Chapter 42: Entering the Martial Arts Training Squad for the First Time

"Eating? It seems you don't have a girlfriend, then!"

She blinked her long, dark eyelashes, looking at him with a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

"I'm only a freshman, big sister!"

"How about I be your girlfriend?"

"I don't do fake ones."

"A real one is fine too!"

"I don't like older women."

A flash of "murderous intent" crossed her eyes, and the urge to stab him became simply irresistible.

Yet a moment later, a charming expression blossomed on her face. With a teasing smirk, she leaned closer to Zhao Rui and whispered in his ear, "What about someone well-endowed?"

"Cough, cough!"

Zhao Rui's gaze inevitably drifted downward, guided by some mysterious impulse straight to her chest.

Unfortunately, he didn't get to see whether she was well-endowed or not, as two slender fingers like jade scallions thrust directly and without hesitation straight at his eyes.

"Vicious woman!"

Zhao Rui raised his elbow unhurriedly to block, dodging the tips of her fingers.

The woman rolled her eyes at him and spat, "I offer to be your girlfriend and you reject me, but you're quite talented at sneaking peeks."

"I was merely appreciating; don't use such an ugly word as sneaking a peek!"

Zhao Rui said unconcernedly, his figure already striding toward the restaurant exit.

The woman hummed twice and hurried after him to keep up with his pace.

The place they had arrived at was the Third Cafeteria of Dongqi University, known mainly for serving various kinds of light snacks, characterized by a vast and diverse selection.

"What do you want to eat? Order whatever you like!"

"Oh, well then—"

"Nothing over ten bucks! I'm poor!"

The woman secretly clenched her pearly white teeth, wishing she could take a bite or two out of this "little brother" who possessed not a shred of gentlemanly grace.

"I'll pay!"

She said through gritted teeth. She had originally intended to sample the food here; how could she possibly settle for a mere ten-yuan meal?

"Hehe, then consider this my treat as well!"

"You really have no shame!"

After a brief verbal skirmish, amidst the rumbling of their hungry stomachs, they stood up, bought a pile of the cafeteria's signature snacks, and began to eat.

Just as they were eating, the woman's phone rang. She glanced at it, hung up directly, stood up, and said to Zhao Rui, "I'm leaving! You eat!"

With that, she turned and walked straight out.

Zhao Rui was momentarily stunned, and just as he was about to speak, he saw her footsteps pause slightly, her slender waist twisting as the hem of her dress spun a lingering ripple into the twilight.

"If you miss me, send me a message!"

The woman looked back with a light smile, then drifted away as gracefully as she had arrived, her origin unknown, her destination a mystery.

Zhao Rui smiled silently, then lowered his head to continue eating the remaining food on the table.

She was not the only one who came in haste and left in a hurry; in this bustling mortal world, who is not merely passing through?

Having filled his stomach, Zhao Rui left the restaurant and returned to his dormitory under the hazy moonlight.

The scorching weather, the damp and non-breathable military training uniforms, the monotonous formations, and the exhausted bodies merged in early September into the most beautiful scenery of university life.

Fortunately, it was only two weeks; just grit your teeth and it would pass.

As for the military training review performance, it was much the same as in his past life and hardly worth dwelling upon.

With the conclusion of military training, the freshmen officially embarked on their brand-new university lives.

On the morning of the second day after the official start of the semester, Zhao Rui took advantage of a break to find Liu Jie, the counselor who was still drafting documents in her office.

"Teacher Liu, I'm here!"

Knocking on the door, Zhao Rui walked into the office with a smile.

Having spent two weeks together during military training, Liu Jie was already quite familiar with Zhao Rui.

"Mhm, wait a moment. I'll take you as soon as I finish writing this."

Liu Jie nodded and continued to look down at her manuscript. After ten minutes or so, she tidied up her desk, stood up, and picked up a form that had already been printed out and set aside.

"Let's go!"

With those words, Liu Jie took the lead and left the office.

Ten minutes later, in the school's academic affairs office, Liu Jie knocked and walked in with Zhao Rui.

"Director Peng, busy as always!"

Liu Jie greeted him with a light smile.

"Ah, little Liu, what can I do for you?"

Director Peng was stout, with a face as round as a disk and a pair of small eyes half-closed, presenting a picture of prosperity.

"As I mentioned to you before, there is a student in our class who wants to join the martial arts team..."

"Oh, you mean that. Principal Hao mentioned it to me, but you know the rules of our school. Students outside the Martial Arts School are not listed as official team members..."

"We are well aware of that..."

"Well, that's fine then. To be honest, this is already an exception..."

"Sorry to trouble you, Director Peng!"

Seeing that Liu Jie's attitude was good, Director Peng glanced at Zhao Rui standing behind her, nodded his chubby head slightly, and took the application form Liu Jie handed over.

He then placed the form under a machine, and within moments, a large, bright red seal was stamped upon it.

"Train hard! Your teacher didn't run around all those errands for nothing!"

Director Peng handed the stamped form back to Liu Jie and looked at Zhao Rui, speaking quite earnestly.

"Thank you, Teacher Liu, and thank you, Director Peng. I will definitely train hard!"

Zhao Rui hastily expressed his gratitude.

"Then I won't disturb your work any longer, Director Peng!"

A subtle, refined smile appeared on Liu Jie's delicate face, much like a newly bloomed lotus in a pond.

With that, the two turned and left Director Peng's office.

"Thank you, Teacher Liu!"

Once outside the door, Zhao Rui sincerely thanked Liu Jie by his side.

"You're my student, remember? It's settled—you'll be the class monitor!"

Hearing this, Liu Jie burst into a brilliant, mischievous smile.

"Alright, alright. If I don't manage well, don't blame me!"

"Thinking of shirking before you've even started? Who else should I blame if not you? Never mind that for now; take the form and report to the martial arts team. Put on a good show and don't disgrace me!"

"No problem!"

Zhao Rui readily agreed, parted ways with Liu Jie downstairs at the administration building, and walked swiftly toward the martial arts school grounds in the southwest corner of the campus.

The Martial Arts School was a special entity.

Excluded from the school's normal teaching management scope, it possessed an independent operating mechanism and teaching area.

Each cohort admitted only students at or above the Level 5 martial artist level, with an age cutoff of eighteen years old.

Whether you were late by a month or ten days, as long as your grade test fell short of Level 5 before the college entrance examination, you would not be admitted by the Martial Arts School.

It sounded unfeeling, but in the end, it all boiled down to two words: talent.

A martial arts career was a long and enduring process. Some people lacked martial arts talent, yet through bitter cultivation and decades of polishing, they could reach the level of a Level 10 martial artist.

However, unless such people encountered heaven-defying fortune, breaking through to the Grandmaster realm in their lifetime was utterly impossible.

Key universities recruited talented students who showed promise of breaking through to the Grandmaster realm.

Of course, this proportion was not particularly high. While talent was undeniably important, comprehension and opportunity were equally indispensable.

Students would receive systematic education during their undergraduate years, and after four years of tempering, a small fraction of outstanding performers would go on to enroll in graduate programs in relevant majors.

After more than a decade of cultivation, those who stood out among them would basically become powerhouses of the Grandmaster realm.

This was the extent of what Zhao Rui understood; as for the specifics, outsiders who hadn't crossed that threshold simply remained in the dark.

As for the martial arts team, it was akin to a university basketball team in his past life, selecting outstanding students to improve practical combat skills through intensive training and to participate in various competitions.

Most of these students possessed formidable practical combat capabilities and placed greater emphasis on combat and fighting.

Zhao Rui's talent was ordinary. If he had followed the normal procedure, he wouldn't even have passed the first hurdle—the physical fitness test—when applying to Dongqi University's Martial Arts School.

However, none of that mattered. At present, he had only one goal: to enter the martial arts team, absorb all knowledge like rivers converging into the sea, and study the absolute peak cultivation techniques accessible within the system.

The Martial Arts School covered a vast expanse of land, taking up fully half the size of the campus, effectively forming an independent estate right beside Dongqi University.

Aside from a few high-rise buildings, most of the architecture here was of a faux-ancient style, featuring pavilions, terraces, waterside pavilions, and magnificent courtyards. Walking through it felt less like being on a campus and more like wandering through a classical garden.

Zhao Rui had no time for sightseeing. He hurried into one of the high-rise buildings, found the Martial Arts School office according to the floor indicated in the lobby.

When Zhao Rui handed the approval form to a staff member, the person cast a surprised glance at him.

"Our school hasn't seen a student from an external department apply to join the team in many years. Competition on the martial arts team is fierce; you need to mentally prepare yourself!"

Hearing this, Zhao Rui nodded and said, "Thank you, Teacher. I will."

"Alright, go ahead. Go find Teacher Sun at Mingchan Courtyard; he's currently leading the martial arts team."

Nodding in quick acknowledgment, Zhao Rui went downstairs and, following the directional signs along a path full of ancient charm, hurried toward Mingchan Courtyard.

After walking for about ten minutes, the scenery before him suddenly opened up. At the end of the path, a towering, archaic Zen courtyard emerged abruptly.

The courtyard walls were built of red square bricks, while the halls inside were covered with glazed tiles that emitted a golden halo. Square and majestic, no one would ever associate it with campus architecture.

The independence of the Martial Arts School was evident from this alone.

Zhao Rui stepped forward, but before he could raise his hand to knock, the bronze-red gates slowly swung open from both sides.

"Who are you looking for?"

A voice drifted leisurely from a magnificent hall a hundred meters away.

The main hall stood at the end of a bluestone-paved path, with golden bronze bells hanging from its eaves. As a gentle breeze stirred, they emitted crisp, ringing tones.

A white jade Sumeru pedestal supported the grand vermilion hall body, and the coiled dragon pillars in front had their scales dampened by the morning dew, reflecting a faint, dark sheen.

Zhao Rui could not help feeling a secret shock. This level of cultivation was truly terrifying, allowing someone to detect his arrival from a hundred meters away.

Could it be that every teacher in the Martial Arts School was this formidable?

"Teacher, I'm here to report for duty!"

Zhao Rui strained his voice and shouted as loudly as he could, not daring to use inner energy out of respect.

"What are you shouting about? I can't hear you. Come inside the hall!"

Zhao Rui froze. He couldn't hear him?

Filled with utter confusion, he followed the bluestone path and hurried toward the main hall.

Along the way, the lawns on both sides of the bluestone path were lush, flat, and vibrant green.

Beyond the lawns stood dense bamboo forests, where bird songs occasionally echoed, accompanied by the rustle of flapping wings, reverberating through the empty Zen courtyard.

In the distance, several palace-like buildings were faintly visible, half-hidden among the thick woods, obscured and unclear.

"Just how much money must this have cost?"

Zhao Rui had no time to dwell on it. He had already reached the entrance of the main hall, stepped across the threshold, and peered inside.

He saw that the spacious hall was filled with various martial arts training equipment—sabers, spears, staff, swords, sandbags, and wooden posts—yet there were no statues or incense tables to be found anywhere.

"Teacher?"

Scanning the room, Zhao Rui spotted a bald man sitting with one leg crossed in a corner of the hall, looking at him with a lazy expression.

In front of the man was an ordinary office desk holding two computers and various office stationery.

"Are you the freshman who came to report?"

The man looked Zhao Rui up and down and asked, obviously having been informed beforehand.

"Yes, Teacher!"

Zhao Rui stepped forward quickly and handed over the form.

The man took it, read it for a moment, set it back on the desk, and looked at Zhao Rui. "What level are you now?"

"I should have the strength of Level 6!"

Zhao Rui spoke the honest truth. With fifteen years of cultivation, even without top-tier techniques, his strength was definitely no lower than that of a Level 6 martial arts student.

"Oh? Quite diligent, aren't you? What a pity, why didn't you break through sooner?"

The man shook his head, then continued, "What is your primary cultivation technique? When did you start practicing martial arts?"

"My main focus at school has been the Qingyun Palm, and outside school, I've also practiced a martial art called Cloud Hand Plucking Stars..."

Zhao Rui briefly outlined his background.

The man nodded and said, "Not bad, your talent isn't terrible. Since you have aspirations in martial arts, don't let yourself be bound by rigid conventions..."

"My surname is Wang. You can call me Teacher Wang or Coach Wang. Among the freshman cohort, even though you're not from the specialized department, you're the first one to join the martial arts team. Haha, I imagine it'll be quite interesting once the rest of those freshmen arrive!"

Thinking of something amusing, Coach Wang couldn't help laughing.

Not quite understanding, Zhao Rui could only curl his lips into a matching smile.

"When you come tomorrow, bring me a copy of your class schedule, and give me your ID card so I can register your information. Also..."

Coach Wang paused, perhaps finding there were too many things to instruct and growing impatient, so he shouted toward the back of the hall: "Zhang奎! Come out and help your junior brother handle the paperwork!"

As the voice faded, a male student with a crew cut and fine, dark downy stubble on his face stepped out.

"Teacher Wang, it's not even time to recruit team members yet. Where did this junior brother come from?"

The student asked out of curiosity as he walked out.

"Have him tell you!"

Coach Wang pointed at Zhao Rui, then said, "Go with Zhang奎. Come for formal training tomorrow."

"Understood, Teacher!"

Zhao Rui hastily agreed.

Seeing this, though Zhang奎 was surprised, he didn't ask further. Instead, he smiled at Zhao Rui and said, "Let's go, Junior Brother!"

With that, he took the lead and walked out through the rear of the main hall.

Zhao Rui hurried to keep up.

Once they passed out of the back door of the main hall, the outdoor scenery offered yet another unique vista. Outside lay crisscrossing streams, spanned by light bamboo bridges and covered corridors, with clouds and mist lingering amidst rising water vapor.

"Which department is Junior Brother from?"

As the two stepped into the covered corridor, Zhang奎 asked.

"I'm from the Accounting Department!"

"Accounting?"

Zhang奎 was taken aback. After hearing Zhao Rui's explanation, he said with sudden realization, "No wonder you joined the team at this time. Haha. Actually, the freshmen of the Martial Arts School don't join our martial arts team until the next semester!"

"Still, you're a special case. Without regular teaching classes, coming early to train with Coach Wang has its benefits."