Chapter 4

Xu Jingming left his bedroom and walked to the basement, which was over a hundred square meters. Along the walls were three long spears. Xu Jingming casually picked one up. The spear was silver-gray, about 2.5 meters long, with a cushioning layer at the tip. Although he had been chatting casually with his senior brother Fang and later dining and chatting with his good friend Liu Chongyuan, Xu Jingming was still seething inside.

"Xiao Bai, start the training monitoring," Xu Jingming said.

"Xiao Bai received the command."

The lights in the basement flickered on, and the cameras began to operate.

Xu Jingming pulled the spear with both hands, and it made a "snap" sound. The stance he took with the spear was a reverse grip, where most traditional spear users held the spear with their right hand at the end and their left hand in the middle. However, Xu Jingming held the spear with his right hand in the middle and his left hand at the end.

He took a quick step forward, and as he moved, he instantly exerted force, thrusting the spear forward.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The spear moved like an arrow, as if seven or eight arrows were shooting through the air, piercing all the enemies in front. Each thrust tore through the air with a sharp whistle.

The data on the wall showed: "18.2 meters per second," "18.6 meters per second," "17.9 meters per second," "18.1 meters per second"... accurately measuring the maximum speed of each thrust.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, Xu Jingming thrust the spear forward with a loud crack. The spear's shadow became blurry, and the data on the wall showed: "25.3 meters per second."

Xu Jingming's most famous move: the Shadow Thrust!

Anyone in the martial arts circle would understand how terrifying such a spear speed was. In close combat, finding an opportunity to use this move would be enough to take down even world-class experts.

Xu Jingming took two steps to a heavy punching bag hanging nearby, twisted his waist like a large gear, and transmitted the force from his entire body to his arms. Using the spear's bursting technique, he struck the punching bag. The heavy punching bag weighed 300 kilograms and was suspended on a track, specially designed for this purpose.

"Thud!" A deep, resonant sound.

The data on the wall showed: "625 kilograms."

It was this terrifying force, over a thousand kilograms with just a casual burst, that could make the spears of provincial team members fly away upon contact!

Xu Jingming moved, thrusting the spear and releasing his frustration on the heavy punching bag. Each strike and burst produced a deep, powerful sound, and the 300-kilogram punching bag swayed continuously. The data on the wall kept showing: "656 kilograms," "689 kilograms," "630 kilograms"...

Suddenly, he paused, then lunged forward, his entire body like a cannonball, the spear becoming the tip of the cannonball, striking the punching bag.

"Thud~~" The heavy punching bag slid to the other end along the track, rising high.

The data on the wall showed: "1138 kilograms."

Xu Jingming's other famous move: Mountain Break!

Since childhood, under his father's guidance, Xu Jingming had learned Ba Ji, Chuo Jiao, and practiced the Six Harmonies Spear. In modern society, martial arts schools also absorbed the best techniques from each other, such as the inch-force and whole-body force techniques, which many schools had similar training methods for.

At the age of 20, during the World Martial Arts Competition, Xu Jingming's right leg was broken by his opponent's shield strike. After that, he focused on healing his injury and honing his spear techniques.

In college, Xu Jingming studied physics, and he analyzed traditional martial arts techniques from a physics perspective. He believed that all force generation was scientifically sound, with the body's bones, joints, and muscles acting as levers, bearings, and power sources.

With the deep foundation he had built since childhood and a deeper understanding of force generation from a physics perspective, he continuously fine-tuned his force techniques. Eventually, he created the Shadow Thrust based on the traditional inch-force technique.

He also created the Mountain Break using the force technique from the Ba Ji Iron Mountain Lean.

His other spear techniques also improved to some extent, with each move becoming more powerful. With such spear skills, even with his leg injury and significant flaws in his footwork, Xu Jingming returned to the World Martial Arts Competition at the age of 25 and advanced to the quarterfinals.

Footwork is crucial, accounting for half of the practical combat. Despite his significant flaws in footwork, Xu Jingming could still reach the quarterfinals, which showed how terrifying his spear skills were. He was also rated by the World Martial Arts Federation as one of the top ten spear users in the past thirty years, earning the title of "Spear Demon."

However, that competition also made Xu Jingming realize that with his injured leg, unless his spear skills underwent a qualitative change, he had no hope of becoming the world's best. The more competitions he participated in, the more severe his injuries would become.

After that competition, he announced his retirement.

At the age of 26, the prime of a professional martial artist, Xu Jingming retired with his injuries.

In the basement, Xu Jingming had sweat on his face. He walked to the wall and gently placed the spear back.

Looking at the three training spears, Xu Jingming was silent. No matter how powerful his spear skills were, in modern society, martial arts were just a sport. Faced with Cheng Zihao's coercion, he could only endure, with no other options.

"Jingming." Li Miaomiao, wearing a nightgown, came down the stairs and looked at Xu Jingming, who had sweat on his body. "What's wrong?"

Normally, after a day of training at the martial arts gym, Xu Jingming would usually rest and rarely practice with the spear again. And looking at her boyfriend's back, she could sense that Xu Jingming seemed to be in a bad mood.

"Let's go upstairs and talk." Xu Jingming turned off the lights and led Li Miaomiao to the living room.

In the living room,

"Xiao Wu, bring two bottles of juice." Xu Jingming sat on the sofa, and Li Miaomiao also sat down, asking, "Jingming, what happened?"

At that moment, a female robot, holding two bottles of juice, came to Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao, handing them the juice. The butler "Xiao Wu" was familiar with the juices that the male and female owners often drank.

Xiao Wu was a butler robot capable of doing housework, cooking, chatting, and even acting as a bodyguard. It had reached a level 3 intelligence, and such a high-end intelligent robot was as expensive as a luxury supercar.

"Speak up." Li Miaomiao poked Xu Jingming's shoulder as he drank the juice.

"As you expected, Cheng Zihao made his move and forced me to lose my job," Xu Jingming said, shaking his head. "He's really a lunatic, acting without any limits. Well, it was my senior brother who invited me to the martial arts gym. With my spear skills, I can make a living anywhere."

"Don't be upset." Li Miaomiao hugged her boyfriend's arm, comforting him. "It's not worth getting angry over a scumbag."

Xu Jingming looked at his girlfriend and nodded.

Li Miaomiao was a talented singer, unsigned to any company, without an agent, and attended the Binhai Music College. During her college years, her first live stream on the internet, where she performed her self-composed song "Pear Wood," went viral.

Her voice was very clear, and her songs had a special power to soothe the soul. During her college years, she wrote over thirty songs, and just from the song downloads, she earned tens of millions.

She was a unique figure in the music industry, not participating in any variety shows, without a company or an agent, live streaming once a month, and occasionally posting videos. Besides singing videos, she also posted gaming videos.

Her favorite game was "Wudao OL," where she played a catgirl swordsman with a high rank.

Many professional martial artists played "Wudao OL," and Xu Jingming occasionally joined in, meeting Li Miaomiao, who played a secondary character. Li Miaomiao had never seen a player with such powerful spear skills and immediately added him as a friend, using various methods to team up with Xu Jingming...

Their relationship blossomed through the game, and Xu Jingming fell for the catgirl swordsman, gradually leading to them being together.

"Cheng Zihao is a scumbag," Li Miaomiao said, hugging her boyfriend's arm. "He claims to be a bachelor but keeps changing girlfriends. Why would I, Li Miaomiao, even consider him? If I were after fame and fortune, I wouldn't live stream only once a month."

Although they had never met in person, Cheng Zihao still pursued Li Miaomiao obsessively.

Knowing that Li Miaomiao had a boyfriend and that they were planning to get married, Cheng Zihao still didn't give up.

Xu Jingming sighed, "Miaomiao, you're straightforward. You blocked him and even switched platforms, opening an account on another live streaming platform, 'We World.'"

"I only live stream once a month," Li Miaomiao smiled. "Switching platforms, I can still gradually build up my fan base. 'We World' has about half the traffic of HuShark, which is still pretty good."

"To switch a million-follower account that took years to build, just like that, only you would do it," Xu Jingming said.

"My income comes from song royalties, and live streaming is just for fun," Li Miaomiao said, drinking her juice. "Life is about being happy. If I'm not happy, of course, I'll switch platforms."

Xu Jingming was quite moved.

Li Miaomiao, facing threats and inducements, blocked the other party without hesitation and switched platforms!

"Actually, our income is already quite high, so we don't need to push ourselves too hard," Li Miaomiao comforted her boyfriend.

"Right," Xu Jingming nodded.

They had already discussed blocking Cheng Zihao's contact information, out of sight, out of mind.

"Are you planning to return to Mingyue City?" Li Miaomiao asked.

"Sure, it's easy to open a martial arts gym and be a high-end personal trainer in Mingyue City," Xu Jingming asked. "Do you plan to come back with me? We're getting married on New Year's Day, so we should meet my parents in advance."

Xu Jingming and Li Miaomiao had a good relationship and had agreed to get married on New Year's Day, symbolizing "a lifetime together." Both sets of parents had met and agreed.

"If we return to Mingyue City, we'll be living there long-term," Li Miaomiao looked around the living