Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 83: 83, Combat and Insight

If your strength is inferior, then the best way to attack is by surprise.

However, Ye Wan said that it’s not always possible to keep oneself in a dominant position, and while surprise attacks are important, solely pursuing how to launch them would only be considered opportunistic trickery.

Qing Chen kept trying attack movements relentlessly, showing no signs of fatigue.

In his hand, he held a genuine Spring Knife, and his opponent was not the air, but the flesh-and-blood Ye Wan.

Ye Wan was like a mountain, no matter how fierce Qing Chen’s attacks were, he was able to block them with ease.

If the first step was to identify the vital points,

then now it was the second step: Routines.

Logically, there aren’t many angles for striking the spleen, just a few.

But what Ye Wan taught him was how to feign one’s intent, making the opponent misjudge the intended target, and then open the path to the spleen for you.

“If you reveal your intent directly, then you’ll always be at a disadvantage in combat,” Ye Wan said, “When your strength isn’t sufficient to crush someone, then feints are your most effective killing technique.”

Qing Chen thoughtfully considered this.

He had previously thought of it too simply, assuming it was just about practicing straight stabs and diagonal slashes.

What he hadn’t expected was that Ye Wan was teaching him routines.

For example, how to cleverly exert force toward the opponent’s neck with a knife swipe, and then, in the moment the opponent makes a defensive move, coordinate the power from his waist and elbow to change the dagger’s trajectory, piercing the opponent’s spleen.

Ye Wan taught him over sixty such routines.

More than ten of them included two feints.

Ye Wan said, “Keep in mind that combat is always devious and ever-changing. You see many battle masters who can strike numerous times in a second, but actually, only one is a real attack.”

Close-quarter combat is a perilous game of psychological warfare.

What Ye Wan could do was teach these practical routines to Qing Chen, giving him the most basic killing ability in two days.

And what Qing Chen needed to do was to keep all of this in his mind.

The third step, also the last one: Real combat.

It wasn’t enough to simply know; Ye Wan believed that Qing Chen also needed to be clearly aware of what his body could do.

One had to have a clear understanding of one’s own strength and speed.

Knowing the enemy wasn’t enough; you must also know yourself.

This method of training, with all his might each time, exhausted Qing Chen in just three hours.

Adding to that he stood by the window the previous night for the first half, by 9 a.m., his reactions had grown sluggish.

By this time, 2 hours and 40 minutes had passed since mealtime.

The prisoners in the jail gradually noticed something was wrong and began frantically banging on the alloy gate.

But no matter how hard they banged, there was no response.

It was as if everyone’s gates were broken.

Guo Huchan banged on the gate the hardest, as if he were trying to smash it open.

It wasn’t until Uncle Li Dong warned him at his gate that the bald strongman calmed down.

Guo Huchan, inside his cell, laughed instead of being angry and asked enthusiastically, “Boss Li, what secret operation are you pulling off? Tell me about it, or let me out to give you a hand? I’m also a master strategist in Spade.”

But Uncle Li Dong had no intention of giving him any attention.

Gradually, all the prisoners calmed down again, recalling the fear of the previous night, and suddenly felt that the prison seemed a bit different.

This place was full of felons, with more than half having lived here for over five years.

Prior to this, they had never experienced anything so bizarre.

But what they didn’t realize was that all this was because a young man needed to face a crisis, and his mentor was trying to buy him a bit of time, that was all.

When Ye Wan said they could take a break, Qing Chen simply tilted his head and fell to the ground, sound asleep.

Lin Xiaoxiao came over with a tray in his hands. As he watched the Fire Rune on Qing Chen’s face gradually fade, he hoisted the other man up, “Don’t let the prisoners out just yet. If only Qing Chen doesn’t come out for meals, that will raise suspicions. We’ll talk about dinner after he wakes up.”

Ye Wan nodded, “But he’s definitely going to sleep until dinner, the prisoners are going to miss two meals.”

Lin Xiaoxiao chuckled and said, “It’s fine, the boss said they won’t die if they go hungry for two meals.”

Actually, ever since Qing Chen came into contact with Uncle Li Dong and the others, everyone had already adopted a relatively amiable attitude.

Even today, he has yet to encounter the other side of the Knights and the Heng Society.

The cold and cruel side.

…

By the time dinner came around, the alloy gates of all the cells were opened only after Qing Chen had gotten up.

During the meal, the prisoners were extremely cautious and dared not make a sound, for fear of stirring up trouble and possibly being used for practice in the middle of the night again.

What if… it wasn’t just talk this time?!

After dinner, the prison’s broadcast advised everyone to return to their cells, and the prisoners did so one by one.

Uncle Li Dong looked at Qing Chen with interest, “How is it? Have you got a basic grasp?”

Qing Chen pondered, “Not bad, Memory Power and cognitive abilities play a bigger role in combat than I had imagined. It’s just that the training time for the Auxiliary Breathing Method is short, and my physical fitness is still lacking, I will train even harder from now on.”

Even if one day of Auxiliary Breathing Method training was equivalent to half a month for others, his training time was too short, in total it was only around ten days.

This was still the result of his training volume significantly exceeding Ye Wan’s plan.

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at Ye Wan, “By your standards, how is his training progress?”

Ye Wan thought for a moment and said, “Ordinary People are definitely far behind compared to him. For example, when I first learned the Tactical Dagger Routines, it took me three months to reach his current level. The Super Memory state is truly terrifying. Train a bit more tonight, and then again during the day tomorrow, killing a person or two should be no problem.”

“And the downsides?” asked Lin Xiaoxiao.

Ye Wan replied, “The downside is that he still lacks real combat experience, and his approach is too formulaic. It’s fine when facing Ordinary People, but when he encounters a real master, he will suffer greatly. This has to be compensated with perceptiveness.”

It was the same when Qing Chen played chess with Uncle Li Dong; even though Qing Chen knew the permutations of the chess games, sometimes he still couldn’t beat Uncle Li Dong.

He could have won, but always ended up being forced into a draw.

This was also the reason he didn’t participate in the chess competitions back then.

Ye Wan grinned at Qing Chen, “Did you have a good sleep?”

“Well-rested, I can continue,” Qing Chen nodded, the Breathing Technique had revived him fully.

“Come on, I’ll spar with you,” said Lin Xiaoxiao cheerfully.

After speaking, he willingly stood in the center of the ring and beckoned to Qing Chen.

Qing Chen pondered briefly and then, with sudden force in his legs, he stepped forward. The Spring Knife in his hand swiftly stabbed at Lin Xiaoxiao’s thigh.

Lin Xiaoxiao laughed, “Such a childish feint… hiss! That was a close call!”

Qing Chen’s dagger stuck in his leg, but fortunately, he reacted quickly, pinching the blade between two fingers. Otherwise, he would have been bled out.

Qing Chen was stunned for a moment. Lin Xiaoxiao had said before that he was not a combat type, but rather functional.

But even so, this ability to catch a blade between two fingers was unbelievably astonishing.

The gulf between Transcendents and Ordinary People was insurmountable, the only ones who could engage in close combat with Transcendents were other Transcendents.

Or those Battle Masters equipped with the most advanced mechanical limbs.

At that moment, Lin Xiaoxiao shouted angrily, “Didn’t you say you were going to aim for the spleen? Just now you had all the power in your waist, why didn’t you lift the blade? What happened to the agreed feint and fake movements?”

Uncle Li Dong looked at Ye Wan with a smile, “What do you think of his perceptiveness?”

Ye Wan replied, “I wasn’t as good as him back then.”

“Keep training, don’t slack off,” Uncle Li Dong laughed heartily and went off to the reading area.

“Hmm, training seems effective enough for now, it’s time to teach him assassination techniques,” Ye Wan responded.