Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Shocked Lin Yu: The Sparring Partner Is Actually Him?
「Xianghe Road.」
A bus had just pulled up to the stop.
Lin Yu stepped off the bus.
Three students of about the same age immediately approached him.
"Isn’t our training session this afternoon? What are you all doing out so early?" Lin Yu asked, glancing at them with a deep frown.
One of the students next to him grinned. "It’s almost noon anyway, so what’s the big deal? Besides, a new sparring partner showed up at the Martial Arts Hall today. I hear he’s a real monster—even took down Sun Tao and Hu Quan!"
"A sparring partner?"
Lin Yu’s brow furrowed slightly.
The others all nodded.
"A senior just messaged me. He said the sparring partner is about to fight Senior Zhou Qi!"
"With Senior Zhou Qi? Let’s go, let’s go! This is going to be a good show!"
"Do you have to be so dramatic? Sparring partners are supposed to be Martial Arts experts. Isn’t the whole point to find an opponent’s weaknesses during a match? If their skill level is too low, they can’t do that effectively!" Lin Yu scoffed, finding their behavior childish.
In response, a student named Li Long said, "If that was all there was to it, what would be so special?"
"The main thing is, this sparring partner... he’s a high school student!"
"That’s right, and a senior in high school, apparently. He beat Sun Tao, Hu Quan, and Li Xuewen. I heard none of them lasted more than three rounds..."
Hearing this, Lin Yu’s frown deepened.
He had heard a thing or two about Sun Tao, Hu Quan, and Li Xuewen.
They were all in Yang Yong’s class.
Yang Yong was the gold-medal coach of the New Star Martial Arts Hall, and his Martial Arts cultivation had reached 5-stars.
The students who trained under him were all quite talented.
Any one of them could easily crush a newcomer like him.
And yet, a high school sparring partner had managed to take down three of those geniuses?
This piqued the interest of Lin Yu and his friends.
"Let’s go, let’s go! If we go now, we can still get a spot up front. Any later and we won’t even be able to get in!"
"I want to see that high school kid spar with Senior Zhou Qi, too!"
"He’s definitely no match for Senior Zhou Qi. He’s Coach Yang Yong’s most valued student!"
"Hurry up, or we’ll miss everything..."
Urging each other on, the group ran straight for the Martial Arts Hall.
After clocking in, they arrived at the elevators.
There were five elevators side by side, each leading to a different training hall.
Elevator #3 led to Yang Yong’s training hall.
It was the same one Yang Yong had used to take Lin Yi upstairs earlier.
When Lin Yu and his friends reached the elevator, his brow furrowed.
"We don’t have a keycard for elevator #3. How are we supposed to get up there?"
Just as he said that, Qian Zhigang pulled a card out of his pocket.
He dangled it in front of Lin Yu with a grin. "I had to beg and plead with Senior Shanshan for this. Let’s go!"
With the keycard in hand, the group entered the elevator and went straight up.
With a soft DING, the elevator doors opened.
Lin Yu and the others were all completely stunned.
The training hall was already packed with people.
Half of them were from other training halls; only a small portion were actually from Yang Yong’s class.
But today, Yang Yong showed no intention of chasing anyone away.
He let them stay and watch the sparring match.
"Look, look! Senior Zhou Qi is in the ring!"
"Holy shit, he really is a high schooler?"
"Go, Senior Zhou Qi...!"
"He actually dares to fight Senior Zhou Qi? That high school kid has some nerve!"
"I just want to see how Senior Zhou Qi is going to put that high schooler in his place..."
As the crowd buzzed with discussion...
Lin Yu focused his gaze on the ring, taking a look at the high school sparring partner.
In an instant, his expression changed.
His heart began to pound wildly.
’Impossible. How could it be him?’
Lin Yu muttered to himself.
But his eyes were already filled with disbelief and horror.
Li Long, standing beside him, seemed to notice Lin Yu’s strange reaction.
He asked, puzzled, "Lin Yu, what’s wrong? What’s impossible?"
"N-nothing!"
Lin Yu snapped out of it and shook his head with a forced smile.
When he looked back at the ring, his suspicion was confirmed.
That person... was Lin Yi.
And apparently, Lin Yi was the high school sparring partner they had been talking about.
The one who had taken down Sun Tao, Hu Quan, and Li Xuewen in succession.
While everyone was still chattering...
In the ring, Zhou Qi was the first to attack Lin Yi.
He executed a footwork technique, rushing toward Lin Yi at incredible speed.
The next moment, a flash of gold and a flash of blue light erupted in the ring.
They vanished in an instant.
Looking back at Lin Yi, he appeared completely unfazed.
Zhou Qi’s attack hadn’t harmed him in the slightest.
Just as everyone was marveling at Lin Yi’s strength...
Lin Yi didn’t give Zhou Qi any quarter, seizing the initiative and charging toward him.
For a time, the two were locked in a back-and-forth battle on the stage.
Flashes of golden light and beams of deep blue erupted from time to time.
Some students even noticed that the deep blue beams seemed to contain the vastness of a starry cosmos.
This discovery left them all utterly amazed.
"That high schooler really has some skills. He’s exchanged so many blows with Senior Zhou Qi and hasn’t lost the upper hand?"
"Which high school is he from? How come I’ve never heard of him?"
"His Martial Arts cultivation must be at least 1-star, right? And he’s still a high school student..."
"No wonder Coach Yang Yong invited him to be a sparring partner..."
The crowd, including Li Long and Qian Zhigang, was completely in awe of the Lin Yi they saw in the ring.
Zhou Qi’s level had already reached 1-star, 3rd rank, and he was on the verge of breaking through to the 4th rank.
Reaching 2-star was just around the corner for him.
In the New Star Martial Arts Hall, Zhou Qi’s combat power and cultivation were already considered the ceiling among the students.
For a long time, many students had looked up to him as their idol.
They trained diligently, hoping to one day reach Zhou Qi’s level.
Even Lin Yu was no exception.
Ever since his first day at the Martial Arts Hall, he had heard people talk about Zhou Qi.
The man who had earned the sincere admiration of every student in the entire Martial Arts Hall.
But today... Lin Yu was shocked once again.
The person sparring with Zhou Qi in the ring was none other than the older brother he usually looked down on, the one he had never even taken seriously.
Especially seeing Lin Yi fighting on even terms with Zhou Qi...
Lin Yu’s heart filled with immense dread.
He asked himself the same questions over and over again.
’Is that really Lin Yi?’
’The one with no talent, the one his own father gave up on?’
’How... how could he be this strong?’
