DongHua District School.
4:30 pm.
Martial Hall
The third-year class was gathered using the facilities, each student in sports wear.
Boom!
Boom!
A young man with an ordinary face kept punching in succession, while showing a painful expression.
"Lu Zhen! That is enough!"
"Even if you continue practicing, I have no choice but to report to your brother." A burly man approached and advised.
But Lu Zhen, being addressed, didn't stop immediately, but kept punching until the painful expression intensified.
When he couldn't bear it anymore, he stopped and swayed unstably as he panted heavily.
The man moved just in a flash, appearing beside him to support him. When he stabilized himself, he looked at the man and said, "Old Ding! Why do you want to disturb my brother with such a small issue? Look, aren't I fine?"
The others in the hall turned away, clearly not interested in listening or contributing. Lu Zhen's elder brother, Lu Tian, was a prodigy and someone who had been able to rank at the top of the Foundation Leaderboard in the entire Federation Districts.
He was even famed among the youngest Martial artists in the world, having stepped into the Ninth rank at the age of 17. Currently, he was already nearing the peak of the Fifth rank in less than a decade.
If he managed to break through to the fourth rank before the age of 25, he was prone to receive a lot of invitations from famous Martial Dojos, and his future would become brighter.
It was just that the event of half a year ago changed all this, and Lu Tian had to join the local Extreme Martial Dojo, so that Lu Zhen's life could be saved.
Lu Zhen felt very guilty about how he had messed up with his brother's future, but even more importantly, the death of their parents.
When they heard of what had happened to him, his father and mother rushed beyond the boundary wall, protecting the human cities, to seek an opportunity that could save him, but they met their demise.
Having caused the death of their parents, how could they be in the mood to relax and feel self-pity for themselves? He even realized that his brother had almost cut his future, by choosing to become a member of the Extreme Martial Dojo and had to do risky missions of hunting monsters beyond the boundary wall.
The world was a dangerous place, where all human population that was left hid behind cities to protect what was left of its numbers. The appearance of Ruins was a chance, and it gave birth to numerous martial artists due to the opportunities present in them.
Some even allowed some to grow beyond the First Class Martial artist. This is the goal of all, as this level not only allows for massive transformation of strength, but it also enhances lifespan.
In the current world, though, not many have the liberty to think about things such as lifespan. Even the strong might be killed by the beasts that are multiplying both on land and in the waters.
On an occasional basis, some stronger beasts even cause the weaker ones to attack some cities, causing beast tides.
Lu Zhen was unlucky to be attacked by a creature that had slipped through a beast tide. Even though he didn't die, he was bitten by a dangerous poison and has to rely on some regular injections of antivenom, whose effects are wearing off faster.
The reason he was able to move was clearly due to it, and without it, the pain he would be facing would be worse than death.
Knowing his own situation, how could he not feel sad and even more unwilling? He had just finished his foundation and was about to plan to break through to the ninth rank and become a martial artist.
Now, though, this was not even possible due to the intense pain, but he was unresigned to this fate. He kept attempting to practice the Foundation Boxing of the Federation, but it was getting more and more difficult to improves. He had already reached the pinnacle of his foundation, but due to the poison, he could only train himself again, to get used to the pain while practicing the foundation method.
It was hard to practice the foundation method, and then it was even more hopeless for him to attempt to practice a technique of a Martial Artist, and seek the chance to enter the Ninth rank.
Walking out of the training hall, he saw a familiar face waiting, and his face showed some helplessness.
"Young master is going to meet her?" Kun Ding asked.
He was called old Ding by Lu Zhen, but in actuality, he wasn't that old. Kun Ding was about thirty and a sixth rank martial artist who followed his brother.
Though this would not be considered much in the rankings of the younger generation in the world, it was still considered a formidable figure in this District.
He looked at the beautiful woman with white hair standing about a hundred meters away, blocking their path. He had seen this figure more times than he could count in the past six months.
She just stood there but he felt she was radiating some sadness.
"Lets meet her. Its better to give her a goal or she might end up messing her own path for some useless person like me." Lu Chen knew who she was.
Considering that she had entered the Ninth rank just before his incident and at the moment she was even radiating a stronger presence, it was clear she had reached the eighth rank.
When he arrived before her, she looked at him with some resentment, that was quickly hidden.
"You are not going to escape from me this time?" She asked as she looked at him with her piercing gaze.
"Xu Jing! Are you joking? Where can I ran off to? Besides, with my current situation can I outrun you?" He asked with an ackward smile.
It was just that she looked at him deeply, while Kun Ding, behind him, had a strange look on his face as he thought, 'Of course you can't outrun her, but I can. Have you forgotten how many times you asked me to help you escape from her. Have you no shame.'
Hearing what Lu Zhen had just said, she stomped her feet down angrily and asked, "Why have you been avoiding me?"
"You are mistaken, Miss Jing. I haven't been avoiding you. See! Haven't I come to talk to you? Say! Why are you looking for me?" He asked as he looked at her calmly.
"You! Do you blame me for what happened to Antie and Uncle?" She had stopped herself from mentioning him because she thought he would get angry.
"How could I? You didn't make them go beyond the boundary wall to seek a way to eliminate the poison in my body, right? This has nothing to do with you, after all you were not the one who poisoned me." He was very clear.
Even though she had asked him to meet in that place, he went earlier than the agreed time and even experienced this tragedy, and he couldn't blame it on others.
Perhaps it was a good thing he had not met with her before, as he was in a bad mood. If they were to meet, he might have vented his anger on her by even blaming her.
Things were different as he had calmed down a lot. Even though he didn't blame her, it didn't mean that he had absolved himself from the situation.
He was clearly the reason his elder brother lost both parents, and yet he had not blamed him, even cut off his future resources and path for him. How could he deceive himself that this had nothing to do with him?
"How are you? Is your body still in pain?" She then asked what had brought her to meet.
"Don't worry! My brother used some means to obtain an antidote for me. It is just going to take some time for me to get better. I think you should focus more on your practice, as you have seen even inside the cities we are not entirely safe from the monsters." He gave her some advice.
She was smart enough to get the meaning behind his words, he clearly wanted her to stop showing up and focus more on herself.
"Old Ding! Lets go!" He ordered as he walked away, without even looking back.
While the two of them vanished from her sight, a voice sounded in her mind.
"What an interesting young man! He seems to be telling you to stop bothering him from now on and live your own life."
"Of course I understand brother Zhen's thinking. He is planing on cutting things off between us with just a few words, he is dreaming. If it weren't for me he wouldn't have gone to that meeting point and got atacked. Aunt Xin and Uncle Wei are also dead, this can't be separated from me. This revenge, I have to participate." Xu Jing exuded a forceful momentum with a tinge of cold killing intent, different from when she talked with Lu Zhen.