After Fourth Uncle's statement, the atmosphere in the house suddenly became strange.
Mr. Dao looked at Lam Minh with suspicion. "What's this? Minh, what happened at school?"
He asked Lam Minh with suppressed anger. He was always like this; whenever he faced anything he considered bad, he would always get angry and lose control.
Lam Minh's heart leaped into his throat. Fourth Uncle, you've doomed me.
"Dad, I participated in the combat sparring competition. I was a bit careless and got hit," Lam Minh replied with a sense of resignation.
He hadn't wanted his parents to know about this; they wouldn't understand that he was collecting blood essence.
And they would probably just think he was doing something foolish at school.
Of course, Mr. Dao knew about this combat period; every parent knew about it when they sent their child to Tran Hung Dao High School.
"Oh, are you okay? How do you feel? Why didn't you tell your parents?" In contrast to Mr. Dao's anger, Mrs. Mai ran over to look him over and fussed over Lam Minh.
Fourth Uncle now had a rather disdainful look on his face, enjoying the show. If he had a plate of melon seeds here, it would be even more perfect.
"I'm fine, I went to the hospital for a preliminary check-up earlier," Lam Minh replied to Mrs. Mai, a warmth spreading in his heart.
His mother was still the same, always warm and taking care of him in every little way.
Slam!
Mr. Dao slammed his hand on the table and yelled, "You! Why did you participate in the combat sparring? Is the special class a place you can just get into? I hope you can get into the Combat University, not do foolish things like this at school!"
Seeing that the situation was escalating and getting as hot as a furnace, his little sister Lam An quickly tried to defuse it. "Dad, brother Minh performed very well in the competition. It was just bad luck that he got hit and fainted."
His little sister's words were like a stream of cool water poured over Mr. Dao's head, somewhat easing his anger.
"Hmph, you better watch yourself. Don't bring shame to this family," Mr. Dao said.
He sat down, reached for a cigarette, lit it, and slowly released streams of smoke into the air.
But it didn't stop there.
It seemed that for his dear uncle, this wasn't exciting and dramatic enough. He added a very fitting sentence at this moment.
Adding fuel to the fire.
"Yeah, performed so well, yet all the school pages of Tran Hung Dao High School are posting about him as if he's a joke. Something about Lam Minh being just a 'Paper Tiger' and 'Can't even take one kick.' Is that true, Minh?" his Fourth Uncle said with a gloating tone, as if Lam Minh had done something extremely shameful.
When Lam Minh heard this, he could only think of two words: I'm done for.
As soon as he heard his esteemed uncle's words, without another word, Mr. Dao shot up, reached for the wooden stick in the corner of the house, and rushed towards the standing Lam Minh, shouting, "You heaven-damned brat, I'll beat you to death!"
With that, his arm swung down with each strike.
Looking at the large stick about to hit him, Lam Minh saw it.
Too slow.
But he didn't dodge. He knew that dodging it now would only make Mr. Dao lose more control.
What a hot-tempered father.
He had received countless beatings like this since he was a child.
He didn't bother to explain. Because he was too used to it.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The sounds of the blows rang out, and despite Mrs. Mai's best efforts to intervene, she couldn't stop her husband's anger.
Little Lam An could only sit in a corner and cry.
She was both scared and worried for her brother.
As for Lam Minh, he did nothing. He just stood silently, enduring the pain that shot from his limbs and body to his brain.
Lam Minh's eyes stared intently at his own uncle.
He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs: "You just wait, one day I will make you look at me with different eyes!"
But he held it in. Lam Minh knew that what he needed to do now was to develop and cultivate, not to argue with others.
Time would prove everything.
The Combat University was just the beginning for Lam Minh; his dreams would be even higher.
And these people would eventually be left behind by him.
Lam Minh looked up, seeing his uncle's family standing to one side, observing as if this were a very good and dramatic movie.
And he curled his lip into a smirk, as if in contempt for their actions.
Mr. Dao hit him fiercely.
Cursing as he hit.
After a while, when he was tired, he threw the wooden stick aside and said, "Get out of my sight!"
Lam Minh said nothing, not even bothering to reply. He just silently walked back to his bedroom.
The door slammed shut with a loud "Bang!" in front of the entire family.
"There, do you see how insolent he is, brother? You hit him because you love him, you hit him to teach him, yet his face remains so defiant. I really can't understand your son Minh. Unlike Trang, who is both obedient and talented, sigh," Fourth Auntie said, adding more fuel to the fire.
"That's right. With that kind of personality, if you two don't teach him carefully, he might commit some crime one day, and you won't be able to handle it," his Fourth Uncle chimed in.
At this moment, Mr. Dao also had his own thoughts.
He was too frustrated and helpless.
Frustrated with his current poverty, the thought that his family was always inferior to others and had to endure all kinds of humiliation made him even more resentful.
If he weren't tired, he could have picked up the stick and hit Lam Minh more to vent his frustration.
"Alright, it's getting late. Uncle and Auntie, you should go home. Our family needs to rest. I'll remember your advice," Mr. Dao said, exhaling a puff of smoke, politely asking them to leave.
And so, the dinner ended in a not-so-happy atmosphere.
…
Lam Minh's room.
He was currently doing push-ups with all his might.
10… 11… 12… 13… 14…
He was furious. Only by training to refine the blood essence from dinner could he feel a little less uncomfortable.
After Lam Minh's blood essence reached 362, his health and physical fitness had improved a lot compared to before.
Initially, he could only do about 4-5 push-ups before his limbs felt exhausted.
But now, he could do 40 push-ups continuously before feeling that he had reached the threshold of failure as determined by the system.
[Ding! The host has successfully surpassed the threshold of failure, +20 blood essence points.]
Beef was truly a god-tier food, so many blood essence points for tonight.
Lam Minh sat down, panting. Only now did he feel a little better.
Thinking back, Mr. Dao hitting him was reasonable.
It was too humiliating. There was nothing to be angry about.
If he were strong enough and defeated the entire school, the words he would hear today would be flattery, that was for sure.
"System," Lam Minh called silently in his head.
[Ding! The Attribute Picking System is happy to serve the host!]
[Name: Lam Minh]
[Tuổi: 16]
[Cultivation: Mortal (382/1000 Blood Essence)]
[Spiritual Root: Hoang-Grade Spiritual Root (0/100,000 Spiritual Root Points)]
[Techniques: Crippling Wind Fist (Initiate) 14/1000 points, Wind Walking (Initiate) 144/900 points]
[Lucky Spin (Break through to the 9th layer of Body Tempering to spin again)]
Ha, in just one day, his blood essence had gone from 0 to 382 points.
Who else had this kind of cultivation speed?
To be more precise, it was the two battles today that were the main reason his points had increased so much.
"Mmm, I have to think of a way," Lam Minh thought to himself.
He knew that he wouldn't have a competition to farm points like today every day.
It was only once a week, and he needed a place where he could fight daily and pick up attribute points.
At 16, Lam Minh certainly couldn't go to the battlefield. If he dared to do so, Mr. Dao would surely break his legs.
Right, a dojo.
In this era, a 16-year-old couldn't go to the battlefield, but training at a dojo was definitely allowed.
But learning martial arts required tuition fees. He had to earn money first.
Ting! Ting!
Just then, the Messenger notification from his phone rang.
He reached for the old Ibanana phone from his bedside, a phone that had been released many years ago.
You have received a Messenger message from a stranger: To Quyen
???
What? To Quyen? How did she know his Facebook?
The profile picture was of a very cute white British Longhair cat.
He immediately went to stalk her Facebook.
It was really like a clone account.
There were no pictures of her real face.
Number of friends: 60.
In this day and age, having only 60 friends on Facebook was a rare thing.
Curious, Lam Minh clicked open the message. The content was: "Minh the bullhead, are you okay? Getting kicked in the head this afternoon must have hurt a lot. But you're probably fine. You're very stubborn, after all."
Lam Minh read the message and chuckled.
His plan of approach must have made a big impression on her, so much so that she couldn't resist messaging him to start a conversation.
Still trying to be coy. But why didn't To Quyen send a friend request?
Mmm, she must be shy. With that thought, he sent a friend request and replied to the message: "What's up, beautiful? Investigating to find my Facebook must have taken you a few hours, huh."
…
In a luxurious room in a large house in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, on a large bed filled with teddy bears.
To Quyen was holding the latest model of the Ibanana 16 phone.
Her hand squeezed the phone so tightly it seemed like it was about to shatter.
"You idiot!" were the two words she had to exclaim after reading Lam Minh's message.
She had actually just left her study desk, planning to relax with her phone a bit before falling asleep, when she saw the Facebook post about Lam Minh's battle today.
The more she watched, the funnier it got, so she decided to tease him.
But she didn't expect this guy to be so confident and delusional to the max.
And he even sent her a friend request.
Who did this guy think he was? Was he that great?
At first, she thought Lam Minh was really something, but after he was defeated and his friend told her about his reputation at school, she knew this guy was just a paper tiger.
Thinking of this, she went to Lam Minh's profile and Blocked him.
After everything was done, she threw her phone aside and fell asleep.
She tossed and turned for a while, but she really couldn't sleep. It was a very restless feeling.
And then.
She picked up her phone and Unblocked + Sent a friend request.
Mmm, now she could sleep.
On the other end, Lam Minh was also falling asleep, with sweet dreams and calculations for the future.
And he had no idea that his phone screen had just lit up.
You have received a friend request from To Quyen.