Questioning

Early morning.

Lin Feng was awakened by the noise outside the door.

"It's five o'clock."

After checking the time on his phone, Lin Feng was still terribly sleepy. But so his family would not worry, he quickly got dressed and walked out of his room.

"You're all up this early?"

The sun had yet to fully rise at five in the morning, and the sky was still dim. That was especially true in Anbian Residential Area.

The living room lights were on. His family was gathered around the dining table, eating breakfast and chatting softly.

It was obvious that everyone was in a good mood.

"You're up. Go wash up quickly."

The moment Lin Feng appeared, his family's gazes all gathered on him.

Aside from Ma Lele's simple delight, his mother, Old Ma, and his eldest sister all had complicated emotions in their eyes—pride, excitement, unease, and more.

"Why are you all up so early?" Lin Feng asked.

Even his little sister, who usually loved sleeping in, had gotten up before him. That was no small feat.

Seeing his family's condition, Lin Feng knew they definitely had not slept well last night. They had been caught between excitement and unease the entire time.

They held beautiful hopes for the future, yet feared that it was all nothing more than a mirage in the sea, visible but forever out of reach.

"I broke through to the Body Cultivation Eighth Stage yesterday."

To put his family's worries to rest, Lin Feng spoke with a smile.

Sure enough, upon learning that Lin Feng had broken through to the Body Cultivation Eighth Stage, the unease in their eyes visibly faded. In its place was greater anticipation for their future lives.

"How did you break through so quickly?" Lin Fang said excitedly.

With every stage crossed in the Body Cultivation Realm, one's vital energy and blood would become more abundant, while overall physical fitness and combat strength would rise directly. Reflected in the college entrance examination results, it could add at least thirty points. Clearly, this was good news.

Breaking through from the Body Cultivation Seventh Stage to the Body Cultivation Eighth Stage overnight gave Lin Fang tremendous confidence.

They had finally begun to believe that Lin Feng had been hiding his talent all these years. Otherwise, how could he have broken through so quickly?

"I already told you, I'm a martial arts genius. I was just keeping a low profile before," Lin Feng joked. "You'll slowly get used to it in the future."

"Mm, that's a good habit to get used to," Lin Kerou said with a smile.

"I'm going to wash up."

With that, Lin Feng walked into the bathroom.

After washing up briefly, Lin Feng looked at himself in the mirror. His originally pale complexion had gained some color, but the dark circles around his eyes made him look less than energetic.

No wonder. It had already been nearly three in the morning when he broke through to the Body Cultivation Eighth Stage last night. He had only slept for two hours, and those two hours had been poor-quality sleep. The Nightmare kept disturbing him from time to time, preventing him from truly falling asleep.

Having barely slept for two days in a row, Lin Feng felt groggy all over.

After breakfast, once his family had left for work one after another, Lin Feng stayed home alone.

He was not going to school today. He needed to prepare for the martial arts hall arena challenge later that day.

After eating, the exhausted Lin Feng sent Gao Hai a text message, then returned to his room, lay down on his bed, and went back to sleep.

He slept until noon, only waking when he heard the doorbell. He got up and opened the door.

"It really behaves itself much better during the day."

Lin Feng noticed that the Nightmare's mental fluctuations were clearly much weaker during the day, nowhere near as active as at night. That had allowed him to get a rare good sleep.

It seemed he would need to change his habits in the future.

"Why are you here, Yang Fan?"

When he opened the door, Lin Feng was surprised to find that Yang Fan had come along with Gao Hai. Yang Fan was even carrying food in both hands.

Yang Fan was speechless when he heard that question.

Brother, this is such a huge matter, and it concerns you personally. How could you not be excited?

"Brother Feng, didn't you check the forum? Ye Qiu has already been blown away by it."

Gao Hai looked wildly excited.

"Yeah, it blew up around ten o'clock. By now, the whole school knows about it without me having to do anything."

Yang Fan walked into Lin Feng's home. This was his first time visiting Anbian Residential Area.

As a wealthy young master living in the Inner City, Yang Fan lived in a villa. This apartment, only around twenty or thirty square meters, was not even as large as one of his rooms. It had not even been renovated. Though he had never been to such a rundown place before, Yang Fan appeared perfectly at ease, without any sign of discomfort.

That made Lin Feng nod inwardly.

"Make yourselves comfortable."

Lin Feng took two cans of drinks from the fridge and casually tossed them to Gao Hai and Yang Fan. "Eat while we talk."

"You bought lunch? It tastes pretty good," Lin Feng said to Yang Fan.

Lunch consisted of six dishes and a soup: four meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. Two of the meat dishes even contained demon beast flesh, rich in vital energy and blood and delicious in taste. They clearly were not something the little restaurants beneath Anbian Residential Area could cook.

"Mm, I had my family's maid make it."

"You're eating too? Has the forum post already climbed to third place?" Lin Feng asked curiously.

"Not just third. It's already in second place."

Yang Fan hurriedly replied. His post had directly set the forum ablaze.

"Brother Feng, see for yourself," Yang Fan said.

Lin Feng took out his phone and opened the Martial Artist Forum.

On River City's daily top ten trending news list on the homepage, "High School Student Beats Up Martial Artist" ranked second.

It had 4.89 million views, 2.56 million likes, 1.29 million reposts, and an astonishing 7.59 million comments.

The most-liked comment, pinned directly to the top, read: "Lin Feng and Yage! This is the most melodramatic love tragedy I've ever heard in my life."

"Yang Fan, delete that comment. Don't drag Yage into this in the future."

Lin Feng frowned. He had not known Yang Fan would write such a melodramatic story. He did not care, but it was clearly not a good thing for Yage.

"Oh, I'll delete it."

Seeing that Lin Feng was somewhat angry, Yang Fan quickly logged into the Martial Artist Forum and deleted his own comment.

Even so, people had already taken screenshots, and the replies beneath it could not be deleted.

Lin Feng scrolled down and began reading the comments.

"Mom, someone's showing off here. Come take a look."

"What nonsense. Hidden talent? I'd be a ghost if I believed that."

"Are high school students these calculating nowadays?"

"That little brother is so touching. Handsome and talented too."

"Giving up a ninth-grade Purple Scale? Who would believe that? Does he really think he's Ye Qiu?"

"Ye Qiu here. I refuse to accept this."

"This love story is so melodramatic that I can't forgive myself for believing it."

"He only beat a Body Cultivation Ninth Stage fighter. He's still a long way from being a Martial Artist!"

"No matter what, I'm going to the scene today. Thunder Martial Arts Hall—what district is it in?"

Nine out of every ten comments were skeptical, clearly questioning whether the matter was real.

They even suspected that Lin Feng himself had posted it, intending to use it for hype and sell ad slots.

"Brother Feng, should we explain?" Yang Fan asked.

"Yeah, Brother Feng. They're all questioning you. We need to explain," Gao Hai said while eating.

Lin Feng casually turned off his phone. He did not care much about the doubts.

The more they questioned it, the more there would be to discuss. The higher the buzz, the more valuable the ad slots would be.

"Leave them alone. I've already broken through to the Body Cultivation Eighth Stage."

"So fast?"

Yang Fan and Gao Hai were both surprised and delighted, and they became even more confident about the arena challenge that night.

One could imagine the uproar it would cause if Lin Feng truly fought a Martial Artist today at the Body Cultivation Eighth Stage.

Defeating a First-Rank Martial Artist while still in the Body Cultivation Realm was definitely an extremely rare feat. Even Ye Qiu, who had recently been in the strongest spotlight, could not accomplish it.

Talent and combat strength were two different things.

That was especially true for students in the Body Cultivation Realm.

The Body Cultivation Realm and the Martial Artist realm were two impassable boundaries.

Aside from geniuses trained by certain top Lineages, such as the Glory Clan, who relied on bloodline talents passed down through their Lineage, it was possible to challenge opponents across ranks.

One could imagine that if Lin Feng won, he would inevitably draw the attention of some top clubs and teams.

At that moment, the three of them did not know that as the Martial Artist Forum post continued to ferment, more than one club had already begun paying attention and conducting dedicated research and discussions.

Juxing Club was among them.