How Could You Do This?! (Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader "Li Shugen")

Early in the morning, Zuo Yi woke up in a recliner.

He discovered that he had actually slept the entire night in the small courtyard. The charcoal in the barbecue grill had long since turned into cold ashes, and bamboo skewers used for grilling ingredients were scattered messily across the ground.

He summoned the Giant Spirit Witch Slave to clean up, then returned to his room to wash and freshen up.

After that, he went into town for breakfast and took the bus to work.

Today was Zuo Yi's first day as an instructor at the Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall, but the start of his teaching career was far from pleasant.

"Let me introduce everyone..."

Shang Yulin said, "This is your swordsmanship instructor, Teacher Zuo Yi. He'll be responsible for your basic swordsmanship training."

At its peak, the Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall had more than twenty combat and swordsmanship instructors, three senior mentors, and over two hundred students. It had enjoyed quite a reputation in Hang City's martial arts circles.

But that was long in the past. Now, the martial arts hall had only Shang Yulin and Zhang Dahai left as instructors, with barely any students remaining.

The people Shang Yulin had just introduced Zuo Yi to were new students recruited during this year's summer break. There were only five of them—four boys and one girl—all in their teens.

The moment she finished speaking, one of the arrogant-looking boys frowned and demanded unhappily, "Director Shang, why aren't you teaching us swordsmanship? Why does it have to be this guy?"

He gave Zuo Yi a critical glance, his curled lips full of disdain.

What a joke. He had paid to join the Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall because he wanted to learn swordsmanship from Shang Yulin, the beautiful instructor. Otherwise, there were plenty of better martial arts halls in Hang City. Why come all the way here?

"Yeah!"

The companion beside the arrogant boy also started shouting. "Director Shang, we want to learn swordsmanship from you!"

"Me too!"

The noise gave Shang Yulin a headache, but she still patiently persuaded them. "Zuo Yi is a professional third-rank swordsman. He's fully capable of guiding your basic swordsmanship training..."

"Only professional third-rank?"

The arrogant boy's eyes widened as though he had suffered some grave insult. He put on an exaggerated expression. "Then that's even more unacceptable. Director Shang, if you make us learn swordsmanship from him, then we won't learn. Refund our tuition!"

The lackey beside him waved the flag in support. "Right, right, right! Refund the tuition!"

A few steps away, Zhang Dahai was watching the show with several martial arts hall students.

With his arms crossed, he looked at Zuo Yi with obvious mockery in his eyes. Clearly, he was taking delight in Zuo Yi's awkward predicament.

"Fine, then."

With the new students clamoring for refunds, Shang Yulin could only compromise helplessly.

But she still wanted to salvage the situation. "Those who want to learn swordsmanship from me can come with me. Those willing to learn from Teacher Zuo can stay."

These five new students were practically the Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall's last hope. They had spent so much time and effort recruiting students. If they all left now, not only would the newly collected tuition have to be refunded, but the martial arts hall's already meager reputation would be completely ruined.

So no matter what, Shang Yulin could not allow that to happen. She could only work harder and teach the students herself.

The arrogant boy and two other boys immediately went over to her side. Then, after hesitating for a moment, the pretty girl followed them as well. That left only one chubby boy on Zuo Yi's side.

Shang Yulin was somewhat surprised. "You're willing to learn from Teacher Zuo?"

The chubby boy smiled honestly and nodded. "I am."

The arrogant boy and his companions looked at him as though he were an idiot.

Ignoring the tall, long-legged beauty of a director right in front of him to learn swordsmanship from some rough old man—had a donkey kicked him in the head?

He was obviously short on brains!

But Shang Yulin felt immensely relieved. "Good."

She hurriedly said to Zuo Yi, "Then I'll leave him to you."

After saying that, Shang Yulin quickly led her four students away, afraid that they might suddenly change their minds and leave Zuo Yi unable to save face.

"Ha!"

Zhang Dahai gave a laugh and led his own students away to practice boxing—the show was over.

That left only Zuo Yi and the chubby boy staring at each other.

"Interesting..."

Zuo Yi suddenly smiled and asked, "What's your name? Why didn't you go with them?"

"Teacher, my name is Sun Qiang."

The chubby boy scratched his head and answered somewhat shyly, "I... I don't like being with Zhao Shaohui and the others."

Zuo Yi nodded and asked again, "Then why are you learning swordsmanship?"

The chubby boy, Sun Qiang, swallowed. "I want... I want to lose weight, and I don't want people to bully me."

As he spoke, he turned to look at the arrogant boy learning swordsmanship from Shang Yulin not far away.

Zuo Yi understood immediately.

This fellow had clearly been bullied often, and the people bullying him were similar to that arrogant boy. That was why he would rather learn from Zuo Yi than hang around with them.

"Student Xiaoqiang..."

He reached out and patted the other boy's shoulder. "Come with me."

"My name is Sun Qiang."

The chubby boy weakly protested, but he obediently followed Zuo Yi to the sword room.

The Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall had two separate sword rooms. Back when the hall was thriving, the sword rooms had to be reserved in advance, and usage time was limited. Now, anyone could use them whenever they wanted. Nobody was competing for them at all.

The sword room Zuo Yi chose was the one he had often used years ago when he studied at the Hongwu Martial Arts Academy. Compared to back then, the equipment and facilities inside had barely changed, except they looked much older and clearly lacked maintenance.

Pulling back his gaze, Zuo Yi turned his attention to the student before him and asked, "Have you studied combat or swordsmanship before?"

Sun Qiang shook his head like a rattle drum.

"Then you have no foundation..."

Zuo Yi pondered for a moment and said, "How about this? I'll teach you a movement. Practice it for a while first, then we'll learn sword techniques."

Without waiting for Sun Qiang's answer, Zuo Yi suddenly stepped forward and flashed behind him in an instant. He extended his right index finger and tapped lightning-fast onto the first vertebra at the back of Sun Qiang's neck.

Sun Qiang had no time to react. He only felt a scorching breath enter through his cervical vertebrae, instantly shooting down his entire spine before spreading through his limbs and body to the tips of his fingers and toes!

The indescribable mixture of soreness and exhilaration in that instant made Sun Qiang's hair stand on end, his eyes roll white, his limbs twitch, and his whole body tremble. He nearly wet himself on the spot.

The next moment, he involuntarily tucked in his head, spread his arms, lifted one leg, and arched his body. Like a puppet controlled by strings, he stiffly and mechanically completed a bizarre movement.

In less than half a minute, Sun Qiang, who had just completed the movement, was already drenched in sweat. Beads of perspiration the size of beans emerged from his forehead and rapidly slid down his plump face, making him look especially comical.

Zuo Yi withdrew his finger.

As though his spine had been pulled out, Sun Qiang collapsed weakly onto the floor and let out a pig-slaughtering howl.

"Ahhh!"

He had wanted to scream just now, but Zuo Yi's control had made him completely unable to make a sound. The soreness, pain, numbness, and itchiness within his body had accumulated to their peak, and he could only vent them this way.

The sword room door was open, and Sun Qiang's screams were so miserable that everyone in the hall outside heard them clearly.

Shang Yulin, who was guiding the new students in swordsmanship, changed expression at the sound and rushed toward the sword room without hesitation.

The others looked at one another and hurried over to see what was going on.

The first to arrive, Shang Yulin saw Sun Qiang sprawled helplessly on the floor in a miserable state, his face twisted as though he had just endured unbearable torture.

The sight shocked Shang Yulin beyond measure. She could not help shouting at the unruffled Zuo Yi, "What did you do?"

Tears streamed down her face as she shouted, "How could you do this?!"

Ever since Shang He's death, Shang Yulin had taken on the responsibility of caring for her family and the martial arts hall. The pressure on her had been enormous these past days. She worried day and night, every string in her heart stretched to the limit.

Now that they had finally recruited a few new students, she never expected Zuo Yi to cause something like this!

If anything serious happened to Sun Qiang, not only would the martial arts hall have to pay a huge sum in compensation, but its reputation would suffer a devastating blow.

It would also render all the effort and dedication Shang Yulin had poured into keeping the martial arts hall alive completely worthless!

Shang Yulin even suspected that Zuo Yi had colluded with someone else and deliberately come to the Heavenly Vast Martial Arts Hall to cause trouble.

She deeply regretted agreeing yesterday to let Zuo Yi become an instructor at the martial arts hall!

Third update. This was the bonus chapter owed to Alliance Leader Li Shugen from my previous book. I also want to thank Wu Liang for the generous reward, and thank all the friends who gave rewards. Thank you!