Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Professional Seventh Pin?
Lou Cheng turned his eyes towards the photo in the wanted poster. Zhan Xuming had a surprising baby face, with gentle features; not at all like the face of a fierce, ruthless murderer who had committed three cases of family extermination.
Even though he was evidently not talented or held any kind of promise, he was nevertheless a Professional Seventh Pin career warrior at the age of 32. He still could cross the threshold of Inhuman strength. He ought to belong to the upper middle class ranks in martial arts societies. No matter which large city he chose to live in, he could easily live a good life. So why did he end up becoming a fugitive?
Did he yield to an impulse?
Or did he violate the rules with violence as a fighter?
Or perhaps evil possessed him after he mispracticed some odd skills and experienced a great change in his character?
Those possibilities flashed across Lou Cheng’s mind, but soon vanished without a trace.
With the criminal being a martial arts master of such a caliber, there was no use for the weaker Lou Cheng to spend any energy on the case. Instead, he decided to just warn his family and friends to play it safe if they encountered the criminal. They should just report it to the police afterwards, or they might not even know it when they were killed.
“Is Professional Seventh Pin considered a great warrior?” Lou Zhisheng asked.
He knew the stark difference between a professional fighter and an amateur one, as well the ferocity of the fighters of the top third Pin. But he was unfamiliar with the gap between each Pin among the other levels.
“He’d be very good. He’ll be able to knock down several fighters of my level without any problem!” Lou Cheng explained to his dad, using himself as a reference point. “If you meet this the criminal one day, ignore him and call the police when he is far away.”
“Your dad is not stupid. I don’t even dare to call the police if I meet criminals of any Pin, let alone him,” Lou Zhisheng replied casually with a smile.
“That’s true... I’m just worrying too much...” Lou Cheng put on a smile as he shook his head. He then walked home with his dad without continuing that topic.
After taking a shower and lying on fresh new sheets, Lou Cheng received a call from Yan Zheke.
“Ke, did something happen?” Not knowing what had happened, he asked after her with great concern.
She was still fine when we chatted earlier...
Yan Zheke smiled, savoring the boy’s sincere concern over her. “Must I have a reason to call you?”
Lou Cheng relaxed. “Did you miss me?”
“You’ve become more and more shameless!” Yan Zheke complained without any anger. “Have you seen the wanted poster?”
“I have. Is there anything wrong?” Lou Cheng’s heart did a flip.
Ke couldn’t have made this call simply to gossip with him.
Yan Zheke stopped smiling. “I have it on good authority that the criminal has fled to somewhere near us.”
“I just knew that there was a reason for so many wanted posters to be put up here... ” Lou Cheng said thoughtfully, “What, what’s wrong with that Zhan Xuming? Why did he commit three cases of family extermination?”
“He apparently did it for revenge.” Yan Zheke chose her words carefully. “His parents were also warriors. When he was young, for some reason a mighty local at Dan stage forced them to their deathbeds. Ever since he made some achievements in martial arts, he had been trying to pursue justice for his parents. But the mighty one was already an important person in that province with strong political and commercial backing. He even had good relationship with invulnerable martial arts experts. Thus, Zhan Xuming’s case was delayed again and again and got nowhere. At the same time, there were even many people who tried to persuade him into giving up his revenge and negotiating with his enemy. They called it burying the hatchet... ”
Noticing his girlfriend’s disdainful tone and the anger in it, Lou Cheng echoed her words as he could sympathize with the criminal’s feelings. “So those people were just gossiping without understanding Zhan Xuming’s plan... And the poor guy acted out of desperation afterwards?”
“Well, Cheng, don’t laugh. But I just imagined if I were Zhan Xuming and my parents were hounded to death, I would also devote myself to revenge. As the saying goes, I cannot live under the same sky as my enemy.” Yan Zheke sighed and continued, “Zhan Xuming pretended to compromise and acted docile until his enemies relaxed their vigilance. Then he broke into the home of the mighty one at midnight and killed him along with his 10 other family members. He then went south to flee into a war zone. But the police department placed great importance on this case. Other than a criminal expert, they have also sent a high-ranking warrior at Dan stage, who happened to have supernatural tracking ability to lead the team in pursuing Zhan Xuming. They blocked the poor guy’s way several times and almost caught him last week.”
“All you mentioned was just one case of family extermination?” Lou Cheng asked, catching her point.
Yan Zheke took a deep breath and said, “Maybe he was so deep in his despair without any hope to get rid of the hunters, causing him to break down and commit two more cases of family extermination. His victims were both warrior clans with great political and commercial background but had no relationship with him. I originally sympathized with him and even admired him for his swordsman attitude towards gratitude and revenge, but... ”
“Was it anger? Was he just venting his frustration? Or was it simply him lashing out when he knew he can’t survive?” Lou Cheng became worried. “Ke, your family also has to be careful!”
His girlfriend’s family definitely had considerable political and commercial connections, while Zhan Xuming happened to appear somewhere near her home!
“That’s the reason why I’m calling. Though my mom is away on official business as scheduled, she asked aunt Liu and her family to stay in my home temporarily.” Yan Zheke said pitifully, “Aunt Liu will accompany me during tomorrow’s morning exercise, so we can’t go and eat Zongzi together... ”
That was something they had agreed on; something Lou Cheng had been looking forward to. Now everything was ruined thanks to Zhan Xuming the wretch!
Ke’s aunt Liu was a Professional Seventh Pin master... Lou Cheng put his mind at rest and sighed with relief. “Your safety is the most important. I just feel sorry for that Zongzi restaurant for missing the favor of the little fairy several times!”
“Pfft... ” Yan Zheke was tickled by Lou Cheng’s words and she was in much better spirits. The girl smiled, softening her voice. “Then are you willing to send the little fairy some Zongzi tomorrow?”
“I can’t be happier for the opportunity!” Lou Cheng replied without any doubt.
“Sweet talker!” Yan Zheke complained with a cheerful tone. “Cheng, I’m actually, actually worrying that a lot of things will have to be postponed because of the cancellation of our date tomorrow. I don’t know when we will have another chance... ”
“Well. So what then?” Lou Cheng was confused.
What did Ke want to say?
“So what?” Yan Zheke was embarrassed and annoyed. “You idiot! What I want to say, want to say... ”
She suddenly lowered her voice, tickling Lou Cheng’s ears.
“I really am missing you... ”
Du! Just as she finished her sentence, the girl hung up abruptly, as if Lou Cheng would turn into a ghost crawling out of the screen.
Du du du... Recalling Ke’s words with a silly smile on his face, Lou Cheng only regretted that he didn’t have the habit of recording their conversations.
...
At about five o’clock the next day, Lou Cheng purposefully chose somewhere near Xiushan No.1 Middle School for his morning exercise, so that it would be convenient for him to buy some Zongzi and then go to Back Water Lake.
After completing his daily practice routine and shock force training with the help of medicine decoction, Lou Cheng spared half an hour to simulate Jindan’s operation.
Calming himself down to perceive the expansion and contraction of that bright nebula, Lou Cheng gradually understood the rules of Jindan’s operation with the help of the gradual accumulation of his knowledge and experience.
“Spin!”
The key word was “spin”!
Basically, it is the process where the two forces of ice and fire repel and transform into each other, before finally reaching a delicate balance. Then they begin spinning around a point on and on, whose external manifestation is the slow rotation of the nebula.
From a more detailed perspective, the ice crystal would spin around the blaze, and the blaze would spin around the nebula core formed by the interaction force; layer by layer, like the motions of celestial bodies.
Once the spin stops, Jindan would definitely collapse with a violent explosion and finally exhaust itself.
“Spin... Maybe I can simplify it as making my qi, blood, spirit, and force to spin around a ‘point’ in balance to form a concentrated big Dan in the human body, which is the ‘withdraw’ attempt... While the ‘point’ should be the so-called martial arts will... ” Lou Cheng concluded his thoughts and formed a budding idea. “Even though I haven’t found or formed my own martial arts will, perhaps I can use Jidan as a starting point for my experiment... ”
After analyzing all the possibilities to make sure it wouldn’t be too dangerous, Lou Cheng lowered his weight to make a posture, and then closed eyes with concealment of spirit and qi.
He immersed all his spirit into the Jindan to activate his qi and blood, which then provoked his strength.
When his spirit and Jindan began spinning synchronously, he felt a sudden shock when Jindan accelerated in an instant!
Boom!
After his qi, blood, and force were stimulated, his spirit contracted inwards as if it was spinning around something. His physical body, on the other hand, was in an odd state of emptiness and silence.
The contraction took only a short moment as Lou Cheng’s force, which was not pure and clear enough, made a rapid resilience to leak outwards and drove Lou Cheng to throw his fist forward!
Bang!
It seemed as if the air was blasted open with a gust of wind made purely by physical body force.
Lou Cheng opened his eyes and stared at his fist. Without thinking about anything, he then turned his gaze towards the side path on his left.
At that moment when his spirit began contracting, he had a weird sense that someone was approaching him from that direction even though he didn’t depend on his eyes or ears.
This sensation very much resembled his experience of Absolute Reaction when he caught that thief!
A few seconds later, Lou Cheng heard footsteps. After a while, he saw a middle school student passing by on a morning run.
“So someone is really approaching me... ” Lou Cheng took a deep breath and murmured to himself.
He now pretty much understood what the deal with Absolute Reaction was.
When he was awake, all his distracting thoughts would impede Jindan’s motion and prevent it from unleashing its special power. When he slipped into a deep sleep with most of his thoughts vanished, Absolute Reaction would appear and was even more powerful than that of an Ice Mirror master!
— Lou Cheng had always slept in his dorm, or at home, or beside Yan Zheke. So he seldom encountered someone with evil intentions in his dreams. That was why he didn’t notice such signs and feelings until he saw the thief that day.
As for what he had perceived just now, it should be the combination of the special function and the “withdrawing” motion of Dan stage.
Lou Cheng shook his head, finding himself tired and dizzy after the withdrawing experiment. Now he had to refresh himself with the hot current spared by the Jindan.
“Sure enough, just one or two days are not enough to break into Dan stage. Though my withdrawing experiment succeeded with the help of Jindan, I still cannot make a real withdrawal before I totally refine and purify my force and contract my flourishing qi and blood... ” Lou Cheng relaxed his muscles and bones, his happiness carrying a hint of desolation.
Well, he couldn’t always rely on Jindan and forget his initial purpose— “I’m experimenting to experience and understand what ‘withdrawing’ means, and then master my special Force Concentration with the martial arts will as the center point!”
As for martial arts will, he was still in bewilderment...
Lou Cheng exhaled, knowing there was still a long way to go before reaching Dan stage.
Success? I’ve only took my first step in this journey!