Zhao Zeyang was the head martial arts coach of First High School and also held a position at the Education Bureau. Ye Feng was a student in whom he had once placed great hope.

In Zhao Zeyang’s long life, setting aside true prodigies, Ye Feng was the most talented person he had ever met. His journey in martial arts had been exceptionally smooth, which should have been a good thing.

But that all changed on the day of the high school martial arts exchange tournament. Ye Feng suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Yu Fei. Zhao Zeyang was watching from the main platform, and in that moment, he had an epiphany.

Experience and age bring wisdom. As he watched Ye Feng fall in the arena, he suddenly understood that unless one was a truly invincible prodigy, the path of martial arts couldn’t be too smooth.

His own talent in martial arts was average; he’d only miraculously crossed the Inner Qi threshold as he neared fifty. Zhao Zeyang had seen many geniuses suffer a single setback and never recover.

What was even more disheartening was that prodigies more powerful than geniuses were a dime a dozen. In the Yu Kingdom, with its population of six billion, there was always a higher mountain.

So, in his view, it wasn’t actually a good thing for a young person’s journey to be too smooth from the start.

Zhao Zeyang understood one thing clearly: Ye Feng was not a true prodigy. The Yu Kingdom was vast. If one day Ye Feng left Tianning and enrolled in one of the Seven Greats, only to find himself surrounded by geniuses, the shock to his mindset could cause him to languish and fall behind.

’When you get old, your reactions slow down.’ Zhao Zeyang had been so immersed in the joy of discovering a genius student, and so used to living out his years in his own little corner of the world, that he had overlooked certain things.

Fortunately, Second High had the even more talented Yu Fei. It was a good thing for them to sharpen each other. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Zhao Zeyang walked ahead with his hands clasped behind his back, trailed by Ye Feng, Dongfang Yebai, and the other students from First High.

"Mr. Liu, after the last martial arts tournament, I gave it a great deal of thought. We really should have more exchanges like this. These young people don’t know how vast the world truly is, but you and I understand what it’s like out there."

Liu Ming chuckled. "Mr. Zhao, please, speak your mind. Regardless of the outside world, we’re both locals, born and raised. We ultimately want to do our part for our hometown and help more students succeed."

Zhao Zeyang laughed. "Haha, that’s true enough. That’s why I was thinking we should let our top students from both schools interact more often. It would broaden their horizons and be beneficial for their future growth."

Liu Ming could take a hint. Although his martial arts cultivation wasn’t high, he had traveled to study in his youth and had some understanding of the world beyond their city.

Besides, he had been there on the day of the tournament. Liu Ming actually had some reservations. Zhao Zeyang wanted to temper the students from First High—especially Ye Feng—but he couldn’t quite gauge Yu Fei’s situation.

It wasn’t that he was worried Yu Fei would lose; he was afraid that winning too easily would make him arrogant. Mulling it over, he glanced at Yan Sea.

Yan Sea just gave a gruff reply. "Don’t worry. It’s not a problem."

Zhao Zeyang watched their exchange without a word. He guessed that Yan Sea must be Yu Fei’s teacher.

The name Yan Sea sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it at the moment.

Liu Ming said, "That sounds good. I think we should organize more of these events in the future, not just for the current students."

Zhao Zeyang stopped in his tracks. "Excellent! In that case, there’s no time like the present. Why don’t we start today?"

"Alright."

A short while later, the students of Second High’s advanced training class were gathered.

Yan Sea briefly explained the arrangement and then called out a few students.

Before Yan Sea could assign the matchups, Ye Feng eagerly stepped forward.

"Yu Fei! Weren’t you looking for a regular training partner? Well, I’m here. Let’s see if you’ve made any progress this past month."

The moment Ye Feng stepped onto the training grounds, he drew countless gazes. Good-looking people are always the center of attention.

Yu Fei watched the boisterous Ye Feng, feeling conflicted. ’My original plan was to cultivate him into a high-quality "leek,"’ he thought, ’harvesting his orange-rarity talent and breaking it down into stardust. I could use that to open new talent slots and upgrade some of my blue-rarity ones.’

’But now, glancing at the two red, one purple, and five blue talents residing in my mental space, it all feels a bit unnecessary.’

’Still, I have to see this act through to the end.’

With a light step, Yu Fei’s figure flickered like a phantom, and in an instant, he was standing directly in front of Ye Feng.

He activated his Ruyi Shen Jin with a mere thought, and the resulting movement stunned the crowd.

Ever since he had perfected the Six Harmonies Killing Fist, he had never revealed this level of skill to anyone besides Yan Sea and Han Qiubai.

Jiang Yifan’s eyes went wide. He hadn’t clearly seen how Yu Fei got onto the training grounds, and he couldn’t begin to comprehend what kind of technique it was.

Du Mingxuan couldn’t help but point at Yu Fei. "Was that teleportation?" he asked the guy next to him.

His friend mulled it over for a moment. "Probably. I once saw a footwork technique called Instant Step that looked a lot like that."

Du Mingxuan was stunned. ’Wow, I didn’t realize you were such an expert.’ "Where’d you see it?"

"In *Black Death God*!"

Du Mingxuan stared blankly. "The anime?"

"Yep!"

"Get outta here!"

Zhao Zeyang involuntarily leaned forward. He turned to look at Liu Ming, only to find him also wide-eyed and staring at Yan Sea. So, Zhao Zeyang fixed his gaze on Yan Sea as well.

Yan Sea stared straight ahead, his expression cold and aloof.

Zhao Zeyang thought for a moment, then leaned in and whispered, "Ruyi Shen Jin?"

Yan Sea didn’t speak, merely giving a slow nod.

Both Zhao Zeyang and Liu Ming drew a sharp, shocked breath.

A wave of regret washed over Zhao Zeyang. ’Young people have so many hardships ahead of them,’ he thought suddenly. ’What’s wrong with letting them be happy for a while in their youth? Why did I have to be so stubborn and drag Ye Feng here for this torture?’

Having struggled and scraped his way through the martial world his entire life, Zhao Zeyang knew exactly what Ruyi Shen Jin represented. Throughout history, there had been countless so-called prodigies who perfected the Ox Subduing Pile Skill without ever grasping Ruyi Shen Jin. However, there had never been a single person who mastered Ruyi Shen Jin and was then unable to perfect a pile skill.

’This fucking Second High actually produced a true prodigy!’

’It’s a damn good thing I came to see this for myself today, otherwise I’d still be completely in the dark.’

’Was that little punk Liu Ming playing me? No, from the looks of it, Liu Ming was just as clueless. So, does that mean Yan Sea is the one who trained him?’

’Why does that name, Yan Sea, sound so familiar?’ Zhao Zeyang sank into deep contemplation.

’He was getting old. Too many memories, and the hardware was getting outdated. He’d need to run a search through his memory banks.’

Dongfang Yebai’s heart went cold as she watched the phantom-like Yu Fei. ’Ye Feng has no chance today,’ she thought. ’A genius can’t beat a monster. That’s just common sense!’

On the training grounds, Ye Feng was startled by Yu Fei’s sudden appearance and took an involuntary step back. Immediately feeling that he’d shown weakness, he took two steps forward and snarled, "What kind of trick was that?"

Yu Fei was already starting to feel bored. ’I just want to end this farce quickly. Even though I’m the one who started it... I mean, who bothers to fill in every single hole they dig? That’d be crazy.’

Yu Fei extended his fingers, then slowly clenched them into a fist, a grin spreading across his face.

"Come. I’ll defeat you with one serious punch!"

Ye Feng was furious. "Ridiculous! Who the hell do you think you are?"