Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Book 4, Chapter 240: Seeing The Origins To Deduce Abilities

“W-What? M-Martial arts master?” Nian Qian became tongue-tied.

He waved a hand before him. “One second. I need to calm down.”

He felt like his emotions were on a roller coaster today. Things were just too exciting.

What exactly were martial arts masters?

Setting everything else aside, he did know about the situation in the military. Whenever a martial arts master showed up, an entire combat system would be built around them.

While Nian Qian hadn’t officially seen a martial arts master fight, he had seen videos of battlefields after a martial arts master visited it, and he had been shocked. He couldn’t imagine just how a person could exhibit such great strength and destruction. For a long time, he had been unable to forget those videos.

His reinforced company was considered pretty strong, but before martial arts masters, they were nothing more than regular soldiers.

Back when he heard that Chen Chuan had reached the Third Limit, he was already astonished. Such people were pillars of the military and the main fighting units that they still couldn’t replace. They received great benefits, but martial arts masters?

His mind froze. Something that had only ever existed in concept had suddenly appeared in reality.

However, after some thinking, everything started making sense. If his cousin hadn’t become a martial arts master, how could he have become the director of the Defense Bureau at such a young age?

But to have his own cousin become a martial arts master? And to have them sitting right next to him in a car?

He stayed stunned for a while. When his mind cleared a little, he saw that Nian Fuli and Yu Wan had already gotten out and were headed to the trunk to take his luggage out. Quickly, he opened the door and got out. “Dad, Mom, let me do it. You can leave it to me. How can I let you two do this? You don’t need to waste any energy on this.”

Nian Fuli waited for Chen Chuan to open the trunk and grabbed the heavy suitcase out before putting it on the ground. He huffed. “I’m not so old that I can’t carry heavy things.”

Yu Wan didn’t expose him and just nudged at Nian Qian to help him.

“Dad, you’re so energetic that even my commanding officers can’t compare to you, but it’s rare for me to come home, so you need to let me show off, you know?” Nian Qian said.

Nian Fuli wanted to argue, but Yu Wan patted him, and he stepped aside.

Nian Qian grabbed the backpack, then turned to Chen Chuan as he shut the trunk. He wondered, Xiao Chuan doesn’t look any different from usual, though? I seriously can’t tell.

“You really gave me a shock today, Xiao Chuan. No, I’d say that it’s really a scare!” he said.

Chen Chuan only smiled. “I got promoted recently, and I only told the family a few days ago. That’s why they didn’t tell you.”

“No, no, I’m talking about you being a martial arts master!” Nian Qian said and raised his voice even more. “A martial arts master, you know?!”

Chen Chuan hummed at that.

Nian Qian watched him a little more and huffed. Suddenly, he felt that the things he found exciting and mysterious might just be normal to his cousin.

From the bottom of his heart, he said, “I’m really impressed, Xiao Chuan!”

Then, he drew closer and asked, “Could you talk to me about it?”

Chen Chuan could tell that he was really curious about martial arts masters, which should be an obsession shared by all technical officers, so he smiled and nodded.

The family went into the alley. Once they were back home, Nian Qian washed his face and took his gifts out in the living room.

They weren’t expensive, but he knew exactly what his family liked, so they loved it. He also brought Chen Chuan a gift.

“Xiao Chuan, here. This is for you.”

Chen Chuan took a look and was quite surprised. His gifts were premium posters of all old adventure movies. Some of them were even no longer sold in the market.

“You must have put in a lot of effort to get these, Nian Qian,” he said gratefully.

Nian Qian dismissed it with a wave. “It’s nothing. A comrade of mine loves movies too. Once, we got into a drinking competition, and I managed to outdrink him, so I got these from him. He was so sad when he brought them over. He cried when he told me to take good care of them, so I thought that giving them to you would be the right move.”

Chen Chuan nodded. The old Chen Chuan loved movies, so he was going to take good care of them.

Yu Wan was wiping Nian Mo’s face and hands as she watched Chen Chuan and Nian Qian talk. She felt the most happy when her entire family was gathered together.

If only her sisters were here too.

While Nian Qian was talking to Chen Chuan, he was paying attention to his surroundings. This was a habit he had developed while in the military. He noticed Yu Wan feeling down, and he knew his mother the best, since he was the eldest son. He went to her side and said, “Didn’t you say it’s been a long time since you visited Aunt Jie? I’ve got around a hundred days off this time. After the New Year, I can bring you over to visit her. I joined the military with my uncle’s help, and I haven’t thanked him yet.”

“I have an airship. It’ll make traveling easier. If you want to visit your sister, why don’t we go together, Aunty?” Chen Chuan asked.

Yu Wan turned to Nian Fuli. “What do you think, Fuli?”

“We should do it. We’re relatives, so it’s only right that we visit them. Now that Qian’er has come back, it would be wrong for us not to visit them,” Nian Fuli said.

“We’re taking the airship? Yes!” Nian Mo jumped when he heard this, and Yu Wan was almost unable to keep him still. She gave the boy a light smack on the back of his head.

“Can we take your airship too when we go to Central City, Chen Chuan?” Nian Lu asked with sparkling eyes.

“You’re going to Central City?” Nian Qian was quite surprised and turned to Chen Chuan. “You’re bringing our family to Central City?”

Chen Chuan nodded.

“We only decided on it yesterday. Since you’re back, we should tell you about it too. Chen Chuan is planning to move us all to Central City after the New Year,” Nian Fuli stated.

“With my current position, Uncle and Aunty will definitely be affected. They can’t live in Yangzhi City anymore. Nian Mo and Nian Lu can also receive better education in Central City,” Chen Chuan added.

Nian Qian could understand that. Considering Chen Chuan’s position, plenty of people were going to try and approach him. Besides, once they were in Central City, his siblings could study there as well. At his rank, Nian Qian knew about the Great Crash as well, so he was aware that his family wouldn’t be safe in Yangzhi City. Central City was a solution for most of their issues.

In truth, he had been thinking about this too, but he had been wondering about how to broach the subject. Chen Chuan had helped him solve this problem.

“When are you moving?” he asked.

“Not yet. I need to go back to Central City to make arrangements. Once things are ready, I’ll bring the family over,” Chen Chuan stated.

Nian Qian’s expression became more somber. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Xiao Chuan.”

“I’m part of the family too. It’s only right for me to worry about everyone,” Chen Chuan said with a smile.

Nian Qian nodded before slapping his shoulder. Suddenly, he grinned. That’s a martial arts master’s shoulder, and I just smacked it.

Since he was still worn from the journey, he went to take a shower before coming to eat with his family. “The food in the military is good and all, but your food’s still the best, Mom.”

Yu Wan smiled. “If you like it, have more, and eat slower. Don’t choke.”

Nian Fuli checked out Nian Qian’s sturdy muscles, which were on full display when he came down shirtless after the shower, and grunted in approval. “You didn’t waste your time there. Your body has grown much stronger.”

Nian Qian sighed. “I have to become stronger. All I do all day every day is take classes, train, march, and train with my unit. I don’t have a moment to relax aside from holidays nor any time to relax my mind.”

“But it’s a worthwhile hardship,” Nian Fuli pointed out.

“True.” Nian Qian turned to Chen Chuan. “But the hardships I went through can’t compare to Xiao Chuan’s. I met a few Third Limit martial artists before in the army, and they were constantly training. They never stopped, unless they were out on missions. I asked them once whether they felt tired, and they said that it’s not that they don’t want to rest, but that they know that our enemy’s martial artists are training nonstop. If they slack off even a little, they might die. That’s why they didn’t dare to stop.”

What he didn’t say was that if that was what the Third Limit martial artists were doing, who knew just how hard the martial arts masters trained. He was pretty sure that things didn’t get any easier for them.

“Chan’er...” Yu Wan looked at Chen Chuan sympathetically. She had never expected that training would be so tough and couldn’t imagine just how much hardship Chen Chuan had suffered over the years.

Chen Chuan smiled. “We do train a lot, but I wouldn’t call that hardship. To me, that’s fun. When I see myself getting stronger, I get happy, and that sort of joy is like a drug you can’t break free from.”

Nian Qian was stunned for a moment before feeling relieved. Then, he was thoroughly impressed.

It was no wonder why his cousin could reach his current state. While other martial artists trained hard every day, he could tell that some of them were against the idea. They just wanted to use their skills to get better lives and get to enjoy them. They weren’t doing it because they liked it.

Only a few were truly immersed in it. At the very least, the martial artists he saw were like that.

This would make a huge difference. When others thought of it as a job, his cousin found joy in it and got increasingly immersed in training. His cousin might also be more talented than those people, so how could they possibly win against him? The difference between their strength was only going to keep increasing.

He couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly can a martial arts master do?”

Chen Chuan thought about it. “To put it simply, a martial arts master at full strength does not care about how many enemies they face in battle. Regular artillery shells aren’t that useful against them either.”

While he spoke, Nian Mo’s White Furball jumped over. When it got near Chen Chuan’s shoulder, it stopped and was suspended in the air.

Nian Qian’s eyes flew wide open. The table, the chair next to him, and even he himself had started floating, as if gravity no longer existed.