After dying from a strange terminal illness, Ling Lan was reborn into a world 10000 years into the future. Although she dearly wished she could just live a peaceful and uneventful life in her new healthy body, fate had other plans ... Forced to disguise herself as a boy just so she could inherit her deceased father's premium military benefits, Ling Lan's journey to adulthood was full of challenges. After much difficulty, she finally turned sixteen when she could drop the charade. But before she could grasp her newfound freedom to get married and start her own family, a twist of fate results in her being thrown into the Federation's top military boys' school. With these twists of fate, Ling Lan had little choice but to walk further and further down a path of no return, one of cold and aloof dominance ... ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ryuxenji the translator here. :3 Here are some other things you should know: 1) This story is NOT primarily a romance. QI's system right now categorizes all novels taken from the female novel Chinese site (起点女生网) as 'romance' without fail, regardless of whether they truly are romance. So, if you are here just for the romance, you might want to find a different novel. There will be some romance eventually, but most of this novel is Sci-Fi/Xianxia with a lot of world-building and character development. 2) I use British spelling. So, please ensure spelling errors are really errors before reporting them. 3) No matter what the release rate up top says, the guaranteed release rate right now is 1 chp/day (a.k.a. 7 chps/week). All else is extra at my discretion. (I'll try my best, but RL responsibilities come first.)
Qi Long and Luo Lang, having received Ling Lan’s signal, shared a quick glance before they sprung out to attack.
Qi Long’s speed was just a tad faster than Luo Lang’s — he got to the examiner first and threw out a furious fist.
This fist had both power and speed behind it, cleaving through the air with an audible sound. This caused the examiner’s face to change, and he immediately raised his arm to block it.
And then a fiery sensation spread along his arm from the spot he had used to block — the brat’s strength and speed had actually increased yet again … The examiner discovered that Qi Long was clearly the berserker type. Seeing the little fellow’s impressive performance, the examiner was getting more and more excited.
Before the examiner could counterattack to push Qi Long back, Luo Lang’s attack had arrived from his other side — a whipping kick.
Luo Lang knew that he wasn’t very powerful and that his fists would be no threat to the examiner, so this time he chose to change his attack into a strong kick instead.
Luo Lang’s decision was unquestionably correct. Seeing this aggressive kick, the examiner had to admit that he had miscalculated. Luo Lang, who he had initially considered as the weakest and relatively harmless, had also found a way to contribute effectively, forcing him to spare some attention to deal with the boy’s attacks.
The examiner felt rather peevish. Why couldn’t these kids act like regular six-year-olds and just come at him recklessly? Why did they have to be so smart and even think of changing tactics?
He had no choice but to reach out with his other hand in a grab, catching hold of Luo Lang’s foot as it reached him. But just as he was about to throw Luo Lang away from him …
Oh no!
The examiner sensed the danger approaching him from below and quickly let go of Luo Lang’s ankle to retreat.
He moved just in the nick of time as Ling Lan’s attack brushed past where he was moments earlier — a crotch kick! Without his noticing, Ling Lan had positioned herself below him where she had then crouched, both hands flat on the ground, and launched her right leg directly upwards.
In that direction … was the place that men were most afraid of being injured.
The examiner, fortunately, noticed in time, managing to dodge Ling Lan’s terrifying attack by a hair’s breadth.
Damn, that was savage!
As the examiner landed, a shudder passed through his heart as his crotch tightened reflexively. Ling Lan straightened up, face cool and expressionless, as his gaze swept across the examiner’s lower half with some trace of regret for the near-miss. Seeing this, the examiner couldn’t help but retreat another three steps, putting some distance between him and Ling Lan’s group, before he felt a little safer.
The examiner couldn’t help but be afraid — just look at the power behind that kick! If that kick had landed as intended, his family line would most certainly have ended with him. The examiner was beginning to regret his whimsy — why did he have to be so goddamn curious? Overly excited at the promise of great talent, he had decided to tease these kids just a little, but he hadn't expected to end up kicking a steel plate.
These were not the adorable children they appeared to be — they were actually savage little wolf cubs in sheep’s clothing! The examiner could almost cry!
But still — he liked them!
The examiner looked at the three children before him, each with varying expressions on their faces. Regardless if they were wild (Qi Long), angry (Luo Lang), or cool (Ling Lan), their expressions couldn't hide the sheer tenacity in their bones as well as their savage natures. The smile at the corner of his lips deepened. Any soldier would be overjoyed in the face of such promising young talent.
********
"Haha, examiner 072 is in deep shit," the invigilator couldn’t help but jeer as he watched the proceedings up to this point. He hadn't missed how flustered the examiner had been in that last encounter.
The superintendent, who was just passing by on his rounds, overheard him speaking and looked over. When he saw that it was that officer who reported room 072 earlier, his irritation faded — after all, it was because of that officer that he had managed to learn about Major General Ling Xiao’s inheritor. So he merely gently chided, "Quiet, what are you making noise about now?"
The invigilator looked up to see the superintendent and stood up grinning to salute him, and then he reported in a low voice, "Sir, please look at this, there is a little problem." He pointed at the screen, asking the superintendent to come closer and see.
The superintendent glanced at him doubtfully, but still bent over slightly to look at the screen. On it, he saw the three children attack almost simultaneously – one from above, one from below, while the last one exploited any openings – and although their actions were still obviously untrained, they were surprisingly coordinated, causing the examiner quite a bit of trouble.
"That’s strange. What is examiner 072 doing? He should just take them down." The superintendent couldn't understand — he just subconsciously assumed that that would be an easy thing for the examiner to do against two or three little brats.
"Sir, take a closer look at this child’s movements." The invigilator had watched for a longer time and so had sussed out part of the problem.
The superintendent knew that the invigilator wouldn't mention something for no reason, and so continued to peer at the screen intently.
********
In room 072, Ling Lan was finding it easier and easier to move as the fight progressed. Initially, there was still some disconnection between her body and her intent — a few times, she was already there in her mind, but her body was a beat slower, making her miss out on several opportunities to hit the examiner. During this prolonged fight, however, she could feel her body becoming more agile, starting to flow and work in tandem with her intent.
As Ling Lan got into her groove, the examiner naturally found it more and more troublesome to fight. At the start, he still had some room to slack off, but gradually, he found that he could no longer hold back. If he didn't put his full attention on handling Ling Lan’s group’s attacks, he was very likely to get hit by Ling Lan.
After fighting for so long, the examiner had also come to understand the children’s strategy. They wanted to overwhelm his guard and find an opening, just to leave a mark on his body with either their fists or their feet. What a bunch of vengeful brats … the examiner thought to himself helplessly. He’d never have thought that a simple joke would cause the children to become so dead set on hitting him.
The examiner could only keep warding them off — he couldn’t really hurt them after all, could he? Even if the military didn't sanction him for it, he would also be unwilling to do so. I mean, just look! These three kids before him had such great potential.
The examiner was not at all anxious. He had all the patience in the world to wait them out. A veteran soldier would never lack for patience, otherwise, they would never have survived the battlefield. These kids were already on their last legs to begin with — he believed that it wouldn’t take long for them to run out of energy completely. At that time, they wouldn’t be able to do anything even if they had more tricks up their sleeve.
Sure enough, just as the examiner predicted, the children couldn't fight on for much longer. Luo Lang was the first to run out of energy and was grabbed by the examiner, and thrown back into the middle of the other students where he remained slump, unmoving. Of course, the examiner did this skilfully so that Luo Lang’s body wasn’t injured in the process — he was only immobile due to fatigue.
And so only Ling Lan and Qi Long were left to fight against the examiner. Without Luo Lang’s cover, Ling Lan’s sneak attacks could no longer work, so Ling Lan decided that she might as well pull out all the basic combat moves she had learned in her mind-space and fight directly.
Ling Lan didn't forget what Number One said — what you learned must be applied, and it was even better if you could apply it in a real battle … Although fighting with the examiner was not really a real battle, it was still a chance for her to apply what she had learned in a combat setting, so of course Ling Lan wouldn't let the chance pass her by.
Besides, after fighting for so long, Ling Lan understood that the examiner would never hurt them, which meant that she could go all out without fear. Since the examiner was only going to be on the defensive, if she didn’t take the chance to practice all her moves now, then when should she do it?
As Ling Lan’s moves grew bolder, Qi Long’s moves also became increasingly aggressive. Qi Long was a quirky child — he didn't like to think very much, being of a bold and brash character, but this didn’t stop him from being strong. He instinctively chose the method best suited for himself, so when Ling Lan’s attacks grew fiercer, he felt it was right and so followed suit.
The two fought ferociously to the point where the examiner was actually disadvantaged, where he looked like he was only able to focus on blocking.
The observing children on the side all cheered on Qi Long and Ling Lan, with the exception of Han Jijyun and the recuperating Luo Lang. The two boys had serious looks on their faces — they didn't think that Qi Long and Ling Lan’s current style of attack would be of any use against the examiner.