If you were weaker than your opponent, then your best method would be launching a sneak attack.
However, Ye Wan said one shouldn’t always expect to be doing a sneak attack. While it was important, to insist only on planning out sneak attacks meant that you could only wait and rely on opportunities.
Tirelessly, Qing Chen kept on practicing his movements without a halt.
He held a real switchblade in his hand, and his opponent was not the empty air but Ye Wan, who was genuinely made up of flesh and blood.
Ye Wan was like a mountain, easily parrying him no matter how ferociously Qing Chen attacked.
If the first step was recognizing the vital point, then they were now onto the second step: combat routines.
Logically, piercing the spleen could only be done from a few angles.
Ye Wan was teaching him how to mask his intention and let his opponents misjudge the target of his attack so that they would leave the gateway to the spleen wide open.
“If you directly reveal your intentions, you’ll remain at a disadvantage in the battle,” said Ye Wan. “When you don’t have the strength to oppressively crushing someone, feinting is your most effective killing technique.”
Qing Chen fell into deep thought.
He had regarded this too simply before, thinking he just had to learn to do straight stabs, side stabs, and the likes.
Unexpectedly, what Ye Wan taught him were combat routines.
Like how to skillfully swing the knife towards his opponent's neck and then draw in his elbow and waist the moment the opponent made a move to block it, changing the trajectory of the knife in his hand to stab their spleen.
Ye Wan taught him more than sixty other routines similar to that
More than ten of them included two feints.
Ye Wan said, “You have to remember one thing, a fight is always unpredictable. Those masterful dagger wielders can strike many times within a second, but in fact, the real attack is hidden between one of those strikes.”
Close combat was the most dangerous psychological game.
What Ye Wan could do was teach Qing Chen these practical routines, so that he would be able to master the most basic killing ability within two days.
And what Qing Chen needed to do was to imprint all these things into his brain.
The third and final step: actual combat.
Solely remembering the routines was not enough. Ye Wan believed Qing Chen also had to clearly grasp the extent of his body’s capability.
He must have a complete understanding of his own power and speed.
Aside from knowing his enemy, he had to know about himself.
In just 3 hours, Qing Chen was thoroughly exhausted by this training method where he had to exert all of his strength each time he tried.
On top of it, he had been standing behind the window for the first half of the night the day before. By 9 in the morning, he was already a little unresponsive.
At this point, 2 hours and 40 minutes had passed since the scheduled mealtime.
The prison inmates eventually realized that something was wrong, and everyone began to frantically bang on the doors.
But no matter how hard they slammed, nobody responded.
It was as if every single door was broken.
Guo Huchan was the most violent among them, smashing his door as his life depended on it.
It was only after Li Shutong stopped by his cell and warned him that this bald man finally stopped.
Instead of getting angry, Guo Huchan smiled and asked enthusiastically, “Boss Li, can you tell me what kind of secret operation are you doing? How about letting me go out to help you? In Black Spades, I'm also considered an expert at cooking up plans.”
But Li Shutong didn't give him any shred of acknowledgment.
Gradually, the prisoners turned silent once again. They recalled the horror of last night and suddenly felt that this prison seemed to have changed.
All of these people were felons, and more than half of them had been here for more than five years.
They had never experienced such a bizarre thing before.
They would have never thought that all this happened just because a teenager was facing a crisis and his teacher wanted to buy him some time, simple as that.
When Ye Wan said he could take a break, Qing Chen tilted his head and slumped on the floor, falling asleep straight away.
Lin Xiaoxiao came over carrying a food platter. He watched as the fire patterns on Qing Chen's face slowly disappeared, and then lifted him up. “Don't let the inmates out, for now, it’s going to look suspicious if Qing Chen’s the only one who doesn’t go out to eat. Let's wait until he wakes up to start the mealtime.”
Ye Wan nodded, “But he’ll definitely sleep until dinner, so the inmates are going to miss two meals.”
Lin Xiaoxiao cheerfully replied, “It's okay, the boss said they won’t die just from having two fewer meals.”
When Qing Chen first came into contact with Li Shutong and his people, their attitude towards him was actually already relatively kind.
Up to this day, he had yet to truly meet the other side of the Knights and the Heng Group.
The cold and cruel side.
When dinnertime arrived, the alloy gates of the cells were opened only after Qing Chen woke up.
The prisoners didn’t dare to make any noise throughout the duration of the meal, for fear of attracting more trouble.
If they were to be used as practice dummies in the middle of the night again… what were the chances that it wouldn’t merely be verbal instructions this time!?
After dinner, the prison announcement ordered everyone to return to the cell, and all of the prisoners followed along.
Li Shutong stared at Qing Chen with interest, “How is it, have you grasped the hang of it?”
Qing Chen reflected, “Quite okay, since memory and thinking ability play a bigger role in combat than I initially thought. It's just that I haven’t trained using the breathing technique for long, so my physical fitness is still lacking. I’ll train harder after this.”
Although he could surpass the result other people obtained in half a month in just one day by using the breathing technique, his training time was still too short. Up until this point, it had only been about ten days, and even that was also due to his training volume exceeding Ye Wan's plan.
Lin Xiaoxiao turned to look at Ye Wan, “According to your standards, how’s the progress of his training?”
Ye Wan thought about it and said, “Ordinary people are certainly far behind compared to him. When I first learned dagger combat routines, it took three months for me to get to his current level. Hyperthymesia is indeed terrifying. If he continues to practice tonight and tomorrow, killing someone won’t be a problem.”
“What about weaknesses?” asked Lin Xiaoxiao.
Ye Wan replied, “He didn’t have enough actual combat experience and is too formulaic. It’s not a problem against ordinary people, but he’ll suffer a big loss against real fighters. It all depends on comprehension.”
Just like Qing Chen playing chess opposite Li Shutong, despite him knowing all about the possible steps and progressions, he was still unable to beat Li Shutong sometimes.
He obviously could have won, but was instead forced to a draw.
This was the reason why he never participated in major chess competitions.
Ye Wan looked at Qing Chen and smiled, “Did you sleep well?”
“I did. We can continue,” Qing Chen nodded. The breathing technique had brought his stamina back to full again.
“Come on, I'll practice with you,” Lin Xiaoxiao offered happily.
After speaking, he moved to stand in the field and beckoned to Qing Chen with his hand.
Qing Chen took a moment to think, then promptly stepped out with force, swinging down the switchblade in his hand towards Lin Xiaoxiao's thigh.
Lin Xiaoxiao grinned, “This kind of feint is too naive… shit! I almost jinxed myself!”
As the tip of Qing Chen’s switchblade was pricking on his leg, he clamped it with his fingers. Fortunately, his reaction was swift; he would have bled otherwise.
Qing Chen was stunned. Previously, Lin Xiaoxiao told him he wasn’t talented in combat and was more of an ability user.
But even so, he was able to stop the blade just by using two fingers, which was incredible.
There was an insurmountable gap between superhuman and ordinary people. The only one able to engage in close combat with a superhuman was either another superhuman or martial art master with cutting-edge mechanical limbs.
Lin Xiaoxiao ranted angrily, “Didn't you say you specialize in attacking the spleen? You put strength in your waist just now, why didn't you raise the knife, where’s the feint attack that you said you’ll do!”
Li Shutong smilingly turned to Ye Wan, “How is his comprehension?”
Ye Wan answered, “I wasn't as good as him back then.”
“Keep practicing, don't slack off,” Li Shutong left for the reading area with a big laughter.
“Hm, looks training is already adequate for now. It’s time to teach him how to do sneak attacks,” replied Ye Wan.