Leaving aside whether he was really that powerful, could someone actually live for hundreds of years?
Could this be a farce her family's martial arts school had staged for views?
Gu Qing was skeptical.
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Chapter 28: Suspected supernatural abilities
"I know this might be a little rude, but are you sure everything you saw at your family's martial arts school was real?"
"I mean... is it possible that this Old Ancestor of yours, who supposedly spent hundreds of years in seclusion, was actually an actor your family's martial arts school hired?"
"And the whole business of him fighting dozens of people at once was just the school's people putting on a show with him, all to make a viral video and attract customers?"
Gu Qing looked at the younger sports student beside him and voiced his perfectly reasonable doubts.
Although, having awakened his cheat, he was willing to entertain the possibility of even the most bizarre things being true.
That didn't mean he would believe them blindly.
One person taking on dozens already sounded incredible.
Add hundreds of years spent secluded from the world to that...
Seriously, that was way too far-fetched.
Without seeing it firsthand, nobody would believe it.
Seeing Gu Qing finally begin to question it, Xia Shuran smiled in relief.
That's right. When you hear something this ridiculous, you're supposed to question it.
That's how a normal person should react.
You looked so calm just now, Senior, that I couldn't even react properly myself.
With that thought,
Xia Shuran rose from the steps and gave Gu Qing a playful smile.
"It's only natural you don't believe me, Senior. Seeing is believing, after all."
"But that's fine. I'll prove it to you with actions, Senior."
"Come on, Senior, let's go to that sandpit up ahead."
With that, Xia Shuran headed toward the sandpit used for practicing the long jump.
Gu Qing got up and followed, quite curious about how this younger sports student intended to prove it.
When they reached the sandpit,
Xia Shuran said to Gu Qing,
"Senior, stand right at the edge, with your back to the sandpit."
"Get yourself steady."
Gu Qing took his position as instructed.
Xia Shuran continued,
"Senior, I'm going to demonstrate a palm technique for you."
"This technique is called the Mountain-Crushing Palm. I just learned it from our Old Ancestor."
"Once you see how powerful it is, you'll believe everything I just told you."
As she spoke, Xia Shuran stood in front of Gu Qing and adopted a stance that let her put her strength into the strike.
Seeing how serious she was, Gu Qing grew serious too, bracing himself with all his strength.
"Senior, my Mountain-Crushing Palm can easily send a burly man weighing two hundred jin flying."
Xia Shuran looked at Gu Qing and asked with unprecedented seriousness, "Are you... ready?"
"Ready."
"Then... Senior, here I come!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Shuran's gaze sharpened. She lunged forward, using her body's forward momentum to drive a sudden palm strike at Gu Qing's chest.
The palm strike looked utterly unremarkable.
But the explosive rush of air it produced could make an onlooker's eardrums buzz.
The next instant,
the seemingly ordinary but explosively powerful Mountain-Crushing Palm slammed into Gu Qing's chest.
Yet the expected scene never materialized.
Gu Qing wasn't sent flying by the strike.
Instead, Xia Shuran felt as though she'd struck a city wall. The impact left her entire arm numb, and that numbness traveled straight to her brain, leaving her stunned all over.
Xia Shuran: "???"
Gu Qing: "..."
Xia Shuran was a little bewildered. She couldn't understand how Senior could take a Mountain-Crushing Palm without budging an inch.
Yesterday at the martial arts school, she had sent a burly man weighing two hundred jin flying with just one strike of this very technique.
Yet the senior before her looked slim in his clothes and probably weighed only around a hundred and fifty jin.
If she could send someone weighing two hundred jin flying, there was no reason she couldn't do the same to someone weighing a hundred and fifty.
I've got it!
I only just learned the Mountain-Crushing Palm, so I'm not very proficient yet. It's easy to mess up how I apply my strength.
That's what happened just now—I messed up my technique, which is why I couldn't send Senior flying with one strike.
Having figured that out,
Xia Shuran withdrew her numb arm, reset her stance, and said to Gu Qing,
"Senior, I messed up just now and didn't put my strength into it properly. Let's try again."
"Sure."
Gu Qing agreed and braced himself again.
Once he was ready, Xia Shuran wasted no time. She immediately repeated the same movement and struck hard with her palm.
This time, not wanting to disappoint her, Gu Qing pretended the strike had sent him staggering several steps backward, nearly falling into the sandpit.
"Senior, are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
"Senior, that was pretty powerful, wasn't it?"
"Very!"
"So, Senior, you believe everything I told you now, right?"
"I do."
Gu Qing had believed her from the first strike.
The force behind Xia Shuran's two palm strikes had been tremendous, far exceeding what someone of her weight should have been capable of.
It was only at that moment
that Gu Qing belatedly realized something.
The world he lived in... might contain the supernatural.
And his cheat might be a form of it.
Xia Shuran had no idea what Gu Qing was thinking. She simply chattered excitedly beside him.
"Seriously, Senior, your body is incredibly tough."
"My Mountain-Crushing Palm can knock a burly man weighing two hundred jin right to the ground."
"But even though you weigh nowhere near two hundred jin, Senior, you only took a few steps back after my strike. You're even tougher than that burly man."
"No wonder you're so good at street workout, Senior. Your core strength is just ridiculous."
"..."
Gu Qing was lost in thought and barely listening, while Xia Shuran kept talking.
She said that with Senior's athletic talent, he was bound to be good at martial arts, and that he absolutely had to visit her family's school when he had time.
She told Senior to stop practicing with the Red-Tassel Spear. Those flashy martial arts meant for performances were a waste of his life; he would be better off learning the Old Ancestor's real skills with her.
Only after pondering for quite a while did Gu Qing gradually come back to his senses. He looked at Xia Shuran, who was still talking beside him, and smiled.
"No problem. I'll learn your family's Old Ancestor's real skills with you from now on, Senior."
"..."
They chatted a little longer.
Then Gu Qing and Xia Shuran parted ways.
Each returned to their own dorm.
They agreed to meet on the sports field the following afternoon to practice the Mountain-Crushing Palm together.
On his way back to the dorm,
Gu Qing kept an eye out for rats.
He looked the whole way without spotting even a single one.
After the extermination over the past few days, there really were far fewer rats on campus.
Running into a fat rat as soon as he entered the school gates earlier
had been sheer luck.
It was almost impossible to repeat.
By the time Gu Qing returned to his dorm, it was already past eleven at night.
He showered first, then took care of one thing here and another there.
Before he knew it,
it was past midnight.
It was time for lights out and bed.
Before the lights went out, Gu Qing took down the mosquito net around his bed.
The dorm bed was small enough already, and having a mosquito net enclosing it always felt a little oppressive.
It was much more comfortable without it.
As for mosquitoes...
His skin was now far tougher than an ordinary person's. Their tiny mouthparts couldn't possibly pierce his defenses.
Before long,
the dorm lights went out.
Shortly after darkness fell, the buzzing of mosquitoes began right on schedule-even more punctual than a delivery service's on-time guarantee.
In the blink of an eye, several mosquitoes followed his scent over.
They landed on Gu Qing's face, neck, arms, thighs...
The moment they landed, they drew their swords, straightening their slender mouthparts and stabbing hard at Gu Qing's skin.
But however desperately they stabbed, their mouthparts simply couldn't penetrate his defenses.
[Blood... blood...]
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