"This here is Instructor Miao, the best combat instructor in the Superpower Special Team you mentioned. He will be overseeing your training from now on." Facing Pei Yan, who had once again stood at attention, Hu Wenjun introduced the stern-faced man in camouflage. Finally, he leaned in closer to Pei Yan’s ear and whispered, "Who’s stronger, them or us, you can find out for yourself."
After speaking, he stepped aside to give Instructor Miao space. Unlike Hu Wenjun, who used his height to exert pressure on Pei Yan, Instructor Miao, whose height only reached Pei Yan’s chin, exuded such a sharp and forceful aura when he stood before him that Pei Yan couldn’t help but straighten up even more.
"Your name is Pei Yan!"
"Correct, Instructor Hu."
"You only need to answer, yes or no, understand or not understand! Got it!"
"I reviewed your training footage. Based solely on the physical training you’ve done in these past three months, you don’t even qualify to be considered for special forces, but I have no choice. The leadership has given the order, so I will follow it! In the coming days, I will train you in combat, shooting, tactical coordination, and special vehicle driving according to the specifications of the Special Team. This is merely to ensure that in life-or-death choices ahead, you know how to utilize your advantages to save your own life. Understand?"
"Good, jog around the field for ten minutes!"
Half a day later, Pei Yan finally figured out why Hu Wenjun had brought him to this Jiezhi Space. After Instructor Miao’s brief speech, the lush green field transformed into a training ground full of mud.
Upon completing the initial command, Instructor Miao then conducted one-on-one hand-to-hand combat training with Pei Yan. Through patient demonstrations and explanations of each move, Pei Yan carefully observed and made an effort to comprehend and absorb the knowledge.
However, it was clear that he had misunderstood something about this method of teaching. Just when he thought Instructor Miao was a relatively decent and understanding instructor, the subsequent training revealed just how naive he had been.
Thrown to the ground time and again by the training partners he brought with him, Pei Yan repeatedly made intimate acquaintance with the earth, looked up at the Jiezhi Space’s dull sky, clenched his teeth, got back up, and continued in this repetitive cycle.
The other party didn’t require him to memorize these moves with his mind. Based on the chant that echoed in his dazed mind, it was: "Learn how to fight someone, first, you must learn how to take a hit. Through repeated training, have your body memorize this sensation. You can only mount an effective counterattack in battle when your body remembers this attack pattern."
At the end of the day’s training, Pei Yan dragged his exhausted body back to the dormitory. He couldn’t tell if it was just his imagination or if the previous physical training had indeed helped, but Pei Yan found himself becoming increasingly adapted to this high-intensity training, and his body’s recovery ability had significantly improved.
Even so, the confrontational training today still made him suffer intensely. That devil of an instructor even had two people take turns tossing him around.
He took off his shirt and lay on the bed, letting the cool wind blow on his burning waist, relishing the temporary comfort. Once again, he was alone in the dormitory today. In the three months he had been at the base, he was used to it. Wang Wenze seemed to be the busiest person at the station, spending roughly half of his days on missions.
A creak of the door opening wasn’t given much thought by Pei Yan as he cried out lamenting, "Brother Wang, my dear Brother Wang! Divine Calculator, didn’t you say I should keep safflower oil on hand? It’s in that cabinet. You really have forward-thinking wisdom! I got to use it today. Come give your brother a hand! I’ve been sold out by Old Fox, and today I was thrown around so much I feel like my bones are coming apart."
"Wang Wenze" silently opened the cabinet, took out the safflower oil, then pulled a chair to sit by Pei Yan’s bed. As the cool safflower oil was applied to his waist and two large hands began to gently massage it in.
"Oww, oww, oww!!!!" The combat between the burning sensation in his waist and the coolness, combined with just the right pressure to alleviate the muscle soreness, made Pei Yan unleash a series of strange moans reminiscent of gibberish. However, as the massage’s intensity increased, Pei Yan increasingly sensed something amiss. Why are these hands so large?
Thinking of this, Pei Yan jerked his head around and was startled to see Hu Wenjun, with a face dark as iron, quietly massaging his waist. He hurriedly tried to sit up, stammering, "Hu, Hu, ....."
"Alright, lay back down. The medication hasn’t absorbed yet, it still needs to be massaged in, but stop yelping like that. It sounds like you’re in heat, and someone might wonder what’s going on in here," Hu Wenjun chastised as he shoved him back down.
Pai Yan, face flushed and buried in the pillow, mumbled, "It’s just that your massage is too comfortable for me, I couldn’t hold it in, Instructor Hu. Why did you come?"
"Aren’t I the Old Fox? After selling you off, I had to come to offer my condolences!" Old Hu said, pouring some more safflower oil into his palm, rubbing it, and continued massaging Pei Yan’s waist.
"No, Instructor Hu, that’s not what I meant, I....."
"Alright, I get it, back when I was in training, I secretly gave instructors nicknames too. I just came to check if you can handle the new training regimen," Hu Wenjun said, expertly kneading Pei Yan’s swollen waist as he gently asked.
Pressed into comfort, Pei Yan twisted his equally sore shoulders, hesitating before saying, "I can handle it, really, Instructor Hu, rest assured I have no resistance to it this time. Since we’re all training , I’ve got nothing to reject, it’s just.... "
"I just don’t quite understand. Is this really effective training? We’re supposed to oppose other planes, right? It’s the Daoist Plane, after all. Can our hand-to-hand combat and firearms training really work?" Pei Yan hesitated for a long time before finally voicing the doubt in his heart.
Without stopping his massage, Hu Wenjun smiled, "What’s your image of the Daoist Plane?"
"Uh, wouldn’t it be flying on swords, mastering various mystical arts, and peerless masters of Body Refining Technique and Ancient Martial Arts?" Lying on the bed, Pei Yan turned sideways to glance at Hu Wenjun, rolled his eyes, pondered for a while, and said yearningly.
"More or less, and Ancient Martial Arts? Not necessarily very strong, but Sword Flight does exist. If I told you that such masters also have a chance of being killed with one shot from a sniper rifle, would you be disappointed?"
Upon hearing this, Pei Yan quickly sat up, ignoring his waist pain, and asked in surprise, "Ah! Really? Is it true?"
Hu Wenjun screwed the half-empty bottle of safflower oil closed, placed it back in the cabinet, took out a towel from the bedside, and began to clean his hands, saying, "It’s true, though the chance is very slim. Cultivators who have achieved Sword Flight have physical strength far superior to ordinary people, and they have cultivation techniques for protection. Yet, even so, once their mind is relaxed and unprepared, without actively using protection techniques, there’s still a chance they could be killed by a single shot from a large-caliber sniper rifle."
"Oh, so you’re saying that as long as the timing is right, an excellent sniper could potentially massacre these so-called Immortals?"
Hu Wenjun tossed the towel back to its place, took out a cigarette, lit it, and said leisurely, "It’s not that simple. Cultivators at this level have already established communication with the heavens and know their fate. Any movements intended to kill them are hard for their Divine Sense to miss. In the instant you set up your sniper rifle and aim through the scope at them, they can sense it clearly. The scenario I’m describing would only occur under very coincidental circumstances, and so far, only one instance has occurred. At that moment, the person was already mentally in disarray." Hu Wenjun spoke while he exhaled smoke, reminiscing about that scene and momentarily getting lost in his memories.