Martial artists can never be ultimately insulted.

Although she said that, Chun-Li was visibly much more relaxed. After all, if someone could joke like that, it was basically certain that nothing serious had happened, and it was likely to be a good outcome.

Otherwise, given Yuan Chen's personality, he should be mostly solemn or silent now, instead of looking relaxed and carefree like this.

Thinking about it, Chun-Li asked curiously, "How is Zhu-Li now?"

"Very good."

Yuan Chen shrugged and then stepped aside.

What came into view was Han Zhuli sitting on the bed in the room, holding a mirror in her hand. She was looking at her eyes, which had healed and even improved, with great interest.

"How are you feeling?" Chunli asked Han Zhuli with some curiosity. "Are your eyes any better?"

"Haha! Much better!" Upon hearing Chunli's question, Han Zhuli jumped off the bed onto the floor. Although her delicate face was still pale and covered in cold sweat from the intense pain, her eyes were filled with excitement, and her whole body radiated a strange kind of exhilaration.

"More important than this! Auntie! Come and fight me!"

Upon hearing Han Zhuli address her as "Auntie," Chunli's lips twitched violently. She then said with a forced smile, "It's true that it's been a while since we've had a proper sparring session!"

Although she said that, Chun-Li's eyes also showed a hint of curiosity.

After all, although Han Zhuli gives the impression of being a mischievous brat in daily life, always trying to provoke people, especially herself, a closer look reveals that she is actually a very thoughtful person.

She may have a slightly nasty personality at times, but she's definitely not an unreasonable person.

Thinking to herself, Chunli walked toward the cushions in the living room and asked curiously, "Looks like you've had quite a haul?"

"Yes."

Han Zhuli nodded, feeling the heat welling up in her eyes, and said, "I feel... terrifyingly strong right now!"

Volume 1: Chapter 151 - Mai Shiranui Arrives at the Door

Chunli and Han Zhuli stood facing each other on the cushions in the center of the living room.

Chunli took off her coat, revealing a close-fitting black sports vest and loose workout pants. She was ready, and a series of crisp sounds rang out as she moved her shoulders and neck.

Han Zhuli stood opposite her, looking relaxed, with that signature, devilish, provocative smile still on her lips.

"Let's get this straight first." Chunli took a stance, a hint of helplessness on her face, and said, "If you break any furniture, it will be deducted from your allowance."

Despite Han Zhuli's energetic and lively personality, Chunli actually manages all of Han Zhuli's weekly allowance and daily expenses, making her a true stepmother.

However, Han Zhuli's little devil nature was purely due to her personality. Even after hearing Chun Li's words, she said with great interest and malice, "Ha, it's not certain who will win or lose!"

As she said this, Han Zhuli patted her chest, revealing her little tiger teeth, and said to Yuan Chen with a 'buddy' expression, "Watch your sister Zhuli beat Auntie down right now, and once she's completely powerless, you can just take advantage of her!"

"Zhu Li!" Chun Li's face twitched, and she said with a forced smile, "I really need to teach you a lesson!"

In response, Yuan Chen silently gave a thumbs up.

Zhu Li is a shrewd person. If you ask her who won when she fights with Chun Li, she'll tell you that Yuan Chen was paired with her.

This is a good thing.

Anyway, Yuan Chen didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

Upon hearing Han Zhuli's words, Chunli also took a deep breath, a slight seriousness appearing between her brows.

Although she's the 'head of the household' here, Chunli has watched Han Zhuli join the family and can sense that Han Zhuli has made rapid progress under Yuan Chen's tutelage. In comparison…

Shaking her head, Chun-Li cleared her mind of all distractions and focused on the battle at hand.

As Yuan Chen shouted "Start!", Han Zhuli immediately launched her attack without hesitation.

Seeing this, Chunli turned slightly to the side, just enough to let Han Zhuli's instep brush past her waist. At the same time, she lightly patted the inside of Han Zhuli's calf with her left palm, trying to deflect the kick's trajectory. But Han Zhuli clearly noticed this, and with a burst of energy, she forcefully withstood Han Zhuli's kick, bracing herself against the force of the blow aimed at Chunli's abdomen.

The speed is faster than before, and the strength has also increased significantly.

Thinking to herself, Chunli wasn't too surprised. After all, there were only a few people living in the house, and this wasn't the first time Han Zhuli had come to spar with Chunli. However, she had always lost more than she had won... or rather, she had basically never won.

Han Zhuli didn't care. She simply moved her numb calves a few times, quickly regained her stance, and then pressed forward again.

With left fist and right leg, the combined attacks flowed out like a torrent, extremely fast and with tricky angles. At first glance, apart from the skillful use of legs and feet, it was hard to see any trace of Taekwondo.

This can be considered an additional impact of social progress—just like boxing and wrestling, once they step onto the stage, in order to allow more people to appreciate this 'beyond the bounds' violence, many techniques will be reduced to some extent.

Techniques such as hooking the heel, twisting the wrist and locking the arm, gouging the eye and kicking the groin may sound vulgar, but they are essentially all attacks on vital parts of the human body.

However, in order to better disseminate and teach these techniques and to limit violent injuries and deaths, similar technologies have been gradually banned.

Han Zhuli's practical karate obviously doesn't have so many concerns, but it's rarely used in most situations.

After all, there are only so many vital points in the human body. Anyone with real skills will know some countermeasures, such as the "hanging bell" technique or "retracting the penis into the abdomen."

Given that her opponent is Chun-Li, whom she considers her own, Han Zhu-li would prefer to transform her attacks on vital points into more powerful bursts of energy.

As her rival, Chun-Li could sense that Han Zhu-li's progress was genuine.

Even so, the gap in basic skills cannot be completely made up for by eating a few more mouthfuls of life energy or having Yuan Chen adjust it a few more times. Especially this time, for the sake of treatment, Han Zhuli's life energy has been almost completely exhausted, and she can no longer activate the backup hidden energy stored in her stomach or lower abdomen as before.

As Chunli steadily parried each attack, Yuan Chen nodded secretly in approval.

Chun-Li's martial arts talent is undeniable. Even if she can't drink or inject life energy directly like Han Joo-ri, the energy extracted from her daily life-giving food is enough for Chun-Li to perceive the details of her body and continuously improve her skills.

Although there are some shortcuts involved, it is still a long and painstaking process.

All I can say is that Chun-Li is indeed very suitable for Qigong, a method that cultivates both internal and external strength.

Just like now, Juri's speed and strength have both improved considerably, but she still can't break through Chun-Li's defense, the reason being her solid basic skills.

In front of Chunli, Han Zhuli could detect every moment Han Zhuli shifted her center of gravity, and every change in the flow of her energy was within her expectations.

Sometimes they even had the energy to deliberately leave a flaw, waiting for Han Zhuli to launch a full-scale attack, and then intercepting and neutralizing it in the least effortful way.

A series of defensive counter-attacks, using the opponent's strength against them, and using stillness to control movement—from Han Zhuli's perspective, it was utterly despairing.

However, neither Wu Jialouluo, Han Zhuli, nor even Wu Fengshui were particularly surprised by this.

Yes, even Wu Fengshui wasn't too surprised by the current situation.

To put it bluntly, in this small family, Chun-Li's strength is second only to Yuan Chen. Not to mention Han Zhu-Li alone, even if Wu Jia-Luo is added, they would not be able to do anything to Chun-Li unless they use Liberation or activate the backup hidden energy borrowed from Yuan Chen.

Han Zhuli naturally noticed this as well. After being casually pushed away by Chunli once again, she pouted in annoyance.

"Your basic skills are really solid. If I hadn't been with you all this time, I would have suspected that you had been cheating on me with Yuan Chen."

Chunli's temple throbbed, but she then sighed and said, "You... never mind. Young people should be restrained. Besides, although life energy is strong, it is Yuan Chen's stuff after all. If you really encounter danger, you can't just borrow it anytime, anywhere."

"Besides, we can just keep some on hand." Although she said that, Han Zhuli knew that Chunli was right, so she took a deep breath and looked at Chunli, saying:

"Ready? I'm about to unleash my full power... This eye has just evolved, so be prepared if you can't control your strength."

Hearing even the usually eccentric Han Zhuli say this, Chunli also became serious, nodded, and got into position, saying, "Okay, let's go."

"Alright, here we come!"

Upon hearing this, Han Zhuli let out a cheerful laugh, and then her left eye suddenly ignited. The purple light that had been flashing only deep within the iris suddenly burst forth, transforming into a scorching purple wave that shot out from her eye socket.

Along with the burst of battle aura, his originally grayish-white aura was tinged with a chilling dark purple by the purple flames emanating from his left eye. His muscles swelled slightly under the catalysis of the purple flames, and the blood energy throughout his body solidified several times over, making him look exceptionally terrifying.

Noticing the change in Han Zhuli, Chunli's gaze also sharpened.

But then, accompanied by an incredibly fast gust of wind, Han Zhuli's right leg slashed out a purple arc of light—Wind-Breaking Blade!

The speed was so fast that Chun-Li, caught off guard, could only rely on instinct to block.

Chun-Li raised her hand to block. It was clearly a ranged attack that released energy, but the moment it made contact, Chun-Li felt a numbness in her forearm. Then, Chun-Li was kicked sideways, her feet leaving two deep drag marks on the soft mat.

Before she could even regain her balance, Han Zhuli finished her move with astonishing speed, bursting forward to Chun Li and then sweeping her body horizontally.

Chun-Li leaned back, her left leg, wreathed in deep purple energy, grazing her face. Before she could react, she saw Han Zhu-Li swing her legs in a wide arc, twisting her body like a windmill and delivering a powerful kick. Her body spun in the air, her legs transforming into a purple halo, accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore through the air, as she kicked towards Chun-Li's center.

Caught off guard, Chun-Li was still hit squarely despite her timely defense. She was sent flying backward by the kick, but Yuan-Chen caught her in mid-air and gently pressed her body to make sure she was unharmed before putting her down.

As Han Zhuli raised her head, she was about to shout "Continue!" but she quickly realized something, her face turned pale, and she squatted down to take deep breaths.

Seeing this, Yuan Chen said, "Alright, let's end this sparring session here."

Hearing this, Chunli had already adapted to Han Zhuli's rapidly increasing pace and had just adjusted her state to prepare for a renewed battle when Yuan Chen stopped her. She looked displeased, but upon seeing the paleness on Han Zhuli's face, she immediately ran over worriedly and said:

"What happened? Are you injured? How are you feeling?"

"I... am fine."

Hearing Chunli's concern, Han Zhuli didn't try to be strong. She just pressed her stomach and said, "It's just... I've used up a lot of energy and I feel weak all over."

Seeing this, Yuan Chen also stepped forward, relaxed after a brief assessment, and looked at Chunli and the others beside him, saying, "Your Qi is depleted, you'll feel better after eating something."

Upon hearing this, Chunli breathed a sigh of relief.

It is quite common for people to experience qi depletion, excessive consumption of battle qi, or damage to their meridians caused by excessive battle qi bursts in a short period of time, resulting in an inability to fight.

But then, a look of confusion appeared on Chun-Li's face.

"But wait a minute, while it's true that Spider-Like's energy consumption increased dramatically after going all out, it shouldn't have been depleted so quickly, right?"

“Eyes,” Yuan Chen said.

“Zhu Li’s eyes are quite special. During the treatment, I also consulted some other special eyes. Although the initial goal was to make the body’s redundant systems function when the original optic nerve could not be restored, it seems that along with the complete recovery, some unexpected changes have also occurred in the process… or rather, evolution?”

As he said this, Yuan Chen continued, "Life energy, liberation, fist eye, the intention of the spider itself... and some special factors that cannot be measured by common sense."

According to Yuan Chen's guess, the main reason should still be the sun rune.

Previously, Yuan Chen had treated this power from Ingrid as a solar power bank, capable of converting and storing the energy in sunlight to continuously heal the body, and even converting it into life energy.

As Yuan Chen's strength grew, especially after mastering energy conversion, the true power of the Sun Rune seemed to finally reveal a corner of its mystery.

At least, putting everything else aside, there's one thing Yuan Chen is certain of.

Under the influence of the Sun Rune, life energy, will, and anything else followed Yuan Chen's will and merged into Han Zhuli's eyes, becoming a gift from heaven, similar to a 'special physique'.

Upon hearing Yuan Chen's words, Han Zhuli nodded in agreement.

With a grimace, Han Zhuli clutched her stomach, looking utterly uncomfortable, and said:

"The consumption was too intense, at least ten or even dozens of times the normal amount of battle qi. I feel like my dantian has been completely drained, and I have no strength left in my body... I only used a few moves and it completely depleted all my qi. Why does the full power mode of this eye feel like it's all side effects?"

"After all, it has only just evolved."

Upon hearing Han Zhuli's words, Yuan Chen shook his head and said, "The Wu clan's liberation took more than a thousand years to gradually master. From now on, we should set aside time every day to practice it. When the consumption is under control, it will become a pretty good killing move."

Upon hearing this, Wu Jialouluo nodded in agreement and raised his hand, saying, "If there's anything I can help with, I can find some of the clan's ancient texts!"

As he said this, Wu Jialouluo's eyes were also filled with curiosity.

"Oh, thank you!" Han Zhuli waved her hand and said, "I'll let you have the first taste next time."

"Hehe." Wu Jialouluo chuckled.

Although Han Zhuli didn't explicitly name Yuan Chen, Chunli had already witnessed Yuan Chen's private life, and she couldn't help but look away, her face filled with embarrassment.

Upon seeing this, Han Zhuli, who was standing to the side, seemed to have noticed something and a smile appeared on her face as she said:

"I almost forgot, Yuan Chen, when did you get one for Auntie too?"

With a wicked grin, Han Zhuli said enthusiastically, "Don't drag it out. You and Chunli have been living together for so long, you've probably done everything you need to, just waiting for the final push. If all else fails, I'll secretly help you get her..."

"That's enough!" Chunli couldn't hold back any longer and stood up, saying, "I'm going to wash up. You should also go and eat something to recover your energy!"

After saying that, Chunli hurriedly turned and left, while Yuan Chen, Han Zhuli and the others exchanged glances and were about to say something when a clanging sound of chains suddenly came from the window next to them.

This instantly drew everyone's attention, and even Chun-Li stopped in her tracks.

Immediately following, under everyone's watchful eyes, the window was suddenly flung open, and Mai Shiranui, dressed in a motorcycle outfit, leaped in, excitedly shouting:

"Ah Chen! I came to visit you... Huh? So many people?"

Volume 1: Chapter 152 - Meals and Iori Yagami

Looking at the crowd in front of her, Mai Shiranui, dressed in a motorcycle outfit, was completely bewildered.

Although she already knew that Yuan Chen might not be the only person in his family, Mai Shiranui obviously did not expect that there would be so many... women in Yuan Chen's family.

Thinking about it, Mai Shiranui exclaimed in astonishment, "Junior brother, junior brother, is your private life this chaotic?!"

Yuan Chen rubbed his temples in exasperation and couldn't help but ask, "How did you find your way here...?"

"Hehe, investigating the whereabouts of a target is practically a required course for ninjas!"

Upon hearing Yuan Chen's words, Mai Shiranui wore a proud smile, clearly unaware that the "required course" she mentioned should be called "malicious stalking and illegal intrusion" in the context of modern society.