Celestial Taoist

Chapter 5 is not a misunderstanding.

At this moment, in an ordinary hotel room, Long Che and Wang Xin lay on their own, their clothes disheveled, with dried, blackened bloodstains on their bodies.

The room remained quiet for a long time before Wang Xin finally managed to sit up slowly, gasping for breath as he rubbed his scraped knee, his brows furrowed tightly.

"Senior Brother Long, something's not right about what happened today."

He turned his head to look at Long Che, who was meditating with his eyes closed on the opposite bed, his tone full of confusion: "Those people insisted that Li Mofan was a newcomer that our No. 1 Martial Arts School had its eye on, and they wanted to snatch him away, but from beginning to end, I had no idea about any of this. I just thought this kid was steady and quick-witted, and I wanted to teach him how to haul goods so he could earn some stable, hard-earned money. What did that have to do with any martial arts school qualifications or entry quotas?"

Long Che slowly opened his eyes, tilted his head slightly, dared not move his left arm much, and spoke indifferently.

"I didn't know either."

"Huh?" Wang Xin was stunned, his face full of astonishment. "You don't know either? How come the people from the Liefeng Martial Arts Academy are so adamant that Li Mofan is the one we've chosen? They even said he has exceptional talent and that both major martial arts academies are eyeing him?"

Long Che gently pressed his fingertips against the wound on his left arm, remained silent for a moment, and then spoke softly: "I don't know Li Mofan's background, and I have no intention of recruiting him into the martial arts school."

Wang Xin was completely confused: "Then why did you fight them so head-on just now? And why did you clearly protect that kid, even at the cost of breaking ties with the Liefeng Martial Arts Academy? Our academy's quota for superhumans is already full this year, and there's no way we can take in any more older newcomers like that. You clearly knew this, but you didn't explain a word to those people from beginning to end, and instead just tacitly agreed."

That hit the nail on the head.

If Long Che had simply clarified that Li Mofan was just an ordinary worker with no connection to the No. 1 Martial Arts School during the standoff, he might not have immediately started a fight.

But he didn't.

Instead, he pressed on relentlessly, fiercely protecting the other party and allowing them to misunderstand, thus pinning the label of "competing for a newcomer" on both of them.

Long Che's voice was deep: "Given the situation at the time, explanations are useless. The Gale Martial Arts Academy had been preparing for this for a long time, deliberately looking for a pretext to provoke trouble. Even without Li Mofan today, they would have found another excuse to provoke us. They had long wanted to find a reason to suppress our No. 1 Martial Arts Academy."

"But there's no need to fight like this!" Wang Xin said anxiously. "That kid is just an ordinary person learning to drive. He has nothing to do with the martial arts school's conflict. We don't need to get beaten up for an outsider and completely offend the Liefeng Martial Arts School!"

"It's precisely because he's an ordinary person who has nothing to do with the situation that they can kidnap him at will," Long Che said calmly. "The unspoken rule of martial arts school battles is that ordinary people shouldn't be involved. At most, he'll suffer some physical pain if he's taken away."

Wang Xin was stunned.

"So...you knew it was a misunderstanding, and you knew that Li Mofan had nothing to do with our martial arts school, but you deliberately didn't explain and tacitly accepted their explanation, all to use this as an excuse to get me out of this mess?"

Long Che slowly nodded, his gaze falling on the gray sky outside the window.

"Yes."

"If everything were exposed on the spot, the Gale Martial Arts School's objective would be thwarted, and in their rage, they would only try to kill us without hesitation. At that time, they outnumbered us, and the two of us simply couldn't withstand them. By using this 'newcomer,' they were made to hesitate and not strike immediately, which gave me the opportunity to break through and escape with you."

After hearing this, Wang Xin felt both bitter and fearful. He thought he could only make amends after Li Mofan got away. Still somewhat worried, he took out his phone, selected a contact, and tapped the green call icon.

Suddenly, a buzzing sound came from his pocket, and an abrupt ringtone rang out in Li Mofan's private room.

Li Mofan subconsciously took out his phone, and the caller ID on the screen was none other than Wang Xin.

He pressed the answer button, quickly brought the phone to his ear, and whispered:

"Brother Xin?! How are you guys? Are you and Senior Brother Long alright?"

There was a moment of suppressed silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Wang Xin's slightly hoarse, tired breathing, with the faint sound of horns from the street outside the window in the background.

"Brother, it's me." Wang Xin's voice was low, revealing an unconcealable sense of guilt. "We're safe for now, we escaped, but... we were a little injured, nothing serious."

Hearing this, Li Mofan asked with concern, "Are you injured? How serious is it? Those people were chasing you so closely, how did you manage to evade them? It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have gotten beaten up for no reason."

When this matter was brought up, Wang Xin gave a bitter smile, his tone full of helplessness and complexity:

"This isn't your fault. It was a complete misunderstanding from beginning to end. Those people from the Gale Martial Arts Academy mistook you for someone else and insisted that you were the genius newcomer that the Number One Martial Arts Academy had their eye on, and they were determined to take you away."

Li Mofan was suddenly taken aback: "You've mistaken me for someone else?"

"Hmm." Wang Xin said in a deep voice, "Brother Long and I had no idea that you had any special talent. At first, we just wanted to teach you to drive so we could make a living. The reason why Brother Long stopped us that day and refused to hand you over was not because the martial arts school wanted to take you in, but because he was afraid that those people would kidnap you and harm you."

He paused, his tone growing increasingly heavy: "He risked injury to lead me out of the encirclement, and we were both kept in the dark from beginning to end."

The blinding light of the spirit-testing disc and Zhao Qiankun's shocked and intense gaze flashed through Li Mofan's mind in an instant.

It's not a misunderstanding.

It was his own special talent that made him a target of secret surveillance, but the first person to approach him got the wrong person's identity.

Li Mofan gripped his phone, remained silent for a few seconds, and finally said simply, "Brother Xin, don't feel guilty, and don't worry about me. I'm fine here, and... I've already joined the Liefeng Martial Arts Academy."

Wang Xin on the other end of the phone was visibly taken aback, then exclaimed in surprise, "You joined the Fierce Wind Martial Arts Academy? They didn't give you any trouble?"

"No," Li Mofan smiled slightly, "They saw my potential and recruited me. The pay is pretty good; I can earn money to support my parents and have a stable place to live."

Wang Xin breathed a sigh of relief, his tone more relaxed: "That's good, that's good. As long as you're safe, I'm relieved. I originally wanted to help you with your freight business, but things turned out like this. From now on, stay at the martial arts school and be careful in everything you do."

"I know," Li Mofan replied. "Brother Xin, I really owe you all a lot this time. Once I'm settled in at the martial arts school and things have calmed down, let's meet up again, and I'll treat you to a meal."

"Don't mention it, we're all brothers," Wang Xin smiled, his voice still tinged with fatigue. "Alright, it's settled then. Senior Brother Long and I need to find a place to recuperate properly, so we won't disturb your rest. Focus on your studies at the martial arts school and take good care of yourself."

"You too, take good care of your injuries and be careful."

After hanging up the phone and the screen went dark, Li Mofan felt relieved. He took out the booklet, which was just an ordinary printed book. Following the instructions in the booklet, he sat cross-legged, cleared his mind, eliminated distractions, and focused only on sensing his own superpower.

The next morning, the piercing assembly bell shattered the tranquility of the Gale Martial Arts Academy. Li Mofan abruptly sat up in bed, instinctively reaching for his training clothes by the bedside, his movements hurried yet swift. He had been pondering the supernatural ability cultivation method until late last night, but hadn't quite grasped its intricacies. Today, he decided to follow the academy's schedule and practice along with it. After quickly washing up, he headed towards the training ground.

The training ground was already filled with martial arts students, mostly young men much younger than him, dressed in uniform black training clothes, standing in neat rows. Li Mofan quietly found a spot at the end of the line and looked around—the training ground was spacious and flat, with various training equipment placed around it, sandbags, wooden stakes, and force gauges arranged in neat rows.