Several boys immediately rushed forward to surround Chen Zhezhe. Having successfully launched a surprise attack just a moment ago, he was not going to be so lucky this time. One of them kicked him back a few steps, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Qin Xin grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up. "How could you not even beat these guys?"
"Why haven't you left yet? Damn it!"
Chen Zhezhe was furious. He had taken that beating for nothing—was this woman truly an idiot?
He shoved Qin Xin hard. "Hurry up and leave! Go, or it will be too late!"
Zhang Zhi and a few of his lacklings came over, looking to resume beating Chen Zhezhe with their fists and feet...
"Wait, motherfucker!" Zhang Zhi groaned, steadying himself. Although his groin still throbbed with dull pain, he managed to stand up. Remembering that this brat had actually kicked him right in his vital spot, his eyes turned bloodshot. "You've got guts, kid! If I don't break one of your legs today, my last name isn't Zhang, goddamn it!"
Tall and strongly built, he cut a rather imposing figure just standing there, casting a sideways glance at Qin Xin. The outrageously pretty girl was looking right at him, but her gaze... her gaze was full of sheer contempt.
She looked down on him?
A wave of fury washed over Zhang Zhi. Once he knocked this brat down, wouldn't she come fluttering right over at his beck and call the moment she saw how majestic he was?
At that thought, he charged forward like a madman. Seeing Zhang Zhi's frantic rush, Chen Zhezhe instinctively flinched backward as Qin Xin's voice rang in his ear:
"Circulate the breath; go deep to store it, store it to extend it, extend it downward, keep it downward to stabilize it, stabilize it to make it firm, make it firm to sprout, sprout to grow..."
As she chanted, she reached behind him and pressed her fingers against various acupoints on Chen Zhezhe's body. It was a passage of Daoist qigong formulas from the Warring States period—simple and easy to understand—which Qin Xin recited effortlessly.
Chen Zhezhe felt a jolt in his heart. He seemed to have heard something similar yesterday, but he hadn't remembered it very clearly. With Qin Xin reciting it again today, yesterday's sensation resurfaced instantly.
A wave of warm airflow rose from his dantian.
Urged by the true qi, Chen Zhezhe, who had been sitting on the ground, suddenly sprang up in what seemed like an impossible posture for a human, right as Zhang Zhi charged toward him—
At the same time, the breath guided by Chen Zhezhe naturally began to circulate along yesterday's route.
Strangely enough, Chen Zhezhe felt the world suddenly grow terribly quiet. The figures of everyone around him blurred, and only Zhang Zhi's charge remained—every single movement of his body, every twitch of his muscles, was clear in his eyes. Moreover, Zhang Zhi's movements were visibly a beat slower, giving Chen Zhezhe plenty of time to react.
He naturally raised his fist.
"Idol, don't use your left hand. Do you want to kill someone?" Qin Xin shouted sharply. The moment Chen Zhezhe raised his left hand, Zhang Zhi felt his own movements suddenly stall. Facing this student who was a head shorter than him, he suddenly felt as though he were the one who had to look up to the other person.
It felt just like standing at the foot of Mount Tai.
In that instant, Zhang Zhi was terrified.
Without a second thought, Chen Zhezhe switched to his right hand and swung it with all his might.
Crack!
He distinctly felt his fist trace an arc and smash heavily into Zhang Zhi's face. The crunch of cracking bone reached his ears, and he even saw two of Zhang Zhi's bloody teeth fly out.
So punching an enemy in the face felt this damn good!
Zhang Zhi's roar was choked back by that punch, and his massive hundred-and-eighty-pound body went flying in a spin—
With a crash, a trash can was knocked over, and Zhang Zhi rolled into a pile of garbage along with it.
Glancing at his own fist, then looking at Zhang Zhi, who had flown three or four meters away, Chen Zhezhe stood there in a daze, utterly unable to believe that he had actually knocked him down.
"Did I hit him? Or did he just fly away by himself?"
Zhang Zhi's lacklings were terrified out of their wits. The way they looked at Chen Zhezhe now was filled with awe, and they no longer dared to look down on him. Stunned for a moment, they scrambled over to check on Zhang Zhi's injuries.
"H-he's not going to be beaten to death by my punch, is he?" Chen Zhezhe muttered, staring at Zhang Zhi in the pile of trash.
"You think far too highly of yourself. That punch was sloppy and looked hideous! He won't die, but he'll need some time to recover fully!" Qin Xin curled her lips in disdain.
His face felt hot from the accelerated circulation of blood and qi a moment ago. Chen Zhezhe wiped his face. "Damn it, I'm bleeding too."
At the sight of blood, Chen Zhezhe's face turned pale. "No way, I need to go get this bandaged up!"
A feeling of contempt welled up in Qin Xin. Had this guy never seen the world before?
"Scared like this just from a little blood—what a coward!"
It was only a scraped corner of his eye, and by the time they reached the school infirmary, the bleeding had already stopped.
It was just a minor injury, nothing to make a fuss about, and it didn't even need treating. However, at Chen Zhezhe's insistence, they still cleaned his wound for him.
The female doctor at the school infirmary was probably a recent graduate and postgraduate student from the medical university. In her early twenties, wearing black-framed glasses, she wore no makeup yet surpassed most heavily painted young girls.
There was no doubt that if she took off her white lab coat and removed her glasses, she would be a beauty not a whit inferior to Qin Xin.
She didn't speak much, looking poised and gentle with soft movements that Chen Zhezhe found thoroughly enjoyable.
Curves made women more beautiful, and this female doctor's curves undoubtedly possessed exceptionally dramatic arcs. Bending over, she used tweezers to grip a piece of cotton swab and carefully wiped around Chen Zhezhe's wound, tickling him so much that he couldn't help wanting to sneeze.
"Don't move around! Sit still!"
The female doctor frowned and admonished him.
From this angle, her breasts undoubtedly possessed lethal killing power over Chen Zhezhe. He felt his nose growing hot and wanted to look away, but his eyes refused to obey.
If this kept up, he was going to get a nosebleed.
He'd never realized before that Jiangcheng University had so many beauties!
Just as Chen Zhezhe finished having his wound treated and exchanged a few words with the beautiful nurse, Qin Xin angrily grabbed his arm and dragged him out forcefully.
"Hey! Hey! Don't pull me, the nurse big sis was just about to give me her name and phone number, and you're still dragging me away?"
Qin Xin stood there with her hands on her hips, puffed up with anger. "So what if her boobs are big? Is that worth staring at with your eyes glued to them?"
Chen Zhezhe glanced at Qin Xin. Though she wasn't quite a match for the nurse they had just seen, she was still quite well-endowed, probably around a D-cup. The fact that she could fit into the underwear bought by Chen Zhezhe's older sister showed she wasn't to be underestimated. It was just unfortunate that the nurse from earlier was far too heaven-defying, easily reaching the F-level tier. As the saying went: Since Zhou Yu was born, why must Zhuge Liang be born? Since there is a D, why must an F exist?
Chen Zhezhe cleared his throat and said righteously, "Most of us Chinese people like big things. The Great Dao has no form; great love has no boundaries; great fullness seems deficient; great skill is clumsy; great... big breasts are brainless... grand opening sale... Anyway, big things are good."
"Bah! You certainly have some nerve!"
"Having a thick skin isn't bad either. Huh? Are you jealous?"
"Who the hell is jealous!"
Even though she felt far more annoyance than fondness toward Chen Zhezhe, Qin Xin still couldn't bear to watch this guy flirt with other women right in front of her, so she said goodbye to the doctor and forcefully dragged Chen Zhezhe out running.
Qin Xin said viciously, "Bah, you shameless, perverted jerk!"
Flames of fury raged in her heart, and her impression of Chen Zhezhe had plummeted to the absolute bottom. Just wait until this old lady recovered her cultivation powers—she was going to tear his mouth to shreds!
Seeing that Qin Xin seemed genuinely furious, Chen Zhezhe felt inexplicably happy. "Haha, I was just joking. Let's go to class!"
Remembering how he had sent Zhang Zhi flying with a single punch just moments ago, Chen Zhezhe still found it somewhat surreal. While he hadn't fully believed what Qin Xin said at first, there were now things he genuinely couldn't understand, and since he couldn't understand them, he could only use things even harder to comprehend to explain them.
"What was that chant-like thing you recited earlier?"
Qin Xin's heart stirred—this was a golden opportunity!
He had obtained the magical power of the Taotie, and with her help, his meridians hadn't exploded from being overloaded. This was his great fortune. From now on, if Chen Zhezhe practiced cultivation and absorbed the power the Taotie had swallowed, the cultivation world would gain one more cultivator.
Why not guide him onto this path right now?
Tolerating her impatience, Qin Xin simply explained her own origins and what Chen Zhezhe had experienced. Of course, she only told him her name and identity, while heavily emphasizing how dangerous yesterday had been, how desperately she had thrown herself into helping him suppress his True Essence, and what sheer, blind luck he had enjoyed.
Chen Zhezhe, who had been completely bewildered at first, finally understood after Qin Xin explained it a few times.
Yet he remained half-sceptical about everything Qin Xin had told him.
"So you're saying... you didn't do *that* to me yesterday?"
Qin Xin had grown somewhat accustomed to Chen Zhezhe's shamelessness. She rolled her eyes and said nothing.
"Well... I know you don't want to accept this, but we can take it slow~"
Qin Xin was boiling with rage. "Let me tell you, there's nothing between us! If you dare to take advantage of me again, I'll smash your head open!"
"Fine!" Chen Zhezhe turned and walked back.
"Where are you going?" Qin Xin called out from behind.
"Since I don't need to take responsibility for you, I can go get the nurse big sister's phone number instead..."
Dragged back by Qin Xin yet again, Chen Zhezhe walked disconsolately across the campus.
Sigh, he wouldn't have been late this morning, but now it was ruined. Being intercepted by Zhang Zhi and then wasting time at the school infirmary meant half of the morning classes were already over. Being late was a certainty now, and he had no idea if the teacher had taken attendance this morning.
Finding the classroom for his lecture, Chen Zhezhe knocked on the door, and when a voice from inside called out, "Come in," he stepped inside.
Lecturing today was Wang Dong, a teacher in his thirties wearing gold-rimmed glasses, impeccably dressed and handsome. With his British style, Teacher Wang was deeply loved by the female students.
Teacher Wang was talking about his observations and experiences while studying abroad in Wales, leaving the students cooped up in their ivory tower utterly spellbound. Some of the female students were even more captivated by his witty language and broad knowledge. Interrupting Teacher Wang, Chen Zhezhe was met with a trace of displeasure as the teacher pushed up his glasses. "Ah, it's our professional seeker of love. I remember you."
The students burst into uproarious laughter.
In a university as full of beauties as Jiangcheng University, especially within the Law School where both the quality and quantity of female students were high, male students like Chen Zhezhe without girlfriends were exceedingly rare, and he had a history of several failed confessions. Because of this, some guys in the class had given him the nickname: "Professional Seeker of Love!"