CHAPTER 173: LEAVE

Chen Chuan didn’t try diving again right away. He had memorized the Furnace Breathing Technique, but that was it. Before he actually used it, he wouldn’t even claim that he had picked it up.

And today, no matter how many times he tried again, he wasn’t going to reach any breakthroughs, unless he used his second self.

Hence, after their conversation, both he and He Xiaoxing went back.

Chang Ba knew that He Xiaoxing had taught Chen Chuan something, and he sighed at that. He wanted to learn it too, but if he couldn’t reach the benchmark, it would not happen.

He cast a glance at a pit nearby. When he remembered the environment down there, he trembled. Forget it. He would leave the hard work to Chen Chuan while he would stay in charge of eating.

He was pretty confident in that area.

When they came back, they got into the SUV and headed back to town.

Since the training session had come to an end, Chen Chuan intended to give himself a break. He had been in the town for a long time, but he hadn’t gone anywhere aside from Cinnabar Lakes.

According to Chang Ba, there were plenty of fun activities in the area, such as sand surfing among the sand dunes a hundred kilometers to the south.

There was also the Myriad Idols Cave. It was about one day away. If that was of no interest to him, he could go to an oasis that produced sweet water around thirty kilometers from the town. The sweet fruits and tasty barbecued meat there were top-notch.

But Chang Ba also said that if he wanted to eat barbecued meat, Chen Chuan could just come to him. He was confident his skills did not lose to those of the chefs there. Their entire family was great at barbecue, and they even had a reputation for it. Otherwise, so many people wouldn’t come to their hotel chain every year. Many of them were returning customers.

Of course, the most famous tourist destination was the Ancient City of Elegance. Most of the customers had come for the city, but Chen Chuan didn’t intend to go there. Over the days in town, he had learned that the place was surrounded by a forest of wind-eroded stone pillars. If a person was not familiar with the place, they had to go in with a tour guide, or they wouldn’t be able to find their way out.

On top of that, visiting the buildings on the surface of the ancient city would take days, and that wasn’t counting the maze underground. If a tourist didn’t have lots of time, they wouldn’t be able to see much, and Chen Chuan simply didn’t have time for it. It would be better for him to visit the nearby areas instead. If he really wanted to go to the Ancient City of Elegance, he would have to look for a chance in the future.

In the end, he decided to go sand surfing among the sand dunes with Chang Ba. Activities that required balance were not hard for him, and he found it easier than skiing.

But it wasn’t as if he couldn’t find any fun in it. If he managed to locate the right trajectory among the sand dunes, he could keep surfing without stopping. That required great judgment and control, along with a little bit of luck. Sometimes, a strong gust passing by could break his rhythm but also push him along.

After relaxing for an entire day by sand surfing, Chen Chuan went back to the town at night. When he returned to the hotel, a staff member handed him a notebook and said that He Xiaoxing asked her to pass it to him.

This had to be the notebook He Xiaoxing had mentioned. Since it didn’t contain any details about the secret breathing technique, it was useless to anyone else. Not that they would understand it, anyway. So, even if they read it, it was fine.

Chen Chuan thanked her, then returned to his room, took a shower, and changed into a set of comfortable clothes before brewing a pot of grape tea unique to the town. Then, he started reading the notebook.

The notes were entirely handwritten, but not by He Xiaoxing. Chen Chuan had seen He Xiaoxing’s handwriting before, and it wasn’t his. The words gave off a seasoned, rustic charm and seemed to have been written by an old person.

That had nothing to do with Chen Chuan, though. He simply read the contents. The notes mainly talked about the extra details a martial artist needed to pay attention to while practicing the Furnace Breathing Technique, like running out of the stored extra energy and stopping in order to use the technique. If they did not, they would start burning the mutated tissue as fuel until they burned themselves to a crisp.

The first thing a martial artist needed to do while learning this secret breathing technique was restraint and control.

It was no wonder He Xiaoxing had asked him to be in control of his emotions, but also to be able to let them go free while also reining them in. If he couldn’t do this, then once he was overcome by his emotions, he might just end up fighting his opponent to the death.

Then came the part about storing energy. The notebook mentioned that storing a lot of energy wasn’t necessarily a good thing. After exceeding a certain threshold, it would put a burden on the body.

That threshold changed with training. The more mutated tissue a martial artist had, the stronger they became, and the more energy they could store.

There were plenty of ways to use the stored energy. If he didn’t want to use it all at once in one explosive burst, he could use it to fight longer, but he would have to learn it first and then master it.

After reading through the entire notebook, Chen Chuan got a general gist of the Furnace Breathing Technique. He put the notebook at the bottom of his luggage bag and sat back down to begin breathing according to what he remembered.

The Furnace Breathing Technique was quite complicated. Since he was not familiar with it, it took him almost an hour to complete a cycle. At the end, even if he was just sitting still, he could sense his body growing hot. At the same time, he sensed a wisp of energy being stored in his mutated tissue.

It was really faint, as if he had stored nothing.

Chen Chuan didn’t find it surprising, because he needed to store energy over a long time. Besides, he had only just begun practicing the breathing technique, so he was still far from being proficient with it.

There was a little over a month before September, so Chen Chuan intended to use this time to familiarize himself with the Furnace Breathing Technique. He also had to store up as much energy as possible, because he might need it at some point in time.

Over the next few days, aside from his daily training, he also practiced the Furnace Breathing Technique.

As he continued working, he used up his medicine much faster than before. In less than half a month, he had almost finished his entire stock.

On July 30th, Chen Chuan went to the research center again. This time, he was going to forgo tactics and face the underwater creatures purely with his speed.

The previous two dives had made him realize that if he was fast enough and reacted quickly enough, he could avoid most of the problems underwater.

He Xiaoxing and Chang Ba stood a little further away, waiting to see how he would fare this time.

Chen Chuan exhaled slowly before tapping against the floor and jumping into a pit. After making a small splash that caused ripples to form on the water, he charged forward like a loosened arrow.

The results of his training over the past ten days or so coupled with the help from the Furnace Breathing Technique made his reaction time faster and his movements much more agile.

He swam between the shafts and touched sign after sign. When the one-hour time limit was almost up, Chen Chuan knew that he had found more than twelve signs without even counting.

But he didn’t stop there. He shut his eyes and crossed his arms to take in a deep breath through the guided internal breathing technique.

As more oxygen entered his body and the Furnace Breathing Technique drove his mutated tissue into action, his body became hotter, and he could perform the gas exchange much faster than before. It also created countless air bubbles that floated up around him.

At the same time, he overlapped with his second self. When he opened his eyes again, he decided to dive much deeper. He was going to swim at full strength, because not only did he want to see just how far he could go after overlapping with his second self, but he also wanted to swim wholeheartedly and freely for once.

He kicked off and left behind ripples that didn’t fade away for a long time as he headed deeper into the shafts.

If he had been using his speed and reaction speed to avoid problems on his way, now he did not change his trajectory whatsoever.

When he faced the rapid currents, he plunged his fingers into the walls while kicking nonstop to swim against them. Once the force from the current trying to keep him from going forward disappeared, he continued swimming.

When he encountered schools of fishes, he didn’t avoid them and just went straight through them. The ones in his way were torn apart, while the others swam in all directions in a panic.

It was an incomparably exhilarating swim. The feeling of not having to worry about anything and casting aside all worries to only move forward was great. His mutated tissue also came alive to turn into energy that drove him forward and made him swim even faster.

But despite feeling this way, he didn’t let his emotions run so wild that he ended up a slave to them. Once the one-hour time limit was up, he reined them in and swam up.

A long time passed before he saw light above him. He moved his limbs and sped up. When he was close to the surface, his muscles generated a burst of energy that let him break out of the water with a loud splash. He shot out, extended his body, flipped in the air, and landed on both feet with his knees slightly bent. Then, he straightened his back.

He turned to He Xiaoxing. This dive was his answer sheet for the training and also a gift.

As He Xiaoxing stared at his still burning body, he gave him a slow nod.

Chang Ba watched them, but didn’t ask how many signs Chen Chuan found this time. He had a feeling that it was no longer important.

After Chen Chuan changed out of the diving suit, he went up to He Xiaoxing. “Mr. He, it’s been almost a month since I came here. I’m going to go back tomorrow.”

“Go. Lao Cheng must be happy to have a mentee like you. You’ll be able to go far in the future,” He Xiaoxing said.

“I will,” Chen Chuan said earnestly.

Once they left the research center, Chen Chuan returned to the hotel, then went out to buy some souvenirs. He also spoke to the people he had gotten to know over the past few days to tell them that he was going to leave. When he was done, he went back to his room to pack up.

The next morning, he checked out, grabbed his luggage and slung the box containing the Frost King Saber over his back before leaving. Then, he went to the martial arts training center to say goodbye to He Xiaoxing.

After the two of them walked out of the martial arts training center, they saw Chang Ba’s SUV speeding over. Chang Ba jumped out of it excitedly with a camera in hand. “I made it!”

He brought his hands up. “Chen Chuan, Uncle He, let’s take a photo!”

They didn’t reject the idea. Chang Ba handed the camera to the photographer in the SUV before running over. He Xiaoxing and Chen Chuan were both much taller than he was, so he had to stand at the front while the other two sandwiched him. When the photographer pressed on the shutter, they heard a click, and their group was immortalized.

Chang Ba patted Chen Chuan’s shoulder. “I’ll send you to the train station.”

Chen Chuan didn’t say no to that. He turned to He Xiaoxing and bowed to him. “Thank you for your guidance over these days, Mr. He. I’ll be leaving now.”

He then straightened his back, tightened the strap of the box on his back, and got into the SUV.

Meanwhile, He Xiaoxing remained standing on the mountain and watched the SUV disappear into the distance.

After they left the town, Chang Ba handed a hardcover book to Chen Chuan. “Something for you.”

Chen Chuan took a look and found that it was full of Chang Ba’s drawings. They detailed his training over the past month. Among them were drawings of when he went into the water and when they had barbecue together.

The drawings were all done with just a few strokes, but he managed to capture everything. Even though Chang Ba made himself look really cool and important as well, these were drawings, so Chen Chuan could understand a few artistic touches here and there.

“I’ve wanted to learn martial arts since I was a kid, but my dad never let me. He said that it wasn’t the time for it. So, back then, I could only draw other people. I didn’t expect to have any talent in the drawing department, though. I didn’t manage to become a proper martial artist, but I did manage to pick up drawing. Heh. They’re all just some simple drawings, so don’t think too much,” Chang Ba said as he stared ahead.

“I think they’re perfect. Thank you, Chang Ba. I love it. It has great sentimental value,” Chen Chuan said with a bright smile.

Chang Ba laughed. Usually, no one bothered to look at his drawings, and he felt really frustrated about no one admiring his drawing skills. Now, Chen Chuan’s words made him feel like all the freebies he had offered before were absolutely worth it.

***

A few hours later, He Xiaoxing got the photo. The photography studio had even delivered a frame to the martial arts training center.

He took a look at it before going to his room and placing it on the table. Right away, his gaze was attracted to the corner of the table. Over there was another frame propped up on a stand, showing him with a young man.

The young man was handsome and not that much shorter than He Xiaoxing was. He was smiling brilliantly before the training center on Martial Valor University’s South Hill. Sunlight was shining on them from the side, and the leaves before the entrance looked to be swaying.

He Xiaoxing stared at the photo for a while before turning around and leaving.