Chapter 35: Victim of Rumors

“Wow! Big brother is so strong! The moment you appeared, you scared them senseless!”
Little Candy ran over with a cheerful grin, looking around curiously.
Ji Huo grabbed her and rubbed her hair vigorously, making the child glare at him with annoyance.
“What are you doing?”
“You could have beaten them long ago, yet you dragged it out.”
Ji Huo glared at her, then led Little Candy towards the Duke’s manor. He knew her abilities better than anyone—she was simply too playful.
The day he found Little Candy, Ji Huo had drawn the Red Paper Umbrella from the system, and inside it was a martial arts manual. Feeling there was fate between them, he gave it all to her.
He didn’t know what kind of treasure the Red Paper Umbrella truly was, but he’d never seen anything so extraordinary—it could be absorbed into the body at will, and so far, nothing had breached its defenses.
After learning the manual, Little Candy’s martial prowess soared, shocking even Ji Huo. Perhaps the martial skills gifted by the system were tailored precisely for her. Now, she’d become a little monster.
“It’s just been so long since I’ve had such a satisfying fight, and you won’t let me challenge the more advanced martial artists. I can only play with them. If you hadn’t shown up, I would’ve kept fighting!” Little Candy giggled.
“There are too many eyes in the capital, hidden masters everywhere. I’m afraid if you keep going, you’ll attract attention. Don’t forget, there are at least two grandmasters in the capital.” Ji Huo explained.
“Alright, alright~”
Little Candy muttered under her breath, “Ji Huo is getting more and more like an old nanny, just like a mother hen. After all, he’s already sixteen, such an old man. Little Candy needs to be understanding, yes, understanding…”
“What do you mean, ‘old man’? I’m only sixteen! Still a child!”
Ji Huo’s eyes reddened in an instant. In his previous world, he was still a minor—how did sixteen make him old here?
Little Candy squinted at him. “Lots of people marry and have kids at fourteen. If you’re not an old man, what are you? Right, Uncle Ji Huo.”
Uncle?
Ji Huo’s heart gave a sudden lurch. He remembered when he’d just started university and kids called him uncle. Now, at sixteen, he was already…?
For a long time, ‘uncle’ had been a sore spot for him, and now must he face it so early?
“Why don’t you find someone?” Little Candy asked.
“Single’s just fine.” Ji Huo looked at her, puzzled. “Why are you asking? That’s not something you’d usually care about.”
“Papa Bear was secretly asking me if you had someone you liked. When he heard you didn’t, he got anxious and said he’d find you a wife, even asked me what kind you liked.”
Was his father really so gossipy? Seems all those days in court were boring him senseless, so he’s looking for things to do… Ji Huo pressed, “What did you answer?”
Little Candy replied with innocent candor,
“I just told him the truth.”

Ji Huo’s heart skipped a beat. “What did you say?”
“I said you liked Uncle Wang’s wife, Uncle Li’s wife, the widow at the village entrance, and the wife that Er Niu just married…” Little Candy finished, then looked down at her toes, muttering softly, “I don’t know why Ji Huo has such peculiar tastes, so unique.”
“Wait! You really said that? Why would you think that?” Ji Huo’s eyes widened and his voice rose several notches.
“Because you always stare at them, so you must like that kind, right?” Little Candy spread her hands, tracing an arc in the air.
Ji Huo’s mouth twitched, unable to help but protest, “I was just looking—if they were enemies in disguise, I could give early warning.”
Little Candy whispered, “Ji Huo is lying again. You love sneaking out at night when I’m asleep to watch those young wives bathe, and you bring Xiao Er with you. You never admit it, but you laugh just like Papa Bear, drooling everywhere.”
“Ahem, I was just team-building with them. Don’t slander an innocent man.” Ji Huo broke out in a cold sweat, awkwardly trying to defend himself. Some things really should be kept away from children.
Suddenly, he realized something and asked,
“Wait, you told Father exactly that?”
“Yes.”
“What was his reaction?”
“He didn’t speak for quite a while.”
Ji Huo felt a pang of guilt. “I’ll explain to him. There’s still hope—I can salvage my reputation.”
“Not just him. Big Brother was there, too.”
Ji Huo held his breath, then muttered, “One more shouldn’t matter. If I explain properly, he’ll understand.”
“Not just him.”
“Who else?!”
“The steward, several guards, maids, and, oh, the Flying Bear Army were there, too.”
Little Candy finished, then turned her head, puzzled. “Something just shattered?”
“Probably my reputation,” Ji Huo replied, face stiff, on the verge of tears.
Little Candy secretly rejoiced, then remembered something and asked,
“Right, right! Ji Huo, are you a grandmaster now?”
“No.” Ji Huo shook his head, his tone deep. “I just gained some insight after meeting Father these past days.”
Logically, he’d trained in nearly a hundred martial arts, each to perfection. He ought to be a grandmaster by now, with enough hidden attributes accumulated, especially with the Thunderous Bear Fist mastered—even one such skill at that level would make anyone a grandmaster, given it was earth-grade.
Others would reach the realm first, then advance their skills; Ji Huo was the opposite. He’d perfected martial arts, but his realm was stuck, unable to break through.

Ji Huo speculated it was because all his skills were directly instilled by the system, lacking personal enlightenment.
But how could he grasp that? For a traditional materialist from Earth, such notions were far too fantastical.
It was like telling a modern person that by unblocking one’s meridians, they could activate their body and gain strange abilities—without personal experience, it was indescribable, and no one would believe it.
Everyone would just say, “You’re talking nonsense!”
(￣.￣)
If not for Father tossing him around these past few days, he would never have understood what heavenly resonance meant.
…
After Thirty and the others took away the captives, several officers from the Six Doors soon arrived at the street.
Leading them, blade in hand, was Iron Hawk, one of the Four Great Constables.
“Such profound internal strength, such exquisite martial arts.”
“There were five combatants, four attacking one. No, actually one was overwhelming four…”
“This was a trap.”
He surveyed the chaos on the ground, reconstructing the battle in his mind.
“But why did the fight stop? If they were all experts, there shouldn’t have been such a sudden end.”
Iron Hawk frowned. The time from the fight’s end to their arrival was short—if the lone fighter defeated the other four, there would be more traces.
Moreover, it was all too swift.
“Unless someone else intervened?” Iron Hawk looked in one direction, then up at the sky, where the bright moon cast a serene glow.
Yet, when they arrived, he’d noticed a sinister cloud lingering over this area.
“A grandmaster…”
Iron Hawk’s heart skipped a beat. He ordered, “Go check with tonight’s patrols—where else has there been fighting?”
“Yes, sir.”