Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Xin Xiaoyue had attracted the attention of the Hanchi Sect when she was twelve and was accepted as a disciple. However, martial arts was just one of her many hobbies. At that time, she had her heart set on becoming a screenwriter. If she couldn’t become one, she would be a race car driver. Therefore, she had followed the steps of completing her middle and high school education before applying to the Media Studies Academy of the Capital. She was chosen to become an assistant of a famous screenwriter before she even graduated and helped to complete an exaggerated and emotional film that received high viewership despite drawing huge critiques.
This allowed her to advance quickly down the path of screenwriting. However, the subsequent developments weren’t what she had expected. Several television dramas that she worked on were badly received. After which, she had a fallout with her mentor and had fallen so low that she had to stay in a garage in the Capital. It was at this point that she suddenly recalled that she was a professional ninth-pin martial artist. She changed her job and her emotions.
Perhaps it was because she had chased after her dreams and experienced so many different obstacles. This allowed her to focus on the path of martial arts wholeheartedly and triggered a passion that was ten times more than before. When she was twenty-four, she barely made it to the Dan Stage. She quit her job and returned to the Hanchi Sect for training. When she was twenty-eight, she exceeded the expectations of her masters and seniors to become an inhuman after undergoing a major change in her root pulps.
At this point, no one believed that she would make the great leap. She had only received her fourth-pin certification at thirty years old and approaching the brink of physical invulnerability. This further attested to the viewpoints of others. Without any further pressure and attention, she pasted posters of Liang Yifan all around her room. She did not give up and had not turned to lead a comfortable life as an inhuman.
A year plus later, she faced her idol in the first match of the title competition. Under terrifying pressure and the constant stimulation of possible defeat, she shone with never-seen-before brilliance and achieved connection with the Heaven and earth.
She might have lost the match but in the path of martial arts, Xin Xiaoyue had taken the most important step. She had completely shattered the expectations of the Hanchi Sect and even the Wuyue Club.
This late bloomer expert had a rather interesting personality. One thing she was fond of doing was insulting herself. For example, she was flat-chested and her nickname on Weibo was “Xin Family’s Washing Board”. After successfully integrating some techniques from the Death Sect into the Ice Sect to accelerate the effects of some techniques of the Ice Sect, she was given the nickname of “Lethal Chill”. However, she mocked and called herself, “Quick-freezing Dumplings”...
It was always difficult to practice two schools of unique skills. It was especially so as one progressed further down the road. For example, in order to use some of the techniques of the Plague sect, one has to use the corresponding Force to drive them in order to fully draw out their full might. However, if one specialized in the Wind Sect or other techniques, a second specialization wouldn’t allow one to develop new Force. Specializing was necessary for one’s root pulp to change drastically and to become an inhuman. However, there’s a new way around it now and that was Lou Cheng “Cosmic Universe” path to achieve balance to form Dan.
Under such circumstances, martial artists in possession of three different schools of unique techniques would definitely feel sore about being able to only practice one school. Therefore, they had started exploring other methods. As they were looking for similarities and connections between techniques, they extracted the relevant portions and combined them with their martial arts. In this aspect, the Kongtong School had made exceptional achievement. After the exploration of generations of experts, they finally integrated part of the unique skills of the Plague Sect into the Wind Sect and derived several biological weapon style moves. In other words, Ren Li was able to use Hidden Scent with “Postwind Force” just by changing her visualization accordingly.
There were many other similar attempts. Techniques of similar nature might not require integration. For example, the “Force” of the Dark Sect could allow the corresponding skills of the Death Sect and the Plague Sect to be at approximately eighty percent of its original might.
The Wuyue Club almost had the complete set of the “Ice Magical Kung Fu” (Ice Sect) and parts of the “Secret Killing Manual” (Death Sect). Since its establishment, they had always explored methods of using the former as the base to integrate the latter. After several generations of experts’ work, the results had been showing recently. The first was the “Clown”, Gu Jianxi. He specialized in the Death Sect and with his exceptional intuition had reverse integrated small segments of the Ice Sect’s content. After him, there was “Spear King”, Huang Ke and other physical invulnerability experts that had developed a few techniques off it.
Xin Xiaoyue had gotten into contact with relevant content when she was still at the inhuman stage and had many personal thoughts about it. It wasn’t until she made the great leap and possessed the strength to connect with the Heaven and Earth that she perfected the integration. She had not let down the hard work by the generations of experts before her and was truly deserving of the name “Lethal Chill”
Various news about his opponent flashed passed through Lou Cheng’s mind. Lou Cheng tilted his head and looked towards the main seat of the Wuyue Club. He saw her martial senior Shi Yuejian, who was smiling and nodding her head slightly at him, before noticing the “Clown”, Gu Jianxi, whose name was overwhelming “Spear King” soon. He kept hippie-looking small braids and had all kinds of tattoos around his neck and arms. Among which, there was the famous “Clown” tattoo. What left the deepest impression on Lou Cheng was his stubborn, intractable and determined look in his eyes.
Based on statistics, the martial artist with the most wins over the last ten years against stronger opponents was none other than the “Clown”!
On this ranking board, Lou Cheng’s was also ranked. However, as compared to Gu Jianxi, he was clearly not as great. He fully agreed and loved the description the media had for him, “Born in the dark, he’s definitely more determined!”
Shifting his vision, Lou Cheng finally saw “Lethal Chill”, Xin Xiaoyue. She looked like she was in her twenties, was of average build and had a slightly brown skin tone. Seeing her opponent looking over, she opened her mouth and used a transmission technique, “Aiyoh, not too bad!”
With regard to this, Lou Cheng was speechless could only smile and nod his head.
...
At the same time, some of the media houses had already sent out instant news.
“Internal Battle of the Ice Sect!”
“Lethal Chill vs Ice-Fire Sky Shaking Roar!”
“Who would be the coldest? Who would be the strongest “Winter” Martial Artist of this generation?”
“The debut battle of the Heavenly son of the era!”
...
In the forum of Lou Cheng’s fan club, “Many Cats” asked, “[Sheepish smile expression] Just looking at their nicknames, If I was Lou Cheng, I would definitely commit suicide...”
“Is it that bad? There’s a wild beauty sense in it! [Evil laugh expression] “”Bull Demon King” replied.
“Unparalleled Dragon King” added, “[Heaving a sigh while covering face expression] Why don’t we gather the creativity of the group and help Lou Cheng come up with a better nickname?”
“Let’s not talk about this. Both of them have just made the great leap and are physical invulnerability experts from the Ice Sect. Whatever Xin Xiaoyue knows, my idol will know too. Whatever Xin Xiaoyue doesn’t know, my idol still knows. Is this a freebie opponent for him? “Brahman” asked in ecstasy.
“Unparalleled Dragon King” answered, “That’s not entirely true. I heard that Xin Xiaoyue’s Lethal Chill is really powerful. Moreover, she hasn’t used it too frequently and it hasn’t been dissected by the public. This allows her to have the surprise factor. Moreover, Lou Cheng just broke through less than three months ago. It shouldn’t be a problem for him to have gained a preliminary mastery over the Ice Sect and Fire Sect techniques if he was focusing on one. However, if he had to master both, I doubt he would have techniques that he hasn’t mastered yet.”
“Let’s not talk about these useless things. In the end, he would still win! Brahman, Brahman! Since you’ve entered high school, your words are getting more and more mature and are no longer that childish!””Eternal Nightfall” Yan Xiaoling started teasing “Brahman” after seeing Lou Cheng getting a good draw.
“Yeah, unlike someone who is forever a primary school kid. She’s the same when she does things!””Brahman” started exposing embarrassing events of Yan Xiaoling’s life. “Yesterday she went to dye her hair. In the end, she dyed her hair green!”
“There’s no such thing! I wanted to dye it a nut-brown colour. In the end...” As Yan Xiaoling was recalling about what happened the previous day, she had the lost feeling of “who am I, where am I, what did I just do”?
“Unparalleled Dragon King” was shocked. “This is the first time I heard of someone taking the initiative to dye her hair green*” he said suggestively.
“It’s alright. It’s in the trend to be “forgiving” this year!””Okamoto’s Fan” laughed. “It’s over, I have thought that Lou Cheng would definitely win. Now I’m not so sure about it. Nonetheless, we can forgive him when it happens!”
“Wah, you guys. [Cry out loud expression] I really just wanted to dye it in a nut-brown color...” answered Yan Xiaoling with a grievance. It was just that she had not paid attention when she was choosing...
Moreover, the guy dying my hair was really handsome and gentle. I’m busy peeking at him...
“Yeah yeah. How could the embarrassing thing she did be considered as dumb?””Many Cats” emulated the way of talking of a wise old man.
In an instant, everyone broke into laughter. The forum was filled with a light-hearted and joyous atmosphere as they have almost forgotten about Lou Cheng’s debut match as a physical invulnerability.
...
When the banquet ended, some people were worried about the results of the draw while others were happy. Peng Leyun and Ren Li’s luck couldn’t be considered as bad. They had both drawn a third-pin expert.
As the applause signalling the end of the banquet sounded, Lou Cheng stood up and walked in the direction of the Wuyue Club. His Martial Senior sister came late, and he hadn’t greeted her.
Shi Yuejian was waiting at her seat. When she saw Lou Cheng walking towards her, she smiled gently and spoke with him using a transmission skill,
“I heard from my Dad that you’ve killed two physical invulnerability experts together with Ren Li. This wouldn’t be your first time fighting another physical invulnerability expert and I don’t have to worry about you.”
She had an easy-going personality. Although she loved martial arts, she did not like to be constantly at odds with others, let alone going through a life or death battle. Up until today, she hadn’t claimed any lives. This was also probably the reason why she was stuck at the edge of a third-pin ranking.
As for “Martial Arts Fanatic”, Guo Jie, her talents weren’t too great. Depending on her fanaticism she’d barely made the great leap. After four years, she finally reached the bare minimum of second-pin.
“That’s because of great timing, great location and great teammates.,” answered Lou Cheng humbly.
After chatting with him for a while, Shi Yuejian reminded him in a serious tone, “You must definitely be careful of Xiaoyue’s Lethal Chill.”
From the tone of Martial Senior sister, is “Lethal Chill” more powerful than I have expected? Lou Cheng nodded his head with a stern expression and said, “Thank you Martial Senior Sister for your reminder.”
After separating, Lou Cheng returned to the hotel with the crowd of Longhu. He entered the room and started chatting with Yan Zheke, who was taking a break between her lessons, about the opening match.
“How is it? Are you confident?” Yan Zheke knew that Lou Cheng had definitely watched the battle videos of Xin Xiaoyue for the most recent year.
“Hmm. To keep it simple, I’ll be giving my all in it!” Lou Cheng expressed his inner thoughts to Yan Zheke.
He had even attempted to look for competition videos of Xin Xiaoyue a few years ago and attempted to deduce information regarding “Lethal Chill” from her progress of integrating Ice Sect and Death Sect techniques together.
“Yeah.” Yan Zheke nodded her head before continuing, “Aiya, so infuriating! Why must the competition be in the afternoon? I have no chance of watching it!”
It happened to be in the middle of the night!
“It’s fine and it isn’t direct elimination if I lose. Moreover, she might have a surprise but so do I.,” Lou Cheng tried to console her wife.
“Alright...” answered Yan Zheke as she looked down at her nails.
...
The next day afternoon. It was two fifty-five the afternoon in Jiu Qu City and one fifty-five at night in Connecticut.
A sharp sound sounded and Yan Zheke woke up from her dreams. After a few seconds of shock, she finally recalled what day it was.
She snoozed the alarm on her phone and rubbed her face. In a staggering way, she ran to the washroom to wash her face with cold water.
After which, she took out her tablet, sat against the pillow, found a live stream website and started the buffering process.
After a short wait, she saw the battlefield on Jiangxin Island and the spectators sitting on spectating ships around the island. Finally, she saw Lou Cheng who was wearing a navy blue martial arts suit and standing opposite to Xin Xiaoyue.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the opening match of this year’s “Master” competition will be starting soon between Lou Cheng from the Longhu Club and Xin Xiaoyue from the Wuyue Club. They are both third-pin physical invulnerability experts!”
The commentator’s voice sounded and a small arc appeared on Yan Zheke face.
...
On Jiangxin Island, cheers of “Lou Cheng” were reverberating through the surrounding.
“You are pretty popular.” Xin Xiaoyue complimented with a light smile.
She was over thirty meters away from Lou Cheng. However with their hearing skills, they would be able to hear everything clearly as if they just spoke a little louder. Naturally, this would also be picked up by the recording machines used for live streaming.
Lou Cheng was about to reply when the referee raised his right arm, swung it down and said, “The conversation time starts now!”
He was standing quite far apart and had intended to linger near the edge of the battlefield in a while.
At this point, Xin Xiaoyue opened her mouth and asked with curiously, “I heard that you could withstand an environment below a hundred and thirteen degrees for quite a long time. Is that true?”
“Let’s talk about it in a while.” Lou Cheng smiled gently and started making preparations for his visualization.
Xin Xiaoyue looked on with a lost look until a faint purple fireball was formed around Lou Cheng and started circulating around him.
This is the “Nine Rotations of Five Flames. Descend Of The Sun”? Xin Xiaoyue accurately determined the move. However, the doubts in her mind were getting stronger and stronger.
Didn’t they say that the “Five Flames” are very exhausting on the mind and places an extremely huge burden on one’s body?
Didn’t they say that the Longhu’s physical invulnerability experts would only use this move in an intensely contested battle because he would be wasting strength if he missed after accumulating so much power?
Why did Lou Cheng start using it during the conversation?
Xin Xiaoyue and the spectating audience were all shocked by what they saw. Slowly, a faint purple, a gold, a dazzling white, a light blue and scorching red fireball formed around Lou Cheng and revolved around him like satellites. They were in a steady state and started revolving in balance. Lou Cheng was just like a deity that had descended to the world, causing abnormally to the surrounding as he did so. It was then that he asked with shock and curiosity, “There’s such a way to use this move?”