I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

"By the way, why are you suddenly trying to learn Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear?"
I scratched my cheek at Li Mei Ling’s question and answered honestly.
"To be honest, I’ve never formally learned martial arts, so in situations like earlier, I didn’t know how I was supposed to respond."

At best, all I had was a bit of Taekwondo I picked up during military service in my previous life.
That’s why I was especially curious about the principle behind the technique she used.
But after hearing my answer, Li Mei Ling looked a little shocked.

"You’ve never learned martial arts?"
"Yes. Beating Ivan before… was honestly just a bit of luck piled on top of luck."
I told her what Fuma-senpai once told me about the Polar Yang Body.

Upon hearing my explanation, Li Mei Ling looked at me with a serious expression and asked again.
"Are you saying all this without a shred of exaggeration?"
"Excuse me? Ah, yes."

Then Li Mei Ling spoke with a solemn face.
"First of all, let me clear up a misunderstanding you seem to have—Ivan Romanov isn’t someone you can beat just by chance. Maybe he’s past his prime now due to age, but in his youth, he defeated my teacher, Li Senshun—one of the Seven Fists—and held the title of the strongest in the world for nearly ten years. If he hadn’t lost interest in tournaments after being defeated by Japan’s Black Yasha, he might still be active today."
If what she was saying was true, he was someone who retired a long time ago, but was still held in extremely high regard.

Which meant he was an absolute monster.
Though, from my own experience of actually meeting the guy, he was more like a Russian uncle with serious anger issues.
"Anyway, even if, as you say, you won thanks to the temporary surge of yang energy from taking that Ghost Soul Pill, that power still belongs to you. If you start training now, you can definitely reach that level yourself."

"How can you be so sure of that?"
Li Mei Ling looked me in the eyes and said firmly.
"You have more talent than anyone I’ve ever seen. You were born to fight."
As she said that, she reached out and touched the muscles on my arm and chest.

"To have developed this level of physical technique without learning any formal martial arts—this is proof of your talent."
Hearing that kind of praise from someone known as one of the strongest fighters of this generation… made me feel weirdly ticklish inside.
That’s when it happened.

"Son, dinner’s ready, are you going to—oh my, oh my."
Just like earlier, and now again—my mom barged in at the worst possible timing, stopping in her tracks when she saw Li Mei Ling touching my muscles in the living room.
"Did I interrupt again?"

"It’s not what it looks like!"
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had to shout that line.
***

After having dinner together in the kitchen, we sat with my family and talked about her.
At first, I’d only asked out of curiosity to break the awkward atmosphere, but judging from the community forum post titled ‘Strong Woman, Twisted Lust.jpg’ that’s making the rounds, she really did seem to be a famous person.
Real name: Li Mei Ling.

She was 22 years old this year.
Five years older than me—a college student.
Born in Hebei, China. She was famous from a young age as a prodigy, and eventually caught the eye of “Undefeated East” Li Senshun, a grandmaster of all kinds of Chinese martial arts. She became his disciple and trained in his unique martial art: Heaven-Crushing Six-Harmonies Grand Bajiquan.

Traditional Chinese martial arts were often considered inferior to modern ones in terms of real combat, but she shattered that image by entering the UFC at a young age and sweeping three weight classes using only Chinese martial arts.
And that wasn’t all. She even entered the GOF—an open-weight tournament with no restrictions on gender or age—and became the first-ever female champion. Truly, as a female fighter, she was a legendary figure.
"That’s a pretty flashy list of titles."

"Only now do you realize how amazing I am."
She puffed out her chest proudly as she said that.
And as a result, her quite generous chest size was emphasized… which naturally drew my father’s gaze.

Of course, he quickly looked away before my mom could notice.
"How does someone like that end up losing her wallet?"
"Ugh."

Letting out a small grunt, Li Mei Ling averted my mom’s gaze. Apparently, she had no excuse.
My dad, who had been sitting around the table eating fruit, asked curiously.
"Then, Miss Mei Ling, could you show us a bit of your martial arts?"

"Of course, sir."
She jumped up at my father’s request and immediately assumed a stance.
If not for the oversized T-shirt that slipped off one shoulder and the apple she was holding in her mouth, the mood might’ve felt more serious.

She straightened both palms and took a deep breath, then started whipping her arms like a whip.
I realized the martial art she was now demonstrating was one of the techniques she used back at Yaguchi’s dojo.
Her arms swayed like willow branches—smooth and flowing—but occasionally, their momentum became sharp and fierce. Watching it, it almost looked like she was dancing.

For about five minutes,
She performed various flashy techniques in the confined space, captivating my parents completely, and finished with the formal pao quan salute.
My parents, having watched in a daze, both clapped and expressed their admiration.

"Miss Mei Ling, what’s the name of the martial art you just showed us?"
"That was the Wall-Crushing Palm."
"You’re quite something, young lady. It was like watching a martial arts movie."

"You flatter me."
Even though she was only doing it because my parents asked, once it was over, Li Mei Ling blushed and waved her hands, clearly embarrassed.
We continued chatting in the living room for a bit longer, but since it was getting late, we decided to turn in for the night.

Even for me, but especially for my parents who had to open the restaurant tomorrow.
***
The next morning.

Waking up out of habit at dawn, I entered my room to grab clothes for jogging—and paused when I saw Li Mei Ling sleeping on the floor.
Maybe she was exhausted from walking around all day yesterday, because she was sound asleep.
And with her guard completely down, her sleeping face looked… honestly pretty.

I tiptoed quietly toward the wardrobe, careful not to wake her.
Inside hung three sets of nearly identical training clothes.
Since I rotated them every 3–4 days, my closet was never empty.

I picked out the set I’d wear today and was about to sneak back out when I heard a groggy voice behind me.
"…Where are you going?"
"You’re awake?"

I glanced back as I asked.
Unlike moments ago, she had raised her upper body slightly from under the blanket, squinting at me.
"I usually jog every morning."

Li Mei Ling yawned, still sleepy, and said,
"I’m coming too."
"For jogging?"

She gave a small nod and sat up from the blanket.
"I might be in a foreign land, but that’s no excuse to neglect my personal training."
"Well, I won’t stop you then."

I was about to leave the room when I suddenly remembered something and asked,
"Do you have training clothes?"
She hesitated for a second but then nodded.

"I do."
"Then I’ll wait outside. Come out when you’re ready."
I decided to wait for her in the living room until she finished getting ready.

***
Usually, girls take a long time to get ready to go out.
But Li Mei Ling apparently didn’t care about such common knowledge—she just washed her face quickly and came out.

Her long hair, tied in a ponytail, swayed gently as she walked.
I [N O V E L I G H T] motioned for her to follow the usual jogging route.
She nodded and started jogging beside me, matching my stride.

We left the house and ran for about thirty minutes, eventually arriving at a riverside public park.
At this time of day, there was never anyone around, so the park was completely quiet in the early morning.
As she did some light stretching—perhaps refreshed by the jogging—she spoke to me.

"That thing you asked me about yesterday… I want to do it now."
"You mean Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear?"
"That’s right."

She nodded as she answered.
Maybe it was because we talked a lot last night, but she felt a lot more comfortable around me than before.
She stepped up to me and, like yesterday, touched my arm muscles and said,

"That technique I used yesterday, Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear, is derived from Fierce Tiger Mountain-Splitting—one of the eight secret techniques of Bajiquan."
She grabbed my right arm with both hands.
"And Bajiquan itself was developed from spear techniques."

I moved my arm as she guided me.
As I thrust my right arm forward, the joints twisted mid-motion.
"The key to Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear is this—treating your arm like a spear. If you master this, you’ll be holding a spear that can pierce any shield."

As she said that, Li Mei Ling took the same stance as before.
Her right arm, trained to the extreme, shot out into the air.
The added twist in the middle made the thrust look simple at first glance, but it felt like it could truly pierce through anything.

"I think you’ll pick this up quickly, so I’ll just teach you the basic martial theory for now."
She said that with a strangely cheerful expression.