Chapter 1 Returning Home

Several days later, the Jiangnan Province training team returned, and Xu Jingming also left the Starry Sky Martial Arts Center, preparing to return to his hometown.

Afternoon, Binhai City High-speed Rail North Station.

"Take care of yourself in Binhai," Xu Jingming said, hugging Li Miaomiao goodbye. Li Miaomiao was wearing a mask, with a female assistant by her side. Although Xu Jingming had twice entered the World Martial Arts Competition, once reaching the top sixteen and once the top eight, he had rarely shown his face publicly, and few people could recognize him on the street. But Li Miaomiao was different. She was very popular, and even though she only streamed once a month, she still had tens of millions of fans. Without a mask, she would be quickly recognized.

"I estimate it'll take two or three more days for me to arrange everything, then I can go back. Sister Kong has already gone to Mingyue City to rent their houses in advance," Li Miaomiao said. Sister Kong was one of Li Miaomiao's two assistants.

"Xiao Zeng, you must take good care of your boss these few days," Xu Jingming said to the petite female assistant, Xiao Zeng, standing beside her.

"Yes, sir!" Xiao Zeng immediately puffed out her chest and replied.

Xu Jingming smiled and nodded, then hugged his girlfriend again.

"Send me a message when you get home," Li Miaomiao instructed.

"Okay, I'm leaving."

Xu Jingming turned around, carrying his backpack, passed through the checkpoint, and went to take the high-speed rail.

Li Miaomiao, with her female assistant, watched Xu Jingming's back disappear into the passage before leaving.

******

On the high-speed rail, Xu Jingming sat in his seat, with a three-foot-wide light screen floating in front of him.

Only Xu Jingming could see the light screen clearly from his angle; from other angles, the brightness was insufficient, and it would be distorted.

"Dear friends and family, from now on, I'm settling down in Mingyue City! Welcome everyone to visit Mingyue City. I'll be sure to take care of you!" Xu Jingming posted a message on his social circle, and replies quickly came in.

"Junior brother, have a good trip!" This message was from his senior brother Fang Xinglong, the owner of the Starry Sky Martial Arts Center.

"Old Xu, leaving Binhai?" This was from his former national team teammate, his good brother, Heng Fang.

"Senior brother, you're finally back in Mingyue City. The brothers have been waiting eagerly!" This was from his junior brother Zhu Tong from the Bajiquan school in Mingyue City.

"Now that you're back, come see me soon." This was from Dai Tongda, the master of the Chuojiao school in Mingyue City, and one of Xu Jingming's two masters when he was young! When he was young, Xu Jingming's first teacher was his own father, and then, under his father's guidance, he also became Dai Tongda's disciple.

"I heard Mingyue City is a very beautiful city. I must visit it if I have the chance," This was from the world-class martial arts expert from abroad, "Hunter" Micki, who had studied in Xia and was fluent in Chinese.

"The great master is returning to his hometown, you must treat us to a meal. Many old classmates want to see you," This was from his high school classmate Wu Wei.

As time passed, messages appeared one after another.

There were old classmates, relatives, teammates from the provincial and national teams, some martial arts experts who had become friends in the World Martial Arts circle, as well as some martial arts agents, coaches, and students he had taught.

Xu Jingming looked at these messages and smiled, replying to his friends one by one.

...

In a Chinese-style villa in Jingcheng.

Liu Hai, who was eating his third meal of the day, was also looking at the social circle on the light screen. When he was in seclusion each year, he usually looked at the social circle while eating to learn about external information.

"Jingming left Binhai and returned to Mingyue City?" Liu Hai understood. "He was forced to by Cheng Zihuao of the Tiger Shark Corporation."

"National Key Cultivation List."

Liu Hai gently touched the screen, looking at the selected people on the list, shaking his head helplessly. "I found several old friends and pleaded until my mouth was dry, but Jingming was still brushed off."

"There are a total of twenty people on the list: twelve martial arts masters, five from other fighting styles. Only three spots were up for grabs… In the end, the three spots went to two professional martial arts athletes and one professional Sanda athlete."

"The professional Sanda athlete is a Grand Slam champion."

"One of the two professional martial arts athletes had won fourth place in the World Martial Arts Competition! The other had entered the top eight three times, and their results were better than Jingming's."

This list was too special, and Liu Hai only had the right to recommend; he had already done his best.

...

The scenery outside the window whizzed by.

Xu Jingming looked up at the window, and having chatted for only a short while on the social circle, he had already entered the Mingyue City area.

From Binhai City to Mingyue City, the high-speed rail only took thirty-five minutes.

"Back to my hometown." Xu Jingming was in a good mood. Looking out, he saw countless willows beside the river outside the high-speed rail window. The scenery of the Jiangnan water town was refreshing.

Although in terms of economy, Mingyue City could not compare with Binhai City, the economic center of Xia, Mingyue City was far superior in terms of livability. The entire city seemed to be built in a park, with a slow urban pace. Many elderly people from all over the country moved here to retire.

"Mingyue City, I'm back." After exiting the high-speed rail station and taking a driverless smart car, Xu Jingming went straight to his parents' residence, a villa district with some history, where he had lived almost all the time before he was eighteen.

In the villa complex.

Xu Jingming walked in the lane. The stone bricks on the ground bore the marks of time. Some were old stone bricks, and some had been damaged and replaced with new stone bricks by the property management. A blurred graffiti mark on a wall caught Xu Jingming's eye, and he couldn't help but reach out and touch it.

This graffiti was what he had drawn on the wall of his neighbor Li Danui's house when he was five years old. So many years had passed, and there were still vague traces remaining.

Walking on this lane, he thought of the scenes when he was a child, going to school with his schoolbag and his father picking him up from school. At that time, robots were not so smart. His mother was responsible for cooking, and his father was responsible for picking him up and dropping him off.

"In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed." Xu Jingming walked to the familiar courtyard door, gently pushed it, and found that it was not locked and had been opened in advance.

Xu Jingming walked into the front yard, a small courtyard of more than thirty square meters, where Xu Jingming had practiced martial arts for a long time when he was a child.

"Dad, Mom," Xu Jingming called out.

"Jingming is back!"

"It's Jingming who's back!"

Voices came from the house. Xu Jingming pushed open the door to the living room and saw that his parents had already gotten up. His mother was wearing pajamas and slippers, and his father was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. After all, it was high summer, and they were very casual at home.

"Jingming." His mother saw her son, hugged him happily, and said, "Your mother missed you so much. Where's Miaomiao? Did you come back alone?"

"Miaomiao will be back in two days," Xu Jingming said with a smile.

His father walked out, looked at Xu Jingming, and asked, "Where's your weapon?"

"They've all been delivered by express. Because there are many things, and they are all large and heavy items, they won't arrive until tomorrow, and they will all be delivered to the new house," Xu Jingming said.

His father nodded.

His father, named Xu Hong, was about the same height as Xu Jingming, but much more burly. After all, he was a fierce man who founded the Bajiquan school in Mingyue City. He mainly practiced Bajiquan and had to practice pile driving every day. The Bajiquan pile driving involved using the arms, chest, shoulders, back, elbows, and other parts to hit tree stumps, which was considered pile driving. There was also the single-arm handstand pile, which mainly trained the arms. The single-arm handstand was difficult, so a simplified version used a "double-arm handstand," and a further simplified version was the "push-up pile." There was also the Underwater Moon Scooping exercise for the legs…

The various skills of the Bajiquan school were to give strength to every part of the body, making one as fierce as a bear or tiger.

His father was broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, and he had an overbearing aura just standing there.

"Dad, you need to lose weight," Xu Jingming said. "You're over two hundred pounds now, aren't you?"

"Two hundred and ten pounds," His father shook his head and said, "I can't help it, I'm old, and my waist injury often flares up, so I have to be careful when practicing. I only practice for two hours a day, and that's why my weight has gone up. In the past, I always maintained it at one hundred and ninety pounds."

"If you practice less, I tell you to eat less, but you still eat and eat, how can you not gain weight?" His mother's figure was enough to make many young girls envious, but the wrinkles on her face and the few strands of white hair revealed her age.

His mother was a painter who had traveled around the world with his father when she was young, and later they settled in Mingyue City together.

"I'm used to eating, I can't control it," His father said with a smile.

"You, you were too warlike when you were young, visiting those fighting styles all over the world, and often sparring wherever you went," His mother shook her head and said, "You got a body full of injuries. You could handle it when you were young, but now you feel it when you're old. You're in pain here and there every now and then. Jingming, you must take this as a warning and focus on health preservation in the future, and less actual combat."

"Yes, martial arts weapon combat is very dangerous," His father also nodded. When his son was twenty years old, his leg was broken by his opponent on the World Martial Arts Competition stage, and he and his wife were panicked when they saw it from the stands.

"Don't worry, Mom and Dad, I've returned to Mingyue City to settle down. Who am I going to fight?" Xu Jingming said with a smile.

"Jingming is back?" A voice came from upstairs.

"Grandpa?" Xu Jingming was overjoyed.

"Your grandfather knew you were coming back today, so he came early in the morning. He was sleepy in the afternoon, so he took a nap upstairs," His mother said, "He probably heard us chatting."

Xu Jingming put down his backpack and walked to the atrium of the villa, seeing the white-haired old man walking down, his gait still relatively steady.

"Grandpa," Xu Jingming quickly walked to the stairs.

"It's good to be back. Isn't Mingyue City more beautiful and comfortable than Binhai City?" The white-haired old man squinted with a smile. He was, of course, very happy to see his eldest grandson.

"I won't leave this time. I'll spend more time with Grandpa," Xu Jingming also felt sorry for his grandfather.

His grandfather, named Xu Guishun, came from a rural family. When he was young, he was a professional esports player, with the game nickname "Nameless Master."

At that time, it was still mobile games! His grandfather had also won an FMVP once. His career income was quite high. After retiring, he became a game streamer. Over the years, he had saved a lot of money, and the Xu family had accumulated a foundation from it.

But his grandfather was already eighty-eight years old, and his health was getting worse and worse.

"Come, eat fruit." His father and mother brought two large fruit plates with grapes, bananas, and watermelon, all prepared.

"Eat fruit." The old man was also in a very good mood. He sat down and picked up a piece of watermelon, handing it to Xu Jingming. "Taste the watermelon from our hometown. These are all local watermelons."

"Grandpa, I'll do it myself." Xu Jingming also sat down and picked up a watermelon.

He still remembered that his grandfather often took him to play when he was a child. At that time, his mother was still very young, and his father was in his prime, often taking a group of disciples to practice martial arts.

Now, his grandfather was old, full of wrinkles, and his face was covered with age spots.

His mother also had some white hair, and the wrinkles were hard to hide. Although his father was burly and strong, he was sixty years old after all and had a twilight aura.

"Birth, old age, sickness, and death are unstoppable," Xu Jingming thought. "I have grown up, but my parents are old, and my grandfather is getting closer to the end of his life."

"These fruits were bought by your dad this morning. They're all the freshest," His mother said.

"They're very delicious." Xu Jingming ate and smiled happily.