BOOM!

The sign that read "The Sick Man of East Asia" was crushed under Qin Heng's foot!

The immense force made the ground tremble as if an earthquake had struck, causing those nearby to stagger.

Terrifying! What kind of strength is this?! This sign isn't wood or clay, but genuine steel! And it was smashed to pieces by a single stomp! Simply inconceivable! Incredible!

The impact of this scene was even greater than when Qin Heng had just broken the chains with his bare hands.

This made it even more unbelievable!

Some even doubted if they were hallucinating.

Su Xiao was also deeply shocked.

However, having seen Qin Heng in action before, she knew he possessed strength far beyond that of an ordinary person. After calming herself slightly, she regained her composure and whispered, "Let's go into the school first."

"Good," Qin Heng nodded slightly.

Once inside the school, there were far fewer onlookers, as students had to return to their classrooms.

"Qin Heng, are you saying… you think Americans are behind this?" Su Xiao asked, puzzled. "But I heard that Zhou Hong was beaten up by a group of thugs."

"Then what about the chains and the sign used to bind him?" Qin Heng said in a deep voice. "What kind of thugs would use such things? Impossible. Zhou Hong lost his match to Lucas. Afterwards, Chu Yun and I defeated Lucas. They must be holding a grudge. This was done for me to see!"

Zhou Hong hadn't even mastered Open Force.

A martial artist of his level was insignificant to a martial arts exchange; he wouldn't make any impact at all.

The Americans humiliated him like this, forcing him to wear the "Sick Man of East Asia" sign in front of Tianhai No.1 Middle School. They clearly wanted someone to see it.

And that someone was most likely Qin Heng. At Tianhai No.1 Middle School, the only one with a feud with those people was Qin Heng!

"What are they trying to achieve by doing something so outrageous? What's in it for them?" Su Xiao asked, still puzzled about the "Sick Man of East Asia" sign at the school entrance.

This was clearly aimed at inciting national hatred and exacerbating the conflict between China and America. Why would they do such a thing? What was the point?

I'm also puzzled by this, Qin Heng thought, his brow furrowing. Logically, it seems harmful to them and offers no apparent benefit. Why do it?

Before they knew it, Qin Heng and Su Xiao had arrived at the classroom door.

After bidding each other farewell, Su Xiao returned to the office, while Qin Heng sat down in the classroom. He took out his phone, intending to check the forums for news and updates.

There was a dedicated forum for martial artists. This was the "Martial Artist Forum," established two years prior when the country began to emphasize Martial Dao, and it was managed by dedicated personnel. Officials would collect news about martial artists, write articles, and post them there. Of course, the primary content came from posts by martial artists themselves. Official news tended to be more comprehensive and detailed, but it was slower. Posts by martial artists, however, were very fast—almost real-time.

"Tianhai No.1 Middle School entrance: 'Sick Man of East Asia' sign shockingly appears! Allegedly the work of petty thugs—I don't believe it!!"

This was the subject of the post, followed by comments.

2nd Floor: Holy shit! Is this real? It's 8012! How could anyone still pull this sort of stunt? Are they insane?!

3rd Floor: Damn it! Whoever dares to insult my great Huaxia Empire, obliterate them!

4th Floor: They say it's the Americans. Tianhai is about to host a China-America Martial Arts Exchange. Could this be the Americans trying to weaken our morale and insult us?

5th Floor: You're wrong! They must be trying to ignite our fighting spirit! Right now, I just want to go chop up that bunch of white pigs!

6th Floor: Tianhai No.1 Middle School too? That's in Dongpu District. We've had a similar incident here in Xingming District!

...

15th Floor: +1 to 6th floor. I ran into the same thing today, right in the middle of the street, in Shanbao District!

16th Floor: There are this many?! Have the Americans gone mad?

...

He scrolled through post after post of news.

Qin Heng's expression grew increasingly grim. He realized that within this single thread, there were five or six cases similar to Zhou Hong's.

Although no one had died, these acts were shamelessly trampling on the dignity of the Chinese people, utterly humiliating them!

He closed the thread.

Qin Heng then browsed the forum's main page and came across another post.

"The Origins of Chinese Martial Arts: Thug Brawls and Village Street Fights!"

The post's content was simple: it fanatically belittled Chinese martial arts, using such "evidence" to prove that Chinese martial arts were trash! It claimed that theories suggesting Chinese martial arts evolved from battlefield combat techniques were false, fabricated—mere boasts. In reality, it asserted, Chinese martial arts were simply the product of street fights between thugs and village clan brawls.

Extremely crude, fundamentally trash!!

Such a post naturally provoked countless rebuttals. Some users presented evidence proving that Chinese martial arts had indeed been formidable since ancient times. Although there had been a brief period of decline in recent decades, the state had begun to value Martial Dao in the past couple of years. Consequently, martial arts gyms had sprung up everywhere like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

It was foreseeable that Chinese martial arts would soon flourish once again!

However, the original poster of this thread was a complete troll. No matter what evidence those replying presented, he ignored it, continuing to fanatically belittle Chinese martial arts. He even resorted to outright verbal abuse. If anyone contradicted him, he would immediately block them, leaving them no chance to rebut. Utterly despicable!

Qin Heng's expression was as cold as ice. He casually spent five hundred yuan to buy an IP tracker card from the forum store.

He traced the poster's IP address to New York, America!

Not Chinese at all! This was an American denigrating Chinese martial arts all over the martial artists' forum! Americans again!

Qin Heng took a deep breath and slowly stood up, his gaze icy to the extreme as he muttered, "It seems you Americans don't intend to return from tomorrow's martial arts exchange unscathed."

If anyone claimed that the various real-world and online insults to China, and the denigration of Chinese martial arts, had nothing to do with the Sino-American martial arts exchange, Qin Heng wouldn't believe it for a second. Even a fool could see it! This was definitely the work of the Americans! But why? What was their reason for doing this?

Many people were utterly perplexed.

"Hmm?" Qin Heng suddenly let out a soft sound of surprise, looking at the seat beside him.

That was Chu Yun's seat, and it was empty! It was almost eight o'clock! The first class was about to start! She hadn't come?! Chu Yun was famously a model student, never late and never leaving early! What had happened?

DING-A-LING!

Suddenly, Qin Heng's phone rang. He glanced at it and saw it was a call from Chu Yun.

Although they both had each other's phone numbers, they had never spoken on the phone before. This was the first time.

"Hello, Chu Yun? This is Qin Heng."

"Qin Heng! Qin Heng! Please, come to my house and save us! My father... these people are about to beat him to death! My mother has been kidnapped too! Please, come save us!!"

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