Chapter 107 – Hit Here

Lu Yuan didn’t have to wait long before Lin Zhiqin returned, carrying a bag.

Behind him were three or four tall, well-built young men.

They were probably called over from the martial arts gym; two of them were still yawning from their afternoon drowsiness.

“Hmm?”

Lu Yuan unexpectedly saw a familiar face.

It was the guy who had been chatting with the receptionist when he entered.

The guy had a face full of pockmarks, so Lu Yuan remembered him.

The pockmarked-face guy clearly recognized him too. Lu Yuan nodded at him as a greeting, but the guy turned his face away.

“Use this for now.”

Lin Zhiqin tipped the bag over, spilling out several black batons, each over two feet long.

They were the type used for security, with solid steel rods inside and a thick layer of rubber on the outside.

As for their specific lethality…

Lu Yuan had never been hit by one, so he wasn’t sure.

But since Lin Zhiqin brought them, they were probably fine.

“Everyone take one.”

Lin Zhiqin told the young men, pointing at Lu Yuan, “You’ll hit him with these, but avoid the vital spots…”

“Coach Lin…”

A young man with a buzz cut looked bewildered as he swung the baton in his hand, “Are you serious?”

Lin Zhiqin gave him a cold glance, “If I tell you to hit, you hit. Stop talking!”

Then he turned to Lu Yuan and asked, “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Lu Yuan stretched a bit, feeling in good shape, and nodded.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wear protective gear?”

“No need.”

Lu Yuan glanced at the young men.

They weren’t very strong; they were amateurs among amateurs. If they accidentally or intentionally aimed for his vital spots, he was confident he could easily dodge.

Training to take hits was one thing.

He wasn’t dead, after all.

“Good.”

Lin Zhiqin signaled to the young men with batons, “Go ahead.”

Even with both Lu Yuan and Lin Zhiqin’s permission, the young men hesitated.

After all, hitting a stranger for no reason would make any normal person feel uneasy.

It was the pockmarked-face guy who stepped up first.

He walked up to Lu Yuan with a baton, glanced at the surveillance camera on the ceiling, and half-jokingly said, “Hey man, you asked for this. If something happens, don’t blame us. It’s all on camera…”

“Mm.”

Lu Yuan nodded, spreading his feet slightly and motioning for the pockmarked-face guy to start whenever he was ready.

“Alright.”

The pockmarked-face guy squinted his eyes and then swung the baton hard, hitting Lu Yuan’s arm.

Lu Yuan grunted softly, shook his arm, and calmly said, “Continue.”

The pockmarked-face guy frowned and swung again.

“Thud—thud—”

The sound of the rubber baton hitting flesh echoed repeatedly. The other young men were stunned for a moment.

Seeing that Lin Zhiqin didn’t react, they one by one joined in with their batons.

The room quickly filled with the sound of thudding hits.

“Thud!”

Lu Yuan took a hit to his waist and abdomen, feeling a slight sting.

But after a week of practicing the Spirit Crane Body, enduring the pain of his flesh being torn, this was nothing.

The guys Lin Zhiqin had called over weren’t that strong, each strike was only about a hundred kilograms of force.

With his fifteen constitution points and accomplished Skin Training, he didn’t care at all.

While enduring the strikes, Lu Yuan opened his professional panel.

[Spirit Crane Body lv1 (89/100)]

His Spirit Crane Body was close to leveling up to lv2, but the experience points had been increasing slowly these past few days. He thought some external pressure might help stimulate it.

Lu Yuan’s eyes were fixed on the experience bar of the Spirit Crane Body.

Suddenly.

The experience points jumped from 89 to 90.

“It actually works?!”

Lu Yuan was overjoyed and couldn’t help but say softly, “Guys, can you hit a bit harder?”

“Whoosh—”

A baton came whistling through the air, the sound of it cutting through the air noticeably louder.

Lu Yuan lightly blocked with his trapezius muscle, feeling that the force was still within a tolerable range.

He looked up to see it was the pockmarked-face guy again.

This time, his lips were tightly pressed together, and his face was expressionless, a stark contrast to his previously polite demeanor.

With the pockmarked-face guy taking the lead, the intensity and frequency of the strikes from the other three also increased.

Lu Yuan felt like he was being “ganged up on”, but he forced himself to restrain his urge to fight back, while his eyes gleamed as he watched the Spirit Crane Body experience points on his panel steadily rise.

The pain was mixed with joy.

This must be what they call “pain and pleasure.”

…

“Thud!”

The pockmarked-face guy landed a heavy blow on Lu Yuan.

Feeling the impact of the rubber baton against his flesh, a sense of satisfaction unconsciously showed in his eyes.

This felt good!

Who would have thought there’d be someone in this world who actively asked to be beaten? Isn’t that just foolish?

Martial arts practice isn’t supposed to be like this. Coach Lin must be out of his mind.

But…

Who cares!

If someone wants to be beaten, why not oblige them?

Thinking this, the pockmarked-face guy swung the baton again.

This time he aimed deliberately at Lu Yuan’s shoulder. With the solid steel inside the rubber baton, if this hit landed solidly, it would hurt a lot.

“Thud!”

Just as the baton was about to hit, Lu Yuan leaned forward slightly, causing the baton to land on the muscle behind his shoulder instead.

It felt like hitting a thick tire, far from the satisfying impact the pockmarked-face guy had anticipated.

He began to feel slightly annoyed.

“Damn it, you’re dodging my hits?”

Unconsciously, his aggression grew.

“I told you to stay still! Let’s see you dodge this!”

The pockmarked-face guy’s blood was pumping from the intense exercise, and his anger was rising.

He might not have even noticed how much more vicious he was becoming, his strikes growing heavier and his eyes showing faint bloodshot lines.

This aggression brought out deeper resentment.

All the humiliation he had felt earlier at the reception desk came flooding back.

“With your face, I wouldn’t kiss you even with my eyes closed!”

“Here’s your movie ticket back. Just give up already.”

…

The pockmarked-face guy caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye and noticed that Lin Zhiqin’s figure had disappeared from the training room at some point.

When he looked back at Lu Yuan’s face, slightly damp with sweat, its defined features handsome and fair, the image of the receptionist’s cold, disdainful expression flashed through his mind. Every pimple on his own face seemed to ache in response.

An evil thought surged within him.

The rubber baton in his hand subtly changed direction.

“So, do you think he’s handsome?”

Handsome?

Stupid woman!

This pretty boy… I could take down ten of him with one hand!!

With this thought, the pockmarked-face guy’s aggression grew. He swung the baton directly at Lu Yuan’s head.

…

“Thud!”

[Your skill Spirit Crane Body has gained a boost, experience points +1]

With this new notification, Lu Yuan watched as the lv1 marker next to Spirit Crane Body silently changed to lv2.

In an instant, Lu Yuan felt his skin tighten all over.

The pain from the strikes instantly vanished.

“Thump—thump—thump—”

His heartbeat slowed, the sound deepened, and he could feel thicker blood being pumped through his body.

Skin Training… achieved?!

“Thud!”

“Smack!”

Two more baton strikes landed on his chest and back.

Lu Yuan looked down, only feeling a faint pain, like being accidentally hit by something insignificant.

“The pain has lessened a lot, and it seems like my skin has undergone some new changes…”

“To know exactly how much my defense power has increased, I’ll need to study it further.”

With this in mind, Lu Yuan was about to ask the sparring partners to stop.

But at that moment, a baton suddenly came whistling straight at his face…

“Thump!”

A strange sound rang out.

The dense, dull sounds of hitting in the room abruptly ceased.

All the young sparring partners paused, staring blankly at the scene before them.

The handsome youth who had asked them to help with his resistance training stood calmly in place.

A rubber baton was quietly resting against his forehead.

And the one holding the other end of the baton… was the pockmarked-face guy, his face twisted with anger.

“…Liu Xiangyu, you…”

The stammering voice snapped the pockmarked-face guy back to reality.

He woke up as if from a dream, suddenly panicking.

“I… I didn’t notice. It slipped!”

The pockmarked-face guy stepped back in a hurry, unable to meet anyone’s eyes, his gaze flickering constantly.

“He told us to hit hard. It’s tough to control the force, so accidents happen, right…”

“Damn it!”

A guy nearby yelled, “Hitting hard doesn’t mean going for the kill! Didn’t you hear what Coach Lin said earlier… Are you okay? We’ll take you to the hospital!”

He hurriedly moved to check the wound on the boy’s forehead.

Unexpectedly, the boy shook his head, indicating he was fine.

“He’s right. You guys were indeed too gentle…”

“Uh…”

Everyone was stunned, but the pockmarked-face guy perked up as if he had heard something exciting.

“See? He said it himself. We were too gentle. I was just following his orders, it’s not my… I…”

Before the pockmarked-face guy could finish his sentence, he saw the boy glance toward the training room door.

Then, the boy took a deep breath.

The next moment…

“Crack, crack—”

Accompanied by the crisp sound of bones cracking, the boy’s muscles began to ripple like waves. Thick veins bulged out, and his fair skin turned slightly red and black…

In just a few breaths, the boy’s entire body swelled up, transforming into an exaggeratedly robust and majestic physique.

“Whish—”

The boy’s arm, now as thick as a giant python, suddenly reached out, grabbing the side of the pockmarked-face guy’s head.

With a fan-like hand clamping down on his nape and head, the boy yanked him forward.

“Come.”

The boy, his face now twisted from handsome to menacing, pointed to his forehead.

Looking down from above, face-to-face with the pockmarked-face guy, he spoke calmly, word by word: “Use all your strength, and hit me right here.”

In an instant, the large training room fell silent, as if everyone had died.

A few seconds later…

“Clatter—”

It was the sound of the rubber baton dropping to the floor.

…