Chapter 31 — Rematch

The training hall was not far from where Lin Che had met with Elder Mao, just slightly past the main residential building and down a covered walkway. Zichen led the way without hesitation, having lived in the compound and practically resided in this exact training hall ever since stepping foot in the Shen Clan.

The hall itself looked almost identical to the ones Lin Che had seen in the training videos for cultivation methods, only there was a bit less calligraphy on the walls. The floor was sprung wood to prevent serious injuries, and the ceiling was much higher than expected, which he’d assumed was to allow more freely for the use of Qinggong or some other martial techniques.

Zichen closed the door behind them and moved to the centre of the floor.

“Time to unseal,” he said, pressing two fingers to a point below his collarbone, before exhaling in relief, as though he’d finally had a chance to use the toilet after holding it in for far too long.

The atmosphere around Zichen changed with this exhale, with Qi now becoming dense enough that Lin Che did not need to channel his own Qi into his eyes to see the shift he could already feel.

He looked at Lin Che.

“Ready?” he asked.

“No,” said Lin Che honestly, as he raised his hands.

***

Zichen came forward in a way that was different to the tournament, which Lin Che had not been expecting. When fighting Guo Mingzhe, Zichen had circled and been cautious of his opponent’s strength and techniques, but also moved rather awkwardly — albeit only slightly awkwardly.

This time, he was moving with a technique that had been honed for a long period of time — a technique which had been completed by a master many moons ago instead of being made up by an inspired Yang Zichen.

He threw a testing strike at Lin Che to read how he received it.

Lin Che dodged before the jab could arrive.

Zichen switched angles, but the result was the same: Lin Che would dodge at the last possible moment before the strike could land. Zichen’s eyes sharpened in recognition.

He adjusted.

The next exchange was faster, but mostly the same, as though Zichen was trying to confirm a hypothesis. He smiled when it was proven true.

He threw another combination of jabs and kicks, where five out of six ended up being narrowly dodged by Lin Che, and the sixth ended up grazing his shoulder. Lin Che pivoted his body at an angle upon contact, swinging in towards Zichen in an attempt to counter.

However, in the split second of the fight, Lin Che had been unable to clench his fists before striking, and instead pushed Yang Zichen away with significantly more strength than he had intended. Zichen flew backwards and hit the wall.

They reset.

“A reflex method,” said Zichen, now circling. “Swallow Returns?”

“Not sure what you’re talking about,” said Lin Che.

“You don’t have to pretend you’re not a cultivator. I figured it out when we first fought.”

“It’s a similar technique,” said Lin Che, continuing with the lie.

Zichen nodded slowly, not taking Lin Che at his word, but not pushing any further. All that mattered right now was testing Lin Che’s limits to report back to Shen Bowen, and pushing too much would cause him to just hide more.

And besides, Zichen knew the counter to the Swallow Returns to the Nest method.

Lin Che kept his guard up as Yang Zichen suddenly charged forwards, breaking away from the circle he had been drawing earlier. This time, he projected his Qi outward, not quite unlike Lin Che had previously done so against the wolf-like creature, only for Yang Zichen this manifested more as a set of Qi boxing gloves.

It extended his reach slightly further, meaning the blow of the Qi hit Lin Che before his body would have been able to.

The Swallow Returns to the Nest technique only manifested itself in response to physical attacks from the body; so the counter was really quite simple. Hit the practitioner before your body touches them, and they will dodge at the wrong point in time.

And if you know the practitioner well, you can predict exactly where they’ll land—

Lin Che ended up with a bruise on one shoulder before dodging right, which ended up with him moving his own stomach into a knee.

Lin Che jumped backwards, but the combo continued.

Had his body not been reinforced, many bones would have by now been shattered.

Lin Che circulated the Liuhe method up to the sixth harmony, channeling the Qi throughout his entire body for further reinforcement. He flared his Qi externally just slightly, breaking the combo before retreating.

The next exchange lasted longer.

They found a rhythm that was neither of them holding back too much, with both still learning the other’s patterns. Zichen was faster with the Qi channelling and much more fluent in the martial transitions, but Lin Che was stronger than Zichen had accounted for.

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Lin Che took two clean hits to the shin and thigh and gave one back in a kick to Zichen’s ankle.

The one he gave back made Zichen take a step and a half to manage, which produced a brief pause in which both of them breathed and looked at each other from across the training floor.

“You’re much stronger than you should be,” said Zichen.

“I’ve been working on some things,” said Lin Che.

“You should use the purification technique. The Hollow Bell.”

Lin Che looked at him.

“I could feel it when you bit me,” said Zichen, with a straightforwardness Lin Che had not expected. “The internal environment is well-established for your stage.”

“How much do you know about what stage I’m at?” asked Lin Che.

“Less than I’d like,” said Zichen as he came forward again.

***

The fight escalated gradually from then on, with each exchange revealing a ceiling that the next exchange pushed against.

Zichen was good — significantly better than Lin Che in the martial sense, which meant he had a library of transitions and combinations and responses that Lin Che simply did not have, and could therefore chain them in real time in a way that Lin Che could read but not react to.