Martial Arts Master

Regathering his swirling thoughts, Lou Cheng nodded at Tao Xiaofei,

“Okay!”

No matter why they had appeared in the vicinity, he still should warn them not to spread the news until it was abuzz everywhere.

That Professional Ninth Pin Mighty One obviously had an inheritance, and he must have some social networks of his own. Someone might just come over to ask about the details of the incident and create a lot of trouble.

Joy flashed past Tao Xiaofei’s face as he hurriedly returned to his seat. He watched as Lou Cheng opened the co-driver’s door and sat in calmly and naturally.

The car started and drove towards the front. However, no one was talking inside the car as an unusual silence enveloped them all. Lou Cheng could see that Qin Rui and Dai Linfeng at the back seat, and Tao Xiaofei at the driver’s seat were all acting a little reserved. In fact, they were even brimming with a kind of emotion called reverence and appeared extremely distant.

While the car sped on quietly, Tao Xiaofei could endure this stiff atmosphere no longer. Therefore, he gulped down some saliva, forced some courage into himself and put on a forced smile, saying, “Brother Lou, I didn’t know that y-you’re so strong.”

“If our positions were switched, I wouldn’t have believed or imagined that it could have happened either.” Lou Cheng’s emotions hadn’t recovered yet as he forced a strained smile and answered, “Please call me Cheng, Okay? Brother or senior is just too excessive.”

Tao Xiaofei’s spirits rose, and his smile became a lot more natural. “No, I think it’s better if I call you Brother Lou. Otherwise, I just can’t feel comfortable, you know? You’re a few months older than me anyway. Oh right, when did you start training in martial arts? How did you become so strong all of a sudden? Oh my god, I was scared witless just now!”

Suddenly, Lou Cheng recalled the words his supervisor Zhao Qiang often said while they were chatting during the holidays. He tweaked his words a little and smiled bitterly, “Humans mainly rely on themselves to strive for something, but sometimes they have to consider the planned fate has in store for them too. I’ve never practiced martial arts before, and I never knew I had a talent in this respect. Thankfully, I got carried away by a whim, joined the Songcheng University Martial Arts Club and met a good coach. That is why I didn’t let down the profound blessings of the heaven.”

When they heard his explanation, Qin Rui and Dai Linfeng at the back seat quietly exhaled, feeling that they had obtained a good explanation for the doubts in their hearts. This was how the world was. Some people were born smart and had incredible intelligence, capable of producing results that affected a whole century at just twenty years old or so of age. Some people were born with extraordinary talent, and wielded martial strength that exceeded a normal person’s at least five times, while growing at ten or tens of times the usual speed. For example, the reincarnated Living Buddha Shi Shang given refuge by Daxing Temple had entered physical invulnerability state at just twenty years old. Whom could they get reason with if they were to fuss over something like this?

“C-Cheng, I thought you were joking when we had our student gathering that day… ” Qin Rui also loosened and interrupted.

Tao Xiaofei immediately let out an ‘aiya’ and said, “Brother Lou, I must apologize to you here. I wasn’t trying to target you on purpose, but at the time I just thought that how could a person who had just practiced the martial art for half a year have the face to use this as an excuse not to drink alcohol? Not to mention that you had started halfway. It was obvious to me that you didn’t plan to rely on it as a living. But now? Alright, I admit that I’m mistaken and blind!”

Lou Cheng smiled at him and said, “I hadn’t covered it up on purpose; it’s not like this is something that I can’t tell anyone about. I couldn’t do anything about it if you guys took it as a joke and refused to believe me after all. I couldn’t have rolled up my sleeves and beat you guys to prove myself, right?”

While speaking, he moved his right hand and suddenly felt that his arm was still hurting. It was the part where he had clashed against that Professional Ninth Pin Mighty One for the first time!

Lou Cheng felt his blood ran cold as he stopped talking, opened the cuff and rolled his sleeve upwards. He found twenty or so densely packed red swellings lined together near his elbow, prickling faintly with pain.

“Is… is this the wound that Professional Ninth Pin left on you?” Tao Xiaofei took a glance and suffered a might shock. He nearly drove the car into a drain.

Qin Rui and Dai Linfeng poked their heads forward and gave it a close glance. They all sucked in a cold breath because the wound looked incredibly eerie. It was enough to cause a trypophobia to feel numb all over.

Lou Cheng inspected the wound seriously and touched it once with his left hand. He confirmed that the wound was only red and swollen, and not bleeding. It did not look like it was poked by needles either.

He was worried that there might be some hidden damage, so without even answering Tao Xiaofei’s question, he took out his cell phone and called his own master.

The reason he didn’t avoid Tao Xiaofei and the others before making the call was to use the reputation of a physical invulnerability Mighty One to intimidate them from babbling nonsense and spreading the news everywhere. Plus, he might need Tao Xiaofei’s help just in case he needed to make a dive for the hospital.

A short burst of rings later, the line connected as Geezer Shi’s familiar and rough voice came through. “How is it? The matter’s been settled, hasn’t it?”

“I guess you can say that… I failed to hold back an impulse and acted… ” Lou Cheng answered guiltily.

Geezer Shi let out a ‘heh’ and said, “Acted? Tell me in detail.”

Lou Cheng reiterated his choice to act under the urge of an internal struggle and impulse when he reached the scene before concluding, “I know this isn’t wise, but the blood just rushed into my head in an instant.”

Geezer Shi tsk-tsked and said, “Enough. I don’t have a stupid disciple like you.”

Before Lou Cheng could answer, he paused and let out a sigh. “That being said, who isn’t impulsive when they are in the prime of their youth? There is a good proverb that says that the young who isn’t impulsive is not brave. If you still act impulsively after you’ve entered maturity though, then we call that brainless. Remember this lesson.”

“Yes, master.” Lou Cheng changed the topic and brought up his injury, “Oh right, when I was fighting that person, the part where we came into contact with feels as if it had been pierced by a few dozens of needles. Right now it’s all swollen up in a dense pack. Is this safe, master?”

Geezer Shi pondered for a moment before saying, “Tell me how it looks in detail.”

When Lou Cheng was done, he let out a laugh. “And here I thought what it might be. It is actually the poison sting force evolved from the ‘Poisonous Divine Fist’ of Dark Infinite Sutra. If you had run into an expert, this force alone would have taken your life.”

“Mm, the Dark Infinite Sutra is commonly referred as the divine art of the Dark Sect. During the era in which it was perfected, it absorbed the Taoist School’s ‘Lost Knowledge of Plague Sect’ and mixed in the essence of witchcraft of Miaojiang. Upon reaching large attainment, this martial art could cause people to get sick and poisoned with every gesture. It was often that their opponents were killed before they failed to hold in a cough while fighting.”

So, he was actually a Ninth Pin expert in the ‘Dark Sect’… Lou Cheng had a flash of understanding before he said worriedly, “Master, how should I apply first aid to myself?”

“First aid, my ass! It’s just the poison sting force of a mere Professional Ninth Pin. Buy an ointment you rub on mosquito bite wounds and apply it for three days. It’ll recover naturally by then.” Geezer Shi let out a laughing abuse.

Phew. Lou Cheng let out a sigh of relief. Between bouts of fright, the shadows in his mind for having killed someone for the first time seemed to have dissipated by a lot.

“Say, Master, do you think that the elder of an expert with inheritance like him would come here? Do you think that someone would come over and take revenge?” Lou Cheng brought up the other thing that was worrying him.

Geezer Shi let out a ‘hmph’ and said, “They’d need the ability to do that first!”

His tone eased a bit before he continued, “Fighters who live in darkness and roam between the lines of life and death like them have relatively loose relationship ties with each other to begin with. They were mentally prepared to greet the news of another’s unexpected death since a long time ago. If they took revenge simply because someone committed some crime and got killed then these people would have been cleaned out and killed until not a speck was left since a long time ago. Did you really think that all these great forces, police and military are just for show?”

“Every circle had their own survival philosophy. That being said, we can’t rule out the possibility of a blood relative taking a risk out of desperation. I’ll ask Little Xing to turn this into a case where the police had shot and killed a fierce robber. Your involvement in the case will be concealed. The police have a reliable protection program for a good citizen who acted heroically for a just cause like you. The relevant parties will be informed so that the news isn’t leaked.”

It was only now Lou Cheng finally relaxed in full. As expected, his master had thoroughly thought through the matter. He gave his master a few words of thanks before hanging up the call. He was just about to warn Qin Rui and the others before Tao Xiaofei said in haste, “Don’t worry, Brother Lou. I’ll let this incident rot in my stomach and never show it off to the outside!”

Qin Rui and Dai Linfeng matched each other’s gazes once before saying, “Cheng, you don’t have to worry about us too. I’ll immediately inform the rest of my fellow disciples to have a unified story. We’ll say that it was a gunman who killed that Professional Ninth Pin, and that said gunman himself was killed along with fighter as well. Even the other four gunmen were either killed or severely injured by that Professional Ninth Pin.”

“Thank you, you all.” Lou Cheng responded with gratitude.

Dai Linfeng smiled and said, “This is as it should be. Don’t worry, we won’t even tell this to my master!”

His master was already old, but this friend before him might stay strong for another ten to twenty or so years. What’s a little deceiving if he could make friends with Lou Cheng?

Although Qin Rui had claimed to warn his fellow disciples personally, in the end it was Dai Linfeng who stepped forth. He had no reputation in the eyes of his fellow disciples.

A few calls later, Dai Linfeng said with a stern look, “It’s done. There’re no problems now.”

When he said this, he hesitated for a moment before asking, “Cheng, if we invite you to represent Xiushan to participate in the preliminaries, would you agree? We can recommend you as a captain!”

Lou Cheng did not need to struggle with this decision. He shook his head right away. “No, the purpose of the real combat training we Songcheng University Martial Arts Club will be performing later, was to form a team and participate in the preliminaries ourselves.”

“I see… ” Dai Linfeng muttered in a low tone. He wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or elated by this.

At this point, Tao Xiaofei’s car had reached somewhere nearby Lou Cheng’s house. He knew that Lou Cheng’s residence was somewhere around this place, but he wasn’t sure exactly which road or street it belonged to.

“Just stop here. I still need to buy some ointments.” Lou Cheng didn’t bring his wallet with him, but he still could pay by using his cell phone.

Tao Xiaofei hummed in agreement and appeared extremely obedient. His usual domineering attitude was absent.

Dai Linfeng asked in a seemingly casual tone, “Cheng, is your master the coach for Songcheng University Martial Arts Club?”

“Yeah. He’s a physical invulnerability Mighty One in the past.” Lou Cheng purpose emphasized this point.

Dai Linfeng, Tao Xiaofei and Qin Rui all froze in that instant. They nearly blurted out a series of ‘no wonder’.

“I’ll be leaving first. See you guys later.” Lou Cheng did not dilly dally. He opened the door and got off the car.

Tao Xiaofei exhaled as he watched Lou Cheng walk far away before saying, “Incredible. Brother Lou is incredible.”

He had just finished lamenting before he burst out laughing for some unfathomable reason. “I can show off now that I have a classmate and friend like this.”

Qin Rui glanced once at Dai Linfeng with complicated feelings. “Are we going back to the martial arts gym?”

“Like hell we’re going back there. Right now I need to calm myself down. My head is filled with that bloody scene and that devil-like person from earlier. Let’s get a drink. We won’t be scared if we’re drunk.” Tao Xiaofei interrupted and suggested.

“What’s there to be afraid of? Just recall that your classmate is Lou Cheng, and that devil would be scared off himself.” Qin Rui sighed as if in joking.

Dai Linfeng fell quiet for a moment before saying,

“I’m not going to drink then. I’m not going to drink ever again.”

Even a genius like Lou Cheng had to quit smoking and drinking, let alone himself?

…

After buying an ointment and returning to his home, Lou Cheng pretended as if nothing had ever happened, ate the breakfast his mum prepared and went into his own room. He logged on to QQ and discovered that Yan Zheke had already sent him three messages. They were all sent at different times:

“I woke up early too today. I pulled myself out of my warm and comfortable blanket! I’m so awesome!”

“I’ve done exercising. What about you?”

“Are you still exercising?”

Once again, Lou Cheng felt a sense of lingering fear as he watched the messages. He was extremely regretful of his impulse earlier. He was this close from missing this messages forever.

Suddenly, he felt he should apologize sincerely to ‘Coach Yan’, even if he did not quite understand why he should apologize to her…