The content shifted so abruptly and absurdly that people barely had time to react. Their brains passively absorbed the information first, and then one by one, they all fell into a state of utter confusion.
The villa was dead silent—you could hear a pin drop.
On the TV, those dense bullet comments, after a brief moment of silence, erupted in a geyser-like explosion.
“This isn’t—huh??”
“Am I seeing things? What the hell is this?”
“Wasn’t I watching Back to Field? How did it cut to a xianxia drama halfway through?”
“Damn, so cultivation farming counts as farming too, huh.”
“Six hundred and sixty-six, is this what our Great Xia’s variety shows are like? So creative!”
“Is there gonna be a world-destroying demon king next, and then the Mushroom House crew all set off on a quest to vanquish him?”
“Hahaha, you guys really know how to play. But this special effect looks kinda cheap—way too plain. My suggestion is to add some aura around him—that’d be way more badass.”
After snapping back to reality, netizens discussed it excitedly, acting exactly like people who loved a good show and weren’t about to miss out on the fun.
This was perfectly normal.
After all, the whole thing looked way too absurd. Unless they were out of their minds, no one would believe this was actually happening.
As for such a sudden scene appearing in a slow-paced variety show like this, people thought about it and said:
“This production team really knows how to play—they’re pros at riding the hype.”
Han Dong couldn’t help but complain.
Huo Jianhua nodded: “Tell me about it. They know Teacher Jiang got famous through the Yu Huatian role, so they’re milking that character for all it’s worth—they even threw in special effects. They’re gonna squeeze Teacher Jiang dry.”
“But I gotta say, even so, it’s actually kinda interesting. Sure, the peaceful rural life is the theme, but throwing in some excitement adds plenty of highlights. Especially that special effect—you can tell it’s post-production CG at a glance, and it won’t affect the overall viewing experience. I’m actually kinda looking forward to the next few episodes now—wonder what it’ll be like when the other stars show up.”
Yuan Shanshan gave her own take.
Seeing that none of them were digging into the whole “swinging a stick and shattering a rock” thing, Jiang Nian secretly let out a breath of relief.
At the same time, he cursed this damn production team for being a bunch of jerks.
Son of a bitch.
They actually aired his martial arts practice footage.
Good thing it was on a variety show—everyone thought it was special effects.
Otherwise, it’d be really hard to handle.
Just as Jiang Nian relaxed and continued watching the show with Chen Qiaoen and the others—
Beihai City, the hometown of martial arts.
Staring at Jiang Nian’s martial arts movements on the screen, a young man let out a soft “huh?” and furrowed his brows.
He pressed the spacebar, paused the video, then dragged the progress bar back to when Jiang Nian first started practicing, and only then resumed playback.
Watching Jiang Nian’s movements in the video, the young man’s face showed unprecedented seriousness.
Because he’d discovered something that caught him completely off guard.
The martial arts Jiang Nian was practicing now wasn’t the Peking opera martial artist style at all.
It was real kung fu!
“Whoa!”
A soft exclamation escaped the young man’s lips.
A celebrity practicing martial arts—and real kung fu at that.
Now this was interesting!
Just as he was about to drag the progress bar back and watch it again—
“Hey, grandson, my phone’s acting up again.”
Suddenly, the door opened, and an old man with white eyebrows and a white beard—but with a sharp, fierce look in his eyes—walked in holding a phone, calling out.
The young man turned his head and asked, “Grandpa, what’s wrong with your phone this time?”
The old man handed the phone over: “Look, I sent your Grandma Liu so many messages, how come she hasn’t replied to a single one? Is the phone frozen?”
Hearing this, the young man looked and saw that on the phone, his grandpa had sent over a dozen messages to someone named “Blooming Flowers and Prosperity,” but that wasn’t the point—the point was that every single message his grandpa sent had a red exclamation mark in front of it.
The young man’s mouth twitched: “Grandpa, you’ve been blocked.”
“Blocked? What’s blocked?”
“It basically means you’ve been deleted. The messages you’re sending now, she can’t see them. She doesn’t have you as a friend on her end either, so she can’t send you messages.”
“What the hell? How the hell did this happen? I know—it must be that bastard Old Wang who took your Grandma Liu’s phone and secretly deleted me. That old thing, really no sense of decency. Just wait till tomorrow—I’ll go beat the crap out of him.”
The old man immediately bristled with anger.
Seeing this, the young man’s mouth twitched again: “Uh, Grandpa, if I remember correctly, Grandpa Wang is Grandma Liu’s husband, right? You’re trying to steal his wife and then beat him up—that’s…”
“So what? Who says you can’t have a boyfriend just because you have a husband? Your Grandma Liu and I are in a legitimate relationship. What the hell is he butting in for?”
The old man’s eyes bulged like an angry Vajra, and then he started rambling on about how “your Grandma Liu and I were childhood sweethearts,” “I went out to compete in martial arts and that little punk took advantage,” “he cuckolded me so I’ll cuckold him”—stuff like that.
The young man didn’t dare make a peep.
On one hand, it was because this was a painful subject for the old man—if he brought it up, the old man would definitely get angry.
On the other hand, the old man’s combat prowess was just too high!
Third place in the first—and also the last—Martial Arts Tournament in nearly fifty years, losing only to the Sword Saint Yu Chenghui.
And to this day, he still maintained his martial arts training habits.
Just two days ago, because the young man’s rebellious dad talked back to him, the old man kicked him from the living room all the way to the front door.
If the young man was stupid enough to step on a landmine now, he’d probably get strung up and beaten by the old man.
The old man, after ranting and raving for a while, felt his anger had mostly subsided, and only then looked at the young man: “So how do I add her back?”
“Theoretically, you can re-add a friend by clicking on the red exclamation mark, but it requires Grandma Liu’s approval. And if Grandma Liu has put you on her blacklist, then I’m afraid…”
The young man’s voice trailed off.
The old man frowned: “Skip the maybes and what-ifs. Just get it done for me first.”
“Okay, okay.” The young man responded, then took the phone and started trying to re-add the friend.
And the old man, taking advantage of this time, looked around the room.
Soon, his gaze was drawn to the young man’s computer.
Looking at the screen, where Jiang Nian was frozen mid-motion holding a branch because the video was paused, the old man’s eyes narrowed, and he blurted out almost instinctively: “What an excellent prospect!”
“Hm?”
The young man, who had just finished adding the friend, was slightly startled. He looked up, eyes blank as he looked at the old man: “Grandpa, what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about him.” The old man pointed at the computer, clicking his tongue: “Look at him—tiger back and wasp waist, broad shoulders and long arms, powerful legs, eyes shining with spirit. This is just a perfect prospect for martial arts. What a pity…”
“Pity what?”
“Pity he went down the wrong path—he’s a bodybuilder.”
Looking at Jiang Nian’s muscles—so bulging that even his clothes couldn’t hide them, all bumpy and sculpted—the old man’s face was full of regret.
With such a great physique, if he’d practiced martial arts, his future would’ve been limitless.
But instead, he chose bodybuilding.
That basically ruined any chance he had of practicing martial arts.
Because martial artists emphasize looseness in every joint, openness in every joint, agility in every joint.
The joints must be loose—only when loose can they open, and only when open can they be agile.
All their strength-training exercises are built on this foundation, which is why their muscles don’t look very pronounced—some don’t even have visible muscles at all, just plump and round, forming what’s called “fat-wrapped muscle.”
Bodybuilding, on the other hand, can sculpt muscles into shape and make them look incredibly aesthetic.
But the muscles built that way are basically dead muscle. With dead muscle getting in the way, the body simply can’t loosen up, and punches come out slower than others—this is undoubtedly a great taboo for martial artists.
The young man had practiced martial arts since childhood, so after the old man’s explanation, he naturally understood what he meant, and laughed: “Grandpa, you’d be wrong about that. He really does practice martial arts—and from his stance, it’s not Peking opera martial arts either. It’s the real deal—genuine kung fu!”
“Real kung fu? You sure? You’re not just seeing things, are you?”
The old man was full of skepticism.
“Tsk, the way you put it—I’ve been training with you for so long. Sure, I don’t have much real skill, but I can still tell this stuff apart, okay? If you don’t believe me, I’ll queue it up for you—see for yourself.”
The young man said, then dragged the progress bar back to when Jiang Nian started practicing, hit the spacebar, and resumed playback.
The old man leaned in to watch.
But soon, his brows furrowed.
Not because he found problems with what his grandson said—quite the opposite. His grandson was right.
When Jiang Nian first started practicing, his moves were indeed impeccable.
It was genuine traditional martial arts, not those flashy stage fighting tricks.
Although for some reason, his sword technique was a mix of Shaolin swordplay and Huashan swordplay.
But overall, it wasn’t a big deal.
After all, martial arts borrowing from each other was very common.
The old man didn’t think much of it.
But gradually, as time went on—
The old man began to notice something was a little off.
It was that Jiang Nian’s sword moves—the more he practiced, the less the old man could understand them?
Especially at the end, when he swung the wooden stick and split the rock in one strike—
It actually made an uncontrollable thought rise in the old man’s heart.
That splitting a rock with a stick might actually be real!
“How is that possible?!”
The old man was shaken—even he was startled by his own thought.
Because it simply shouldn’t be possible!
How could a wooden stick unleash that kind of power?!
“It must be special effects—it must be!”
He thought silently to himself.
Meanwhile, seeing his expression shifting unpredictably, the young man couldn’t help asking: “Grandpa, what’s wrong?”
The old man didn’t answer, just asked: “Where is this? Is he your friend? What’s his name?”
Jiang Nian gave him such a strange feeling that he couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. So after thinking about it, he decided he wanted to meet Jiang Nian in person.
Hearing this, the young man couldn’t help but laugh: “Grandpa, what are you thinking? He’s a celebrity—how would I be friends with him? And this is just a variety show. He’s probably long gone after filming…”
“No way to contact him?”
“No way to contact him.”
“Tsk…”
Hearing this answer, the old man was somewhat disappointed.
The young man was still puzzled and asked: “Grandpa, why are you so interested in him?”
“I’m not interested in him—I’m interested in his sword technique. It’s just too strange. I’ve lived all these years and never seen his style, but at the same time, his sword technique gives me a really weird feeling. Anyway, I can’t quite put it into words right now. Record this video for me and send it to my phone—I’ll ask someone else about it.”
The old man said.
Hearing this, the young man was slightly taken aback.
He clearly hadn’t expected his grandpa to react this way, so he quickly recorded it and sent the video to the old man’s phone.
Watching his grandpa hurry off—
The young man’s gaze returned to the computer. He looked at Jiang Nian on the screen, thought for a moment, then copied the video he’d just recorded and opened a group chat called “The Future of National Martial Arts.”
There weren’t many people in the group—only about four hundred.
They came from all over the country, but they all had one thing in common: their families all had martial arts lineages. You could call them martial arts second-generations.
Because of this, the group was very lively.
No matter when you opened it, you’d see people exchanging martial arts insights, setting up sparring matches, or complaining about the latest martial arts films.
Just as the young man was about to send the video—
He discovered the group was already buzzing about Jiang Nian.
But their focus wasn’t on Jiang Nian practicing martial arts.
It was on Jiang Nian appearing on Back to Field and his rock-splitting stick swing.
No help for it—the whole thing was just too absurd.
You couldn’t ignore it even if you tried.
The young man scrolled through and saw no one was discussing Jiang Nian’s martial arts.
So he said: “Don’t you guys think this Jiang Nian might actually be a traditional martial arts practitioner?”
At these words, the group went briefly quiet.
Then everyone chimed in:
“Traditional martial arts? To be fair, that’s a pretty tricky angle you’ve got there. I’ll admit, when he first started practicing, there were some traces of traditional martial arts. But later on, what he was doing was complete nonsense—totally baffling. How did you come to the conclusion that he practices traditional martial arts?”
“Yeah, exactly. I’d think you, of all people, having practiced martial arts since childhood, would have better judgment than this. And you’re Grandpa Zhang’s grandson too—don’t tell me the old man beat you so hard you went blind.”
“I’ll put it this way—if he practices traditional martial arts, I’ll eat this phone right here, right now.”
“Hey hey hey, don’t be so absolute. After all, the first few moves Jiang Nian showed weren’t bad—quite noteworthy, actually. And judging by his proficiency, he’s probably been practicing for a while. He’s probably been exposed to traditional martial arts but never learned it properly—otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten so ridiculous later on.”
“Exactly. The way I see it, at best he’s just a layman who knows a little bit of traditional martial arts—enough to bluff outsiders.”
“Outsiders? I don’t think Jiang Nian could even bluff an outsider. Good grief, splitting a rock with a stick—why doesn’t he just fly to the heavens?”
“Hey, good idea. How about we contact the Back to Field production team and have them invite Jiang Nian back to film it again?”
“Hahaha, you guys are savage. But I love watching it—keep going.”
“…”
The group chat was buzzing with discussion.
Everyone’s attitude was consistent—none of them believed Jiang Nian practiced traditional martial arts.
But the young man, Little Zhang, frowned slightly.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
Because if it really was like the group said—that Jiang Nian knew nothing about traditional martial arts, or only knew a little—
Then why did his grandpa react the way he did earlier? Why was he even taking the video to ask others about it?
After all, although his grandpa had retired, he was still a leading figure—a grandmaster-level presence—in today’s national martial arts circles!
Even he, after watching Jiang Nian practice, couldn’t make up his mind.
Could this really be as simple as it looked on the surface?
