Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
It was Sunday morning. Lou Cheng stood still beside Weishui Lake with his eyes closed. His body was undulating like water ripples in a near indiscernible manner.
The surrounding winds sounded very soft. They were joined with the coldness, wetness, and freshness from last night’s heavy rain, and they made everything appear incredibly peaceful and tranquil.
It was at this moment Lou Cheng moved his left leg inwards, flicked his waist and punched out with his right fist as if he was holding an invisible club.
Pa!
The fist struck thin air, and the quiet wind abruptly burst into waves of rippling wails. Compared to before, they were now tainted with bone-chilling coldness. A translucent glow appeared out of nowhere, covering the ground in a meter’s radius with a sheet of thin, silver frost. The further out the ice spread, the smoother they appeared.
This dream-like scenery that went against the law of seasons stayed for a full three seconds before finally disappearing. Lou Cheng himself couldn’t quite believe his eyes when he opened his eyes and saw this.
Was this the might of his unique version of ‘Severe Warning’?
Although he could only use this one time without a full rest and sleep, not even an Eighth Pin Dan stage fighter could have withstood a blow like this, could they?
After working to improve his skill and perfecting the difficult process of ‘imitation’ for almost a whole week, he had finally completed the fusion between ‘Thunder Cloud’ and ‘Ice-Bound.’ He could declare that he had invented the completely new visualization method called ‘Fallen Sun of Ice and Thunder’. He had also mastered the changes of the muscles, fascia, and innards corresponding to this method through lots of work.
This also meant that he had mastered the first step of his simplified physical invulnerable move, ‘Severe Warning.’ Right now, the biggest problem he faced was that he hadn’t familiarized himself with the skill and could not use it with a great degree of flexibility just yet!
“It’s slightly slower than Frost Force, but the match would be a piece of cake if I could find the opportunity to give Zhou Zhengquan a shot...” Lou Cheng thought happily to himself.
Although he had simplified ‘Severe Warning’ into a martial art that could be triggered with only one visualization diagram, and it was now no longer necessary to alternate and combine two visualization diagrams to execute ‘Severe Warning,’ he had just mastered the first step. This meant that he needed time to prepare before he could execute the technique. Therefore, he would have to prepare a ‘trap’ beforehand and use his excellent improvisation skills to create the opportunity to use it!
This would be something beyond Zhou Zhengquan’s expectations. He would not be prepared for it!
For now, Lou Cheng couldn’t determine the exact might of ‘Severe Warning’ since he hadn’t used it in real combat yet.
He grew excited and eager the moment he thought of the completion of his killer move, the match later this afternoon and the proverbial fight between dragons and tigers. He inhaled once before speaking eagerly to Geezer Shi beside him.
“Master, I’m going on a jog!”
Once he had taken an hour of deep, afternoon nap, then the only thing left to do was to wait for the match to begin!
“Go.” Geezer Shi waved his hand gruffly.
It was only when Lou Cheng departed the scene excitedly that he sighed with a smile on his face and shook his head,
“Youth...”
...
At slightly over two in the afternoon, Yan Zheke finished tidying her stuff and put on her black-trimmed white martial arts suit’. She got ready to leave with a little bit of anxiety and excitement.
It was at this moment Li Liantong closed the computer and cried out hastily,
“Ke, wait for me! We’ll go together!”
“You’re heading over this early?” Yan Zheke knew that her roommate was planning to watch the match and cheer for the Martial Arts Club too, but she didn’t expect her to depart this early.
Li Liantong had purposely changed into a short-sleeved t-shirt, a pair of jeans and sports shoes for the occasion. She pointed at herself and smiled. “That’s because I feel like I fell in love with the atmosphere of a martial arts competition! Don’t you think this outfit suits me well?”
The feeling where everyone was working together towards a goal, the atmosphere where one could vent themselves fully without fear of attention, and the excitement when singing and shouting for victory; she loved and yearned all of them.
There, she could become a different Li Liantong!
“It looks fine. Actually, you’d feel a greater sense of participation if you wear a similar martial arts suit.” Yan Zheke answered the question seriously first before looking her roommate up and down. She teased her. “Dirty Tong, hmm, are you possessed or something? I’m pretty sure you don’t really like martial arts at the beginning. I thought dirty talk and yaoi are your true loves?”
“People will change!” Li Liantong said with a straight face, “A gentle, quiet and sunny girl like me needs a hobby that’s slightly masculine to harmonize—pah! I mean to counteract my disposition!”
Zong Yanru had turned her head around to listen to them since a while ago, and she scoffed the moment she heard this. “Dirty Tong, you’re growing more and more suspicious now!”
“What do you mean suspicious? Look, I’ve even prepared a cheering trumpet and a balloon hammer!” Li Liantong pulled out her ‘weaponry’.
Yan Zheke pursed her lips into a smile and spoke with the bearing of a famous detective,
“That makes you even more suspicious!”
“Yeah, yeah! Dirty Tong, you’ve never been this proactive and eager about martial arts competition before!” Shi Xiangyang smiled meaningfully while lying at the edge of the bed, saying, “Did you have a crush for a fighter or something?”
Li Liantong stared at her three roommates with an indignant look. “Am I really such a person in your minds?”
“Yes, you are!” Yan Zheke, Zong Yanru and Shi Xiangyang answered in unison.
“Seriously, I have fallen in love with martial arts competition. Haven’t I been watching your preliminaries all this time? I was touched by Lin Que and your Cheng’s performance, and I was attracted by the atmosphere surrounding a competition. Ke, trust me, I’m this close from becoming your martial art club’s die-hard fan!” Li Liangtong spoke her mind in a joking tone.
Yan Zheke finally stopped teasing her and gave her a faint smile, saying,
“You’re welcome~!”
It feels so good when someone supports you, especially when it’s your close roommate!
It was at this moment Li Liantong’s eyes swirled as she tossed her serious look to the back of her mind and chuckled. “Ke, you kidnapped Cheng because you were close to him to begin with. I won’t fight you for him since we’re good roomies. Now, does Lin Que have a girlfriend?”
“I knew it! I knew that you have a scheme in mind!” Zong Yanru broke into laughter.
Shi Xiangyang also rubbed her cheeks and said, “I knew it too; that’s why Dirty Tong from before was such a strange sight. But this is the true Dirty Tong I know of!”
“Close to Cheng to begin with... I wonder why it sounds weird when this comes out of Dirty Tong’s mouth... Thank goodness they didn’t know that Lin Que is my cousin yet...” Yan Zheke thought as she pursed her lips into a smile and said,
“Forget it, Dirty Tong. Lin Que’s... attitude isn’t something that the average person can get used to.”
She let out a sudden sigh when she said this. As his sister, of course, she wanted her cousin to have a happier life. But...
Li Liantong didn’t pay it any mind. She raised her balloon hammer and said, “Do I look like the average person to you?”
After the joke, she beckoned Zong Yanru and Shi Xiangyang to join her seriously.
“Ru, Pak Choi, let’s go together!”
Let’s go and cheer for the Martial Arts Club!
...
Inside the art institute’s female dorm, Wu Qian finished her makeup and asked her roomies,
“Are you girl going to watch the match?”
“I’m busy...” “I don’t want to get off my bed, so you’ll have to save the lovey-dovey show for someone else...” Two of the girls immediately raised their objections.
They had only watched the Martial Arts Club’s competition at the beginning due to a sense of novelty.
Another gentle and quiet girl wearing a pair of spectacles with big frames hastily tidied her stuff and said, “Wu Qian, I, I’d like to go with you!”
“You’re going, Yanxi?” Earlier Wu Qian had predicted their reactions, and she thought that Fan Yanxi was the most unlikely person to agree to her invitation. After all, she was walking the path of a gentle and quiet artist.
Fan Yanxi nodded thoughtfully and said,
“Yeah, I quite like watching the Martial Arts Club compete.”
Wu Qian cast her a doubtful glance, but she refrained from asking any further and smiled faintly.
“Alright, be quick. I’ll wait for you.”
“Mm!” Fan Yanxi nodded heavily.
She would cheer for the Martial Arts Club today!
...
As usual, Yan Xiaoling cooped herself inside her bed and swiftly entered live stream website on her computer. At the same time, she was looking at the data ‘Unparalleled Dragon King’ provided her and the ones she found herself.
Although she often commented in a self-depreciating manner on the forum, saying that she was fine for not knowing anything and her job was to play the role of a smitten girl, in reality she was a very earnest and hardworking girl. She had been cramming martial arts knowledge into her brain all this time in an attempt to catch up to her forum friends’ footsteps.
I can’t always rely on self-depreciation to maintain my moderator status!
I’ll cheer for Lou Cheng and Songcheng University Martial Arts Club later with all my heart!
...
Inside Songcheng University martial arts arena, Shu Rui sat at the reporter’s seat and looked at the interview notice on her cell phone’s notepad. She let out a distressed sigh.
She could feel a headache coming the moment she recalled that she was going to interview that Lin Que.
Her glowing cell phone screen was displaying a few lines of words,
“Lin Qie, a martial arts fanatic...”
“He’s not difficult to talk to if he wins. He could be led to speak about the details of the match. But if he loses, then...”
While Shu Rui thoughts were all over the place, she suddenly felt the noisy spectator’s grandstand fall silent for an instant.
She instinctively looked towards the main entrance. There, she saw Zhou Zhengquan leading the way into the martial arts arena while clad in a black traditional Chinese clothing with red patterns on it. His temperament was kindly, and his bearing was calm. His presence had subdued the relatively few crowd in an instant.
Behind Zhou Zhengquan, Hou Yue, Zhuo Yanjun, Li Shengnan and other fighters filed into the arena.
On 19th May 2:46 p.m., Donglin Squad officially arrived at Songcheng University martial arts arena!
This was the final match of the Songcheng division quarterfinals!