Zhou Leng and Xu Qingjin were running when suddenly a high-speed demonized badminton shuttlecock flew straight toward the back of Xu Qingjin's head.
"Watch out!" Zhou Leng stepped to the side and reached out to catch the demonized shuttlecock.
"Huh?" Xu Qingjin only then turned her head to dodge.
A twelve or thirteen-year-old kid ran over, hastily saying, "Sorry, sorry, this demonized shuttlecock is broken, otherwise it wouldn't have flown so far."
"It's okay," Xu Qingjin said.
"Try to stay away from the road next time." Zhou Leng threw back the shuttlecock.
"Thank you, brother, thank you, sister." The kid hurried away.
Xu Qingjin curiously looked at Zhou Leng's upper arm, his biceps stretching the short sleeves tightly.
"You seem to have gotten stronger."
"I made some money in Demon City, and I've been eating meat herbal cuisine these days to replenish my body. I also took a Replenishing Essence Pill. How about you?"
"I've taken two pills now. One was bought by my family, and the other I exchanged for a Qi Nourishing Pill rewarded by the school."
"Not bad, no wonder you got into the Martial Arts Academy."
Xu Qingjin looked ahead, where Rucheng Martial Arts Academy and Martial Arts Hall stood.
The girl's eyes reflected the blue-green color of Ruge Mountain.
"What are you going to do next? I'm a bit confused. I've always been studying and cultivating for the college entrance exams, but after it's over, I suddenly don't know what to do."
"Don't you want to advance to Innate?"
"Of course I do, who doesn't want to become a top master? But I feel like I can't really become a master. You know my temperament, I don't like fighting, but then the school will have test assessments, monthly exams, and going to the Eighteen Copper Men Array... I can't say."
"I can't decide for you, but just do what you enjoy."
"What about you? What do you want to do?"
Zhou Leng's gentle gaze gradually became firm.
"I want to become a powerful martial artist step by step, from beginning to end, that hasn't changed."
Xu Qingjin said, "That's nice, your eyes were like that when you were a kid, haven't changed at all."
"You haven't changed much either."
"Really? I always feel like I've changed a lot, I was so clumsy before."
"Don't say that about yourself, you're still the same now." Zhou Leng's lips curled into a smile.
"Still you... huh? Annoying." Xu Qingjin realized halfway through the sentence, still smiling gently.
Zhou Leng asked, "When you were in Demon City, did you encounter any demons?"
"No, we were lucky and came back smoothly. You didn't encounter any, did you?"
"We really did, and one of our team members ran off."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
Zhou Leng animatedly narrated the battle with the Ice Crystal Demon Lion, and Xu Qingjin's eyes widened in surprise, occasionally letting out a light gasp, her ponytail bouncing with each surprise.
After Zhou Leng finished, Xu Qingjin sighed in relief, "A blessing in disguise, really. By the way, how many levels into Great Success are you? I feel like your True Qi is much stronger than mine."
"Seventh Heaven."
"I knew it. At this rate, you'll reach Perfection by the monthly exam and then start Blood Transport. It'll take me three or four months to reach Perfection."
"Haven't you already achieved Great Success?"
"I'm just naturally talented in body technique, my inner power was practiced haphazardly. After reaching Great Success, the speed slowed down. Do you have any tips on cultivating inner power?"
"I wouldn't call them tips, but I've indeed accumulated some experience recently."
"Then teach me!"
"Sure, let's find some time to cultivate together; it's hard to explain just by saying it," Zhou Leng said.
"Then come to my house sometime, my mom's been mentioning you, asking why you haven't visited us."
"Alright!"
The girl's steps became lighter, the sky reflecting in her eyes even bluer, the morning light more radiant.
Zhou Leng's gaze returned to its gentle softness.
The two ran for a while and looked toward the right front together.
That was Fifty-Ninth Middle School, their junior high alma mater.
Xu Qingjin said, "By the way, Rao Mingxian didn't get into West Sea Martial Arts Academy and ended up at Ruda instead."
Zhou Leng said, "I thought he would get into West Sea Martial Arts Academy; his grades in the later stages were impressive, we were even in the same examination room."
"But he's actually very inspiring. I heard in junior high, his grandfather beat him in the principal's office until he cried the heavens down, and several little girls in his class cried for him."
"Yeah, he had it rough in junior high, he used to complain to me when we played basketball together."
"I heard..."
The two began to quietly chat about classmates' gossip.
Behind them, Feng Wenhao came running from around the corner and, seeing the figures of the young boy and girl in front, his eyes lit up. He was about to raise his hand and shout, but with a mysterious smile, he closed his mouth.
Feng Wenhao followed cheerfully from twenty meters away.
"I want to see when you two will notice me."
Then, Feng Wenhao watched helplessly as the two ran and chatted all the way, finally parting at the main gate of Ruda, one heading to the main campus, the other toward the martial arts hall campus.
Feng Wenhao blinked; this wasn't how he thought it would go, wasn't it supposed to be them suddenly noticing him, and then he would jokingly tease them?
He had even prepared the lines, but those two just didn't notice?
"Zhou Leng!" Feng Wenhao shouted weakly.
"Hmm? Feng Wenhao? Your injuries haven't healed yet?"
Zhou Leng looked puzzled at Feng Wenhao; it had been over ten days, and Feng Wenhao still had some minor scars on his face.
Feng Wenhao stared carefully at Zhou Leng's face and said, "You're amazing, you can't see any old wounds at all. Hmm? How come in just a few days, you've gotten so much stronger? Tsk tsk, those muscles, the lines are so smooth."
"I've been eating more meat herbal cuisine lately." Zhou Leng inspected Feng Wenhao closely.
Feng Wenhao laughed, "Thanks to Young Master Xue's money, I've been eating a lot of meat herbal cuisine these days. The feeling of eating meat herbal cuisine every day is really different. I'm now especially motivated for cultivation."
"Me too," Zhou Leng said.
Feng Wenhao glanced at Ruda's main entrance and said, "Ruda ranks third in Rucheng, Xu Qingjin's score couldn't get into West Sea Martial Arts Academy, but it's more than enough for the second-ranked East China Martial Arts Academy, so why choose Ruda?"
"Maybe it's because it's close to home. Someone in the class chat said yesterday that Xu Kang'an, the top student of our martial arts school class this year, didn't get into West Sea Martial Arts Academy's special admissions or supplementary recruitment, and took the direct exam for Ruda's martial arts hall, also because it's close to home."
"You probably didn't see it all; Xu Kang'an's family has a Martial Guard Bureau background, all planned out. I reckon they have connections at Ruda's martial arts hall, and don't want to compete for resources with those aristocrats at West Sea Martial Arts Academy."
The two chatted as they walked into the indoor martial arts hall of Class 01.
Each class in the martial arts hall has its own independent indoor martial arts hall, the size equivalent to two indoor basketball courts.
Unlike in high school, there are a lot of demonized equipment here for students to use freely.
The energetic martial arts school students were using various demonized equipment.
Feng Wenhao excitedly said, "The martial arts hall is great!"
"It's said that the martial arts hall used to have poor conditions, but after the Martial Guard Department took over, it immediately changed a lot," Zhou Leng said.
"Let's go practice, play some rapid badminton?"
"There are too many people, rapid badminton isn't convenient, let's play rapid ping-pong instead, there's an empty table."
"Let's go!"
The two walked to the ping-pong area, enclosed by a cage.
They both held demonized ping-pong paddles, staring at each other.
"Watch closely!" Feng Wenhao tossed the demonized ping-pong ball with his left hand and swung the paddle with his right hand.
Swish!
Bang!
The demonized ping-pong ball flew at three times the usual speed, hit this side of the table, bounced out, and at the moment it landed on the opposite table, accelerated again to five times the speed.
Zhou Leng's eyes were like an eagle's, stepping with the Eight Trigrams Step, adjusting his position, swinging for a powerful smash.
Bang!
The sound of the ping-pong ball hitting the table was extremely loud, almost sparking fireworks.
"Oh man…" Feng Wenhao struggled to stretch his arm to reach, but was still a step too slow.
The ping-pong ball zipped off and suddenly slowed down just before it flew out of the area, lightly striking the iron cage.
"Can't handle five times speed?" Zhou Leng said.
"It's just 1 to 0!"
Feng Wenhao, stubborn as the iron cage, picked up the ping-pong ball to serve again.
The two exchanged back and forth, displaying both stepping technique and body technique.
The ping-pong ball bounced back and forth like lightning, making thumping sounds.
A few students approached, looking towards the two, eventually focusing their gaze on Zhou Leng.
One particularly burly, bald student crossed his arms, murmuring, "The student on the left is very well-rounded, with no apparent weaknesses."
"His stepping technique, body technique, reaction, vision capture, breathing, everything is quite impressive. This level is no worse than my classmate who got into West Sea Martial Arts Academy."
"The martial arts hall is truly full of hidden talent."
"Winning 21 to 5, the gap is pretty big, seems like there might have been some allowance in there."
Feng Wenhao put down the paddle, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right hand, and said, "Ouch, with this score, I feel like the supplementary recruit, and you seem like the direct admit."
"Hmm? He was a supplementary recruit?" a student asked.
"Yeah, he wasn't just a supplementary recruit; he advanced sixty thousand places in the martial arts exam single subject."
A few students blinked, finding it hard to imagine what advancing sixty thousand places meant.
"Mind if I join?" the burly bald student asked.
"Please," Zhou Leng said.
Martial arts sports are also a form of sparring.
At first, the wins and losses were shared, but from 10 points on, Zhou Leng took the lead all the way.
Finally, 21 to 8.
"Awesome, classmate! You can only feel the real pressure when you're in the game," the student gave a thumbs-up, "I'm Wei Hong, and you?"
"Zhou Leng."
"Another round?"
"Sure."
It ended quickly, 21 to 6.
Wei Hong carefully examined Zhou Leng and said, "You definitely have the level of the Top Ten Martial Arts, why are you here?"
Feng Wenhao said, "Don't mention it, he got injured by a demon before the college entrance exams and then applied for West Sea Martial Arts Academy's supplementary recruitment, scoring 276 in the martial arts exam. But because of poor physical condition, he was dropped, and didn't even have the supplementary qualification. Otherwise, how could he be here."
"Scoring 276 in the martial arts exam and dropped for poor physical condition? How is that possible, clearly it's..." Wei Hong shut his mouth, looking at Zhou Leng sympathetically.
The other students, hearing Wei Hong's words, started to understand vaguely.
"What a pity."
Being classmates, along with Wei Hong being naturally sociable, they quickly became familiar with each other.
Before long, Chang Luan and Tao Bing walked over.
"Chang Luan!" Several students nearby recognized Chang Luan, including Feng Wenhao.
Zhou Leng remained silent, having gone home after reporting yesterday and not getting in touch with classmates.
After chatting for a while, Chang Luan walked over to Zhou Leng and whispered, "There's something I'd like to ask you about, can we talk outside?"
Zhou Leng furrowed his brows.
Xue Chengsong had said that Chang Luan's family had dealings with the Demon Worship Sect, and it was best to keep a distance.