Early morning.

Lin Feng was woken up by noises outside the door.

"It's five o'clock."

Glancing at his phone, Lin Feng was still sleepy, but to keep his family from worrying, he quickly got dressed and left his room.

"You're all up this early?"

The sun hadn't fully risen at five—dawn was still dim, especially for the Shore District.

The living room lights were on. The family was all gathered around the dining table, eating breakfast and chatting softly.

It was obvious everyone was in a great mood.

"You're up, go wash up quickly."

As soon as Lin Feng appeared, all his family's eyes turned to him at once.

Besides Ma Lele's pure happiness, his mother Old Ma and big sister's gazes were filled with complex emotions: pride, excitement, unease, and more.

"How come you're up so early?" Lin Feng asked.

Even his little sister, who usually loved to sleep in, had gotten up before him—quite rare.

Looking at his family's mental state, Lin Feng knew they all hadn't slept well last night, stuck in a simultaneously excited and uneasy mood.

Full of beautiful hopes for the future, yet afraid all of this was just a mirage, out of reach.

"I broke through to the Eighth Rank of Body Cultivation last night."

In order to ease their worries, Lin Feng said with a smile.

Sure enough, after learning Lin Feng had achieved the Eighth Rank, the unease in his family's eyes subsided a lot, replaced by more anticipation for the future.

"How did you break through so fast?" Lin Fang exclaimed excitedly.

Every stage of breakthrough in Body Cultivation makes one's qi and blood more robust, and directly boosts one's physical stats and combat power. For the college entrance exam, it could easily mean thirty extra points—clearly, this was very good news.

In one night, advancing from Seventh to Eighth Rank, it gave Lin Fang tremendous confidence.

They were finally starting to believe Lin Feng really had been hiding his talent all these years. Otherwise, how could he have advanced this quickly?

"Told you already, I'm a Martial Arts prodigy—I was just keeping a low profile before." Lin Feng joked, "You'll get used to it."

"Mm, that's a habit I like." Lin Kerou said with a smile.

"I'll go wash up."

Saying that, Lin Feng walked into the bathroom.

After a quick wash, Lin Feng looked in the mirror at himself. His face, which used to look a bit pale, was now much rosier, though the dark circles under his eyes made him look a bit out of it.

No wonder—he had broken through to the Eighth Rank almost at three in the morning, sleeping only two hours, and those two hours of sleep were poor quality. That Nightmare would pester him from time to time, keeping him from truly falling asleep.

After barely sleeping for two days, Lin Feng felt groggy all over.

After breakfast, with his family gradually off to work, Lin Feng stayed at home alone.

He wasn't going to school today—he needed to prepare for the Martial Arts Dojo's challenge later.

After breakfast, exhausted, Lin Feng texted Gao Hai with his phone, then went back to his room and collapsed on the bed for another nap.

This nap lasted until noon. It wasn't until the doorbell rang that Lin Feng woke up, got up, and opened the door.

"Much quieter during the day."

Lin Feng noticed the Nightmare's mental disturbances were much weaker during the day, not as active as at night. This allowed him to finally get some good rest.

Looks like he needed to change his lifestyle habits in the future.

"Yang Fan, what brings you here?"

Opening the door, Lin Feng was surprised to see that besides Gao Hai, Yang Fan had come over too, both hands carrying food.

Yang Fan looked speechless as Lin Feng asked him that.

Bro, such a big deal, and it's about you—how are you not excited?

"Brother Feng, haven't you checked the forums yet? They've already exposed the Ye Qiu thing."

"Yeah, it blew up around ten o'clock. I don't even have to do anything—now the whole school knows."

Yang Fan entered Lin Feng's home for the first time—it was his first visit to the Shore District.

For a rich kid who lived in the Inner City, Yang Fan's own house was a villa. This apartment, about thirty square meters, wasn't even as big as his bedroom and didn't even have any decoration. Still, though he'd never been somewhere so run-down, Yang Fan seemed right at home, as if he had no trouble adapting.

This made Lin Feng secretly nod to himself in approval.

"Make yourself at home."

Lin Feng grabbed two drinks from the fridge and tossed them to Gao Hai and Yang Fan. "Let's eat and talk."

"You bought lunch—the food's good." Lin Feng said to Yang Fan.

There were six dishes and a soup—four meat, two veggie. Two of the meat dishes even had Demon Beast meat, rich in qi and blood and delicious. Clearly, these weren't dishes you could get from the cheap restaurants downstairs at the Shore District.

"Yeah, had my family's maid make them."

"Join us, too. Is it true the forum post is ranked third already?" Lin Feng asked curiously.

"Not just third—it's already up to second."

Yang Fan quickly replied. His post had blown up the forums.

"Brother Feng, see for yourself." Yang Fan said.

Lin Feng pulled out his phone and opened the Martial Artist forum.

On the Jiang City homepage's daily hot news top ten, "High School Student Beats Up Martial Artist" was ranked second.

Clicks: 8.89 million; likes: 2.56 million; shares: 1.29 million; comments: an incredible 7.59 million.

And the top-liked, pinned comment: "Lin Feng and Ya Ge! This is the most melodramatic tragic love story I've ever heard."

"Yang Fan, delete that comment—don't tie me to Ya Ge in the future."

Lin Feng frowned. He hadn't expected Yang Fan to write such a melodramatic story—he didn't care, but clearly, this wouldn't be good for Ya Ge.

"Oh, I'll delete it."

Seeing Lin Feng was angry, Yang Fan quickly logged onto the Martial Artist forum and deleted his comment.

But even so, people had already screenshot it, and you couldn't delete comments anyway.

Pulling up more comments, Lin Feng scrolled through them.

"Mom, someone's acting cool here, come take a look."

"Yeah right—hidden talent, my ass. Who'd believe you?"

"Are high school students this dramatic nowadays?"

"This guy's moving—he's both handsome and gifted."

"Abandoning a Ninth Grade Purple Qilin? Who'd buy that—he thinks he's Ye Qiu?"

"Ye Qiu here—I'm not buying it."

"This love story's so melodramatic, I really can't believe it."

"So what if he beat a Ninth Rank Body Cultivator, he's still a long way from Martial Artist!"

"No matter what, I've got to go see in person—is it at Thunder Martial Arts Dojo? Which district?"

In the comments, nine out of ten were doubting—clearly, most didn't believe it was real.

Some even suspected the poster was Lin Feng himself, just trying to stir hype and sell ad space.

"Brother Feng, want to explain things?" Yang Fan asked.

"Yeah, Brother Feng, they're all doubting you—we need to clarify something." Gao Hai said as he ate.

Lin Feng casually shut off his phone—not caring about the haters.

The more people doubted, the bigger the topic, the hotter the trend, and the more valuable the ad spots.

"Ignore them—I've already broken through to Eighth Rank Body Cultivation."

"That fast?"

Yang Fan and Gao Hai were both surprised and excited, feeling even more confident about the challenge tonight.

You could imagine if Lin Feng really fought a Martial Artist as an Eighth Rank Body Cultivator today, what a stir it would cause.

A Body Cultivator beating a First Grade Martial Artist—an absolute rarity, something even the rising star Ye Qiu couldn't claim.

Talent and combat power are two different things.

Especially for students still at the Body Cultivation Realm.

There was a huge gap between Body Cultivators and Martial Artists.

Except for a few top-level families, like the Glory Race, with their bloodline talents, only they might have a chance at such a leap.

If Lin Feng won, he'd no doubt attract attention from top clubs and teams.

Right now, none of the three realized that as the Martial Artist forum post continued to ferment, more than one club was already watching—discussing and analyzing him specifically.

That included Juxing Club.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.