Chapter 93: I’m Going to Steal Your Wife

Heyue City. In a residential compound near Longhu District.

“I’m telling you, you should be close to recovered by now.”
“It was just a little scrape—two days in bed?”

Zhang Qingping stood in the living room, scolding Peng Fei inside the bedroom.
Peng Fei, however, looked utterly unconcerned and tossed his mouth: “A little scrape? You have no idea, my handsome face was nearly disfigured!”

“Fine then. I’ll call Qianqian and have him bring me some cherries.”
While muttering, Peng Fei quickly connected to Qianqian.
Leng Bingbing, helplessly shaking her head, laughed softly at Zhang Qingping: “You too—why must you go out of your way to bother with him?”
“I just wanted to calm my nerves somehow.”
Still irritated, Zhang Qingping moved to stand beside Leng Bingbing.
The two girls quickly got very interested in a TV program and did not pay any attention to Peng Fei anymore.

…

The martial hall tournament had ended.
Of the eleven participants confirmed in advance, most chose to stay in Heyue City.
That included Leng Bingbing and Zhang Qingping.
When they learned that Peng Fei had been beaten up, the two women simply stayed.
In truth, they were too lazy to look for a place, so they moved in with Peng Fei’s ready-made accommodation.
Hearing that two beauties were going to stay, Peng Fei naturally approved with both hands.
Actually, this apartment even had shared ownership under Zhang Ze.
One could only imagine how complicated Zhang Ze’s mood might be if he knew that before he had even had time to move into the house he bought, Peng Fei had somehow found two beauties as companions.

…

Qingfeng Ancient Town.
Ren Xueer ultimately did not bring Zhang Ze and Cai Hu any useful information.
That, of course, left Cai Hu feeling somewhat helpless.
But after a few days, Cai Hu’s condition had improved greatly.
With Zhang Ze having come close to being killed by Wen Ran, he no longer insisted on staying.
In the end, he and Zhang Ze reached an understanding: return to Nanye City tomorrow.
Only Zhang Ze did not tell him that he had secretly contacted Captain Zhuang.

“Captain Zhuang,”
“Can we talk about something now about the case of Cai Hu’s parents?”
On the other end, Captain Zhuang hesitated at Zhang Ze’s question.
Zhang Ze quickly added, “I can assure you, Cai Hu is much better now.”
“Once you explain the full story to him, he will value the bigger picture above everything.”

Only after he said this did Captain Zhuang soften.
He told Zhang Ze, “In that case, return to Nanye as quickly as you can. The case of Cai Hu’s parents still hasn’t tracked down those two cultists, but I can brief you on some other details.”

They ended the call there.

…

“I ask you, what are we doing about this girl?”
Zhang Ze and Cai Hu had set their departure time.
This time, seeing Ren Xueer beside him, Zhang Ze asked with a frown.
“What?”
“Then what does it concern me?”
Though she said so with her mouth, Ren Xueer still kept a faint trace of expectation inside.
Fortunately, Zhang Ze was not Wen Song, and he was not slow or hesitant in action.

“Our business of kissing me twice isn’t over yet. I’m not going to let you off so easily.”
“Wen Song is troublesome too. Come with us to Nanye City and clear your mind.”
Zhang Ze said it casually, but Cai Hu at the side could not help a flicker at the corner of his eyes.
He thought, You’ve made up your mind to pry the Wen family’s would-be daughter-in-law from her home, haven’t you?
Yet he understood.
Some things are done, not spelled out.

“You want me to go to Nanye City with you?”
Ren Xueer was startled.
“What happened?”
“Don’t you want to go?”
Zhang Ze looked completely composed, not showing any strong emotion.
Ren Xueer instinctively said, “No…”
“Then we can call it decided, right?”
Before she could fully absorb that, Zhang Ze added, “By the way, do you want to go home and pack your things?”
“Forget it, forget it.”
“Better not go back to provoke Wen Song. Just leave with the two of us tomorrow.”
“Oh, all right.”
In her dazed state, Ren Xueer simply came along.

…

That night.
Before training, Zhang Ze checked over his physical condition once more.
Wen Ran’s palm strike had still left him with a lingering dread.
This instinctive examination revealed something unusual.

For a mediocre Second-Grade Martial Artist like him, the System played a key role in allowing Zhang Ze to absorb a Sixth-Grade Heart-Guard Pill.
To put it plainly, a Martial Artist of his current second-grade cell force who swallowed a Sixth-Grade elixir outright would almost certainly have burst from the shock of its immense energy.
Only because the System transformed the Sixth-Grade Heart-Guard Pill into several strands of pure and gentle energy had he not blown apart from taking it.

Still, despite the System’s help, the immense energy of the Sixth-Grade elixir had brought Zhang Ze very serious side effects.
Hours later, the wound in his heart had already healed, yet the remaining medicinal energy was still enormous.
Now, across the surface of his heart, large deposits of energy crystals had formed.
If he did nothing, it would soon become a burden to the heart.
With a cell strength of nearly 500S, Zhang Ze’s body was not immune to blades or bullets, but it was not something an ordinary human could match.
That was why, in this condition, his heart could keep working for several more hours.

“No wonder I kept feeling my chest getting tighter and tighter.”
After noticing the crystals on the heart’s surface, Zhang Ze muttered to himself.
After thinking it over, he dressed and went to a patch of ground behind the hotel.
He picked up a few half-broken bricks and, from memory, began cultivating stance training.
It was a method he had learned from video lessons with his martial hall mentor, and it worked extremely well for improving stance skill.

His intention was clear.
Tonight he intended to break through that stance barrier by this method.
At the same time, he would draw in the energy crystals on his heart and step into the ranks of a Third-Grade Martial Artist.

Before moving, Zhang Ze glanced at several key System metrics:
Wealth Value: 10846
Cell Strength: 473S
Cell Spirit: 140/169
Meridians: 12 (90%)

To reach Third-Grade status, passing 500S in cell strength is only one hurdle.
He also needed his stance work to reach a transformative realm and the closure of the Great Return among the twelve meridians.
For Zhang Ze’s cell strength, using the crystals condensed on the outer wall of his heart should not be too difficult.
As for stance cultivation, he had trained for a long time already, so this night could unfold smoothly.

Once he had decided, Zhang Ze moved at once.
With a sudden writhing of his muscles, that 500S cell force quickly displayed astonishing power.
Within his body, the twelve meridians, through the tempering of each cell, linked together in an instant.
What remained was the closure of the twelve meridians and breaking cell strength past the 500S threshold.
Under the moonlight, Zhang Ze’s feet kept tapping lightly from one brick to another.
From a close look, his figure did not sway at all.
And during this process, the energy crystals at his heart slowly melted away.

At the same time,
on a highway in the outskirts of Mengyang County,
Huang Ming sat alone in his car, looking utterly haggard.
He held the phone tightly in his hand, and still did not know whether he should make the call or not…