Compared to the frustrated and helpless expression on that young Mr. Lin’s face when he saw the smoke billow up, Xu Ze’s reaction was quite different. A light smile touched his lips: “You little devil have been strutting around on our turf for so long, and you think you can just run away like this?”
A faint glimmer flashed in Xu Ze’s glasses. X-ray particles instantly pierced through the smoke, revealing everything within to Xu Ze. Xiao Dao quickly locked onto a grey shadow several meters away, sprinting towards the cliff edge, and marked it with a red indicator displayed before Xu Ze’s eyes.
Watching the sneaky figure, now comically painted red by Xiao Dao’s mischievous sense of humor, sliding towards the cliff edge in an attempt to escape, Xu Ze snorted angrily. This ninja truly lived up to their name – enduring until they couldn’t win, then immediately running away… and their slippery speed was annoyingly fast. In just one or two breaths, they had darted to the cliff edge, ready to make their getaway.
Xu Ze let out a cold laugh, thinking to himself, “Trying to escape from me? Not a chance…”
He pointed a finger towards the red-marked figure. A flash of light was seen, followed by a “ZAP!” sound. The black-clad figure, who had just reached the cliff edge and was on the verge of successful escape—a smug smile already forming on his face—suddenly stiffened. A tingling numbness spread throughout his body, his eyes rolled back, and he plummeted headfirst from the cliff top.
Xu Ze, who had been waiting for the man in black to be knocked unconscious by his electric shock, watched in astonishment as the man in black, after being electrocuted, tumbled headfirst down the cliff.
“Would he survive a fall like that?” Xu Ze quickly covered his mouth, enduring the strong, choking smell, and ran over to the cliff edge.
By the time he reached it, the smoke at the summit had thinned considerably. With his night vision assistance, Xu Ze could clearly see the base of the twenty-meter-high cliff. The black-clad figure lay there motionless, a pool of blood slowly spreading from his head.
“He fell to his death?” Xu Ze asked, astonished.
“Not completely gone… but almost,” Xiao Dao replied lightly, having already quickly scanned the life signs of the figure below using the life scanner.
Hearing Xiao Dao’s words, Xu Ze felt frustrated: “Almost? So he’s definitely going to die?”
“Very… He’s about to die right now…” Xiao Dao smacked his lips metaphorically, waited a few seconds, and then finally said, “Congratulations… Xu, you’ve finally killed someone with your own hands…”
“Huh? He’s dead? I killed him?” At these words, a shiver of dread suddenly rose in Xu Ze’s heart. Had he really taken a life?
“Correct… He just died. Congratulations…” Xiao Dao’s tone was somewhat peculiar.
“Well… that doesn’t count as me killing him, right?” Xu Ze pursed his lips, speechless. “He fell to his death himself…”
“Hehe… He fell because you electrocuted him first. If you hadn’t stunned him, he definitely wouldn’t have fallen. So, it counts as you killing him,” Xiao Dao chuckled happily. It was downright unacceptable that the host of his Super Medic System, never having been on a battlefield was one thing, but had never even killed anyone until now. Today barely counted as breaking that streak…
“……” Xu Ze swallowed hard in frustration. “Alright, fine… let’s say I killed him. After all, he threw daggers at me first. This counts as self-defense…”
By now, the smoke behind them was gradually dispersing in the night breeze. The quite handsome and young Mr. Lin walked over, a look of frustration on his face, and asked Xu Ze curiously, “Did that Japanese man escape from here?”
“Japanese? Oh… no, he didn’t escape… He fell to his death,” Xu Ze, who felt quite favorable towards this person who had warned him to flee twice, shrugged and replied with a wry smile.
“Fell to his death?” The young man was stunned. He leaned over and peered down into the dark abyss. By the moonlight, he could vaguely make out a figure lying at the bottom.
“He really fell to his death…” The young man stared doubtfully at the motionless figure below, finally exclaiming in astonishment, “How could he possibly fall to his death? Even if he’s just a Genin… he shouldn’t die from a small cliff like this…”
“Genin? So he really was a ninja?” Xu Ze blinked. Did such legendary things really exist in this world?
“What? You didn’t know?” The young man’s bright, intelligent eyes looked at Xu Ze with surprise. “Didn’t your elders tell you about these guys when you entered society?”
“Entered society?” Xu Ze was momentarily taken aback, but quickly understood. This mysterious young man must have also discerned that he knew some internal energy techniques, hence he assumed Xu Ze was from some reclusive cultivation sect or family.
Fortunately, he had prepared a story long ago. He promptly smiled and said, “No… My master taught me how to cultivate and then left on his own… He didn’t tell me anything else.”
Hearing this, the young man studied Xu Ze curiously, then smiled, “There are actually masters like that? That’s really rare. And you managed to reach this level all by yourself…”
“Your master never came back to find you?” The young man looked at Xu Ze doubtfully. For someone to reach a level only slightly below his own through self-training, his talent must be quite remarkable, probably no less than his own. How could any master abandon such fine material?
Xu Ze smiled, shaking his head with an innocent expression. “No… After he taught me how to cultivate, he ran off… He didn’t even tell me the name of the technique I practice.”
“Tsk tsk… Your master is something else… With talent like yours, if you had been placed before my master ten years earlier, he would have taken you up the mountain and nurtured you meticulously… He would never have just let you go like your master did…” The young man shook his head and sighed lightly in regret.
But having asked this much, the young man didn’t press further. Instead, he looked down at the black-clad figure who seemed to have truly fallen to his death and muttered to himself, “How could he have fallen to his death? What a pity…”
But he soon thought of something and turned to Xu Ze. “Brother, I saw a flash of light earlier. Did you injure this guy, causing him to fall?”
Xu Ze didn’t pretend this time. That electric arc, though somewhat masked by the smoke, would have been visible to anyone in the darkness. He smiled, waved his right hand, and a black rod about half a foot long appeared in his grasp. “Taser… Can release an arc with a voltage between one thousand and ten thousand volts… Very useful…”
“Uh… A taser…” The young man stared blankly at the black rod in Xu Ze’s hand, finally exclaiming with surprised laughter, “Impressive, brother. You actually carry such a weapon with you… It’s truly a must-have item for… dealing with threats. Otherwise, that Japanese guy would probably have gotten away today…”
Looking at this handy device, the young man felt a twinge of envy, thinking to himself, “I’ll have the National Security Third Department prepare one for me later… This thing is quite practical in a fight. Used well, it’s much more effective than their guns…”
Xu Ze, meanwhile, was extremely curious about this young man. Although he had long known that people who practiced internal energy techniques existed in this world, apart from Tang Zhi (who might have practiced), this was the first time he had met another. He decided to probe further and asked with a smile, “This is the first time I’ve met someone else who practices internal energy techniques. Which sect are you from?”
“Sect?” The young man was momentarily startled, then laughed. He looked at Xu Ze and said, “It seems your master really didn’t teach you much.”
Shaking his head, he continued, “Since the great turmoil a hundred years ago, starting from the late Qing dynasty up through the Japanese invasion, there aren’t many sects left now… Aside from a few major sects like Shaolin and Wudang still existing, most others are either family traditions or ancestral legacies… My master lives in seclusion in the Taihang Mountains. Below him, it’s just me and two junior brothers. It’s not really a sect.”
“Ah? Have the legendary martial arts sects of the past really declined to this extent?” Xu Ze asked, shocked by the young man’s explanation.
“Yes… During the turmoil of the late Qing, when the Western powers invaded, many senior predecessors and comrades perished. Then, during the Japanese invasion, outraged by their brutality, most of the remaining martial arts sects’ elders went forth en masse, knowing they likely faced death… But most were no match for the combination of modern weapons and the Japanese ninjas. Back then, many entire sects went to the frontlines to fight the enemy, and not a few lineages were completely wiped out.”
Speaking of those predecessors who, knowing they were outgunned, still rushed fearlessly to fight and die for their country, the young man sighed with deep emotion, shaking his head gently. “To this day, very few remain, and most are single-line inheritances. Coupled with the deteriorating environment nowadays, there really aren’t many people who truly practice anymore.”
“Whoa…” Listening to this account, Xu Ze felt his blood surge with passion. Every Chinese person knew the tragedies of the Japanese invasion, but he hadn’t known that the major martial arts sects were largely lost because of it.
“So that’s how it is… No wonder I haven’t encountered anyone truly practicing internal energy techniques all these years. There are so few left…” Xu Ze said somberly.
The young man smiled lightly. “Right… But in today’s world, the environment is just too poor. Unless you’ve been practicing since childhood like us, it’s hard to achieve any significant mastery. At most, it’s for strengthening the body and improving health…”
“Practicing since childhood…” These words made Xu Ze pause again. He had only been practicing for over half a year. Could it be that this guy had practiced for over a decade to reach this level, and he seemed quite proud of it too?
The young man, however, smiled again and said, “I can see that even without guidance, you’ve cultivated very well. You should be not far from the Xuan level, where you can release internal energy externally. Your master definitely wasn’t an ordinary figure.”
“Xuan level?” Xu Ze frowned, curious.
“Yes… You don’t know about this either?” The young man blinked, then smiled again. “Nowadays, the practice of internal energy techniques is only divided into four levels: Heaven, Earth, Xuan, and Huang. Judging by your earlier performance, you shouldn’t be much weaker than me, so you’re probably at the peak of the Huang level. I think you’ll soon reach the stage of external energy release. Once you can release internal energy externally, you’ve reached the Xuan level.”
