Martial Arts Master

“What is it?” For some reason, Lou Cheng’s heart was beating nervously.

Sometimes Master isn’t very reliable!

Geezer Shi snickered. “The Ice God Sect has a disciple called Li Zhenhua in Linbian who’s run into some trouble. You’re pretty close; go over there and take care of it.”

Taking the high speed rail to Linbian would take an hour and a half, so it really was only half a day worth of effort… Lou Cheng nodded and asked for more details. “Master, what trouble?”

“It’d take a long time to tell you, brat. You don’t appreciate this old fogey at all!” Geezer Shi scolded, “Remember this phone number. Wait a minute and then call it, she’ll tell you everything from the beginning, XXXXXXXXXXX.”

“Okay…” Lou Cheng repeated it back twice, hinting at the adjacent Jiang Fei to help him remember. He turned and said, “Master, I’m not doing any part-time work at the sect. If I take on this assignment, will there be any kind of reward?”

“Heh, when did you become so money-grubbing?” Geezer Shi laughed in astonishment.

Lou Cheng laughed with embarrassment. “Isn’t Ke going to study abroad in America? I need to collect money for the fare.”

With regards to his influence, connections, and business partnerships with others, for the moment he still hadn’t crossed this threshold in his mind.

“Not bad. You realize that you need to have money for this, quite the sense of responsibility! There’ll definitely be a reward. How could the sect possibly mistreat you? If they do you wrong, they’ll have to face me!” Geezer Shi then warned with some urgency, “When you get to Linbian, if there’s any kind of accident, remember to give your master a call.”

“Okay.” Lou Cheng didn’t say much, and after the phone call was over, he quickly dialed the number that his master had given him.

A cheerful ringtone hadn’t gone on for three seconds when the other side had already picked up and a female voice said with exhaustion and worry,

“Hello, who is this?”

“I’m Lou Cheng from the Ice God Sect.” Lou Cheng lowered his voice and spoke concisely.

The girl’s voice suddenly lifted. “Hello Senior, I’m Li Zhenhua’s girlfriend, Zhang Xiaozi.”

Senior? Lou Cheng was dumbstruck at being called this, but he was unable to correct her and instead got straight to the point. “What’s happened with Li Zhenhua?”

His girlfriend was answering the phone!

“They haven’t told you? Zhenhua, he’s disappeared… Senior, this whole thing is complicated. I can’t explain it very clearly like this. Wait until you arrive and then I can tell you all of the details face to face.”

As expected, Master isn’t very reliable.. . Lou Cheng silently judged him, then thought about how he had to go and have a look, so he agreed and said, “Alright, when I reserve a ticket I’ll let you know. We can meet at the railway station.”

“OK, OK, OK, I’ll wait for you, Senior.” Zhang Xiaozi obviously was relieved, as if she’d found someone to depend on.

Senior…does my voice sound that old? Lou Cheng snorted in ridicule. He opened an app and purchased a ticket for 2:25 heading to Linbian. For now, he didn’t bother with a return trip.

“Fatty Jiang, take me to the high speed rail station. The sect has something for me to handle.” Lou Cheng and Jiang Fei had never been one for niceties when it came to speaking with one another.

“Hey, Cheng, you’ve really got the essence of the business elite!” Jiang Fei had finished watching a workplace TV drama the night before.

Lou Cheng was about to mock himself, but he suddenly had a change of heart. “Wait, wait, Fatty Jiang, take me home first, and then go to the high speed rail station.”

Linbian was not a part of Xing Province and was strategically located on the border. Although its distance from the border was still somewhat far, it was a transport hub, so a large number of people came and went. The public security situation wasn’t the best, to the point where you could say it was somewhat in a state of disorder. Even in Xiushan, everyone occasionally would hear about a big case that had happened over there. On top of that, it was an area with many different ethnic groups, and the atmosphere was fairly tense. So even though he didn’t plan on getting in a fight, it’d be best for him to get well-prepared.

As the car went along, Lou Cheng took out his phone and sent a message to Yan Zheke along with an emoji covering its face and sighing.

“The better you are, the more work you get. I’ve been told by my master to go to Linbian and handle a younger disciple who’s stirred up trouble…”

I’m the martial uncle of the disciple. If it were someone who had the same rank as me, that would be out of my reach…

Yan Zheke responded quickly with a doge emoji.

“So… so sudden… Linbian is really unstable. Cheng, you need to be careful! Go and get your martial arts suit, and if you run into any kind of situation, don’t hold back and make your well being priority… ”

She’d said so much in so little time, and at the end added, like a clever child sitting up straight, “I’m waiting for you to come back!”

“When my dear wife speaks like this, I feel like nothing can stop me and I can come back successfully!” Lou Cheng sent an excited emoji with a towel wrapped around its head. “I’m going to get my martial arts suit now.”

Upon arriving home, he picked out his other navy blue Longhu Club martial arts suit and changed into some exercise shoes that Wu Qinggui’s company had custom made for him. He tightened the cuffs, grabbed his phone and wallet, and walked out of the entrance with large strides.

2:08

He was dropped off by Jiang Fei at the high speed rail station.

2:15

Lou Cheng passed through security and got on the train.

2:25

The train left on time, roaring towards the south.

3:52

The train stopped at Linbian station. Lou Cheng sent Yan Zheke a message and then followed everyone else out of the carriage.

3:59

His thick navy blue suit was steady as he strode like the wind towards the arrivals hall and found a statue of a white horse in the square in front of the station.

This was the place he and Zhang Xiaozi had arranged to meet at!

“Sen… Senior?” a 20-something girl with long, straight, flowing hair asked with uncertainty.

Wearing T-shirt, short pants, and running shoes, she looked thin and comely in appearance.

“Zhang Xiaozi?” Lou Cheng asked rhetorically.

“Yes, yes, yes, you’re Senior Lou Cheng? Didn’t they say an old master would be coming?” Zhang Xiaozi asked half in astonishment and half in doubt.

Due to this assumption, she had directly addressed him as “Senior.”

“I can see that you’re clearly not a disciple of the Ice God Sect and don’t follow University Martial Arts meetings or any other similar topics…” A s this thought swirled in his head, Lou Cheng calmly nodded.

“I started late, so my seniority is high.”

Not waiting for Zhang Xiaozi to ask any more questions, he looked towards the spot to queue up for taxis. Tidying up his martial arts suit cuffs, he said,

“Let’s walk and talk, I don’t want to waste time.”

Someone had disappeared, every second counted!

“Yes, Senior.” Zhang Xiaozi quickened her step. As she walked beside Lou Cheng, she recounted everything with great speed. “Linbian has a rich and powerful person called Si Jianting. He’s colluded with a warlord from the wartorn southern area. He’s opened quite a few casinos in that area and takes advantage of lots of people who go there for fun. People go there and lose to the point where they lose their entire family fortunes. Zhenhua’s father was one of those people, and he killed himself right there inside the casino when Zhenhua was 13. Ever since, his family has been destitute.”

“So he’s gone to get revenge? Is there any proof?” Lou Cheng asked as he didn’t stop walking, getting to the heart of the matter.

If there were no clues to support this kind of revenge, the sect normally wouldn’t handle it.

“Yes.” Zhang Xiaozi quickened her pace to a small run. “He’s been watching Si Jianting for two or three years. He said he’d found conclusive evidence, so he quickly came back to Linbian. He brought me along for fear that something might happen. If I saw anything that wasn’t right, I was to notify the sect immediately.”

“Then how did he disappear?” Lou Cheng slowed down for a moment, as he wasn’t eager to quickly approach the point to line up for taxis.

There were a lot of ears around. Who knew whether any taxi driver knew people over there?

Zhang Xiaozi panted and said,

“Last night… last night, Zhenhua said he’d go explore Si Jianting’s Linfu Building to find that conclusive evidence. I saw him go in, but for the entire night, I didn’t see him come out. I saw something that wasn’t right, so according to what he’d told me, I immediately called the senior brother from the sect.”

“Before I spoke to the sect, I applied some pressure to the provincial offices and made the local police department handle it, but none of them cared. They looked through once and didn’t find anything. They looked at the surveillance footage and there weren’t any images of Zhenhua entering. I… I clearly saw him go inside!

“I urged them again and again, but there was nothing. So I had to report to the sect, and they’ve sent you here.”

Even though Lou Cheng expected that he was quite a bit younger than her, under the circumstances, she was desperately grasping at straws and she didn’t dare have the slightest change in her demeanor.

Lou Cheng again quickened his pace and, lowering his voice, said,

“First, let’s go to the Linfu Building to have a look. You try and remember carefully, think about if you’ve missed out any important details. We’ll talk again when we get out of the car.”

“Yes, Senior.” Zhang Xiaozi huffed and puffed as she walked.

At 4:21, the car stopped at the Linfu Building on the opposite side of the street.

Dressed in the navy blue martial arts suit, Lou Cheng pushed open the doors and got out, surveying the 19 story building. Amongst the universally flat and old-fashioned Linbian, this was a landmark that had a real feeling of modernization to it.

“For the past few years, Si Jianting has always been tipping his toes in anything he can find, and he’s started to get involved in real estate. This was developed by him and a few other joint partners…” Zhang Xiaozi gave an introduction.

Her speech hadn’t lagged when her eyes suddenly widened. She pointed across from them and said,

“Si Jianting!”

Lou Cheng raised his eyes and glanced. All he could see was the silhouette of a hook-nosed half-century old geezer with seven or eight bodyguards under his control crowded around him. He was walking towards the entrance of the Linfu Building. As he glanced around, the expression in his eyes was sharp and ice-cold.

So this was Si Jianting… In the car, Lou Cheng had seen pictures that Zhang Xiaozi had taken of him, but they hadn’t said anything.

Compared to Si Jianting, Lou Cheng cared more about two of the bodyguards who were leaning closely next to him. One was tanned and his face had the characteristics of that southern war-torn area. The other’s muscles bulged out from his t-shirt, and his every step was taken with exact precision, neither too short or too long, as if he’d taken a ruler and measured each of his steps.

They were both Dan stage fighters. As for what specific Pin they were, it was hard to tell simply from their appearances.

“The two of them are quite strong. If they weren’t there, Si Jianting wouldn’t have lived up until now. The dark-skinned one is Vincent, he was an assassin for hire in the war-torn areas. After he got injured, he was taken in by Si Jianting and became his confidante. When he was at his peak, it’s said he was close to the power of a Sixth Pin. That muscular one is Huang Chengda. He’s actually not quite as good as Vincent, but he’s also a fighter who’s seen a lot of bloodshed in the war-torn areas.” Zhang Xiaozi repeated the information that Li Zhenhua had gathered. “Senior, don’t be careless. They’ve surely got guns on them, large-caliber ones…”

As she spoke, she nervously said to herself, “Where are they going? Back home?”

“Ask the local police department,” Lou Cheng calmly instructed her.

“Okay.” Zhang Xiaozi anxiously took out her phone and sent a few questions. Her face suddenly became sallow.

She turned her head and hurriedly said to Lou Cheng, “Si Jianting will go to the south to discuss business…. The policeman said that there’s no proof and no clues, so they can’t stop him…. Senior, he…he wants to run away!”

The south was the border area!

And with Si Jianting gone, Li Zhenhua would most likely be missing forever…

“But there’s no evidence!” Lou Cheng saw two black limousines driving towards the doorway of the building. Vincent quickly ran ahead to pulled open the second door from the back. Huang Chengda drew close to Si Jianting to protect him.

He thought and thought. He dialed his master’s number and quickly and concisely repeated the current situation.

“You decide,” Geezer Shi said, seemingly with a feeling of schadenfreude.

“Where’s the line?” Lou Cheng replied with a question.

Geezer Shi mumbled for a few seconds, coughed twice, and said,

“Don’t take anyone’s life.”