Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
At noon, Lou Cheng left the Volcano Experiment Lab. Wiping his face with a white towel, he took the elevator and arrived at his private resting room. As someone who cared about his image, he refused to use his heat to evaporate his sweat, which would lower the air quality for everyone else.
Twisting open the door, Lou Cheng stepped inside.
“I...” The quiet ambience stopped him from finishing his sentence.
Golden sunlight spilled into the office-styled room from the French windows, painting everything in magnificent brilliance. The haloes around Yan Zheke’s dark hair lent an oil painting quality to the scene.
With one hand below her chin and another hand on the mouse, the girl was gazing intently at the computer screen. There was a pile of printed documents at her side.
Sometimes she frowned. Sometimes she nibbled on her fountain pen. Sometimes she tapped the keyboard noisily. Sometimes she wrote things down on the paper. Completely absorbed, she gave merely a perfunctory glance with her beautiful, ink-black eyes at her husband’s arrival.
Lou Cheng chuckled and sat down on the sofa without a word. He preserved the silence as he watched his his girl at work, often nibbling on her pen subconsciously.
After a while, Yan Zheke suddenly gave an “Oh!” and raised her head to look at Lou Cheng.
“What time is it now?” she asked in a daze.
Lou Cheng lit up his phone screen and glanced at the time.
“Almost one.”
Pursing her lips, Yan Zheke looked away. Her realization came with a little embarrassment.
“No wonder I kept feeling like I should eat something...”
“Haha, it’s not too late. The afternoon markets are still open,” said Lou Cheng. He stood up and walked towards his girl.
“Mhm...I want crab-roe buns, white sugar sponge cakes, Emperor Prawn dumplings...” mused Yan Zheke. She couldn’t help but gulp down some saliva.
Then, keeping the pen and paper, she offered her hand.
“I’ll leave the rest for tomorrow!”
Taking her hand, Lou Cheng smiled.
“Ditto.”
...
Having sated their appetites, Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke left the restaurant side by side. They stepped into the escalator to the first floor.
“There’s a lot of people over there,” she discerned through the mall windows as they descended. A bunch of people had crowded before a storefront on the street to their left. There seemed to be some kind of commotion.
Following her gaze, Lou Cheng saw a dense crowd. Rather interested, he suggested, “Let’s go take a look.”
Even a Physical Invulnerability Mighty One has a curious heart and the genes of an onlooker.
“Okay!” said, Yan Zheke, equally enthusiastic.
Reaching the first floor, they went out of the mall entrance and walked for almost a hundred meters before arriving at where the crowd was gathered. It was a two-level building that exuded elegance and profoundness. There was something decidedly Japanese about it.
Lou Cheng read out the sign.
“Shenya dojo...”
“Sounds like a Japanese dojo...” said Yan Zheke thoughtfully. “I think I’ve heard of it before, it’s an ancient sect.”
Peering in, Lou Cheng saw a number of girls in yukatas in front of the door. They stood abreast, forming a beautiful sight that caught the eyes of many passersby. There was a table on both sides, on which Japanese swords of varying lengths were displayed.
“You’re right, it is a martial arts dojo,” agreed Lou Cheng.
Looking away thoughtfully, Yan Zheke suddenly giggled, “Does this count as snatching our rice bowl?” referencing the Chinese metaphor for stealing business.
Go, Husky! Flatten their dojo! Strip their signboard!
As the girl played the scene out inwardly, Lou Cheng merely smiled.
“It’s no big deal. Didn’t I successively train a batch of Taoists in America in spite of the abundance of dojos?”
“Well, in this day and age, people can’t get enough of novelty. Martial arts from another country, unusual environments, a touch of rich history...it’s no wonder that it became popular,” said Yan Zheke, gently biting her lips and giving a dimpled smile.
From there, they shot the breeze for a while. Then, pointing to the entrance, she said,
“Shall we have a look-see?”
“Forget it. If I go in there, it would be no different than challenging the dojo. Plus, I would be bullying the weak,” said Lou Cheng after hesitation.
Puffing her cheeks, Yan Zheke nodded slightly. “You’re right...there’s not much to see in an open public dojo anyway.”
On the second floor of the Shenya dojo, a girl in red and white yukata walked to the window and peered at the bustling commercial area.
She was about 1.6m tall, with baby-fat on her cheeks and clear, profound eyes. It was no other than the young genius beauty, seen once every three thousand years, the successor of Xinzhai Sect, Kaori Karasawa.
A girl with slanted bangs walked to her slowly. “Kaori-chan, what are you looking at?”
Her features were natural and pleasant, but not beautiful. However, the way her eyes curved when she smiled was redolent of the brilliant sun.
Holding a sheathed tachi in her hand, Kaori Karasawa had a relaxed expression on her face.
“Just looking at the busy streets, there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference between us, China, and America, apart from the language.”
“Yet the people in every country give off the feeling of being starkly different from each other.”
“Do people from the Xinzhai Sect all talk so cryptically? It’s almost as if you are monks,” said the girl talking to her, beaming. “Let’s talk about you. l know about you. Why did you suddenly apply for a visa to China? Didn’t you recently enter Deity Territory?
Scanning across the streets, Kaori Karasawa located a few surveillance cameras. Rather sentimentally, she said,
“I have to fulfill a wish.”
“In the previous King of Youth Pro League, I lost to Peng-kun from China even when I was the first to advance to what they call the Inhuman stage. One of the reasons was that I wasn’t allowed to use a weapon. But, I have to admit, he was very strong.”
“At that time, I told myself I would have to fight him again with my full strength.”
“Two months ago, when I returned from the war-torn zones, I realized that even Peng-kun’s speed of advancement outstrips mine.”
“I don’t want to wait any longer. I’m scared that if I keep waiting, I’ll lose my courage.”
“Therefore, after mastering all the Kendo in Xinzhai Sect, I immediately made my way here.”
“Peng Leyun...Why not go straight to Hudong?” the girl with slanted bangs frowned slightly.
“I wanted to walk around and sightsee for a bit to gain momentum.” Looking away, Kaori Karasawa suddenly froze as she saw a familiar figure—Lou Cheng in his black-framed glasses and dark knitted hat!
Lou Cheng immediately felt the presence of her aura. Raising his head, he looked at the second-floor window. His eyes met hers, deep like an ancient well.
Subconsciously, Kaori Karasawa gathered her aura, guarded her mind, and reached for her tachi.
Like a heavenly forged weapon long sealed in a coffer, she had been waiting for too long while sharpening herself and honing her skills. And now, she was ready to radiate and slice through the heavens.
However, at that moment, Lou Cheng seemed to vanish. Before her was endless darkness and majestic stars. She would melt if she got too close, and she would freeze if she got too far.
Such majesty, such vastness, such danger, and such terror. It made Kaori Karasawa feel as though she would only cause a small disturbance if she unsheathed her blade.
This was like the times in the past when she practiced her Kendo below the starry sky. Her target might be the waterfall, the bamboo forests, or the big rocks. But never the starry sky, because that would be a waste of effort.
For a long time, she couldn’t clench her right hand on the hilt of the sword.
The universe dispersed as the stars faded. Retracting his gaze, Lou Cheng led Yan Zheke, hand-in-hand, to the other end of the street.
“What happened?” she asked, puzzled.
The corner of Lou Cheng’s mouth moved slightly.
“An opponent of the past,” he replied evenly.
“She has also attained Physical Invulnerability.”
On the second floor, Kaori Karasawa drew a breath as she watched the two figures fade into the distance.
She already knew about him attaining Physical Invulnerability and his current standard from watching his recent matches.
However, compared to the previous time, his essence was strange. An unprecedented level of strange.
Strange to the extent that she couldn’t draw her blade.
Noticing Kaori Karasawa’s silence, the girl with slanted bangs waved at her.
“Kaori-chan?
“Eh?” Kaori Karasawa turned her head blankly, collecting her thoughts.
“Are you...thinking about something?” the girl with slanted bangs asked cautiously.
Kaori Karasawa ruminated for a couple of seconds.
“China has too many Physical Invulnerability Mighty Ones.”
“Mhm, hmm?” the girl with slanted bangs waited for her to continue.
Kaori Karasawa’s face was wistful as she continued.
“And we have too little.”
She went on before the girl with slanted bangs could ask again.
“That’s why we couldn’t organize large-scale top tier pro matches and titled matches. That’s why we couldn’t go through trials on a weekly basis. Unlike their Physical Invulnerability experts, we have to constantly improve our ways and techniques.”
“That is indeed the case,” the girl with slanted bangs nodded in agreement.
Kaori Karasawa suddenly gave a beautiful smile. Mysteriously, she said,
“Do you think it’s possible for me to stay in China and attend similar competitions?”
“Apart from sects, they also have Martial Arts Federations and clubs. They do accept foreigners, right?”