Chapter Eighty: Sudden Enlightenment

As the dust settled, everyone stood stunned before the scene that unfolded. There stood Yu Shifei, alone with her spear, at the center of a massive crater at least ten meters in diameter and nearly a meter deep—nothing grew around it, not a single blade of grass. Yet Yu Shifei, upright in the heart of the pit, remained immaculate; her clothes were still vibrant and dazzling, as if the destruction beneath her feet had nothing to do with her.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, her long, dark hair drifting as if stirred by an unseen breeze. She was surrounded by elemental flames, giving her an aura of sanctity. Above her head, a gigantic forging furnace floated three feet in the air, slowly rotating and radiating a mysterious, dazzling light.

“This is… an epiphany!” exclaimed one senior brother, but quickly clamped his hand over his mouth, fearful of disturbing Yu Shifei as she experienced her enlightenment.

An epiphany—this was the longing of every soul. The benefits it could bring were beyond imagination. An ordinary carpenter might, after such a moment, suddenly see his skills surge to the pinnacle. A wandering healer, troubled by stubborn illnesses, could, in a flash of insight, find the cure he sought. If a cultivator like Yu Shifei were to have such an epiphany, it could mean the disappearance of all bottlenecks in her innate realm, or a dramatic surge in elemental power, leading to an immediate breakthrough. The wonders of enlightenment were countless.

Even Chen Bo felt a chill in his heart. In his memory, not even before he had become a “cripple” had he ever experienced what such an epiphany felt like.

Yet this was only natural. Such moments could not be sought—they were chance encounters. Without extraordinary fortune, one might never experience an epiphany, no matter how talented. Without that elusive luck, perhaps a lifetime would pass without such a moment.

So, in truth, his luck wasn’t so great after all. No—all his good fortune must have been squandered on the system’s lottery draws.

“Poor host, all the martial arts I painstakingly researched online ended up benefiting Yu Shifei. And then the system suddenly decided to patch itself. Look at the host’s hopeless expression—it says everything about his mood right now.”

Chen Bo poured out his complaints in the live broadcast room, refusing to admit he was envious!

“What are you crying for, host? After all, Yu Shifei’s body and heart will be yours in the future. What’s there to envy?”

“What do you mean by that? Damn it, Yu Shifei is clearly mine! When did she become the host’s? And look at the host’s image in her mind—there’s no way these two could ever be together!”

“That’s true. Yu Shifei’s temperament is one of righteous fury, but the host, from any angle, doesn’t look like a good person.”

“You nailed it! Just for that last comment, I’ll call you brother. Come, let’s drink and swear brotherhood!”

“I have a question! The system said that things the host can’t use, we can’t use either. That means martial arts from Earth are off-limits! Only those from the system can be used!”

“Are you kidding? Isn’t it obvious? If the system closes one door, it opens a window. It said martial arts from Earth can’t be used now, but it didn’t say anything about the future!”

“Oh! So that’s how it works? It’s that simple—so damn simple! But what does it really mean?”

“Pfft! If you don’t understand, why pretend? You’re wasting our reactions!”

“Let’s put it this way: if we modify Wing Chun, it’s no longer Wing Chun, but a new martial art, right?”

“Still don’t get it.”

“My god! Let me use a language textbook as an example. The system says textbooks before 2016 can’t be used. If we modify the textbook, it becomes the 2017 edition. So it’s usable!”

“I sort of get it now. But if we just tweak a few moves and call it a new version, isn’t that a bigger joke?”

“Pfft! Who told you to change so little? Just make it unrecognizable!”

“Why not just create a whole new martial art?”

“Which is easier: revising or creating?”

“Revising, because you have a foundation.”

“There you go!”

At first, Chen Bo was confused, not understanding what any of it meant. But after that netizen’s explanation, it finally made sense. The system wasn’t so heartless after all!

Still, in modern times, martial arts aren’t much practiced—except for soldiers, most people only know flashy moves for show, good for scaring others. Against ordinary folk, one could take on two or three at once.

But if they met someone with real skill, or someone willing to fight to the death, they’d just get beaten up.

In a world like this, revising martial arts seemed fraught with difficulty—certainly not as easy as imagined, since so much was involved. With the martial spirit of the Republic era, it might have been simpler.

Chen Bo quietly watched Yu Shifei as she underwent her epiphany, thinking she looked quite majestic now, her elemental flames swirling in vivid, dazzling colors, radiating an aura of high status.

He was about to ask the senior brothers how long an epiphany usually lasted when he suddenly noticed a black dot appearing in the azure sky, growing larger and larger, clearly heading toward them!

Oh hell, could it be an enemy?

Chen Bo immediately imagined a classic scene from a fantasy novel:

A human camp produces a peerless genius, posing a great threat to the elemental beast camp. Perhaps in time, the beast camp would be wiped out by this human prodigy. So, to nip the threat in the bud, the beast camp sends out experts to assassinate the human genius.

Yet those assassins, sent to kill the prodigy, end up being elite monsters who only deliver equipment and experience. The dim-witted villains never learn, continuing to send minions to help the genius grow, never realizing the folly of their actions.

A classic storyline—almost every fantasy novel has it, and Chen Bo was thoroughly familiar with the trope.

But wasn’t this the protagonist’s exclusive treatment? Could it be that in this world, Yu Shifei was actually the protagonist? My god—the more he thought about it, the more unsettling it seemed!

Yet reality proved that eighty percent of novels were full of lies, deceiving readers’ emotions. The arrival was not a gear-delivering elite monster, but the headmaster of Tianyang Academy, Yu Chenling!

In other words, Yu Shifei’s father! Ahem, her dad…