Chapter 16

“At 6:50 p.m., Chen Cong came in. He stood on the rostrum as motionless as a mountain.”

“At 7 p.m., people started to gather. They were murmuring, hoping to see a good fight.”

“At 7:10 p.m., members of the Martial Arts Association arrived. A big crowd of onlookers began to kick up a fuss, yelling that those members should go onto the stage. Some who could not bear the taunting got up and intended to challenge Chen Cong. Chen Cong told them they were not capable of winning. Those from the Martial Arts Association threatened that they would beat him to death if he kept saying that (The dialogue was my own deduction). Then, they started the fight. Chen Cong defeated all the opponents simply with one move, putting every onlooker in shock.”

“At 7:20 p.m., which was the agreed time for the real challenge, no one turned up. Everyone was extremely disappointed. Suddenly, someone pointed at the roof of the high rostrum and cried out in alarm. Others looked in that direction only to see a man sitting on the top beam, quite at ease. All the people were startled. No one of the stage knew when and how he got up there.”

“The man was wearing the military training uniform and a black gauze mask, who seemed quite mysterious. He jumped off from the place that was eight or nine meters high and landed without a sound. (Don’t ask me why he landed with no sound. It is the fact…)”

“The rest was just as what the video shows. But in case you are ignorant of the cause and effect of the video, I’ll narrate the story anyway.”

“The first strike the man launched astounded all the people. Next, the man claimed that he was freaking handsome and did not want to show people his face (As far as I’m concerned, he must be an ugly guy. Don’t ask me why. There is no ‘why’, because in my eyes anyone who is powerful than me just looks—ugly!).”

“The crowd cried, trying to persuade him to reveal his face. He agreed. But I have to say that the onlookers are too naive. When he took off the mask, there was another one underneath. And the second mask bore a pattern of a wicked smile (How inhumane the man was!)”

“After playing with the onlookers, the real fight started. Swoosh—(it was really that fast!), everything ended. Chen Cong was thrown over twenty meters away, hanging on the wall. Everyone was stupified, wondering what just happened.”

“Chen Cong invited him to do a second round and struck again. Swoosh—(that fast as well!), it ended. He was once again hanging on the wall. Onlookers went petrified again!”

“The mysterious man then said to Cheng Cong that cultivation was up to the person himself, and he would see him around. Next, he flew over the eaves and ran on the wall, shuttled among the trees and disappeared, leaving a crowd of onlookers in astonishment. He truly defeated his opponent with only one move, traveled thousands of miles but left no trace. He acts like a martial arts expert, and I behold him with awe.”

“The above is all I’ve seen with my own eyes. There is a video as testimony. Being a professional onlooker, I attest to the authenticity of it.”

When such a reply came out, comments under the post surged up again.

Countless witnesses replied below it.

“I’m onlooker A. I prove that the video content is absolutely real!”

“I’m onlooker B. I prove that the video content is absolutely real!”

“I’m onlooker C. I prove that the video content is absolutely real!”

“The Taobao link for the smiling mask, https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.110.el06VK&id=522920798324&ns=1&abbucket=19#detail The same as the mysterious man’s, you deserve to have one!”

“Many thanks for the link above! Everyone, line up!”

Those who originally wanted to confirm the authenticity of the video quickly started to digress.

“I’m onlooker D. I’m an upright man since childhood. I was able to eat by myself since I was three. At five, I helped an old lady cross the streets. As I grew up, I did numerous good deeds. I’m born with a unique physique and I am especially talented. Now, I prepare to learn martial arts in order to guard my country and maintain social justice. The mysterious man, please be my teacher!”

“Begging for the amazing expert’s contact information. Begging for his true identity. Please inform me. Any informant will be rewarded!”

“In fact, I’ve been keeping a secret from all of you—I am the mysterious man!”

“Hello, the upper comment! You go away!”

“I have a secret as well. I’m from the Vegeta planet. I’m Super Saiyan 100. I’m here to rescue you guys, stupid earthmen!”

“Get out, the former comment. If so, I’m a boy from primitive times!”

Among all the bickerings, some busybody deduced certain information about the mysterious man from the video.

“A freshman, male, height is between 178cm and 183cm. Other kinds of information are unknown!”

The post even called on all the students to look for the mysterious man.

But the searching scope was too wide. There were over 6,000 freshmen. Among them, the number who met those criteria would not be less than 800, if not 1,000.

To find the mysterious man among so many people was actually like searching a needle in the ocean.

But the more mysterious he was, the more curious others became.

In a blink of an eye, the comments under the post reached 700.

It renewed the record of the largest quantity of comments under one post on the campus BBS of the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine after the record had already reached 400, 500, and 600 in a row.

And in this way, it seemed that the new record would continue to be renewed.

Anyway, the mysterious man became famous. Almost every student of the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine now knew that there was a super brilliant expert among the freshmen of their university.

An expert who could fly over eaves and run on walls!

The mysterious man was so popular now that he appeared on the campus celebrities ranking list.

On the freshmen column, the mysterious man rapidly ranked top.

Top one, the mysterious man (martial arts expert) index 40879

His popular index exceeded that of the newly acknowledged campus belle Jiang Miaoyu, the second place, nearly by ten thousand points. From that, you could tell how popular the mysterious man was.

It looked like all the people in the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine experienced an outburst of passion for this event.

As you can imagine, in normal days those students in their puberty had nothing to do but study. Now, there was something to vent their energy. How could they not take the opportunity and do their best to add trouble!

Comments were still piling up.

Higher and higher!

The BBS became increasingly astir as well.

The number of people online in real time already surpassed 5,000, which was also the first time that the BBS had such a large number of users online at the same time.

It should be noted that the number of students of the whole University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine amounted to less than 30,000.

Thus, the percentage of online users were actually quite nature-defiant!

After the self-study at night, Jiang Miaoyu held the books in her arms and went back to her dormitory.

Just when she walked through the door, she heard a roommate yelling. “Miaoyu, come here and look, there is a mysterious man on our campus! And he is in our grade!”

“A mysterious man?”

Jiang Miaoyu put the books down onto her desk, and asked with an insuppressible smile, “Lin, are you acting like an anthomaniac again?“

“This time it’s really about a mysterious man. Quick, have a look!”

Her roommate Cheng Lin got to her feet in excitement. She simply dragged Jiang Miaoyu to her computer and quickly clicked open the video.

“Look!”

As the video continued, expressions on Jiang Miaoyu’s pretty face turned from plain to being stunned. Then, she looked at her roommate and asked, “Could this truly happen?”

“It truly happened!”

Cheng Lin said quite positively, “Look at the comments below. It is what really happened at our university this afternoon! Hey, Miaoyu, do you think whether this mysterious man looks good?”

“You are doing the anthomaniac thing again!”

Jiang Miaoyu grabbed the mouse and scrolled down the screen. Surely, she saw others had the same doubt as she did. But she also saw that many had testified that the video content was true.

“Could someone really fly over eaves and run on walls like those characters on martial arts TV dramas?”

“Who on earth is this guy?”

She could not help but become curious.

Meanwhile, she also thought of the bottle of water she saw that morning.

“Seems that Fang Qiu is also a man with loads of secrets.”

After handing the computer back to her roommate, Jiang Miaoyu prepared to brush her teeth before turning in. When she was about to take off the trousers of the military training uniform, she touched something in her pocket and suddenly stopped dead.

Taking it out, a letter quietly lay in her hands.

Jiang Miaoyu was dumbstruck.

…

At this moment, the culprit who spurred the curiosity and worship of countless people of the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine was reading in a classroom.

After leaving the sports ground, Fang Qiu took off the mask and went straight to the classroom to read. The bustle outside was none of his business.

At ten o’clock in the evening, Fang Qiu carried his schoolbag back to his dormitory.

Before he could step in, he heard the voice of Sun Hao, the third oldest, saying, “I’m going to buy the same mask as the mysterious man’s. Who wants it, too?”

“I want! I want!”

The moment Fang Qiu pushed the door open, he saw that Zhou Xiaotian, the fourth oldest, was holding his hand up in the air and shouted with enthusiasm.

Seeing Fang Qiu was back, Zhou Xiaotian hurriedly put on a pity face and said braggingly, “The youngest, you suffered a great loss today for not going to watch Chen Cong’s contest! You missed such a fantastic event. Seems that you’re not in luck!”

“What’s up?”

Fang Qiu placed his schoolbag onto the desk under his upper berth and asked so with a beam.

“‘What’s up?’ I’ll let you know what ‘regretful’ means!”

Zhou Xiaotian tugged Fang Qiu over to his computer and played the video.

After watching the video, Fang Qiu was surprised that somebody actually put it on the internet.

When the video was over, he immediately looked through the comments below, feeling a bit light-headed.

“This has developed into a big affair!”

He turned his head only to see the bright piercing eyes of the fourth oldest were fixing on him. He hurriedly displayed a jealous and regretful look and said, “Oh, I missed it! Really missed it! If I’d know it would be so fantastic, I would go there no matter what!”

“Hahaha, enjoy your regret! You deserve it!”

At the remorse on Fang Qiu’s face, Zhou Xiaotian felt rather self-contented and pleased.

“The youngest, do you want to buy the same mask the mysterious man wore?”

Asked Sun Hao, whose eyes were still sticking on the screen.

“What do I need the mask for?” asked Fang Qiu in bewilderment.

“Pretend to be that guy!”

With a longing expression on his face, Sun Hao said, “Don’t you think it looks really cool wearing the mask? If everyone mistakes me as the mysterious man, it will even greater! Haha, I’m already seeing beautiful and rich girls waving at me! Hey, hey…”

Fang Qiu glanced him in resignation and said, “Don’t you worry someone will attack you from behind?”

“Why should I worry about that? Don’t I have you guys? We can all put on the mask and line up. Then, I shall see which one they dare to attack!”

Sun Hao was not concerned at all. Moreover, he even had a wilder ambition—”When I find the real mysterious man, I will let him be my teacher!“

“Be your teacher?”

Fang Qiu asked while laughing, “What do you want to do after mastering the martial arts? Save a beauty?”

“You merely have such low standard pursuits!”

Sun Hao threw Fang Qiu a disdainful look, and then said, “I’ll be chivalric, praising virtue and punishing vice.”

Fang Qiu did not expect the third oldest to have such a noble ambition, but he still dampened the spirit by reminding him. “Now it is illegal to pick up a fight, and you might have to pay the hospital treatment expenses.”

“I’ll wear a mask. No one will know who I am. I shall flee when I’m done with the noble mission. Well, when I can fly over eaves and run on walls, I shall see who can catch me!”

The third oldest was already immersed in his fantasy, drooling stupidly.

“Being chivalric and praising virtue and punishing vice while wearing a mask?”

Fang Qiu’s eyes suddenly gleamed.

“Do you want to buy one or not?”

Sun Hao urged him.

“Yes, I’ll buy a dozen!”

Answered Fang Qiu hastily.

“Good, the youngest. Never expected that under your innocent appearance hides a rather passionate heart!”

Said Sun Hao, smirking wickedly.

Fang Qiu gave a smile, did not make any retort.

“It’s a pretty good idea to wear a mask and do good deeds.”

Now that many students started to wear the same mask, when he went out wearing the mask to praise virtue and punish vice, no one would find out it was him.

It was actually a protection of his identity.

“Nice!”

Fang Qiu laughed. Then, he tidied up his desk and opened his computer to check the delivery information of the horsetail whisk and copper coins he ordered yesterday.

The seller just sent them out. Thus, it seemed that he had to wait for a few days before starting the training for Conscious Realm of bonesetting.

As the night fell, everyone went to bed.

At three o’clock in the morning, Fang Qiu got up in time again.

He put on his clothes, flew down the stairs, and arrived at the Yaowang Mountain, where he saw Chen Cong practicing Kung Fu.

Fang Qiu gave a smile and left quietly.

He heard Chen Cong’s last shout yesterday, but he reckoned he had displayed as much as he should and the rest was up to Chen Cong’s ability of understanding. He could help him with nothing else.

That was only one of the two reasons that he chose not to let himself be seen.

The other one was that Chen Cong was not the only one in the woods of the Yaowang Mountain.

He detected several others there, including a martial arts practitioner who had mastered the internal force.

He knew those people were waiting for him.

But what others thought or wanted had nothing to do with him.

He went straight to Central Lake and continued to practice.

At ten to seven in the morning, Fang Qiu and his three roommates finished breakfast and strolled out of their dormitory heading for the military training grounds.

Today was the last day of their military training.

On their way, everyone looked quite light-hearted.

The ten-day long devilish military training was finally about to end.

They already began to imagine the beautiful college life ahead—self-study rooms, library, female classmates, and unexpected encounters, haw-haw…

But Fang Qiu did not feel the same way. For him, the whole military training was pretty easy.

If someone had practiced the punching moves two hundred times a day for seven months consecutively, he would not find the military training exhausting, either.

The second Fang Qiu arrived at the military training area of Class Three, he heard someone calling him.

“Fang Qiu!”

Looking up, he saw Liu Feifei was scurrying towards him.

“Senior, what’s up?”

“Good news! Our university will hold the Start-of-Term Ceremony on next Saturday. Given the performance of Jiang Miaoyu and you the day before yesterday, the program group of our university wants to invite you two to take part in the shows of the Start-of-Term Ceremony! What do you say? It’s a chance to show your face and make a name. You’ll be able to perform along with the campus belle. Pretty nice, huh?”

Said Liu Feifei with a smile.