Luo Feng didn't dare slack off for even a moment. He immediately focused all his attention on carefully reading and memorizing the article about the Genetic Energy Cultivation Method.
Genetic Origin Energy was the key to optimizing human genes and achieving evolution.
"So that's how it works."
After reading through it carefully once, Luo Feng's powerful mental strength allowed him to quickly imprint every word of the article deep in his mind.
"For the next month, you can try cultivating Genetic Origin Energy when you get home. Once you succeed, your strength will increase substantially, and the Martial Artist Combat Assessment a month from now will be much safer.
"All right, that's the end of today's Quasi-Martial Artist Assessment.
"You three can head home now."
Jiang Nian gave them a serious reminder.
"Yes, Instructor."
Luo Feng, Yang Wu, and Bai Yang answered in unison, then turned and left the Martial Arts Hall together.
When they reached the entrance to Bright Moon Residential Quarter, Yang Wu and Bai Yang warmly invited Luo Feng to join them for a meal to celebrate passing the assessment.
Luo Feng politely declined, however, and hurried off after saying goodbye.
It wasn't that Luo Feng thought too highly of himself or looked down on the two of them. He had something more important to do today.
Knowing the original story, Luo Feng was aware that before long, his father, Luo Hongguo, would be framed and bullied by his classmate Zhang Haobai.
He didn't want to repeat the original story and spend several miserable days in prison after getting entangled with Zhang Haobai and his bodyguards. After all, what normal person would want to go to prison?
As for Zhang Haobai, Luo Feng believed that one day the entire Earth, and even the Milky Way Galaxy, would belong to him. Dealing with Zhang Haobai would be as easy as turning over his hand.
Luo Feng's horizons had long since broadened beyond what they once were.
After leaving Bright Moon Residential Quarter, Luo Feng hurried to the subway station and took Line 1 to Zhong'an Road Station.
As soon as he emerged, he took out his phone and skillfully tapped the "Find Phone Location" feature.
A map of Yangzhou City soon appeared clearly on the screen. A red dot marked Luo Feng's location, while a green dot precisely showed where his father's phone was.
"Oriental Decoration City? It's not too far from here. I came straight out after the assessment, so I've still got plenty of time. Dad probably hasn't started moving the furniture yet. If I hurry over now, I should still be able to stop him."
Luo Feng immediately pinpointed his father's location.
"I'll go there in person and tell Dad the good news that I've become a Quasi-Martial Artist. Then he won't have to do this kind of exhausting, backbreaking work anymore.
"People from Dad's generation all like playing games. From now on, he and Mom can stay home and play games in peace. Hehe."
The thought put Luo Feng in an especially good mood. Following the directions on his phone, he rushed off without delay.
"Vroom!" "Vroom!" "Vroom!"...
A silver-gray Maserati MC20 raced down a broad street at breakneck speed.
Behind the wheel, Zhang Haobai, dressed in a white T-shirt and white pants, looked thoroughly annoyed.
The night before, he'd gone out drinking and partying with a few good-for-nothing friends and had gone so wild that he hadn't even made it home.
That morning, he'd still been asleep when his father called and rudely woke him up. After chewing him out, his father had told him to hurry home and keep an eye on the new furniture.
"I finally made it through high school. I was planning to have some fun before starting college.
"The furniture only cost a few hundred thousand. Couldn't we just have the servants watch it? The old man really can't stand the thought of me having a little fun.
"But that girl from last night was seriously hot. I'll have Brother Zhou call her out again tonight."
Zhang Haobai drove along, thinking to himself.
Just then, his eyes happened to catch a familiar figure on the roadside in the distance.
"Hm? Luo Feng?"
A vicious glint flashed in Zhang Haobai's eyes.
"I heard he went to take the Quasi-Martial Artist Assessment today. If he really becomes a Martial Artist, I might never get another chance to get back at him."
Whenever Zhang Haobai saw Luo Feng, he couldn't help remembering the humiliating time Luo Feng had beaten him badly and knocked out his teeth.
He'd been pampered and spoiled since childhood, living in luxury. He'd never had to suffer like that before.
He'd also drunk quite a bit the night before, and the alcohol hadn't completely worn off. In that state, people were often prone to acting impulsively.
They said alcohol gave cowards courage. And Zhang Haobai wasn't a timid man to begin with; he was an arrogant, overbearing rich kid.
"There don't seem to be any cameras around here. If I suddenly swerve and hit him, Luo Feng won't have time to react. My family knows people at the police station. We can just say it was an accident..."
Zhang Haobai knew the roads in this area like the back of his hand. In an instant, a dangerous and vicious idea surfaced in his mind.
He didn't hesitate. He stomped hard on the accelerator, and the car, already traveling at over a hundred kilometers per hour, surged even faster as it hurtled toward Luo Feng on the sidewalk.
"Hmph. I heard Luo Feng has a disabled younger brother. After I hit him, he can go keep his brother company."
Zhang Haobai's expression grew more and more twisted, his face revealing a crazed excitement.
"You poor nobody. Why do you always have to outdo me? You brought this on yourself by acting so arrogant back then."
Having confirmed his father's location, Luo Feng hurried along the sidewalk, his mind still busy planning out his future cultivation path.
"I've had the system for over a month, and I still don't know what amazing functions it actually has.
"I wonder if killing monsters in the wilderness works like it does in games, where you can get equipment and experience.
"If it does, then I'll probably level up at rocket speed from now on.
"Where will this life lead me?
"I wonder if cultivating faster will change the course of my future.
"If my life takes a different path, won't I lose the advantage of knowing what's coming?
"In this life, I've fused with Linley's talent and have the Azure Dragon Bloodline. That bloodline can evolve, too. Should I try to possess the Golden Horned Beast in the future?
"After fusing with Linley's talent, I probably have a high affinity for the Earth and Wind elements. If my Azure Dragon Bloodline evolves far enough, I'll definitely gain an affinity for the time element. In that case, should I still follow the Metal-Space path in the early stages, like in the original story?"
The more Luo Feng thought, the further his mind wandered. Before he knew it, he was completely absorbed in thoughts about the future.
"Hm?"
Just as Luo Feng's attention drifted, a powerful sense of danger suddenly washed over him.
He instinctively turned to look, and his expression changed in shock.
A silver-white sports car had charged onto the sidewalk like a wild horse, and in the blink of an eye, it was about to hit him.
The car was traveling at least two hundred kilometers per hour. It would reach him in an instant.
If he'd been in his normal state, Luo Feng's reflexes would have made it easy to dodge this sudden danger.
But he'd just been lost in thought and hadn't imagined that someone would suddenly try to run him over.
"It's Zhang Haobai."
Luo Feng immediately recognized the driver and realized he was in trouble.
"There's no time to dodge!"
The car's front end was now less than a meter away. At that speed, if it hit him, even Luo Feng's astonishing physical strength wouldn't save him from being crippled.
At this critical moment, Luo Feng's mind instantly went on high alert. The strength of his muscles and bones erupted to its limit in a split second. He stared at the sports car hurtling toward him, holding on to a single thought: Get away from me!
"Bang!"
Without warning, the sports car suddenly swerved sharply, then slammed into a flower bed at the roadside.
The hood of the Maserati crumpled completely as it crashed into the flower bed. The airbags deployed immediately, but the massive impact still left Zhang Haobai bleeding from the head and dazed. He was trapped inside the car and couldn't move.
At the same time, Luo Feng felt a searing pain in his head, as if it were being torn apart. The agony was like a sharp steel needle boring wildly into his mind.
The pain made Luo Feng convulse uncontrollably and roll on the ground in agony.
His entire body had turned red, and beads of sweat the size of beans seeped from his pores, quickly soaking his clothes and staining them red.
The veins on his body bulged like enraged little snakes, making him look more terrifying than ever.
However, after fusing with Linley's template, Luo Feng's spirit and willpower had been greatly strengthened.
Despite the agony wracking both his mind and body, he forced himself to stay conscious.
As he endured the torment, Luo Feng could clearly sense the outermost layer of the Dark Golden Sphere in his mind beginning to turn into mist.
Streams of powerful energy poured out, instantly flowing into every inch of his skin, every bone, and every cell.
Washed over by this mysterious energy, Luo Feng's bones, internal organs, blood, muscles, and skin underwent a tremendous transformation. Every cell in his body was rapidly growing stronger.
Although Luo Feng's body looked horrifying, the mysterious energy protected him, and he hadn't sustained any internal injuries.
"Could this... be Spiritual Telekinesis?"
Luo Feng was in unbearable pain, but the wonderful sensation of growing stronger left him both suffering and exhilarated.
By now, quite a few people had gathered nearby. Keeping their distance, they pointed and talked about the sudden crash.
"What's wrong with that driver? Why did he suddenly drive onto the sidewalk?"
"He was probably driving drunk. He was going so fast—he must have a death wish."
"That poor young man on the ground. It looked like he got hit."
Seeing Luo Feng convulsing on the ground with blood all over him, the onlookers assumed the car had hit him.
Luo Feng had no time to pay attention to their chatter. Gritting his teeth, he slowly got to his feet and looked at Zhang Haobai inside the car, an uncontrollable urge to kill welling up within him.
"I can't believe Zhang Haobai wanted to cripple me just because I beat him once at the martial arts school."
When Luo Feng imagined his legs broken—or even being crippled—his family's life would be ruined.
Given his family's financial situation, they would probably never be able to treat his injuries.
"I only changed a tiny part of the story, yet it's already set off such a chain reaction."
"Zhang Haobai can't be allowed to live!"
Looking at Zhang Haobai, trapped and unable to move inside the car, Luo Feng made up his mind to kill him. At the slightest stir of thought, an invisible force extended from his mind like a thread.
Inside the car, a tiny piece of shattered metal seemed to be drawn by some mysterious force and abruptly floated into the air.
The onlookers in the distance couldn't possibly notice anything so strange, but Zhang Haobai, trapped inside the car, sensed it keenly.
Remembering how the sports car had suddenly swerved out of control, Zhang Haobai looked at the floating fragment before him. His pupils instantly widened, and he stared at Luo Feng in terror.
"Is Luo Feng a Spiritual Telekinetic?"
That was the last thought to flash through Zhang Haobai's mind. The next moment—
"Pfft!"
The piece of metal shot forward like a sharp dagger and pierced Zhang Haobai's heart.
Luo Feng had carried out the whole thing with extreme secrecy. When he was done, he acted as if nothing had happened and turned to continue toward his father's location.
"Hey, young man, you should get to a hospital quickly. You might feel fine now, but you could have serious internal injuries."
Someone in the distance saw Luo Feng get up and start to leave, and kindly called out to him.
Luo Feng ignored him and walked straight on.
After Luo Feng left, before he'd even reached Oriental Decoration City, the system's familiar voice suddenly rang in his mind.
Ding: Host has completed the mission and successfully awakened the talent for Spiritual Telekinesis. Reward: one Earth Magic spellbook.
A book with a yellow-brown cover appeared out of thin air and floated in front of Luo Feng.
Luo Feng jumped in surprise and instinctively glanced around. Since he was covered in blood, people kept casting strange looks at him, but he realized that no one else seemed able to see the spellbook that had appeared from nowhere.
"As expected, the system's creations really are extraordinary. This book shouldn't exist in this world at all. I'm probably the only one who can see it."
Luo Feng marveled inwardly. With a mere thought, the Earth Magic book vanished and appeared inside his Space Ring.
"I can't go see Dad covered in blood like this. I need to change clothes, or I'll scare him."
Thinking this, Luo Feng walked straight into a clothing store nearby.
Ten minutes later, Luo Feng came out of the store wearing fresh clothes. He'd also used his old clothes to wipe away the blood left on his body from awakening his Spiritual Telekinesis.
When Luo Feng reached the place where his father worked, he saw his father and several coworkers struggling to load furniture onto a truck.
"Could this be the furniture Zhang Haobai's family bought? At this point, they probably aren't in any mood to worry about it."
Luo Feng walked straight up to Luo Hongguo and called out.
"Dad."
"Xiao Feng, what are you doing here?"
Luo Hongguo looked at his son in surprise.
"Dad, I passed the Quasi-Martial Artist Assessment."
Luo Feng announced the good news without any preamble.
Hearing this, Luo Hongguo, who knew his son was taking the Quasi-Martial Artist Assessment that day, was so excited he could barely contain himself.
"Good, good, that's wonderful!"
Luo Hongguo repeated "good" three times, his eyes brimming with pride.
The few coworkers beside Luo Hongguo had heard what Luo Feng said. They stood there stunned for a long moment before finally reacting.
"Quasi-Martial Artist Assessment?"
After all, Martial Artists seemed impossibly out of reach for ordinary people. For children from poor families like theirs, becoming a Martial Artist was even harder.
People had always said that "the poor study while the rich practice martial arts," and that was even truer in modern society.
"Old Luo, you raised him well! My son's already over twenty and is only an Intermediate Student at a martial arts school. Xiao Feng's already a Quasi-Martial Artist at such a young age. His future is bound to be bright!"
"Old Luo, with a son as outstanding as yours, you'll be able to enjoy life from now on."
The coworkers around Luo Hongguo, all about his age, looked at him enviously and praised him without holding back.
After all, becoming a Martial Artist practically meant crossing into a new social class.
"Dad, now that I've become a Quasi-Martial Artist, you don't have to do this backbreaking work anymore. Come home with me now."
Luo Feng looked at his father and spoke earnestly.
"Ah, not today. If I leave now, they'll have to take on all my work. Let me finish this job first."
Luo Hongguo had actually been planning to quit once Luo Feng became a full-fledged Martial Artist.
After all, the family still depended on him to earn a living. Until Luo Feng became a Martial Artist, he wouldn't have any income.
But he didn't want to say that in front of Luo Feng and risk discouraging him, so he planned to discuss it with him after they got home that evening.
Before you continue