Chapter 29: Punch it Here
Why buy a place and then not live there but rent instead?
Xiang Kun felt that his initial statement answered that, but since Yang Zhen'er was asking again, he explained further: "Living there would mean having to spend more than double the time commuting to work every day, which means at least 30 minutes less sleep."
"Then why did you choose to buy outside the ring road?" Yang Zhen'er asked further.
"Because I could only afford to buy outside the ring road." Xiang Kun answered honestly.
"You could live outside the ring road and commute by car. You've bought a house, buying a car wouldn't be much different, right?"
"Driving myself would not necessarily save me any time compared to public transportation and maintaining a car is costly, there's simply no need."
"Then what's the point of buying a house?"
"There is. The value per square meter has increased by at least 8,000 since I bought it. Also, the rental income is slightly higher than where I live now, it could supplement my mortgage repayments."
"Have you found a new job yet?"
"Not yet."
"Do you want me or Nana to recommend you?"
"Thanks, but no need. I don't plan on looking for a job right now, I want to take some time off."
"Did you train in martial arts before? Are you actually a martial monk?"
"I didn't… I shaved my head because of hair loss, not because I became a monk."
"Did you often get into fights before? The other day, you sent the wanted criminal flying with just a single swing, and he was armed with a knife...and again in that video, a kick sent the man flying..."
Tang Baona interrupted: "Enough, stop talking and concentrate on driving. You almost ran a red light just now!"
After getting in the car, Xiang Kun answered all of Yang Zhen'er's rapidfire questions, as long as they didn't involve the secret of his body mutation, straightforwardly and truthfully.
He made no attempt to hide or embellish his unemployment status, the financial difficulty at the time of buying his house, or his hair loss dilemma, he answered all candidly.
If this were before, he would definitely deliberate before answering these questions, especially if the person asking was someone he was interested in from a blind date, but now he wasn't as concerned about leaving a good impression or hiding his less fortunate moments.
However, neither Tang Baona's nor Yang Zhen'er's opinion of him mattered to him now - in fact, dissatisfaction might even be better.
His focus wasn't really on the car, or on this hiking trip, or even on Tang Baona.
His thoughts were all about the "self-destructive" training he undertook last night.
Last night, he didn't just cut wounds onto his body with a knife, he actually used fire. He discovered that burns healed slower than cuts — they needed about 15 minutes and 40 seconds. Even when the burns turned the skin into black carbon, they still healed as if untouched in about 15 minutes and 40 seconds.
Xiang Kun also gritted his teeth and broke one of his pinkies. To recover so that he felt no pain and could move freely again, it took 18 minutes.
Plus, he was very sure that his bones were much, much harder than normal people's. He had to use a lot of force to break them.
But none of these were the biggest discovery of last night.
The biggest discovery was when he cut a piece of flesh the size of a grain of rice off his pinky.
The wound healed as if untouched in 13 minutes with no scars. The small piece of flesh he had cut off turned into a pile of ash.
His blood, after it coagulated, also turned into some light grey dust, which dispersed at the touch.
Although he had suspected it, only at that moment did he know for sure — his physical constitution was becoming more and more different from a regular person's.
...
They started driving on the highway, after an hour and a half, they got off the highway and continued for another hour before they reached the meeting point for the hiking trip.
Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er were part of a regular hiking group, besides the three of them, there were about a dozen other men and women participating this time.
When Xiang Kun got out of the car, he realized he recognized two of the early arrivals among those dozen or so people.
One of them was Coach Shen from the gym that Xiang Kun frequented — he was the one who had initiated a conversation with Xiang Kun when he first started going to the gym, comparing their bench press results.
The other person was also a coach, but not from the gym. Instead, he was a coach from the boxing gym located under the fitness center.
Xiang Kun had visited the boxing gym the day before, intending to sign up for a course to learn some kind of combat sport like Sanda or boxing and train for a short period of time.
But after listening to the introduction by the gym staff, he discovered that the majority of a course, which took two months, was devoted to physical conditioning, and strength and endurance training. Actual training and guidance in combat techniques were lacking.
So, Xiang Kun expressed his desire to skip the physical training and only wanted to learn actual combat techniques, asking for the higher-level courses.
When a coach who happened to be passing by heard his request, he looked Xiang Kun up and down and scoffed, "You have been hitting the gym, huh? You have a big frame, and your muscles are pretty well-built. I often hear people like you saying that they have enough strength, but the muscles you gain from gym training and the ones required for Sanda are not the same. Come, come. Punch me. Use all your strength, aim right here, go ahead…"
The coach then walked over to Xiang Kun, patting his abdomen, indicating for him to take a swing.
The coach had actually been standing by, listening to Xiang Kun's conversation with the reception staff for a while now. From the conversation, he had determined that Xiang Kun was a beginner who hadn't received systematic training before, so he came over to show off, while also promoting his gym's prowess.
The coach often competed in matches and maintained his training, which made his resistance to hits much stronger than ordinary people. And he craftily controlled the distance so that Xiang Kun would have trouble landing a strong punch. When Xiang Kun threw his punch, the coach would angle his abdomen towards it so normal hits would just bounce off.
Unfortunately for him, he was dealing with Xiang Kun.
Over the past two weeks, Xiang Kun had been purposefully doing various strength, stamina, and agility training. His control over his muscles was becoming increasingly strong after three instances of "drinking blood." Even with the limited distance, he could still twist his hips and shoulder slightly to release his strength.
It looked like a simple, small action, but one punch sent the coach sprawling onto the ground like a shrimp, speechless for a long period.
Of course, Xiang Kun didn't use all his strength. He had a clear understanding of how strong he was from his past experiences of getting into fights.
The situation of the coach falling onto the ground quickly attracted the attention of the rest of the people in the gym. A crowd flocked over in no time, and the reception staff who had been standing by quickly started explaining what had happened.
After regaining his senses, the coach on the ground scrambled up, his face red, veins popping on his forehead. He grabbed Xiang Kun, ready to take the fight to the ring.
"Damn it! I underestimated you! Playing innocent to catch me off guard, huh? Which gym did you come from? Come on, let's take it up to the ring!"
Xiang Kun didn't refuse or explain. He took the boxing gloves from the coach and, after taking off his shoes, he entered the ring.
The coach obviously saw Xiang Kun as someone pretending to be new to cause trouble and challenge the gym. So after he entered the ring, he almost did not hold back at all. He continuously attacked in a frenzy, throwing one punch or kick after another.