Is Chen Lie Really That Great?

Sitting in the Sunlight Group's super-yacht, Chen Lie said, "Head to Dongchuan Martial Arts Hall."

Soon, the super-yacht took off, soaring toward the direction of Dongchuan Martial Arts Hall.

Inside the cabin, Li Xianyu stole a glance at Chen Lie.

For some reason, she felt this senior was incredibly mysterious; not only was his aptitude off the charts, but he was even acquainted with a big shot like the "Pearl of the Eight Provinces," Zhao Jinglan.

Hadn't she heard that even members of the Provincial Youth Genius Group couldn't get an audience with Zhao Jinglan? Did this mean Chen Lie was even more formidable than the members of the Provincial Youth Genius Group?

What kind of god-like brother did Chen Xingyao have!

The super-yacht descended and came to a halt outside Dongchuan Martial Arts Hall, and Chen Lie and Li Xianyu disembarked together.

Walking into the martial arts hall, Chen Lie headed straight for the training grounds on the second floor.

As he passed the trash can by the stairs, Chen Lie pulled a card from his pocket, snapped it in two with his fingers, and tossed it into the bin.

"Senior, why did you... throw that away?"

Li Xianyu's eyes widened; wasn't the card Chen Lie had snapped and discarded the very one containing Zhao Jinglan's contact information?

"What? Do you want it?"

"No, I mean..."

"Enough."

Just as Li Xianyu was about to explain, Chen Lie cut her off: "Go inside and practice the Cloud Smoke Steps. Mundane distractions are best avoided; they are of no benefit to martial cultivation."

Li Xianyu had no choice but to follow Chen Lie into the training grounds, though she began to ponder in silence.

Did martial cultivation truly conflict with social graces?

Her senior was perfect in every way, but he seemed to be lacking in worldly wisdom.

Even she could see that a big shot like Sunlight Group president Zhao Jinglan wanted to be on good terms with Chen Lie, yet Chen Lie remained indifferent. Compared to herself, it seemed he was the one who was truly naive about the ways of the world.

Chen Lie naturally saw the doubt in Li Xianyu's eyes, but he couldn't be bothered to explain.

If he were as inexperienced as his past self, he would have surely treated Zhao Jinglan as a kind, older sister by now, likely spilling a few of his own secrets in the process.

By the next day, he might not even know how he had died.

The martial knowledge he possessed—let alone on a martial-barren world like Blue Star—would be considered top-secret even on a planet with highly developed martial civilization within the Central Galactic Empire, accessible only to the most elite martial geniuses.

A person who commanded a group of hundreds of thousands, no matter how benevolent they appeared on the surface, must inevitably have a ruthless, predatory side hidden in the shadows.

For an existence who could decide his life or death with a wave of a hand, Chen Lie only wanted to keep his distance for now. Until his own strength was sufficiently formidable, he would have no further dealings with her.

Inside the training grounds, Chen Lie began to guide Li Xianyu in practicing the Cloud Smoke Steps.

Li Xianyu once again felt that state of cultivation as if she were aided by the divine.

She immediately cast aside all thoughts, focusing her heart and soul on practicing the Cloud Smoke Steps.

Under Chen Lie's guidance, Li Xianyu felt her footwork improve visibly; she didn't feel even the slightest bit of difficulty.

The joy of such rapid progress in her footwork filled Li Xianyu's heart, giving her an endless source of motivation to continue her practice.

Under Chen Lie's exclusive tutelage, Li Xianyu naturally felt no bottlenecks.

Whenever Li Xianyu's understanding of the Cloud Smoke Steps veered into a misunderstanding or went off-track, Chen Lie would simply modify the technique to accommodate the direction she was leaning toward.

This was, for all intents and purposes, a martial art tailored specifically for Li Xianyu.

By the time the Cloud Smoke Steps were practiced to the end, they had been modified by Chen Lie beyond recognition, yet the power of the technique far exceeded the original Cloud Smoke Steps.

It was essentially as if Chen Lie had performed a comprehensive optimization of the Cloud Smoke Steps based on Li Xianyu's own understanding, transforming it from an ordinary C-grade martial art into a top-tier C-grade martial art.

On the training grounds, Li Xianyu executed the Cloud Smoke Steps, her nimble feet flashing past the entrance. Looking closely, two or three afterimages actually split off from behind her, though they lasted for a very short time—less than two seconds—before vanishing.

Before she knew it, an entire afternoon had passed, during which Chen Lie had demonstrated the technique for her seven or eight times.

With Chen Lie's repeated instruction, Li Xianyu's understanding of the Cloud Smoke Steps grew deeper, and with almost every practice, she could manifest two or three phantoms.

Li Xianyu used the Cloud Smoke Steps, treading with light and elegant steps from one end of the grounds to the entrance, the three phantoms trailing behind her instantly catching up and merging back into her body one by one.

"Senior, how was that attempt?"

Li Xianyu trotted over to Chen Lie.

"Very good," Chen Lie nodded. "You have mastered this footwork. If you want to improve further, you must simply practice more. The guidance ends here."

"It's over?"

Li Xianyu was filled with astonishment.

"I said before that within three days, I would have you using this martial art with ease. That goal has been reached," Chen Lie said.

"Yes!"

Li Xianyu nodded quickly. She understood in her heart that although Chen Lie's tutoring time was short, she had gained a massive advantage.

Even if a mentor had provided one-on-one, hands-on guidance for a month, it would never compare to the progress she had made over these two days.

Thinking of this, Li Xianyu bowed deeply to Chen Lie: "Senior, thank you for your careful guidance over these two days, allowing me to master a C-grade martial art in just two days.

If you have time, I would like to invite you to my home for a meal. If my parents knew, they would certainly want to thank you as well."

"No need. You were able to master this martial art in two days primarily because you already had some foundation. Otherwise, no matter how I taught you, I wouldn't have been able to bring you to this level."

Chen Lie waved his hand, declining Li Xianyu's invitation.

Hearing herself being rejected, Li Xianyu's expression dimmed, though upon second thought, Chen Lie's refusal was indeed reasonable.

Just the fact that he spent these past two days teaching her Cloud Smoke Steps was time squeezed out of his busy schedule; naturally, he couldn't possibly have spare time to go to her house for a meal.

"If it's inconvenient for you, Senior, then never mind. But I still want to thank you."

"Mm, practice more after you go back."

Chen Lie gave Li Xianyu a few instructions before turning and leaving.

Upon returning home, the first thing Chen Lie did was take twenty catties of raw, wild exotic beast meat from his room and head to the kitchen to put it in the boiler for cooking.

This twenty catties of pure, natural, wild exotic beast meat had not undergone any processing, so it was naturally different from the exotic beast meat circulating on the market, which was already cooked and ready to eat.

After turning on the boiler, Chen Lie stood guard outside the kitchen to wait.

He used a high-pressure boiler to cook the exotic beast meat; previously, it took three hours to ensure the meat was thoroughly cooked.

During this time, Chen Xingyao returned home from outside.

Walking into the living room, Chen Xingyao suddenly heard the noise coming from the kitchen, so she immediately went to check.

Coming out of the kitchen, Chen Xingyao asked, full of confusion: "Chen Lie, what are you cooking in the kitchen?"

"Something for nutritional supplementation," Chen Lie said.

"What kind of messy things are you using to supplement your nutrition?" Chen Xingyao couldn't help but say: "Hey, let me warn you, that 'Pseudo-Nutrient Saturation Constitution' of yours is something you made up yourself. If you're going to fool others, don't fool yourself as well."

Chen Lie nodded without saying a word.

Seeing Chen Lie remain silent, Chen Xingyao had no choice but to shake her head and sigh as she left.

Seeing that the cooking time for the exotic beast meat was about right, Chen Lie went to the kitchen, turned off the high-pressure boiler, scooped out the thoroughly cooked meat, placed it on a cutting board, and used a knife to cut the large chunks into many small pieces.

Next, Chen Lie found a lunch box in the kitchen and placed the small pieces of meat into it one by one.

Because the texture of the exotic beast meat was dense, the twenty catties of meat looked like a very small pile, which was easily packed into the lunch box.

Carrying the lunch box filled with exotic beast meat, Chen Lie returned to his room.

At dinner time, Feng Yuelan brought the food to the table, untied her apron, and sat down opposite Chen Xingyao.

"Yaoyao, your brother didn't come out to eat again today. Do you know what's going on with him?"

"I don't know!" Chen Xingyao shook her head, then immediately added: "Mom, do you think it's because his Blood Essence Value can't break through 1, and the mental pressure is too high, so he's become a bit abnormal?"

"Nonsense!"

Feng Yuelan glared at Chen Xingyao with feigned annoyance.

"I'm not talking nonsense! Just now when I came back, I saw my brother using the high-pressure boiler in the kitchen to cook something. I asked him what he was cooking, and he said it was something for nutritional supplementation.

His Blood Essence Value hasn't even broken 1; like me, he can only use basic nutrient solutions and nutrient bread. If he uses those messy supplements, won't he ruin his body?"

"Really?"

Feng Yuelan put her rice bowl down on the table and questioned Chen Xingyao.

"Of course it's true, why would I lie!"

"Isn't your brother a Pseudo-Nutrient Saturation Constitution? Maybe a Grandmaster gave him some advice on nutritional conditioning. Besides, he's a grown man, he must have his own considerations," Feng Yuelan said.

Chen Xingyao thought for a moment, but still chose to tell the truth: "Mom, a few days ago, there was no master from the Dongchuan Martial Arts Hall coming to test the students at all. The things my brother said at the Starlight Hotel were actually lies to you.

I was also at the martial arts hall on the day of the Blood Essence Value Sprint Class, and there was no such thing at all."

Feng Yuelan sat up abruptly: "You dead girl, why didn't you say such an important thing sooner?"

"Brother wouldn't let me say it."

Chen Xingyao lowered her head and muttered softly.

Feng Yuelan sighed and sat back down: "Eat quickly, and go back to your room after you finish."

Chen Xingyao said "Mm," lowered her head to eat, and stopped talking.

In her view, Chen Lie felt hopeless about his martial arts cultivation because his blood essence progress was slow, so he fabricated such a lame excuse to first ruin his own body, and then make their parents agree to let him give up martial arts.

The purpose of doing this was, of course, to reduce the burden on the family, but was Chen Lie really that noble?

Chen Xingyao didn't believe it at all.