Picking up a few drinking buddies along the way, along with two newly acquainted pretty junior female students, the group set off for a bar to have some fun.
However, as soon as they walked out of the school gates, before they had even gone two blocks, a large mob of armed thugs swarmed out from an alleyway and surrounded them.
"What the hell, Brother Peng, what's going on?"
Liu Di trembled with fright and hurriedly hid behind Zhao Lipeng.
Zhao Lipeng was also terrified, swallowing hard a few times as he said, "Don't panic! Don't panic, gang turf wars happen all the time, this has nothing to do with us! We just need to pretend we didn't see anything and sneak away."
"Let's go, go, go! Hurry up!"
Crouching low, Zhao Lipeng led his group toward the mouth of the alley in full view of everyone.
The gazes of forty or fifty thugs shifted right along with them.
The alley was dead silent.
"Brother Peng, I... why do I feel like something isn't right..."
Liu Di stammered, "Why do I feel like they're all looking at us?"
"My ass!"
Zhao Lipeng turned around to curse, only to see a thug with bleached-yellow hair, wearing a floral shirt and wielding a machete, step forward and kick him right in the face!
Smack!
He sent him flat onto the ground.
"So you're the fucker called Zhao Lipeng? I heard you're quite a fighter, that you laid out both Brother Leopard and Brother Wolf from our gang. Real big shot, aren't you?"
The yellow-haired thug pointed his blade at him.
"No, no, no, Big Brother, Big Brother, you've got the wrong guy, I'm not the person you're looking for..."
Zhao Lipeng covered his face, which was bleeding profusely from the nose, and shook his head frantically.
Two of the lackeys immediately stepped forward and fished an ID card out of his pocket.
The yellow-haired thug picked it up, snapped it in half with a crisp *crack*, and tossed it onto his face. "Brothers, he is Zhao Lipeng! Beat him to death for me!"
Chaos erupted on the scene.
Fifty-six thugs swarmed forward all at once; even Tyson and Ngannou wouldn't have been able to fend them off, let alone Zhao Lipeng.
Even Liu Di and his other drinking buddies got thoroughly beaten up.
"Hahahaha, Zhao Lipeng from the Qingda Sanda Club, nothing special after all!"
"Brothers, let's move out!"
Laughing, the yellow-haired thug led his men away.
Leaving behind Zhao Lipeng, who had been beaten into a pulp, suffering fractures in over a dozen places all over his body, and getting several extra kicks and thumps to his rear end and thighs...
"Brother Xiao, it's done!"
Shouldering his blade, the yellow-haired thug called Bai Xiao and reported triumphantly, "I've already crippled that punk Zhao Lipeng for you; he'll be bedridden for at least half a year."
"No kidding!"
At a certain entertainment club, Bai Xiao stood up in pleasant surprise. "Yang Kai, you're not lying to me?"
"Would I make something up?"
The yellow-haired thug named Yang Kai sneered, "I even snapped his ID card in half. If you don't believe me, Brother Xiao, I can go right back and grab him to snap a few more photos for you!"
"Hahaha, good!"
Bai Xiao laughed happily. "Yang Kai, I never noticed your capabilities before; who would've thought a punk like you actually had some tricks up your sleeve? Get your ass over to Diamond Club right now, I'm going to reward you in person!"
"Thank you, Brother Xiao! Thank you, Brother Xiao!" Yang Kai was overjoyed.
"Zhao Lipeng, it was settled just like that?"
After Bai Xiao hung up the phone, Wang Yinhua asked suspiciously, "Brother Xiao, could Yang Kai have gotten the wrong person?"
"Relax, no mistake, we checked his ID and everything."
Bai Xiao put his arm around her, clamped a cigarette between his lips, and sneered, "With forty or fifty people, all armed to boot, even Wong Fei-hung or Ip Man would've had to take a few slaps to the face, let alone a single guy."
Hearing this, Wang Yinhua finally nodded.
Chapter 13: Which One is... Brother Xiao?
"Ning Chen, Ning Chen..."
Dozily, Ning Chen heard someone calling him and shaking his arm.
The voice was very familiar—it was Su Wanwan.
"I actually fell asleep just like that?"
Ning Chen woke up in a daze, rubbed his eyes, and thought to himself that his primordial spirit's injuries were too severe, making him constantly drowsy.
If he were still in the Little Southern Heaven Realm and fell asleep in the wilderness without setting up any protective arrays, he'd likely already be dead.
"Ning Chen, why are you sleeping out here?"
A pure, lotus-like, fair oval face filled with concern entered Ning Chen's field of vision.
Su Wanwan stood gracefully in the setting sun, looking impossibly beautiful.
"It's nothing, fell asleep by accident."
Ning Chen waved a hand, stood up, and stretched lazily. "Let's go eat at your place, I'm hungry."
"Okay!"
Joy lit up Su Wanwan's face, her bright eyes curving into a pair of pretty crescents as she followed right behind Ning Chen, walking all the way out of the campus.
At that exact moment, the Xu family's Rolls-Royce was also driving out of the gates.
Seeing Ning Chen, Jiang Tang gave Xu Shuyan an astonished nudge.
"Shuyan, look! It's Big Brother Dali, and he's with a really pretty girl!"
"Don't tell me Big Brother Dali started dating on his very first day of school."
Xu Shuyan looked over instinctively and saw Ning Chen chatting, laughing, and smiling away with a pure and lovely girl.
"Hmph!"
For no apparent reason, Xu Shuyan felt irritated. "Little Tang, can you stop reacting like the sky is falling every time you see this guy? He's not some big shot, is he really worth all that?"
"Oh, alright..."
Jiang Tang poked out the tip of her tongue.
Outside the school food street.
Su Wanwan was chatting with Ning Chen when she suddenly heard her mother Li Mei's crying coming from inside their shop, mixed with the harsh, cruel sneers of several thugs.
"Mom!" Su Wanwan hurriedly parted the crowd and ran inside.
"That gang of thugs again?" Ning Chen's expression also turned gloomy.
Inside Li Mei's Barbecue Restaurant.
Led by Ma Kun, the thugs had smashed the place to absolute ruins.
The proprietorship owner Li Mei sat on the ground crying bitterly, completely helpless.
"Stinking bitch, let me tell you, that punk Zhao Lipeng has already been crippled by our Brother Xiao; he's never coming back to protect you again!"
"Four thousand yuan in management fees—if you can't cough it up by next month, we'll finish you off!"
"Let's move!"
Ma Kun still sported that pair of crossed eyes, and the thugs behind him all shared the same crooked-mouthed, squinty-eyed look.
The onlookers outside the shop were both terrified and perplexed, wondering why this gang of thugs had such uniquely bizarre styling.
"Mom! Mom, are you alright?!"
Weeping, Su Wanwan ran inside, flew angrily into Ma Kun's arms, and began pounding on him with her fists. "Bad guys! Drop dead!!"
"Little brat, asking for a death wish..."
Ma Kun raised his hand, intending to slap Su Wanwan across the face, but when he caught sight of Ning Chen stepping through the doorway, he was scared right back three steps. "You! You?!"
"I'm must ask, why don't you people ever learn?"
With his hands in his pockets, Ning Chen strolled in leisurely.
"Brother Kun! What's the situation? Wasn't this kid beaten into the hospital by Brother Kai?" a thug asked.
"You're asking me? Who the fuck am I supposed to ask?!" Ma Kun's face turned pale as he bared his teeth.
Knowing he was no match for Ning Chen, he had no choice but to bow and scrape, offering a flattering smile. "Hehe, Brother Peng! A misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding!"
"Misunderstand your ass!"
With a single kick, Ning Chen sent Ma Kun flying all the way from the front entrance straight into the back kitchen. Amidst a clatter of crashing sounds, the latter went completely silent.
"Holy shit!"
The onlookers and thugs stared in utter astonishment.
A kick that sent someone flying over a dozen meters—was this Wong Fei-hung reincarnated? The Shadowless Kick of Foshan?
They had no idea that Ning Chen had tried his absolute best to suppress his strength; otherwise, a kick from a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator wouldn't just send one person flying—it could evaporate an entire street.
"Looks like we need to settle things once and for all today."
Looking at the few thugs who had already dropped to their knees, Ning Chen said indifferently.
Half an hour later.
Diamond Club, the largest nightclub in the West District.
Ning Chen escorted a bloodied Ma Kun inside.
As for the remaining thugs, Ning Chen had forced each of them to write a 30,000-word essay of self-reflection, warning them that not a single typo was allowed, and threatening to finish them off if they failed to finish it.
For thugs who hadn't even graduated from middle school, this was practically a form of psychological torture.
"Alright, now I, Yang Kai, will dedicate a song to my boss, Brother Xiao—'My Good Brother'!"
Inside an imperial private box, Yang Kai was howling away into a microphone.
Suddenly—
*BOOM!!*
The door to the private box was kicked flying off its hinges.
Bai Xiao, Yang Kai, Wang Yinhua, and the others stared in dumbfounded shock at Ma Kun and Ning Chen appearing in the doorway.
"Which one is... Brother Xiao?"
Ning Chen tossed Ma Kun aside and swept his gaze across the room.
"I am, what do you want?"
Yang Kai patted his chest, shouting directly into the microphone.
"You're Brother Xiao? Good."
Without wasting a single superfluous word, Ning Chen flashed forward, rushed right up to Yang Kai, and started landing heavy slaps across his face.
Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!
Every single blow sounded like firecrackers going off!
Ning Chen's speed was so blinding that by the time the real Brother Xiao and Wang Yinhua reacted, Yang Kai had already been beaten into a bloody pulp resembling a swollen pig's head, spraying a fountain of blood from his nose with all his front teeth knocked out.
"Damn it! Get him!"
"Charge!"
Roaring in fury, Bai Xiao watched as over a dozen thugs inside the private box, along with another dozen rushing in from outside, swarmed toward Ning Chen all at once.
Bang, bang, crash!
In less than a minute, there was not a single patch of empty floor left in the private room; it was littered with fallen bodies.
The coffee table was smashed to pieces, and shards of glass covered the floor.
These gang members either had broken arms, fractured legs, or had passed out cold on the spot. The scene was nothing short of horrifying and tragic.
"Who... exactly are you..."
Slumped back against the sofa, Bai Xiao stared at Ning Chen in absolute shock.
"Weren't you looking for me?"
Ning Chen had already figured out that this person was the real Brother Xiao.
"You're Zhao Lipeng!"
Bai Xiao's eyes bulged wide. "No, that's not your name—Yang Kai got tricked by you. Just what kind of person are you?!"
"At least you've got some brains."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ning Chen vanished. When he reappeared, he was already sitting right next to Bai Xiao.
The lighting in the private room was dim, and his movements were ghostly, completely untraceable to the naked eye.
"So fast!"
Crouched in the corner, Wang Yinhua's pupils contracted rapidly.
Terrified out of his wits, Bai Xiao let out a strange shriek and tried to flee, only to be forcefully pinned down by Ning Chen's hand.
"As for who I am, a little punk like you isn't qualified to know."
Ning Chen threatened:
"All you need to know is that I frequently eat at Li Mei's Barbecue Restaurant. If you ever send any lowlife trash to bother me while I'm eating again, I'll blow your dog head off, you hear me?"
"Speak! Did you hear me or not, heard me or not, heard me or not!"
Impatient with his slow reaction, Ning Chen gave him three sharp slaps across the face—*smack, smack, smack*—sending his nose bleeding profusely as he collapsed backward onto the sofa, howling in agony.
"I heard you, I heard you!!!"
Bai Xiao let out a squeal like a slaughtered pig, nodding frantically.
"I'm a bit short on cash lately. Hand over another two hundred thousand."
Grasping him by the collar, Ning Chen said viciously.
Chapter 14: Nip the Budding Romance in the Bud
"Hurry! Yinhua, transfer it to him!"
Knowing this guy was not to be messed with, Bai Xiao had no choice but to comply for the moment—a wise man submits to circumstances.
"B... Big Brother, what's your bank card number? I'll transfer it to you right now."
Trembling, Wang Yinhua got up from the corner and pulled out her phone.
"Do I look stupid to you? Cash!" Ning Chen shot her a cold glance.
Bank transfers left evidence, and Bai Xiao could sue him for extortion.
He didn't want any trouble, and spells like memory erasure consumed spiritual energy when used.
Before long, a few lackeys fetched two hundred thousand yuan in cash, and Ning Chen pocketed it before walking out.
"Remember this: messing with Li Mei's Barbecue Restaurant is the same as smashing my rice bowl. You better watch out, or I'll blow your dog head off!"
"Don't think I'm joking."
With those parting instructions, Ning Chen left.
Bai Xiao obviously didn't take the threat to heart.
If every time he said "watch out or I'll finish you off" meant he actually killed someone, his feet would already be standing on a mountain of corpses and a forest of white bones.
"Ning Chen... you little bastard... nobody's ever dared to shake me down for money! Just wait, you're fucking dead!!"
Bai Xiao roared furiously inside the private box.
Wang Yinhua, however, cautiously chimed in, "Brother Xiao, it looks like this Ning Chen is a martial artist. We can't afford to provoke him."
*Slap!*
Bai Xiao landed a heavy blow across Wang Yinhua's face, sending her staggering and nearly throwing her to the ground.
"What do you mean we can't afford to provoke him?! So he knows some martial arts! If I'd practiced my 'Bai Family Iron Sand Palm' since childhood, I could've beaten three pounds of shit out of him just now!"
Raising his hand, Bai Xiao bellowed angrily.
Sinking back onto the sofa, as if a plan had just occurred to him, he smiled sinisterly. "If we can't beat him in the open, we can take the underground route..."
He didn't notice that Wang Yinhua, lying on the floor, also flashed a trace of venom in her eyes.
Back at Li Mei's Barbecue Restaurant.
The thugs had already cleaned up the place.
Ning Chen walked straight up and handed one hundred thousand yuan to Li Mei.
"Xiaochen, what is this..."
Seeing such a thick stack of cash, Li Mei wouldn't dare touch it. "Where did you get so much money?"
"I just went and reasoned with Brother Xiao, and he agreed to pay compensation for your damages and promised never to come back for protection fees again," Ning Chen lied smoothly.
"Really?!" Su Wanwan's bright eyes lit up.
"This..." Li Mei remained half-convinced.
"Just take it and renovate the storefront."
Ning Chen shoved the money directly into the woman's hands, then rubbed his stomach. "I'm hungry. Is there anything to eat?"
"Yes, yes, yes, I'll go make something for you right away. Just wait a moment."
Turning toward the back kitchen, Li Mei wiped away the tears at the corner of her eye with the back of her hand.
With a soft sigh inwardly, Ning Chen picked a spot and sat down.
Su Wanwan sat across from him, her expressive, watery eyes slightly misted over. "Ning Chen, are Brother Xiao and his gang really not going to come back and harass me and Mom anymore?"
"Shouldn't." Ning Chen couldn't offer absolute guarantees either.
"How did you pull that off?"
Su Wanwan asked curiously, "You didn't beat them all to the ground, did you?!"
"As if, there were dozens of them."
Ning Chen replied offhandedly, "I just reasoned with them using virtue."
"Wow, Ning Chen, you're amazing! Not only can you fight, but you're also so eloquent!"
Looking at him in utter adoration, Su Wanwan propped her chin in her hands, her pretty face flushing pink. "I really don't know how to thank you..."
"Just do me a favor and stop annoying me."
Ning Chen dropped that flat remark out of nowhere, choking Su Wanwan right on the spot.
A sudden wave of grievance and incomprehension washed over her.
At school, countless guys begged her for her WeChat every single day; how come when it came to Ning Chen, she was treated like such a nuisance?
Ning Chen had no intention of apologizing for what he just said.
As an ancient monster who had lived for over two millennia, he had read a trace of romantic affection in Su Wanwan's eyes. If things kept developing along this track, this girl would inevitably fall for him.
Emotions were the greatest shackles on the path of cultivation.
It was always best to nip the budding shoots of romance in the bud.
...
The official semester had begun, and the Clinical Medicine Class 2 curriculum was densely packed, though Ning Chen didn't listen to a single lecture, spending his days either sleeping slumped over his desk or reading web novels.
Whenever his classmates saw him, they all shook their heads in silent disapproval.
Studying medicine was unlike other majors—you couldn't just coast by. The academic workload was even heavier than senior year of high school. For someone like Ning Chen who didn't listen in class or memorize texts, he was essentially a write-off.
"Ning Chen, aren't you afraid of failing all your finals doing this?"
After a physiology class ended, Fang the Fatty couldn't help asking as he watched Ning Chen slide his phone into his pocket and prepare to head to the cafeteria for lunch.
"Studying medicine is way too grueling; there are ten exams at the end of the term. I'm already regretting this."
Zhang Dachun hugged a stack of books, looking thoroughly depressed.
"Isn't studying medicine just memorizing books? I'll just cram for the finals."
Dismissing it lightly, Ning Chen turned and walked out of the classroom.
Watching him go, Li Xuanming sneered, "More than a dozen books—let's see how you cram for the finals. Just wait to fail your courses, you idiot!"
Mortals could never imagine just how terrifying a cultivator's memory truly was.
These students also couldn't fathom that Ning Chen was actually a divine physician possessing peerless medical skills. Western medicine, with its mere two-hundred-year history, was something he simply didn't hold in high regard.
The Little Southern Heaven Realm boasted hundreds of thousands of years of medical history.
When he went to the cafeteria for lunch, standing in line, Ning Chen suddenly felt a fierce glare boring into the back of his head.
He turned his head to look—it was Xu Shuyan.
"Ning Chen, you jerk..."
The sight of Ning Chen instantly riled Xu Shuyan up.
Throughout the seven days of military training, this guy had spent every single day eating ice cream and playing on his phone under the shade of the trees by the basketball court. He was definitely trying to torment her!
"Hi, Big Brother Dali!"
Standing behind Xu Shuyan, Jiang Tang waved and greeted him.
Immediately, the curious gazes of many male students fell upon Ning Chen.
Ning Chen nodded back in acknowledgment to Jiang Tang.
Right at that moment, a succession of shrill screams broke out among the students queuing in the cafeteria.
Following the sound, Ning Chen spotted a tall, handsome male student holding a basketball, walking toward the queue.
"Isn't that Xing Xufei from the junior year? He really is just as handsome as the rumors say."
"Xing Xufei used to be on the school track team before going to train at the provincial level. I heard his family is super rich."
"I am so in love with this kind of sunny, handsome guy."
"Look! He's walking toward Goddess Xu!"
The few female students standing ahead of Ning Chen chattered endlessly without stopping.
Sure enough, the male student named Xing Xufei, accompanied by a few of his bros, went straight and queued up right behind Xu Shuyan and Jiang Tang.
"Junior, you must be Xu Shuyan, right? You're quite famous around here."
Encouraged by his buddies, Xing Xufei smiled and greeted Xu Shuyan.
As the eldest daughter and heiress of the Xu Group, Xu Shuyan looked down on Xing Xufei entirely; she preferred mature and steady men.
However, noticing that Ning Chen was also looking over, an idea struck her. She flashed Xing Xufei a brilliant smile. "Senior, I'm Xu Shuyan, nice to meet you~"
"Nice to meet you, nice to meet you, Junior! What would you like to eat? My treat!"
Xu Shuyan was simply too gorgeous.
Her delicate facial features, snowy white skin, tall and slender, straight beautiful legs, and that upper-class heiress aura cultivated from childhood by wealth made even Xing Xufei—who considered himself a seasoned veteran in the romantic game—feel flattered and overwhelmed.
"How could I let Senior spend money on me?" Xu Shuyan offered a charming, gentle smile.
"It's no problem at all, really!" Xing Xufei scratched the back of his head.
Watching the two chatting away so happily, Jiang Tang was baffled. Didn't Shuyan like the overbearing CEO, super-big-boss type? Why was she being so enthusiastic toward a jock?
"Could it be... she's trying to make Big Brother Dali jealous?"
Catching Xu Shuyan glancing over at Ning Chen every now and then, Jiang Tang figured it out in an instant and giggled secretly to herself.
Shuyan really was so childish.