Realm-Hopping Martial Master

"I'm with Hall Master Zheng of the Green Snake Gang, if you... if you kill me, Hall Master Zheng won't let you off!"

The howling force of the punch swept straight at Zhao Tai's face.

Zhao Tai trembled and cried out!

"Fuck your mother!"

One punch.

Blood streamed from Zhao Tai's ears and nose.

Jiang Shu closed in, his eyes sharp like a tiger's, arms taut like a drawn bow, hooking Zhao Tai's neck and twisting fiercely!

*So this was the real Pounce from the Tiger Form Three Styles!*

The Tiger Form Three Styles were killing techniques.

*If you didn't kill, how could you comprehend their true subtleties?*

Green Snake Gang, Hall Master Zheng, that damned rabbit, recalling today again, Zhao Tai had looked at him like he was prey.

*A guess floated to Jiang Shu's mind.*

"Damn it, what a jinx."

He picked up the electric baton off the floor, tucked it behind his back, rummaged in the clothes bundle on the table for a few silver shards, then tipped the candle over their clothes.

Amid the glow of flames, Jiang Shu turned and headed for the low house he'd already scoped out, stepping lightly on a few bricks, climbing over the wall and escaping.

Behind him.

"Which bastard set that fire!"

"Get water, the fire's spreading!"

"Hurry, bring some water."

"Someone's dead, someone's dead!"

"That's Zhao Tai from the Green Snake Gang. The killer was a short-haired masked guy—go tell the Hall Master, hurry!"

Hearing the panicked shouts in Bicao Lane, Jiang Shu got back to Qu She Alley, into his own tiny little room, his mind racing for a second.

His presence vanished, like he'd never been there at all.

...

Qingjiang Garden.

Jiang Shu pulled open the curtains, harsh sunlight stabbing his eyes, with the occasional honk drifting in through the air.

*He didn't know if it was the stake practice and breathing exercises from the Starving Tiger Martial Hall, or maybe it was just who he was by nature.*

*This had clearly been his first kill.*

*Not only did he not feel any discomfort, but his whole body felt great, blood surging, every pore practically twitching with excitement.*

*No wonder, in his past life, he read about heroes violating the law with their martial arts.*

*Martial arts in your bones, and you can't even stand the slightest grievance.*

*Tolerate too many grievances and the mind gets blocked up.*

*If your thoughts are stuck, how are you supposed to climb high mountains or wade deep waters?*

*How could you ever become someone with true willpower, true drive?*

Pounce! Lift! Slice!

In the small room, Jiang Shu stripped off his coat, darting through shifting postures.

"What a shame! If that loser Zhao Tai had reached Qi Blood Sensing Realm, he could've pushed me to pull off a few more moves!"

He practiced Pounce a few more times, sighing—Tiger Form Three Styles were truly killing techniques.

*But only Pounce came easily to him; Lift and Slice still lacked that edge of lethal intent.*

After finishing, Jiang Shu calmed his qi and blood and undressed for bed.

Since waking up before dawn yesterday at the school dorm, until six in the morning today, more than twenty hours had gone by—he hadn't slept once.

He really needed a good rest.

Jiang Shu slept straight through until the alarm blared at eleven. After all the martial training, his mind was as clear as crystal, free of distractions. Nearly every time he slept, it was real deep sleep.

Three hours, enough to match the six hours of a normal person!

He hadn't really looked at his phone, but several new messages had popped up on WeChat.

"Jiang Shu, you dropped out, so I borrowed your chair."

"Jiang Shu, if you're not coming, I'll use your desk for my books."

"You're not sleeping in the dorm anymore, right? Last semester's utilities got refunded. It's fifty-three yuan eighty..."

"Jiang Shu, you dropped out, still using that meal card? Can I borrow it?"

He swiped away all the messages, replying to none of them.

For junior and senior year he'd been in the humanities class, only seventeen guys in the whole class. Even so, those seventeen still split off into factions, pairing up like couples.

All through junior year, he didn't have a single friend he could really talk to, always eating and reading alone.

In senior year, after unraveling the mystery from the womb, he could hardly be bothered to interact with others at all.

*Maybe because of this, as the outsider, he could see far more clearly what kind of people his classmates really were.*

The ones asking about his chair and desk had, in fact, already taken them. Sending the message, just a formality.

As for the dorm utilities and meal card, one guy probably never intended to give him anything back—otherwise, why not just a WeChat red packet, quick and simple?

The other probably wanted whatever spare cash was left on the card.

Without closing WeChat, Jiang Shu scrolled to the pinned chat at the top, clicking the avatar with the grassy-face emoji and sent a message, "You up yet? Wanna go grab food?"

"Not up. No money. Planning to starve in bed."

"It's on me," Jiang Shu speed-typed, "BBQ or hotpot?"

"BBQ! All you can eat!"

"Get up."

"Okay!"

He shoved the phone in his pocket, stepped out the door, and stood by his sister's room. "I'm gonna shower first," he said, "Wait ten minutes before you come out."

"Okay, okay, Jiang Shu, can I go in pajamas? It's freezing."

"Go for it. I'm off to shower."

"Shower, it's always about showering. Dummy! I mean, you should wear pajamas too."

"Why?"

"So I don't look weird, duh."

"Oh."

Back in his room, Jiang Shu pulled out the thick blue fleece pajamas Yanyue had picked out for him at New Year's. He stepped into the bathroom, spent a few minutes getting washed up, used the toilet, brushed his teeth, then slipped into the pajamas and opened the door.

At the door, Yanyue already stood there in the same thick blue fleece pajamas, hood up, the long bunny ears looking ridiculously cute. She was rubbing her hands together, breathing warm air into her palms, "I did ten minutes too!"

"Got it, so more like an hour," he said.

"Bullshit."

Watching his sister puff out her cheeks as she headed to the bathroom, Jiang Shu went to the living room, practicing his horse stance while putting the news on TV.

The horse stance proficiency ticked up slowly on his panel.

Though its max wasn't as high as Starving Tiger Sitting Cave Stance,

the horse stance right now had two great advantages for Jiang Shu.

First, it didn't really have any side effects—not like the Starving Tiger Sitting Cave Stance, where after one or two hours, you'd be unbearably hungry and desperately need elixirs or meat to replenish.

Second, the horse stance had already reached small success for him. Getting it to Great Success would definitely be easier than pushing the Starving Tiger Sitting Cave to small success, so he could enter the Qi Blood Transport stage sooner.

Truth was, Jiang Shu really did understand his sister well.

If she said an hour, it really was an hour.

The siblings left the apartment complex, walking to the bus stop.

"Jiang Shu, when I become a CEO someday, I'll definitely buy us a huge, gorgeous car! It's so cold in this wind, ugh!"

Yanyue glanced at her phone, saw the bus was still ten minutes away, her little face looking ghostly pale in the frigid wind.

If not for the lure of BBQ, she'd have wanted to head straight home.

"With the heat on and a blanket, that's living like an Immortal."

"Yeah, buy domestic, go nuts on the fridge, big-screen TV, and a huge sofa. Like you even know how to check engines," Jiang Shu said, stripping off his pajama top and handing it to Yanyue. "Hands in."

"Jiang Shu, you're insane. You're not cold?"

"Don't you get what it means to be a martial arts genius? You think a little cold wind can freeze me?"

Jiang Shu wore only an undershirt. He hadn't reached Qi Blood Transport yet, but already had entry-level stakework and breathing technique, and stakework at small success. His qi and blood were much stronger than before. Long periods in the cold might still get to him,

but if it's just ten-odd minutes, running the breathing exercise was all he'd need.

"Bro, you're so good to me."

Jiang Shu sat in Starving Tiger Sitting Cave Stance, practicing the breathing technique, not answering right away.

But Yanyue's next line nearly made him break concentration, his breathing technique immediately thrown into chaos.

"When I'm a CEO with a fancy car, I'll totally hire you as my driver so you can enjoy it too."