After dealing with those few East European brutes who didn't know their place, Lu Cheng and Ji Yao returned to the hotel together.
He sat on the sofa, looking at Ji Yao beside him, who was still in an excited state.
"Wow! You're really amazing! Those moves just now were even more exaggerated than movie special effects!"
Ji Yao, at this moment, was like a little girl, full of curiosity and... admiration for him!
"This is the legendary Ancient Martial Artist, isn't it?!"
Lu Cheng looked at her, her eyes shining, completely unafraid, and sneered inwardly, but showed no emotion on his face.
He didn't answer, but instead asked, "Before I satisfy your curiosity, Miss Ji Yao, shouldn't you first explain to me what happened just now?"
"Who were those people?"
"And why were they trying to kidnap you?"
When Ji Yao heard Lu Cheng's words, the excitement on her face instantly receded a bit.
A hint of wariness flashed in her eyes, and her gaze began to subconsciously dart around.
"Uh... just some... internal family trouble, it's not important."
Seeing that Lu Cheng was still quietly observing her, Ji Yao's eyes darted around, and she immediately tried to change the subject.
She extended her hand, with an arrogant, young miss-like demeanor, and ordered Lu Cheng:
"Oh, stop talking about those boring things!"
"You! Teach me kung fu right now! As long as you're willing to teach, name your price!"
Lu Cheng looked at her, a hint of playfulness flashing in his eyes.
He planned to give her a small lesson with his internal energy, to make her retreat in the face of difficulty, and also to make her understand that ancient martial arts were not some children's game.
He reached out and took her slender, fair wrist.
"Ancient martial arts are not child's play; they have extremely high requirements for bone structure and physique."
His tone carried a hint of'senior' like guidance.
"Let me see your..."
However!
The moment he grasped her wrist, preparing to infuse a trace of faint internal energy to let her feel what 'Qi' was!
Lu Cheng's pupils suddenly constricted at that instant!
"What is this?!"
He felt an extremely terrifying, pure physical force, like a top-tier hydraulic clamp, emanating from Ji Yao's seemingly delicate and weak slender wrist!
"This power... hard! It contains explosive force!"
"She didn't use any internal energy, nor was it a burst of vital energy..."
"This... this simply defies all logic!"
He subtly released her hand, looking at the woman in front of him who was still smiling sweetly at him, thinking he was trying to take advantage, and for the first time, a trace of genuine... solemnity flashed in his eyes.
This woman was definitely not an ordinary person... After Ji Yao left, Lu Cheng immediately returned to his room, his face so grim it looked like it could drip water.
He had to figure out who this woman really was.
He calmed his mind, communicated with the system, and prepared to conduct the deepest level of... "plot prediction" on Ji Yao.
However, the moment his mental power just touched the blurry plotline related to Ji Yao!
A searing pain strong enough to tear his soul instantly exploded from the deepest part of his mind!
"Ugh..."
Lu Cheng let out a painful groan, his face instantly turning ashen, and a fine layer of cold sweat seeped onto his forehead.
The system's cold prompt, for the first time, carried the highest level of "red warning" and rang frantically in his mind!
"Warning! Warning! Future information barrier detected!"
"Target possesses an anti-deduction mechanism! Forcibly probing will result in permanent damage to the host!"
...Anti-deduction mechanism?
An existence that even the system couldn't analyze?
Lu Cheng lay on the bed, exhaling a long breath, his eyes not showing the slightest fear, but rather... igniting with an unprecedented light of excitement!
"The remnant soul of an Immortal Emperor, a transmigrator's system... I thought I had seen enough."
"I never expected that in this world, there would still be forbidden zones that even my system cannot touch."
"Ji Yao..."
"What secret, exactly, are you hiding?"
...The next day.
Ji Yao found Lu Cheng again, as if she had completely forgotten the unpleasant kidnapping incident from last night.
She directly pushed a pre-drafted "private bodyguard and martial arts coach" employment contract and an unregistered black gold card in front of Lu Cheng.
She offered an astronomical "protection fee" and "tuition fee" that would make anyone go crazy.
Lu Cheng played along, looking at the contract while seemingly casually initiating a new round of probing.
"Miss Ji Yao is truly wealthy and powerful."
"It seems your family has considerable influence."
When Ji Yao heard the word "family," an extremely disdainful expression immediately appeared on her face, as if she had heard some highly insulting term.
"Family?"
"That kind of decaying thing would only become a restraint for me."
Lu Cheng feigned surprise and said, "Oh?"
"Then, Miss Ji Yao, how did you become an actress, and even the female lead?"
Ji Yao raised her smooth chin and, with a tone as if explaining that "one plus one equals two," said nonchalantly:
"It's very simple."
"I needed some startup capital, so I went to the stock market, casually picked a few tech companies that were about to go bankrupt, and helped them optimize their underlying code and future development strategies."
"A month later, they became highly anticipated star stocks."
"Didn't the money just come in?"
You call that stock trading?
...After Lu Cheng heard her words, which were imbued with a Versailles-like aura, the answer in his heart was already clear.
He put down the contract, slowly raised his head, his gaze sharp, staring into Ji Yao's eyes, and asked a very strange question.
"Ji Yao."
"So, you're not from Dragon Country?"
"Then where are you from? France?"
Upon hearing this, the natural expression on Ji Yao's face showed a subtle, unnatural pause for the first time.
A strange flicker seemed to pass through her pupils.
But she didn't answer directly; instead, she cleverly dodged the question and used a more assertive posture to cover up her abnormality.
She slowly stood up, walked in front of Lu Cheng, and looked down at him.
She slapped a presidential suite room card on the table, giving her "final offer" in a commanding tone:
"My origin is none of your business."
"You just need to know that from now on, you're mine."
"Move in, live next door to me. Twenty-four hours, on call at any time."
"If you want to know more..."
"Then show me what you've got, and let me see if you... are truly worth the price."