'Yang Guo', I've finally caught you now

Leaving the pharmacy, Tan Tong took Shen Zhou to find "Big Senior Brother."

On the way, Shen Zhou asked curiously, "How many disciples does Old Man Ji have in total?"

Tan Tong replied, "Teacher has taught five disciples in all. Big Senior Brother Tang Shan is the strongest, at the Transformation Yuan Second Realm; Second Senior Brother Meng Gang, Transformation Yuan First Realm; Third Senior Brother Chen Xu, Transformation Yuan First Realm; Fourth Senior Brother Cai Xiaoyan, Coagulation Blood Ninth Realm; Fifth Senior Brother Pei Dahai, Coagulation Blood Ninth Realm. There were many other fellow disciples originally, but they all found body training too difficult, couldn't stick with it, and gave up halfway."

Shen Zhou fell silent.

It seemed body training really wasn't an easy path.

As they talked, they arrived at a place called Martial Hall Street.

It was named that because the street had over twenty martial halls of all sizes, and even the Five Great Families had opened halls here.

Shen Zhou was walking along with Tan Tong when he suddenly noticed a martial hall ahead with a very peculiar name. "'Flying Bird First Martial Hall'? Huh, which family opened this hall, with such a big mouth? Aren't they afraid of getting challenged?"

Qin Mingyue had been following on Shen Zhou's right; hearing this, she instinctively glanced at Tan Tong on her left.

The latter's face instantly reddened, then he stammered, "It... it was opened by our White Deer Academy."

Shen Zhou: "Huh?"

Tan Tong explained that the academy had opened the martial hall to find a revenue-generating project and ease its financial pressure.

But the name was Old Man Ji's idea. In his words, since they were opening a martial hall, Tang Shan and the others shouldn't be idle either—it was a good chance to hone their martial arts, and maybe they could even improve further. But seeking out challengers was too troublesome, so it was better to let challengers come to them, hence the name.

And sure enough, once the martial hall's sign went up, challengers came in an endless stream.

Especially the other halls on Martial Hall Street—almost all of them had come to challenge.

The results were mixed for Tang Shan and the others, so the sign was taken down when they lost, redeemed when they won, and hung back up again.

The whole point was to keep business open every single day.

Shen Zhou was left speechless and could only say, "Awesome!"

Flying Bird First Martial Hall had a very imposing name, but the interior was much more modest.

As soon as they entered, they saw a large training ground. At that moment, a sturdy man of about twenty-one or twenty-two was teaching a chubby young boy how to throw punches.

Tan Tong spotted the man as he walked in and called out, "Fifth Senior Brother."

The man turned at the sound and smiled. "Tan Tong. Come on in... quick, I just happen to need your help."

Fifth Senior Brother Pei Dahai, Coagulation Blood Ninth Realm, was robust and solidly built, with short hair that gave him a sharp, capable look—very much the temperament of a body-training martial artist.

After Shen Zhou and Qin Mingyue entered, Tan Tong made the introductions.

Seeing Qin Mingyue following behind, Pei Dahai was a bit surprised, but once he heard Shen Zhou was Old Man Ji's new disciple, his smile grew even warmer. He patted Shen Zhou on the shoulder and encouraged him, "Train hard with Teacher. Don't get discouraged, don't give up. Stick with it, and you'll definitely achieve something."

Shen Zhou was silent for a moment, then thought it over and asked, "Fifth Senior Brother, you must be a great cook, right?"

Pei Dahai looked confused. "Huh?"

"You're pretty good at painting pies and brewing chicken soup."

Unfortunately, Pei Dahai didn't get the joke.

He laughed, shook his head, and waved his hand. "What cooking skills would I have? Usually, Fourth Senior Brother Xiaoyan does the cooking. You've come at a bad time too—Big Senior Brother and the others took on an escort mission and aren't here. I'll have to introduce you another day. Come on, come on... you can take a look at my new martial hall apprentice."

Then, he suddenly lowered his voice and gave Tan Tong and Shen Zhou a quiet instruction. "By the way, you two play along with me later. Make this kid feel like he's really improving, so he won't run off."

Tan Tong was shocked. "Huh, Senior Brother, you tricked him?"

Pei Dahai: "Tricked? He saw our martial hall's sign and begged to stay and learn martial arts. What could I do? Then I noticed this guy was pretty loaded—he paid a thousand taels in tuition upfront, enough for the junior brothers to soak in medicinal baths for a month—so I took him in. I'll give you the money to take back, but you have to figure out a way to cooperate and keep this apprentice here!"

Tan Tong was at a loss and didn't know what to do.

He had no idea how to trick anyone!

Shen Zhou found it bizarre.

Anyone who could be lured in by just a sign outside a martial hall had to be a chuunibyou—someone like that shouldn't be hard to fool.

But as he got closer, he thought, "Huh... this fatty looks kind of familiar?"

On the other side, Pei Dahai had already walked up to the chubby boy and said, "Hongyu, you've been training at our hall for a while now. Today, I specially brought my junior brother to test your progress."

"Great, I feel like I've improved a lot lately, and I've been needing a sparring partner."

The chubby boy turned around as he spoke, and when his eyes met Shen Zhou's, "Huh... Shen Zhou!"

Shen Zhou finally recognized the chubby boy too and said in surprise, "Dongfang Hongyu?"

That's right, Pei Dahai's new martial hall apprentice was none other than Dongfang Hongyu—the chubby little guy who had applied to Flying Bird Academy with Shen Zhou and the others, barely scraped by, but was ultimately eliminated by the academy.

After being rejected, Dongfang Hongyu was unwilling to accept it. Determined to learn real skills and prove himself to Flying Bird Academy, he hadn't gone back with his father. When he was searching for a martial hall earlier, among all the halls on the street, only "Flying Bird First Martial Hall" struck a chord with his chuunibyou soul. Little chubby Dongfang thought: If it dares to call itself the best in Flying Bird City, it must have real skill.

And so...

Pei Dahai was surprised by the scene before him and asked, "Junior Brother Shen Zhou, you know each other?"

Shen Zhou nodded and briefly explained what had happened at Flying Bird Academy.

He had just finished speaking when the little fatty Dongfang noticed something off. He said to Shen Zhou, "Wait... how did you become the Fifth Hall Master's junior disciple?"

Shen Zhou replied irritably, "I'm training at White Deer Academy now. Senior Brother Pei is also from there, so of course I'm his junior disciple."

"White Deer Academy? Is it any good?"

"...At least I think it's way better than Flying Bird Academy!"

"Better than Flying Bird Academy? How long have you been studying there?"

"Over half a month."

"Come on... let's spar. Let me see what kind of level White Deer Academy can teach a waste like you in half a month. If it's really that good, I'll go too!"

"..." Shen Zhou's face darkened. "How am I a waste?"

The little fatty Dongfang sneered, "During the Flying Bird Academy test, you didn't pass either of the two tests. If that's not being a waste, what is?"

"I..."

Just as Shen Zhou was about to explain, a deafening uproar suddenly erupted from outside the martial hall's main gate.

Tan Tong asked curiously, "What's all that noise outside? Did something happen?"

Pei Dahai, however, had already caught on. He chuckled, "Nothing much. It's just the Xu Family Martial Hall and the Yang Family Martial Hall going at it again."

As soon as Dongfang Hongyu heard this, he darted toward the door like a rabbit, shouting, "Hurry, hurry... if we're late, we'll miss the fun."

"..." Everyone laughed helplessly.

Pei Dahai then smiled and said, "Since that's the case, let's go out and take a look too."

By the time Pei Dahai and the others came out, the street not far away was already packed with people.

The Yang Family Martial Hall and the Xu Family Martial Hall were both on this same street, so they weren't far apart—you could see them as soon as you stepped out.

At that moment, a crowd from the Xu Family had the Yang Family Martial Hall's main gate completely blocked off. The former group was still shouting outside, "People of the Yang Family, come out and receive your guests!"

A group of martial artists from the Yang Family Martial Hall walked out with grim faces. Their Hall Master was named Yang Ming, a man in his thirties with a short beard. Seeing the Xu Family members, Yang Ming's eyes held a hint of anger as he said, "Xu Tianqiao, you just lost to us three days ago. Why are you here again today? What exactly do you want?"

Xu Tianqiao was the Hall Master of the Xu Family Martial Hall, a fair-faced, beardless man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight who looked quite young. He spoke up, "Hall Master Yang, our Xu Family made our request clear to you over half a month ago. Hand over that person named Yang and have him personally apologize to our Xu Family members. Otherwise, this matter isn't over!"

Yang Ming said helplessly, "I've told you many times already—our Yang Family doesn't have the person you're looking for. Why won't you believe me?"

Xu Tianqiao snorted coldly, "Save that act for someone else. What do you mean there's no such person? Your Yang Family just dares to act but not to own up to it. Aren't you ashamed, claiming to be one of the Five Great Families? If you don't have the guts to admit it, you might as well take off that title of one of the Five Great Families early, or else I'll feel embarrassed for you."

The people from the Xu Family Martial Hall immediately joined in the jeering, making the scene utterly humiliating for the Yang Family Martial Hall.

Over at the Flying Bird First Martial Hall.

Shen Zhou watched for a long time, completely baffled, then asked Pei Dahai what was going on.

Pei Dahai explained, "Ah, it's nothing much. Half a month ago, some Xu Family kid got beaten up outside the city by someone from the Yang Family, and had a bunch of stuff stolen. The Xu Family was furious, so they went back, gathered people, and confronted the Yang Family, demanding an explanation. But the Yang Family denied it, saying there was no such person. The two sides argued back and forth until tempers flared. After that, the Xu Family started causing trouble every few days—either challenging the hall or deliberately injuring Yang Family martial artists. The Yang Family couldn't take it and fought back.

In just this half month, they've already had seven or eight fights. Both sides have won and lost."

"Oh, so that's how it is..."

Shen Zhou found it amusing and was about to happily keep watching the drama when, unexpectedly, someone spotted Qin Mingyue, the number one beauty of Flying Bird City, standing at the entrance of the Flying Bird First Martial Hall. Excited, they shouted, "Look, it's Qin Mingyue, the number one beauty of Flying Bird City!"

In an instant, countless eyes turned their way.

That alone wouldn't have been a big deal, but then, among the Xu Family crowd, a young man caught sight of Shen Zhou standing next to Qin Mingyue, and things suddenly took a turn.

The young man rushed over, pointed at Shen Zhou, and gritted his teeth, "'Yang Guo,' so you're here! I've finally caught you!"

Shen Zhou: "???"