Daily life of a teacher in the martial arts department

[The wind is silent... The Black Dragon Empire is unstoppable, while Southern Qin, a century behind the times, remains blindly arrogant. Although the arts of music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and song are popular across the continent, they ultimately cannot withstand the dark muzzle of a gun.]

But what does what Ji Li said have to do with the question she asked?

The next moment, Ji Li spoke, saying, "My family is a scholarly family. My father didn't allow me to practice martial arts; he only wanted me to pass the imperial examinations. On the third day after we set off from the Black Dragon Empire, my father found out and told me. At that time, my father said to me, 'Run away, go abroad.' I said okay, then I packed my bags, took my money, went to the pawnshop, sold everything, and went into a martial arts school. The owner of the school was about to run away, so I bought their training method. That's when... I started practicing martial arts."

Feng Ruo suddenly froze. She understood every single word Ji Li said, but put them together... she couldn't understand them at all.

"Seventeen days, plus thirteen days, I cultivated for a total of thirty days, exactly one month... On the twenty-first day of my cultivation, the Jue Tian Army entered my city. I glanced at them from afar and knew that if I went over, I would surely die. So I ran, finally hiding in a dilapidated temple. There were people from the Black Dragon Empire outside; I would be found, and if I was found, I would die."

"I found myself inside a hollowed-out Buddha statue; it was my only chance of survival. But there was already someone inside, a down-on-his-luck wandering Taoist priest... I asked him if he could give me that spot."

"He looked me in the eyes, we stared at each other for a second, and he said I was an unparalleled hero, a great valiant man, so he was giving me his chance to live, on the condition that I avenge him. I said okay."

"So I stayed inside that Buddha statue... and cultivated the art of cultivation for nine days. After nine days, I emerged from seclusion, knowing I was invincible. So I intercepted the Jue Tian Army, killed them, and almost killed myself in the process."

"You ask me why I didn't go... because at that time, I knew I wasn't capable, and I knew that even if I went, I couldn't stop the Jue Tian Army."

"The Taoist priest told me, 'A true man dies when he should, but he will not die for a life of unrighteousness.'"

"This means...a true man dies, but not in a meaningless place...he believed he could die because he felt that keeping me alive was a very meaningful thing. Because I am an unparalleled hero, a great champion."

"From that day on, I told myself, Ji Li, you are an unparalleled hero, a great champion. You are, and you must be, because if you are not... he will die unjustly."

Chapter Ten: Anguo Division's Traditional Culture

Anguo Division.

Nephalem looked at the bills on his desk, and his face gradually darkened.

Without a doubt, this was a bill from Yorozuya... Nephalem felt the price was unreasonable, but he couldn't refuse to accept it.

Miss Yin saw her boss's blank expression and was too scared to say a word. She secretly hid the Travelogue of the Nameless Swordsman of Nanqin under the table, afraid that Nephalem would find out that she was slacking off at work, and then she would be in big trouble.

However, the lowly worker could not escape the boss's nagging. Nefertory's gaze shifted, like a senior high school teacher in a top-tier high school, and he immediately spotted Miss Silver. He slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "What the hell are you looking at!"

"I was just slacking off like I always have..."

Miss Silver silently shed tears. Eighty pounds a month, sixty hours a week—what more could she want?

She reluctantly picked up the book, forcing a dignified yet ingratiating smile onto her face.

"Boss, do you want to see this? It's very interesting."

"You're watching this during work hours?!"

"But it's really beautiful..."

"Enough!" Nephalem shouted. "Pack your things and come with me. Damn it, I want to see what kind of painting costs this much. Is it made with diamonds on the brush or holy water as paint?!"

"I have a feeling you're saying something really ominous, boss..."

"set off!"

"Yes!"

-

Board game arcade.

"Holy crap, how can that girl be so talkative?"

Nephalem played a kill card, and sighed under Ying Qin Guan's "You son of a bitch, you're a traitor!" gaze. "She really knows her stuff, explaining the rarity of her painting from every angle. And Mu Nan Dong talks too much. If it's a good painting, it's a good painting, but why all the praise..."

He took Yin to the Yorozuya, but Shenxin wrote him a short essay in return. It was well-reasoned, convincing, and left Nephalem speechless. In the end, he could only pay the money with tears in his eyes. Before leaving, Yu Xietian added insult to injury, saying, "I thought I would have to go to Anguosi to collect the debt myself, but I didn't expect you to deliver yourself to my door."

This dealt a critical hit of one million points to the Nephalem's fragile mind.

However... since I'm already out here, I don't want to go back to work. I thought I'd come over and complain to Ying Qin Guan. So I figured out (that I wanted to go there) that Ying Qin Guan was at the board game arcade, so I came. The Dean and Nocturne were there too, so the five of us made a table and started playing.

Ying Qin Guan squinted and asked, "So how much money did she ask for?"

Nefertari pulled out the bill, and Ying Qin Guan glanced at it, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets.

"Holy crap, is it really that expensive?! Why doesn't she just rob a bank?!"

"You can't get that kind of money by robbing a bank, and besides, why do you think she would get this money from me?!"

"Ah! You're going to kill me! Traitor, villain, villain, rebel, prepare to die!"

"Don't change the subject, and your reaction time is way too long!"

As a loyal subject, Miss Silver played a "Kill" card against a Nephalem, immediately earning a death stare from her boss. "Looks like I'll have to think about who to take on these business trips from now on..."

Miss Yin dared not defy her boss's tyranny and said fearfully:

"I...I played the wrong card."

This time, it wasn't a Nephalem staring at her with death.

The seasoned card player, Ying Qin Guan, who absolutely cannot tolerate verbal attacks, and Jiu Yi, an NPC who regularly appears in the board game hall, both cast death stares at each other. The former was even considering giving the two of them a mental slash to refresh them.

Miss Nocturne smiled and waved her folding fan, looking like she was sitting on the sidelines watching the fight, confident of victory.

Miss Yin was caught in a dilemma and began to regret following along.

The gifts of fate come with a price tag; if you want to slack off during work hours, you'll naturally have to pay the price.

Finally, she steeled herself, closed her eyes, and recalled how she had been exploited as cheap labor at Anguo Company, forced to work overtime, and even have to go on team-building trips during holidays. The distant legend of the eight-hour workday seemed to echo in her ears. A surge of anger welled up within her, and she viciously threw out the killing card.

—They killed Ying Qinguan.

Even with so many buffs, they still dared not voice any objections.

Miss Silver, my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Ying Qin Guan raised his eyes and unleashed a consciousness slash, causing Nefertiti to fall backward, about to collapse to the ground. At the critical moment, he braced himself with one hand on the ground, used his waist strength, and forcefully sat back up.

"Hmph...trying to ambush me again." Nephalem's expression was smug. "After being slashed so many times, I've learned my lesson. This kind of move is useless against me now—"

Before he could finish speaking, Ying Qin Guan looked up again, and the gleam in Nefertari's eyes vanished. He collapsed to the ground, as if his bones had been removed. Although it was only for a moment, he quickly recovered. But the embarrassing scene of being humiliated before he could even finish his act still left him ashamed to face his elders in Jiangdong. He hesitated for a moment between feigning death and confronting Ying Qin Guan head-on, ultimately choosing the former.

—The main problem is that we can't beat them.

If they weren't truly outmatched, who would willingly lie down and play dead?

Ying Qin Guan looked at Yin... Miss Yin silently pointed the "Kill" card she had played at her superior.

Ying Qin Guan nodded in satisfaction and moved Nephalem's health bar one unit to the left.

Seeing that no one came to help him, the Nephalem quietly opened his eyes to glance at the situation on the table, only to discover such a despicable and shameless act. Enraged, he quickly closed his eyes again.

Out of sight, out of mind.

I'll go to sleep if no one wakes me up!

This is a reflection of Anguo Company's corporate culture: if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too.

It's worth mentioning that losing one rebel didn't significantly change the situation on the field. Jiu Yi can be described as a fighting god among men. Even with only one rebel left, he didn't hesitate to jump up and attack Ying Qin Guan's face. Then he was hit by a combo from Ying Qin Guan and Miss Yin and was out. But Ye Qu was secretly dealing damage from the side and somehow managed to take down Yin. In the end, Ying Qin Guan and Ye Qu faced off in a 1v1... and naturally, Ye Qu won.

Ying Qin Guan knew he had played the wrong cards as soon as he finished the game. If he reviewed the game, it would definitely be his fault. He remained silent and didn't even bother to review the game. But as he received Jiu Yi's "You still lost" and Miss Yin's "I offended my boss and tried to help you, how come you still lost?" look, he was both anxious and angry. He looked up and stabbed Nephalem again!

Nephalem: If you have nothing to do, could you find a factory job?

Chapter Eleven: Rounding

In the arena, Ying Qin Guan stood in front of his students.

"Get moving. Don't always think about waiting for the opponent to make a move before you counter it. You can't fight like this with your level. Dynamic vision, reaction, and the ability to counter moves are all indispensable. I'm more likely to beat you with this fighting style."

"The lower body is unstable; it will fall over at the slightest touch."

"You're fighting fiercely. Someone stabs you with a sword, and you punch them in the face... You're using a wooden sword now, so you're really getting a good deal by trading blood. I suggest you fight like this on the battlefield too. After all, you only lose your life, while they get disfigured. You're getting a huge profit."

"Zhong Hongyu, hmm, Zhong Hongyu... your family's martial arts style is not bad. But your moves are too rigid. Your family must have taught you that charge followed by a horizontal slash. So you keep fighting like that. Fu Feihan was on guard from the second time onwards, and you still used the same move the third time..."

"Luoshui... if you continue to be lazy and don't make good use of your time to practice your basic skills, then I can only suggest that you switch majors."

"Ju Qiuming, you played well... but you went a bit too far. Even though I was watching over you, you didn't need to hit so hard."

"Fu Feihan, you are indeed good, but during your sparring with your classmates, you made several moves that allowed them to have more moves. I don't know what you were thinking. Did you want me to raise my opinion of them? It's very strange. If you think you can pull off these little tricks right under my nose, then I have nothing to say. I'll spar with you in the next class. You'd better make an appointment for magic healing."

"That's all... get out of class dismissed."

Ying Qin's timing was impeccable; as soon as he finished speaking, the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class.

Without saying a word, he took off running.

Speaking of which, Ying Qin Pass is gradually moving towards a fixed NPC spawn point. I basically only go back and forth between the dormitory, canteen, martial arts arena, and board game hall, and don't go anywhere else.

This time, however, he was going to the bookstore... He had finished reading the travelogue of the nameless swordsman of Southern Qin, and he would buy the rest of the books in one go.

Ying Qin Guan wandered around the Imperial Courtyard for a while, relying on his vague memory, and successfully found the bookstore. The girl with the bun hairstyle was still working as a sales clerk inside. When she saw Ying Qin Guan, she greeted him energetically.

"Hello, Teacher Ying! Are you planning to buy something this time, or are you just browsing and I can recommend some things for you?"

"The Travels of the Nameless Swordsman of Southern Qin." Ying Qin Guan said, "I've read the fourth one... From the fifth one onwards, all the new ones, give me one of each."

"Ah... this might be a bit troublesome." The girl with the bun hairstyle looked troubled and explained, "This book has always sold very well. It's the only one in our bookstore that needs to be restocked. We've published nine copies so far... there might be a few that are out of stock. Let me see."

She flipped through the books, brought three to Ying Qin Guan, and then said, "Haha... the fifth and ninth books are sold out. There are only three left here: the sixth, seventh, and eighth. Teacher Ying, do you still want them?"

"This is all cut off..." Ying Qin Guan was speechless for a moment, and asked, "When will the goods arrive?"

"Well, that depends on the shopkeeper's mood... Because the Imperial Academy has a library, the bookstore's business isn't very good. So the shopkeeper basically just leaves the bookstore idle. When to restock depends on his mood. If he wins a lot of mahjong all afternoon and is in a good mood, he might restock. If he's not in a good mood, he simply won't bother thinking about these things..."

"That sounds like an incredibly irresponsible guy..." Ying Qin Guan sighed. If it were just the missing eighth and ninth books, it wouldn't be unreadable. But with the fifth and ninth books missing, cutting off the beginning and end... that's really not good.

"Give me these three books first." In the end, Ying Qin Guan made a decision, "I'll buy the other two outside."

—To risk getting lost just to go out for two novels is nothing short of a miracle for someone like Ying Qin Guan, whose ability to get things done can only be described as tragic.

"Okay!" The girl with the bun quickly put the book into the shopping bag. "120 Ibu."

Ying Qin Guan swiped his campus card, took the book, and walked out.

He stood there, wavering between 'taking the book directly to the store' and 'putting the book back in the dorm first and then going to the store'.

I feel like carrying this bag around would be rather silly, but going back to my dorm would also be a waste of time.

Just as Ying Qin was hesitating at the pass, a man with a silver hair and a Sima-like face passed by.

Ying Qin Guan stroked his chin, having a bold and shameless idea.

Finally, Sima, with a dark expression and silver hair, carried Ying Qin Guan's shopping bag towards the dormitory, while Ying Qin Guan, with a bright smile, waved goodbye behind him.