Martial Arts: Starting from a Seemingly Real System

It seemed as if billions of years had passed, yet it seemed like only a moment had passed. In a daze, Qiao Rui suddenly woke up and sat up.

"Hmm..." With a soft moan, a woman sat up next to Qiao Rui, and the two of them looked at each other.

"Qiao Rui, what are you wearing?"

"Xin Yue?"

They both spoke at the same time and then stopped, then looked at themselves and the surroundings, with a look of surprise on their faces. They were both wearing linen clothes, cloth shoes, and hemp belts around their waists, dressed in ancient costumes. What was even more strange was that they were sitting on the roof of a tiled house, with a cloth bag beside them.

Liu Xinyue quickly opened the cloth bag beside her and found some items scattered inside. They were exactly what she exchanged in the Treasure Pavilion. She felt strange and subconsciously checked the character template grid. Suddenly, she screamed: "My character template is gone!"

At this time, Qiao Rui was standing on the ridge of the roof and observing his surroundings. Hearing this, he turned around and said, "Oh? Let me take a look!" After that, he concentrated and examined it carefully.

"Mine is gone too, but I can feel that my internal energy and martial arts are still there!" Having said this, Qiao Rui squatted down and opened another cloth bag. Inside were five small porcelain bottles and some gold, silver and copper coins, which were exactly the items stored in his nine-square grid.

Unable to figure out what was going on, Qiao Rui helped Liu Xinyue up, and the two stood on the roof and looked around. Nearby was a residential area, the houses were low and simple, few were more than three stories high, and the high-rise buildings that were common in the city were nowhere to be seen, only wooden houses with tiles. A little further away were street shops, and some teahouses and taverns could be vaguely seen. Occasionally, pedestrians passed by on the street, all wearing ancient costumes, with an antique style.

"Could it be that a costume movie is being filmed in a film and television studio? Let's go down and take a look!" Qiao Rui picked up the cloth bag and pulled Liu Xinyue. The two of them took off into the air and ran across the roof. In a few moments, they jumped onto the street. The pedestrians nearby glanced at them and seemed to be used to it.

Liu Xinyue stopped an elderly man passing by and asked, "Uncle, where is this?"

"Xiangshan Street!" the old man answered casually.

"Xiangshan Street?" Liu Xinyue glanced at Qiao Rui and saw that he was also confused, so she asked the old man, "Which city is this?"

"Of course it's the secondary capital Longxing City!" The old man was a little impatient, and after saying that, he threw away his sleeves and walked away, shaking his head and muttering, "What a bunch of weird people!"

"The secondary capital? Longxing City?"

They still didn't know. Seeing that they couldn't get to the bottom of it, Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue stopped asking anyone and just started wandering around.

Walking straight along the street, there are teahouses, wine shops, rice shops, butcher shops, inns, government offices, medical clinics, framed calligraphy and paintings, gold and silver lacquerware, etc. on both sides. However, it was early in the morning and most of the shops were not open for business. Only some small vendors came early to do business, including book sellers, umbrella sellers, paper sellers, vegetable sellers, and plaster sellers, all shouting hard. There were pedestrians in the street, twos and threes, and there were wives and servants buying vegetables, wandering monks and Taoist priests on their way, and beggars and disabled people begging on the street.

"This is not a movie. The scene is too big, too real, and we can't see the camera." Qiao Rui said to Liu Xinyue. He observed his surroundings and thought secretly. Suddenly he thought of something and stopped.

"What's wrong?" Liu Xinyue saw Qiao Rui stop, thinking that he must have discovered something strange.

"If you put the events of the past few days together, it's like this: martial arts were dropped from the sky, and everyone fought for them based on chance and talent, exchanging them for benefits to improve themselves, all for the purpose of finally entering this strange world." Qiao Rui expressed his guess.

"Since we have internal force and martial arts, then we are now in a martial arts world? A group traveling through the ancient martial arts world?" Liu Xinyue guessed with a little excitement. Are they really going to indulge in the martial arts world?

At this moment, the crowd was in an uproar. In the distance, a man in ancient costume with short hair was running fast. He was holding a bloody steel knife and rushed past. Behind him were several police officers holding knives, sticks and chains. The police officers chased him and shouted: "You bold lunatic, committing murder in the street... Don't run!"

"Hey, could it be that he is the same person who came with us?" Liu Xinyue guessed when she saw that the escaping man was also dressed in gray clothes and hemp shoes, an ancient costume, and had the same short hair as Qiao Rui, which was obviously different from that of the ancients.

Qiao Rui nodded, looked at the man walking away and sneered, "Some people just refuse to change their bad habits. They may think they can do whatever they want like they did in the past few days, but they don't expect that there are rules and laws here. If they cause trouble, they will be arrested by the police. They really only have themselves to blame. And I'm afraid there are still many people like this. It's going to be exciting to watch!"

The two walked and talked, passing by a steamed bun shop, Qiao Rui bought six meat buns, which only cost six coins, which was cheap. The meat buns were white and big, with thin skin and rich fillings. Liu Xinyue ate them with oil dripping from her mouth and praised them repeatedly. After swallowing the last bite of the meat bun carefully, Liu Xinyue rubbed her stomach with satisfaction and said, "I never thought that the buns would be so delicious. It feels like I have been poor for many years..."

"I'm sorry that you've had to follow me these past few days. Let's find a restaurant at noon and I'll treat you to some delicious food from the world of martial arts!" Qiao Rui said with some self-blame.

"Really? I think I can finish a whole banquet next time, so don't be stingy with the money then!" Liu Xinyue smiled like a flower, with the corners of her mouth slightly raised, revealing two shallow dimples, which was very adorable.

Qiao Rui smiled and said, "We may not have a full banquet, but who cares if we have one? Just order all the delicious food and drinks. We have money!" After saying that, he raised the cloth bag in his hand, looking very proud.

"How much money did you keep?" Liu Xinyue asked angrily and amusedly. Qiao Rui looked like a nouveau riche.

"Finally, there were about 500 million exchange points left, and I exchanged them all for gold ingots, silver ingots and copper coins, which is equivalent to about taels of silver." Qiao Rui said casually.

"Wow! There are so many left? I don't even have enough." Liu Xinyue complained.

"Luckily, the bald guy you killed exploded with some good stuff, otherwise I would have felt so weak!" Liu Xinyue paused when she said this. Thinking of the thrilling incident that day, she was still frightened. She glared at Qiao Rui fiercely and said angrily, "Qiao Rui, don't do stupid things again in the future. You know how scared I was that day. What should I do if something happens to you?"

"Haha, no, no!" Qiao Rui touched his nose awkwardly, repeatedly assured, and asked, "What are they?"

Seeing Qiao Rui's casual and perfunctory assurance, Liu Xinyue was furious, and didn't know what to say to him for a moment, so she said angrily: "I gave you a top-level Dragon Subduing Palm, and an intermediate light martial art 'Flying Feather Art'. I don't think it will be of much use to you, so you can learn it yourself. Then there is the top-grade energy ball. Because I always don't have enough internal energy to heal you, I also absorbed it..." At this point, Liu Xinyue glared at him hatefully.