Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Fighting Arena.

When Qinchi's figure disappeared around the corner leading to the elevator lobby, Zhao Feng stood outside the door for a while before limping in the same direction.

As he approached the corner, a murmur of conversation came from the corridor ahead.

"That guy just now was too strong, he beat a B-level psychic with just a B-level sword, leaving him completely defenseless."

"I loved that slash on the Snow Wolf's forehead, the speed and the stance, if it were posted on the forum, even men would be drooling over it."

"Too bad we signed confidentiality agreements; the Fighting Arena doesn't allow us to take photos."

"The Snow Wolf's spirit form is actually quite handsome, but its physical form is useless. The more arrogant it talked, the worse it lost."

"Enough, keep your voices down. Even if he lost badly, he's still B-level. If you anger the big shot, he might take it out on you."

"Fear what? The big shot could kick through an ice wall with one foot. His shinbone must be broken, didn't you see him hiding in the arena just now? He definitely called for a healer from the Fighting Arena."

"Whatever, I'm going to check out another arena."

With a flurry of footsteps, the surroundings fell silent once again.

Only Zhao Feng remained at the corner, his face dark and his jaw clenched.

Suddenly, his pitch-black pupils turned into icy blue wolf eyes, and sharp fangs extended wildly, forcing Zhao Feng to instinctively open his mouth.

The fangs cut his lower lip, the pain snapping him back to reality, which had almost been consumed by rage.

The entire process lasted only five or six seconds. Zhao Feng touched his lips, seeing blood on his fingertips, a hint of confusion flickering in his eyes.

Where did the blood come from?

Strange as it was, such a minor injury wasn't worth worrying about. Zhao Feng's mind was soon overwhelmed by intense emotions of shame, anger, and frustration.

Taking the elevator to the ground floor of the Fighting Arena, Zhao Feng scanned the various signs and found the clinic.

In the second ring of the Fighting Arena, a C-level healer was assigned. It was estimated that it would take twenty minutes to heal Zhao Feng's shattered shinbone, but the healer, seeing Zhao Feng's terrible expression, decided to give it his all and quoted the fastest possible time.

Lying on the treatment bed like a dead man, Zhao Feng's presence intimidated the middle-aged male healer, who chose to release his spirit form. A green Isatis root adhered to Zhao Feng's swollen right calf.

Finally, Zhao Feng's eyes moved, staring at the Isatis root beside his calf. His memory drifted back to his military academy days a few years ago.

Starting from their sophomore year, students in the Healing Department had practical classes, which involved treating injuries sustained by students from the Combat Department during combat training.

Whenever Zhao Feng's class was paired with Xu Qiao's, he would deliberately get injured and rush to find her.

Xu Qiao didn't want to treat him, but others were afraid to offend him. To earn points for her practical class, Xu Qiao had no choice but to help with a cold expression.

Xu Qiao avoided touching him, always releasing her spirit form instead.

Her spirit form was as mischievous as she was usually well-tempered, a large lotus leaf slapping onto him and other leaves spreading to cover Xu Qiao's face.

Zhao Feng liked to look for her through the lotus leaves, admiring her fair complexion, bright eyes, and sometimes catching a glimpse of her delicate earlobe, which made him smile uncontrollably.

He knew Xu Qiao disliked him, but he liked her, even if her eyes were full of hatred. At least she looked at him, and he saw her.

But just now, he lost three consecutive matches in a miserable state, losing any reason to seek her out.

Ping'an Community.

At 8:30 PM, Qinchi dropped Xu Qiao off at the intersection leading to Building 5.

The excitement from watching the match finally subsided after dinner. Xu Qiao thanked him again and rode away.

The living room light in Apartment 101 was still on. Lu Yang sat on the sofa, a large tray on the coffee table with a piece of round wood in the center. A palm-sized carving knife hovered around the wood, slowly whittling it away.

This was a method Lu Yang had devised to train his mental power. Meal times were too short, and he didn't have enough ingredients or the desire to disturb the upstairs neighbors with chopping sounds. Carving wood was much more convenient and safe.

Lu Yang thought that when he could carve a lifelike flower using this method, it would prove that his mental power had improved.

"Today was okay, I only worked overtime for three hours," Lu Yang said, tilting his head to greet Xu Qiao.

Xu Qiao glanced at the tray on the coffee table and praised, "You're making good progress, the wood shavings are more even."

Just as she finished complimenting him, Lu Yang's new shaving was surprisingly thick.

Xu Qiao said, "Your focus isn't great, a single compliment and you lose concentration."

Lu Yang's earlobes turned red.

The sound of a car passing by caught Lu Yang's attention, and he casually remarked, "Teacher Qin has been attending a lot of dinners lately. It's only been half a month, and this is already the second time."

Xu Qiao's heart skipped a beat, instinctively making excuses for Qinchi, "He's been here at the base for so long, naturally, he'll have more friends to dine with. I'm going to rest, you should sleep early too."

Lu Yang replied, "Mm-hmm."

Xu Qiao returned to her bedroom, took a shower, and then leaned against the headboard, browsing the forum. On the homepage was a trending post titled, "Shocking! Berserker One-Shots B-Level Snow Wolf Without Using Psychic Powers!"

Xu Qiao was indeed shocked, her heart racing and palms sweating as she clicked into the post.

The poster's nickname was "Artistic Monkey."

Xu Qiao recognized the nickname; they had posted several popular threads before, all comic-style retellings of real events, either funny, thrilling, or dramatic.

It was likely one of the psychics who had watched the match with Xu Qiao, vividly and vividly depicting Qinchi's three matches with Zhao Feng in comic form.

The artwork was exquisite, and although the faces of the two protagonists bore no resemblance to Zhao Feng or Qinchi, they were both drawn quite handsomely, with their attire uniformly changed to combat uniforms. He had also added their dialogue, which might not be verbatim but captured the essence.

Xu Qiao nervously flipped to the part where Zhao Feng mentioned her.

Wolfman: "If it weren't for Xiaomei, I would have conceded, but I've been chasing her for ten years..."

Xu Qiao: ...

As she continued reading, she noticed that the poster had omitted the two lines where Qinchi mentioned her.

Relieved, Xu Qiao guessed that the poster might have been afraid of leaking specific information that could get Zhao Feng or Qinchi into trouble, leading them to track him down. In this way, none of Qinchi's personal details were revealed, and while the Snow Wolf spirit body was unique, it wasn't exclusive to Zhao Feng's family in Southeast Base. Moreover, Zhao Feng's age didn't match up with "chasing Xiaomei for ten years."

The commenters were all discussing the authenticity of the battle, and even those curious about the identities of the protagonists received no answers.

While Xu Qiao was scrolling through, there was a new message in the group chat—it was Sun Fushan sharing the link to the post.

For the first time, Xu Qiao, who was the only one willing to join him in the gossip, pretended not to see it.

Meng Li, who found such technical posts interesting, chimed in: "If it's real, that guy is really strong; his physique must exceed that of a B-class beast."

Sun Fushan: "I showed it to my grandfather. He said that graduates from the Special Police University can train to achieve a C-class ability physique, and if a C-class ability user continues the same training, they can reach the level of the guy in the post. It's rare, but not impossible."

Grandfather also said that if his spirit body remained at B-level, he would consider sending him to the Special Police University! Sun Fushan didn't believe his grandfather could be so heartless, but it scared his spirit body enough. If it could exist independently, Sun Fushan seriously doubted his little green turtle would run away.

Meng Li: "I remember experts once proposed implementing this training method in military academies, but it was abandoned due to collective resistance from the students."

Sun Fushan: "I would resist too. Abilities combined with weapons are enough to kill beasts. For ordinary people who want to become stronger, pushing their physical limits is the only way, a desperate measure. If it were mandatory for all military academy students, who could bear it?"

Meng Li: "Ultimately, it comes down to willpower, which has a threshold. Only a few can continuously break through, while forcing the majority would lead to severe side effects."

Sun Fushan: "It's rare to see you type so much."

Meng Li: "No more chatting, see you on Saturday."

Sun Fushan: "... @Xu Qiao, where are you?"

Xu Qiao prepared her homemade ice training ground, took a photo, and sent it: "On the path to becoming stronger."

Sun Fushan: "Your spirit body is great. I can train myself, but my spirit body just hides like a turtle."

Xu Qiao sent a goodnight emoji and really went to practice.

Pushing her physical limits wasn't suitable for her; she could only strive to challenge the limits of her water abilities.

In the central area, inside an independent villa.

Zhao Feng's team always lived together, including Chu Ling, who had recently married and only occasionally returned home. His reason to his teammates was: "She's pregnant, what am I supposed to do when I go back?"

Tonight, after Zhao Feng returned, he went straight to his room without showing his face.

Chu Ling and the other three were smoking, playing cards, and drinking in the basement.

During a break, one of the teammates browsed the forum and clicked into the popular post by [The Artistic Monkey]. He initially laughed and enjoyed it, but then suddenly stopped laughing and called over the other three, stammering: "This wolfman, could it be our captain?"

They all knew their captain had left on his cool new motorcycle to find Xu Qiao. Even if Xu Qiao continued to reject him, the captain wouldn't return with a sullen face unless something significant happened in the second ring.

Chu Ling was about to call his newlywed wife Yu Zhu when a clear howl echoed from upstairs.

The four teammates immediately ran out.

The moment they reached the living room, the howl disappeared, and the sound of a window shattering came from the third floor, followed by a heavy thud.

The four teammates rushed to the yard.

Under the moonlight, a massive, muscular figure stood by the wall of the villa, standing two meters tall with wolf ears, blue eyes, and fangs. His overly muscular chest had burst through his black sleepwear, which clearly belonged to Zhao Feng.

As the four teammates stood in shock, the real wolfman Zhao Feng locked onto them, growling and crouching low, his hands with sharp claws resting on the ground, his waist arched, ready to pounce.

Chu Ling reacted quickly: "He doesn't recognize us now. Attack together, knock him out!"

The four teammates, including the healer, were all dual B-class Combat Department members. Although Zhao Feng was the strongest fighter in the team, he couldn't hold out long against their combined efforts.

A chunk of brick landed heavily on the back of his head, and Zhao Feng's wolf eyes rolled back as he fell to the ground, lying motionless for about two minutes. His limbs quickly returned to normal, and the wolf features on his head disappeared.

The four teammates sighed in relief but also showed deep concern in their eyes.

What was going on here?