It's All Rumors!

Seeing Xia Ping walk in, his mother Huang Lanxin immediately stepped forward and asked, "Son, what on earth is going on? How did I hear that you got Ya Ru pregnant? When did this even happen?"

"Why didn't you tell us about such a major matter? Now that a life is involved, it's become a real mess."

She looked at Xia Ping with a grave expression.

"Uh..."

Xia Ping didn't know what to say for a moment. He hadn't even realized the rumors from school had reached his home so quickly; the speed at which gossip spread was truly astonishing.

"Son, you've gone a bit too far with this."

His father, Xia Chuanliu, looked heartbroken. "You're only a high school student and you're already out playing with women, even getting someone pregnant. You have none of the maturity and steadiness your old man had back in the day."

"To be honest with you, before I met your mother, I was a virgin. I hadn't even held a girl's hand."

Xia Ping looked at his father with disdain. Was that maturity and steadiness? It was purely a lack of popularity. Did he really think he could fool him by dressing it up with different words?

"What kind of look is that? Son, what is that look?"

Xia Chuanliu was getting a bit frantic. "Don't think I can't tell what you're thinking. You probably think I was unpopular back then, which is why I was like that."

"But in fact, your guess is wrong—dead wrong. Back in the day, I, Xia Chuanliu, was the school heartthrob. I don't know how many girls' first loves and dream lovers I was; I almost debuted as a celebrity, you know?"

"Even though I've gained some middle-aged weight now, have a beer belly, a wider waistline, and even a receding hairline, you can't deny how handsome and dashing I was back then."

He almost wanted to pull out photos from his youth.

"Alright, stop bragging."

Mother Huang Lanxin glared at Xia Chuanliu and said, "Right now, we need to solve the problem of our son's marriage. The girl is pregnant; this is no small matter, you know?"

"Ahem."

Xia Chuanliu coughed, straightened his face, and said, "You're right. Son, tell us what you're going to do. Ya Ru is our neighbor's child; we've known her since she was little. She's pretty and has a good character."

"Although I don't know how she could have been blind enough to fall for someone like you, the matter has reached this point, so we have to accept it. The Xia family isn't the type to eat and then refuse to wipe their mouths."

"You must take the responsibility you're supposed to take."

Hearing this, Xia Ping looked at his father, speechless. Was he really that unbearable? Did someone actually have to be blind to fall for him?

"You can't say it like that. Our son does have his merits, they're just not obvious," his mother Huang Lanxin chimed in. "To be able to pull this off, I guess our ancestors' graves must be smoking."

Xia Ping's mouth twitched. What kind of merits were "not obvious"? If they weren't obvious, were they even merits? It would have been better to just say he had no merits at all; why beat around the bush?

He coughed to stop his parents from continuing. "You've misunderstood. Those are all rumors. There's nothing between her and me, and she isn't pregnant."

What?!

Hearing this, his mother Huang Lanxin clearly showed a look of disappointment, though she seemed to have expected it all along.

"I knew it. There's no such thing as a free lunch falling from the sky," his father Xia Chuanliu sighed toward the heavens. "It seems if you want to end your bachelorhood, you'll still need to go on blind dates. You're going to follow in your old man's footsteps after all."

"But don't worry, it's a family tradition."

Xia Ping ignored his two eccentric parents, went to the living room to eat dinner, and then returned to his bedroom to rest.

Three days later, in the morning, inside the bedroom.

Bang!

Xia Ping circulated the Pure Yang Indestructible Art. His body vibrated, and the true energy within him surged. The sunlight shining in from outside the window transformed into endless energy, pouring into his body.

At the same time, the energy from the two or three Golden Potions he had just consumed was rapidly refined with the assistance of the Pure Yang Indestructible Art, turning into a massive amount of true energy that surged into the depths of his dantian.

Rumble...

In that instant, the surrounding air vibrated. The true energy within his body surged like a tide, flowing through every meridian. With a snap, a bottleneck was immediately shattered by a powerful force.

Finally, at this moment, Xia Ping opened up his sixth meridian and advanced to the Martial Apprentice Sixth Heaven.

"Martial Apprentice Sixth Heaven!"

Xia Ping clenched his fists and opened his eyes, revealing a terrifying, piercing light. It was as if they contained a ball of fire, with sun symbols rotating in the depths of his pupils, exuding a profound aura.

He felt that the moment he advanced to the Martial Apprentice Sixth Heaven, his body's strength and speed had greatly improved—at least forty or fifty percent stronger than before.

Even the true energy within his body was a level stronger; every movement carried the power to shatter mountains. Even his spiritual power had grown significantly, with his detection range increasing to thirty meters.

As long as he willed it, everything within thirty meters of his body was within his detection range. Even if a fly flew by or an ant crawled past, he would know it clearly.

"This Northern Underworld Body Protection Art is truly incredible. It deserves to be the best auxiliary technique," Xia Ping couldn't help but exclaim. He had originally estimated that it would take him at least a month to advance to the Martial Apprentice Sixth Heaven.

But who could have imagined that after practicing this technique and receiving auxiliary training from others to help temper his physique, his efficiency in absorbing energy would increase so much?

In just three days, he had absorbed ten Golden Potions, finally filling his dantian with true energy and successfully breaking through to the realm of the Martial Apprentice Sixth Heaven.

"However, if I want to continue accelerating my cultivation, I'm afraid I'll need to find more opponents and have more experts beat my body. Only then can I enhance my body's efficiency in absorbing energy."

Xia Ping's eyes flashed with ambition. He wasn't just thinking about advancing to the Martial Apprentice Seventh Heaven now; he wanted to reach the Eighth Heaven, even the Ninth Heaven.

After all, it was said that there were monsters at the Martial Apprentice Ninth Heaven in the high school fighting tournament. Being at the Martial Apprentice Sixth Heaven was simply not enough.

The problem was that to circulate the Northern Underworld Body Protection Art for cultivation, he had to find more opponents, but there were fewer and fewer people in school qualified to be his opponents.

If the opponent's strength was inferior to his own, it would be of no use to him at all. Their attacks would be like ants biting him, and it would be impossible to continue improving his cultivation.

"It seems I must find a place—a place where a large number of opponents exist, and they need to be strong enough." Xia Ping's eyes flickered as he pondered his future cultivation.

Right, martial arts gyms!

Thinking of this, his eyes suddenly lit up. He reckoned that in Tianshui City, there was no place with more experts than a martial arts gym. It could be said that most of the experts in all of Tianshui City had trained at one.