Chapter 24 - The Fifty Moves Bet

Walking through the teleportation station, the entrance of Qin Xuan and Han Sen caught the attention of some soldiers who were doing physical activities. Taking a closer look at Han Sen, they noticed his posture and way of walking which, although not military style, revealed his great physical abilities. Nevertheless, after seeing how they were entering a training room, they quickly associated that the new guy must be some army rookie that the captain needed to test personally. This shocked them and they wondered who the guy was.

Inside the room, before officially entering the training area, there were two doors that separated the areas where they should change clothes.

"If you don't know how to use the facilities, there are appropriate voice instructions in the locker room. See you on the other side." Qin Xuan gave instructions to Han Sen and entered her own locker room.

"Ok, ok..." Han Sen gave a thumbs up in agreement.

Inside the men's locker room, he quickly noticed that there were several different lockers, with signs to indicate whether they were occupied or not. Since there were only two people in the training room, all the lockers were available. He went to a random one and opened it.

"Combat gear, huh. They seem like interesting things." Han Sen grabbed the clothes inside and started changing.

He didn't need instructions and quickly dressed completely, the clothing automatically fitting his body, just as the boots did the same.

"That's quite comfortable... It's a shame that such technology can't be brought into the Sanctuary." He thought about how it would be better if there was something like this under his armor, and not just regular combat clothes.

Out of pure curiosity, he opened the Upgrade System to see how the Equipment section turned out. He never really cared about improving things that could easily be replaced, so he didn't spend many points in that area.

✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼

⌠Upgrade System⌡

˃ ∫Hyper-Gene Art Upgrade ∫

˃ ∫Beast Soul Upgrade ∫

˃ ∫Skills Upgrade ∫

˅ ∫Equipment Upgrade∫

  ↓| Combat Gear Ordinary Tier = 100EXP |

    » ⟩ Combat Gear Level 1 = 100EXP ⟨

✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼✼

"Can this also be improved? Well, I think I have more ways to make money than I imagined!" Han Sen stored his idea of upgrading an armor and learning to reproduce it. Although it couldn't be used inside the Sanctuary, there were hundreds of billions of people outside it. Selling this type of equipment was a way to dive into the river of money.

⍙⍙⍙

"Wow..." Qin Xuan had just left the locker room when she saw Han Sen already standing in the middle of the training room. She was a little shocked by his physique, but didn't let it show, ‘A physique like this is the result of nothing less than infernal training... I'm liking this guy more and more.’

"Shall we begin?" He asked after seeing her enter the room. He managed to control himself not to stare too much at the beautiful Qin Xuan, who, by the way, was wearing a very tight Combat Gear.

"Yes. The same rules I told you. Endure fifty moves, without the use of Beast Soul from any of us." Qin Xuan saw how calm he was and became a little annoyed by it. It was either that he was stupid or super confident. Being face to face with an army captain and not faltering indicated one of those two.

"All right." He nodded, not taking a fighting stance. He remained in a relaxed posture. It didn't seem like he was going to fight now, just enjoy the beautiful sight in front of him.

"Start-" Qin Xuan had just spoken when she felt a powerful wind blow in her face, causing her to instinctively lean back in response.

Swoosh!

"..." She widened her eyes at Han Sen, who was just a few inches away from her, with a teasing smile on his face and withdrawing his punch. It seemed like he was expecting this slip-up from her.

"If you want to fight, fight properly. Don't underestimate me because I'm younger." This was something he wanted to fix in her.

When he read that part of the novel, he found it very stupid that the only reason Qin Xuan took two punches to the face from Han Sen was because "he's very good at assassination techniques." The guy had never even fought a human being more powerful than him on equal terms and he was already a professional at it? Or was it because Qin Xuan had a serious flaw of underestimating her opponents? The second one was most likely.

"You're brave. I like it!" Qin Xuan felt something bubbling inside her when she heard Han Sen's serious voice and saw his face adopt an expression she hadn't seen before. The deep concentration that must exist on the battlefield.

Swoosh! Bang!

Accelerating faster than he could see, Qin Xuan feinted a punch and suddenly stooped, delivering a direct circular kick to his legs. By the range and speed, it was clear she wanted to take him down with the first strike and show who was superior. But to her shock, Han Sen just placed one leg at a safe distance and spun, causing him to dodge the kick and at the same time counter-attack with a kick at a speed faster than she could expect.

Releasing a bit more of her strength and speed, Qin Xuan quickly dodged the kick, doing a backflip and moving away from him. Her reactions were able to detect him coming towards her silently, her mind thinking of ideas to attack him the moment she stabilized on the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the sound of blows continued to echo in the room, Qin Xuan and Han Sen engaged in an impressive battle. With his superior experience and advanced combat instincts, Han Sen was able to quickly learn and respond to her attack patterns. But even so, the fight was very painful. It was almost like using bamboo to parry a sword. No matter how skillfully it was used, eventually the bamboo would start to wear out.

Spending 1300 EXP, Han Sen raised his New Martial Arts to Level 7. This allowed him to dodge in a way that hurt him less than before. In the middle of the fight, he was absorbing insights from this new martial art style and complementing his own understanding of what a fight was. The skill finally reached a level that taught him something new and different.

'It seems like I really rusted during that time locked up, huh... It was about time to come back!' His thoughts were something he had for a long time. With only 20 years of life experience, many things he had learned were slowly lost in the sea of thoughts that formed during the millennia he was imprisoned. Now they were coming back, like an endless wave.

Meanwhile, Qin Xuan was starting to break out in a cold sweat, but at the same time felt a fire that she hadn't ignited in a long time while fighting someone else. Her monotonous lifestyle of leading the group most of the time made her crave for fights like this and improve herself. And the reason for breaking out in a cold sweat is that the blows came so close to the fifty mark that she already knew she was going to lose, she just didn't want to accept it.

Lost in the emotion of the fight, the blows exceeded fifty and they continued to face each other, since they could still handle it. Han Sen was assimilating more and more his combat and how to use it, while Qin Xuan was impressed to be learning new things as well. She didn't even realize that her fighting style was being changed by him as they fought, since he found some of the moves she made very foolish.

"Ok, that's enough!" Only after exchanging over 100 blows did Han Sen suddenly step back from the fight. His body should have been covered in bruises by now, and he needed at least a day to recover with the [Frost King Sutra]. Not that he cared, since he was going to continue his operations as usual.

"My God, I'm sorry!" Qin Xuan finally realized that she had gone too far in the fight, even though she was holding back. Her gene points made her much stronger and she had probably hurt him badly, "Are you okay?”

"I'm fine, I just need to apply some ointment." Han Sen reassured her, waving his hands. He felt pain mainly in his right arm and abdominal region.

"It's no use lying to me. I have a gel here. Take off your clothes." Qin Xuan didn't care that her words could be misunderstood, as she was more concerned that she may have hurt the newcomer. She also didn't seem to realize her concern, which was quite strange.

‘This relationship is going at a pleasant speed…’ Han Sen avoided laughing at how worried Qin Xuan was now. He knew he had a special charm, but this much? Yes, he also knew, ‘I'm so charming that it's a sin…ugh, it was disgusting just to think about it.’

As soon as she arrived with the ointment, Han Sen was sitting against the wall, his torso bare and covered in bruises, especially large ones on his abdomen and arm. She didn't have time to analyze his physique more closely and began applying the ointment with his help. She didn't want to touch him without intimacy, but thought she should because of his injured arm.

"A dinner." Han Sen suddenly spoke, applying the ointment to his abdomen and seeing its very effective effects.

"What?" Qin Xuan asked in confusion. She didn't know why he suddenly said that.

"I want a dinner with you in exchange for the Beast Soul. Or am I asking too much?" He looked straight into her eyes and smiled. It was nice to see how she was blushing a little now, especially from being so close.

"Do you want to go out on a date with me?" Not that she could refuse, since she lost the bet anyway. But she wanted to interrogate this newcomer about his request.

"No, I want to have dinner with you. Those are two different things." Han Sen stood up after finishing applying the ointment, choosing to remain shirtless.

"You're brave, you know that, rookie?" Qin Xuan narrowed her eyes and analyzed Han Sen's features carefully. She wanted to know if he was just playing with her or not. Only after a while did she agree, "Alright then. You already have my contact, we can see about this later.”

Looking at her walking away, her gait clearly a bit different now, Han Sen smiled and went to his dressing room.

"It's like taking candy from a baby..."