Lu Yuan didn’t wait long before Lin Zhiquin returned, carrying a bag. Behind him were three or four tall, muscular young men. They were probably summoned temporarily from the martial arts school; two of them were still yawning sleepily.
Lu Yuan saw a familiar face. It was the guy who had been chatting with the receptionist when he entered. The guy’s face was covered in pimples, which had left a strong impression on him. The pimple-faced guy apparently recognized him too. Lu Yuan nodded at him in acknowledgment, but the guy just turned his face away.
"Start with these." Lin Zhiquin dumped a few black sticks, each over two feet long, from the bag onto the floor. They were the type used for security, with solid steel cores encased in a thick layer of rubber.
As for their specific killing power... Lu Yuan had never been hit with one, so he wasn’t sure.
But since Lin Zhiquin had brought them, there shouldn’t be a problem.
"One for each of you. Grab one." Lin Zhiquin signaled the young men. Pointing at Lu Yuan, he told them, "You’ll use these to hit him. Just be careful not to hit his vital spots..."
"Coach Lin..." A youth with a buzz cut looked utterly taken aback as he swung the stick in his hand. "You’re not kidding, are you?"
Lin Zhiquin gave him an icy glance. "If I tell you to hit, then hit. Enough talk!" Then, looking at Lu Yuan, he asked, "Are you ready?"
"Sure." Lu Yuan stretched a little, feeling he was in good condition, and nodded.
"Are you sure you don’t want to wear any protective gear?"
"No need." Lu Yuan glanced at the young men. These guys weren’t strong; they were amateurs among amateurs. If they really missed or intentionally aimed for his vital spots, he was confident he could easily dodge.
Endurance training was endurance training. He wasn’t here to die.
"Alright." Lin Zhiquin gave a look to the stick-wielding young men. "Get started."
Even with permission from both Lu Yuan and Lin Zhiquin, the young men were still hesitant. After all, they were about to beat someone who had nothing to do with them, for no reason. Any normal person would feel a psychological barrier to doing so.
In the end, it was the pimple-faced guy who stepped forward first. Stick in hand, he walked up to Lu Yuan, glanced at the surveillance camera on the ceiling, and joked, "Bro, you’re the one who asked us to hit you, so don’t blame us if anything happens. The cameras are rolling..."
"Mm." Lu Yuan nodded, spread his feet slightly, and gestured for the pimple-faced guy to begin whenever he was ready.
"Alright." The pimple-faced guy narrowed his eyes and suddenly swung the stick hard onto Lu Yuan’s arm.
Lu Yuan let out a soft grunt, shook his arm a bit, then said calmly, "Continue."
The pimple-faced guy frowned, then followed with another swing of the stick.
The sound of the rubber stick hitting flesh echoed constantly, leaving the other young men dumbfounded for a moment. Seeing Lin Zhiquin’s nonchalant attitude, they too joined in, one after another. The sound of the beating in the room quickly intensified.
A blow landed on Lu Yuan’s waist, causing a slight pang of pain. But after a week of practicing the Spirit Crane Body, he was accustomed to the pain of his flesh being torn. This little pain was nothing to him. These people Lin Zhiquin had called in weren’t strong; each strike only carried about a hundred kilograms of force. With his fifteen points in physique and his accomplished skin training, he didn’t care at all.
While enduring the blows, Lu Yuan opened his profession panel.
[Spirit Crane Body LV1 (89/100)]
His Spirit Crane Body was almost at LV2, but his Experience Points had been rising a bit slowly these last two days, so he had considered using some external pressure to stimulate it. Lu Yuan stared at the Spirit Crane Body’s experience bar on the panel.
Suddenly, the Experience Points jumped, changing from 89 to 90.
Lu Yuan was overjoyed. He couldn’t help but whisper, "Guys, can you hit a bit harder?"
A stick whistled through the air towards him, the sound growing noticeably louder as it approached. Lu Yuan shielded it lightly with his trapezius muscle, feeling the force was still within his tolerance range. Looking up, he saw the pimple-faced guy again. His lips were pressed tight, his face expressionless—a stark contrast to his previous courteous manner.
With the pimple-faced guy taking the lead, the force and frequency of the other three’s strikes gradually increased. Lu Yuan felt like he was being ganged up on. He suppressed the urge to fight back, his eyes bright as he watched the Experience Points for his Spirit Crane Body on the panel increase bit by bit.
It was painful but also joyful. Perhaps that was the feeling.
The pimple-faced guy fiercely struck Lu Yuan with his stick. Feeling the impact of the rubber stick on flesh, a trace of pleasure unconsciously flashed in his eyes.
That felt good! Who would have thought there would be people in this world who actively seek to be beaten? What an idiot! That’s not how one trains in martial arts. Coach Lin must not be thinking straight. But... who cares! When someone begs to get beaten up, isn’t that a good thing?
Thinking this, the pimple-faced guy swung his stick again. This time, he intentionally aimed at Lu Yuan’s shoulder. The rubber stick, with its solid steel core, would definitely hurt if it landed solidly.
Just as the stick was about to connect, Lu Yuan suddenly leaned forward, allowing it to only hit the muscles on the back of his shoulder. It felt like hitting a thick tire; the anticipated pleasure from the impact was far from satisfying. The pimple-faced guy started to feel a little annoyed.
"Damn it, how dare you dodge when I’m hitting you?" Unknowingly, a surge of ferocity arose in his heart. "I dare you to dodge! Dodge again!"
Prolonged, intense exertion accelerated his blood flow, causing the blood to rush. Maybe even the pimple-faced guy himself hadn’t noticed that he was becoming more and more ruthless, his strikes landing with increasing force. Even faint, bloodshot streaks appeared in his eyes. This ferocity triggered even deeper resentments. The previous humiliation at the front desk surged into his mind.
"With a face like yours, I couldn’t bring myself to kiss you even with my eyes closed!"
"Here are your movie tickets back. Just give up on that idea."
The pimple-faced guy caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye: Lin Zhiquin’s figure had vanished from the training room at some point. He looked back at Lu Yuan, whose well-defined, fair, and handsome face was slightly damp with sweat. The image of the girl at the front desk, her face cold and contemptuous, flashed across his mind. Every pimple on his own face seemed to throb. A surge of malice suddenly welled up in his heart. The rubber stick in his hand subtly changed direction.
"So, he’s very handsome, isn’t he?"
Handsome? Handsome my ass! Bitch! This pretty boy... I could take ten of them with one hand!
Thinking this, ferocity flared in the pimple-faced guy’s eyes. He swung the stick straight down at Lu Yuan’s head.
[Your skill Spirit Crane Body has improved, Experience Points +1]
Accompanied by a new prompt, Lu Yuan watched as the "LV1" tag after "Spirit Crane Body" silently morphed into "LV2."
Instantly, Lu Yuan felt his entire skin tense. The pain from the blows landing on his body vanished in an instant.
His heartbeat slowed, its sound deepening, and he could feel a stronger, thicker flow of blood pumping from it.
Has the ’skin training’... succeeded?!
Two consecutive sticks struck his chest and back. Lu Yuan looked down; he could only feel a faint pain, as if he’d been accidentally hit by something insignificant.
The pain has lessened significantly, and my skin seems to have changed somehow... As for how much my defensive power has increased, I’ll have to investigate carefully to find out.
As Lu Yuan was thinking this, he was about to tell the training partners to stop. But right at that moment, the shadow of a stick suddenly whizzed towards him, aiming straight for his face...
A strange sound resonated. The dense, dull thudding in the room abruptly ceased. All the young training partners froze, their hands stopping mid-action, staring in astonishment at the scene before them.
The handsome young man who had asked them to cooperate in the endurance training was standing still, looking calm. A rubber stick rested quietly against his forehead. And holding the end of the stick... was the pimple-faced guy, Liu Xiangyu, his face contorted with ferocity.
"Liu... Liu Xiangyu, you..." A hesitant voice snapped the pimple-faced guy from his daze back to reality. He jolted as if waking from a dream and suddenly became flustered.
"I... I wasn’t paying attention. My hand slipped!" The pimple-faced guy abruptly retreated two steps, seemingly unable to meet anyone’s eyes, his own gaze flickering nonstop. "He’s the one who told us to hit harder. It’s hard to control that much force, so it’s normal to slip up sometimes, right...?"
"Damn it!" a guy beside him yelled. "Hitting harder doesn’t mean trying to kill him! Didn’t you hear what Coach Lin just said? Bro, are you alright? We’ll take you to the hospital!" Saying this, he hurried to check the wound on the young man’s forehead.
Unexpectedly, the young man shook his head, indicating he was fine. "He’s right. Your strikes were indeed a bit light..."
"Uh..." The group was taken aback, but the pimple-faced guy, however, seemed to have heard something that lifted his spirits.
"See? He said it himself, our strikes were too light! I was just listening to him, it’s not my... my..."
The pimple-faced guy hadn’t finished speaking when he saw the young man in front of him suddenly look towards the training room entrance. Then, he took a deep breath.
Accompanied by the crisp sound of popping joints, the young man’s muscles rippled like waves. Thick veins bulged, and his fair skin flushed slightly red, then darkened... In the span of a few breaths, the young man’s entire body swelled, transforming into a robust and almost exaggeratedly powerful physique.
The young man’s arm, now as thick as a python, shot out, grabbing the pimple-faced guy by the nape of his neck and his head, then yanking him closer.
"Come." Even his face twisted, transforming from handsome to ferocious, as the young man pointed at his own forehead. Looking down from his superior height, face to face with the pimple-faced guy, he stared into his eyes. Word by word, he calmly said, "Use all your strength. Hit here."
In an instant, the few youths in the large training room became as silent as death.
It was the sound of the rubber stick falling to the ground.