Martial Arts Master

While Lou Cheng was engrossed in his conversation with his mom, Ji Lingxi had removed her shoes and was seated cross-legged on Yan Zheke’s bed. She smiled faintly at her cousin, who had just put on her nightdress.

“Ke, you’re so good at keeping secrets! Am I still your sister? I didn’t even know you were dating until I saw you two embracing in the finals several days ago!”

If Yan Zheke heard this yesterday, she would have felt a little smug for being able to keep her relationship a secret. But after Lou Cheng told her the reality of her family, all her self-satisfaction dissipated. She replied helplessly, “I didn’t lie to anyone. Grandpa and Grandma already knew about it! Isn’t it because you’re so busy enjoying life that you didn’t spare a thought about your sister?”

She had kept everyone in the dark, yet who shouldn’t know the most – her father – found about it!

She wondered if there was any meaning at all to the secrecy and caution she and Lou Cheng adopted back then!

Momentarily tongue-tied, Ji Lingxi combed her hair and said, “Didn’t I tell you there were a few boys who wanted to pursue you? What did you say then? You said you don’t want to date at the moment! Weren’t you lying to me?”

Midway through the conversation, she mimicked her cousin’s voice and tone.

“I didn’t lie! I already have a boyfriend then, how can I find another? I have to be faithful in my relationship. How can I cheat on him?” Yan Zheke argued with faux seriousness.

As she said that, her lips curled with unconcealable mirth.

She had already prepared her excuses!

The corners of Ji Lingxi’s mouth twitched. “I really want to pinch your cheeks!”

Yan Zheke used to have a baby face in her childhood, causing Ji Lingxi to nearly develop the habit of pinching her cheeks.

Without waiting for her cousin to reply, Ji Lingxi changed the topic and gossiped with great enthusiasm,

“Ke, when did you start dating Lou Cheng? How long have you been together?”

Ji Lingxi had asked similar questions on QQ, but Yan Zheke would skilfully deflect the topic. She didn’t really want to share her private romance with Lou Cheng with others, even if it was her cousin.

Now Ji Lingxi had finally found the chance to ask her face to face!

Yan Zheke frowned. She bit her lips and replied reluctantly,

“We started dating on Valentine’s Day last year…”

She suddenly felt a sweetness in her heart and added subconsciously, “He had been pursuing me for almost a semester before that.”

She really wished she could experience being pursued by Lou Cheng once again! Back then, she was still ignorant and didn’t manage to enjoy the feeling.

Recalling the introduction of Lou Cheng she had read, she asked, “Valentine’s Day last year? He hadn’t reached the Ninth Pin then, right?”

“He was probably a weak Ninth-Pin fighter then,” Yan Zheke retorted seriously.

Ji Lingxi took a deep breath and her eyebrows knitted. She said in astonishment, “In other words, he was still a rookie without any signs of being the favored fighter of the age when you started dating? Ke, you really have an eye for choosing your boyfriend…”

“I didn’t expect him to be so talented and reach the Sixth Pin in such a short time.” Yan Zheke looked up and bit her lower lip. “I just found him to be a pretty simple boy who was particularly attentive to me. He was motivated and willing to work hard. I only fell in love with him after talking to him and experiencing many interesting moments in the Challenge Tournaments together…”

Her voice gradually became soft and happiness was apparent on her face as she spoke. Ji Lingxi could even read the happiness in her watery eyes.

For a moment, Ji Lingxi felt like she couldn’t meet her cousin’s eyes. That was how glaring Yan Zheke’s happiness was.

Why? Why were all her three boyfriends trash without any sense of responsibility? Why was Ke so lucky to just simply get a favored fighter of the age by choosing a random Ninth Pin rookie classmate?

Was there something wrong with her eyesight? Or was it her criteria for choosing a boyfriend?

When Yan Zheke was done reminiscing, she turned toward Ji Lingxi, who appeared stunned. She waved her hand in front of her cousin. “Sister Lingxi?”

Ji Lingxi came to herself and decided not to continue this depressing topic. She laughed. “Ke, did my call earlier disturb you and Lou Cheng?”

Yan Zheke was momentarily confused before realization dawned on her. Her cheeks immediately flushed when she recalled what she had done with Lou Cheng in the car. She still blurted out in embarrassment,

“No!”

“Heh. I’m pretty experienced after all. Never mind my first love, I’ve already gone through a couple of serious relationships. Do you know what you sounded like on the phone? Even as a woman, I was attracted by you! What would a man think? I’m sure they’d kneel down and satisfy all your demands,” Ji Lingxi joked, pointing at her cousin’s clavicle. “Isn’t there evidence here?”

Yan Zheke looked downward in bewilderment and saw the visible love bite on her clavicle.

Her top earlier had a tulle fold collar and she was careful to mask the love bite in an act of elegance. Not even Lou Cheng was aware he had left a mark behind. It was only when she put on her nightdress that everything was revealed.

She felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment and wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and hide in it. She vaguely felt like she was caught committing adultery.

Embarrassed and frustrated, she jumped out of bed and rushed to the full-length mirror. She took a photo of her clavicle and sent it to Lou Cheng.

“It’s all your fault! My cousin saw it!”

Lou Cheng was just done lamenting how his relatives were experiencing a change in fate because of him when he saw his girlfriend’s message. Replying with a blushing emoji, he hurried to explain, “I was too excited then…”

Witnessing what Yan Zheke was doing, Ji Lingxi suddenly felt dejected.

This was the kind of pureness that one could only experience with their first love!

Her first relationship ended without fanfare and was not even worth calling ‘first love’. She then threw herself headfirst into her second relationship and gave it her all. But when it ended, she felt as pained as if she was hovering between life and death. By the time she dated her third boyfriend, she felt like an aged woman who did more thinking than doing. She had already lost that kind of pureness.

When Yan Zheke returning to bed with an embarrassed face, she controlled her mood and put on a smile.

“Ke, let’s sleep together tonight. I still have many questions for you!”

“… Okay.” Yan Zheke hesitated for a while before agreeing.

When Ji Lingxi returned to her room to shower and put on her nightdress, Yan Zheke threw herself onto her bed. She buried her face in the pillow, her legs swinging behind her.

She was planning to calm herself down and reduce the redness on her cheeks, but inexplicably recalled what had happened on the riverside and her excitement at the time.

The familiar scene crossing her mind, she suddenly sat up and clicked open the search engine on her phone while biting her lower lip.

She seriously recalled the brand and model of the car they drove and typed some words in the search bar, her eyes filled with embarrassment and joy.

“Can XXX car’s passenger seat be flattened? How to do that…”

The results came up instantly. She had just gone through the top few results when she received Lou Cheng’s call.

“Ke, what’s the brand and model of the car we drove?” Lou Cheng asked.

Yan Zheke flushed when the familiar question came up again and she replied with gnashed teeth,

“Pervert!”

Pervert? Lou Cheng was confused by the weird answer.

He simply found the car to be fast and steady. If he wanted to buy a car someday, he could consider the same model.

How did he become a pervert?

…

Not managing to get an answer out of Yan Zheke by the next morning, Lou Cheng temporarily set it aside. He woke up on time, washed up, and went outside. He found a corner in the Ji clan’s old house and took in the fresh air. He started visualizing the Zhe formula as well as its corresponding Internal Training Methods of Frost Force and Zhu Rong Force.

His injured arm would only be healed by late May, so he was in no hurry to practice his movement. Instead, he began withdrawing his qi and blood to get a better understanding of Force Concentration on the base of ice-fire balance. At the same time, he started digesting the Yin and Yang information from Yan Zheke’s grandpa.

The key to the Inhuman stage was enhancing his root pulp and controlling the spirit with his willpower before gradually changing himself with Internal Training Methods. As time passed, the sign of supernatural ability would appear within his body and his physical condition would also morph. But that didn’t mean that anyone with supernatural ability could enter the Inhuman level without putting in effort.

It was one thing to gain skills after entering this field, but another to enter this field because of some skills. The two concepts were fundamentally different!

Lou Cheng’s Ice and Flame supernatural abilities were awakened by his Jindan and driven by the mixed power within his body. They were different from his Frost Force and Zhu Rong Force. To enter the Inhuman stage, he still needed to polish himself with Internal Training Methods and adjust his root pulp to meet the need of his kungfu instead of his Jindan. When his supernatural abilities could mesh with Frost Force and Zhu Rong Force perfectly, he would acquire the main key to the Inhuman stage.

He withdrew all his qi, blood, spirit, and force to keep them in balance. He then released them to form a flood of power… He did this to observe what was happening within his body, especially the changes of Yin and Yang, ice and flame.

Before he knew it, the sun had risen and his surroundings became dazzlingly bright. He withdrew his stance and ended his morning exercise.

He hadn’t reached the standard of a top Sixth Pin fighter in all aspects. He still had a long way to go before he could enter the Inhuman stage.

With a calm mind, he returned to the house. He came across Ji Jianzhang and Dou Ning, who nodded at him with satisfaction.

Ji Lingxi went sailing after breakfast, leaving Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke at home. Yan Zheke returned to her room when her stomach started hurting, with Lou Cheng sneaking in with her. He laid down beside her, massaging her stomach with his warm palm.

Burying herself in the familiar chest while enjoying meticulous care, Yan Zheke felt like her pain wasn’t that bad.

She glanced at Lou Cheng and recalled her conversation with Ji Lingxi.

“Ke, are you still going abroad?”

“Of course.”

“You’re willing to leave Lou Cheng behind? You’re not, well, worried something may happen?”

“I believe in him, as well as myself.”

“Then enjoy your relationship. You only have a year and three months left.”

Yan Zheke became dejected upon recalling Ji Lingxi’s words. She couldn’t help moving closer to Lou Cheng.

She only had one year left. She should cherish each day with Lou Cheng.

…

After Yan Zheke’s pain from the first day of her period receded, she and her boyfriend followed ‘tour guide’ Ji Lingxi and had a good time in Lin Ning. On the afternoon of the 4th, they left on their return journey.

Other than Yan Zheke’s aunt, who was in Shushan Study to take care of Lin Que, her two uncles and two cousins, Lingfang and Lingyun, gave a thousand excuses to not come back and see her.

After returning to campus, Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke once again lived productive lives. Their special training remained on schedule each day and they also took on additional classes to make up for the lessons they had missed. Luckily, they had spent most of their spare time studying during the National Competition after analyzing their opponents. They managed to catch up with other classmates and good graces were within their grasp.

After the end of her last exam, Yan Zheke was about to go and wait for Lou Cheng when the monitor told her to go to the dean’s office.

She texted Lou Cheng: “Cheng, I’m going to the college office. Wait for me!” She then followed the monitor to the dean’s office, where she saw three students in the same co-cultivation plan as her.

The half-bald dean cleared his throat when he saw that everyone was gathered.

“Iven University requested to bring forward the date of the co-cultivation plan date. They hope you’ll go there in your third year, one year ahead of time. This way, you can adapt yourself to the new environment sooner and get better grades through it. We’re in favor of this suggestion…”

Seeing the opening and closing of the dean’s mouth, Yan Zheke could not digest anything he said at all. There was only one thought running through her mind.

One year ahead of time, one year ahead of time…