Full-Time Martial Saint

I sparred with He Yi twice, plus some casual conversation, which took nearly an hour. Fortunately, the issue of his movement technique was somewhat explained, so the hour wasn't wasted.

Inside the Divine Battle Arena, Chen Cong secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

As the saying goes, one lie requires countless lies to cover it up. He didn't know if the lie he and He Yi had concocted today would cause other trouble in the future.

But for now, we can only take it one step at a time and focus on improving our own strength.

Suppressing his thoughts, Chen Cong immediately activated the free matchmaking mode.

After his win rate dropped from 100%, he no longer encountered opponents he felt were unbeatable even when he fought with all his might.

In one hour, he played four matches and won them all. He successfully reached the Rookie 3-Star rank with 73 wins, and is still 327 wins away from Rookie 4-Star.

After exiting the virtual world, Chen Cong found paper and pen and did some detailed calculations. He estimated that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, it would take about 42 days to raise his rank to Rookie 10 Stars.

Forty-two days later, there will be more than thirty days left until his eighteenth birthday; according to Zhang Kui's previous statement, these thirty-odd days are enough for him to try the Black Stone Trials several times.

Slowly getting up and stretching, Chen Cong suddenly turned to look at Luo Yunfeng's bed and was surprised to find that he hadn't returned yet.

"Where did they go?" Chen Cong glanced at the time on his bracelet; it was almost eleven o'clock. He couldn't help but feel curious.

He initially wanted to send a message to Luo Yunfeng to ask about the situation, but after thinking about it, he felt it wasn't necessary.

After spending a few days together, Luo Yunfeng was clearly a mature and steady person. Nothing should have happened to him; he's probably gone home.

Despite the exhaustion from the mental strain, Chen Cong turned off the light, climbed into bed, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning at six o'clock, when he woke up again, he noticed that the blanket on Luo Yunfeng's bed seemed to have been moved, and there was still a faint smell of toiletries in the air of the dormitory.

"This guy... I don't know when he got back last night, but he got up so early this morning..."

After getting dressed, Chen smiled and shook his head, not thinking about it any further.

He continued his routine of washing up, eating, practicing standing meditation, running, and then going to class.

After the third period of cultural classes in the morning, according to the timetable, the last class on Tuesday morning is the basics of cold weapons.

Senior high school martial arts students mainly study fist, palm, and leg techniques, with cold weapons as a secondary subject. There is only one class per week. This is the first time Chen Cong has taken a cold weapon class since transferring to the martial arts academy.

When Zhao Cheng and the others arrived at the boxing classroom on the first floor of the martial arts hall, Zhang Kui and two assistant instructors had already arrived.

Inside the classroom, most of the students had already chosen their favorite cold weapons from the weapon rack by the wall, and were gathering in groups of three or five to practice their skills, with clanging sounds echoing throughout the room.

As Chen Cong passed by Zhang Kui, he bowed slightly and greeted him, "Teacher Zhang."

Zhang Kui nodded with a smile, then suddenly put down his teacup and said, "Wait a moment."

Chen paused slightly, then turned and walked up to him.

After a moment's thought, Zhang Kui asked in a low voice, "When do you plan to go to Qingshan Martial Arts Academy for the appointment?"

"Tonight then," Chen Cong thought for a moment, since only the evening was available.

He planned to talk to Ning Yuhang and the others later to move the evening private lessons to tomorrow morning, starting at six o'clock and ending at seven-thirty, so as not to interfere with the regular classes.

Zhang Kui nodded: "When you see Li Xiuwen, try to say as little as possible."

"If he mentions a contract, no matter how tempting the terms are, listen first, and don't rush to sign it."

Chen Cong was somewhat puzzled upon hearing this.

Zhang Kui smiled faintly, lowering his voice even further: "Do you know what it means to wait for the highest bidder?"

Before Chen Cong could answer, he continued, "Given your performance yesterday, it's impossible that the Martial Peak Hall didn't make a move. The two sides are fiercely competing, both openly and secretly. You need to give them a chance to raise the price."

Upon hearing this, Chen Cong smiled strangely and said, "Teacher, you are a martial artist from Qingshan Martial Academy. Isn't this inappropriate?"

Zhang Kui was taken aback at first, then laughed and scolded, "You brat, I'm trying to help you."

"Besides, although I am a martial artist from the Green Mountain Martial Academy, I usually exchange tasks for contribution points and then use those contribution points to exchange for resources. This is cooperation."

"You're my student, and I'm trying to get you some benefits, but you're ungrateful and lecturing me."

Chen Cong quickly bowed and apologized: "Teacher Zhang, I was just joking, please don't mind."

Zhang Kui smiled and waved his hand. He knew Chen Cong was joking, so he didn't continue the topic.

"This is your first time taking a cold weapon class. What kind of cold weapon do you like?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Cong glanced at the weapon rack in the distance and hesitated for a moment, finding it difficult to make a decision.

Perhaps influenced by the culture of his previous life, the first cold weapon that came to his mind was actually the sword.

However, based on his studies of the "History of the Merging World" and "Otherworldly Creatures" courses over the past few days, as well as the various materials he borrowed from the library, it was clear that using a sword to deal with those alien monsters was somewhat inappropriate.

Among martial artists, there are some who use swords as weapons, but those swords are almost all heavy swords, and there are very few ancient swords that take a light and agile approach.

Besides swords, Chen's second thought was a single-edged longsword, similar to the Tang sword from the Tang Dynasty in his previous life, but the weapon rack in the martial arts hall did not seem to have this type of sword.

In this situation, it seems he only has one choice.

gun.

The spear is the most popular cold weapon among martial artists. It is effective in both offense and defense, highly adaptable to tactics, and has the advantages of armor penetration, suppression, wide killing range and high tolerance for error. Nearly half of the martial artists on the entire planet use various types of spears as their weapons.

"I'll follow the crowd and choose the spear."

Having made up his mind, Chen spoke slowly.

Zhang Kui nodded slightly: "Spear techniques and fist techniques are inherently related in martial arts as 'theory and practice share the same origin, and the principles of strength are interconnected.' The spear is the foundation of long weapons, while the fist is the transformation of weapons; when practicing spear techniques, one seeks to achieve a unified and penetrating force, while when practicing fist techniques, one inherits the penetrating intent of the spear. The two mutually verify and elevate each other."

"Your Bajiquan has reached a minor level of mastery, so using a spear as a weapon is indeed feasible."

"But there's no need to rush now. You can try out all sorts of cold weapons first. Choose whichever you like and whichever suits you best. Real cold weapon training will only begin when you get to the martial arts university."

"Go take a look first, and I'll explain the advantages and disadvantages of various cold weapons to you in detail during class later."

Chen bowed and walked towards the weapon rack not far away.

In front of the weapon rack, Zhao Cheng was carrying an exaggeratedly large sword that was half a person's width and chatting with Yang Can and Huang Changhu. On the other side, Ning Yuhang's cold weapon was two three-foot-long short spears.

Chen Cong picked out a spear with a white waxwood shaft, about ten feet long, from the weapon rack. After weighing it in his hand, he came to the group.

"Chen Cong likes long spears?"

Huang Changhu carried a hardwood round shield in one hand and a willow-leaf curved knife in the other, adopting a very rare combination of knife and shield.

"I don't really have any favorites, so I'll just go with the flow and choose a spear."

Chen Cong smiled and told the group that the private lessons had been postponed to tomorrow morning.

The others already knew yesterday that he had received an invitation from Qingshan Martial Arts Academy, and none of them had any objections.

After chatting for a while, the bell rang for class, and the group each chose a spot to stand.

Zhang Kui stood up and came to the front of everyone, signaling the teaching assistant to turn on the holographic projection and begin to explain in detail the advantages and disadvantages of various cold weapons and their simple and practical uses.

During the session, when students asked questions, he would provide more in-depth explanations and select specially prepared video files for students who liked various cold weapons to download and watch.

This is how basic courses are conducted. There are not many explanations of key points, and there are no demonstrations of moves. The aim is to give students a simple understanding of various cold weapons.

The afternoon classes continued with boxing and physical training.

At 5:30 p.m., after school, Chen Cong hurriedly ate a regular nutritious meal and rushed back to his dormitory to shower and change clothes. Then, he hailed an unmanned taxi at the school gate and headed towards the Xiangcheng branch of Qingshan Martial Arts Academy.