Chapter 317 A precious quality
When Ren Xiaosu saw the two words “Lu Family,” he thought the hand-to-hand combat teacher Yang Xiaojin had found for him might be Lu Yuan.
When they were in Stronghold 109, Lu Yuan had walked leisurely through the chaos while Yang Xiaojin protected him from afar atop a tall building. At that time, Ren Xiaosu still did not know Lu Yuan was from the Yang Consortium.
However, Ren Xiaosu was still unclear about Lu Yuan and Yang Xiaojin’s relations.h.i.+p.
Currently, there was an intense war going on at the Yang Consortium’s front line. Although it looked like victory had already been secured, the question was why didn’t Lu Yuan get deployed to the front line when he was a known supernatural being in the organization?
Even though it was difficult for supernatural beings to do much on the main battlefield, it was still better than having none deployed at all. It would also be quite good to have some supernatural beings accompanying and protecting the generals.
Therefore, when Ren Xiaosu saw Lu Yuan in the stronghold, he realized the relations.h.i.+p between Lu Yuan and Yang Xiaojin might be a little closer than the relations.h.i.+p between Lu Yuan and the Yang Consortium.
Lu Yuan led Ren Xiaosu to the backyard. As he walked, he laughed and said, “There’s no need for any formalities. I used to be the housekeeper of Xiaojin’s family, and she grew up under my care, so you can address me as Uncle Lu. I served the Yang Consortium in the past, but I was able to regain my freedom and enjoy retirement because of that hard drive.”
Lu Yuan was also an understanding person. Since Yang Xiaojin trusted Ren Xiaosu, he might as well be open with his ident.i.ty and introduce himself.
“h.e.l.lo, Uncle Lu.” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Luo Lan is also here in the stronghold. Why didn’t you go and beat him up? He’s freeloading off our family right now.”
“Haha,” Lu Yuan started laughing. “When I’m in character for my missions, I have to be immersed in my role. But after that, I need to get out of character. Otherwise, I’ll get embroiled in many difficult situations. Since I’m no longer Stronghold 109’s overseer, whatever had happened before has nothing to do with me.”
Ren Xiaosu thought he was such a forgiving person. It was no wonder he could leisurely retire here and even open a martial arts school. “Xiaojin recommended me to learn hand-to-hand combat from you. What time should I usually come?”
“Xiaojin told me you always spend the day reading in the library until evening, so just come at night.” Lu Yuan said, “Have you trained before?”
Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, “I’ve never learned it systematically before. But I did wonder about it while living in the wilderness.”
“Then I’ll teach you systematically from how to generate power to the actual execution of techniques when in combat. Afterwards, we’ll train your reaction speed and your awareness of your opponent,” Lu Yuan said.
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Shouldn’t I be learning some boxing styles? The type they’re practicing outside…”
Right after he came into the school, he had seen a lot of children practicing boxing techniques. The way they were practicing was rather fascinating.
However, Lu Yuan said with a smile, “That’s something only children will learn. It’s used to cheat parents of their money. Parents nowadays get distressed the moment their children suffer a little, so how can they possibly practice boxing that way?”
‘How honest of him to blatantly admit that he’s cheating others of their money,’ Ren Xiaosu thought to himself.
Lu Yuan said, “The technique to generate power needs to be practiced. You’ll have to suffer first and learn through hards.h.i.+p before you can master control of your body.”
The technique to generate power while throwing a punch was that you had to punch while twisting your hips. If not, the resulting punch would be extremely weak.
Lu Yuan continued, “The actual skill in combat is the technique in which you use to kill. It’s very complicated to explain but will help you know what you should think about when attacking someone, and what others might be thinking as well, stuff like that.”
“Then what are reaction speed and awareness of the opponent about?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“Reaction speed varies from person to person.” Lu Yuan said, “Everyone’s reaction speed can improve with some training. But of course, everyone also has a ‘ceiling.’”
“In other words, you’re saying that everyone’s potential is different?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“Yes. Take Xiaojin for example. If she has to fire a shot at a fast-moving target with only one chance of hitting it, the window available for her is a mere 0.06 seconds. If that were the upper limit you were born with, that’s what you have. But if you don’t, you can’t master it no matter how much you train. Not even a supernatural being can do that.”
“0.06 seconds?” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise. He had never calculated time down to two decimal places before. So Yang Xiaojin’s reaction speed was that terrifying?
What Lu Yuan was currently talking about was the theory of talent. When everyone worked hard and put in the same amount of effort, they could all reach a certain standard, such as achieving the master skill level.
But if one wanted to break through that ceiling and advance further to the perfect skill level, they would need to have a real talent for it. That was something they were born with.
All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward when he remembered his one and only perfect-level skill was to “annoy people.”
Ren Xiaosu asked, “Can I test my reaction speed?”
Lu Yuan said with a smile, “Let’s do this step by step and not get too ambitious so early on. Since you haven’t received training before, you should first properly master how to generate power.”
“OK.” Ren Xiaosu did not argue with him. Since he came here with the att.i.tude to learn, he had to do his best to learn properly. He could not get conceited just because he felt very powerful already.
The two of them came to the backyard where Lu Yuan pointed to a sandbag hanging in the middle of the yard. He said, “Hit it with all your might and let me see how strong you are.”
“Mhm.” When Ren Xiaosu walked up to the sandbag, Lu Yuan watched him bend his knees a little. Then he channeled all his strength into the punch and tore straight through the sandbag!
Lu Yuan was stunned. This was a sandbag specially prepared for supernatural beings to use!
But what surprised him was not Ren Xiaosu’s strength. The strength of supernatural beings ranged from high to low, and the power displayed by Ren Xiaosu was not particularly rare. It could at most be regarded as extremely strong but still shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Of course, this was before Ren Xiaosu activated his City Crusher.
What surprised Lu Yuan was that all of Ren Xiaosu’s muscles seemingly acted as one at the point he generated power. It was flawless. Especially the slight bending of his hind leg, which was extremely important. Most people couldn’t exert their strength because they did not make use of the power in their legs.
Had he really not trained before?
Moreover, he could tell that Ren Xiaosu had not exerted all his strength yet. His left hand and arm remained in a semi-relaxed state throughout, and he could still pull back his punch at any moment.
It was much harder to control strength than to fully exert it.
Lu Yuan asked, “Why didn’t you put in your best effort?”
“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu explained, “Probably just a force of habit. I always encountered wild animals in the wilderness, and sometimes, I don’t know how they’ll attack. So I have to guard against them.”
Lu Yuan said, “Let’s see your kicking this time. Do a side kick.”
However, Lu Yuan still couldn’t find any flaws in Ren Xiaosu’s performance. This was probably also some kind of talent. Lu Yuan sighed. “It seems you’ve led a rather difficult life.”
If he had led a carefree and easy life before this, he couldn’t possibly be so good at generating power.
Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “It’s mainly because I’m afraid to die.”
Lu Yuan also smiled. “You don’t have to learn how to generate power since you’re already so adept at it. Let’s start with learning practical combat techniques.”
“OK.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.
After waiting for a long while, Lu Yuan thought Ren Xiaosu would ask him again if he could test his reaction speed, especially after he had praised him. However, Ren Xiaosu did not even mention a word and slowly learned what he was taught with a patient att.i.tude.
This was not talent but a precious quality that existed in a person.