"Qin Ze, are you free tonight? Come over for dinner."
"I am!"
Qin Ze's eyes lit up. At last, he wouldn't have to eat steamed buns.
Ma Yan lived in a shantytown beside the city wall.
This was the very edge of the city, home to its lowest social stratum.
The filthy, chaotic surroundings bred all kinds of crime.
After winding through a maze of turns, Qin Ze stopped in front of a security door covered in graffiti.
Knock, knock, knock~
"Qin Ze?"
"It's me."
Creak-
The security door opened.
Ma Yan wore a black apron, her hair tied in a loose ponytail draped over one side of her chest.
The first thing that popped into Qin Ze's mind was: Madam, you wouldn't want...
"Come on in!"
Ma Yan welcomed him warmly.
The apartment was small, with two bedrooms, a living room, and an open kitchen.
Though the furniture was old, the apartment was kept very clean.
It stood in stark contrast to the stinking, garbage-strewn streets outside.
"Yanyan, do we have a guest?"
A woman's voice came from a room with its door half closed.
"Mom, he's the younger brother of one of my classmates."
"He helped me out a lot last time, so I invited him over for dinner."
Ma Yan explained.
"Then we really should thank him properly."
No further sound came from the room.
"Hello, Auntie."
Qin Ze politely greeted her from outside the door, but received no response.
Ma Yan smiled. "My mother's hearing isn't very good."
Qin Ze nodded. "I understand."
Dinner was ready in no time.
Four dishes and a soup.
Though they were all home-cooked dishes, they looked, smelled, and tasted wonderful.
Qin Ze had been gnawing on steamed buns for days, so to him, this was practically a Manchu-Han imperial feast.
"Isn't Auntie eating?"
Qin Ze saw that there were only the two of them.
Ma Yan shook her head. "My mom is paralyzed and can only lie in bed. I'll take some food to her in a bit."
"Let's eat first. Don't worry about her."
The two chatted as they ate.
Ma Yan told him many amusing stories about her and Qin Yu's time at university.
Qin Ze also learned that Ma Yan's main job was as a receptionist at a pharmaceutical company.
To earn more money for her bedridden mother's medical expenses, she worked other part-time jobs after getting off work.
"How did Auntie end up like that?" Qin Ze asked curiously.
"My mom used to be a sanitation worker. She accidentally bumped into a martial artist while she was working, and then... she ended up like this." Ma Yan showed neither joy nor sorrow.
Qin Ze frowned. "Didn't they pay compensation?"
Ma Yan looked at Qin Ze in surprise. "That was a martial artist in the official ranks. We were lucky they let us off, so what compensation could we expect?"
Ma Yan took it for granted, but Qin Ze felt deeply uncomfortable about it.
"Oh, right, He Guang has been released by the Law Enforcement Department."
"For the next while, come straight home after work. If anything seems wrong, call me."
Qin Ze hadn't taken He Guang seriously before.
But now, after hearing what had happened to Ma Yan's mother, Qin Ze worried that He Guang might lose all restraint and make a move against Ma Yan.
"I'll be careful," Ma Yan said, nodding.
After dinner, Qin Ze got up to take his leave.
Ma Yan saw him to the door, then suddenly said, "I heard from Xiao Yu that you signed up for the martial arts exam."
"Qin Ze, you have to become a martial artist."
In Ma Yan's eyes, Qin Ze saw resentment, stubbornness, and a trace of relief.
A jumble of feelings surged within Qin Ze. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he said, "Sister Ma Yan, don't forget to come on the day of the martial arts exam and watch me take first place."
Ma Yan said, "You can do it!"
After saying goodbye to Ma Yan, Qin Ze walked alone through the shantytown.
Vagrants in tattered clothes and drunks staggering along could be seen everywhere.
Qin Ze still felt a little uneasy, so he left a clone nearby.
The He family home.
"Third brother, this is for you."
He Guang called He Bi into his bedroom and gave him a shortsword.
"Inject qi and blood into it to unleash a slash."
"The more qi and blood you inject, the greater its power."
He Bi looked at the shortsword in his hand, puzzled. "Isn't this your standard-issue martial weapon, second brother? Why are you giving it to me?"
A vicious look flashed across He Guang's face. "Aren't you going into the otherworld for a trial tomorrow? Use this to cripple that Qin brat for me. Make sure he can't get out of bed for the rest of his life."
If their eldest brother hadn't warned him that this was a sensitive time and he couldn't pull anything against martial arts exam candidates, he would have gone to kill Qin Ze already.
You want to take the martial arts exam, Qin Ze?
I'll cripple your qi sea outright and leave you a cripple for the rest of your life.
Imagining Qin Ze living a life worse than death from then on, He Guang felt considerably relieved.
"Second brother, there's no need to go to all that trouble."
"At the last qi and blood test, Qin Ze only had a little over three hundred. I could crush him to death with one hand."
He Bi thought his second brother was making a mountain out of a molehill.
Once bitten by a snake, one feared a well rope for ten years.
Hearing this, He Guang frowned.
"A little over three hundred? Impossible!"
He had personally experienced the power of Qin Ze's fist.
Although he had been drunk that night, and his reactions had slowed in every respect,
even if they had slowed badly, a brat with just over three hundred qi and blood couldn't have knocked him down.
By his estimate, the qi and blood Qin Ze had unleashed in that punch had to be at least five hundred.
"I was right there watching when he took the test. Could the machine have been wrong?"
Seeing how cautious his second brother had become, He Bi sighed helplessly.
He Guang fell into deep self-doubt.
Could I have grown so weak that even a brat with three hundred qi and blood can push me around at will?
"Just to be safe, take the martial weapon for now and give it back to me after you leave the otherworld."
Unable to argue his second brother out of it, He Bi had no choice but to accept it.
"Don't worry, second brother. I'll definitely cripple him tomorrow and vent your anger for you."
He Guang patted He Bi on the shoulder. "Good brother."
Qin Ze had no idea that the two He brothers were planning to use underhanded tricks against him.
After getting home, he took a shower and went to bed.
He also made a point of telling Brother Devour not to go out tonight.
Rain suddenly began to fall in the middle of the night.
It was as if a hole had opened in the sky, and the entire city was submerged beneath the pouring rain.
"Achoo-"
Number Three, crouching on a rooftop in the city center, sneezed.
Even though he was wearing a raincoat, he was soaked all over.
The view was best here. He could take in the slightest stir of wind or rustle of grass across more than half the city.
He had already been crouching in the rain for most of the night. Daybreak was nearly upon him, yet he had seen no sign of the Circus.
"Can't you show a little dedication?!"
"You don't clock in when it rains? What kind of villains are this lazy?!"
Number Three ground his teeth.
After crouching there for another hour, he went off to find shelter from the rain, sneezing and cursing all the way.
Early the next morning, all the students heading to the otherworld gathered on the sports field, where buses would take them there.
This was Qin Ze's first time leaving the city since transmigrating.
The landscape outside the city was utterly desolate.
Across the boundless wilderness, there was only a single winding road.
Within a ten-kilometer radius of the city, all vegetation over half a meter tall had been cut down so that no exotic beasts could hide in it.
Half an hour later, ten buses drove into a temporary base.
City Defense Bureau soldiers guarded it in layers, maintaining tight security.
As soon as Qin Ze got off the bus, he saw a brilliant seven-colored glow in the sky not far away, like a multicolored bubble.
Beneath that beautiful glow stood a vertical rift twenty meters long, opening from the sky all the way down to the ground.
"Second High School trial team, assemble!"