True Feelings? A Technique!

"Beast!"

Xu Fei's furious voice came through the phone. He was clearly just as incensed by the way Zheng Peng and his master had acted.

"I'll leave the rest to you," Lin Chen said calmly.

"Okay, I'll handle it," Xu Fei replied solemnly.

After hanging up, Lin Chen returned to campus. As he passed the sewer, his brows suddenly lifted. "That cat!"

Lin Chen had been able to find Tang Jiajia entirely because of that cat. It was powerful—definitely a mutated beast. Had it deliberately led him to Tang Jiajia?

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the cat now. Finding it again wouldn't be easy.

Shaking his head, Lin Chen returned to the dorm. The Fatty was already back, looking flushed and beaming as he chatted on his phone.

Seeing him like that, Lin Chen couldn't help but stare. He hurriedly asked, "Fatty, don't tell me you've actually fallen for her?"

"Chen, you have no idea how hard Jingjing's life is," the Fatty said with a heartfelt sigh.

Lin Chen's brows rose as he looked at the Fatty. "A gambling-addict father, a sick mother, a younger brother in school, and a broken-hearted girl?"

"How did you know?" The Fatty was astonished. He hadn't said a word, yet Lin Chen had guessed it all.

At that, Lin Chen's mouth twitched. He looked at the Fatty and said earnestly, "Fatty, I think you'd better find someone at school. Go bother a junior or something. You can't handle girls from outside."

"I know what you're going to say. Zhang Song and Chen Ping said it too—Jingjing's a scammer!" The Fatty glanced at Lin Chen, his tone calm. "But I can feel that Jingjing's sincere. She isn't lying to me!"

Looking at the Fatty, Lin Chen opened his mouth, but in the end all that came out was a sigh. "As long as you're happy."

The woman the Fatty had met wasn't a female ghost. At worst, he'd just get swindled out of some money. These days, every boy had to go through that before becoming a man.

Besides, the Fatty hadn't graduated yet and didn't have much money to his name. Even if he really got conned, would the brothers in the dorm let him go hungry?

Some lessons could only be learned firsthand. That was how people grew, so Lin Chen didn't interfere too much. Zhang Song and Chen Ping probably felt the same way.

Lin Chen washed up and went to bed. He didn't wake until the next morning. The Fatty, meanwhile, was still fast asleep. He'd been chatting until one or two last night—no wonder he couldn't get up.

Lin Chen didn't disturb him. He left the dorm and went to the cafeteria for breakfast. While he was eating, he came across a news story about Qingzhou University.

It reported the details of Zheng Peng's murder of Tang Jiajia: how he had tricked her out of her money and seduced her before killing her and disposing of her body. When the Public Security Bureau's investigation closed in on him, he had chosen to kill himself out of guilt.

Lin Chen wasn't particularly surprised by the outcome. The existence of cultivators hadn't been made public, so Zheng Peng could only be treated as an ordinary person. The reason he had killed Tang Jiajia naturally couldn't be that he was raising ghosts.

As soon as he finished breakfast, Lin Chen logged onto the Cultivator Forum to look for a suitable mission. Just then, his phone suddenly rang.

"Master Yi Jie?"

Seeing who was calling, Lin Chen was taken aback. He answered, and Master Yi Jie's voice immediately came through. "Benefactor Lin, good news! I've found a technique!"

"A technique!"

Lin Chen's eyes lit up. He hurriedly asked, "Where are you?"

As his strength continued to increase, Lin Chen had become more and more aware of how weak his defenses were. His recovery was astonishing, but getting hurt still hurt!

That was why he was eager to find a Tempering Art to strengthen his defenses. He simply had no connections in that area, and searching on his own would be like looking for a needle in the ocean.

So he had asked Master Yi Jie for help. Truthfully, he hadn't been particularly hopeful. Master Yi Jie had said himself that techniques were the foundations of the major factions and were almost never shared with outsiders.

He hadn't expected Master Yi Jie to actually find one in just a few days.

"I'm on my way to Qingzhou University. Wait a little while and I'll be there soon," Master Yi Jie said over the phone.

"Okay!"

Lin Chen hung up and immediately headed for the school entrance. He arrived soon and waited for about ten minutes before a familiar Off-Road Vehicle pulled up in front of him.

"Benefactor Lin."

Master Yi Jie parked and handed Lin Chen an old thread-bound book. "This technique is called Iron Shirt. A friend of my master's obtained it while fighting an Evil Cultivator. I shamelessly begged him to let me have it."

"Iron Shirt!"

Lin Chen was fairly familiar with Iron Shirt. He just hadn't expected Master Yi Jie to bring him this particular technique. It was one of the more common Tempering Arts, which explained why Master Yi Jie had been able to get it through a favor owed to his sect.

"Iron Shirt is a fairly common Tempering Art, but if you cultivate it to a high level, it's still formidable." Master Yi Jie looked at Lin Chen.

He was worried Lin Chen might dismiss the technique as too ordinary. In truth, most Tempering Arts weren't especially precious; they were among the less valuable types of techniques. That was because training in them was incredibly time-consuming and exhausting. It took great perseverance and determination to achieve anything.

Upgradeable martial arts: Phoenix Undying Body, First Stage (5/9); Iron Shirt

Looking at the system panel, Lin Chen merely smiled. "That's fine. Having a technique is what matters. I was just missing a Tempering Art!"

The system could strengthen it, which meant it was a genuine technique. That was all he needed. An ordinary Tempering Art?

Lin Chen didn't care in the least. The system could not only record martial arts, but also strengthen and upgrade them. Once upgraded, who knew how many times more effective an apparently ordinary Iron Shirt would become!

Hearing this, Master Yi Jie couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. At last, he had repaid this god of slaughter for the favor.

"Master Yi Jie, you look well. Have you recovered from your injuries?" Lin Chen looked at him. His complexion was clearly much better than it had been when they were at the Wu Family's place.

"I've more or less recovered." Master Yi Jie smiled, then continued, "I came here not only to deliver Iron Shirt to you, Benefactor Lin, but also to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?"

Lin Chen was taken aback. Then he asked, "Are you planning to return to Vajra Temple, Master Yi Jie?"

"Not exactly."

Master Yi Jie shook his head, his expression solemn. "This morning, my fellow disciples at the temple sent word that they'd found signs of an Evil Demon near the border between Qingzhou and Xuzhou. They invited me to join them in eradicating it."

An Evil Demon?

Lin Chen's eyes lit up. An Evil Demon meant essence. He'd been worried he wouldn't find a suitable mission for obtaining essence, and now Master Yi Jie had told him where one was wreaking havoc.

Master Yi Jie really was his lucky charm!

"Master Yi Jie, your injuries haven't fully healed yet. Why don't I go with you? If we run into trouble, I can lend a hand," Lin Chen said hurriedly.