Realm-Hopping Martial Master
Chapter 75 - 74: Heading to Shengjing, competition rules

Chapter 75: Chapter 74: Heading to Shengjing, competition rules

It was late September.

The sun blazed like fire.

Shengjing Airport.

A plane slowly landed.

"Jiang Shu, what’s wrong with you?" Shou Junming, who had been closing his eyes and enjoying music, took off his headphones. He turned to look at Jiang Shu beside him and was startled.

At that moment, Jiang Shu was covered in sweat.

One hand was firmly pressed against the airplane window.

His whole body stood in a peculiar martial arts stance; his usually steady breathing had become erratic several times.

"It’s nothing..." Jiang Shu said, shaking his head. Seeing the stable ground outside, he let out a long sigh of relief.

He hadn’t expected that in this life, being on an airplane would elicit such a strong reaction from him.

This wasn’t airsickness!

An uncontrollable sense of insecurity gripped his heart tightly!

This feeling... it was too uncomfortable!

No wonder Teacher Xie Feichen chose to drive and didn’t take the plane with them.

In his previous life, he had been an orphan. After struggling for a few years, he had some savings, but he never had the time to travel and had never flown on a plane in his lifetime.

But he hadn’t expected that his first time flying would affect him like this! NovelFire

It seemed that the only suitable modes of travel for him were by car or high-speed rail.

On the ground, no matter how fast, he would have enough time to break a window and leap out!

He could always save his own life!

Jiang Shu’s clothes were soaked with sweat. He took a couple of deep breaths and followed the crowd off the plane.

He boarded the pre-arranged bus.

"Just now... did you get airsick?" Sitting next to Jiang Shu, Shou Junming, not listening to music this time, asked with concern.

"No. It might be because I feel flying is too unsafe."

As soon as Jiang Shu finished speaking, Shou Junming rubbed the back of his head, his face taking on an expression as foolish as Patrick Star’s.

He felt he couldn’t quite understand Jiang Shu’s line of thinking.

What’s so unsafe about planes?

Such a long distance... if not by plane, are we supposed to take the high-speed rail then?

"I didn’t expect that you, Jiang Shu, had already reached this level of understanding."

From the back seat, Yang Kai, who had heard the conversation, spoke with a complicated expression, sighing, "I used to hear the elders in my family say, ’Before the autumn breeze stirs, the cicadas sense it first.’ Once Martial Artists train their Martial Arts and their spirit to a high level, they become like this too. But this realm is truly difficult to achieve. Therefore, to avoid various unforeseen dangers, Martial Artists do not stand beneath unstable walls."

"After I became a Martial Artist, my parents bought me a unit in a low-rise building, saying I shouldn’t live in high-rises anymore and that it’s best to stay grounded. If you look at where our school’s teachers live, they are mostly on the first or second floors."

"Furthermore, if you observed closely, you’d see that Teacher Xie’s car is nothing like his rigid and low-profile personality."

"His car is an extremely cool convertible sports car!"

"The reason is simple. In a crisis, he could jump straight out of the car!"

Yang Kai clearly came from a family with deep martial arts knowledge; he knew more about such matters than some of the common students.

He had heard this rationale countless times from his parents.

But he had never cared.

Now, Jiang Shu, who was also in the Bright Strength Realm, had realized this on his own.

Could this be the mark of a natural martial arts practitioner?

"So that’s how it is."

Jiang Shu nodded silently.

Cars and housing were perpetual concerns in Xia Country.

After becoming a Martial Artist, he had considered buying a car and a house for his family, but he just hadn’t decided what kind to get.

Now it seemed there really weren’t many suitable options.

"We can’t possibly train in Martial Arts and be worse off than ordinary people, right? Can’t live in tall buildings, can’t fly on planes," a classmate beside them complained feebly.

"That’s why, in the competition, we’re just also-rans." Yang Kai spread his hands, his face filled with helplessness.

For a moment, the entire bus was somewhat silent.

The dozen or so students on the bus were all the pride of their respective cities.

At the age of eighteen, having trained in Martial Arts for less than a year, they had all become Bright Strength Martial Artists.

Even at the academy, they were individuals who were highly praised wherever they went.

But at this moment, everyone knew that as they sat on this bus heading to the competition, they were, in truth, just serving as background props.

The real stars were the thirty-six geniuses on the Rookie List!

The atmosphere inside the bus grew heavy. Only the rising and falling breaths of the dozen or so students could be heard.

"You guys are just thinking too much." The ever-carefree Shou Junming smacked his lips, pulled a bag of chips from his backpack, stuffed some into his mouth, and mumbled indistinctly, "Just look out the window."

He suddenly opened the window.

Outside, it was noisy and festive.

The large trees lining the roads were decorated with red ribbons.

Various businesses were organizing activities, capitalizing on the popularity of the university Martial Arts tournament.

On the large 3D screens of shopping malls, the names and information of participating students scrolled continuously.

Below the screens, crowds of people jostled shoulder to shoulder.

Countless tourists raised their cell phones, snapping pictures.

Every now and then, cheers would erupt.

"See! So many people in Shengjing! Among the tourists, there might be those from your cities who have traveled miles to watch you compete! Why so discouraged? What’s there to fear about being an also-ran! At our Jiangnan Academy, how many new martial arts students wish they even had the chance to be also-rans like us!"

"Being able to be an also-ran is a symbol of strength itself! Just like years ago, our Xia Country’s Su Shen, starting in the hundred-meter sprint final! Even if he didn’t win a medal, just by standing on that track, he was a god!"

"Isn’t it normal not to surpass those on the Rookie List? Talent aside, those guys entered the Bright Strength Realm months before I did, and they’ve trained longer. Under these circumstances, if I can even trade a few blows with them, that’d be something to be proud of."

"Besides, when it comes to rankings, I only reached the Bright Strength Realm and was certified as a Martial Artist just a few days ago. I’ll be holding up the bottom, so what do you guys have to fear!"

"Right, Jiang Shu?" Shou Junming looked up at Jiang Shu and grinned smugly. Anyway, he’d long since resigned himself to just joining the competition for fun.

Life is short, just a hundred years. Why live so exhaustingly?

Becoming a Martial Artist, free from worries about food and clothing, is already great.

"Whether you’re strong or not, you’ll only know once you’ve fought."

"This world is never short of examples of a carp leaping over the dragon gate."

"A year ago, none of us had even encountered Martial Arts. Who would have thought we’d be students at Jiangnan Academy today? A year ago, I was just an ordinary student from the worst high school in a small, second-tier city," Jiang Shu responded, sharing his own story, which immediately resonated with many classmates.

If we could have entered Jiangnan Academy based on our academic merits, why would we have taken the risky path of practicing Martial Arts?

"Since we’ve all changed our fate once through Martial Arts,"

"why not keep going?"

Jiang Shu’s voice was not loud, but it was deafening.

The dozen or so students all looked up, gazing through the bus windows at this city they had never visited before.

A city about to host all the top university Martial Arts geniuses from across Xia Country.

Shengjing.

On the congested road, the bus moved at a steady pace.

Finally, after another ten minutes or so, it slowly came to a stop.

Xie Feichen stood at the hotel entrance, his posture as straight as a javelin.

He had clearly been waiting for some time.

"A total of 221 people have registered for this year’s University Martial Arts Genius Tournament."

"The tournament will be broadcast live across the entire network."

"The entire stadium will be divided into ten fighting rings. Participants will draw lots to determine their ring number and their competition batch."

Without waiting for the students to disembark, he spoke succinctly:

"Rest well. In three days, I hope to see more than half of you achieve respectable rankings."