Martial Artist Forum

10 p.m.

In a nicely decorated room, Yang Fan sat before his computer, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

His little face, which had been swollen and bruised, had already returned to normal. After school that afternoon, he had gone to the hospital for treatment, spending twenty thousand New Dollars.

That was the advancement of modern technology. As long as it was not a fracture or the loss of an arm or leg, it could be treated quickly.

Faint footsteps came from outside the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

A knock sounded at the door.

"Yang Fan, I heard Ji Yu beat you up today. How are you?"

It was his second brother's voice. Though he sounded concerned, his tone clearly carried a trace of gloating.

"Xiaofan, even if you don't have talent for martial arts, you should still study hard. Don't think I don't know what nonsense you've been up to at school!" This was his third brother's voice, still using that same scolding tone.

"Open the door. Let me tell you, Dad knows about this too. Don't you know our family is currently working with Yunhai Group? Don't provoke Ji Yu again in the future."

Listening to the voices outside, Yang Fan remained silent, his expression somewhat sorrowful.

He had been beaten, yet not one member of his family had asked why. No one cared about him. There was only gloating and mockery.

"One day, I'll make every last one of you shut your mouths."

Yang Fan silently swore.

He turned off the lights and ignored the voices outside, because he had an important task tonight.

Martial Artist Forum, as its name suggested, was a forum related to martial artists.

Martial artists could communicate freely on the forum.

Martial Artist Forum was one of China's three major forums, with as many as three hundred million registered members and over a million posts of all kinds published every day.

Besides its main Greater China page, Martial Artist Forum was divided into twelve sections according to the twelve Base Cities.

At that moment, in the River City section of Martial Artist Forum, a post titled "High School Student Beats Up Martial Artist" was being clicked and replied to like crazy.

The title of that post was incredibly exaggerated, just seven words: High School Student Beats Up Martial Artist.

At first glance, netizens who saw that title could not help wanting to mock it.

Why not just call it High School Student Beats Up Grandmaster?

Still, the netizens only mocked it for a few seconds. On Martial Artist Forum, there were countless posts with exaggerated titles. Without a little exaggeration, no one would be attracted to them; they would simply be drowned in the sea of posts.

Many netizens had long grown used to it. Yet whenever they saw such posts, they found them irritating. Many would not even open them, instead directly reporting and blocking the poster.

But this time, when they saw the five photos beneath the post, they clicked in without the slightest hesitation.

Pictures were proof!

The first photo showed a young man standing on an arena platform, with the background revealing the interior of a martial arts hall.

That distinctive decorating style and layout were familiar to many netizens, who recognized it at first glance as Thunder Martial Arts Hall. On the platform, a young man in a white shirt stood alone at its center, disdainfully wagging his right index finger at the spectators below. It was an animated image.

The second photo was a high-definition close-up of the spectators below, their faces filled with anger, disdain, and even furious curses.

The third photo was a close-up of the front and back of the young man's white shirt. On them were written respectively: "High School Student Beats Up Martial Artist" and "Recruiting Sponsor Slot."

The fourth photo showed the large screen's record board: High School Student Beats Up Martial Artist, 9 battles, 9 victories, 0 losses.

The fifth photo showed the young man's cold, disdainful expression as he spoke, with a caption beside him: "I'll come again tomorrow night and directly challenge a First-Rank Martial Artist."

Below those five photos was also an edited short video.

It was such a post, published by an ordinary low-level member. Without promotion and without paid boosters, less than two hours after it was posted, it had already exceeded 460,000 views, with an astonishing 1.89 million replies and 140,000 reposts.

And the numbers were still climbing rapidly.

Without question, this post had gone viral!

On the daily popularity rankings for the River City section of Martial Artist Forum, "High School Student Beats Up Martial Artist" ranked seventeenth. It was already very close to sixteenth and only needed a little more to explode.

"So fast?"

In his room, Yang Fan refreshed the follower count and points in his account dashboard.

His V0 account had now surged to V5. It only needed 460 more points to shoot up to V6, while his followers had leaped from single digits straight to 150,000.

No matter how high a member level or follower count became, the forum would not offer rewards. But Martial Artist Forum accounts were very valuable.

As long as a forum account had real, active followers, it could run ads and sell products, earning money from the fan economy.

A genuine active V5 account could already sell for one hundred thousand dollars, and even then there was demand without supply.

Beyond money, having so many people follow and comment on his post also gave him a sense of accomplishment.

Yang Fan kept browsing the comments.

989th floor: "Holy shit, isn't he afraid of being beaten to death for that name?"

990th floor: "This kid is really arrogant, but I like him."

991st floor: "Such strong fighting skills. I wonder what year this high school student is in, and whether he has refined a demon spirit."

992nd floor: "This is the first time I've seen advertising like this. Society is too complicated. I don't want to grow up."

993rd floor: "A classic case of playing the pig to eat the tiger. Those spectators probably wanted to kill him."

994th floor: "Such strong stamina. Need a girlfriend?"

995th floor: "My boobs are huge. Click my profile, 6666."

996th floor: "Does anyone know little brother's contact information? There will be a generous reward!!!!"

997th floor: "River City has been making big waves these past two days. Yesterday, Ye Qiu burst onto the scene on Awakening Day. Today, this high school student is equally stunning."

998th floor: "Are high school students all this strong now? Earth is terrifying. I want to go back to Mars."

999th floor: "Even a Body Cultivation Ninth Stage was utterly crushed. Which River City school is this high school student from?"

1000th floor: "Can someone help me ask how much the endorsement fee is? I want to endorse myself!"

Yang Fan carefully browsed the comments. Whenever he came across something funny, he would reply. Seeing that the original poster was actually responding, the netizens seemed encouraged and began showering him with flattery.

"It's already eleventh?"

Seeing the replies in the comments section, Yang Fan hurriedly clicked his mouse. Only then did he realize that his post had already climbed to eleventh place on the daily rankings.

It was only one step away from the top ten.

The top ten posts on the daily rankings would be directly recommended on the homepage. One could imagine just how explosively popular the post would become then.

Making it into the top ten of the daily rankings was, without exaggeration, something one could brag about for a lifetime.

Nowadays, no one cared about entertainment celebrity gossip. Thus, the top ten rankings were all major news about Glory players or clubs, or news about the Glory League and its teams.

The number one post on the daily rankings was: "Thunder Team Replaces Its Head Coach."

The second-ranked post was: "Twin Blades Yun Tianqi May Transfer Teams."

Ye Qiu had ranked first on the daily list yesterday. Today, his popularity had dropped somewhat, placing him third. From this, one could see what an honor it was to enter the top ten.

"Charge, charge, charge!"

"Charge, charge, charge, charge!"

"Charge, charge, charge, charge, charge!"

Countless netizens spammed "Charge, charge, charge" until it filled the comments section. Yang Fan watched with his own eyes as his post entered the top ten and gained the right to appear on the homepage. Not long after reaching the homepage, it exploded straight to ninth place.

The effect of the Martial Artist Forum homepage was obvious. At that moment, more than a million people noticed the post with its incredibly arrogant title. More people curiously clicked in, causing its views and replies to surge even faster.

Yang Fan's account had now shot up to V7, with followers breaking 1.45 million. The notification sounds from messages in his dashboard had not stopped for even a moment.

When Yang Fan opened them, nearly all were asking for Lin Feng's contact information or asking where they could watch the matches. Many wanted to watch the fights in person.

There were even many verified accounts from martial arts halls and clubs leaving messages, asking what year Lin Feng was in, whether he had participated in Awakening Day, and what demon spirit he had refined.

They hoped to obtain complete information.

Clearly, Lin Feng had caught the clubs' attention.

Lin Feng's combat talent, far beyond that of his peers, was extremely rare—perhaps even unprecedented. As long as he had talent for soul cultivation, even if that talent was a little lacking, they would sign him and focus on training him.

Quite a few people were also interested in Lin Feng's advertising, but the prerequisite was learning more about his exact circumstances and strength.

Yang Fan did not reply to any of those messages. The popularity was not high enough yet.

"Someone already knows?"

As Yang Fan browsed the post, he quickly discovered that someone had already revealed Lin Feng's information in the comments section, and the comment had received over ten thousand likes.

Yang Fan had originally thought the post's popularity would drop once netizens learned that Lin Feng had not refined a demon spirit. Yet unexpectedly, many people in the comments began posting photos of Yage and gossiping. Rather than falling, the post's popularity continued rising, even faintly showing signs of heading toward sixth place on the daily rankings.

Meanwhile, in Lin Feng's class chat group, the usually quiet chat was exceptionally lively, with people constantly posting photos.

"This is Lin Feng? When did he go to a martial arts hall?"

"Holy shit, I checked Martial Artist Forum. It's already exploded."

"The River City section of Martial Artist Forum has already shot up to seventh place. I'm scared shitless."

"No matter how strong his combat talent is, it's useless if he can't become a Demon Spirit Master."

"He's still stronger than you. You aren't even qualified to carry Lin Feng's shoes."

The class group was bustling. Many people @'d Lin Feng, but he never replied. Then they began @'ing Gao Hai, but there was no response from him either. Quite a few wanted to @ Yage, but they lacked the courage.

In a pitch-black room, Yage hid beneath her blanket, reading her classmates' messages. She remained silent and offered no comment.

After a long time, when no one in the group replied anymore, she finally turned off her phone. The light vanished. Yage slowly closed her eyes, leaving behind only a sigh.