Martial Arts Club

For the sake of a million, Xia Mi ultimately refrained from planting two purple bruises on Caesar's smug face.

To successfully tame the dragon-level freak beside her, whose growth rate adapted endlessly to her own progress, Xia Mi really needed money.

Though the money belonged to the club, Li Lin, as vice president, could use it too...

At least Xia Mi no longer had to worry that the boy she had watched over for ten years would be muddleheadedly tricked aboard a luxury cruise ship by the Gattuso family's young master, then never want to leave.

After a fairly uneventful discussion, the third-year senior from the Student Union voluntarily surrendered ownership of the Martial Arts Club. The students who had originally joined the club also had to submit new applications.

The birth of an S-rank student set the entire Cassel College ablaze with excitement.

On that hazy, brightly lit night, it was not only the Student Union, which had gained an outstanding freshman, that was celebrating. The Night's Watch Forum was flourishing as well.

"Woohoo! I actually made seven hundred bucks! I told you that kid could become S-rank!"

"I'm losing my mind. I'm about to graduate, and I've only ever seen a few A-rank freshmen. Who the hell would've thought there'd really be an S-rank?"

"The principal's Word Spirit is Time Zero. I wonder what this 'S-rank's' Word Spirit is..."

"I heard some insider gossip from Fingel. Supposedly, it's the rare Rock Flow."

"Then wouldn't he be invincible when carrying out missions in a city? The ground is full of cement and concrete he could use as weapons."

"..."

The conference room on the top floor of Amber Hall.

Caesar lounged refreshedly in an ergonomic office chair. After browsing through the Night's Watch Forum, he had not joined the betting pool Fingel had started, because he felt that needing such a method to prove Li Lin's excellence was simply an insult to his own bloodline.

Now that the club officer reelections had concluded, after dinner he gathered the club's senior members around him, opened the school grounds model, and prepared to discuss what tactics they should use for Friday's Day of Freedom.

"This year, Norton Hall remains a target we are determined to seize."

Caesar raised a hand, signaling for the head of the gaming club, who specialized in battlefield design, to come forward and present the initial battle plan. A group of outstanding students sat around the table with straight backs, listening intently and ready to offer their own opinions at any moment.

Gathering both new and old officers to discuss Day of Freedom was an annual Student Union tradition.

Only the two newly appointed heads of the Martial Arts Club were absent.

Fortunately, after Xia Mi's mysterious maneuvering today, everyone had tacitly assumed that she and Li Lin were passionately in love, or at the very least in an ambiguous relationship. Thus, no one mentioned these two trump cards who would shine during Day of Freedom. In any case, with their actual combat ability, they did not need to take part in pre-battle training.

Besides, ruining a girl's romance was a capital crime. A capital crime!

But the actual situation was completely different from what the Student Union leadership had imagined.

At that moment, inside the Martial Arts Club's activity space, Li Lin looked worriedly at Xia Mi across from him. She had changed out of her formal dress and was putting on boxing gloves.

"Do we really have to fight?"

He had just finished the 3E exam today. Under the combined effects of the spiritual vision and the adjustment period following his bloodline awakening, Li Lin felt thoroughly exhausted.

Besides, he believed his bloodline was stronger than Xia Mi's. Once his physical abilities improved dramatically after some time, Xia Mi definitely would not be a match for him.

But Xia Mi did not care about that. Instead, she seized on Li Lin's thoughts and said with a smile.

"You're a noble S-rank now. In a little while, I might not be able to beat you anymore, so I need to regain some face while I can."

"Cherishing our last moments of evenly matched combat?" Li Lin's physical abilities had actually been enhanced by his dragon bloodline the moment it awakened. Reluctantly, he put on his gloves and looked at the little girl on the ring.

Xia Mi was clearly coaxing Li Lin into getting on the ring.

"Yep, yep. The martial arts rivalry between us that's lasted ten years is finally reaching its grand finale."

"Fine. I'll spar with you for a while."

Thinking that he had become S-rank and could finally beat Xia Mi up whenever he wanted in the future, Li Lin felt triumphant, though he could not help feeling a trace of regret as well.

Whenever they fell into a prolonged, evenly matched battle, Xia Mi would pull out all kinds of improvised hybrid martial arts, rapidly improving Li Lin's martial arts attainments.

Unfortunately, his days of relying on the Binding System to automatically improve his martial arts were over. From now on, if he wanted to become stronger, he would have to train and comprehend things more diligently himself.

Li Lin thought regretfully, then quickly stepped forward and threw a probing jab at Xia Mi's throat.

The speed of that punch exceeded even his own expectations.

If Li Lin's full-force punch before awakening his bloodline had been a hundred, then he felt that even a casual jab now had shot up to one hundred and fifty.

He was starting to worry whether Xia Mi might get hurt.

But the little girl opposite him displayed the bearing of a true master. She stood calmly in place until, with a sudden upward palm strike that arrived after his punch yet struck first, she narrowly knocked Li Lin's wrist aside.

Without hesitation, Li Lin drove his knee toward Xia Mi's abdomen. At this distance, he did not dare hold back at all, because Xia Mi's counterattacks truly hurt like hell.

Sure enough, the little girl let out a low "Hup!" and pushed her other hand against Li Lin's knee. In an instant, the force pierced through flesh, muscle, and bone that had just been strengthened by dragon blood, making Li Lin bare his teeth in pain.

If the world were a giant MOBA game, then every time Xia Mi landed a move on Li Lin, white numbers representing true damage would surely pop up at once.

But Li Lin's physical qualities had indeed received an absurd boost. Even though Xia Mi did her best to block, the force still knocked her back two steps.

Seizing the opportunity despite the pain, Li Lin lunged forward and used the stance of Great Sage Pigua to strike straight at Xia Mi's face.

Sure enough, Xia Mi raised her hands to block, but the counterattack Li Lin had expected never came.

After deflecting most of the force, the little girl simply fell backward along with Li Lin's straight punch and stared listlessly at the ceiling.

"Forget it. I surrender."

"Hm?"

"I suddenly think this is boring. Just now, I used Tai Chi's trick of moving a thousand pounds with four ounces, but I can't even turn your fist aside anymore."

"Why does that sound like the bleak sorrow of a hero in their twilight years?"

"Heh heh, don't get cocky. This girl just doesn't feel like getting serious... If I actually got angry, forget S-rank—even SSS-rank would be useless. Let me tell you, in the world of hybrids, technique can surpass physique. There's no such thing as an outstanding hybrid losing to a polar bear."

Li Lin was somewhat convinced by Xia Mi's words. After all, her talent for martial arts truly was unlike anything he had ever seen.

"So what now? Same old routine, each of us goes home?"

"Watch some anime with me. I remember the previous club president said the club office was converted into a private theater last year."

Xia Mi gave Li Lin an answer he had not expected.

A long time ago, she had been quite afraid of loneliness. Whenever she had a little money in her pocket, she would drag Li Lin all over town for aimless wandering.

But since enrolling, Li Lin had seen her chatting happily with her roommate named Su Qian, so he had assumed she had already made new friends.

"You're just leaving your roommate all alone in the dorm?"

"She went to sign up for the Lionheart Society's assessment. She probably won't get back to the dorm until ten."

Xia Mi did not mention the matter of "friends" at all. In the office, facing the projection screen, she found a comfortable corner of the sofa, took off her shoes and socks, and sat down hugging her knees.

The girl had always been slim and slight. Curled up like that, she looked like a tiny bundle from across the sofa, like a kitten wary of the human city, lonely yet curious as she watched colors flash across the projection screen.

Li Lin used his phone to order a bucket of popcorn and two cups of cola, then sat down on the same sofa as Xia Mi.

Xia Mi lazily watched Li Lin for a while, then quietly shifted a little closer to him. A kitten raised in the city naturally knew how to act cute to beg for food. She did not expect Li Lin to immediately conjure up the delicacies she wanted right now; she was simply used to trying to draw closer to the only human she could trust whenever she felt lonely.