Chapter 23

Sitting on the cruise ship returning to shore, Chen Fan took a deep breath and exhaled.

"From now on, I should use flashy moves less often. Just one strike drained a third of my true essence."

That finger-stretching, sword-like move, which looked cool when performed with inner strength, was very draining. Chen Fan could only perform it after advancing to the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment realm. Even then, he could only manage two or three strikes at full effort.

"If it weren't to intimidate Zhou Tianhao and make him useful to me in the future, I wouldn't bother with such a wasteful move. A single spell could have reduced Lin Bao to ashes." Chen Fan shook his head.

"After I reach the Profound Enlightenment stage and master the Sword Canon, I'll be able to emit a ten-foot sword aura at will, which will be far more powerful than the current external true essence that can only chop a table."

With this thought, he had already arrived at the shore.

The next morning, after returning home, Zhou Tianhao personally visited, delivering a bank card with 20 million yuan, which was Chen Fan's compensation for this time.

Chen Fan accepted it without much concern. Although 20 million was many times his current assets, to a cultivator like him, money was just a string of numbers.

At noon, Chang Wen found Chen Fan again, saying the school team had a match and needed them to help move things.

This time, Chen Fan refused without hesitation.

"What did you say? You're not going?" Chang Wen thought she had misheard.

"That's right. The school team's match is the school sports department's responsibility. What does it have to do with our class?" Chen Fan replied coolly.

The last time he helped was out of consideration for his classmates. After helping, he was mocked by Chang Wen, which significantly reduced his good feelings toward her.

Of course, Chang Wen didn't know this. She thought Chen Fan had walked away, but as a cultivator, his hearing was far superior to that of ordinary people.

"Are you really not going?" Chang Wen's face changed, and her beautiful eyes looked at Chen Fan coldly.

"Not going!" Chen Fan firmly said.

"So, you think the school team's match is unimportant?" Chang Wen snorted, extremely angry.

She came from a wealthy family, was beautiful, and was the class president. She had been treated like a princess since childhood, and only someone as excellent as Si Yingxia could make her slightly lower her head. When had she ever been refused like this by a transfer student in her class?

This time, Chen Fan didn't even bother to speak, just lowered his head to read a book.

"Chen, do you dare to disrespect the school team?" A tall boy from the front row stood up, walked over, and glared at Chen Fan.

His name was Ji Xingyu, the class physical education representative and a substitute player on the school basketball team, who placed great importance on the school team's honor.

Si Yingxia clearly noticed this and was frowning as he looked over.

"So what if I do?" Chen Fan looked up at him with a half-smile.

"You..." Ji Xingyu's face turned red with anger, and he raised his hand to strike.

Jiang Tanqiu quickly stood up and grabbed him.

"Brother, give me some face. He's a transfer student and doesn't know any better. Don't take it to heart."

After saying this, he said to Chen Fan with a look of disappointment: "It's just moving some drinks. I'll go with you, okay?"

"If you want to go, go yourself. I'm not going." Chen Fan leaned back lazily.

"Alright, kid, you've got guts." Ji Xingyu laughed in anger. He threatened fiercely: "The last person who disrespected the school team had his leg broken. I hope you can still be as cocky then."

"Anytime." Chen Fan was completely unbothered.

Seeing this, the others were surprised.

After all, the school basketball team members were tall and strong, and last year they made it to the Jiangnan Province High School League's top eight, bringing honor to the school. So they were rampant at Changqingteng High School, and almost no one dared to provoke them. Previously, Yang Chao had led the school team members to break a boy's leg who had provoked him, and Ji Xingyu was among them.

"Didn't expect this transfer student to have some backbone?"

"So what if he does? He's overestimating himself."

"Right, he should know his own capabilities before daring to provoke Ji Xingyu and Class President Chang."

Some people laughed with schadenfreude.

Although Chen Fan had been low-key for the past half month, he showed no intention of integrating into the class. Being outside this circle naturally made others hate him. So when Chen Fan and Ji Xingyu had a conflict, no one stood up for him. Even Jiang Tanqiu, seeing Chen Fan's stubborn attitude, sat down in anger.

The last class of the afternoon was a taekwondo class. It was not mandatory, voluntary, and required a uniform fee and class fee.

Changqingteng High School claimed to be in line with international standards, so it offered some elective courses. Therefore, physical education classes were changed to swimming, running, taekwondo, etc. Almost everyone in the class signed up, but Chen Fan was not interested and was preparing to go to the bar early.

The bar, although it had a hateful Yang boss, was friendly to him otherwise.

At this moment, someone suddenly blocked Chen Fan's path.

"Hey, don't go, brother. Why aren't you going to the taekwondo class?" Ji Xingyu said with a fake smile.

"Does it matter whether I go or not?" Chen Fan frowned.

"You've been skipping classes. Can't you even afford the class fee? Just say so, and I can help you pay it." Ji Xingyu sneered.

"Hmm?" Chen Fan's eyes turned cold, and he was about to continue.

At this moment, Class President Chang Wen walked over.

She looked at Chen Fan coldly and said, "You've been late and leaving early, not participating in group activities. If you skip the taekwondo class today, don't blame me for telling Teacher Xue."

"Oh?" Chen Fan glanced at the two of them.

Thinking of something, his frown suddenly eased.

"Alright, I'll go."

...

The taekwondo hall at Changqingteng High School was very luxurious, about the same size as the basketball hall.

This taekwondo class was a large class, not just for Class 9 of Grade 3, but also for several other classes, including freshmen and sophomores.

Jiang Tanqiu introduced, "Our school's taekwondo is very famous. The hall master once won second place in the national taekwondo competition, is a fifth-degree black belt, and is very strong, easily handling ten opponents."

After saying this, he looked at Chen Fan and sighed.

"You should be careful. Ji Xingyu bringing you to the taekwondo class is not out of kindness. He's a blue belt and might make things difficult for you in class. But just ignore him."

Chen Fan nodded, acknowledging the good advice.

At this moment, the coach arrived, and Jiang Tanqiu quickly stood up, bowing with the others.

The coach was a second-degree black belt. After teaching some warm-up exercises, he arranged for sparring practice.

"Yingxia, you go first and demonstrate," the coach said.

Si Yingxia nodded coolly, walked out, and stood in the center of the mat.

His belt was red.

A red belt in taekwondo is just below a black belt, representing danger and aggression, which takes years of hard training to achieve.

The coach first arranged a blue belt to spar with Si Yingxia.

A blue belt is just below a red belt and black belt, requiring at least a year of hard training. However, he couldn't last ten moves against Si Yingxia and was kicked away by a spinning kick.

"Leader Si is indeed strong." The blue belt who was kicked away was Ji Xingyu, who got up and raised his hand in surrender.

"Of course, Yingxia has been practicing taekwondo since childhood," a pretty girl said proudly.

"Right, among all the students in the taekwondo club, only our Yingxia is the strongest," another girl added.

The surrounding younger students also applauded enthusiastically, and many girls looked at the handsome Si Yingxia with hearts in their eyes. Upon learning he was the top student and scholar in Grade 3, they let out a chorus of exclamations.

Si Yingxia ignored them and frowned, saying, "You haven't been practicing enough recently. Otherwise, you could have lasted three more moves."

Ji Xingyu grinned, "I just practice for fun, not as seriously as Leader Si."

"Leader Si's level is so high, he could easily get a black belt. It's a shame for us red belts who can't reach it."

"Who else wants to come up and practice?" The coach, clearly aware of Si Yingxia's level, smiled.

"If no one, then we'll follow the original pairing and practice with each other."

"Great, I'll be beaten up again," the boy chosen to be Si Yingxia's opponent groaned.

Others looked at him with schadenfreude.

Ji Xingyu was already considered the second-best in the class after Si Yingxia, and the other blue belts were even worse. Even among the blue belts, only six or seven in the class had reached that level.

At this moment, Ji Xingyu suddenly said:

"Coach, before we start sparring, I want to challenge someone."

After saying this, he looked at a corner with ill intent:

"Chen, you were so cocky at noon. Do you have the guts to come up and practice?"

Everyone looked over in surprise and saw a lone teenager sitting in the corner.

It was Chen Fan!

And his belt was white.

PS: Thanks to FangshengZzz, lZuoshoujunl, Qiqian Xingyu, Kulei Zenxie, Luo Rong, Chu Du01, and Dao Yizhen Shen for their support. I'm still asking for recommendations O(∩_∩)O

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