Meng Chao, on the other end of the phone, let out a sigh of relief.
That way, Yan Feirou would definitely take his private message seriously, right?
With that in mind, Meng Chao wrote at great length, copying out from fragments of memory a large amount of the future Ripple Force's profound principles, along with all sorts of half-understood formulas and force-transmission algorithms.
When he finished copying, he had no idea what he had written himself.
No matter. I don't understand it, but the Ripple Princess definitely will. And if she doesn't, there's still her father and grandfather!
After finishing the theory, Meng Chao brought out the props.
He placed his phone on a stand, turned on recording mode, and prepared to use the future Ripple Force to shake pork into minced meat.
"Ripple Princess? Behold the true ripple!" Meng Chao grinned.
He had forgotten something.
His phone was still connected to the television, and the television was still on.
Moreover, the interface for donors differed from that of ordinary viewers, with a dazzling level-up and flower-scattering effect.
Once the amount reached a certain threshold, a line of colorful words would pop up: "Thank you, so-and-so, for donating such-and-such an amount."
Thus, Bai Jiacao, waiting in the living room for dinner, saw through the television that her brother—usually tightfisted to the extreme—had donated one million livestream coins to that big sister from earlier.
The little girl counted on her fingers for ages before figuring out that it was a full ten thousand yuan, enough to keep the household going for three months.
She shot three feet into the air and slammed into Meng Chao's room.
There, she saw her brother wearing a cryptic smile, staring unblinkingly at his phone while clutching a huge lump of pork.
The little girl was struck as if by lightning.
Meng Chao's face darkened as he glared at Bai Jiacao.
He wondered why the little girl had been acting so strangely today, jumping at every little thing. Could he really have scolded her silly?
Thinking that, he felt his expression was too fierce and hurriedly worked his facial muscles into several kindly smiles. "Little sis, what is it?"
Bai Jiacao clutched her chest, suppressing the urge to scream.
In that instant, the precocious Black Night Witch thought of many, many things—and then even more.
She swallowed with difficulty, shook her head slightly, and bowed deeply, apologizing for her recklessness.
Then, lowering her head, she backed out step by step, gently, slowly, and considerately closing the door behind her without making the slightest sound.
At a corner of Dragon City University's martial arts grounds, Yan Feirou had just finished her public lesson when her classmates and assistants burst into cheers.
"Long live! Your popularity score went up another 15% from the last class. Feirou, you're getting more popular by the day."
"We're ranked thirteenth on the popularity chart now, more popular than videos of plenty of experts hunting monsters. Even Professor Wang's online livestream classes from our department have been surpassed by Feirou!"
The students clicked their tongues in amazement.
Yan Feirou smiled. "You can't compare them like that. Professor Wang's Listening Cicada Force is an extremely sophisticated advanced force technique. Many university students can't make heads or tails of it, let alone ordinary viewers, who are completely lost in clouds and mist. Our Ripple Force, on the other hand, is an introductory force technique suitable for young and old alike, so naturally it has a broader audience."
"Don't be modest. Professor Wang praised you yesterday, saying that as long as someone masters your Yan Family Ripple, then practices his Listening Cicada Force, they'll advance a thousand miles in a day." A girl who looked very good at handling people laughed.
Then her phone rang. She glanced down, and her eyes lit up. "Look, the president of our Martial Arts Research Association heard Feirou's public class set another popularity record and can't wait to treat us to dinner in celebration!"
"Is he treating all of us, or just the Ripple Princess?" The students laughed and teased one another.
Yan Feirou blushed, and the girl continued, "Naturally, he's treating everyone. I heard there'll also be some friends from outside society. Looks like they want to launch Feirou as their golden signboard."
Dragon City University had been a university among universities, even in the Earth Era.
Dragon City University students were Heaven's Chosen. Before they even graduated, all kinds of social associations, squads, companies, and factions would extend olive branches to them. They had long grown accustomed to it and did not regard themselves as ordinary students.
After considering it, Yan Feirou felt that this sort of business partnership would greatly benefit the promotion of her family's Ripple Force, so she could not refuse.
"Alright. You go ahead first and tell the president. I'll head back to the dorm to freshen up."
After saying goodbye to her classmates, Yan Feirou walked while scrolling through her phone, checking the results of her lesson just now.
Very soon, she saw a private message from "Fire-Passing Old Man."
Since he was a wealthy big shot, it was best not to offend him if possible.
Yan Feirou opened the private message, intending to brush him off with a few words.
But when she saw string after string of abstruse, intricate formulas, she could not help laughing out loud.
These days, it was all about the eyeball economy; traffic was everything. There was nothing secretive about introductory force techniques.
Especially Ripple Force. The Education Bureau had long spent a fortune purchasing its intellectual property rights and began popularizing it from elementary school onward. The original force formulas and breathing tips were printed clearly in textbooks.
All kinds of "demonically modified versions," "evolved versions," and "upgraded versions" were even more overwhelming than a sky-covering net with a simple online search.
However, Yan Family Ripple was the source of Ripple Force, and it had continually refined itself to ever greater perfection, releasing the newest version every year.
Anyone who wanted to pick bones out of an egg in the Yan Family's meticulously crafted "Ripple Force formulas" probably did not exist anywhere in Dragon City.
The Yan family had encountered similar situations many times before. One after another, people who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth would bring their own fabricated Breathing Techniques and force formulas to the Yan family and boast shamelessly, "Your Ripple Force has these flaws. You can modify it this way."
Heh. On Earth, people like that were called "folk scientists," or "folk sci" for short.
They were all self-deceiving showboats, not worth taking seriously.
"He spent a full ten thousand yuan just to make me evaluate this folk-science version of Ripple Force?" Yan Feirou shook her head. She truly could not understand how rich people thought.
For the sake of that ten-thousand-yuan donation, Yan Feirou decided to give Fire-Passing Old Man thirty seconds.
She could only look at such fanciful force formulas for thirty seconds. One second more would dirty her eyes.
Thinking this, Yan Feirou stood by the roadside, rapidly swiping through her phone and casually reading on.
Ten seconds later, her swiping slowed.
Twenty seconds later, her beautiful eyes gradually widened, and her gaze slowly froze.
Thirty seconds later, her cherry lips had opened wider and wider, enough to fit a peach inside.
Forty seconds later, Yan Feirou stumbled back several steps, her legs going weak. She had to lean against the wall just to barely remain standing.
Fifty seconds later, the Ripple Princess's heart pounded wildly, and she could not calm herself for a long time.
A full minute later, she opened her chat app with mixed feelings and sent a message to the Dragon City University Martial Arts Research Association group chat: "Sorry, I have something to do tonight. I can't make it."
"What?"
Everyone was shocked. "Feirou, you're the main character here. What's the point if you don't come?"
The Martial Arts Research Association's president also asked, "Feirou, what happened? Tonight, I invited some friends from the Gale Squad and Thundercloud Gene Company. It'll be very beneficial for our development after graduation. Aren't you coming over to talk?"
"There is something. Something as urgent as a blazing fire." Yan Feirou gritted her teeth.
Very soon, a senior from the Martial Arts Research Association came looking for her.
"Junior Sister?" Seeing Yan Feirou's absent-minded appearance, the senior was greatly shocked.
"Senior Brother Zhao." Yan Feirou forced a smile.
Senior Zhao Nan was not only a student one year above her, but also the personal disciple of her father, Yan Zhennan, and one of the finest members of the third generation of Yan Family Ripple.
The two of them were proper senior and junior martial siblings, so their relationship was naturally far from ordinary.
"Perfect timing, Senior Brother. Look at this—look carefully." Yan Feirou handed him her phone.
Zhao Nan lowered his head for one look and immediately frowned. "Which folk martial artist's wild fantasy is this?"
Yan Feirou said, "Keep reading and you'll know."
"Mm, I'm reading it. It's written rather convincingly. Unlike ordinary folk martial artists—eh, this Breathing Technique is somewhat interesting. It imitates the essence of our Yan Family Ripple quite well, and it even vainly tries to go a step further based on our foundation. A toad yawning—what a huge mouth he has."
Zhao Nan continued reading. "The derivation process for this string of formulas is fairly rigorous. It uses the N-S equations to solve the entire process of force traveling from the soles of the feet to the fingertips, clearly explaining the separation and high-speed rotation of force flow. And this—the mutual interference between shock waves and boundary layers leading to imbalanced force application. He gives seven unknown stress terms to close the problem. That is quite an original approach. Mm, this, this—eh, and this too? He points out several loopholes in the current Ripple Force. It seems... it seems they really do exist?"
The more Zhao Nan read, the more he trembled. Cold sweat poured down his body, and he could barely stand.
"This is—"
His eyes were blank, as though he were looking through Yan Feirou and the teaching building, staring at the end of the horizon. "Who sent this?"
"There's also a short video below. Take a look." Yan Feirou did her best to suppress her trembling.
Zhao Nan opened the video.
He saw a person whose face and body were covered in mosaic blur, with only both arms exposed. The person held a piece of pork in one hand and a block of silken tofu in the other.
The person continuously exerted force, shaking the pork until it became tender and crumbly while leaving the silken tofu completely unharmed.
"Such control!
"When ordinary people use Ripple Force, the greatest problem is that they cannot control the wave-like force surging through their entire bodies. Either neither hand exerts force, or both hands exert force together.
"This expert's left half is vibrating at ultra-high speed, completely concentrating the force of muscular tremors into his left hand. In only half a minute, he shook the pork apart, while the silken tofu in his right hand was barely disturbed at all. This level of precise force control means he has truly mastered Ripple Force!"
Zhao Nan cried out.
Yan Feirou nodded. "Look more carefully. Whose technique is this?"
Zhao Nan slowed the playback to one-third speed and watched it again. The more he watched, the more astonished he became.
"This looks like our Yan Family Ripple technique. No, it's mixed with the essence of at least seven or eight other schools, along with many subtle adjustments I've never even heard of. I haven't seen them even with Master. How is that possible?"
"That's right."
Yan Feirou said, "This is a supreme Ripple Force built upon Yan Family Ripple, gathering the strengths of every school. But that isn't even the strangest part. Look carefully behind the mosaic blur at the clothes this person is wearing."
Zhao Nan stared at the video so intensely it seemed his eyes would bleed before he finally noticed.
"A school uniform?"
He blurted out, "This is a Dragon City high school uniform? Could the person using this Ripple Force be a high school student?"
Before you continue