Translator: Larbre Studio
Editor: Larbre Studio
Water flowed and splattered into the sink, streaked with red. There was a pack of ice wrapped around Li Yan’s shoulder where Zhang Mingyuan had kicked him, but it was hardly effective.
“When you abandoned your sword, I was really afraid that you would lose.”
In walked a man with a crew cut and bandages around his fists. It was Zhou, who was well-versed in both the martial arts of Taichi Plum Blossom Mantis Fist and Wensheng Fist.
“You can’t have taken the time just to watch me fight, right? So, who’s your opponent?”
“There have been four fighters kicking up a storm in the rings recently. You, me, Wu Erlang, whom you just fought, and the last one that I’m fighting.”
Li Yan ran his tongue across his teeth. After he was sure that he had gotten all the blood out of his mouth, he turned to face Zhou.
“Don’t lose to such an easy opponent.”
Li Yan had a rather wild, unruly personality. Back then, in the martial arts community, there were very few of his peers that he actually got along with. However, he did have an appreciation for Zhou, who was cold on the outside, warm on the inside, and of a very stubborn disposition. Zhou was definitely worthy of Li Yan’s differential treatment. In his earlier years, he had fought for the triads, giving him plenty of experience fighting for his life. This experience had also shaped his own style of fighting. Even Grand Duke called him a rare talent, proving that she too recognized his skills.
In this era, traditional Wushu could no longer live up to being a “national art,” as penned by the legendary Sun Yat-Sen. However, the number of talented martial artists were still innumerable. In Li Yan’s time, masters like Zhou had become extremely rare.
That day he had rejected Lei Jing’s invitation, one reason was that he had little time left to live. On the other hand, so what if he was the mighty and famous Skinny Tiger of Hejian? He could try to fight for riches, but any more than that would be pointless. Lei Jing wanted to use him to put pressure on the old men in the Chinese Martial Arts Association, but no matter what happened, it would just be a matter of time before the Martial Arts Association ended up in the hands of people who did not understand martial arts.
It was a sinking ship that Li Yan did not feel was worth putting his life on the line for.
Zhou’s face showed hint of a rare smile. “You rest well and recover. I don’t want to fight you when you’re at a disadvantage. Your swordplay isn’t bad. Let me experience it first-hand when the time comes.”
“I’ll show you something even better when the time comes.”
Li Yan laughed heartily.
Someone knocked on the washroom door.
“Brother An, Brother Jiu is asking for you. The match is about to start.”
Zhou nodded. “Got it.”
He turned back around to face Li Yan. “One more thing.”
Li Yan tried to move his right arm. He said through gritted teeth, “What is it?”
“Gongsun Yan and Zhang Yi are not true men of character!”
Zhou did not linger on after finishing what he had to say. He turned and left.
Li Yan stood with his mouth open for a while. After Zhou left, he frowned as he dumped the pack of melted ice into the trash bin.
“To not be corrupted by riches. Couldn’t he just say that outright, instead of pretending to be some scholar?”
Zhou had quoted from Mencius. What follows after was the more familiar saying “To not be corrupted by riches, not be wavered by poverty, and not yield to power.” Zhou had probably heard what was going on between Li Yan and Judy, and felt that Li Yan was going after Judy’s wealth like she was some sort of sugar mama.
Li Yan found Zhou extremely conflicting. He himself was part of the triads, and here he was lecturing someone else to not be corrupted by riches. However, Li Yan still could not find it in him to hate the guy.
The bloodstains had already been washed off the marble floor of the fighting ring. The audience chatted on, discussing the upcoming fight.
“Who do you think will win?”
“That guy with the knuckle dusters is really powerful. His movements are inhumanly fast.”
“Yeah, look at his opponent. He’s clearly some high-schooler. And he’s smiling so brightly… does he think this is some soap opera?”
“No, I heard that the young kid’s moves are vicious.”
This time, Zhou wasn’t wearing his knuckle dusters. Instead, he wielded a nine-ringed broadsword in his hand which looked even more ferocious than Li Yan’s own eight-sided Han Sword.
In the audience, Huashan Jiu was beaming. He chatted happily with a man wearing sunglasses next to him. “Now, Brother Le, this is my number one fighter, Zhou. He has never lost a fight in the ring, and today will be no different!”
Ruan Hongzhi quickly stepped up to Zhou, whose face was plain and calm.
He said urgently, “Now, Zhou, you’ve been under me all this time, so don’t say I don’t care for you. This opponent is not like your regular ones. He’s either maimed or killed all of his ten opponents so far, so harden your heart and show no mercy.”
“I’ve never held back in my fights. It’s just that I see no need to go for the kill.”
Zhou jumped into the ring and carefully eyed his opponent.
He was about eighteen years old and very delicate looking. When he smiled you could even see a bit of his canine teeth. It was hard to imagine how someone this young could warrant such an exaggerated description from Ruan Hongzhi.
“There’s something I have to say first.”
The teenager suddenly opened his mouth to speak.
Zhou looked at him suspiciously.
The teenager licked his lips. “Since we are in the ring, we should be prepared to lose our lives.”
Zhou simply pursed his lips and smiled. He did not reply, but simply held his fists in a salute.
“Dujia Fist, Zhou Wei’an.”
The teenager greeted him back in the same way.
“Wing Chun, Xu Tianci.”
…
Li Yan walked into the clinic. Zhang Mingyuan was lying down on the makeshift hospital bed, wrapped up in bandages like a mummy by the ring nurse.
“Wow, you’re really tough huh? You’ve lost so much blood and you’re still alright. You can see the bone through this wound. Does it hurt?”
Li Yan coughed in the entrance and the two of them turned to look at him.
“I have something to say to him. Could you leave us for a minute, miss?”
Li Yan put on a false smile as he stared at the nurse’s hand on Zhang Mingyuan’s thigh.
The nurse quickly withdrew her right hand, fumbling for a moment as she got up. She left the room in small, quick steps.
“Fragments.”
Li Yan stretched out his hand.
“You really are direct, eh?”
Zhang Mingyuan laughed bitterly. He then indicated with his eyes. “It’s on my body. My left arm is broken and my right arm has a forty centimeter gash from your sword. You won’t be so cruel to make me get it for you right?”
Li Yan made a face and sat next to Zhang Mingyuan. He slid his hand down Zhang Mingyuan’s chest.
“Where?”
“Lower.”
“It’s not here.”
“Even lower.”
Li Yan finally managed to feel something like paper. He pulled it out to look. It was a piece of rice paper, illustrated with golden foil, with a picture of a single-legged Kui Bull roaring towards the skies.
“Where did you get this from?”
“I was lucky. I bought it from Lee Hing Pawn Shop for two thousand. Some old drug junkie needed his fix. He clobbered to death some poor soul wandering the streets in the dead of the night, searched his body for this, and then sold it to the shop. If you want to know any more, you’ll need to ask that poor dead guy.”
Zhang Mingyuan looked at Li Yan. “You have two pieces yourself. Where are they from?”
“The five transcript fragments were taken from a vault in a bank by a gang of robbers. I killed them all.”
Zhang Mingyuan drew a sharp breath of air when he heard that. Those robbers could have robbed a Hong Kong bank with just a fruit knife. Even with the Inheritance of the Kaiming Tiger, he had little confidence in coming out alive if he were faced with skilled gunmen on the run. He could not imagine how Li Yan could have done it alone, and without firearms. He was still just a regular person.
“Oh right. This isn’t your first Yanfu case?”
“It’s my second.”
Zhang Mingyuan replied in a rather defeated tone.
“Was it the fat man that brought you in here?”
Zhang Mingyuan looked stunned.
“No, I was brought by a very beautiful woman. I’ll never forget her face.”
“After completing the Yanfu Case, what rewards can you get?”
Li Yan threw another question at Zhang Mingyuan.
Zhang Mingyuan replied honestly, “For the completion of the first Yanfu Case, there’s a 100% chance of obtaining a page of Yanfu inheritance, just like my Kaiming Tiger.”
At this point, a look of frenzy flashed across Zhang Mingyuan’s eyes.
“If you’ve never had it, there’s no way you can understand that feeling. That feeling of power surpasses a human’s.”
“Enough with your rubbish, just answer the questions. What’s the use of saying so much… if it were that good, I’d be the one lying here instead of you.”
The young man’s face reddened with agitation. “If I hadn’t picked up that Han Sword, I might not have lost.”
Li Yan patted him on the shoulder, hard. His tone was sinister. “You’re already stuck on the bed. Why look for more things that will make you uncomfortable, don’t you think?”
Li Yan lit a cigarette and asked. “Afterwards? What else is there?”
“After a Yanfu case is completed, all of your actions will be taken into account and evaluated. The better the evaluation, the more Yanfu points you can get, and the higher your purchasing limit will be.”
“What is the purchasing limit?”
Li Yan rapped the table. He felt that he had asked about the right stuff.
“It’s some stuff related to the things appearing and happening in the current Yanfu case. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Zhang Mingyuan thought for a moment. “In my previous Yanfu case, I was in 1924 Xiangxi. The corpses in a coffin home near Fenghuang Mountain became the source of a zombie outbreak. In the end, the authorities there levelled the entire area with artillery fire! With my purchasing limit at the end, I saw things like Turn Undead Skill, or even things like Purple Zombies and Blood Zombies. It’s just that my Yanfu points were nowhere near enough, not even enough to purchase a White Zombie. As for the Purple Zombie, the words were dulled out. I couldn’t even purchase it if I wanted to.”
“What is the most efficient way to increase one’s purchasing limit?”
Li Yan pressed on. His heart started to beat faster as he remembered that fat man’s creepy smile and words:
“I can let you have better.”
“If you ask me, the most effective method… is killing!”