CHAPTER 45: CHAPTER 39: DOUBT

Early morning.

Lin Feng was awakened by the sounds outside the door.

"It’s five o’clock."

Glancing at his phone, Lin Feng still felt very sleepy, but to not worry his family, he quickly dressed and left his room.

"Everyone is up this early?"

The sun had not fully risen at five, and the sky was still dim, especially in the Shore District.

The lights were on in the living room, and the family was gathered around the dining table, eating breakfast and chatting quietly.

It was clear everyone’s mood was good.

"You’re up, go wash up first."

When they saw Lin Feng appear, his family all turned their gaze toward him immediately.

Besides Ma Lele’s simple happiness, his mother Old Ma and his elder sister had a complex look in their eyes: pride, excitement, unease, and so on.

"Why did everyone get up so early?" Lin Feng asked.

Even his sister, who usually loved to sleep in, had woken up before him; it wasn’t easy.

Looking at his family’s mental state, Lin Feng knew they certainly hadn’t slept well last night, caught in a mix of excitement and unease.

They were filled with beautiful hopes for the future, yet they were also afraid everything was just a mirage, unreachable.

"I broke through to the Eighth Rank in Body Cultivation yesterday."

To ease his family’s worries, Lin Feng spoke with a smile.

Sure enough, upon learning Lin Feng had broken through to the Eighth Rank, the unease in their eyes noticeably lessened, replaced by more expectations for future life.

"How did you break through so quickly?" Lin Fang asked excitedly.

With each breakthrough in the Body Cultivation Realm, Qi and blood become more abundant, increasing overall fitness and combat power, directly boosting exam scores by at least thirty points; evidently, this was good news.

Breaking through from the Seventh to the Eighth Rank overnight gave Lin Fang immense confidence.

They finally started to believe Lin Feng had been hiding his talent all these years; otherwise, how did he break through so fast?

"I told you, I’m a Martial Arts genius, just kept a low profile before." Lin Feng joked, "You’ll get used to it over time."

"Mm, that’s a good habit." Lin Kerou replied with a smile.

"I’m going to freshen up."

With that, Lin Feng walked into the bathroom.

After a simple wash-up, Lin Feng looked at himself in the mirror; his originally pale complexion was now a bit rosy, yet the dark circles around his eyes showed he wasn’t in great spirits.

No wonder, it was almost three in the morning after he broke through to the Eighth Rank last night, so he only slept for two hours, and the quality of those two hours was poor since that Nightmare would occasionally disturb him, preventing him from falling into a deep sleep.

Not getting proper sleep for two consecutive days left Lin Feng feeling groggy.

After breakfast, when his family left for work one after another, Lin Feng stayed home alone.

Today, he would not go to school as he needed to prepare for today’s Martial Arts Dojo challenge.

After breakfast, feeling exhausted, Lin Feng sent a message to Gao Hai with his phone, then returned to his room and fell back onto the bed, dozing off again.

He slept until noon, only waking up to the sound of the doorbell and getting up to answer the door.

"It’s much quieter during the day."

Lin Feng found that during the day, the spiritual disturbances from the Nightmare were significantly weaker, making it less active than at night, allowing him a rare good nap.

Looks like I’ll need to change my lifestyle habits.

"Yang Fan, why are you here?"

Opening the door, Lin Feng was surprised to see not only Gao Hai, but also Yang Fan, who came with food in his hands.

Yang Fan seemed speechless when Lin Feng asked.

Bro, with such a big thing happening, and it’s about yourself, how are you not excited?

"Brother Feng, haven’t you checked the forum? The news about Ye Qiu has already exploded." Gao Hai said excitedly.

"Yeah, it broke around ten o’clock, and now the whole school knows about it even without me stepping in." Yang Fan said as he entered Lin Feng’s home, his first visit to the Shore District.

For a rich young man living in the Inner City, Yang Fan lived in a villa, while this twenty or thirty square meter house was smaller than one of his rooms and lacked any decoration. Although he had never been to such a rundown place, Yang Fan behaved casually and seemed quite comfortable, which made Lin Feng nod in approval internally.

"Just make yourselves comfortable."

Lin Feng grabbed two cans of drinks from the fridge and tossed them to Gao Hai and Yang Fan: "Eat and chat at the same time."

"The lunch you bought was pretty good," Lin Feng said to Yang Fan.

Lunch included six dishes and one soup, with four meat dishes and two vegetarian ones; two of the meat dishes were made with Demon Beast meat, rich in Qi and blood with excellent taste. Clearly, they weren’t from any small restaurants in the Shore District.

"Yeah, my housekeeper made it."

"Are you eating? Didn’t your forum post rank third?" Lin Feng asked curiously.

"Not just third, it’s already ranked second."

Yang Fan quickly said, his post had directly set the forum ablaze.

"Brother Feng, take a look yourself," Yang Fan said.

Lin Feng took out his phone and opened the Martial Artist Forum.

On the homepage of Jiang City’s daily news hot list top ten, "High School Student Beats Martial Artist" was ranked second.

Click count: 8.89 million, Likes: 2.56 million, Shares: 1.29 million, and Comments: a staggering 7.59 million.

The top comment with the most likes, pinned directly: "Lin Feng and Song of Solomon! This is the most melodramatic romantic tragedy I’ve heard in my life."

"Yang Fan, delete the comment, and don’t involve Song of Solomon next time."

Lin Feng frowned; he had no idea Yang Fan would write such a melodramatic story. He didn’t mind, but obviously, it wasn’t a good thing for Song of Solomon.

"Okay, I’ll delete it."

Seeing Lin Feng a bit upset, Yang Fan quickly logged into the Martial Artist Forum to delete his comment.

However, despite this, people had already taken screenshots, and the comment couldn’t be removed.

Scrolling through the comments, Lin Feng started reading them.

"Mom, someone here is showing off, come take a look."

"Nonsense, hiding talents, who’d believe that?"

"Are all high school students so deep these days?"

"This little brother is truly moving, both handsome and talented."

"Who would believe anyone would give up Purple Qilin, do they really think they are Ye Qiu?"

"Ye Qiu is here, expressing discontent."

"Such a dramatized love story, pardon me for not believing it."

"Just defeating a Ninth Rank Body Cultivator still leaves you far from being a Martial Artist!"

"No matter what, I’m going to the scene today, which district’s Thunder Martial Arts Dojo is it?"

In the comments section, nine out of ten were voices of doubt, clearly questioning the authenticity of events.

Some even suspected the poster was Lin Feng himself, aiming to hype things up and sell ad space.

"Brother Feng, do you want to explain?" Yang Fan asked.

"Yeah, Brother Feng, they’re all doubting you, we should explain," Gao Hai said while eating.

Lin Feng casually turned off his phone, not paying much attention to those doubts.

The more doubts there are, the more topical it becomes, and the higher the heat, the more ad space is worth.

"Ignore them, I’ve already broken through to the Eighth Rank in Body Cultivation."

"So fast?"

Both Yang Fan and Gao Hai were surprised and delighted, giving them more confidence for tonight’s arena challenge.

You can imagine, if Lin Feng really fought at the Eighth Rank in Body Cultivation today, it would cause quite a sensation.

Winning against a First Grade Martial Artist while still at the Body Cultivation Realm is extremely rare, something even the famous Ye Qiu couldn’t do.

Talent and combat power are two different things.

This is especially true for students in the Body Cultivation Realm.

The Body Cultivation Realm and Martial Artists are two insurmountable realms.

Except for certain top-tier families, such as those with inherited bloodline talents from the Glory Race, who might be able to leap ranks.

If Lin Feng wins, it’s bound to attract attention from top-level clubs and battle teams.

At this moment, the three of them were unaware that as the Martial Artist Forum post continued to ferment, several clubs had started to take interest and were holding focused discussions.

This included the Juxing Club.