Su Qing stamped hard against the ground and darted out before the five could surround him.
He swiftly assessed the situation. With his strength, taking a few hits from these people would hardly matter; he could simply bulldoze through them.
But even a lion used its full strength to hunt a rabbit. When you started thinking your enemy was nothing special, it often meant you had already lost.
Before charging out, Su Qing had already picked his target with a clear head. This opponent stood slightly apart from the others.
These people lacked practical combat experience, and they had no talent to make up for it. Against anyone with even a little experience in this area, they would be crushed.
Su Qing sidestepped his target's straightforward, obvious attack, then thrust two fingers of his right hand toward the side of his neck, flecks of cold light swirling around his fingertips.
As the target's attention was drawn to that cold light, Su Qing kicked into the side of his knee.
A ligament tore, and a miserable scream pierced the skies. Excruciating pain and muscles that no longer worked in concert left him wide open.
Su Qing's feinting fingers struck his temple instead, sealing the outcome.
Then Su Qing swung back with a plain, unadorned uppercut that skimmed past his opponent's abdomen and struck his chin.
A few broken teeth, still streaked with bloody froth, fell beneath the courtyard wall alongside an unconscious figure.
It took longer to tell than to happen. This entire sequence of mental maneuvering and attacks ended in less than two seconds.
Cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of the remaining four.
Su Qing reset his stance and advanced toward them step by step, bright, pale-purple arcs flickering around his fingertips.
With a crack of thunder, he shot straight in front of them.
Just as all four focused their attention on him, they saw Su Qing suddenly close his eyes, wrench his body around, and turn his back.
As he turned, he spread both hands behind him. The arcs around his fingertips erupted into a dazzling flash of white light.
All four, their attention fully focused, got an unobstructed view of that flash.
White light flashed past, leaving their vision blank. Hazy shadows overlapped, their eyes stung, and tears streamed down their faces.
Within those three feet, in the span of a breath.
On one side stood the top student of his year, experienced and brimming with fighting spirit. On the other stood ordinary students, blinded and thrown into utter disarray.
Then thunder exploded!
When Tang Qian'er strode briskly onto the scene on her long, straight legs, she arrived just in time to see Su Qing drive a powerful front kick into someone's chest.
With the crack of breaking ribs, a dark figure flew in the direction of his kick and slammed into the nearby courtyard wall.
He twitched weakly, then slumped at its base.
Several figures lay sprawled beneath the wall like heaps of mud.
The five Western Academy students who had come swaggering over, looking ready to swear they would never return until they conquered the lands east of the river, now lay with swollen faces and bruised noses, eyes rolled back, twitching occasionally.
Tang Qian'er stared at the boy standing beneath the blazing sun, wiping blood from his palms. Despite herself, she blurted out, "With such a vicious streak, aren't you afraid you'll scare the girls away when you want to find a wife?"
Su Qing lowered his gaze slightly, then turned and teased, "If I can't find one, I'll hold you responsible."
"How is that my fault?"
"How would they know if you didn't tell them? You'll have to compensate me."
"How?"
"Give me yourself as compensation."
"You scoundrel!"
Tang Qian'er's cheeks flushed. She raised a hand as if to hit him, but pulled her strength midway through the swing, making it look like playful flirting.
"Ow, ow! Big Sister Qian'er, I was wrong. Stop hitting me, stop!"
"Ow-hiss! Don't pinch me! Not my waist!"
"I was wrong, I was wrong! I was wrong, honey!"
"What?!"
"Oww!"
"Hiss... ah..." Su Qing sat in the shade of a tree, lifting his shirt with one hand while slowly rubbing ointment onto the purple bruises at his waist with the other.
"You really went too hard," he complained as he applied the ointment.
Tang Qian'er snorted and rolled her eyes at him. "You brought it on yourself."
"Let's see if you dare do it again."
After saying that, she secretly pressed her lips together in a smile.
"All right, what did Master Mo say?"
Su Qing wiped the remaining ointment off his hand with a piece of paper and lowered his shirt.
"What else could he say, Young Master Su?"
Tang Qian'er drew out the words.
"Five against one, and they still couldn't win. They went looking for trouble with all that swagger, so they deserved their beating."
Tang Qian'er imitated Master Mo's tone.
When she finished, she couldn't help giggling.
After laughing, she let out a helpless sigh.
"Why the sudden sigh? Autumn's here, so has Big Sister Qian'er started mourning spring and lamenting autumn?"
His eyes smiling, Su Qing leaned closer to ask.
"The gap is too big. I'm still some way from the late stage, but you're already about to break through to the Spirit Wheel Realm."
Tang Qian'er tossed her tied-back black hair and cupped her cheeks in her hands.
Seeing Su Qing hesitate over what to say, she waved a hand.
"You don't have to comfort me. I'm just lamenting how unfair heaven is. We're all human, so why is the difference between people so enormous?"
Su Qing's expression turned slightly odd.
Your talents have an element of randomness, but I pulled strings behind the scenes and personally crafted mine.
How could the gap not be huge?
Seeing that the conversation had dampened Tang Qian'er's spirits, Su Qing was about to change the subject when she suddenly turned to him.
"So, for next month's training in the Northern Spirit Plains, you have to team up with me. You're not allowed to ditch me and run off on your own."
"Don't argue. If I didn't say anything, you'd definitely do exactly that. You're friendly to everyone normally, but you actually think everyone's a burden."
"Hmph!" Tang Qian'er crossed her arms. "You think I don't know you?"
Su Qing sighed helplessly and cupped his hands in salute.
"As expected of Big Sister Qian'er. I bow to your insight."
"We really are childhood sweethearts, innocent and inseparable. Big Sister Qian'er has guessed every last one of my thoughts."
"So, we're teaming up?" Tang Qian'er raised a slender brow and looked at him with a smile in her lovely eyes.
"No. I refuse!"
"Huh? Why?!" The amusement in Tang Qian'er's eyes instantly gave way to shock and confusion.
I don't get it. I don't understand. Why is this wretched man like this?
So this is my childhood sweetheart? Just disappear. Be destroyed. Hurry up.
"No reason."
Su Qing wore a wicked grin.
"Beg me. If you beg, I'll say yes. Call me Daddy."
"Brother Su! I heard the reward this time is a Spirit-Nurturing Pill. If I get it, I can reach the late stage of the Spirit Movement Realm and prepare to break through to the Spirit Wheel Realm."
"Just say yes... Daddy!"
Tang Qian'er shook his arm, gazing at him with wide, watery eyes as she spoke in a syrupy voice.
"Ugh, gross. Just go back to normal. I'll do it."
That one "Brother Su" had raised goosebumps all over him.
Though... it did feel a little secretly satisfying?
So this is the pleasure of teasing your childhood sweetheart?
Should I try it again?
Su Qing shook his head, tossing those stray thoughts away.
"This young master agrees. Don't worry. Your Brother Su is super strong."
Su Qing spoke in a warm, gentle voice, his face lit by a sunny smile.
Tang Qian'er's brows scrunched as though she had put on a mask of agony, and she raised her hand to hit him.
"So we're taking turns disgusting each other now, huh? Who are we trying to fool? We know each other inside out!"
Sensing danger, Su Qing instantly sprang up and ducked behind the tree. "So only you're allowed to disgust me, huh, Tang Qian'er?"
"You started it, you jerk!" Her swing missed, and Tang Qian'er rose to chase him.
The two chased and tussled beneath the tree, bright with youthful exuberance.
"You... stop right there!"
Tang Qian'er's breathless voice came from behind Su Qing.
Her face was flushed, beads of sweat slipping behind her ears, down her fair neck and defined collarbones, before disappearing beneath her ink-black training clothes.
Brushing aside the ends of her sweat-dampened hair, Tang Qian'er chased Su Qing, but his unpredictable footwork let him evade her every time.
"Stop! Just one hit. Just one."
Tang Qian'er couldn't help wheedling.
"All right, all right. Just one."
Su Qing stopped, turned, and walked toward her.
Tang Qian'er slowed her steps and approached, biting her lip. She raised a hand and swung playfully at his arm.
Su Qing didn't dodge. He stepped forward and wrapped both arms around her.
Tang Qian'er hesitated, then relaxed and leaned against his chest.
Then a fair hand with five slender fingers reached toward Su Qing's waist, swiftly seized the soft flesh there, and twisted hard!
"Oww!"
"╯^╰ Hmph!"