“Ah, Brother Zhao, what you said is not right. A martial arts competition is all about relying on one’s own abilities; life and death are fated, and wealth and nobility are determined by heaven. If we were to follow your suggestion of a gentle spar, then what would be the point? A martial arts competition is meant to be fought with all one’s strength to truly see the difference between victory and defeat. Since we are going all out, there is bound to be a chance of injury. In a competition, there will definitely be one side that suffers injuries or even death. How about this: to avoid unnecessary troubles in the future, the three of you can establish a life-and-death contract here. If one side is unfortunate enough to be injured or die during the competition, the relatives and friends of the injured or deceased party shall not seek trouble with the other party. What do you think?”
After finishing, the big bearded man looked at Meng Xiaoyu, Wang Mazi, and Li Tianlu.
“I have no objections,” Li Tianlu and Wang Mazi said in unison, their eyes lighting up at the big bearded man’s words.
However, upon hearing the big bearded man’s proposal, Meng Xiaoyu was fuming inside, “You big bearded idiot, who said a martial arts competition can’t be done gently? A true expert can absolutely control their strength and stop at the right moment! You clearly want those two lecherous men to beat me up badly and then not allow Sister Rubing and Sister Rushuang to take revenge for me afterward! And what’s with this life-and-death contract? Pfft! Do you really think I’m easy to bully? You want to establish a life-and-death contract, huh? Fine! I’ll agree to this life-and-death contract, and I swear if I don’t make those two lecherous men suffer today, I won’t share your surname!”
Meng Xiaoyu thought angrily, then spoke up, “No problem.”
Now, why did Meng Xiaoyu agree so readily?
There were two reasons.
First, she was infuriated by these people; ever since they found out she was the stinky old man’s disciple, they had started targeting her.
Second, Meng Xiaoyu had been pressed down by Han Rubing and her sister for the past few days, and during those two or three days, she unintentionally learned a special skill.
It was called special because it seemed no one in this world had ever used it before.
Moreover, she found that this skill was very similar to the Six Meridians Divine Sword from Grandpa Jin’s novels; no, it should be said that it was exactly the Six Meridians Divine Sword.
In fact, after being pressed down by Han Rubing and her sister for an entire night, Meng Xiaoyu slept through the whole day.
When she finally woke up, it was completely dark outside.
Han Rubing and her sister had vanished without a trace.
As Meng Xiaoyu stretched her sore body and struggled to sit up, it felt as if her body was not her own.
After several unsuccessful attempts, she finally gave up.
“Wuwuwu, damn it, Sister Rubing, Sister Rushuang, I begged so much last night, yet you still wouldn’t let me go, leaving me unable to even get out of bed now. And now you’re both gone, leaving me all alone in this room. Do you think I won’t be scared? You two big bullies!”
Lying on the bed, Meng Xiaoyu complained to herself about Han Rubing and her sister, rubbing her belly and muttering, “I’m so hungry! Sister Rubing, Sister Rushuang, where are you? I’m so hungry…”
Just as Meng Xiaoyu lamented her hunger and the absence of Han Rubing and her sister, she heard the creaking sound of the door opening.
She initially thought it was Han Rubing and her sister returning, but when Meng Xiaoyu turned her head, she saw a face with two scars and a deadpan expression.
“Deadpan face? How could it be you? Where are Sister Rubing and Sister Rushuang?”
Seeing that the person before her was not one of Han Rubing’s sisters but Ye Han, who always wore dark clothes and had a deadpan face, Meng Xiaoyu couldn’t help but ask in confusion.
“The Grand Palace Master and the Second Palace Master have some matters to attend to, so they left for the time being. I was instructed by the Grand Palace Master to bring you dinner when you wake up,” came the flat-toned response to Meng Xiaoyu’s question.
“Oh! I see! Thank you,” Meng Xiaoyu said, flashing a sweet smile at Ye Han.
“You’re welcome.”
After saying that, Ye Han hesitated for a moment and added, “Do you need me to help you sit up? You seem to be having a hard time.”
The emotionless tone delivered words that made Meng Xiaoyu feel extremely embarrassed.
Hearing Ye Han’s words, Meng Xiaoyu’s face instantly turned bright red.
“It’s all Sister Rubing and Sister Rushuang’s fault! If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be struggling to sit up!”
After complaining about Han Rubing and her sister in her heart, she softly hummed in agreement and, with Ye Han’s help, managed to sit up.
After finishing dinner with Ye Han’s assistance, Meng Xiaoyu’s mood improved, and she thanked Ye Han again.
Ye Han said nothing, simply tidying up the dishes that Meng Xiaoyu had used.
Then, as she was about to leave the room with the dishes, Ye Han suddenly turned back and walked into the inner room where Meng Xiaoyu was.
Still expressionless, she said, “Miss Meng, actually, you can use your internal energy to eliminate the bruises on your body.”
After saying this, Ye Han glanced at Meng Xiaoyu’s neck, which was exposed and had several red bruises.
Initially puzzled as to why Ye Han had returned to say something Meng Xiaoyu didn’t understand, Meng Xiaoyu suddenly realized what was happening when she saw Ye Han looking at her neck.
In a flash, she quickly lay back under the covers, wrapping herself up tightly before blushing and saying, “I understand! You should go back to sleep now! It’s already very late.”
After quickly saying this, Meng Xiaoyu buried her head under the blanket, thinking, “I can’t face anyone now; I can’t believe I was seen! It’s so embarrassing!”
Watching Meng Xiaoyu wrap herself in the blanket, Ye Han, who had never shown any expression before, surprisingly broke into a beautiful smile before turning and striding out of the room.
Hiding under the blanket, Meng Xiaoyu guessed that Ye Han had probably left when she heard the sound of the door closing.
She cautiously poked her head out from under the blanket, looking around to confirm that no one was in the room before finally relaxing.
Once she relaxed, Meng Xiaoyu scolded Han Rubing and her sister again in her heart, then recalled Ye Han’s words.
“Can internal energy really eliminate these bruises?”
she muttered to herself, as if asking someone.
Pulling open her clothing, she looked down at her body covered in red marks.
Meng Xiaoyu seemed to have made a decision, saying, “Forget it, I’ll just try it.”
She then lay back on the bed, concentrating on recalling the method of using internal energy that the stinky old man had taught her.
Slowly, she began to channel her internal energy, but after several attempts, she still couldn’t feel the warm sensation in her dantian that the stinky old man and Han Rubing’s sisters had mentioned.
Instead, she felt a very comfortable sensation in her meridians, and the soreness in her body was not as unbearable as before.
“Strange, why does it feel different from what the stinky old man and Rubing and Rushuang said? Why can’t I feel that warm sensation in my dantian? Instead, I feel a warm sensation in my meridians. What’s going on? Did I use the wrong method?”
Thinking of this, Meng Xiaoyu tried to repeat the method the stinky old man had taught her, but it still felt the same as before.
She began to doubt, “Why is there still no feeling like they described? Did I use the wrong method and go astray?”
This thought made Meng Xiaoyu a bit scared, but then she thought, “No, wait! Doesn’t the book say that those who go astray lose their minds? But I’m still very clear-headed! It can’t be that I’ve gone astray; it must be because today is the first time I’m using internal energy, and I’m not familiar with it. If I practice a few more times, I’m sure I’ll feel that warm sensation in my dantian like Rubing and the others said.”
With this thought, Meng Xiaoyu closed her eyes again and focused on channeling her internal energy.
Then she discovered something interesting: even with her eyes closed, it seemed she could see a thin, transparent liquid flowing slowly through her meridians.
After an unknown amount of time, Meng Xiaoyu noticed that the thin, transparent liquid had thickened significantly after flowing through most of her meridians, and she could clearly feel that the soreness in her body had completely disappeared.
This discovery excited Meng Xiaoyu.
“So this is what they call internal energy? It’s really fun!”
Watching the transparent liquid slowly flow through her meridians, Meng Xiaoyu had an interesting idea.
“Now that this transparent liquid is flowing slowly through my meridians and has thickened a bit, what if I speed it up? Will it become even thicker?”
With this thought, Meng Xiaoyu concentrated and urged the transparent liquid in her meridians to flow faster.
Sure enough, after nearly an hour, she noticed that the transparent liquid had indeed thickened a lot.
Excited by this discovery, she felt like a playful child who had found a very fun game.
She began to concentrate harder, urging the now much thicker transparent liquid to accelerate, until nearly another hour had passed, and Meng Xiaoyu finally realized something was wrong.
She found that she could no longer control the increasingly fast-moving transparent liquid.
Unable to control the speed of the transparent liquid, she could only watch as it thickened and sped up, racing through her meridians.
In less than half an hour, Meng Xiaoyu noticed that the once thin transparent liquid had become almost thicker than her meridians.
This realization made her feel a sense of danger because if the liquid became thicker than her meridians, she would surely die from a ruptured meridian.
Just as this thought crossed her mind, she felt a sudden, intense pain engulf her body.
“It hurts so much!”
The sudden pain made her curl up, beads of sweat pouring down her forehead.
The uncontrollable internal energy was rampaging through her meridians, trying to find a way out.
“Wuwuwu, it hurts so much! What should I do?”
At this moment, in excruciating pain, Meng Xiaoyu could only think about how to alleviate her suffering.
She concentrated hard, trying to control the internal energy that was rampaging inside her, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t manage to control it.
As the pain intensified, Meng Xiaoyu had no way to relieve her suffering.
Just when she thought she was going to die from the pain, she noticed that the internal energy that had been rampaging inside her had somehow split into several streams, rushing toward her various meridians, with one stream heading toward her right arm, bringing with it unbearable pain.
Meng Xiaoyu was puzzled as to why the pain throughout her body was so intense while she could still maintain such clarity of mind.
As the stream of internal energy crashed into her right arm, Meng Xiaoyu noticed blood seeping from between her fingers.
The blood dripped more and more, and then she saw a phenomenon that made her ecstatic: she discovered that as the blood flowed more from her fingers, a surge of energy shot out from the tips of her right index and middle fingers.
With this surge of energy, she felt the pain in her right arm lessen significantly.
This discovery gave Meng Xiaoyu hope, so she concentrated again, but this time not to control the chaotic internal energy but to slowly guide it to her right arm’s meridians and try to release it from her fingertips.
Perhaps because she had successfully released it once before, Meng Xiaoyu was amazed to find that the blood that had been dripping from her fingernails had stopped, and the pain had also disappeared.
So when Meng Xiaoyu released the internal energy from her fingertips again, she was very happy because this way, she wouldn’t die from a ruptured meridian due to excess internal energy.
Finally, after nearly another half hour, Meng Xiaoyu managed to release the excess and uncontrollable internal energy from her body through the tips of her right index and middle fingers.
“Ah… finally released the excess internal energy, and the pain is gone! I won’t die, how wonderful!”
After sighing this, she fell into a deep sleep, utterly exhausted.
Due to Meng Xiaoyu’s slumber, she had yet to notice the room that had been left in tatters from her chaotic energy.
