Deep into the night, Jiang Xinyu finally had her driver pick her up, taking Xie Sisi ho as well.
The next day, Saturday, not only did Xie Sisi arrive, but Jiang Xinyu and even Xu Xiangwen and Gong Feiyu showed up.
"Lanzi, you’re not being fair," Gong Feiyu slung an arm around Wang Lan’s shoulder. "With such a great training thod, how could you secretly help only Monitor Xie? Don’t you consider us brothers?"
"That’s a classic case of forgetting your bros when a girl’s around! When Lanzi first awakened, how did we support you? Three Kings and one Silver leading you, a Bronze. Now look at you! You’ve got this amazing training thod, but you only care for the girls, without a single thought for us."
"Are you sure it was three Kings leading a Bronze?" Wang Lan glanced at Xu Xiangwen with disdain. "Besides, do you think this training thod is all benefits and no drawbacks?"
"What drawbacks? That we’d hate you if you hit us too hard? You’re overthinking it. Given our bond as brothers, even if you broke my third leg, I would... just need you to fix it."
"What are you thinking? Do you imagine I have unlimited healing power? Healing one person is easy; two is pushing it. But now there are four of you, mind you. I just don’t have enough healing energy."
This was indeed a very real problem. Wang Lan’s healing abilities consud three tis more Star Power when healing others compared to himself. As for Star Power recovery, replenishing the energy for a single healing session took at least an hour.
Caring for Xie Sisi these past few days had been manageable. Yesterday, however, attending to both Xie Sisi and Jiang Xinyu had already proven strenuous. This ti, with four people, Wang Lan felt he might be drained completely dry.
Soul Beads could be purchased to replenish Star Power, but outside, a single bead cost 80,000—not sothing many could afford. Within the trial grounds, Soul Beads could be used freely, but in the outside world, only the wealthiest tycoons could manage such an expense.
"It’s not a big deal!" Jiang Xinyu walked over casually, tossing a cloth bag in front of Wang Lan. "There are ten Soul Beads inside. That should be enough, right?"
"Damn, Xinyu, you’re still the most lavish one here. I only brought three," Xu Xiangwen imdiately exclaid, giving a thumbs-up.
"I brought three as well," Gong Feiyu rubbed his wrists. "Who am I fighting?"
"Of course it’s Xu. Could it be ?" Wang Lan stated as if it were obvious.
"I’ll spar with Sisi today," Jiang Xinyu inford Wang Lan, her tone leaving no room for discussion, her decision firm.
"Hold on, Xinyu, are you talking about actual combat sparring? With Monitor Xie?" Xu Xiangwen suddenly cried out.
"Yeah, what about it? Do you still think Sisi is weak? Want to try? I guarantee you’ll be beaten so badly you won’t know what’s real."
"Is it really that exaggerated?" Although Xu Xiangwen voiced doubt, his expression suggested he believed her. Jiang Xinyu rarely joked; her words were usually serious.
"You guys should start with bare hands to warm up."
Xu Xiangwen and Gong Feiyu sat down below the platform, ready to watch. The two won on stage, dressed in tight short-sleeved shirts and hot pants, were a dazzling sight simply standing there.
Wang Lan, acting as referee, idly tossed a coin between his fingers.
With a light flick, he sent it spinning into the air.
DING—
The mont the coin hit the ground, the two figures on stage instantly blurred and clashed.
Jiang Xinyu’s fighting style was agile and versatile, a blend of technique and aesthetic grace. Xie Sisi’s combat skills, in contrast, were simple and direct. If Jiang Xinyu was a practitioner of a graceful, soft fist, then Xie Sisi wielded an explosive, steel fist.
But regardless of their stylistic differences, both moved with lightning speed.
From the first exchange, it was an all-out, ferocious battle.
Watching from the sidelines, Xu Xiangwen’s face froze, his eyes wide in a stare that petrified him for a good half-minute.
Wang Lan walked over to Xu Xiangwen and patted his shoulder. "So, what do you think?"
"I... I really might not be able to beat her," Xu Xiangwen said with a wry smile, returning to his senses.
"Never mind you; even Xinyu and I couldn’t beat her."
"No way?" Gong Feiyu was shocked. "Your and Xinyu’s unard combat skills are among the best in the entire Star Martial Arts Campus."
"Don’t believe ? Just keep watching."
Jiang Xinyu was only holding her own against Xie Sisi because Sisi hadn’t yet used her unique secret technique. Incorporating Star Power into combat required extrely high control over it. It also demanded the ability to run two CPUs in sync without them interfering with each other.
It was like one person singing a duet.
An ordinary person definitely couldn’t achieve it.
From this perspective, Xie Sisi had already transcended the ordinary.
Sure enough, as Xie Sisi grew more excited and her fighting style beca wilder, Star Power surged around her, her body seemingly enveloped in a cloak of it.
Sisi’s speed increased continuously, and her punches grew heavier. Soon, Jiang Xinyu was completely overpowered, just as Wang Lan had been during their last full-powered spar.
Five minutes later, Jiang Xinyu’s defenses suddenly crumbled. Sisi instantly seized the opening, unleashing a flurry of sharp attacks.
"Holy shit—" Xu Xiangwen leaped to his feet. "Stop, stop!"
Xie Sisi halted her movents. Jiang Xinyu hastily retreated three steps, her face visibly swelling.
But Jiang Xinyu shot Xu Xiangwen a glare. "Who told you to call a halt?"
"Not call a halt? And just watch you get pumled?"
"Great enlightennt and major breakthroughs can only be achieved in monts of great crisis. With Wang Lan here, it’s impossible for to be beaten to death. Don’t you dare call a halt next ti," Jiang Xinyu emphasized earnestly. "This is the true aning of combat training. Otherwise, how is it different from regular sparring?"
Xu Xiangwen understood the logic, but this was just too brutal.
After Wang Lan treated Jiang Xinyu’s injuries, he jumped off the platform. "Gentlen, this way, please. Bare hands or weapons, your choice. My weapons rack here has everything, and I assure you, they’re all the real deal."
Xu Xiangwen looked at the two frenzied won battling on the platform again and swallowed hard. "Feiyu, are we really doing this?"
"Scared? Co on! Either I beat you to death, or you beat to death!"
Undergoing this kind of life-or-death combat training was an enormous challenge to one’s ntal fortitude. When it beca almost too much to bear, they would take a rest, then continue.
And so, by the end of each day, everyone felt as if they were dancing on Yama’s head.
Fists and feet were rely the warm-up; fighting with real swords and spears was the main course.
Xu Xiangwen had counted; that day, Gong Feiyu had cut him nearly twenty-five tis. Gong Feiyu had it even worse, getting cut by Xu thirty tis. After all, Xu Xiangwen was a close-combat fighter, while Gong Feiyu was an Earth Attribute Mage.
As for Jiang Xinyu and Xie Sisi, Xie Sisi almost perfectly suppressed Jiang Xinyu. The injuries Jiang Xinyu sustained in that single day surpassed all she had received since becoming a Star Martial Warrior.
Without Wang Lan there to ensure her safety, Jiang Xinyu would have been bedridden in a hospital for at least a month.
But the results of the day’s training were undeniably obvious. Though outsiders might not sense it, they themselves could feel the distinct improvent.
The group of five t almost daily at Wang Lan’s house to train. Either Wang Lan would fight Xu Xiangwen and Gong Feiyu, or Jiang Xinyu would fight the two of them. After those two were tornted to the point of doubting their existence, Wang Lan and Jiang Xinyu would then, in turn, be tornted by Xie Sisi.
Ever since Xie Sisi had her governor and conception vessels opened, her combat strength beca potentially unmatched throughout the entire Star Martial Arts Campus, a level that could even include instructors and teachers.
「Ti flies silently. When you realize it, it has already passed you by.」
The final exams for the first sester of senior year arrived quietly, marking the halfway point of their last year in high school.
For Wang Lan, exams had never been an issue. His only regret was that he hadn’t secured first place in both academics and martial arts.
As for Xie Sisi—this girl who had been seriously overlooked by everyone due to her uneven abilities—she completed her transformation after two and a half years of accumulation, truly tamorphosing.
Seventh in the school for academics and eighth in the martial arts exam. If Xie Sisi’s Star Martial level hadn’t been rely at the peak of the Starlight Realm, breaking into the top five wouldn’t have been a challenge.
This achievent nearly caused an uproar throughout the school.
Having one Wang Lan was one thing. Although Wang Lan was only at the mid-stage of Star Shine, he still made it into the top five of his grade. But then again, Wang Lan had dominated for nine years under the title of a prodigy. The students of the Star Martial Arts Campus had developed so immunity to such a Demon.
But for an unknown student, an ordinary girl at the late Starlight Realm, to soar from 150th place to a combined seventh in the entire grade? Was that scientific? Was it reasonable?
The school’s response was that this was completely logical; there wasn’t the slightest hint of discrepancy in the exam results.
The commotion died down after two days because vacation had begun.
「Xinyu Building, underground training room.」
The five of them, completely soaked in sweat, lay sprawled in the four corners of the ring, gasping for air with no regard for their image.
"Sisi, weren’t you a little too excited today... taking on all four of us... I, Xu Xiangwen, hereby declare you the wildest woman!"
"It’s my first ti... my first ti getting such a high rank... Shouldn’t I be excited?" Having grown familiar with the group of four, Xie Sisi seed to have blended in with them. She spoke more casually and joked around without inhibition.
A sexy smile touched the corners of Xie Sisi’s lips. Ever since Wang Lan had helped her overco her psychological barriers, Xie Sisi seed to have beco increasingly... unrestrained.
Her wildness carried a hint of bloodlust—srizing, yet also daunting.
To use Gong Feiyu’s words, one glance at her made you want to get closer. But once near, you couldn’t help but maintain a safe distance. Get too close, and you risked being torn to shreds at any mont.
"Sisi, don’t get carried away," Wang Lan couldn’t help reminding her. "School exams only test academics and unard combat. Those are your strong points. But in terms of real strength, you might not even secure a spot in the class’s top ten, let alone the entire grade’s."
"I know," Xie Sisi was a very self-disciplined and mature woman, so she understood what Wang Lan ant.
Her Star Power was only at the Starlight Realm, and apart from her innate water-control Star Martial Skill, she possessed no others. Star Martial Skills were the true asure of a Star Martial Warrior’s combat prowess.
Take Mingyue Wucheng, for example.
If he were to truly display his strength, no one in their class could guarantee they would last three minutes against him. Mingyue Wucheng’s family Illusion Technique was so potent that one look from him could an death.
Descendants from other Star Martial families had mastered at least three A-grade Star Martial Skills or more. How could Sisi fight against them? A single Star Martial Skill attack would be enough to take Sisi down.
Don’t be fooled by her ability to dominate Xu Xiangwen and Gong Feiyu in the ring. If they were to use their Star Martial Skills, Sisi wouldn’t last long either. That was the true gap.
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