nChapter 094 – Chamber of the Eighteen Bronze Figures

nTranslated by: Ting

nEdited by: Robin, Leo and De Andre

nWhen Tang Tian saw Jing Hao walking over, he stopped.

nJing Hao looked ashamed, “I have made a fool of myself. Brother Tang’s tenacity, Jing Hao is really impressed.”

nHe had actually slept for two days and two nights straight. In his memory, he had never slept for such a long time before. Recalling the sparring previously, made his head go numb, but after he self-inspected his body, he was surprised to find that his True Power had actually made obvious breakthroughs, and not only that, his sword arts had improved as well.

nThis made him surprised and happy. At his current state, every bit of improvement was extremely difficult to achieve, and it usually required a large amount of training to be able to gain such obvious improvements.

nCompared to improvements, the sufferings he endured during the sparring, suddenly seemed not so bad after all. And when Jing Hao came over and realised Tang Tian was still conscientiously practising, he was instantly filled with embarrassment. No wonder Tang Tian improved by leaps and bounds, just this hard-working image alone was so moving.

n“Brother Jing Hao, you’ve awake,” Tang Tian eyes shone.

nFor no reason, upon seeing Tang Tian’s expression, Jing Hao felt his skin tighten, this seemed innate, and uncontrollable. He beat around the bush, “Brother Tang come have a seat, after the last sparring session, did you purchase the gold cards?”

n“Yes! I bought four cards!” Tang Tian was smug, “I spent only eight hundred points.”

n“Spent only eight hundred points… …” Jing Hao’s expression froze, he stuttered, “What? You spent eight hundred points?”

n“Yup! Two hundred points per card.” Tang Tian was gleeful, “I just ordered, and the shop owner immediately sent them over. Come to think of it, the speed was really fast.”

n“Of course they were fast.” Jing Hao looked at Tang Tian, opened his mouth a few times before saying, “When you bought them, you should have asked me.”

nTang Tian’s smile froze, “Did he cheat me?”

n“He didn’t cheat you. The price is reasonable, it’s just that not many people buy them.” Jing Hao explained, “Usually, on completion of the deal, it will take at least one to four weeks to reach you. The store must be afraid that you might regret your decision, thus they must have spent points to send them over. Other than you, no one else would buy.”

n“Spent points?” Tang Tian was lost.

n“Hmm, it’s difficult to explain, actually I’m not too sure either. The old fellows in the Honorable Martial Group came up with this delivery method, the speed is fast, but the cost is huge, you see, a spirit card for two hundred points, just sending it alone, a spirit card would cost fifty points,” Jing Hao said.

nTang Tian exclaimed, “Then won’t he make a loss?”

n“Why would he make a loss?” Jing Hao patiently explained, “Rank four gold grade spirit cards, basically no one will buy them. Why? Not that they aren’t valuable, but you won’t remain at the fourth level for long. Just like Brother Tang, given your rate of improvement now, you would soon rise to the fifth level. By then, you will need to start training rank five martial techniques. You may feel that rank four martial techniques are formidable now, but once you learn rank five martial techniques, you will realise that rank five martial techniques are more formidable.”

nTang Tian unassumingly replied, “Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, I think rising up step by step, perfecting each level, will be more beneficial in the long run. Hmm, just like how I practised the fundamental martial techniques, many said that those were useless, but I now feel that they are really useful.”

nJing Hao saw that Tang Tian did not mind, and stopped persuading, he was knowledgeable, and knew that everyone had their own different training methods and paths, thus there was no point in arguing. Besides, the one in front of him, was a squanderer out-and-out.

n“Brother Tang’s Martial Spirit has already entered the silver stage, so many functions in the Honorable Plate can be activated. Brother Tang, don’t look down on the Honorable Plate, it is a product that the old fellows in the Honorable Martial Group cultivated based on the treasure. The stronger the user’s Martial Spirit is, the more functions he can access. A pity my Martial Spirit is only at the bronze stage, many functions are not available to me, but Brother Tang can figure them out yourself.”

n“No wonder I found that the Honorable Plate seems to be more formidable than before.” Realisation hit Tang Tian.

nJing Hao cheerily laughed, “Come on, Brother Tang seemed unsatisfied previously, let’s spar again.”

n“Can we really?” Tang Tian’s eyes were wide open, a face of pleasant surprise, he excitedly rubbed his palms, “Relax relax, I won’t use too much force!”

nThe corner of Jing Hao’s eye twitched, and he silently muttered, “I am obviously the one who needs to not use too much force, please…….”

nBut upon remembering that it seemed to be him who called for a stop previously, Jing Hao kept his mouth shut in awareness.

nObviously, this bottled up feeling agitated him deeply. Without further ado, he drew his sword.

nBoth parties roared at the same time, and were entangled in a battle yet again.

nThis battle took one whole day and night again.

nBut this time, Jing Hao managed to sustain for slightly longer, almost four hours longer than previously, but soon he was exhausted, and once again crumpled to the floor like a pile of mud, without even the strength to move his fingers. The unsatisfied Tang Tian, continued to nag incessantly beside Jing Hao for half a day, but upon realising that Jing Hao had no more energy to spar, he could only practise by himself at the side unhappily.

nThis time, the duration that Jing Hao fell into deep sleep for was shorter than before, he awoke after just a single day and night.

nThis time, Jing Hao’s feelings were more evident, his sword moves were more condensed, more sharp, the previous prickly feelings were almost gone, now each move that he executed, was as though it had been freshly polished, the radiance was smooth like water, without any trip-ups.

nUnknowingly, his martial techniques had risen to a whole new realm.

nThe encouraged Jing Hao began to initiate battles!

nBut after one day one night, Jing Hao crumbled again.

nAfter he finished meditating, Tang Tian was revitalised, just in time for hardship practise, thus he entered the Cross Door and began practising.

nFollowing the improvement of martial techniques, the hardship behind the Cross Door began to change. Tang Tian spent more time practising in Uncle Bing’s Recruit Training Camp, and not behind the Cross Door. According to Uncle Bing, that place was for people who do not qualify to enter the Army to practise.

nNow Tang Tian’s Hardship Training had been moved to the Recruit Camp, and big changes had occurred, such as the Hardship Training for martial techniques were now gone.

nThe proficiency in martial techniques became the most basic requirements. This change made Tang Tian unaccustomed, but he couldn’t deny the fact that these new methods of training were more effective. For example, the take a beating training, Tang Tian learnt to enhance his intuition.

n“Is it still take a beating training today?” Tang Tian was full of fighting spirit.

n“Nope. Take a beating training no longer has any obvious upgrades to your intuition,” Bing shook his head, and he pointed to another planet.

nTang Tian felt that the surroundings changed, and he came to a martial practice room made of green tiles.

nThe martial practice room was not big, around fifteen metres long, five to six metres wide. But Tang Tian’s gaze, was curiously fixated on the bronze figures in front. These bronze figures were about the height of Tang Tian, each with different postures, some fine, some rough, as they stood quietly in three rows.

nOne, two, three, four… …

nTang Tian counted eighteen of them altogether.

n“Hey, Uncle, what are they?” Tang Tian asked inquisitively.

n“The Eighteen Bronze Figures.” Bing lightly replied, “This was the Army’s Number Four Mechanic’s masterpiece, the Chamber of the Eighteen Bronze Figures.”

n“The Chamber of the Eighteen Bronze Figures?” Tang Tian was eager, “Are they formidable?”

n“In my eyes, they are of course very ordinary, but if the recruits back then were to choose the three most hated courses of training, the Chamber of the Eighteen Bronze Figures, would definitely be on the list.” Bing’s voice sounded vaguely sorrowful.

n“What do they train? Instincts as well?” Tang Tian looked at Bing, although he has not been in contact with the Recruit Training Camp for long, he has started to know the styles of the Southern Cross Army, each practise room in the camp must have their own customised purpose.

n“Nope, it’s suitable for practising Staining Fall.”

nBing’s explanation caught Tang Tian off guard, he could not help himself, “Staining Fall? Uncle, are you sure?”

nFour gold cards, Staining Fall was probably of the least importance to Tang Tian. Because Staining Fall requires body contact with the enemies, but in actual sparring, Tang Tian knew how difficult this would be. For example, throughout the sparring with Jing Hao, Tang Tian did not even manage to touch a corner of Jing Hao’s clothes. Jing Hao’s sword arts were superb, the veil created was to Tang Tian’s helplessness.

nDuring the sparring with Jing Hao, the technique that Tang Tian used the least, was the Staining Fall.

nThus, when Tang Tian heard that Bing had specially found a place for him to practise Staining Fall, he was rudely shocked and taken aback.

n“Mmm, Staining Fall is a rather good technique.”

nBing’s explanation was unsatisfactory for Tang Tian, he questioned, “Which part of Staining Fall is formidable?”

n“Using the opponent’s force to counterattack.” Bing explained, “This is where it is most formidable. It’s actually encompassed by two main parts, one is the judgement of the opponent’s power, the other is the exploitation of the opponent’s power, and these two parts need to be completed within the shortest timeframe. It has high difficulty level.”

nTang Tian shook his head, “But this is only effective provided you are able to get close to the opponent. Look at how Brother Jing Hao and I sparred, I totally couldn’t get close to him.”

nBing does not approve, “Given your current capabilities, yes.”

n“You……” Tang Tian’s eyes became round and wide, with an unfriendly expression.

n“Who said that this technique can only be used with body contact?” Bing’s tone was full of mockery, “His sword, doesn’t it have strength? Didn’t you touch it? Just because your power differs vastly, your concept of power is not as good as him, naturally you won’t be able to exploit it. But this doesn’t mean that this technique isn’t good.”

nTang Tian gave it a thought; that was true.

nBrother Jing Hao’s sword was solid, and comparatively, his strength was rather scattered.

n“He’s level six, you’re level four, he is much stronger than you. The only area where you surpass him is the Martial Spirit. A Silver Martial Spirit brings strong intuition, that is how you could survive for so long. Thus, the Silver Martial Spirit and intuition, is where your greatest ability lies.” Bing sternly said, “As a soldier, you must learn to make full use of your strong points!”

n“I’m not a soldier… …” Tang Tian weakly replied.

nBing stopped, but soon, as though he never heard Tang Tian, continued, “A Silver Martial Spirit allows you to be more sensitive to the surroundings, which includes power. That’s why, when you practise now, your improvement will be faster, and because of this, you are more sensitive to True Power.”

n“And during sparring, you will be even more sensitive towards the enemy’s power.” Bing added on, “As long as you know how to use it.”

nHe suddenly broke into a smile, and sinisterly said, “Kid, welcome to the Chamber of the Eighteen Bronze Figures.”

n