Thriller Paradise

The wind of the fan cut forward, and the slash of the fan came later. The wind was hiding poison, and the blade of the fan was as sharp as knife. One in the dark, another in the open; one shapeless, one shaped; one real, the other fake.

Atobe was startled by this sudden aggression, and it was far too late for him to evade.

For Atobe, even if his instincts called him to evade the attack, his body was unable to follow up with that command. His physical reactions were too slow to catch up. The cutting wind from the fan slashed at Atobe. He only had enough time to raise both of his arms to block the imminent attack. With a whiplash, the wind from the fan hit Atobe's arms. At that second, Atobe felt a pushing impact coming from his forearms, and it pushed him slightly backward.

As previously mentioned, Atobe was equipped with quite a good quality armor. It had high Defense Points and was able to stop Si Yanran's deathly darts. Tang Size's attack was about as powerful as the darts. Back then, Atobe had been ambushed from behind by the darts, but this time, he was blocking the attack that came from the front. Therefore, he did not realize how powerful the attack was, and that was confirmed once more when he noticed the Life Points that he had lost from the attack was not as great as the amount he had lost back then.

How is this possible? Tang Size got the shock of his life. From the contact made by the attack, he failed to feel any internal energy coming from his adversary. Theoretically speaking, if a person took his attack head on without any internal energy defense, the man's arms should have snapped in half. At the very least, the bones in the arms would have been broken. Yet, this Jin fella before him only took a small step back. His arms were perfectly fine. In fact, they could be said to be unscathed.

"This is impossible!" Tang Size refused to believe this and followed up with another attack.

The young master of the Tang family had mastered quick hands and nimble fingers since he was at a young age. He was especially talented in kung fu and had mastered the kung fu of 'Swift Fingers' at the young age of just over twenty. His thirteen sets of Swift Fingers had twenty-nine changes, with focuses on speed, accuracy, agility, dangerousness. Combined with the Tang family's own internal energy and venom arts, it could be said to be a match made in heaven. Even though it was not as impactful as Shao Lin's dragon claw in terms of direct damage, the quick unknown changes, unpredictable styles, and hidden venomous aura utilized by Swift Fingers during close-quarter combat managed to carve out a name for himself, and everyone would be clever to be cautious around the young man. But Atobe-sama… knew none of that.

When Mu Rong Yin explained the knowledge of the martial world to him, if there was any mention of martial artists, she would only go through their names, titles, identities, and a rough explanation of their specialized kung fu. She did not teach Atobe the specialty, the details, and the way to undermine their kung fu. If she had told him all of that, then she would have taken more than an afternoon. She would not have finished even if she had ten afternoons. Furthermore, that kind of knowledge was beyond the range of 'common knowledge' because it might be related to someone else's personal safety. Therefore, facing Tang Size's follow-up attack, Atobe reacted as he normally would. From how he looked at it, this Young Master Tang was not that powerful. At least he was not as powerful as Si Yanran, and the damage he dealt was well within the range that he could handle.

In the blink of an eye, they had exchanged ten blows. Tang Size's skill became faster and faster, but his heart became more and more worried.

Just what kind of kung fu does this Jin fella practice? He faces my fan with his bare hands, and he only defends and does not attack. There is no sign of internal energy at all. The attacks land on his body, but it feels like I am hitting a set of armor. Even the highest level of Golden Bell Aegis is not as powerful as this. A kung fu technique that can be utilized without the use of any internal energy? Are the kid's skin and bones made from steel and iron?

Suddenly a figure intervened, and within another three exchanges, an arm shot out swiftly to capture Tang Size's wrist.

"Young Master Tang." It was none other than Gong Sun Li who intervened. He had been watching from the side for a while already and believed that he had witnessed everything he needed to, so he jumped forth to stop the fight between the two. "Isn't that enough? Can't you realize that Young Master Jin is holding back? If you continue to push him further and cause Young Master Jin to retaliate… Hah, at that time, even I might not be able to stop him."

Once Gong Sun Li said that, there was a buzz in Tang Size's brain. Something seemed to light up his consciousness, and he whipped his head around to study Atobe-sama. "You…"

He remembered the skills that he had used and the lack of counter that came from his adversary. From beginning to end, Atobe had only stood where he was; he did not avoid that attacks that came at him and did not move too much from where he was standing. When he blocked, he did not use any visible kung fu. He merely moved his arms and legs about. "What… what a great school this is, Broken Sword Chahitsu. I, Tang Size, am mightily impressed!"

Tang Size then glared at Gong Sun Li as he flung his arm back to escape from the latter's grip. He took several steps toward Atobe and took out a small rectangular paper pouch from his waist pocket. "This is the antidote to my poisonous fan. Young Hero Jin, please take it."

Atobe accepted the paper pouch with a baffled expression. Only when he heard that did he notice the 'poisoned' status that was written in his status bar. In other words, Atobe would not have noticed that he had been poisoned if his adversary did not point it out and even provide him with the antidote.

"Er… thank you." Out of habit, Atobe thanked the man. Out of the four people there, he was the only one who did not understand what had really happened. From his perspective, this Tang NPC changed from neutral to hostile without any warning, and for some reason that eluded Atobe, he had changed again from hostile to friendly.

"My name is Tang Size. Those of the martial world have been kind enough to call me Swift Fingers." Tang Size put his palms together to ask, "I wonder, what is your name, Young Hero Jin?"

F*ck! Now I have to repeat myself again? Do they think this is fun? Atobe was quite annoyed internally, but on the surface, he replied rather weakly once more, "Jin Fugui…"

"Today, it is me who has made the offense. I hope that you will be kind enough to forgive my transgression." At this point, his eyes went to scan both Gong Sun Li and Si Yanran. "If there's a chance in the future, please allow me to learn a few more lessons from you, Young Hero Jin. Farewell!"

Then, with a cold scoff, he left in a huff. After he left the room, Atobe finally sighed in relief. He swallowed the antidote, and soon, the poisoned status was neutralized. Looking at his Life Points that had dropped to thirty percent, Atobe really did not know what to say.

"Haha… Young Hero Jin's kung fu sure is different from normal," Gong Sun Li commented. "Facing Tang Size's Swift Fingers, Young Hero Jin responded with slowness to face his swiftness. And that was done without showing any internal energy or weapons. The immense power that is shown from this tolerance… it goes to show how powerful your external energy is. With Tang Size's internal energy, if he was hit directly by a punch from you, his bones would probably have shattered on the spot. Humph… that laughable little child, he has no idea the depth of the water he has waded into. He has no idea he was able to walk out of this place alive only because of your kindness."

These martial artists sure have creative imaginations… How did he come to the absurd conclusion that I was me who was being kind toward the man and it was me who held back against the aggression? And he managed to somehow fill in the blanks to reach such a conclusion…

Atobe mocked him internally several times.

At the optimum stage of the practice of external energy, one would be able to achieve an armor-like defense of excellent quality without applying any internal energy or kung fu, huh? I wonder if someone at that stage will be able to defend against actual bullets at their maximum defense…

"You flatter me too much…" Atobe tried his best to maintain his calmness as he replied. From the current situation, there was a ninety percent chance that Gong Sun Li and Si Yanran would not assault him, so he assumed the disguise afforded him for now. "Oh, I still need to… adjust to the… venom travelling through my body. If there is nothing else… then…"

He kept the sentence unfinished, but the meaning was plainly quite clear. He wished for them to leave the room.

"Oh, of course, of course. We understand." Gong Sun Li tossed Si Yanran a look, and the two left together.

After the two left the door, they kept on walking until they reached a remote spot, and Si Yanran said under her breath, "That Jin Fugui… is he really as powerful as you said? Could he be putting on a front?"

"If you'd spent more time practicing with my brother, instead of that blasted Wang Ao, you could have answered that yourself," Gong Sun Li said pointedly.

"Pfft! Who are you to mind my business! The man is now dead, and you had a hand in it," Si Yanran warned in response with wickedness in her eyes.

"Enough!" Gong Sun Li halted her. "It is because of Thousand Dawn Spire's face that I stepped forth to help deal with your problem, and now I got myself in the dirty water because of it as well.

"These five from Broken Sword Chahitsu have to be silenced eventually, but it must not happen in Chang Lin. For now, we need to endear ourselves to them and try to keep these strange people from speaking. After the duel is over and everyone goes back from whence they came, I will arrange people to follow them, and then we will see what we can do."

"What if… they really do not plan to tell anyone this secret?" Si Yanran asked.

"Only the dead will be able to keep silent," Gong Sun Li said. "Do you not understand even that?"

Gong Sun Li was naturally suspicious, so obviously, he would not place his trust in other people. Like he said, only the dead would not speak, and the only living person whom Gong Sun Li would trust was himself. At that moment, Gong Sun Li actually intended to kill Si Yanran as well because he felt like Si Yanran herself might leak the secret. For the Thousand Dawn Spire, which would one day fall into his hands, and for this school's reputation in the martial world, Gong Sun Li would stop at nothing to deal with every threat, to wipe out any stain.

"But… if they really are that powerful, what are we supposed to do?" Si Yanran tittered. "And that Broken Sword Chahitsu, it is probably not as simple as they make it out to be, right? Do you really believe that Leader Feng came to his knowledge of kung fu on his own? He came to become so powerful without any assistance from anyone else?"

"That is why I said we have to deal with this long term," Gong Sun Li answered. "If they have some kind of backer, we will have to find that out first. If that Feng Bujue is not lying… humph, then it is perfect. In this half a month, I will have them understand the danger of the martial world."

…

"Achoo!" Feng Bujue sneezed heavily before wiping his nose. "This can't be… I am already wearing so many layers, and I still sneezed. Who has been thinking about me with ill intentions?"

"Do you know it is with ill intentions?" Passing Rain rained.

"Well, the impression I leave on others will never be related to kindness and goodness," Feng Bujue replied, and he was suddenly reminded of something. "Oh, so you can sneeze in this game? Does that mean you can burp or fart as well?"

"If you dare test that out in front of me…" A barely concealed killing intent appeared in Passing Rain's eyes.

"Haha, of course, I was just kidding," Feng Bujue said with a smile.

At that moment, they were trekking through trees and rocks. The shadows around them were as thick as ink. Feng Bujue's flashlight could only light up several meters before them, but Passing Rain's lamp was able to light further in this situation. According to the Lamp with Permanent Weak Light's remark in its attribute menu, 'it can only light up everything within a five-meter radius, no closer and no further. There is no radial to control its brightness, there is no way to switch it off either.' This property became an advantage in this situation because the light from the flashlight was unable to reach that far.

After the two got onto the small island, they had headed toward the middle of the island. There were no signs of living humans or animals in the nearby woods. The two were shrouded in silence and emptiness. But when they trekked through the trees and rocks, they would occasionally be greeted with the sound of screaming, as if someone was standing at the other side of the sky but also a world that was within reach, crying to them, pleading for help…

This particular stretch of the journey was endlessly tormenting for Passing Rain. The darkness and the creepy atmosphere meant that her Terror Points were kept at a certain height.

Even though she maintained her icy cold expression, in that environment, as long as the player was a living human, they would be affected by the terrifying atmosphere. At that time, if anything jumped out from behind the darkening trees, anyone would be given a fright.

Of course, this was not to say that Feng Bujue was not a living human. At most, he was an abnormal living human. For him, walking through a dark eerie forest was not so different from moving through a bright, sunny field. If anything, if the man was given a choice to move between the two, he would have much preferred the former.

He could say that he had a natural affinity toward darkness in his personality. In any case, the man did not like things that were overly bright, sunny, or peaceful. This kind of 'evil personality' that Feng Bujue had was well-known; it could be viewed as a public secret. Way back when he was still in secondary school, there were plenty of rumors about Brother Jue. One of the stories went like this…

When he was still in primary school, there was this one year when Feng Bujue joined a summer camp. He was randomly selected to join a group. There were six children in a group, and none of them knew each other. One of them in his group was a pure, well-liked child. He was the child other parents compared their own child to. He was the good student in the teachers' eyes and the hated comparison in eyes of his peers.

This boy was the first who volunteered himself during the self-introductions. He volunteered to break the awkward silence and started to greet all his unknown group mates one by one. When he came to Feng Bujue's turn, Brother Jue used a Schrodinger's Cat like experimental gaze to look at him. As he studied the boy, he said, "Hmm… You are very friendly and happy. Haha… I need to stop that emotion from spreading before it has the chance to."

And on that day, a hard to wipe off shadow was left in the good child's heart.

There were many similar stories. After Brother Jue grew up and became a professional author, he slowly made himself into an urban legend…

Back to the scenario, Feng Bujue calmly and easily led the way. Suddenly, he stopped moving and aimed his flashlight at the roots of a nearby tree. He opened his lips to say, "Look at that."

Seeing him stop, Passing Rain's heart squeezed instinctually. She had thought that they were about to run into something scary. But when she followed the rays of the flashlight, she saw it. Feng Bujue was pointing at an object stuck between the crevice of a tree root and boulder.

———

Name: Spiderweb Gloves

Item Name: Armor

Quality: Excellent

Defense Point: Medium

Element: None

Special Effect: Can stick to objects

Equip Requirement: General Ability D, Fighting D

Remark: Do you wish to lift ten kilograms worth of items with your palm? Do you wish to climb on the walls like Spiderman? Do you wish to blind people with spider webs? In your dreams! These gloves' adhesiveness is less than transparent glue. It is about as sticky as instant glue!

———

"Hmm… Why does it go through the trouble of listing out the features that it does not have?" Feng Bujue dumped the gloves on the ground with annoyance. "This is really just trying to anger us! It would have been much better to not mention them! I was getting so excited reading the earlier parts of the remark!"

Passing Rain looked at his back and sighed slightly in relief. Then, a smile came to her face. She wondered when a smile had last come so easily to her.

But who would have thought that just as she let her guard down, a little girl's hand would suddenly reach out from the dark to clamp over Passing Rain's lips? Before she was able to scream, she was dragged backward by a strong force deep into the darkness.

Even though Feng Bujue did not hear an actual scream, the wavering of the light source and the sound of the lamp falling to the ground instantly grabbed his attention. He turned around, but he only saw the lamp that was lying on the ground. Passing Rain had already disappeared.