Watch Closely, This Kick Will Look Awesome!

"Here it comes, here it comes! The main event is finally here!"

"Hahahaha! An ex-fiancée beating up her ex-fiancé-now that's the kind of show people our age should be watching!"

"I'm betting on Evasion being unbeatable. Lin Luyin will definitely win! If she doesn't, I'll eat everything in the bathroom until it's clean!"

"I'll bet a pack of spicy sticks that Chu Ge wins! There's still a pretty big gap between their stats. Lin Luyin can successfully evade countless times, but she can't afford to fail even once!"

The stands were in an uproar as Chu Ge walked toward the stage one step at a time, both hands in his pockets.

"Go get him, little bro! Careful you don't get kicked so hard you can't get off the stage!"

Xiao Yan shouted from the back row, gnawing on a grilled sausage, grease still on the corner of her mouth. "Your adorable older cousin will be cheering you on!"

Chu Ge waved without looking back. "Don't worry. Just don't forget our bet."

"As if I'd forget!" Xiao Yan snorted.

She was already thinking about what condition she should set if Chu Ge lost.

Should she make him cook her breakfast for the rest of his life? Or make him call her his older cousin? Or...

Who knew what she finally thought of.

For some reason.

Even the tips of her ears turned red.

Luckily, everyone was focused on Chu Ge, and no one noticed this bubbling teapot.

On the other side of the stands, Ye Weiyu watched the arena, her gaze darting back and forth between Lin Luyin and Chu Ge.

On one side was her best friend, with whom she had grown up. On the other was the hero who had saved her when she was little.

She was so torn that she twisted her fingers together. Who was she supposed to cheer for? Choosing either side felt like betraying the other.

After agonizing over it for a long time, she finally muttered so softly that only she could hear:

"Go, Brother Chu."

"Go, Little Deer, too."

In the arena, two figures faced each other from a distance, their qi and blood fully unleashed.

One hundred layers of qi and blood against eighty-four.

Invisible pressure spread outward, making the spectators in the front row feel a tightness in their chests. Even their breathing slowed for a beat.

Lin Luyin stood straight, her face largely expressionless, with only a hint of defiance hidden in her eyes.

Her eighty-four layers of qi and blood already put her at the very top among the freshmen. In previous years, she would have been a sure bet for first place.

Unfortunately, this year she had run into a monster like Chu Ge...

"Chu Ge, are you ready to get beaten up?" Lin Luyin spoke first, her chin held high.

"Beaten up?" Chu Ge chuckled. "It's hard to say who'll be the one getting beaten up today."

"Heh, your mouth is as tough as ever." Lin Luyin sneered. "Just don't end up running to your cousin and crying."

The proctor stood between them, glanced at both sides, and announced the rules in a loud voice:

"The rules for the final are the same as before. Stop once a hit is scored, and no lethal blows."

"A contestant loses if they fall out of the arena, admit defeat, or lose the ability to fight."

"Is that clear?"

"Yes," Lin Luyin and Chu Ge answered in unison.

"Good." The proctor nodded, stepped back a few paces, and raised his hand high.

"Ready-"

"Begin!"

The moment his hand dropped, the shouting throughout the venue stopped abruptly.

Everyone held their breath, staring at the two figures in the arena.

Lin Luyin didn't move.

She was waiting for Chu Ge to attack first so she could trigger Evasion, then seize the chance to counterattack and kick him in the butt.

It was the tactic she had used to win all the way here, and it had worked every time.

Chu Ge was in no hurry to attack either. He stood where he was, looking at the girl across from him.

His strategy was to strike after the enemy and gain the upper hand.

Let the bullet fly for a while.

The two stood there, looking at each other and maintaining a very delicate balance.

The spectators below watched in bewilderment.

"What's going on? Why aren't either of them moving?"

"They're testing each other, right? That's how it always goes when experts fight."

"Testing my ass. Why do I get the feeling Chu Ge is messing with her?"

"Don't talk nonsense. Lin Luyin has four-star Evasion. Would Chu Ge dare attack recklessly? If he misses, he'll leave an opening."

"They're really in sync... If I didn't know they had a grudge, I'd think they were flirting and making us part of their play."

In the arena, Lin Luyin waited a long time. Seeing that Chu Ge still wasn't moving, she began to lose patience.

What's this guy's deal? Does he look down on me?

Or is he scared and doesn't dare attack first?

He must be scared.

Lin Luyin sneered inwardly.

Since you're not moving, I will.

It's the perfect chance to show you what I'm made of.

She came from one of the four great families and had received the most professional martial arts training since childhood. Her movement techniques had long since reached the peak of perfection.

Back when Chu Ge had come to break off the engagement, the outcome of their fight might have gone either way if her cultivation hadn't lagged behind his.

Although there was still a gap between their realms now, she had the [Evasion] trait and wasn't afraid to take him on directly.

She pushed off with her foot and charged at Chu Ge like a white shadow.

"Bring it on!"

Seeing Lin Luyin charge over, Chu Ge's eyes held a hint of amusement.

Interesting.

You dare challenge a Gold Saint without understanding the difference in our strength!

Face my Lion's Fang!

Lin Luyin was extremely fast, closing in on Chu Ge in the blink of an eye.

When they were no more than half a meter apart, she swayed around to his side and swung a foot toward his butt.

At the same time, she shouted with complete confidence:

"Chu Ge, open your eyes and watch closely! This kick will look awesome!"

"Same to you." Chu Ge smiled faintly. The moment Lin Luyin had entered his attack range, he had already locked onto her position with [Iron Cavalry]. Now, without dodging or evading, he threw a punch straight at her.

His punch whipped up a howling wind, stirring the already surging power of qi and blood around them into an even greater frenzy.

Feeling the force behind the punch, Lin Luyin's expression changed on the spot.

If that punch landed on her, she'd be laid up for at least three to five days.

Sensing the attack, the Evasion trait automatically triggered a check.

The moment to witness a miracle had arrived.

She wished frantically in her heart.

It has to succeed!

Bang! Bang!

The two attacks landed on each other almost simultaneously.

Lin Luyin's kick struck Chu Ge squarely on the butt.

Chu Ge's punch also slammed solidly into her shoulder blade.

But the results for the two were completely different.

Chu Ge's realm was already higher than Lin Luyin's, and he had also cultivated the Indestructible Golden Body. Even if Lin Luyin had been in the same realm as him, her physical strength would still have been far behind his.

The kick only shook Chu Ge back a few steps and left his butt a little numb. Other than that, he was completely fine.

Lin Luyin, on the other hand, flew sideways, straight out of the arena. She rolled twice on the ground before coming to a stop.

The entire venue fell deathly silent for a second.

The next second, shouts surged in like a tide, nearly lifting the roof off the gymnasium.

"Holy crap, that powerful?"

"That punch was way too cool! I thought they'd fight for three minutes, but one punch ended it?"

"How should I put it? That punch and kick were a little ridiculous, but it really was fun to watch!"

"My phone froze just now and I didn't record it. Can I request a rematch?"

"Whoever said Lin Luyin would definitely win, hurry up and eat everything in the bathroom until it's clean. I wrote it all down in my little notebook."

The proctor had long heard the gossip about Chu Ge and Lin Luyin's broken engagement. Watching the scene, he couldn't help shaking his head. "What a pair of bickering foes..."

He strode over to Chu Ge, grabbed his wrist, and raised it high. His voice rang through the entire venue.

"This concludes the freshman class placement examination!"

"First place, Chu Ge!"

As his words fell, waves of applause swept through the venue, louder even than the earlier shouting. It lasted half a minute before gradually dying down.

Chu Ge was just about to leave the stage when the proctor called him back.

"What is it, sir?" Chu Ge was a little puzzled. Was there an awards ceremony too? Were they going to give him prize money?

"It's nothing much." The proctor coughed, his tone a little peculiar. "It's just, is there anything you'd like to say to everyone?"

"For example, your insights into the martial dao, how to cultivate faster, or perhaps share your cultivation journey over the years..."

"In short, say something before you go down. Anything is fine."

"All right." Chu Ge nodded and walked back to the center of the arena.

He swept his gaze around the audience.

Some stared at him with admiration in their eyes, while others looked down and scrolled through their phones.

There was also a silly roe deer gnawing on grilled sausages.

Two at once, at that.

Lin Luyin had already returned to the stands. She was rubbing her shoulder blade while glaring at him through gritted teeth.

Her gaze said the same thing over and over: You bastard.

Chu Ge couldn't help laughing.

She really was the same tsundere young lady of the Lin Family he knew.

He cleared his throat and began:

"First, I want to thank my parents. They're the ones who brought me into this world."

"Second, I want to thank my parents. They're the ones who gave me an inexhaustible supply of cultivation resources."

"Finally, I want to thank my parents. Without their silent support, I wouldn't have made it this far."

He paused there, then changed tack, raising his voice a little higher.

"Oh, right, the East Sea City No. 1 Martial Arts School, also known as the Chu Family Martial Arts School, is currently recruiting new students. There are free trial classes too."

"If you're interested, feel free to check it out. Sign up through me now, and since we're all classmates, I'll give you a ten-out-of-ten discount."

"And also-"

"All right, all right, that's enough." The proctor rushed forward and clapped a hand over Chu Ge's mouth.

Advertising his family's martial arts school in the arena during the school's class placement examination-if the school administrators heard about this, even he, the proctor, would get an earful.

Chu Ge blinked as the teacher half pushed, half shoved him off the stage.

He felt he had been wronged even more than Dou E.

Didn't you say I could say anything? You changed your face way too fast.

One-star review.

The spectators around them burst into laughter, nearly laughing to tears.

"Hahahaha, that's our Chu Ge for you. He actually squeezed an ad into his acceptance speech."

"What the hell is a ten-out-of-ten discount for signing up through you? So mentioning your name, Young Master Chu, doesn't get us any discount at all?"

"To be fair, Chu Ge is pretty honest. He didn't say he got where he is today entirely through hard work, and instead gave all the credit to his family. At least he's not putting on an act."

"Full marks for that ad. It just came at a bit of a cost to the proctor."

Listening to the praise rising and falling around her, Lin Luyin was so angry she nearly ground her teeth to pieces.

What exactly is so great about this guy?

The geniuses she had met before, even those stronger than her, had all shown her at least some consideration for her looks and family background.

But Chu Ge? He had broken off an engagement others would have begged for the moment he felt like it, even saying that romance would slow him down from crushing the high-martial world.

As Lin Luyin saw it, there was something wrong with his brain.

It was like selling extra-spicy grilled wings outside a proctology hospital. No normal person would do something like that.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and the angrier she got, the more her shoulder blade hurt.

"Ow-" Lin Luyin sucked in a sharp breath. The pain even brought a mist to her eyes.

She seriously suspected her shoulder blade had cracked.

"It's okay, Little Deer. It'll be better after a couple of days' rest." Ye Weiyu comforted her softly from beside her, reaching out to gently pat the top of her head. Her voice grew softer and gentler. "Pain, pain, go away."

Lin Luyin suddenly spoke. "I don't understand."

"What don't you understand, Little Deer?" Ye Weiyu tilted her head and blinked her big eyes.

"I don't understand why the goddess of luck stopped looking after me."

Lin Luyin looked aggrieved. "Everything was fine before. Evasion worked every single time, but against Chu Ge, the very first check failed."

"And when we fought just now, I had a really strange feeling. It was like... like something had locked onto me without my knowing. Even if I'd had a teleportation skill at the time, I might not have been able to dodge that punch he threw."

She turned to look at her best friend beside her, her voice full of confusion:

"Yezi, do you think Chu Ge was sent by heaven specifically to be my bane?"

"Why did the two most humiliating defeats of my life both come at his hands?"

"And why did I lose so badly both times?"

"It's not that mystical." Ye Weiyu patted her hand. "Victory and defeat are common in battle. A little setback like this is nothing. Little Deer, you need to pull yourself together."

"As long as you're willing to work hard and catch up to him in cultivation, you might be able to win next time."

"Don't forget, you have a four-star trait."

At Ye Weiyu's words, Lin Luyin's eyes lit up in a flash.

That made sense!

It made so much sense!

She immediately got her spirit back and patted Ye Weiyu on the shoulder:

"You're right, Yezi. Chu Ge can only get the better of me because his cultivation is a little higher than mine."

"Once I raise my cultivation to the same level as his, I'll be able to beat him with ease, even without using my trait!"

She silently reminded herself that she had been too absorbed in reading doujinshi before and had wasted far too much time she could have spent cultivating.

From now on, as long as she gave up doujinshi...

All right, there was no way she could stop reading doujinshi in this lifetime.

Then she could only cut back on the time she spent eating and sleeping.

She could skip a meal and sleep two hours less.

Lin Luyin firmly believed that as long as she was willing to work hard, she would one day defeat Chu Ge fair and square.

"If heaven had not given birth to me, Lin Luyin, the martial path would be an endless night for all ages!"

"A mere Chu Ge is nothing but a stepping stone on my, Heavenly Emperor Lu's, path to the Dao. Is he even worthy of disturbing my Dao heart?"

Her words were arrogant to the extreme.

Ye Weiyu stood beside her, stunned, her little mouth hanging open in a perfect circle.

Her best friend really was no ordinary person. She could change her face in an instant: one moment she was aggrieved, and the next she was making heaven-defying declarations.

The shoulders of several nearby classmates who heard her were shaking as they held back their laughter.

It was only because Lin Luyin was pretty. If anyone else had said that, they would have been written off as a terminal case of chuunibyou.

Still, this was fine too.

Looking at her best friend, who was full of energy again, Ye Weiyu quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Since she could come to terms with it on her own, she might as well stay this carefree and confident.

In any case, with Lin Luyin's talent and background, if she was truly willing to settle down and cultivate, it wasn't impossible for her to catch up to Chu Ge.

After all, the four-star trait [Evasion] was among the very best traits possessed by any of the new students in East Sea City.

Lin Luyin was still standing there, cheering herself on. The more she talked, the more enthusiastic she became; she had even decided how she would taunt Chu Ge after beating him.

She had already begun planning her cultivation schedule, packing her daily itinerary full and squeezing even her mealtimes down to five minutes.