Martial Arts Club

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

To successfully tame the dragon-level freak beside her, who adapted endlessly to her rate of improvement, Xia Mi truly needed money.

Although the money belonged to the club, and 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 somehow be tricked by the Gattuso family's young master onto a luxury cruise ship and never want to leave.

After a smooth and uneventful discussion, the upperclassman from the Student Union, already in his third year, voluntarily relinquished 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 sent the entirety of Cassel College into a frenzy.

On that dazzlingly lit night, it was not only the Student Union, thrilled to have recruited an outstanding freshman, that was celebrating. The Night's Watch Forum was equally bustling.

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

"I'm losing my mind. I'm almost graduating, and I've only ever seen a few A-Rank freshmen. Who the hell would've thought there could really be an S-Rank?"

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

"I heard some rumors from Fingel's side. Apparently, it's the rare Rock Flow."

"Wouldn't that make him invincible when carrying out missions in the city? All that cement and concrete on the ground could be used as weapons."

"..."

The conference room on the top floor of Amber Hall.

Caesar reclined comfortably in an ergonomic office chair. After browsing through the Night Watchers Forum, he felt refreshed and invigorated. He had not joined the betting pool Fingel had organized, because he believed using such a method to prove Li Lin's excellence was simply an insult to his own bloodline.

Now that the club officer reelections were over, he gathered the old guard of the various clubs after dinner, opened the school grounds model, and prepared to discuss what tactics they should use for Friday's "Day of Freedom."

"This year, ownership of Norton Hall remains our inevitable objective."

Caesar raised a hand, signaling for the president of the gaming club from the battlefield design program to take the stage and present the preliminary battle plan. The outstanding students sat around the table with straight backs, listening intently and ready to offer their own views at any moment.

It had always been an annual Student Union tradition for both old and new officers to gather and discuss the Day of Freedom.

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

Fortunately, after Xia Mi's mysterious maneuvers today, everyone had tacitly assumed that she and Li Lin were passionately in love—or at the very least, in some ambiguous stage of their relationship. Thus, no one mentioned the two trump cards who would shine brilliantly during the Day of Freedom. In any case, with their combat performance, they had no need to participate in pre-battle training.

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

But the actual situation could not have been more different from what the Student Union leadership imagined.

At that moment, in the Martial Arts Club's training grounds, Li Lin looked gloomily at Xia Mi across from him. She had changed out of her evening gown 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 Spirit Vision and the adjustment period after his bloodline awakening, Li Lin felt thoroughly exhausted.

Besides, he believed his bloodline was stronger than Xia Mi's. Once his physical abilities improved significantly after some time, Xia Mi definitely would no longer be his match.

But Xia Mi did not care about any of that. Instead, she latched onto Li Lin's thoughts and said with a smiling face,

"You're a noble S-Rank now. In a little while, I might not be able to beat you anymore, so I need to restore my dignity while I can."

"Cherishing our final days of being evenly matched?" Li Lin's physical abilities had actually received the boost brought by dragon bloodline the instant his bloodline awakened. Reluctantly, he put on his gloves and looked at the little girl in the ring.

Xia Mi was clearly coaxing Li Lin into stepping onto the ring.

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

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

At the thought that he had become S-Rank and would finally be able to beat Xia Mi up whenever he pleased in the future, Li Lin felt proud and pleased with himself, though he could not help feeling a trace of regret.

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

Unfortunately, his days of automatically improving his martial arts through the Binding System were over. If he wanted to become stronger in the future, he would have to train and comprehend things more diligently himself.

Li Lin thought regretfully. Then he strode forward and threw a probing jab at Xia Mi's throat.

The punch was a little faster than even he had expected.

If Li Lin's full-force punching speed before his bloodline awakening had been 100, then now, he felt that the speed of a casual jab had already surged to 150.

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 firmly in place until she suddenly struck with an upward palm, moving after him yet arriving first, barely deflecting Li Lin's wrist.

Li Lin did not hesitate. He drove his knee toward Xia Mi's abdomen. At this distance, he did not dare hold back at all, because Xia Mi's counterattacks genuinely hurt like hell.

Sure enough, the little girl let out a low "Hup!" and pushed at Li Lin's knee with her other hand. In an instant, the force penetrated flesh and bone that had just been strengthened by dragon bloodline, making Li Lin grimace in pain.

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

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

Seizing the opportunity, Li Lin charged forward through the pain, striking directly at Xia Mi's face with the stance of Great Sage Pigua.

Xia Mi raised her hand to block as expected, but the counterattack Li Lin had anticipated never came.

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

"Forget it. I surrender."

"Huh?"

"I suddenly feel like it's no fun anymore. I used Tai Chi's technique of deflecting a thousand pounds with four ounces just now, but I can't even redirect your punch anymore."

"Why does that sound so tragically like a hero in his twilight years?"

"Hehe, don't get cocky. This lady just doesn't want to get serious... If I really get angry, forget S-Rank—even SSS-Rank would be useless. Let me tell you, in the world of Mixed-Bloods, skill can surpass physical strength. There's no such thing as an outstanding Mixed-Blood being unable to beat a polar bear."

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

"So what now? Same old routine, we each go home?"

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

Xia Mi gave an answer Li Lin 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 around the streets aimlessly.

But since they had enrolled, Li Lin had seen her chatting happily with her roommate named Su Qian. He had thought she had already made a new friend.

"You're just going to leave 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 was slender and delicate to begin with. Curled up like that, she looked like a tiny bundle from across the sofa, like a kitten wary of the human city, lonely and curious as she watched colors flicker across the projection screen.

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

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