Chapter 57: Could it be that she is truly a genius?

"Yiyi, Yiyi, where have you run off to again?"

Chen Haohao woke up from her afternoon nap to find that her younger sister, who had been sleeping right beside her, was nowhere to be found. She remembered her grandfather's warning: recently, there were many eccentric cultivators around in the county, and Uncle Yuan had gone on a distant journey, making the outside world unsafe.

She hoped her sister hadn't run outside.

Chen Haohao questioned the gatekeeper servants, but all of them said they had not seen Chen Yiyi. Haohao then ran to the dog hole in the corner of the back courtyard wall, but the mark she had made earlier was completely intact.

Chen Yiyi had not crawled out through the dog hole. This suggested that Chen Yiyi was still somewhere inside the house.

She must have secretly hidden away to practice martial arts again.

Chen Haohao pondered for a moment and thought of a specific place.

A utility room in the back courtyard.

That utility room was regarded by Chen Yiyi as her secret base, and she often hid her snacks inside it.

Chen Yiyi foolishly believed that her secret base was hidden extremely well.

In reality, the vast majority of the Chen family members knew the location of her secret base.

"Is she practicing martial arts or sneaking snacks again?"

"I'll go take a look."

Chen Haohao walked all the way to Chen Yiyi's secret base, but suddenly, an invisible wall of wind blocked her path.

It even bounced her backward through the air.

"Ouch!"

"What is this?"

"Qi force field?"

Chen Haohao climbed up from the ground, fortunately uninjured.

Chen Haohao did not practice martial arts, so for a moment she could not distinguish the difference between the wind wall before her and the true martial arts aura.

She simply assumed that whatever was blocking her path was martial arts qi.

Legend had it that when certain protective divine arts were cultivated to their ultimate peak, they could condense martial arts qi. This qi was impervious to blades and spears, immune to water and fire, could rebound hidden weapons, and kill invisibly.

That wasn't right, though.

Where would her family get martial arts qi?

It wasn't as if no one in the Chen family practiced martial arts. For instance, Chen Haohao's biological father, Chen Fei, the third son of the Chen family, had apprenticed under a master and traveled the pugilistic world in his early years.

It was just that Chen Fei's martial talent was mediocre. Although he entered a renowned sect, they only accepted him out of respect for the Chen family. After becoming a disciple, he didn't learn much before descending the mountain with his senior and junior martial brothers to roam the pugilistic world.

After wandering for a few years, he met her mother, then withdrew from the pugilistic world to marry and start a family.

Two years later, she was born.

More than a decade had passed, and her father's cultivation realm was still stuck at the eighth rank.

This eighth-rank realm was already the highest cultivation level among all the members of the Chen family.

Her second and fourth uncles' realms were even worse.

In any case, given the martial arts levels of the Chen family, it was utterly impossible for something like martial arts qi to manifest.

"Could a thief have broken in?"

"Oh no, Yiyi!"

Chen Haohao cried out in alarm, then turned around and sprinted toward the front courtyard.

Moments later, the Chen family members rushed over upon hearing the news.

As the muscle of the Chen family, Chen Fei charged at the very forefront, wielding a long sword.

Following closely behind were Chen Yiyi's father, Chen Nian, and a crowd of servants.

Everyone clutched weapons with fierce and menacing expressions.

"Which court-death-seeking bastard dares to come and run wild in my Chen family?"

"Don't they know my younger brother is the Demon Lord Lu?"

"Lighting a lantern in a latrine—courting death!"

Before anyone even came into view, their voices echoed ahead.

Chen Fei bounded forward like a flying bird, and without any hesitation, thrust his sword straight into the distant wind wall.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

A fierce gale howled beside his ears.

Chen Fei's long sword was snapped into several pieces, and he himself was blasted flying more than ten meters backward, landing heavily on his backside in a flat, comical slide.

The impact sent a sharp pain straight through his buttocks.

"Ouch!"

"I can't handle this!"

"Quickly go find Younger Brother Yuan!"

Knowing his own limitations and realizing he couldn't break through this wind wall, Chen Fei had no choice but to call for backup.

His Younger Brother Yuan was invincible under heaven.

What could a mere wall of wind do to him?

"Stop shouting, you're making a fool of yourself."

"Haohao has already gone to find Younger Brother Yuan."

"This doesn't seem to be martial arts qi."

"Martial arts qi has form and color."

Chen Haohao didn't understand martial arts, but Chen Nian did. At a single glance, he could tell that the wind wall before them was not qi.

"I know."

"But my butt hurts so much."

Chen Fei wore a miserable expression, clutching his rear end and howling.

"Who told you to be so reckless?"

Chen Nian said with exasperation.

"Eldest Brother, my poor backside was injured because of Yiyi. For you to say such a thing really makes my heart turn cold."

Chen Fei put on an act of deep grievance.

In reality, he wasn't injured at all.

He was, after all, an eighth-rank martial artist with genuine cultivation. Could a simple fall on his backside really injure him?

His display was purely an act.

"Stop putting on a show, the juniors are watching right over there. Aren't you ashamed? Do you want any face at all?"

Chen Nian pointed toward the younger generation in the distance, where their sons and daughters were all gazing in this direction.

"It's fine, it's fine, they've never looked at me as an uncle anyway."

Making a fool of oneself? Caring about face?

Sorry, he had no face left to lose.

These nephews and nieces had never regarded him as an elder in the first place.

"Hasn't Haohao come back yet?"

"Haohao doesn't know martial arts, how could she be back so fast?"

Just as Chen Nian finished speaking, a figure plummeted from the sky and crashed heavily right in front of them with a resounding boom.

That figure was none other than Lu Yuan, who had rushed over from the yamen.

"Who is causing trouble?"

"Which blind fool dares to cause trouble on my turf?"

"Courting death!"

The moment he landed, Lu Yuan glared with wide eyes, his body radiating a murderous aura that felt like an invisible storm, pressing down so heavily that everyone struggled to breathe.

"Younger Brother Yuan, Younger Brother Yuan, pull back your aura! We can't breathe!"

Chen Fei hurriedly called out to Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan's presence was simply too overwhelming.

Especially when he was angry, that pressure felt like an entire mountain about to crush down upon them.

Even if it was unintentional, it was still far beyond what ordinary people could endure.

"Brother Fei, I'm sorry."

Lu Yuan turned around and saw the crowd behind him wearing expressions of acute distress, whereupon he immediately reined in his aura.

"T-this isn't qi."

Lu Yuan cast his gaze toward the wind wall ahead with a puzzled expression.

This shouldn't be the qi Chen Haohao had spoken of.

It wasn't as if he had never witnessed martial arts qi before.

During the Battle of Mount Qingcheng, he had encountered several Mount Qingcheng elders who had cultivated martial arts qi.

In his impression, martial arts qi possessed form, color, and a distinct aggressiveness.

The wind wall before him was formless, colorless, and its aggressiveness was virtually zero.

As long as one didn't foolishly charge straight into it, nothing would happen.

"Let's not talk about that for now. Yiyi is still inside."

Chen Nian pointed at the utility room ahead and said anxiously.

"It's fine, leave it to me."

Lu Yuan stepped forward as a violent gust rushed over, making his robes snap loudly.

Lu Yuan did not retreat. Although the resistance of the wind wall was strong, to him, it was practically nonexistent.

With a gentle nudge, Lu Yuan easily pierced through the restriction of the wind wall and stepped inside.

Lu Yuan pushed open the door and caught sight of Chen Yiyi, who was currently plunged deep into a state of sudden enlightenment.

Subconsciously, he checked Chen Yiyi's data interface, and a moment later, Lu Yuan fell into deep contemplation.

"Could it that she really is a genius?"

"This cultivation manual... I literally made it up completely at random."

"How on earth did she manage to comprehend real martial arts from a manual I just fabricated out of thin air?"