Touch, Just Touch

Two simple words made Han Shuangjiang's breath catch.

It had rained heavily last night, but today was fine weather.

The sky was clear for miles, sunlight blazing bright.

This Fox Face stood bathed in the light, calmly giving that answer, then flashed her a grin.

This World Protagonist, still in her "newbie protection period," felt her whole body tense up slightly.

"Even when he was still an ordinary person, he'd already killed someone?"

The inner shock this brought far exceeded that of a cultivator killing someone!

Under her full, swelling chest, her heart began to race.

So much so that in her daze, Han Shuangjiang didn't even notice Chu Huai Xu walking on ahead.

"What are you standing there dumb for? Let's go," he called out.

The cold-faced girl pressed her lips together, her body instinctively hurrying to catch up, quite obedient.

Realizing this, she quickly slowed her steps.

Chu Huai Xu glanced at her from the corner of his eye and couldn't help but smile.

Medicine Mountain was one of the three peaks of the outer sect, roughly divided into three areas.

You could think of them as: the spirit herb zone, the residential zone, and the living services and commercial zone.

In the outer sect, senior Registered Disciples would sometimes teach mortal martial arts to others.

Originally, the outer sect's Scripture Pavilion had set up four magical formations to screen out the best of the Aperture Opening Stage and provide them with high-quality techniques.

This wasn't because the Dao Sect was stingy and unwilling to share good things with everyone.

It was purely because the higher the technique's rank, the greater its difficulty coefficient. If one's aptitude wasn't up to par and they forced it, they'd only end up harming themselves.

But who would have thought—where there's a policy from above, there's a countermeasure from below.

A small group realized that mortal martial arts actually had something to them; they could let the physical body unleash greater power, helping to break through the formations!

The grind dogs of the Xuanhuang Realm immediately got to work.

At first, no one bothered to practice this low-end stuff at all.

But as this trend gradually fermented and couldn't be stopped despite repeated bans, it eventually forced the Scripture Pavilion to upgrade the formations and raise the difficulty!

Since the vast majority had learned mortal martial arts, the original standard could no longer effectively screen anyone.

If someone said they'd learned martial arts before coming up the mountain, what could you do?

Forget it, forget it—let it be a way for disciples to build a foundation with mortal martial arts before formally studying [spell techniques].

As time passed, a whole industry chain for learning martial arts took shape, which in turn increased tax revenue.

Chu Huai Xu led Han Shuangjiang, asking around all the way, and soon arrived before a courtyard.

"Why does everyone recommend learning from this Senior Brother Liu?" he wondered, a bit puzzled.

Was his reputation really that good?

Han Shuangjiang, that cold-faced girl, was like a Little Housekeeper, spending the whole trip comparing prices and asking around.

Little did she know that the outer sect had long passed the stage of price-war internal competition.

Nowadays, everyone's prices for learning martial arts were more or less the same.

Chu Huai Xu had told her this from the start, saying not to waste time comparing, but she wouldn't believe it.

Now that she realized he was right, she still muttered to herself, "So expensive! How can it be this expensive!"

Stepping into the courtyard, Chu Huai Xu called out loudly, "Senior Brother Liu! Senior Brother Liu, are you there?"

The door soon opened, and a man with a touch of handsomeness walked out.

He wore a white robe with fine gold-thread patterns at the cuffs and collar.

One look told you it was made of high-quality fabric.

Given the terrifying prices in the outer sect, just this outfit alone cost a pretty penny.

"Is his business really that good? Is he raking it in?" Chu Huai Xu thought to himself.

This noble-looking Registered Disciple surnamed Liu froze slightly when he saw the two of them.

The man was tall and handsome; the woman, even through her veil, was clearly a beauty.

Though their clothes were ordinary and not expensive, their unique aura hit you right in the face.

Based on the principle of opposite-sex attraction, his attention lingered more on Han Shuangjiang.

What could he do? She gave off an icy, keep-your-distance vibe, yet had a figure that was downright scorching.

Her chest wasn't as vast and surging as Elder Nangong's—couldn't be called a great wave—but it was still full and shapely, clearly well-endowed, beyond ordinary comparison.

Her waist, slender enough to be grasped in one hand, only accentuated the alluring curve of her hips and pelvis.

Below that plump rear stretched a pair of astonishingly long, jade-like legs.

As she walked forward gracefully, her movements swaying like blooming lotuses at every step, captivating the heart and stirring the mind.

The colder and more ice-mountain-like she was, the more she stirred the conquering desire in some men, who longed to see her transform into a complete seductress.

A registered disciple named Liu Chengqi couldn't help but inhale deeply through his nose, as if catching a whiff of fragrance.

After seeing Han Shuangjiang, he immediately understood why these two had come to his courtyard, and felt that more and more people on Medicine Mountain were showing good sense.

"Junior Brother and Junior Sister look unfamiliar—you must have been referred here by someone, right?" A smile as warm as a spring breeze spread across his face.

Unfortunately, when comparing goods, the inferior gets thrown out; when comparing people, the lesser dies.

Standing before Chu Huai Xu, who ranked second on the [Must-Eat Companion List], Liu Chengqi's meager bit of handsomeness simply didn't measure up.

"Senior Brother Liu, we did ask around among our fellow disciples, and everyone recommended we come to you for martial training." Chu Huai Xu said this aloud, but privately tossed an [Information Scan] his way to gauge how capable he was.

Oh ho—an actual Six-Orifice Expert!

Respect, respect.

On Medicine Mountain, Outer Sect Disciples who had already stepped into the First Realm or even stronger realms looked down on teaching mortal martial arts for money—it was too degrading.

As for registered disciples who had nearly opened all nine orifices, they wouldn't waste precious time; they were busy breaking through, like cramming for college entrance exams, with no time to be private tutors.

Thus, those teaching martial arts were at most at the sixth or seventh orifice.

The only thing that felt off to Chu Huai Xu was that, in the basic information shown by the system, this Senior Brother Liu's status read: Spiritual Embryo (Damaged).

"Whoa, looks like there's a story there," he thought.

Liu Chengqi smiled and stepped forward two paces, his voice gentle, carrying that legendary throaty tone: "Referred by others? That's just my fellow disciples being too kind."

"Junior Brother and Junior Sister, my surname is Liu, Liu Chengqi. You can call me Senior Brother Liu."

"The martial art I'm best at is the 'Eight Trigrams Palm of Boundless Heaven and Earth.' One class lasts an hour, and the fee is ten taels of silver per person."

At this point, he glanced at the frowning ice beauty, then suddenly changed his tune: "But then again, teaching one person is the same as teaching two. Junior Brother, you pay ten taels, and for the first class, I'll teach both of you hands-on."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the ice beauty's brow indeed relax.

Chu Huai Xu, upon hearing this, only thought: "'Eight Trigrams Palm of Boundless Heaven and Earth'? Never heard of it."

Still, mortal martial arts were similar to Aperture Opening Stage techniques—their names were each more domineering than the last.

When he was asking around outside earlier, he'd heard people teaching things like "Heaven and Earth One Slash" or "Great Desolation Heaven Imprisoning Finger"—anyone listening would think they were some heavenly-grade [Spell Techniques]!

But this Liu Chengqi pulling a buy-one-get-one-free trick—he hadn't expected that.

More importantly, your wording is off.

"Why should I pay ten taels, instead of us each paying five?"

Even though he was the one footing the bill, it still felt unpleasant, like borrowing flowers to offer to the Buddha.

Or did he misjudge my relationship with Han Shuangjiang and think he was giving me a chance to curry favor?

Regardless, saving money was definitely a good thing.

Chu Huai Xu immediately paid ten taels of silver, eager to see this "Jiligu Lu Eight Trigrams Palm" in action.

Liu Chengqi briefly introduced the martial art, then began demonstrating.

He went straight from the First Form all the way to the Ninth Form.

The quality of this mortal martial art was indeed not bad—it could be considered an upper-tier martial art.

Most importantly, the art looked very cool, elegant and free-flowing.

After the demonstration, Liu Chengqi started teaching the First Form—Eight Wastelands Roaming Dragon!

When he said hands-on teaching, he really meant hands-on teaching.

"Junior Brother, you need to sink a bit lower here."

"Right, and here, raise it a little more."

He pressed down on Chu Huai Xu's waist one moment, lifted his arm the next.

Besides that, he explained all the key techniques in great detail.

Since it was just a martial art, Chu Huai Xu immediately heard the system prompt: "[Ding! Liu Chengqi is teaching you the First Form of the martial art 'Eight Trigrams Palm.' Would you like to learn?]"

"[Yes.]" The ten taels of silver weren't wasted.

After learning it, Chu Huai Xu planned to execute it once to impress them both and put on a big show as a martial arts genius.

But to his surprise, Liu Chengqi skipped right over him and said, "Junior Brother Chu, digest that on your own first. I'll explain it again to Junior Sister Han."

At that moment, the cold-faced girl was earnestly mimicking the movements beside him.

As she performed this not-quite-standard Eight Wastelands Roaming Dragon, her body's curves fully stretched out. From the side, her plump, full rear strained against her robe, bulging out.

A breeze swept by, lifting a corner of her veil, revealing lips that were red and tender, tightly pressed together.

Liu Chengqi's mind wavered, and he was true to his word.

He said he'd teach both of you hands-on, so he'd teach both of you hands-on!

He'd already laid hands on Chu Huai Xu, and now it was naturally this beauty's turn.

"Junior Sister, the [Eight Wastelands Roaming Dragon] isn't like that. You need to sink your waist a bit more too." Liu Chengqi still wore that spring-breeze smile as he reached out his big hand toward her waist.

Han Shuangjiang was listening very seriously and didn't react at first.

"Tsk! Why are you getting handsy?" A voice rang out beside her, and Liu Chengqi's wrist was firmly grabbed by a large hand.