Immortal Martial: Sweeping Across the Two Worlds from Reality

I really did need a good rest.

Jiang Shu slept straight through until his eleven o'clock alarm rang. After practicing martial arts, his mind was as clear and translucent as crystal, free of stray thoughts. Nearly every time he slept, he fell into deep sleep.

Three hours was enough to match six hours for an ordinary person!

His phone, which he had barely checked, popped up with several Weixin messages.

"Jiang Shu, you've taken a leave of absence, so I'm borrowing your chair."

"Jiang Shu, if you're not coming, I'm putting some books on your desk."

"You're not staying in the dorm anymore, right? The water and electricity fees from last semester were refunded. Fifty-three yuan and eighty cents in total..."

"Jiang Shu, are you still using your meal card after taking leave? Lend it to me."

He swiped away every message without replying to a single one.

He had been in the humanities class during his second and third years of high school. There were only seventeen boys in the class, yet even those seventeen had formed their own little factions, pairing up in twos like they were dating.

Throughout his entire second year, he had not had a single friend he could talk to. He had always eaten and read alone.

In his third year, after breaking through the In-Utero Mystery, he could not even be bothered to interact with others.

Precisely because of that, as an observer, he could see more clearly what kind of people his classmates were.

The ones asking about his chair and desk had actually already taken them over. Sending messages was merely a notification.

As for the dorm fees and meal card, one of them probably had never intended to give him the money. Otherwise, they could have simply sent a Weixin red packet—simple and clear.

The other was probably after whatever balance remained on his meal card.

Without closing Weixin, Jiang Shu scrolled to the pinned chats, tapped on an avatar of Grass-Growing Yuantuanzi, and sent a message. "Are you up? Let's go eat."

"Not up. No money. Getting ready to starve to death in bed."

"My treat." Jiang Shu typed at lightning speed. "Barbecue or hotpot?"

"Barbecue! All-you-can-eat!"

"Get up."

"On it."

He slipped his phone into his pocket, opened the door, and stood outside his sister's room. "I'm going to shower first. Come out in ten minutes."

"Got it, got it. Jiang Shu, can I wear pajamas? I'm freezing to death."

"Sure. I'm going to shower."

"Shower, shower, that's all you know. Idiot! I mean you should wear pajamas too later."

"Why?"

"Then I won't look so weird."

"Oh."

Jiang Shu returned to his room, took out the thick blue fleece pajamas Jiang Yanyue had picked out for him during the New Year, and went into the bathroom. He took a few minutes to wash up, use the toilet, and brush his teeth before putting on the pajamas and opening the door.

Jiang Yanyue was already waiting outside in the same thick blue fleece pajamas. The hood was pulled over her head, and its long rabbit ears made her look adorable. She kept rubbing her hands together and breathing warm air onto them. "I need ten minutes too!"

"Got it. Around an hour, then."

"Bullshit."

Watching his sister puff out her cheeks and head into the bathroom, Jiang Shu went to the living room. He practiced the Horse Stance while turning on the television news.

The Horse Stance proficiency on his panel slowly ticked upward.

Though its upper limit could not compare with the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance.

For Jiang Shu now, however, the Horse Stance had two excellent advantages.

First, it had no side effects. Unlike the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance, after practicing for one or two hours, it would leave him ravenously hungry and desperately in need of Secret Medicine or meat to replenish himself.

Second, he had already raised the Horse Stance to Minor Accomplishment. Raising it to Major Accomplishment would naturally be easier than raising the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance to Minor Accomplishment, allowing him to enter the stage of Qi and Blood Transportation faster.

The facts proved that Jiang Shu understood his sister very well.

When she said an hour, she meant an hour.

The siblings left the residential compound and arrived at the bus stop.

"Jiang Shu, when I become a CEO someday, I'm definitely buying a huge, beautiful car! This wind is way too cold! Boohoohoo."

Jiang Yanyue glanced at the notification on her phone saying the bus would arrive in ten minutes. Her little face had been blown ghostly pale by the wind.

If not for the temptation of barbecue, she would have wanted to go straight home.

Air conditioning and a blanket beat even immortals.

"Yeah, buy domestic. Just blindly go for a fridge, color TV, and giant sofa. You wouldn't know how to look at an engine anyway." Jiang Shu took off his pajama top and handed it to Jiang Yanyue. "Put both hands inside."

"Jiang Shu, are you insane? Aren't you cold?"

"Do you understand the weight of a martial arts genius? A mere cold wind thinks it can freeze me?"

Jiang Shu wore only an undershirt. He had yet to reach the realm of Qi and Blood Transportation, but with one stance art and breathing method at the entry level, and another stance art at Minor Accomplishment, the Qi and blood within him had grown stronger than before. He might still have trouble enduring the cold for a long time.

But for just a dozen minutes or so, all he needed was to circulate his breathing method.

"Brother, you're so good to me."

Jiang Shu assumed the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance and circulated his breathing method, so he did not reply at once.

However, Jiang Yanyue's next words nearly made him lose his stance. Even his entry-level Hungry Tiger Breathing Method instantly fell into disorder.

"When I become a CEO and buy a luxury car someday, I'll definitely hire you as my driver so you can have some fun too."

Yingtai Mall.

Feeling the mall's warm air conditioning, Jiang Yanyue took a deep breath. Her body was like a fish returning to water, coming fully alive again.

She tossed the pajamas back to Jiang Shu and hurried over to an all-you-can-eat barbecue restaurant with the lowest average spending in the mall.

"No drinks, no starch sausages. A little seafood, mostly meat."

After paying, Jiang Shu casually found a seat and settled into an empty stance. After three months of martial arts practice, he naturally knew that only fresh meat could replenish and strengthen a martial artist's Qi and blood to the greatest extent.

Much of the meat at buffet restaurants had been frozen for who knew how many years. The Qi and blood energy it contained had dropped to rock bottom, enough only for ordinary people to enjoy the taste.

But then, the person who wanted to eat was his own sister.

Glancing at Jiang Yanyue darting between the various counters like a diligent little bee, Jiang Shu closed his eyes and circulated the Hungry Tiger Breathing Method. Maintaining the empty stance, he stood in the Hungry Tiger Sitting Cave Stance for more than ten minutes, until low rumbling sounds occasionally came from his stomach.

When Jiang Yanyue returned and saw Jiang Shu standing in meditation, she said nothing. She scrolled through her phone while placing grilled meat onto his plate.

"Jiang Shu, have you already sensed Qi and blood?"

When Jiang Shu opened his eyes and picked up the first skewer of meat, Jiang Yanyue suddenly asked.

Ever since the Xia Kingdom had revealed martial arts to the public, many people had learned through the news and the internet that practicing stance arts involved three realms.

Qi and Blood Sensing, Qi and Blood Transportation, and Full Body Vital Energy Circulation.

Yet among ordinary citizens, few knew the specific markers of these three realms or how they were divided.

"How would I know?"

After dipping the meat in the soul seasoning and taking a huge bite, Jiang Shu replied somewhat indistinctly.

"Yeah, I guess that's not very likely. How could someone who has only studied for three months immediately reach Minor Accomplishment in the Horse Stance and be guaranteed admission to an undergraduate program? If it were that outrageous, Jiang Shu, if you had started martial arts and stance training in elementary school, you'd have gone to university before I even started middle school!"

"No, that's not right. Your body wouldn't have finished growing in elementary school. You'd still have to start in your first or second year of high school. Then after three years, you'd at least get into a key university, maybe even have a shot at an academy! Terrifying indeed!"

Jiang Yanyue wore an expression as though her dried fish had been scared clean out of her mouth.

Universities in the Xia Kingdom were divided into vocational colleges, ordinary undergraduate universities, key universities, and academies. Among them, academies carried the most weight, and in the vast Xia Kingdom, there were only four.

Shengjing Academy, Donghai Academy, Jiangnan Academy, and Tianshu Academy.

Everyone who entered an academy was without exception a prodigy among students. If they had not won several provincial-level awards, they would be too embarrassed even to list an academy on their applications.

Even in a second-tier city like Ji City, only forty or fifty students made it into an academy each year.

Thankfully, thankfully, Jiang Shu was not that kind of martial arts genius.

If he could truly enter an academy through martial arts talent, how would she, his younger sister, hire him in the future?

Wouldn't he just suppress her with one hand?

"Enough with the terrifying indeed. If you don't have anything to do this afternoon, come to the zoo with me."

Jiang Shu ate meat incredibly quickly. Before long, a pile of iron skewers had accumulated on the table.

"I'm so jealous of you. If only I could eat as much as you. An all-you-can-eat barbecue costs eighty yuan, but Jiang Shu, you can eat at least three or four hundred yuan worth of the owner's costs. By that calculation, you make two or three hundred yuan net from one meal. Two meals a day means saving ten thousand yuan a month!"

"Oh, right, what did you just say? Going to the zoo? Do you have money?"

"Yes!"

"How much?" Jiang Yanyue's eyes lit up. She had thought that getting a good meal and drinks out of her brother today was already great, but there was even extra income to be had.

Down with the rich! Down with the landlords!