16: The First Origin!

Lu Cheng admitted that he was panicking a little... If his mother had seen this scene, there would really be no way to explain it!

Fortunately, Chu Mu didn't get off work this early. Although Xia Xi's eyes were red, she hadn't started crying.

Xia Xi sniffled, looked at him, and there was actually a hint of heartache in her eyes.

"Lu Cheng."

"Hmm?"

"Let's get married! You and Mom can both move in with me!"

She didn't speak until she had to, but when she did, it was shocking!

A vein on Lu Cheng's forehead popped out with a "snap," and he raised his hand to flick her on the forehead without hesitation.

"Ow..."

Xia Xi immediately covered her head, glaring at him aggrievedly, the tears in her eyes instantly forced back by the pain.

"Why did you hit me!"

"To make you wake up a little."

Xia Xi puffed out her cheeks, just about to retort, when she suddenly seemed to remember something, and her expression became a bit more serious.

"I'm done messing around with you, let's talk about serious business."

As she spoke, she took her phone out of her pocket and played a recording.

Soon, a man's terrified voice came from the phone.

"It's people from Yanghe Martial Arts Hall!"

"It was the son of the Yanghe Martial Arts Hall master who sent us!"

"He told us to stage a bag-snatching incident, lure Lu Cheng into an alley, beat him up, and preferably cripple one of his hands!"

The recording wasn't long, but the living room suddenly fell silent.

The playful look on Lu Cheng's face slowly faded.

Xia Xi put away her phone and continued:

"Xia Mo just recorded this."

"The son of the Yanghe Martial Arts Hall master is in the same faction as Zhou Lize. Although I don't know why they are targeting you, it's better to be careful."

In Xia Xi's view, to go out of one's way to hire someone to teach someone else a lesson because of a woman... such a thing was truly unreasonable; there must be some secret behind it that she didn't know about.

"I will find evidence of their dirty dealings as soon as possible. During this time... you still need to be careful."

He looked at the girl in front of him who was usually dazed and cute, with a train of thought that was often off-track, and for a moment, he didn't quite know how to react.

After a few seconds, he spoke in a low voice:

"Why are you helping me?"

Xia Xi didn't hesitate at all.

"Because I like you!"

Lu Cheng: "..."

He was rendered speechless by this sentence.

This girl was too scary.

Yanghe Martial Arts Hall was one of the top five martial arts halls in the city, with many disciples. In this era, anyone who could run a martial arts hall was, to some extent, involved in shady business...

As for Zhou Lize... he was indeed a menace... but it wasn't like there was absolutely no way to deal with him...

Afterwards, Xia Xi looked down at the time on her phone, as if she had just realized it was getting late.

She gave a soft "Ah," and hurriedly put her phone away.

"It's getting late."

"Today's training was really too tiring. I need to hurry back to rest and replenish my energy."

Speaking of this, she clenched her little fist. The serious demeanor she had just shown while analyzing the situation for him instantly became energetic again, and she looked at Lu Cheng with sparkling eyes.

"I'll strive not to let you get too far ahead of me!"

Lu Cheng looked at her and waved his hand at her.

After Xia Xi left, the room suddenly became quiet.

The footsteps outside the door gradually faded away until they were completely inaudible. Only then did Lu Cheng withdraw his gaze and lock the door.

"Finally, she's gone..."

He muttered in a low voice, and his shoulders, which had been tense for a long time, relaxed slightly.

However, complaints aside, Lu Cheng could tell that Xia Xi was genuinely good to him...

But it was precisely this kind of kindness that asked for nothing in return that was the most terrifying...

Lu Cheng narrowed his eyes and silently noted down these debts in his heart.

At present, he didn't have the qualifications to flip the table head-on, but he would keep the account, and one day, he would settle it one by one.

Thinking of this, Lu Cheng couldn't be bothered to continue standing there in a daze, so he turned and went into the kitchen.

The training intensity today was not low, and on the way back, he had been mentally strained by Seeking Good Fortune and Avoiding Bad Luck. Now that he had completely relaxed, hunger suddenly surged up like a tide.

Especially in his stomach, it felt like there was a ball of fire burning.

"Eat first."

...

It had to be said that the quality of the exotic beast meat Xia Xi brought was indeed excellent. The energy replenished by food was far gentler than that from potions.

After the last piece of exotic beast meat was consumed, Lu Cheng let out a long breath, and his whole body felt like it had come back to life.

He looked down at his palms. When he clenched his fists, the feeling of fullness between his skin, flesh, and muscles was significantly stronger than during the day.

After simply cleaning up the dishes, Lu Cheng didn't delay any further, went straight back to his room, and closed the door behind him.

He took out the high-grade blood energy potion from his backpack. The pale red liquid in the glass tube swayed slightly under the light.

He stared at it for two seconds, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

"Thanks, Young Master Zhou."

Although this person was disgusting, the things he sent were really not bad.

Lu Cheng didn't hesitate, unscrewed the seal, tilted his head back, and downed the blood energy potion in one gulp.

The moment the potion entered his throat, a spicy, scalding sensation exploded, burning all the way down his throat into his abdomen.

The next second, that heat flow was like being ignited, rapidly spreading throughout his entire body.

Lu Cheng's expression changed slightly; he immediately sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to circulate his Guiding Technique.

Hum.

The instant he focused his mind, the surrounding Source Energy became clear again.

The Guiding Technique, having reached the Origin level, displayed an incredibly outrageous level of control at this moment.

The blood energy force dissolved from the potion intersected with the Source Energy drawn into his body, quickly forming an even more overbearing tempering force that pressed fiercely toward the skin and membranes on his body surface.

In an instant, Lu Cheng felt as if all the skin on his body had tightened.

It wasn't just simple heat; it was a feeling of being seared by flames and forged by iron hammers.

The surface of his skin and flesh felt as if it were being repeatedly pierced by countless tiny needles and then rapidly healing; deep within the skin membranes, it felt like a layer that was originally loose was being gradually compressed, reshaped, and tamped down.

Lu Cheng gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound.

Fine beads of sweat quickly seeped out on his forehead, and the clothes on his back were quickly soaked through.

Yet, under this pain, he could clearly feel his own changes.

The originally ordinary skin membranes were transforming toward a tougher, more solid direction under the dual tempering of Source Energy and the blood energy potion.

Time passed bit by bit.

Don't know how long it had been, the burning pain that almost wanted to tear his skin apart finally slowly faded away.

Lu Cheng opened his eyes abruptly and let out a long breath of foul air from his chest; the air itself seemed to have a bit of a scalding taste.

He looked down at his arms.

Under the light, the surface of his skin seemed to be a layer tighter than before. Although the change wasn't exaggerated, when he pressed his fingers onto it, he could clearly feel the difference.

It was tougher.

And also more solid.

Under the tempering of the potion, his blood energy value had actually increased by four points!

Feeling the constantly surging blood energy within his body, Lu Cheng slowly clenched his fists.

As his knuckles closed, the skin and flesh in his palms made a slight tightening sound, as if a heat flow was constantly surging along his tendons and bones, so full that it was almost overflowing.

This feeling was just too comfortable.

The skin membranes had finished tempering.

His blood energy had also improved.

In this state, if he didn't continue practicing his fist techniques, he would be letting down Zhou Lize!

Time ticked away, the night outside the window grew deeper, then gradually faded.

The dull sound of fist wind constantly rang out in the room.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Beads of sweat seeped out on Lu Cheng's forehead again, and the clothes on his back were slowly soaked by sweat, but the light in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Until...

[Congratulations on successfully promoting to - Collapsing Fist - Three Styles: Origin: Consumes a large amount of blood energy value, one punch can unleash the full power of three stacked punches!]

Looking at the message that popped up in front of him, Lu Cheng sat down on the floor. Practicing martial arts techniques was different from breathing techniques; every release required consuming a large amount of blood energy.

However... this was exactly the scary part of 'Patient Learning'; he only needed to perform the form, and he could avoid consuming blood energy due to failed judgments.

The moves of the Three Styles of Crushing Fist were extremely simple, and the speed of promotion was much faster than practicing the Guiding Technique yesterday, but... the unavoidable full-body soreness ensued.

Lu Cheng collapsed onto the bed, rolled over, and reached for the phone by the bedside.

He originally just intended to take a habitual glance, but as the screen lit up, he discovered that the class group chat was still crazily flooding with messages.

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