Chen Feng had no idea why others couldn't learn the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms.
After all, he hadn’t learned it himself either.
"My skills are all given by the system."
"Who knows why you people can’t master it?"
But Chen Feng suspected it might be because the techniques were too unique.
After all, the system had to search extensively to find a 100% match before he could train in them.
If just anyone could learn them, that would truly be bizarre.
Finding disciples wouldn’t be such a hassle then.
Seeing online videos of people attempting the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, Chen Feng couldn’t help but smirk and shake his head.
"Those who tried to scam me must be disappointed now."
……
With the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms exposed across the internet and wealthy heirs failing to become his disciples,
hardly anyone came to seek apprenticeship anymore.
This saved Chen Feng a lot of trouble.
But seeing all that money slip through his fingers—it was genuinely tempting.
Unfortunately, not a single person had been matched successfully by the system.
To be honest,
Chen Feng had once considered
whether he should trick a rich disciple.
Take the tuition first to ease his current financial struggles,
then blame the disciple’s lack of talent if they failed to master the techniques.
But it was just a thought.
His noble character wouldn’t allow him to do something so unethical.
"Scamming people just isn’t my thing."
"Taking money is one thing, but ruining someone’s martial arts future? That’s downright cruel."
"Guess I’ll just have to pin my hopes on Liu Weiwei performing well."
"Maybe the competition prize money can ease some of the loan pressure."
……
Provincial Martial Apprentice Tournament.
Chen Feng arrived in the provincial capital three days early.
Most of the hotels near the venue were fully booked.
And even if there were vacancies, Chen Feng couldn’t afford them anyway.
Staring at the four-digit nightly rates on his discount app, he sighed deeply.
Awkwardly, he told his two disciples:
"The area near the stadium is too crowded. It’ll be noisy at night and disrupt our rest."
"Let’s find somewhere quieter to stay."
Both disciples nodded obediently.
They knew full well their master was strapped for cash.
But they played dumb to spare his pride.
Chen Feng checked his remaining loan limit.
Gritting his teeth, he booked a cheap motel room—fifty bucks a night—
a good ten kilometers away from the stadium.
By the time they arrived, it was already dark.
The motel owner gave Chen Feng a knowing look.
"This young man… interesting."
Once inside, Chen Feng laid out a makeshift bed on the floor, letting his two disciples take the actual bed.
Jin Youxi said worriedly:
"Master, isn’t the floor too cold? Why don’t you come up here?"
"The three of us can squeeze in."
Liu Weiwei stayed silent, her face flushed.
Her emotions were tangled—nervous, excited, her mind racing with wild thoughts.
To avoid impropriety, Chen Feng firmly refused.
But the motel was far from quiet.
"Master, why is this place so loud? Are people fighting?"
"The sounds are… weird."
Chen Feng coughed awkwardly.
"The room on the left must be fixing a wall. The one on the right is probably repairing a bed."
"Don’t overthink it. Get some sleep."
"We need to check out the stadium tomorrow and pick up our competition numbers."
After that weak excuse, he wondered if they should switch motels.
Lying on the floor,
Chen Feng could still faintly hear noises from below and muttered angrily:
"Don’t these people ever stop? Can’t they keep it down?"
Liu Weiwei tossed and turned, her face burning, unable to sleep.
Meanwhile, Jin Youxi was out like a light, even grinding her teeth and mumbling in her sleep.
Suddenly, Liu Weiwei heard movement.
In the dim glow of streetlight through the window,
she saw Chen Feng slowly rise and walk toward the bed.
Her breath hitched.
"What? Me? What do I do?"
"Should I keep pretending to sleep?"
"What if he…"
Peeking through half-closed eyes, she watched his hand approach, her heartbeat doubling.
It felt like her heart might leap out of her throat any second.
Then she heard Chen Feng murmur:
"Such a troublemaker. Kicked the blanket right off."
He tugged the half-fallen blanket back over Jin Youxi before returning to his spot on the floor.
Only after he settled did Liu Weiwei exhale, clutching her chest.
The tension had left her drenched in sweat.
The next day, at the provincial stadium.
Top-ten fighters from every city gathered to collect their numbers, scout the venue, and review the rules.
Chen Feng had only ever watched the tournament online before.
He wasn’t entirely clear on the format and regulations.
Luckily, the provincial rules matched the city-level ones.
"Well, well. Look who it is."
"Here to watch my Ruohan compete?"
"Listen here, Chen Feng—Ruohan has nothing to do with you anymore."
Xiao Ruohan hadn’t expected to run into Chen Feng here.
Logically, he shouldn’t have been around.
Even if he wanted to watch the tournament,
he could’ve just streamed it at home.
Usually, only locals or friends and family of participants showed up in person.
"Did he come just to see me fight?"
The thought flickered in Xiao Ruohan’s mind, stirring something in her chest.
Chen Feng frowned. Of all the people to bump into while queuing—Xiao Ruohan and her mother.
Frankly, he had no interest in engaging with them.
So he stayed silent, pretending not to notice.
Better than arguing with a shrew in public.
But while Chen Feng could ignore them, his disciple couldn’t.
Jin Youxi rolled her eyes at the mother-daughter pair and snapped:
"As if we’d come for you. We’re here to compete."
Xiao Ruohan’s mother sneered:
"Pfft—"
"Who are you trying to fool?"
"Without my daughter, that trashy martial arts school of yours has no business being here."
Jin Youxi shot back:
"Says who?"
"My junior sister took second place in the city tournament. Of course she qualifies."
Junior sister?
Xiao Ruohan was stunned.
Then she noticed Jin Youxi pushing a wheelchair.
"Liu Weiwei?!"
Xiao Ruohan froze.
"She’s still competing?"
"But I crippled her legs!"
Her mother also spotted Liu Weiwei in the wheelchair and scoffed:
"Oh-ho! So it’s you!"
"The loser my daughter already beat!"
"Showing up in a wheelchair? What a joke!"
"Don’t embarrass the Jiangcheng martial arts community."
"Without my Ruohan, that pathetic school of yours is nothing."
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
