“However, although I don’t have time to teach students, I still come to Changfeng Martial Arts School from time to time to sit and chat with everyone, so I have a suggestion for you—why not hear me out?”

　　“Please go ahead.”

　　“I’d like to hire you as a coach for our Changfeng Martial Arts School, with a monthly salary of six thousand, including room and board. Once your assistant martial artist qualification certificate comes through, your pay will be raised to ten thousand.”

　　James Sullivan said, “There aren’t too many people at Changfeng Martial Arts School. Most of those forced by their elders to learn martial arts will probably leave after a year or so, so the job won’t be too busy. Also, if you have any questions about Huajin or Danjin, you can ask me, and I’ll do my best to answer them for you. How about it?”

　　Six thousand.

　　Taibai’s currency is quite valuable right now.

　　Six thousand is equivalent to eighteen thousand on Blue Star.

　　This salary is the basic standard for a Lianjin-level martial artist.

　　But with the added opportunity to consult a Danjin master, it’s a different story.

　　Grace Thompson is already a junior in college and doesn’t plan to waste any more time at Hanyang University. Having just revealed the Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound Technique, he was already thinking about applying for the job.

　　James Sullivan must have noticed, which is why he took the initiative to offer.

　　“Alright.”

　　Grace Thompson nodded crisply. “I’ll be counting on you from here on, Director Sullivan.”

　　“Hahaha, once you replenish your qi and blood and advance your strength from Mingjin to Anjin, with your age, you’ll be a living signboard for our Changfeng Martial Arts School.”

　　James Sullivan smiled and extended his hand. “Welcome aboard.”

Chapter 4: Star God

　　The fact that Changfeng Martial Arts School could rent nearly three thousand square meters of office space in the city center shows their considerable financial strength.

　　They also rented an apartment across the street at Yunsheng Apartments.

　　Grace Thompson moved in that very day.

　　A fifty-six square meter single room.

　　Taibai doesn’t have shared public areas.

　　Even counting the twenty square meters set aside as a quiet room for martial artists, this apartment is still spacious for one person.

　　After a busy afternoon moving in, Grace Thompson invited Benjamin Sullivan and Coral, whom he’d gotten to know through a friendly fight, out for a meal, marking his official start at Changfeng Martial Arts School.

　　……

　　Night.

　　Grace Thompson returned to the apartment and settled his mind.

　　Having a completely private space of his own felt like a new beginning.

　　He entered the quiet room, which was covered with thick rubber mats, and recalled the martial arts forms he had practiced.

　　Back then, without a famous teacher to guide him, the forms he practiced drew on the strengths of many schools…

　　Or rather, he pieced them together, and in doing so, created his own training method and fighting style.

　　His fighting style was the Eight Fiends True Fire Force.

　　His training method was the Xuanpin Gate.

　　At its highest level, one could form a “dan” by gathering qi.

　　Of course, he had failed to form a dan, and whether the Xuanpin Gate could reach that stage remained to be seen.

　　“Mingjin, Anjin, Huajin, Danjin, Gangjin—all refer to the use of force. Although I haven’t formed a dan, by using the Xuanpin Gate to gather yin and charge yang, and visualizing the Eight Fiends to ignite the heart’s fire, I can still unleash Danjin.”

　　Grace Thompson was very clear about this.

　　But it meant little to him now.

　　Without forming a dan, his force hadn’t become one with his body; he could only rely on explosive qi and blood to unleash something like the Eight Fiends True Fire Force, which was akin to overexertion.

　　At his peak, even one or two uses would leave him depleted, damaging his muscles and bones.

　　Back then, after a match with a Huajin-level martial artist, the loser held a grudge and hired experts to ambush him. He unleashed Danjin three times in a row to break through the siege, but in doing so, damaged his foundation and sowed the seeds for his later failure to form a dan.

　　Danjin is dangerous enough; Gangjin is even more so.

　　To unleash Gangjin, all the internal organs must resonate together. If the lungs and viscera aren’t strong enough, you’ll suffer internal bleeding before you can even strike, resulting in serious injury.

　　In severe cases, it can be fatal on the spot.

　　“Physical strength is fundamental. Only by combining physical power with explosive force, and integrating strength and technique, can a martial artist’s true power be realized.”

　　Grace Thompson calmed his mind, adjusted his breathing, activated the Xuanpin Gate, and supplemented it with the Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound Technique, causing his body to vibrate as if every cell was set in motion.

　　He was very familiar with this process; it wasn’t difficult for him.

　　After a full half hour, Grace Thompson completed a round of training. Even though he hadn’t done any intense exercise, he was drenched in sweat.

　　After a moment, he adjusted his breathing, then focused his mind, slowly immersing himself in awareness of his own body.

　　The fusion of souls seemed to have given him a certain talent, allowing him to perceive his body with incredible precision.

　　Within just a few minutes, he determined the improvement in his physical strength from this training session.

　　“If I use the physical qi and blood strength units defined by the Martial Arts Association…”

　　Grace Thompson made a quick calculation: “With this round of training, my qi and blood increased from 16.113 to 16.127, an increase of 0.014. To be precise, it’s 0.01466…”

　　If he wanted, he could accurately control it to the tenth, thirtieth, or even hundredth decimal place.

　　This level of precision…

　　Even though it wasn’t his first time, he was still emotionally stirred.

　　Science simply can’t explain this phenomenon.

　　But since transmigration had already happened, what’s the point of worrying about science?

　　“With my current nutrition intake, I can train six times a day, for a total daily increase of 0.08796… rounding to three decimal places, that’s 0.088, which means 2.64 points in a month.”

　　In five months, his qi and blood strength would reach 29.328.

　　That’s exactly the peak of Huajin, the threshold for forming a dan.