Chapter 20: Xu Xin's Distress

Luo Feng spent over an hour on a video call with Xu Xin in the lounge before finally hanging up.

He sat and waited for another few minutes, but seeing that the people emerging from the Monster Town were still only trickling out, Luo Feng frowned slightly.

"The assessment lasts twelve hours; does it really take that long?" he thought with a hint of helplessness.

There was still a long time left before the assessment concluded. If he just sat here waiting, his date with Xu Xin in the afternoon would be ruined.

With this in mind, Luo Feng stood up, left the lounge, and walked toward the assessment officer under the gaze of many. After a brief conversation and receiving a confirmation, he prepared to depart.

Along the way, recruiters from various families tried to approach him, but Luo Feng shook his head and refused them, hurrying away from the area. He had no intention of joining the Extreme Martial Arts Academy or the Thunder Dojo—the world's top two organizations—let alone these regional families.

"It's a good thing this martial arts assessment system is flexible enough that you don't actually have to wait until the very end to leave," Luo Feng thought to himself with a sense of relief while on the bullet train back.

Seeing that 'Bai' did not respond to him, Luo Feng felt a bit awkward and kept his thoughts to himself.

...

At 2:00 PM, Luo Feng arrived at the commercial street entrance near the HR Alliance Mall. This was the meeting place he had agreed upon with Xu Xin.

However, after waiting for more than ten minutes without seeing her, he began to feel a bit puzzled.

Just then, his tactical watch beeped with a message. Seeing it was from Xu Xin, he quickly opened it.

[I'm so sorry, Luo Feng. Something came up suddenly that I have to take care of. I'll be half an hour late. So sorry!]

Luo Feng sighed helplessly as he put down his watch. What else could he do? He had no choice but to wait.

Since aimlessly waiting wasn't ideal, he looked around, found a nearby drink shop, and sat down. He spent the time pondering his upcoming training plan while waiting for Xu Xin's arrival.

Meanwhile...

After sending the message to Luo Feng, Xu Xin looked up and glared at her brother, Xu Gang, with a displeased expression.

Noticing his sister's gaze, Xu Gang cleared his throat and said with a helpless tone, "Little sister, Wang Xingping came all the way here just to see you. Even if you don't like him, shouldn't you at least meet him?"

"If you want to see him, go do it yourself," Xu Xin retorted, rolling her eyes, though she felt quite distressed inside.

Born into a prominent family, Xu Xin had realized from a young age, after discovering she lacked the talent to become a martial artist, that she would have no control over her own future. She would either have to follow the wishes of her elders and marry a martial arts prodigy with great potential, or marry a talented young man from another influential family.

Before she graduated, many young elites had pursued her, but her family hadn't pressured her. Now that she had graduated, however, many of those suitors had begun to make their moves.

Wang Xingping, the young master of the Wang family from the Kyoto Base City, was one of them.

Unlike the Xu family, which was only a secondary family within the HR Alliance, the Kyoto Wang family was one of the nine core families of the alliance. They not only had a War God stationed in their ranks, but they also hired several other War God-level retainers. Furthermore, the family had established multiple powerful War General-level squads, to say nothing of their numerous common Warrior-level martial artists.

They had money, connections, heritage, and power!

This was the source of Xu Xin's greatest distress. She knew that no matter how outstanding Luo Feng was, it was impossible for her family to turn down someone like Wang Xingping from the Wang family in favor of a common martial artist with no status, whose life was constantly on the line and who could die in the wilderness at any moment.

Despite her anxiety about the future, Xu Xin had not completely given up hope, which was why she continued to maintain her flirtatious relationship with Luo Feng. *Luo Feng is only nineteen this year,* she thought to herself. *Or eighteen, if you count by his actual birthday! An eighteen-year-old martial artist is already considered a genius. As long as Luo Feng reaches the War General level soon... no, even if he just hits the strength of a high-level Warrior, I can negotiate with my family.*

In this regard, Xu Xin had quite a bit of confidence in Luo Feng. She knew from their conversations that after passing the prospective martial artist assessment, he had gone out to hunt monsters to hone his skills. Over the past month, he had told her his strength had improved significantly and that he had earned quite a bit of money. Knowing Luo Feng’s character—he wasn't one to brag—she believed his progress must indeed be substantial.

Xu Xin didn't pay much attention to the martial arts world, focusing her energy almost entirely on her studies. She didn't realize how dangerous it was for a newly minted prospective martial artist to head out hunting alone. She assumed that Luo Feng was hunting in a team with other, more experienced martial artists, unaware that he was doing it all by himself.

Luo Feng couldn't explain it clearly either; it was too complicated, and he was the type of person who hated trouble most of all.

Luo Feng’s own plan was to find the right moment to confess his feelings to Xu Xin again after passing the official martial arts assessment. In his mind, no matter how influential her family was, they wouldn't reject someone as young as a future War God-level powerhouse, right? He never considered the possibility of being rejected by her family; he only cared about their relationship.

"Little sister, you... what's wrong with you?" Xu Gang felt strange seeing his usually gentle and good-tempered sister suddenly become so irritable.

Logically, even if she didn't like that Wang Xingping, there was no harm in meeting him and just humoring him. After all, he was the young master of the Wang family. Even if he was a playboy who only relied on his family's prestige, they still had to give the Wang family face and shouldn't easily offend them.

Xu Xin surely understood this, and under normal circumstances, she wouldn't be this emotional. Suspicion stirred in Xu Gang's heart; he felt there might be something 'going on' with her. After a moment of thought, he probed, "Little sister, if you don't like that playboy from the Wang family, what about Guo Hai? He is a standout among young martial artists; he reached the intermediate War General level at only twenty-three. His personality is also quite bold and generous, unlike that Wang Xingping, who acts one way to your face and another behind your back."

For the Xu family, having Xu Xin marry Wang Xingping would maximize their interests. But as a brother, Xu Gang felt that the rough-around-the-edges Guo Hai was a better fit for her.

Xu Xin glanced at the time on her phone, frowned, and said helplessly to Xu Gang, "I have something to do today, we'll talk about this later. I'm leaving."

With that, Xu Xin ran past him in her white sneakers, her white dress fluttering in the breeze. She hopped into the car waiting at the entrance and urged the driver to hurry.

Xu Gang didn't stop her, but he was now more certain than ever that his sister had a 'secret.'