Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Inside the dormitory, Li Liantong and Zong Yanru were watching Lou Cheng’s exclusive interview with great interest. This was the first time they saw someone they know on television—random interviews by netizens and brief after match thoughts excluded.
“He’s slightly different from the Cheng that Ke usually speaks of...” Li Liantong smiled while watching.
The moment Ke brought up her boyfriend, the one word she used the most was dumb-looking!
Zong Yanru nodded too and said, “He didn’t feel quite the same as Ke described when he treated us to lunch last time either.”
The duo’s relationship was the main point of interaction during that lunch treat. At the time, Lou Cheng had displayed his witty, humorous, caring and generous side to them. Meanwhile, the majority of the questions in the broadcasted exclusive interview were all martial arts related. It was also the area Lou Cheng was most familiar and impressive in. When he spoke his confidence was high and his tone was steady and kind. While he still showed a hint of inexperience and shyness from his demeanor, and the radiance he exuded could no longer be denied. It made a comparative impact on the half strangers who had only met him a couple of times and watched him fight on challenge tournaments.
Li Liantong opened her mouth. Originally, she was going to crack a dirty joke, but in the end, it transformed into a rueful sigh.
“Ke sure has good tastes...”
“Yeah.” Zong Yanru couldn’t help but add too when she recalled her knowledge of Lou Cheng and the impression she had gotten when they met for a couple of times.
...
Yan Xiaoling sat at the second-row seat near the windows inside the classroom. The books on her table had already been piled into a book castle.
She rested her chin on one hand, pretended to brush her hair with the other and pressed an earplug each to her ears. She glanced sideways to the edge of her drawer with a tried and tested posture as she foolishly and happily watched the exclusive interview.
This was a pleasant surprise!
At first, she was simply planning to refresh the forum and watch the results of the draw. She wasn’t expecting anything to happen at all. However, to her surprise, Songcheng TV station made a piece of ‘big news’ and broadcasted that exclusive interview that had been teased since a long time ago.
“Heya, this is the first time I see Lou Cheng speak so many words.” Yan Xiaoling smiled so brightly that her eyes had turned into slits.
The entire exclusive interview wasn’t too different from her expectations. One could see clearly that Lou Cheng wasn’t a fighter with an exceptionally distinct character. His personal style was less defined, and he looked like your average ‘mature’ boy. Although he was very confident, collected and dazzling, one of his personal traits was that he lacked a wow factor.
Simply put, Yan Xiaoling thought that Lou Cheng was the kind of ‘neighbor’s boy’ that matched up with her warm and caring first impression of him. He had not disappointed her.
When she thought up to this point, she sent a message to ‘Brahman’ and purposely provoked her. “Lou Cheng doesn’t seem to have a mysterious temperament, doncha think?”
She had even purposely complemented the message with a ‘weeping’ emoji.
The Brahman quickly replied her, “I’m not the kid I was before a long time ago. I like anything that my idol likes!”
Right after that, she added,
“Call me daddy btw, you cheeky girl!”
“What do you mean you’re not a kid since a long time ago? It’s only been slightly more than three months!” Yan Xiaoling roasted her inwardly. She was just about to press her display key when she suddenly felt a chill in her heart. She discovered that the light on her cell phone seemed to be covered up by a shadow.
Without batting an eyelid, she stuffed her cell phone back into the drawer and covered her ears up once more. She immediately saw a shadow at the corner of her eyes outside the window right after.
The homeroom teacher was like a phantom!
...
The lake reflected the remaining lights from the school building beneath the night sky. Ripples appeared on its surface as a slightly cool night wind brushed by.
“You recorded this exclusive interview before Valentine’s Day, didn’t you?” Yan Zheke held onto Lou Cheng’s hand and shook it like a swing.
“Yeah.” Lou Cheng smiled as he admired the liveliness the girl had often displayed as of late.
Of course, she looked no different from before in front of other people.
Yan Zheke stopped the childish action and sighed ruefully all of a sudden. “It’s only been more than two months, and you’ve changed so much since the interview back then. I can’t help but feel that the start of the term is a distant memory.”
It was similar to how she felt that they had associated with each other for a very, very long time. She felt as if they’d been together for so long that she had gotten used to her boyfriend’s breath and temperature.
She was too embarrassed to point this out, so instead, she smiled and said, “The preliminaries have done you lots of help, I see~”
He had become more mature, more confident and more responsible!
“You know what I think?” Lou Cheng smiled and turned to look at the girl’s clear, bright eyes. “I think it’s mainly because I got a girlfriend.”
It made him mature in more ways than just on top of the ring!
A blush appeared on Yan Zheke’s face as she turned her head sideways and spoke as if it was through her gritting teeth,
“Now, this is the change. Your face has gotten thicker and thicker every day!”
There wasn’t the slightest hint of anger within her scolding tone at all. Lou Cheng hid a snicker and pulled the girl over to him. He released her hand and circled it around her slim waist instead. This was the way he liked to walk with her as of late.
...
Wensheng Mountain, Donglin City.
At the back of this holiday resort that resided on a land that was proverbially worth over a thousand pounds of gold, there were many ancient buildings eroded by time that were scattered across this paint-like scenery. It complemented well with the quiet and tranquil night scene of the mountains.
The lights in one particular building were up and bright. They illuminated many rows of bookshelves, a table covered in promotional papers, and a young man dressed in the black traditional Chinese clothing with red patterns.
He looked to be about twenty years old. Right now, he was suspending his wrist, holding a pen and paying full concentration in writing many words that showed his impressive but hidden talent.
“Senior brother Zhou, are you not interested in checking out the result of the draw?” Two female guests were sitting on the other side of the study. One of them had a ponytail, and a pair of thick, black but tidy eyebrows. She was relatively beautiful.
Zhou Zhengquan’s breathing didn’t change, and his writing didn’t fall into disorder because of the distraction as he said leisurely.
“What’s the point of worrying about the draw result? It’s not like we can force those old men to restart the whole thing if we drew Monday, can we?”
There was only one rule in the draw of the preliminaries and knockout matches, and that was teams could not be put into the same group. There was no such thing as the first or second team, and just about anything could happen in this tournament. That was why it was so exciting.
After he said that, he laughed. “Junior sister Ye, you aren’t worried about the Yanling division draw ceremony either, are you? You took sister Jiang Lan over to idle around after all.”
The person who spoke just now was none other than Ye Youting from ‘Yiye Martial Arts School’, Yanling. Their family shared a relatively deep past with ‘Wensheng School’, and they both belonged under one of the twelve greatest forces of current times, ‘Xuanwu School’. The core of their martial arts both originated from ‘Heavenly Water Sutra’ (Unique Skill of Water Sect) and ‘Xuanwu Divine Sword’. Therefore, they called each other senior brothers, junior brothers, senior sisters or junior sisters when they interacted with each other.
“Who said I wasn’t worried? Isn’t it a week away?” Ye Youting threw a disdainful glance at Zhou Zhengquan.
She had repeated this three times already. Senior brother Zhou obviously paid it no mind!
The Yanling division was a little huge, and there were more participating teams here than Songcheng. Since the group competition had two extra rounds the draw ceremony was also delayed by a week. Ye .’ was idle and had nothing to do, so when she roughly recalled that ‘Wensheng School’ also had a team participating in the preliminaries that had successfully advanced to the next stage, she decided that she might as well invite Jiang Lan on a short-term trip and exchange opinions with each other.
The gentle and refined Jiang Lan also let out a laugh and said, “I’m looking forward to your expression if we really drew Monday.”
She was slightly older than Zhou Zhengquan, so after they mingled she took up the elder sister position of the group.
Speaking of which, ‘Monday Squad’ was a strong team with the ability to compete for the second stage of the preliminaries. They were pretty famous within this circle.
“And what expression would I have? I can only take it and leave it, can’t I?” The tip of Zhou Zhengquan’s pen didn’t falter in the least. The style of his calligraphy was heavy and impressive. “At the worst, we’ll just have to wait for another year. On the other hand, their team would probably fall apart if they still couldn’t get out of the second stage this time. Wang Sheng and Li Menglong’s hands are filled with invitations from Nanbei district contest clubs and other city teams who planned to build a three or four-man Dan stage team for the Nanbei district contest since a long time ago.”
“Isn’t their motto to take root in Songcheng, and be as steadfast as brothers?” Ye Youting let the line slip out of her mouth. She felt a little bit of amusement and disdain towards her opponents, but there was also some pity and sadness mixed within as well.
Was their dream finally going to bow to reality?
Zhou Zhengquan’s weasel hair brush came to a pause as he picked up a white towel, wiped his palm and let out a sigh. “It can’t be helped. Songcheng may be huge, but its space is finite after all. Songcheng is satisfied with just those two teams from ‘Eternal’.”
While he was speaking, a series of footsteps came from outside the door. Hou Yue leaped into the room and said happily, “Senior brother Zhou, the results are out!”
“Looks like it’s good news.” Zhou Zhengquan smiled and looked at his junior brother.
He secretly let out a sigh of relief while Ye Youting and Jiang Lan weren’t paying attention.
He could accept bad draw results, but he couldn’t lose his elegant demeanor!
Hou Yue answered with a beaming smile, “It’s not bad. We got Songcheng University Martial Arts Club!”
“Songcheng University Martial Arts Club?” Ye Youting experienced an epiphany and asked subconsciously,
“Songcheng University Martial Arts Club?”
There were some defeats that one could forget in the blink of an eye, and there were some defeats that remained as fresh as yesterday!
Beside her, Jiang Lan’s interest had also been piqued as she waited for the answer in anticipation.
“Yeah, you should recognize one of their leading players, senior sister Ye. He had participated in the Warrior Sage Challenge Tournament before!” Hou Yue could vaguely remember a rough outline of the profile.
Ye Youting inhaled once and asked,
“Lou Cheng?”
Is he one of the Songcheng University Martial Arts Club’s leading players now? He should have gotten a Professional Ninth Pin certificate already, shouldn’t he?
“I knew that senior sister Ye would recognize him!” Hou Yue was like a monkey who was inflicted with ADHD that couldn’t quieten down no matter what.
Lou Cheng led Songcheng University Martial Arts Club as one of its leading players and entered the knockout stages? Ye Youting couldn’t hide her curiosity as she asked further,
“Junior brother Hou, how strong is Lou Cheng now?”
She knew that Hou Yue was extremely prideful despite looking like a flighty person, and he did have the right to be proud considering that he had become a Professional Ninth Pin fighter before eighteen years old.
Abruptly, Hou Yue withdrew the smile on his face and said with rare sense of gravity,
“Very, very strong.”
After he said this, he couldn’t help but add again,
“He’s very strong!”
This was the answer of her proud junior brother Hou Yue? For a time, Ye Youting actually forgot how to breathe.
...
When he returned to the dormitory, Lou Cheng began flipping through the Donglin Squad’s profile.
Their members were bred in ‘Wensheng School’, and their martial arts originated from the ‘Fly Fall Punch’ of the ‘Unique Skill of Water Sect’. Their oldest member was the twenty-four years old Zhuo Yanjun, a Professional Ninth Pin fighter, whereas their youngest member was the not-quite-eighteen-years-old Hou Yue who was also a Professional Ninth Pin fighter. Their leading player was Zhou Zhengquan, a Professional Eighth Pin fighter who hadn’t reached twenty-one years old yet. Last but not least, there was also a twenty-three years old Professional Ninth Pin fighter Li Shengnan.
“This is a very strong and very young team...” Lou Cheng forgot that he was just nineteen years old. He also forgot that not one leading player and substitute in Songcheng University Martial Arts Club was over twenty-two years old.
...
The moon hung quietly atop the mountains, and the night wind seeped quietly into the people’s ears.
Jiang Lan closed her laptop and exhaled quietly. Right now the emotions boiling up inside her were extremely discomforting, and so she stood up, opened the door and walked into the winding corridor.
The core force of the Ice Sect... a limitless Tremor Punch... Lou Cheng’s massive improvement caused a little bit of indescribable fear in her heart.
She had learned the Tremor Punch only a year after reaching Dan stage, and she was still in the process of figuring out the ‘Force’!
“Just how long has it been?” She subconsciously cast a glance at Ye Youting’s room, and to her astonishment she found her best friend staring out of the window with a blank look in her eyes.