighting technique could increase my st… const.i.tution, I have to say that I cannot believe it at all.”

“You have to complete this slightly-longer-than-two-seconds movement with absolute perfection..” Luqiu Duanyi said.

“And what’s the difference? If you want me to train this I might as well go to the park and learn Tai Ji Quan from an old man. Can I really increase my const.i.tution practicing such a thing?”

“No.” Luqiu Duanyi said.

Yue Qiang was speechless.

Then she added another line after ‘No’ in a most serious tone,

“But it can increase your strength. Ma.s.sively so.”