Rejection

Translator: CinderTL

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Inside the practice room, unaware of Cao Tong's attention, Chen Feng stood calmly, his shoulders relaxed, his spine tense, and his feet firmly rooted to the ground like tiger claws.

He had initially thought visualization would be easy, but now, with firsthand experience and after hearing the puzzled questions from the other trainees earlier, he realized it was more difficult than he had imagined.

Visualization, calmness...

Recalling Cao Tong's words, Chen Feng suddenly understood something.

In an instant, his willpower shifted.

Chen Feng quickly cast aside all negative emotions, entering a state of calmness.

In the blink of an eye, the image of the Red Tiger visualization in his mind rapidly took shape, all the lines and movements becoming magnified and crystal-clear, hard to dissipate.

"Hmm?"

Seeing this, Cao Tong's gaze shifted.

The confusion in his eyes disappeared, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"I knew it..."

He nodded slightly, then casually looked at the other trainees, pretending to be indifferent.

As expected, my disciple is truly gifted.

...

At the same time.

As soon as the visualization was successful, Chen Feng's eyes suddenly shifted.

[Flame Tiger Stance: Beginner (1%) +]

A panel notification appeared before him, and he inwardly thought, "As expected."

At first, there was no progress shown during the stance training, but once the visualization was successful, the feedback appeared.

Clearly, as Cao Tong had said, these two practices were complementary martial arts techniques that, when combined, formed the true Flame Tiger Stance.

"Shall I add some points?"

Looking at the '+' behind the skill bar, Chen Feng had an idea.

However, thinking back to how the calmness helped him visualize successfully, he suddenly wanted to see how his martial arts talent fared in this calm state. Had it improved significantly?

Moreover, the limit-breaking points were right at hand, ready to be added at any time.

With this thought, Chen Feng continued practicing the stance until noon.

[Progress +1]

[Flame Tiger Stance: Beginner (2%)]

Sweat streamed down his face, soaking his black T-shirt, clinging to his back.

Chen Feng expressionlessly walked to the window of the practice room, picked up his sports water bottle, and gulped down several large mouthfuls of water.

Gulup! Gulup!

Cool water slid down his throat, and sweat slid down his cheek, as a hint of helplessness flashed in his eyes.

His talent, to be honest, was utter trash.

Only a bit of progress after an entire morning. Who knows how long it will take to reach the beginner stage at this rate?

"It seems that calmness only made me more focused."

"Although it helped a little with martial arts, it's not that much."

With this realization, Chen Feng gave up on any hopes and immediately tried using a limit-breaking point.

Buzz!

Suddenly, the feeling of the stance appeared in his memory, and the progress bar on the panel changed.

[Flame Tiger Stance: Beginner (22%) +]

"Not enough."

He raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised.

A single limit-breaking point only increased the progress by 20%, meaning even if he used the remaining two points, it wouldn't be enough to break through to the Tiger Form stage.

"It seems the Flame Tiger Stance is quite difficult."

"Just the beginner stage... I can't even imagine how much limit-breaking will be needed after reaching the Tiger Form..."

Lost in thought, Chen Feng suddenly felt an urge to enter the Dream World immediately, combing through every region to find large amounts of limit-breaking light orbs.

"This stance is just too difficult."

Just then, during the break, Lin Hao walked over.

His loose gray T-shirt was drenched, his face flushed red, sweat dripping constantly, as if he had just finished a sauna.

"I'm really exhausted. And that visualization diagram is so mysterious."

"I think my five million might have been wasted."

Lin Hao quickly grabbed his water bottle and drank, while Chen Feng raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't Coach Cao give you some pointers?"

"Don't mention it, I'm just not cut out for martial arts."

"Just calm down and visualize? I can't do it." Lin Hao said helplessly, then looked at Chen Feng with an expectant expression.

"By the way, did you manage to visualize successfully?"

"What do you think?"

"Dammit! I shouldn't have asked." Lin Hao said, clearly annoyed, and took another big gulp of water.

The two chatted idly, mostly with Lin Hao doing the talking.

Tap! Tap!

At that moment, footsteps sounded.

The light in front of them dimmed slightly as two figures approached.

"Hmm?"

Lin Hao stopped drinking, and Chen Feng turned his head to look.

One was tall and slender, about 1.85 meters, with messy long hair, a flushed face, and phoenix eyes, looking around twenty-three or twenty-four. He was dressed in a loose white martial arts outfit.

The other was slightly shorter by two centimeters but had a broad back, thick arms and legs, and his sports T-shirt was stretched tightly. With a buzz cut, his face appeared older, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

"Let me introduce myself, I'm Wu Tian."

The tall, slender man with messy long hair spoke first, his voice calm, with a hint of reserve and pride.

"Pei Yue."

The burly youth beside him gave a slight nod, his voice deep. He stood next to the other, looking at Chen Feng.

Seeing this, Chen Feng raised an eyebrow.

There was no obvious malice in his perception, but he did sense a hint of scrutiny.

"What's up?"

His tone was calm as he addressed them.

"Nothing, we just think you're pretty good."

Wu Tian smiled and then gestured toward the other trainees who were resting.

"In this core class, there are a lot of mediocre people and only a few talented ones."

"I heard from the seniors at the martial arts hall this morning about your talent, so I wanted to spar with you."

His tone was natural, with no attempt to hide anything.

Chen Feng was somewhat surprised but then remembered that he happened to be in Cao Tong's class. He had some guesses in his mind.

"Not interested."

Chen Feng shook his head slightly, rejecting the offer outright.

He had no obligation to spar with them and waste his own time.

"Oh?"

Wu Tian raised an eyebrow, a playful smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Are you afraid of losing?"

It was clearly a challenge, but Chen Feng wasn't bothered by it.

"Has anyone told you,"

His tone calm as he stared at Wu Tian, "that your methods are quite crude?"

As his words landed, a brief silence filled the air between the four of them.

Lin Hao smiled, watching the exchange without saying anything, while Pei Yue frowned slightly, seemingly ready to step forward.

"Heh."

Wu Tian raised his hand, signaling Pei Yue to stop, and slowly opened his narrowed eyes before shrugging.

"You're interesting. I'll remember you."

With that, he turned around and left.

Pei Yue gave a barely perceptible shake of his head, giving Chen Feng a deep look before following Wu Tian away.

Seeing this, Lin Hao's previously cheerful expression faded a bit. He spoke with a hint of sarcasm, "I didn't expect there'd be such arrogant people in the core class."

Hearing this, Chen Feng remained calm, simply watching Wu Tian and Pei Yue's retreating figures.

In that moment of rejection, he had sensed a cold, faint malice, tinged with mockery and frustration.

It wasn't strong, but enough to show that the other person's heart was not as broad as it seemed.

"It's fine."

Shaking his head, he spoke calmly, as if responding to Lin Hao, "We are gonna be in the core class for a long time."

"There will be plenty of opportunities to teach him a lesson."

As his words fell, the two exchanged a brief smile.

(End of the Chapter)

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Translated 4 Series, 1.5K+ Chapters and 1.78M+ Words.