The next morning, Lin Zichen woke early.

He glanced at the still-sleeping Shen Qinghan—drooling in her usual way—and smiled, wiping the saliva from the corner of her lips with the back of his hand.

Then he quietly got out of bed, put on his shoes and left.

Down in the living-room, he found Shen Jianye on the sofa watching the morning news.

Lin Zichen greeted him with a smile, “Morning, Uncle Ye.”

“Up so early?”

“Yeah—used to waking at this time.”

“Has Hanhan woken up?”

“Not yet.”

“If only Hanhan were as disciplined as you. Once she’s on break, she sleeps till the sun’s high and only gets up when your Aunt Meng calls her,” Shen Jianye said, shaking his head.

Lin Zichen laughed, “Hanhan brought you back a provincial top-scorer title. Sleeping in a bit during break isn’t too much.”

“That’s true.”

Shen Jianye nodded. Thinking of his daughter as provincial top scorer put a proud smile on his face.

At that moment, Xu Meng came out of the kitchen.

Seeing the bag of daily necessities in Lin Zichen’s hand, she walked over and said, “Xiao Chen, breakfast is almost ready. Why don’t you eat before heading back?”

“Sure—I’ll eat first, then go.”

Lin Zichen smiled, not standing on ceremony with his future mother-in-law and her superb cooking.

Breakfast was lean-pork congee.

He had two bowls before heading home.

As soon as he left, Xu Meng said to Shen Jianye, still sipping congee:

“I got up at midnight to use the bathroom and heard the shower upstairs. Do you think our daughter did it with him last night?”

“Now that you mention it—probably.”

“That’s major progress. I need to tell Wanxin the good news,” Xu Meng said, beaming as she whipped out her phone and fired off several WeChat messages to Zhang Wanxin.

* * *

Meanwhile, when Lin Zichen got home, he tossed the dirty clothes he’d changed out of last night into the washing machine.

Then he picked up the laundry detergent on the floor, poured some in and hit the start button.

When he’d finished and was about to head out for morning training,

Zhang Wanxin came over with a satisfied smile and praised him warmly, “Son, you’re very capable!”

“Huh?”

Lin Zichen was confused.

He’d only washed some clothes—and with a washing machine at that. How did that make him ‘capable’?

Zhang Wanxin didn’t explain. Still smiling, she said, “Nothing—Mom just thinks you’re very capable and wanted to praise you.”

He couldn’t figure it out and didn’t dwell on it. He headed out for his morning training.

* * *

After training, he came home, showered and went upstairs to his room to continue tempering his skin.

In the evenings, he went to Shen Qinghan’s room to kiss her and study her superpower.

Two and a half days passed like that.

There was still no real progress on the superpower.

But he made great gains in the kissing department.

Thanks to use it or lose it and Innate Wisdom, Lin Zichen’s kissing technique had risen to the peak of the world.

Every time they kissed, it took only a few seconds to make Shen Qinghan go weak, her head spinning, unable to tell north from south—swapping one diaper after another.

He’d also made good progress with skin tempering.

After two and a half days of effort, he had finished tempering the skin on both arms, both legs and his butt.

That was about forty-seven percent of total skin surface area.

Just three more days—four at most—and he’d finish tempering all his skin.

Then his body would be like wearing top-grade body armor—practically impervious to blades and bullets.

* * *

Shanhai University.

A training ground in the Martial Arts Academy.

Liu Chuanwu was practicing legwork and strikes. Every punch and kick was extremely sharp, packed with explosive force, crackling loudly as it tore the air.

Just as he was fully in the zone, several burly middle-aged men strode in from outside, faces dark, marching straight toward him.

The leader shouted angrily, “Liu Chuanwu! What’s the meaning of this Lin Zichen business? You owe me an explanation!”

“What Lin Zichen business? I don’t follow,” Liu Chuanwu said, stopping to look at the man and playing dumb.

The man didn’t waste breath and cursed, “Lin Zichen clearly enrolled in my Evolution Academy and you resorted to underhanded tricks to poach him for your Martial Arts Academy. Have you no shame?!”

“What do you mean, ‘underhanded tricks’?”

With a look of indifference, Liu Chuanwu shot back, “So only your Evolution Academy is allowed to recruit, but my Martial Arts Academy isn’t?”

Then he turned snide, “Dean Ma—what lofty airs you put on!”

Ma Zhenhe demanded, “There’s an order to things. You’ve lived long enough—don’t you understand that?”

“I don’t care about your ‘first come, first served.’ As long as school hasn’t started, he’s not a student of your Evolution Academy. I can recruit him if I want. No school rule forbids it.”

“Fine—the rules don’t say so, but you’ve broken the unspoken code between deans!”

“Heh. That’s your unspoken code. What’s that got to do with me?”

“In short, my recruitment was fair and proper. If you’re upset, go get Lin Zichen back for your Evolution Academy.”

Ma Zhenhe’s anger curdled into a laugh, “Hah! You—who love scheming and stabbing people in the back—have the gall to talk about fair competition? If you’ve got the guts, meet me on the stage. Winner takes the say! That’s real fair competition! Not skulking in the shadows like you do. Got it?”

He was truly furious—so mad he’d lost his composure.

To this moment he couldn’t understand—was the provincial runner-up brainless, or had Liu Chuanwu’s powers of persuasion leveled up again?

How could he have been poached like this?

Truth be told, Liu Chuanwu had poached students before.

But they were always ordinary students; Ma Zhenhe couldn’t be bothered.

This year, though, it was the exam runner-up. That, he could not tolerate!

“Fight you on stage? Do you take me for an idiot?”

Liu Chuanwu looked at Ma Zhenhe like he was a fool and chuckled, “You’re a High-Level Tier 5 and you want to bully little old me, an Ordinary Level 9? And you call that fair? Where’s your shame?”

“I’m only forty-eight and you’re ninety-five. How am I bullying you?”

“Then you’re bullying the elderly!”

“You—!”

Ma Zhenhe was about to cough blood from rage. The man’s mouth was too slick—truly a king of trash talk.

Putting on the airs of an elder, Liu Chuanwu said dryly, “Young man, if you want a duel, fine. When I break the Ordinary shackle with a pureblood body and evolve into an Advanced Being, you’ll be the first one I carve up.”

Confident, he added, “I’ll stream it nationwide and with High-Level Stage 1 strength, kill you—a High-Level Stage 5 Gene Fuser—across ranks!”

Ma Zhenhe sneered, “Heh. You’re just a king of trash talk.”

“Liu Chuanwu, I’ll put it plainly: as long as you don’t undergo Gene Fusion, you’ll be a weakling stuck at Ordinary Level 9 for life. Less than an ant among ordinary creatures. Keep tinkering with your ‘pureblood humans’ nonsense.”

With that, Ma Zhenhe left the training ground, unwilling to keep arguing.

But the matter of the exam runner-up being poached couldn’t just be dropped.

He went straight to the principal’s office to complain to Yuan Dongzhi that Liu Chuanwu had no martial virtue and had used underhanded tricks to poach the Evolution Academy’s provincial runner-up.

Yuan Dongzhi only offered a cool reassurance, “Don’t worry, Dean Ma. After school starts and some time passes, when Lin Zichen sees his former peers—once beneath him—surpassing him one by one through Gene Fusion or Mechanical Modification, he’ll switch majors on his own.”

Ma Zhenhe said, “Principal Yuan, that’s not the point. The point is that Liu Chuanwu broke the rules. He should be punished.”

Lifting her teacup, Yuan Dongzhi took a light sip, “If you’re unhappy, repay him in kind—go poach the runner-up back.”

“Then I’ll do as Principal Yuan says.”

Ma Zhenhe felt dissatisfied that she wouldn’t punish Liu Chuanwu, but he didn’t say so. Outwardly, he remained respectful.

They exchanged a few more words and soon Ma Zhenhe left to tend to his own affairs.

After he left, Yuan Dongzhi murmured to herself, “Ma Zhenhe usually seems steady enough, but every time he sees that Liu fellow, he gets so mad he loses his reason. So many years have passed and that Liu hasn’t changed a bit. That mouth of his is still deadly.”

She sighed, “His body could have been as powerful as his mouth. Too bad he strayed when he was young. Otherwise he’d be at least a principal by now.”