34: Chapter 34 Brother Lu, are you a pervert?

Arriving at the martial arts gym, the siblings of the Qian Family were already inside.

As soon as Lu Cheng stepped into the training area, the first thing he saw was Qian Duoduo sitting on the edge of the ring stretching, his face crumpled like a bitter melon, and he was hissing in pain, clearly having been put through the wringer again today.

On the other side, Qian Shuying had almost finished her warm-up; yes, beating up Qian Duoduo was her warm-up.

She was wearing a black training outfit with neatly cinched cuffs, her long legs were straight, her shoulders and back were relaxed, and she was loosening up her ankles and hips.

Hearing the commotion at the door, she looked up at Lu Cheng.

"You're here?"

"I'm here."

Lu Cheng tossed his bag aside, his tone calm.

Qian Duoduo looked up and met Lu Cheng's glowing gaze, and his scalp instantly tingled.

"Brother Lu, why is your gaze so creepy?"

Lu Cheng patted his shoulder, looking amiable.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not really aiming for you today."

Qian Duoduo just breathed a sigh of relief.

After a brief warm-up, the three of them began their training as usual.

Qian Duoduo rolled away to practice his basic movements, incidentally continuing to be tortured by his own disappointing body.

Lu Cheng and Qian Shuying stepped onto the ring.

At first, it was just normal sparring.

Fists and legs flew, footwork intercrossed, and soon a series of dull thuds echoed across the ring.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Qian Shuying's attacks remained fierce, her movements clean and her rhythm fast.

While circling using the Wandering Step, Lu Cheng secretly tried to activate the Hardening Pulse he had just mastered yesterday.

With a thought, Lu Cheng felt his internal energy sink rapidly, spreading outwards along his skin; a failed execution only required covering 15%.

Slap!

Qian Shuying swept a whip kick against his side.

Lu Cheng felt like his side had been smashed hard by a steel pipe, and his whole body tilted by half an inch.

The next moment, a notification suddenly popped up.

[Hardening Pulse execution failed, EXP + 2]

Lu Cheng was stunned for a moment.

Immediately after, his eyes lit up fiercely.

It gave EXP?

Lu Cheng's mind raced.

So... if he was attacked while executing the Hardening Pulse, but failed to enter the hardened state, the system would count it as a failure?

If that was the case, the efficiency of gaining EXP... was a bit high.

Seeing him suddenly freeze, Qian Shuying frowned.

"Did I kick too hard?"

"No, no." Lu Cheng looked up, his eyes burning as if he had found a treasure, "That hit just now was excellent."

Qian Shuying: "?"

What kind of evaluation was that?

She felt like something was off.

But Lu Cheng couldn't be bothered to explain.

He reset his stance, looking revitalized.

"Continue, don't stop."

Qian Shuying looked at him for a moment, then nodded and pressed the attack again.

While parrying, Lu Cheng continued to execute the Hardening Pulse.

[Execution failed, EXP + 2]

[Execution failed, EXP + 2]

[Execution failed, EXP + 2]

...

Several times in a row, Lu Cheng was beaten until he winced, but the light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

It was truly painful.

Because the Hardening Pulse didn't succeed at all, he didn't get any damage reduction effects. Even with the damage reduction from Lone Hero, every hit he intentionally took was genuinely painful!

But the EXP was rising really fast!

Qian Shuying gradually sensed that something was wrong.

Her combat intuition was very sharp.

Lu Cheng's movements today were clearly problematic.

Some attacks he could clearly dodge, yet he was always half a beat slow.

Some strikes he could have completely deflected, but he only blocked them symbolically, as if he was intentionally letting her hit him.

After a few rounds, Qian Shuying stopped and stepped back half a step.

"Stop."

Lu Cheng was just about to continue, but seeing her stop, he couldn't help but be stunned.

"What's wrong?"

Qian Shuying stared at him, her expression cold.

"I don't need you to hold back."

Lu Cheng was stunned.

"Huh?"

"You're standing there letting me hit you, aren't you going easy on me?" Qian Shuying frowned, clearly displeased, "Lu Cheng, I don't like it when people look down on me."

She was truly a bit angry.

In her view, Lu Cheng doing this was clearly taking care of her, or even patronizing her with training opportunities.

Lu Cheng immediately realized what was happening.

He could only cough lightly, his expression quickly switching to serious mode.

"I'm cultivating a martial skill."

"What martial skill?"

"A defensive one."

Qian Shuying frowned slightly.

"Defensive martial skills require training like this?"

"Of course." Lu Cheng started spouting nonsense with a straight face... no, he started constructing a theoretical framework.

"For many defensive martial skills, static training and dynamic training are completely different concepts. Especially for those skills that require adjusting the internal energy structure while taking hits, the body must form muscle memory under the stimulation of external force."

He spoke more and more fluently.

"Moreover, for a martial artist, cultivation ultimately relies on the physical body."

"Being hit frequently can help the body adapt better to impact, make the internal energy more robust, and improve stress resistance."

"Simply put, taking a beating is also part of cultivation."

Qian Shuying didn't immediately refute him.

Because this actually made some sense.

In the training of large families, there were indeed specialized resistance training programs.

But she was seeing someone like Lu Cheng, who actively asked others to smash him hard, for the first time.

Seeing her expression soften, Lu Cheng immediately struck while the iron was hot.

"I think we could actually change our training method today."

"Go on."

"Force control."

Lu Cheng gestured with his hand, sounding more and more convincing.

"Usually when people practice force control, they hit sandbags or wooden stakes."

"Those things receive force evenly and have fixed feedback, so practicing with them for too long can easily lead to rigidity."

"But if you are facing a living person, someone with irregular pressure points whose state is constantly changing, and you can still control every strike within the perfect range, that is the real skill."

Saying this, he patted his chest.

"Today, I'll be your human sandbag."

"Feel free to hit me."

After saying the last few words, Lu Cheng himself felt a bit awkward.

Qian Shuying thought about it seriously and actually nodded.

"Fine."

"I'll help you temper yourself first, and then you can help me later."

Lu Cheng felt a surge of joy.

He immediately stood in the center of the ring, feet apart, lowered his stance, and began to execute the Hardening Pulse again.

Qian Shuying didn't waste words; controlling her strength, she swept a leg toward his side.

Bang!

[Execution failed, EXP + 2]

Lu Cheng's mouth twitched in pain, but his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

"Yes, that's the right amount of force!"

"Again!"

Watching him get more excited the more he was hit, Qian Shuying's expression was a bit strange, but she still complied.

Next, the style on the ring changed completely.

It was no longer normal sparring.

Instead, it was Lu Cheng standing still while Qian Shuying struck specific points.

Fists, palms, elbows, and legs took turns, each strike landing precisely on non-vital areas, the force controlled extremely steadily, enough to make him feel the full pain without causing fundamental injury.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

[Execution failed, EXP + 2]

[Execution failed, EXP + 2]

[Execution failed, EXP + 2]

Lu Cheng's expression went from wincing to gradually becoming numb, and then a strange sense of satisfaction seeped through the numbness.

What did this feel like?

It was like someone was using a hammer to smash his body, but every time they smashed it, gold coins dropped onto his interface.

Painful yet happy.

Not long after, the system notification popped up again.

[Hardening Pulse (Proficiency: 0/300)]: Increases basic physical defense. When actively released, it significantly boosts physical defense strength for a short time and can absorb a certain percentage of damage taken during the duration, converting it into a pulsed counter-shock release upon ending.

It's mastered!

Lu Cheng perked up and immediately raised his hand.

"Wait."

Qian Shuying stopped her movements and looked at him.

Lu Cheng took a deep breath and readjusted his internal energy.

This time, it was significantly smoother.

Compression, coverage, formation.

Hum!

A dense and hard feeling instantly enveloped his whole body, as if a layer of high-density armor had appeared out of thin air beneath his skin.

Hardening Pulse, successfully released!

Lu Cheng looked up at Qian Shuying.

"Come on, keep hitting."

Qian Shuying landed a punch on his shoulder.

Bang!

Lu Cheng only swayed slightly.

The impact was clearly weakened by a large margin.

Then came another leg sweep to his side.

Bang!

Still no reaction.

Lu Cheng was frantically waiting for the system notification.

As a result... nothing.

A few more hits, still nothing.

Until the hardening state ended, the power accumulated in his body suddenly shook along his muscles and bones, turning into a pulse released toward the empty space beside him, and the system notification finally floated out slowly.

[Hardening Pulse EXP + 1]

The smile on Lu Cheng's face froze on the spot.

"Damn it."

This reward is too low!

He had to complete a full release to gain one point of EXP... the efficiency of farming EXP was far inferior to failing.

Qian Shuying looked at the strike Lu Cheng delivered, and her final doubts vanished; he was indeed cultivating a martial skill!

And it looked like it was actually useful!

Qian Shuying watched his expression change back and forth and asked: "Problem?"

"No problem." Lu Cheng quickly adjusted his mindset, looked up, his expression firm, "Continue."

Qian Shuying always felt that something was unreliable, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

In the end, she continued.

Thus, the following scene became increasingly strange.

Lu Cheng basically gave up on active parrying, only protecting some dangerous areas slightly.

The rest was almost entirely taken by his physical body.

Qian Shuying strictly controlled her strength, constantly striking his shoulders, back, waist, legs, and other positions.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

On the other side, Qian Duoduo finished his own program, wiped his sweat, and looked up at the ring, and he was stunned.

On the ring, Lu Cheng stood straight as a board, like a wooden post.

His sister was there smashing him hard, one hit after another.

This scene looked like one-sided violence no matter how you looked at it.

Qian Duoduo's face turned green, and he immediately rushed over.

"Sis! No matter how angry you are, you can't make Brother Lu stand there and let you hit him?!"

Qian Shuying was full of question marks.

"Do you think I'm the kind of person who, if I can't beat someone, forces them to stand there and let me vent?"

Qian Duoduo choked; that indeed didn't seem like her.

At this moment, Lu Cheng, seeing his EXP-farm being interrupted, quickly spoke up.

"Don't worry, I asked your sister to hit me."

Qian Duoduo slowly turned his head to look at Lu Cheng, his gaze becoming complex.

"Brother Lu, you..."

"Are you a pervert?"