Chapter Eighteen: Wrestling

  Just as Mao Feifei's small body, like a calf, came crashing down, Shi Dong's not-so-sturdy physique was hit, and he might have broken bones or torn tendons, the people around couldn't help but shout in surprise.

  Zhu Ke'er was secretly resentful of Shi Dong, but as she watched him about to be hit, she couldn't help covering her cherry-like mouth and letting out a startled cry.

  Bang!

  A loud noise, dust flying everywhere.

  A figure jumped up from the ground, it was Mao Feifei, pointing at Lei Huan on the high platform and shouting angrily: "Lei Huan! You... you're despicable! What did you use to sneak attack me?"

  Everyone was curious, and upon closer inspection, they saw that Mao Feifei's chest was burnt black, with a strong smell of charred flesh and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. It was clear that he had been hit by Lei Huang's sneak attack before falling off the stage.

  "Hmph! You should be grateful that I spared you! If it weren't for the sake of tempering, this one strike of Thunder Flash would have left you severely injured and vomiting blood!" Lei Huan puffed out his chest, raised his head, and looked down with a complacent expression. On the tip of his raised right hand was a cluster of jumping black light.

  "Thunderbolt?!" The new disciples let out a cry of surprise, unsure what this thing was.

  "Haha, Lei Huang, you're really something! You didn't disappoint Master's expectations as the top student! I didn't think you'd already broken through to the first layer of Qi Refining and even learned the Shà Shuài Léi technique. You're truly the cream of the crop among our newly promoted disciples in Yunwu Peak!" Bai Jin suddenly burst out laughing loudly, his face full of praise as he looked at him.

  "Thank you, Second Brother, for the praise. I, Lei Huan, was just lucky. Two months ago, I broke through to the first layer of Qi Refining, and I happened to choose this technique from the Hidden Book Pavilion. I only made some minor adjustments." Lei Huan beamed with pride as he bowed to Bai Jing, his face flushed with excitement, looking like a proud little rooster as he glanced around in all directions.

  As soon as this was said, the new disciples present were shocked. He had actually broken through the first layer of the Refining Qi stage in just four months and learned his first magic technique in two months, which was several times faster than everyone else.

  Just like the flowing water of a stone, at this time still racking one's brains to break through that layer of difficulty, while some people have already learned magic, it's really frustrating!

  Upon hearing this, Tan Shaohuan turned his head in surprise to look at Zhu Ke'er, but the girl just raised an eyebrow, with a look of "I knew it all along".

  "Lei Huan! You... you've actually broken through the first layer of Qi Refining, and learned the Flash Thunder Technique. And you still... you still dare to fight me?" Mao Feifei's face turned bright red with rage as he pointed and shouted angrily.

  That agile ghost had its arm chopped off, and now it transformed into a human shape, shivering and curled up beside him. Seeing that it was seriously injured made him even angrier.

  Lei Huan swept his sleeve, putting all the spirit stones on the stage into his sleeve. He looked at him with disdain and smiled: "What do you want to do? Are you willing to admit defeat? You clearly can't compare to me in terms of skill. With so many people watching, are you still going to pretend not to know?"

  He bowed his fist in the direction of his master and said with a straight face, "When I first entered the school, my master solemnly warned me that I must never relax. I just pretended to be flustered and made a small mistake, but you fell for it, who's to blame?"

  Mao Feifei's teeth were clenched in anger, pointing at him with her hand, repeatedly saying "you" "you", but she couldn't refute. In her heart, she was filled with resentment, feeling that Lei Huo was playing tricks on her, and she couldn't swallow this breath.

  At this time, the eyes of the whole audience seemed to be filled with disdain and doubt, looking at him. Mao Feifei's face turned red with anger, and he was about to say "Let's go find our master to reason things out".

  "Ah..."

  Suddenly a mouthful of air came from under his feet, and a hand grasped his calf, slowly crawling up. A round face with a bloody nose appeared in front of him, startling him.

  He rolled his eyes and fell into Mao Feifei's arms, groaning: "Ah, save me... my bones are all broken... save me..."

  Mao Feifei only then remembered that she had fallen heavily onto someone's body, but nothing seemed to have happened to her. However, the person underneath was badly hurt.

  Seeing this person covered in blood and seriously injured, he felt anxious and apologetic, and could no longer afford to argue with Lei Huan. He immediately waved his hand at Lei Huan, "You win!" and carried the injured person away.

  Lei Hao stood on the high platform, recognizing the round-faced youth with a bloody face as Shi Dong, his former fellow apprentice at the tea house in Sui Water City. Seeing him so disheveled and mixed up with Mao Feifei, he couldn't help but feel triumphant, thinking to himself: "These inferior bones will always be inferior bones, even if they cultivate immortality, they're only good enough to serve as a stepping stone for my own direct disciples." He bowed in all directions, then stepped down from the platform with an air of elegance.

  He raised his eyes and saw that Bai Jin on the large stone nodded slightly in approval of him, with everyone's gaze filled with admiration and envy. He felt even more pleased with himself, as if he had seen a smooth path to cultivation from now on.

  He looked towards his beautiful junior sister Zhu Ke'er, hoping to see her eyes filled with little stars, but instead he got so angry that he almost fell over.

  Just then, Shi Dong was carried by Mao Fei and passed by Zhu Ke'er. He touched his own butt and glanced at her sideways, while Zhu Ke'er looked embarrassed and didn't seem to be angry at all.

  "This bastard! He... he's flirting with Little Sister?" Lei Huan felt a surge of anger and was about to chase after him to scold, but Mao Feifei had already dragged him away quickly, while Little Sister and Tan Shidi also dispersed.

  Bai Jin's senior brother led some new disciples to come forward and congratulate him, blocking his way and making it impossible for him to leave. He could only respond with perfunctory courtesy, but in his heart he was extremely displeased.

  Shi Dong crouched on Mao Feifei's thick and sturdy back, his belly almost bursting with laughter.

  It turned out that all of this was his deliberate doing, and he was worried that he couldn't get to know Mao Feifei. Just as he fell from mid-air, he quickly rushed over to pounce on her.

  Afraid of being seen through, he shouted "Ah yo, who kicked me?" and indeed deceived everyone's eyes, including Bai Jin and Lei Huang, who thought he was knocked down by the crowd rushing to escape, without arousing suspicion.

  Until he drilled into Mao Feifei's body, Shi Dong transferred all his strength to both arms. After more than half a year of hard work, his strength was now over 200 jin, which was more than enough to support Mao Feifei.

  But he still pretended to be weak, using his hands to support himself against the force, and then let Mao Fei's thick and sturdy back slam into his nose, causing blood to spurt out immediately. He then pretended to faint, falling to the ground to see how the situation would develop.

  When the two of them became more and more awkward, Mao Feifei had enough of Lei Huan's ridicule. Shi Dong pretended to wake up, hugged Mao Feifei, and made a show of it, with the goal of helping this silly big guy get out of trouble.

  As expected, Mao Feifei didn't care about anything else and first took Shi Dong away. As he passed by Zhu Ke'er's side, he still covered his butt with one hand and looked at her with a pair of small eyes, as if asking: "Little girl, was it you who kicked me?"

  That Zhu Ke'er didn't know that all of this was Shi Dong's trick, and immediately became so ashamed that her face turned bright red, shaking her head repeatedly. Shi Dong, however, was laughing loudly in his heart, feeling that he had fooled the little girl once, and it was also a way to get even.

  ……

  Mao Fei Fei hurriedly carried him back to his cave, gently placing him on the bed. Mao Fei Fei then anxiously felt his pulse and examined him with a worried expression.

  Shi Dong was tickled by him under his arm, so he simply didn't pretend anymore. He turned over and sat up, saying to him: "Mao brother, I'm fine now, don't bother."

  "Huh? You're okay? Really?" Ma Feifei stared at him with a pair of cow-like eyes, dazedly gazing at him for a moment before reaching out to touch his forehead.

  "It's really nothing." Shi Dong blocked his hand, wiped the fresh blood from under his nose, and smiled at Mao Feifei: "Just now I was pretending, I was afraid that if I helped you directly, it would make Second Brother and Lei Huang unhappy."

  Mao Feifei scratched his head, staring with wide eyes, and Zhang Er's monk couldn't figure it out.

  Shi Dong smiled and decided to share with him what he had heard from Tan Shaoxuan, adding his own speculations, and roughly analyzed it for him.

  Mao Feifei clenched his fist and struck his palm, suddenly enraged: "So that's it! No wonder Lei Huan used words to provoke me earlier, saying the Mao family was a bunch of cowards who didn't dare to engage in martial arts with him. It turns out he had such despicable intentions! Damn it, if my brother hadn't saved me, I would have suffered a great loss!"

  Shi Dong smiled slightly, grasped Mao Feifei's large hand, and said with a serious face: "Brother Mao, we are neighbors in Suzhou City. I work as an apprentice in the tea house, you are the young master of the Mao family ironwork shop. We coincidentally arrived at this Demon Gate to cultivate together, how can we not help each other? As for Lei Huan, he is cunning and has high cultivation, and Second Brother supports him. In my opinion, it's better to swallow this anger for now and wait for an opportunity to take revenge later."

  Mao Feifei was deeply moved by his sincere words, and couldn't help but burst out laughing: "Well said! I'll listen to you, brother. But don't call me 'young master', I don't like it. Let's just address each other as brothers!"

  As she spoke, she stared at Shi Dong with wide eyes, sizing him up and down. Seeing that he was much smaller than herself, how could he possibly catch her weight from the high platform without getting hurt?

  Shi Dong saw him looking puzzled and smiled slightly: "Mao brother, is there something you want to ask me?"

  "Hmm! I just can't figure it out, brother, with your build, how did you catch me just now?" Máo Fēifēi's face was full of disbelief, shaking his head, "I'd rather die than believe it!"

  Two men sat on the bed, one was black and sturdy, like an iron tower; the other was of medium build, three tied together could only reach the former, no wonder Mao Fei didn't believe it, even if he changed to Second Master Bai Jin, he might not be able to understand at a glance.

  Shi Dong secretly smiled to himself, knowing that in the past half year he had followed the secret recipe to cultivate and consumed nearly ten bottles of nourishing blood pills and practicing gas pills, his strength greatly increased, believing it was greater than most new disciples.

  He took a glance at Mao Feifei, estimating his weight to be over 180 pounds, and couldn't help but feel a competitive spirit rise up. He wanted to test his strength against Mao's, so he smiled slyly and said: "Brother Mao, don't you believe me?"

  He suddenly crouched forward, his arms wrapped around Mao Fei's waist, and with a burst of strength, the Heart Wheel spun rapidly, drawing in a surge of true energy that produced a tremendous force.

  With a shout, Mao Feifei's massive body was suddenly lifted by him, and he even spun around twice on his shoulder before putting it down.

  Mao Feifei sat down dizzily, and only came to his senses after a while. He stared at Shi Dong with a strange look in his eyes, then suddenly pounced on him, fists flying towards Shi Dong's chest, shouting: "You ambushed me, I don't accept it!"

  Shi Dong had long been prepared and was determined to test his own strength. His heart racing, he didn't dodge or evade, but instead swung out with two fists.