Daily life of a teacher in the martial arts department

Although people's desires are free, sometimes... due to various factors, sexual intercourse always fails.

As for these alien races, well... as the 'first generation of alien races,' they weren't necessarily born in the ancestral lands of their respective magical beast lineages. For example, some progenitor alien races from tropical magical beast lineages might have migrated to the frigid Arctic, giving birth to the first generation of alien races. These first-generation alien races, like cacti, couldn't survive with humans; they would die if they came, and they couldn't find their own kind of magical beasts. Because those magical beasts were in the tropics, they had no choice but to perish within a single generation.

However... there are very few exceptions. Through inbreeding and forced survival, generation after generation, they actually managed to produce a species.

These alien races have neither accepted the bloodline of magical beasts nor the bloodline of humans; they are the purest form of "alien race."

Ju Qiuming... no, Ji Qiuming and his brother, Ji Fenming, are currently sailing on the sea in a small boat.

"Brother, where are we going?"

“Go to the last pure land,” Ji Fenming said, “Atlantis, created by the purest 'alien race' through inbreeding.”

"The last pure land..." Ji Qiuming repeated. Once upon a time, the city of the Rebellious Ghosts, "Night Sky," still held this title. Besides the Rebellious Ghosts, there were many other alien races there. But Ji Qiuming had only heard Ji Fenming mention it; he had never seen it himself.

"At sea...?" he asked in a low voice. "Is it some island?"

There is indeed a certain probability, because the ocean is a place that humans have never conquered. But the probability is not high. Although humans have not completely conquered the ocean, it is too difficult for any alien race to find an island in the ocean and build a city. It is too much of a gamble, and it is simply a matter of life and death. You might be eating hotpot and singing songs one day when suddenly the apocalypse strikes you.

Ji Fenming denied Ji Qiuming's guess.

"Of course not. If it were at sea, it would have been discovered by humans long ago."

"Where...is that?"

"Underwater".

"Underwater?"

"Underwater".

Ji Qiuming didn't understand, but he didn't ask again because he knew he would get the answer soon.

The two continued sailing in their small boat... After an unknown amount of time, suddenly a monster covered in scales, with a fish head and a human body, emerged from the water.

Ji Qiuming possessed astonishing mental fortitude. He was the most rebellious of all rebellious ghosts, naturally indifferent and able to suppress all emotions. Apart from joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, even emotions like "shock" could be suppressed extremely quickly. Even when he suddenly saw this strange creature, he was only slightly startled in his heart before quickly recovering and beginning to speculate about some things.

In this day and age, only those races that resemble humans can survive. Even in chaotic provinces, you can't have anything that's obviously different from a human. Animal ears are the limit, and if you have a tail or something, you have to hide it. Monsters with fish heads and human bodies like this simply cannot survive in a world ruled by humans, unless...

Connecting this to what Ji Fenming had said earlier, Ji Qiuming had some guesses in his mind.

"Lord Ji...this is your younger brother?"

The fishman spoke with a strange accent, like a colonel from a fantasy drama speaking Northeastern dialect. Ji Qiuming could understand it, but it still felt very unfamiliar.

Ji Fenming smiled faintly, "Yes... he is my younger brother, and he chose to come back to our side."

The fishman glanced at Ji Qiuming, a hint of worry on his face, but he didn't speak.

Ji Qiuming's heart stirred.

If there really is some kind of 'city' here, then in their eyes, wouldn't I look like a 'spy'?

Having never lived among other races before, his sudden return seemed suspicious, almost like a spy's. A race that could hide among humans, a race that had never been in contact with other races and had no sense of belonging, suddenly wanting to return to another race's group... To be honest, Ji Qiuming himself found himself suspicious.

Ji Fenming saw through Ji Qiuming's thoughts and smiled, "It's alright, you're my brother... They live in the last pure land, and such doubts are inevitable. But they will accept you soon, because... all the alien races are forced to stand on the same side."

Ji Qiuming nodded slightly without saying anything.

The fish-headed, human-bodied alien said, "Please, both of you, get into the water."

Ji Qiuming jumped into the water, and Ji Fenming punched them in the back, smashing the small boat they had been riding in to pieces. He then threw several more punches, smashing it into pieces before stopping.

The alien creature with a fish head and a human body spoke, reciting an obscure and difficult-to-understand incantation. Two transparent bubbles condensed in the air, enveloping Ji Qiuming and Ji Fenming.

Ji Fenming explained, "This is the magic of their kind of alien race, and it is the foundation of the entire underwater city. It can protect you when you dive into the sea, breathe freely, and not be affected by pressure... But you can't control this bubble. Don't move around. Let it take us down."

Ji Qiuming nodded, but felt somewhat uneasy.

According to Ji Fenming's explanation, if the alien race suddenly released its bubbles while diving several thousand meters, wouldn't that mean certain death? Even martial artists couldn't possibly survive thousands of meters underwater using only their physical bodies.

The fish-headed, human-bodied alien led the two brothers into the water... Ji Qiuming initially tried to calculate the depth. However, there were no reference points on the seabed, and the speed was not entirely stable. He gave up after a while and instead used his heartbeat to calculate the time.

He could stabilize his heart rate, keeping it at 80 beats per minute. After 7237 heartbeats, Ji Qiuming saw the 'city' Ji Fenming had mentioned, the so-called 'Atlantis'.

It was on the seabed... A huge, semi-transparent bubble dome covered the city below. The area covered by the bubble was dry, just like on land. The buildings were incredibly strange, their colors and shapes extremely rough. Completely different from land, this was due to the limited materials available on the seabed.

Among them were many fish-headed, human-bodied aliens, but besides them, there were many more aliens with beast ears, tails, strange scales, and those who looked almost exactly like humans, like the Ji brothers. They were probably demons—why couldn't they be demi-humans? Because aliens had no way of knowing whether demi-humans were human or aliens. The terror of demi-humans lay not only in their ability to deceive humans.

"This is..." Even though Ji Qiuming had already guessed it, he was still somewhat shocked at this moment.

A city is hidden thousands, even tens of thousands of meters below the surface of the ocean.

"If humans had discovered this city, they would probably have called it Atlantis, but we call it a mirage."

Ji Fenming gazed at the illusory landscape and said softly, "Because all of this exists only temporarily and hypocritically. Just because humanity hasn't discovered it now doesn't mean it never will. Everything will be destroyed in the next instant. Therefore, this city is called 'Illusory Landscape,' to warn us, the alien race living under the shadow of war..."

"Of course, this is just to remind myself that we are 12,000 meters underwater, and it seems that humans cannot destroy this place at present."

"This is... the stronghold of the alien race."

Ji Qiuming sighed softly, "I never imagined such a place would exist..."

"You'll be living here from now on," Ji Fenming said in a low voice. The two slowly entered the bubble, and the bubbles around them merged with the large bubble. They fell into the "Mirror Flower Water Moon," which was indeed empty of water. The enormous pressure of the seabed at 12,000 meters was actually held up by the thin layer of bubbles on the outside.

"Let's go... I'll take you to meet a few people and get you familiar with the place."

Ji Fenming knew that Ji Qiuming had left his familiar environment and come to a completely unfamiliar place, and that this was the time when he needed Ji Fenming's company. At that moment, Ji Fenming also wanted to fulfill his responsibility as an older brother.

However, before he could take two steps, a rebellious ghost hurriedly called out to him.

"Lord Ji!"

The rebellious ghost, panting heavily, said, "You're finally back! Hurry to the council hall, something big has happened."

Ji Fenming frowned slightly and said, "I also have very important things to do right now..."

"Things over there are more important!" the Rebellious Ghost shouted. "The Grand Elder brought someone back..."

"That person...that person, he claims to be an envoy from the Black Dragon Empire!"

End Summary

—It's been a while since I've done a volume summary, so I'll just say a few words now.

First of all... actually, Zhong Hongyu's storyline should have been placed in the third volume, during the summer vacation, alongside Mu Nandong. I wrote a scene, rather inexplicably, where Zhong Hongyu and Mu Nandong meet on the road to the Imperial Courtyard. If you go back and read it now, you'll find that scene was completely useless. It wasn't everyday humor, nor did it develop any characters or advance the main or side plots. In fact, I originally planned for their events to end together during the summer vacation, and then for the summer vacation to end as well, ultimately having them meet again at the Imperial Courtyard, where everything had changed, accompanied by the line "Summer is over." That would have created a very strong visual image, at least in my mind.

However... in practice, I realized this part of the story couldn't be stretched out this long. The plot points at the beginning of this volume, like the TV program recording, would definitely have to end during summer vacation, and the storylines of Mu Nandong and Zhong Hongyu were actually quite serious, making it inconvenient to weave these plots in. Also, I felt the groundwork for Zhong Yu's storyline wasn't strong enough... so I ultimately decided to slow down Zhong Hongyu's storyline by half a semester, resolving it during midterms along with the Fu Ju incident.

The title of this volume is "Bonds," which was clearly decided long ago. It's about Fu Ju and these two... I'm sure everyone can tell at a glance that they'll have more scenes together later, so I won't go into details here.

To be honest, before starting this book, in order to stabilize the combat power, I thought of setting up a scenario where "one Fengshen cannot fight two Fengshen at their peak at the same time". But when I actually wrote it, I felt that something was wrong. Ying Qin Guan fought against 1,300 Black Dragon Armorers, but couldn't defeat two Burning Demon Truth Rings? It doesn't seem right... This setting needs to be reconsidered.

Above

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Chapter One: Passing Down the School

Good morning, how's the midterm assignment going?

"Ugh, don't even mention it. Some idiot brought back a Dark Eagle chick from abroad, then released it back home. I spent three days and three nights camping in the Black Forest before I finally saw it..."

"And then what? You fought a fierce battle with Dark Hawk and defeated it?"

The person being questioned revealed a profound expression, and he said proudly:

"No, I went back and called the police."

"Damn it, you dare call yourself a martial artist?!"

"It can fly! It can fly! It can fly dozens of meters in a flash! How am I supposed to shoot it without a gun? My internal energy can't reach that far!"

"Is internal energy such an inconvenient thing? Why don't you beat your own body and force it to take off!"

"I can't do that!"

"Hmph...Speaking of which, have you heard? Ju Qiuming from Class A, the one who recently represented our Seven Stars in the City of Truth competition, he seems to be..."

Ying Qin Guan walked through the other classes and arrived at his own class, hearing many such discussions along the way.

He naturally knew about Ju Qiuming's affairs, although what he knew wasn't the whole truth... but regarding Ju Qiuming's situation, the truth was pretty much the same whether it was true or not.

Ying Qin Guan stopped in his tracks.

Class 3A of the Martial Arts Department is already missing one person... Ying Qin Guan didn't know that they almost lost two people.

His gaze swept over her; Zhong Hongyu's expression was serene, exactly as she always had. If Ying Qin Guan hadn't been outside that night, he might have truly believed that Zhong Hongyu had safely passed through this midterm assignment.

As for Fu Feihan... his condition was unusual, but it could barely be described as 'good'. In the past, when he was in class, he always had a 'just playing around' attitude. For him, practicing martial arts was something that made him very happy. This attitude had its advantages and disadvantages. However, today, he finally revealed a slightly different expression. If you had to describe what it gave people, it would be...

'Purposefulness'.

Yes, extremely strong, extremely intense purposefulness.

"Live one day at a time," "We'll deal with the future later," "Drink today, for tomorrow we may die"—that was the Fu Feihan of the past. But the current Fu Feihan is different.

Ying Qin Guan didn't know what his purpose was, but for martial artists, there is never a perfect state in the world, and there are always gains and losses.

"It seems that everyone has experienced quite a bit during this interim commission."

Ying Qin Guan spoke, his gaze sweeping over everyone. Luo Shui shrank back in fear after being glanced at by him, afraid of being dragged out and made to stand in a horse stance.

—This guy is definitely not among the people who have experienced a lot.

Ying Qin Guan didn't let her off the hook either, calling out by name: "Luo Shui".

"Here..." Luo Shui reluctantly stepped out of the line, knowing she was going to have to do the horse stance again, but Ying Qin Guan continued to call out.

“Zhong Hongyu, Fu Feihan, the three of you step forward.”

Zhong Hongyu remained expressionless and stepped forward, while Fu Feihan, with a resolute expression, also stepped forward.

"You two, take him down."

Ying Qin Guan said succinctly, "Those who lose will stay and train extra."

"Ah..." Luo Shui immediately put on a mask of pain. She had no ambition whatsoever, and directly boosted the morale of others while diminishing her own. "How can we possibly win this? I don't want extra training."

"Don't give up so easily," Zhong Hongyu advised, then drew her wooden sword from the side of the arena, assuming a fighting stance. It seemed she had no hope of winning against Luo Shui, the one who was just giving up. In fact, based on past experience, the two of them were indeed no match for Fu Feihan. But even knowing it was a fight with little chance of victory, Zhong Hongyu would fight seriously.

Luo Shui sighed and went to the side to get two rubber daggers.

Fu Feihan drew a wooden sword and assumed a fighting stance, no longer as casual as before.