Chapter 63 Did You Take Your Medicine?

Spark Fitness Center.

Inside the sparring hall, which stood over six hundred meters high and overlooked the entire Yunhai City, A-Leaf Floating Cloud changed into a set of silver-gray training compression clothes and walked toward the central sparring ring with a look of utter helplessness.

"Sis, go easy on me later. Remember, I'm your actual brother."

A-Leaf Floating Cloud looked toward the ring with a hint of dread at Ye Qinglu, who had already put on her protective gear.

Lately, he had been entirely engrossed in the descent of high-level martial arts. Forget about combat sparring; even his daily physical training had taken a backseat, as all his time was spent digging tunnels and transporting materials.

Sparring right now with Ye Qinglu—someone capable of defeating provincial fighting champions and making the top four in national martial arts tournaments—meant that if she actually got serious, he would be bedridden for days.

With the dawn of the cosmic exploration era, a growing number of people wished to travel to other habitable planets in the universe, and the absolute prerequisite for cosmic exploration was physical fitness.

Because people were paying increasing attention to physical training, industries like fitness were experiencing a meteoric rise.

As one of the premier fitness centers in the province, Spark Fitness Center boasted over fifty chain stores statewide. As the sole young master of Spark Fitness Center, A-Leaf Floating Cloud had initially thought he could live a leisurely life, indulging entirely in virtual games all day long while considering everything else to be fleeting clouds.

However, ever since he learned that Ye Qinglu was a member of the legendary Skydiver Adventure Troupe—and specifically its vice-leader—A-Leaf Floating Cloud could no longer sit still.

As a casual player in the virtual gaming world, A-Leaf Floating Cloud had heard too many legends about the Skydivers. With a roster of just over twenty people, they had conquered "Hell's Cradle," a hundred-person team dungeon that sat in the top ten of the virtual gaming world's bounty board.

Back then, the fantastical and explosive masterpiece "Apex of Sanctuary" had swept the globe. From the moment Hell's Cradle was discovered, not a single guild had managed to clear it for two whole years—not even the master-crowded super guilds.

Yet the Skydiver Adventure Troupe had suddenly burst onto the scene and successfully conquered Hell's Cradle, permanently etching the names of those twenty-odd people onto the dungeon's record pillars and causing a sensation across the entire virtual gaming world.

It was precisely because of that event that the Skydivers became known to major guilds. Over the subsequent six years, the legends of the Skydivers continually surfaced across more than a dozen blockbuster god-tier games, cementing them as absolute legends in the hearts of casual players.

Yet joining the Skydivers was no easy feat. The entry requirement was simply being tough enough in reality, and even as the vice-leader's younger brother, the standards could not be lowered by much.

Now, taking advantage of the Skydivers preparing for this year's anticipated divine masterpiece, "Eternal Immortal Path," he could seize the opportunity to improve himself so that he could meet the standards when the game launched.

"Get up here. I won't fight you seriously. Besides, do you really think you could make me serious?" Ye Qinglu stretched her limbs and sighed at her good-for-nothing younger brother. "Only the leader, myself, and a few others participated in the closed beta for 'Eternal Immortal Path.' That game uses advanced neural-link technology, achieving an 85% virtual immersion level. The combat inside can be said to recreate real fighting to an extreme degree."

"According to internal information from the leader, 'Eternal Immortal Path' was specifically tailored for the exploration mechs used in cosmic exploration. These exploration mechs connect directly to the pilot's nervous system; while not quite the same as controlling your actual body, it is remarkably close."

"The ultimate goal of our Skydivers is to become cosmic pioneers. The several habitable planets discovered so far are extremely dangerous, which is why, before opening pioneer qualifications to the public, various countries have commissioned these new games custom-built for exploration mechs."

"If you don't cherish this opportunity, you probably won't ever have another chance to join the Skydivers."

"Sis, I understand. I'll work hard." A-Leaf Floating Cloud stepped onto the ring, the expression on his face turning serious.

Cosmic exploration!

Aside from the advent of virtual games, this could be considered the second major global wave. After all, countless unknown entities existed on uncharted planets, and some of the newly discovered unknown substances could even prolong life.

This kind of life extension wasn't just a matter of adding a dozen or so years; it could actually double a person's lifespan and keep them in a youthful state for a prolonged period. Nowadays, the average global human lifespan already exceeded 120 years, and if that could be doubled, it would mean 240 years.

At 240 years old, one could witness the rise and fall of an entire dynasty in ancient times, to say nothing of maintaining a youthful physique for over 150 of those years.

Yet acquiring these unknown substances was exceptionally difficult. Normally, the only way to obtain them was to secure a pioneer status, travel to those habitable planets, and get them yourself.

When A-Leaf Floating Cloud learned of this news from Ye Qinglu, his mind went blank.

He never imagined cosmic exploration held such immense benefits. If he didn't strive for it and become one of the first batch of pioneers early on, the possibility of extending his life would undoubtedly plummet drastically.

A lifespan of 240 years—who could possibly turn that down?

"Alright, come at me!" Ye Qinglu nodded as she watched A-Leaf Floating Cloud get serious.

In truth, her requirements for A-Leaf Floating Cloud weren't very high; she only needed him to last more than a dozen moves against her. Although that might draw some complaints from certain members within the troupe, she didn't care.

Object?

Then spar with her!

The Skydivers were not a peaceful, harmonious group; they operated by the law of the jungle, where the strong rose and the weak fell. She had become vice-leader purely because she was strong, with no other reason.

"Sis, then I won't hold back."

Having equipped his protective gear, A-Leaf Floating Cloud knew all too well how strong Ye Qinglu was. In actual combat, she could easily take on ten of him without breaking a sweat, meaning he didn't need to hold back at all when facing her.

With that, A-Leaf Floating Cloud lunged forward and threw a fierce punch at Ye Qinglu.

Shattering Stone Fist!

When Ye Qinglu had proposed sparring, A-Leaf Floating Cloud felt he could give the Shattering Stone Fist a try. After all, the technique was far too familiar—so familiar it was branded into his very bones. Even though his current physical body fell far short of the one in the high-level martial arts realm, the muscle-fPumping mechanics of the Shattering Stone Fist remained identical.

Before coming here, A-Leaf Floating Cloud had tested it out on the punching bag upstairs.

The result had left him ecstatic.

He never expected the Shattering Stone Fist could genuinely be used in reality. While the explosive effect was far inferior to that inside the high-level martial arts world, it still boosted his power by about 50%.

With a proficiency-level Shattering Stone Fist unleashed, A-Leaf Floating Cloud—whose normal strength didn't even reach a hundred jin—instantly crossed that threshold, causing the air to snap with a sharp sonic boom.

"Did your strength increase?"

Ye Qinglu watched the punch coming at her from A-Leaf Floating Cloud, noting it was visibly heavier than it had been a short while ago, and threw a punch of her own to meet it.

Bang!

Fist met fist, and both of them stepped back two paces.

"Did you take some kind of drug?" Ye Qinglu glanced at her numb fist and couldn't help staring at A-Leaf Floating Cloud.

Her strength ranked among the absolute best in the national women's fighting championships. At the very least, the male fighting provincial champion hired by the fitness center was no stronger than her when it came to raw power.

She knew A-Leaf Floating Cloud's situation inside and out; born into a fitness group, he had done plenty of training since childhood, but in terms of strength, he was only slightly stronger than an ordinary person. For him to reach her level of physical power was normally an utter impossibility.

"No way, Sis. Could it be that you're just not in top form?"

A-Leaf Floating Cloud smiled inwardly at Ye Qinglu's stunned expression. A 50% power boost had elevated his strength to par with hers, meaning he could now fight her on equal footing.

"Me, not in top form?"

Ye Qinglu looked at A-Leaf Floating Cloud's feigned expression of surprise, sensing he was pulling her leg. No matter how poor her condition was, she certainly wouldn't lose to him in raw strength.

"Fine, then let's see if my condition is good!"

With that, Ye Qinglu stopped holding back. Taking a step forward, she unleashed a flurry of lightning-fast jabs, striking with the ferocity of a violent storm.

In the blink of an eye, over eight overlapping fist shadows simultaneously assailed A-Leaf Floating Cloud.

"Sis, didn't you say you wouldn't get serious?"

Faced with the overwhelming array of fist shadows, A-Leaf Floating Cloud would previously have turned and fled because his reaction time could never keep up. Yet for some reason, at this moment, he suddenly felt that this sky-full of fists wasn't entirely impossible to block.

He instinctively threw his own fists forward to meet them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

For a moment, the sounds of fists colliding and blocking friction echoed continuously across the sparring ring.

After lasting a full dozen seconds, A-Leaf Floating Cloud and Ye Qinglu simultaneously leaped backward, neither having sustained any injuries.

"And you still claim you didn't take anything?"

Ye Qinglu stared at the completely unscathed A-Leaf Floating Cloud. She would have to be an absolute idiot to believe his words.