“Let’s take this outside. This place isn’t suitable. Also, it’s best not to destroy public property.” Kenji Ganmura racked his brain. “Chinese people are uncultured. They never care to protect public property.”
“No matter what you say, you won’t be able to turn the tables on your defeat!” Ruan Zhan was extremely calm, completely unprovoked by Kenji Ganmura’s riled up anger. “You just have to prepare to die. We’ll handle the rest ourselves.”
“Then do you dare go outside with me?”
“I’ll accompany you to the end.”
“Alright!” Kenji Ganmura responded. He was about to turn when he suddenly said: “You wouldn’t attack me from behind, would you?!”
“Such a despicable act is beneath me.”
“No, I’m not assured. Let’s go at the same time!” Kenji Ganmura turned to the side.
He was planning things out in his mind.
He had truly come to learn Daoist arts in China. This was because although he didn’t like China, he had to admit that the Yinyang Arts of Japan had truly come from China. Although society was modernized and Yinyang Masters weren’t as exalted as before, doomed to eventually die out, they still existed in secret. And he was one of their members.
Under his master, he had reached a bottleneck in his training. Therefore, he bitterly studied Chinese, waiting for his master to finally introduce him to a Chinese Daoist one day. However, since coming to China, his master had only taught him one move. That move was extremely hard to learn and despite having trained bitterly, his mastery was still rudimentary.
One of his master’s helpers had told him an extremely vengeful evil spirit had appeared on City A’s Ronghua Road. It was extremely suitable to be collected and cultivated into a shikigami. He couldn’t help but be moved and posed as an exchange student to come here.
If he could sign a contract with the evil spirit and cultivate it into a high-level shikigami, he would be first amongst his fellow apprentices. Even if his master’s son Mao De inherited the Matsui family’s powerful shikigami, it still wouldn’t be his match.
He had to be first! He had to be stronger than anyone else! His name would be passed down in history, similar to Japan’s most famous Yinyang Master: Abe no Seimei!
However, he had been too impatient and made many mistakes. That day when Yue Xiao Xia heard a male and female voice coming from the basement, it was actually him conversing with the evil spirit after they had compared their spiritual strength. They had been discussing the terms of their contract. At that time he wanted to act before midnight so the spirit wasn’t at its strongest. He had thought no one would dare approach, but forget there was a lass who didn’t know anything. Due to this mistake, he had been distracted and was almost swallowed up by the evil spirit!
He had been indifferent whether Yue Xiao Xia died or not. But ever since he moved into the love motel, his cultivated shikigami not only failed to eat her, it was almost injured by the talismans in her hands. He started becoming interested in her, or rather, in the person behind her. What was that person like? How did that person compare to him? He kept pondering this question. Perhaps this was a drawback of people like him. When an opponent of a similar level appeared, they would want to fight it out. In a this modernized society, such opportunities were few and far between.
Therefore, he remained by Yue Xiao Xia’s side, waiting for the opportunity to accomplish his shikgami‘s wish. Then, he would use her death to provoke her protector and have an all-out battle. He could tell from those talismans that his powers were great. However, he didn’t expect that Ruan Zhan’s feelings for Yue Xiao Xia were so deep. He refused to leave her side, and even when he did he would protect her properly with talismans.
What an emotional person! An emotionless person like himself had no idea what such a person wanted!
Kenji Ganmura was thinking this. He refused to consider the fact he had completely fallen for Ruan Zhan’s trap. He preferred to lie to himself and used his denial to maintain his foolish pride. He was just waiting for Ruan Zhan to agree to have the fight with him outside. He hadn’t been able to lure Ruan Zhan into the room where he had set up various traps. Instead, he had been lured onto his opponent’s territory. He was afraid Ruan Zhan had also set up traps to deal with him.
He wanted to rescue his shikigami because it was really hard to come by. It was a rare fortune in a Yinyang Master’s lifetime. However, Ruan Zhan was ice-cool as he held the dark sword that glowed faintly red. He stood unmoving in the most threatening position, making him not dare to move carelessly. He couldn’t bear to have the shikigami he had finally obtained be annihilated, yet he also didn’t dare fight in here. Therefore, he invited Ruan Zhan outside. If they fought in a different location, he believed he definitely wouldn’t lose!
“So, do you dare?” He provoked.
“Like I said, I’ll accompany you to the end.” Ruan Zhan’s expression didn’t change as he stood across from him.
He had his own worries.
He had killed people before, so he wasn’t afraid to kill another. However, he felt killing this wantonly impolite person would be letting him off lightly. He would think himself amazing even in death. Only by beating him completely would he know shame. Only then would he understand the power of Chinese sorcery! Also, things would get troublesome if this Japanese person died. He didn’t want to carry his corpse around.
Furthermore, he had only set up the barrier for Xiao Xia inside the room, but not outside. To hide the bloodwood sword’s aura, he hadn’t been able to stand by the bed and could only stand in the corner. If they started fighting here, it would alarm the hotel’s other guests. Also, to prevent Kenji Ganmura from rescuing the trapped shikigami, it was better to deal with him away from here and then come deal with the evil spirit.
It was because of these points of consideration that he agreed without hesitation.
Seeing him agree, Kenji Ganmura rejoiced. As though showing off, he silently mouthed a few words and stepped out. Ruan Zhan felt space warping and the next moment, the scene behind the hotel appeared. Behind the hotel was a half-built construction site that was abandoned due to lack of funds.
He was swept into the warping space. If he didn’t catch up, he would fall from ten-stories to his death. If he did catch up, he had to have a similar level of power or he would still die. This sort of space warping technique wasn’t something anyone could do. Although he was suspicious over why Kenji Ganmura made this display, he knew that this Japanese person definitely assumed he wasn’t able to do this. He wanted to use this opportunity to get rid of him. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated. During Yang Mu You’s case, he had gotten some experience. Kenji Ganmura’s power didn’t seem to be profound so he was easily able to follow along. The two of them arrived at the abandoned construction site at the same time.
Kenji Ganmura was astonished. This had been the result of half a year’s training. Why was Ruan Zhan able to do it? Why did he seem more proficient at it? This struck a blow to his confidence, but the pride ingrained in his bones prevented him from retreating. He pulled out the dagger with a swish and pressed a mechanism. Another segment popped out from the top and bottom of the blade, turning it into a short sword.
Looking at his desperate stance, Ruan Zhan lazily raised the bloodwood sword. His powers had already been improved and the bloodwood sword was as hard as steel. It wasn’t afraid of any bladed weapon.
Kenji Ganmura howled and charged over, maintaining the stance of Japanese martial arts he had trained in for a long time. As for Ruan Zhan, his father had taught him self-defense since he was a child. Otherwise, he wouldn’t’ have been able to dominate their elementary school with Wan Li when he was only seven.
If Kenji Ganmura was relying on the vigor of a wild animal, Ruan Zhan was relying on his wealth of experience in fighting, along with his innate pride and collectedness.
The two clashed, wind whistling as they swung their blades. The broken stones crunched under their feet. Only the cool moon shone upon their whirling silhouettes. Every now and then, the crisp sound of their weapons clashing rang out. From a distance, it looked like they were shooting a martial arts movie.
Although the shorter one relied on ferocity to temporarily have the advantage, the taller one gradually took control. The shorter one was forced back step by step until he fell to the floor.
The moment his butt made contact with the ground, he leapt up like a spring and continued to fight. Then, he fell again and got up again. He fell again…
This happened ten times in a row until the short sword in his hand was sent flying. It drew a flash of light in the cold night and disappeared into the rubble. The taller figure pointed the sword at his throat!
If Xiao Xia had been watching, she would definitely have said: See? This is called “The situation is temporary, quality is eternal. The final victory cannot be obtained by ferocity alone!”
“Save your effort!” Ruan Zhan’s gaze carried the coldness of a blade. “Your tenacity is worth praising. However, continuing to struggle when you know there’s no chance of victory is foolishness!”
“Kill me!” The humiliated Kenji Ganmura stared furiously.
“No.” Ruan Zhan slowly withdrew the bloodwood sword. “I’m afraid to dirty my sword. I’ll give you the opportunity to compete in sorcery!”
He wasn’t being fussy. He just wanted to thoroughly crush him mentally!
Kenji Ganmura didn’t stand on ceremony and leapt up from the floor. “Then let me know you my Yinyang arts.” He said unabashedly, not mentioning his earlier defeat at all. He thought that as long as Ruan Zhan died, who would know he had lost in their physical contest? It didn’t count as failure if no one found out.
This was his logic!
He took a few steps back and drew strange circles in the air with his right hand. At the same time, his left hand clenched as he chanted, and forcefully pointed towards Ruan Zhan.
“Have a taste of this, Chinaman!”
A whirlwind around three meters tall appeared, gathering sand and pebbles, bearing down on Ruan Zhan. Ruan Zhan held the bloodwood sword in his right hand as he drew a winding spell with his left. A barrier immediately formed in front of him, blocking the threat of the sand and stones.
Seeing that it was ineffective, Kenji Ganmura immediately tried something else. This time it was a clump of flame that shot straight towards Ruan Zhan. However, Ruan Zhan’s barrier wasn’t damaged whatsoever. He stood steadily behind it, as though watching this Japanese person perform circus tricks.
Why wasn’t he able to hurt him? Why wasn’t he able to hurt him! Cold sweat trickled down Kenji Ganmura’s brows.
“It’s my turn!” Ruan Zhan laughed lightly. He finally understood that this Japanese person was a minor character after all. He lightly chanted, “With layers of all-encompassing heaven’s law, obscure the sun and moon, bring forth darkness, summon qi, and with qi as medium, eradicate all evil!”
It was also wind. It was also a whirlwind. However, it was incomparably more splendid than the three-meter tall whirlwind containing sand and stones. Not only did it fly towards Kenji Ganmura, it also sucked everything in and then flung it all back out.
As the whirlwind approached, Kenji Ganmura finally understood that Ruan Zhan’s spirit power was much stronger than his. He wasn’t his match at all. Those talismans only represented a small portion of his strength.
He had fallen for it. He had been lied to. He shouldn’t have listened to that assistant and taken in the evil spirit to cultivate as his shikigami. He wasn’t able to win!
He had studied Chinese for so long but only today did he finally understand the meaning of the saying “There are mountains beyond the mountain and skies beyond the sky!” If this Ruan Zhan wasn’t dealt with, given enough time even his master would be helpless against him.
There was another saying: don’t be a tool for others! This studious Japanese person finally understood at this moment as well.
This was because he had seen two white objects descending from the heights of the hotel. When they arrived above him, they suddenly turned black and enveloped his head.
He recognized that spell, but he didn’t have time to react. He only felt a wave of emptiness. He felt empty all over.
He knew what that was. He felt both grief and anger, yet also a hint of expectation!
Backlash…
Those were his last words.