"You're really willing to tell me?" You Ziping looked at Shi Feng with deep skepticism.
Accumulating combat experience was no easy feat, especially the kind born from the razor's edge between life and death. That was essentially gambling with one's life. Plenty of fighters had gone mad chasing such experiences, but very few who did ever survived.
If there truly existed a method to continuously amass life-and-death combat experience, rapidly improving one's strength in a short time would be child's play.
That was exactly why so many experts were obsessed with pushing their limits.
"Of course, but I have one condition," Shi Feng said with a smile.
"I knew it. But don't even think about it — I'm not joining your training hall." You Ziping snorted softly. He had known all along that someone like Shi Feng would never offer anything without strings attached.
But Shi Feng's attempted poaching was doomed to fail regardless.
After You Ziping had shown his talent, quite a few first-tier city martial halls had approached him in secret, some offering compensation far more generous than what the coaches at White Tiger Martial Hall received. He had turned them all down. He was not the kind of man to bite the hand that fed him. When he had been at his lowest, White Tiger Martial Hall had given him his chance. Without their guidance and training, he never would have achieved what he had today.
Abandoning White Tiger Martial Hall for his own benefit was simply not something he could do.
"That kid sure thinks highly of himself. I have no idea what Boss Shi is thinking, wanting to cultivate someone like that." Standing not far away, Ke Le — broad and powerful as a grizzly bear — curled his lip in displeasure at You Ziping's attitude.
Whether in the Divine Realm or here in Jinhai City, if Shi Feng so much as hinted that he was willing to nurture someone, there would be no shortage of people practically stampeding toward him. None of them would carry themselves with the kind of airs You Ziping was putting on.
"Maybe the boss has his reasons." Ye Wumian glanced at You Ziping from the side and spoke slowly. "But the kid does have some talent. Otherwise, he wouldn't have become an intermediate student at White Tiger Martial Hall at such a young age. Even the other intermediate students show him a healthy measure of respect."
Though Ke Le and the others kept their voices low, they didn't escape Shi Feng's ears.
The human brain governed every function of the body, and once his brain activity had been elevated, his five senses had sharpened considerably.
After the extreme combat inside the Battle Tower, his perception had become even clearer. Let alone a distance of ten-some meters — even at over twenty meters, if he focused intently, he could make out the hushed conversations of Ke Le and the others without difficulty.
Shi Feng simply smiled at their quiet chatter. He understood.
After all, not everyone was a reborn person like him, privy to knowledge of the future — let alone someone like You Ziping, whose star had only just begun to shine. Who could have guessed that after entering the Divine Realm, You Ziping would one day rise to become a top-fifty expert on the Storm Rankings?
Watching You Ziping's righteous refusal, Shi Feng couldn't help but laugh. "You've misunderstood. I'm not trying to poach you from the Beidou training hall. I'm simply inviting you to join the Zero Wing game studio. It won't interfere with your daily life in any way."
"Join a game studio?" You Ziping was visibly surprised. "Are you serious?"
In this day and age, game studios were everywhere, and professional gamers were hardly rare. While the profession didn't compare to the world of competitive fighting, it was an increasingly important industry.
Moreover, most game studio work took place during off-hours and wouldn't conflict with a regular job — let alone for a fighter like him.
If joining a game studio really meant learning how to accumulate vast amounts of life-and-death combat experience, that was a deal worth taking any day of the week.
"It's not just you. Anyone here under the age of twenty-five has a chance to join the Zero Wing studio." Shi Feng nodded and then turned to address all the students from both Beidou and White Tiger who were present, raising his voice so everyone could hear.